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REVIEWS Also In This Issue
CHILDREN’S & TEEN
Midwinterblood
by Marcus Sedgwick Linked stories range through time and across genres, masterfully exploring love and memory. p. 2838
Q&A with Stephen May on ‘Life! Death! Prizes!’ p. 2760
Kirkus’ Children’s & Teen Editor Vicky Smith on ‘The Other Side of the YA Boom’ p. 2832
NONFICTION
Those Angry Days by Lynne Olson A vivid, colorful evocation of a charged era in American history p. 2803
Travis Thrasher: The Prolific Iconoclast on ‘How I Did It’ p. 2870 Children’s & Teen Round-up: Board Books p. 2844
Willie Nelson
Q&A on Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road p. 2802
FICTION
I, Hogarth:
by Michael Dean London is brought back to life in this brilliant exercise in imagination and storytelling. p. 2758 Photo by David McClister
Bond. James Bond. B Y G RE G O RY MC NA M EE
Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com
S i x t y y e a r s a g o, a 4 4 -y e a r - o l d j o u r n a l i s t and sometime spy named Ian Lancaster Fleming put the finishing touches on a slim novel that was in part a sendup, in part a deadly serious look at the business of espionage, then beginning to enjoy a huge boom thanks to the ever-spreading Cold War. He published that novel, Casino Royale, the following year, introducing a character who, like him, was Scottish, used to a life of privilege and deeply cynical about most of the human enterprise.
Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Features Editor C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH
Bond. James Bond. At first, Fleming’s book enjoyed only a small following; it’s said that many of the initial sales were
Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E
to people inside the intelligence community searching for clues as to whom Fleming’s characters
Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com
were based on, the moral equivalent of a bureaucrat’s checking the index of a nonfiction book first to see whether he or she is in the thing. But in time, Casino Royale picked up steam, and Fleming eventually followed up with 11 more Bond novels, the market for which skyrocketed in the United States when John F. Kennedy revealed that Fleming was among his favorite writers. (For what it’s worth, American spymaster Allen Dulles claims that Kennedy read the fifth Bond novel, From Russia with Love, first, then caught up with the rest of the series.) James Bond had few scruples and little sense of morality; Fleming’s competitor in the spy-lit busi-
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 Editorial Coordinator CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com
ness, John Le Carré, would complain, “He’s a sort of licensed criminal who, in the name of false
Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS
patriotism, approves of nasty crimes.” In the rough and tumble of the Cold War, Bond was indeed
Director of Kirkus Editorial P E R RY C RO W E pcrowe@kirkus.com
committed to dispatching his enemies by any means necessary, and Fleming’s novels and the films that were made of them, from Dr. No to Casino Royale to The Living Daylights and back to Casino Royale again, are steeped in blood. The Bond of the books also had a sense of humor, if often bitter, a quality that fellow Scotsman Sean Connery captured in his film portrayals of the agent whose very code number, double-oh-seven, indicated that he had that “license to kill” that gave Le Carré pause. The early Bond may have been a forerunner of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, quick to leap into bed with whichever vixen—however improbably named—happened to be around, but he was a friendless, lone and unloving fellow who would confide a thought only to someone he was about to kill. Of the many actors to portray him, only Daniel Craig, the latest and, to my mind, greatest Bond, has captured that essential inhumanity. Sixty years on, the Bond novels still hold up, even if drinking to excess, cigarette smoking, car chases on crowded city streets, gambling, casual sex and other forms of Bond-ian amusement are generally frowned upon these days. So, too, does a dictum of Fleming’s: “Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” Even, one presumes, if it means doing away with a few people along the way.
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This Issue’s Contributors
Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Michael Autrey • Joseph Barbato • Amy Boaz • Derek Charles Catsam • Sara Catterall • Marnie Colton • Gregory F. DeLaurier • Kathleen Devereaux • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Sean Gibson • Amy Goldschlager • Alan Goldsher • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Judith Leitch • Angela Leroux-Lindsey • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Chris Messick • Brett Milano • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Gary Presley • Kristen Bonardi Rapp • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Sandra Sanchez • William P. Shumaker • Rosanne Simeone • Clea Simon • Elaine Sioufi • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Sarah Suksiri • Matthew Tiffany • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Rodney Welch • Carol White • Chris White • Homa Zaryouni
you can now purchase books online at kirkus.com
contents fiction Index to Starred Reviews...................................................p. 2751 REVIEWS........................................................................................p. 2751 Q&A WITH stephen may.........................................................p. 2760
The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.
Mystery..................................................................................... p. 2780 Science Fiction & Fantasy.................................................p. 2784
nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews................................................. p. 2787 REVIEWS...................................................................................... p. 2787 Q&A WITH willie nelson.....................................................p. 2802
children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews.................................................p. 2815 REVIEWS......................................................................................p. 2815 Vicky Smith explores The Other Side of the YA Boom.........................................p. 2832 board book Round-up........................................................p. 2844 interactive e-books.............................................................p. 2858
indie Index to Starred Reviews...................................................p. 2863 REVIEWS........................................................................................p. 2863 travis thrasher: “how i did it”........................................p. 2870
London is brought to life by Michael Dean. See the starred review on p. 2758. |
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Check out these highlights from Kirkus’ online coverage at www.kirkus.com. It’s a difficult time to drum up sympathy for the ultrarich, as Bookslut contributor Jessa Crispin discusses in her revealing interview with Douglas Smith. Smith’s Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy might seem a little out of step with the contemporary dialogue. Then again, perhaps his reminder about how poisonous the politics of revenge can become is particularly prescient. Smith writes a history of the Russian Revolution from the other side, from the point of view of the nobility and the landowners and the aristocrats who lost their houses, their property, their money, and ultimately, for many, either their place in Russia or their lives. Science fiction and fantasy fans are never lacking for good books to read—any trip to the bookstore will tell you that, as Kirkus’ science fiction blogger John DeNardo points out in his roundup of hot December titles. The trick is to find the best picks...the books that will most likely ignite the sense of wonder in the reader. DeNardo’s list is found on the science fiction & fantasy page under the Blogs tab. And our mysteries and thrillers blogger J. Kingston Pierce recently released his list of top 10 books from all of 2012—there are some nice surprises in his list and also a few titles you might expect.
Romance is a very intimate genre, Sarah Wendell points out in her recent Smart Bitches, Trashy Books column about the joys of re-reading beloved books. So if you think about the emotions you feel in a relationship—love, fear, joy, attraction, for example—and you think about the fact that romance is asking the reader to identify with or even feel a portion of those same emotions, you can understand how re-reading a much-loved book can be a heady, absorbing experience. For the latest new releases every day, please go online to Kirkus. com. It’s where our editors and contributing blog partners bring you the best in science fiction, mysteries and thrillers, literary fiction and nonfiction, teen books and children’s books, Indie publishing and more. And be sure to check out our Indie publishing series, featuring some of today’s most intriguing self-publishing authors, including M. Leighton, as well as traditionally published writers like Anna Jarzab (and even some like Colleen Hoover, who are both Indie and traditionally published). Each week, we feature authors’ exclusive personal essays on how they achieved their success in publishing. It’s a must-read resource for any aspiring author interested in getting readers to notice their new books.
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fiction EXTINCTION
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Alpert, Mark Dunne/St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-250-02134-2
HARVEST by Jim Crace................................................................ p. 2756 I, HOGARTH by Michael Dean.................................................... p. 2758
“Walking dead” takes on new meaning in veteran science writer Alpert’s chilling techno thriller about a lobotomized army of ex-humans controlled through AI implants by Supreme Harmony, a China-based network geared to
THE END OF THE POINT by Elizabeth Graver.......................... p. 2762 OUT OF THE BLACK LAND by Kerry Greenwood..................... p. 2762 THE JACKAL’S SHARE by Chris Morgan Jones.........................p. 2764 THE BURNING AIR by Erin Kelly............................................... p. 2765 HOSTILE SHORES by Dewey Lambdin...................................... p. 2767 THE ABUNDANCE by Amit Majmudar.....................................p. 2769 THE ROMANOV CROSS by Robert Masello............................... p. 2770 JACOB’S FOLLY by Rebecca Miller............................................. p. 2772 WE LIVE IN WATER by Jess Walter............................................. p. 2780 HARVEST
Crace, Jim Talese/Doubleday (224 pp.) $24.95 Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-385-52077-5
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destroying mankind. Since attaining “conscious” state, Supreme Harmony has directed its robotlike modules, which eerily imitate the humans they replace, to kill and reprogram Chinese officials. The network has taken control of China’s anti-terrorism surveillance system, which includes drones in the form of swarming flies and implanted children. Three Americans converge on the mainland to save the day: Jim Pierce, a former National Security Agency analyst who now designs supersophisticated prosthetic devices (like his own computerized arm) for wounded veterans; his estranged daughter Layla, a prodigious hacker targeted by Chinese security for her work with a Wikileaks-type organization; and fearless Kirsten Chan, a China expert with the NSA who can see thanks to retinal implants Jim helped design. Kirsten, who is in love with Jim, was blinded in a terrorist attack in Nairobi that claimed Jim’s wife and young son. Pierce has the shutdown code to disarm Supreme Harmony—if only he can somehow outsmart the network and survive such threats as a tidal wave that wipes out an entire city. With a succession of cliffhangers, Alpert (Final Theory, 2008, etc.) sustains a high level of excitement. The novel also believably predicts a day when people’s conscious thoughts and memories will be captured and preserved forever. A scary, sophisticated thriller that will give survivalists plenty to think about.
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THE SEDUCTION OF ELLIOT MCBRIDE
Ashley, Jennifer Berkley Sensation (320 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Dec. 31, 2012 978-0-425-25113-3
When Juliana St. John is stranded at the altar, her first love, Elliot McBride, steps in to save the day; little does she know Elliot has high hopes that Juliana can save him. At 16, Juliana had dreamed that she’d share her life with Elliot McBride, the boy she’d never quite gotten over. After years in India, first as a young officer, then as a successful businessman, Elliot has amassed a fortune, but he’s also endured brutal imprisonment at the hands of a dangerous tribe who believed he was a British spy. He’s home in Scotland for good now, and when he shows up at her humiliating wedding, Juliana jokingly asks him to marry her instead, then is stunned when he accepts. Elliot has a plan, and Juliana’s flippant proposal plays right into his hands. Once they’re married, he spirits her away to the ramshackle country estate he’s purchased from his uncle. There, surrounded by Juliana and a devoted family of servants from India, Elliot believes he can heal. But shadows from his past continue to haunt him, and when an old adversary comes calling, Juliana and Elliot must face new dangers while they fight to forge a life together based on trust, love and passion. Ashley’s newest addition to her popular Victorian-set Highland Pleasures/Mackenzies series packs a potent emotional punch. Elliot’s struggle to find peace of mind after shocking cruelty is hampered by episodes of “madness” that modern readers will recognize as post-traumatic stress disorder. Juliana’s calm acceptance of and devotion to him as he creates his new normal is touching, and Elliot’s past and present battle for wholeness using Juliana as his beacon adds an especially poignant facet to their journey. Ashley integrates high-stakes romance, scorching sensuality and moments of taut suspense into a powerful, compelling story that is both breathtaking and sweet.
THE GIRLS’ GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS
Bate, Dana Hyperion (400 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-4013-1100-1
Adam’s parents have finally invited Hannah to dinner. They have finally acknowledged her existence after an illfated luncheon nine months ago. All she has to do is keep her mouth shut. All she has to do is keep the secret that she and Adam have been living together for three months. Can she do it? No. Unable to control her behavior or her tongue, Hannah Sugarman is not having a good year. The political 2752
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aspirations—not to mention the parents—of her boyfriend, Adam, bump up against her wild, unpredictable spirit. Her own parents, professors who hope she shares their academic tendencies, would be astonished to learn that Hannah actually dreams of attending culinary school, starting a catering company and even running an underground supper club. Sadly, she currently works as a research assistant at the Institute for Research and Discourse, appropriately dubbed NIRD. As if analyzing public policy weren’t bad enough, she has to deal with Millie every day. The Millie who introduced her to Adam. The Millie who wants to steal Adam away. The Millie who will very likely have Adam all to herself after Adam dumps her and gives her a matter of weeks to find a new home. Losing her entire social network, however, brings Hannah to the doorstep of Blake Fischer, who offers her a basement apartment. Blake also has his own very tempting kitchen, which he hasn’t technically offered to her, but it isn’t long before Hannah and her friend Rachel surreptitiously use it for a secret supper club. Hannah’s talents reap instant success, a new-but-weirdly-uncommunicative boyfriend, fresh encounters with Adam and Millie, and increasing guilt over deceiving Blake. Journalist and debut novelist Bate deftly conjures up a witty, resilient heroine, surrounds her with delightful friends and frenemies, and sends them all on a rollicking quest for love and delicious food.
THE AVIATOR’S WIFE
Benjamin, Melanie Delacorte (416 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-345-52867-4
Biographical novel of Anne Morrow and her troubled marriage to pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh. Anne, self-effacing daughter of a suffragette and an ambassador, is surprised when Charles, already a celebrity thanks to his first trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, asks her—instead of her blonde, outgoing older sister Elisabeth—to go flying with him. And it is Anne whom Charles will marry. At first, the glamorous couple’s life consists of flights all over the world: Anne becomes a pilot and navigator and Charles’ indispensable sidekick. However, when in 1932 the Lindberghs’ first child is kidnapped from his nursery, the resulting press furor almost destroys Anne. In addition to her grief over her lost firstborn, a grief that Lindy doesn’t appear to share, Anne suffers the downside of fame as public adulation turns to prurient sensationalism. The couple takes refuge abroad, where they enjoy the orderly routine and docile press of the Hitler regime, as long as Charles is willing to accept a Nazi medal and attend rallies. However, Kristallnacht proves too much even for Lindbergh’s anti-Semitism, and he and Anne return to the States as war threatens. As more children arrive, Anne is beginning to bridle at Charles’ domineering ways, however the aspiring author is too insecure to contradict him even as he offends her liberal friends and family by siding with right-wing groups who claim that the Jews are trying to |
force America into war. At Charles’ behest, and against her own principles, she pens The Wave of the Future (1940), an isolationist screed which renders her anathema to the intelligentsia: Even her alma mater, Smith College, disowns her. In 1974, after 47 years of wedlock, Anne must decide whether to finally confront her husband. Although the portrayal of such a passive character could easily turn tepid, Benjamin maintains interest, even suspense, as readers wonder when Anne’s healthy rebellious instincts will burst the bonds of her dutiful deference. A thoughtful examination of the forces which shaped the author of Gift from the Sea.
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THE NIGHT RANGER
Berenson, Alex Putnam (400 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-399-15972-5
A tense thriller that relies equally on bravery, wit and 21st-century American firepower. A group of U.S. workers for WorldCares/ChildrenFirst are in Kenya to help Somali refugees. One day, they are kidnapped and held for ransom. The victims’ families hire John Wells, an ex-CIA agent who converted to Islam in a previous novel. Wells is smart, tough and honorable, but none of that stops him from being one hell of a killer. In his first foray into Africa, he coordinates his efforts with the CIA, though not all his government contacts like or trust him. Meanwhile, the frightened hostages must endure rough treatment by captors who have problems of their own. Berenson’s thorough research
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“Middling debut novel of the Middle Ages.” from shadow on the crown
gives the reader vivid images of Somalia, a hostile, ungovernable land where outlaws and hyenas are near the top of the food chain. In one tense scene, a deadly 6-foot-long mamba slithers over Wells. But the drones terrify and fascinate even more, controlled from air-conditioned comfort back in the United States. What can the operator see and do to a distant enemy before returning to his comfortable home? The worst part is that the technology is believable and probably accurate. The novel also prompts but does not pose the question: How many is it acceptable to kill in order to save how few? A cynic might add “how many Africans” and “how few Americans,” although the novel has no racial slant. The enemy might be anyone, anywhere in the world, caught in the sights of an airborne Reaper. Setting aside the troubling trends in warfare, though, Berenson gives readers top-notch, fast-paced excitement in a part of the world unfamiliar to many Americans. John Wells (The Faithful Spy, 2006, etc.) is a worthy hero readers can count on.
SHADOW ON THE CROWN
Bracewell, Patricia Viking (432 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 11, 2013 978-0-670-02639-5
Middling debut novel of the Middle Ages. A sort of wrinkle on Tristan and Iseulte and based on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bracewell’s yarn centers on a 15-year-old noblewoman named Emma of Normandy who is married off to King Æthelred of England to cement various bonds across the Narrow Sea. (The year is 1001, so we still have a couple of generations to go before the Normans come a-calling in number.) England is a Beowulf-y place full of Angles and Saxons and Jutes and Vikings, the last of whom are causing an awful fuss, what with their looting and pillaging; to complicate matters, Emma finds herself instantly at odds with tough-nut Lady Elgiva, who considers the crown her destiny and has no end to her schemes. Isolated in court, paid no mind by her putative husband, Emma does what any self-respecting Norman would do—suffice it to say, this involves disrupting the line of succession. There are some nice moments in the narrative, and Bracewell does a good job of capturing the tenor of a medieval court and its endless intrigues. But the overall feel is musty, the writing ranging from stately to stale, as with this too-typical passage: “Now, though, Athelstan found it worrisome that Ealdorman Ælfhelm and the other great lords of the land remained with the king in Winchester while the eldest æthelings had not been summoned.” A serviceable bit of historical fiction, but for all its twists and ligatures, it’s no Once and Future King. (Agent: Stephanie Cabot)
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ONE SUNDAY
Cecil, Carrie Gerlach Howard Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-4516-6476-8 A work of fiction based on the author’s own religious revelations. The narrator, Alice, is a tabloid journalist in Los Angeles who becomes pregnant after a drunken one-night stand with a traveling sports doctor from Nashville. For the sake of the baby, they marry, and she must adjust to life in the South. Initially, she wishes her neighbors, a welcoming African-American family, would not talk so much about “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” She informs the reader that she believes if there is a God, that God must have a sick sense of humor to have landed her in a world so alien to her experience and expectations. Then, over a meal, the family persuades Alice to come to their church (where the father is the pastor) for just one Sunday. One Sunday leads to another and another, although Alice remains ambivalent. She calls the next phase of her new life the “purgatory” phase. Finally, during a near-death experience, Alice makes a big decision regarding her faith. The message of this Christian novel: Jesus loves everyone, and no one is beyond forgiveness.
LEARNING TO STAY
Celello, Erin NAL Accent/Berkley (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-451-23697-5 A work of fiction based on research into the causes and symptoms of PTSD and traumatic brain injuries sustained by U.S. war veterans, this book also examines the lack of sufficient care available to vets once they have been discharged
from service. The narrator of this story is a junior associate in a law firm and the wife of a once-brilliant man who returns from Iraq with both traumatic brain injury and PTSD. From the beginning, we know they were once deeply in love and still are. The book opens with her spending a horrible night waiting to hear if her husband survived an explosion that killed her friend’s husband, his commander, and when she is finally told that he survived without apparent injury and will be home soon, she is beyond relieved. But then his sporadic, strange, angry and sometimes violent actions, of which he later has no memory, begin to destroy their marriage. She cannot recognize the man she married in the damaged man who returned. She attempts to get help for him from Veterans Affairs, with disappointing results. Eventually, it is a canine companion who will help him heal. In a conversation guide at the end of the novel, the author discloses |
that she has had no personal experience with the subject matter of the book. Alternately heartbreaking and heartwarming.
THE LAST RUNAWAY
Chevalier, Tracy Dutton (320 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-525-95299-2
Chevalier’s latest historical fiction, the first set in her native America, circa 1850, is a tepid portrait of an English Quaker thrown into the tumult of Ohio’s Underground Railroad. After the embarrassment of a broken engagement, Honor Bright decides to accompany her sister to America. Adventurous Grace is to marry fellow Quaker Adam Cox, an acquaintance from their hometown of Bridport,
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England. On the crossing, Honor suffers from doubt and seasickness, and tragedy befalls Grace. Making her way alone to Adam Cox, Honor stays with Belle Mills, a rough, independent woman who takes pity on Honor. In Belle’s millenary shop, Honor recovers from her journey, is introduced to Belle’s brother Donovan, a slave hunter she feels an inexplicable connection to, and sees what she believes is Belle’s covert involvement in the Underground Railroad. It is acknowledged by all that Honor must find a husband, and soon enough she does, a quiet dairy farmer. Used to English town life, Honor finds that an American farm (and her disapproving mother-in-law) requires some getting used to. When she sees runaway slaves hiding on the farm, she helps in meager ways but soon learns to send them to Mrs. Reed, a freed slave in neighboring Oberlin, a city filled with former slaves and Quakers. When her new family learns of Honor’s involvement, they are furious and insist she stop. In 1850 England and America, Friends (another name for Quakers) are opposed to slavery, but in America, ideals are often compromised when the risk—imprisonment and bankruptcy— is so great. Already emotionally estranged from her new family,
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Honor isn’t sure where her loyalties lie: to her husband’s family, her Quaker ideals or the ways of her happy English upbringing. Chevalier’s grasp of history and nuanced detail is quite fine, but all of the blood and tears of the time are made polite and palatable, making quiet Honor’s story a bit too quiet.
THE HOUSE GIRL
Conklin, Tara Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $25.99 | $14.99 e-book | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-06-220739-5 978-0-06-220752-4 e-book Former litigator Conklin’s first novel employs the increasingly popular technique of overlapping contemporary and historical fictions—in this case, the lives of a young lawyer defining herself in 21stcentury New York and a young slave with secret talents in 19thcentury Virginia. In 1852, on a failing Virginia farm, 17-year-old Josephine cares for her dying mistress, Lu Anne Bell, while plotting her escape. Childless Lu Anne has always had a complicated relationship with the bright, naturally gifted Josephine; Lu Anne taught the girl to read and to paint but failed to protect Josephine from husband Robert Bell’s rape when Josephine was barely 14. Now, Lu Anne tells Josephine a terrible secret before she dies. Cut to 2004. Lu Anne’s art is highly prized as the work of a protofeminist artist sensitive to the plight of slaves. But while researching a case concerning reparations to slave descendants, Lina Sparrow, a white first-year lawyer in a cutthroat Manhattan firm, discovers that a controversy is brewing in the art world: Some art critics wonder if paintings attributed to Lu Anne were really completed by Josephine. At a gallery showing of Lu Anne/ Josephine’s work, Lina meets a young musician who claims to own several of the paintings. Hoping to prove he is Josephine’s descendant, although he appears to be Caucasian, Lina sets out to uncover Josephine’s history. Art and identity matter to Lina. Raised by her artist father, Oscar, she longs to know more about her long-dead mother, Grace, especially now that Oscar has painted a provocative series of portraits of Grace. As the focus shifts back and forth between the centuries, Josephine evolves into a wonderfully fresh character whose survival instinct competes with her capacity for love as she tries to reach freedom. But while Conklin clearly knows her way around the legal world, her lawyer, Lina, comes across more as a sketch than a portrait, and the choices she makes are boringly predictable. Provocative issues of race and gender intertwine in earnest if uneven issues-oriented fiction.
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Cooper, Gwen Bantam (336 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-0-345-52694-6
The tumultuous life of a cat spans the equally turbulent lives of the mother and daughter who share her always-changing New York City existence. Prudence the tabby never expected to find the right human. Living alone in a deserted construction site on the Lower East Side, she’s drawn first to Sarah’s singing: As a feral kitten, music is new to her. And while she quickly gets used to the idea of having a “roommate,” as she puts it, Sarah’s irregular lifestyle means that meals can’t be counted on. When Sarah finally disappears one day, Prudence is taken in by Laura, Sarah’s daughter, and her husband and trades a bohemian existence for more conventional comforts. But as the tabby learns, even life on the Upper West Side can have its ups and downs. Not only does she witness the aftereffects of Sarah and Laura’s often strained relationship, she runs into danger in the form of an innocent-seeming bouquet. Initially presented in the first-person by the cat, this book by Cooper (Homer’s Odyssey, 2009) achieves a matter-of-fact directness that only occasionally veers into cutesiness (“[S]ometimes Sarah eats things that are just plain gross. There’s one kind of food, called ‘cookies’...”) But Prudence’s scope is insufficient to convey the entirety of this New-York-in-the-’90s saga, and by the book’s second half, human narratives begin to take over. While these are often affecting—relating the different sides of the mother– daughter struggle—they seem to come from a different book. And real-life events, notably the city-ordered demolition of a tenement with some of the occupants’ pets left inside, are not convincingly woven into the narrative. The result is moving but uneven, and even a feel-good ending from the cat’s viewpoint can’t pull the story back together. The follow-up to an international best-seller starts off well but falls apart under its own best intentions.
HARVEST
Crace, Jim Talese/Doubleday (224 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-385-52077-5 Rarely does language so plainspoken and elemental tell a story so richly open to interpretation on so many different levels. Is this a religious allegory? An apocalyptic fable? A mystery? A meditation on the human condition? With economy and grace, the awardwinning Crace (The Pesthouse, 2007, etc.) gives his work a simplicity and symmetry that belie the disturbances beneath the consciousness of its narrator. It’s a narrative without specifics of time or place, in the countryside of the author’s native |
England, following a harvest that will prove different than any the villagers have ever experienced, in a locale where, explains the narrator, “We do not even have a title for the village. It is just The Village. And it’s surrounded by The Land.” In the beginning, the narrator speaks for the community, “bounded by common ditches and collective hopes,” yet one where “[t] heir suspicion of anyone who was not born within these boundaries is unwavering.” The “they” proves crucial, as the narrator who initially speaks for the collective “we” reveals that he is in fact an outsider, brought to the village 12 years earlier by the man who is the master of the manor, and that he is someone who has become a part of the community, yet remains apart from it. There has been a fire following the harvest, disrupting the seasonal cycle, and although evidence points to three young men within the community, blame falls on two men and a woman who have recently camped on the outskirts. There is also someone making charts of the land and an issue of succession of ownership. There is a sense that this harvest may be the last one for these people, that the land may be converted to different use. “[P]lowing is our sacrament, our solemn oath, the way we grace and consecrate our land,” yet that way of life may soon be over. “There isn’t one of us—no, them—who’s safe,” declares the narrator, who must ultimately come to terms with the depths of his solitude. Crace continues to occupy a singular place in contemporary literature.
years to Sinai. Meanwhile, his manuscript is discovered and published—and it sells 3 million copies. When he decides to return to assume his former life, everyone is outraged—his mother, Emma and the reading public, who feel they’ve been manipulated. (Some of his readers even sue him for “mental anguish.”) But Currie’s narrative is not just about the self-conscious act of writing a novel about Emma—it’s also about the death of his father and the possibility of machines themselves becoming conscious beings in an act called a singularity. Free-wheeling—and at times both moving and hilarious.
FLIMSY LITTLE PLASTIC MIRACLES
Currie Jr., Ron Viking (352 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 11, 2013 978-0-670-02534-3
A postmodern love story, self-consciously playful in a Vonnegut-ian way. At the beginning of the novel, Ron, the narrator and a writer, promises us a work that will be “capital-T True,” though he’s also careful to make a distinction between Truth and Fact. The object of his affection, adoration and obsession is Emma, someone he’s known for over 20 years, since well before he escorted her to the senior prom. Now they’re in their mid-30s—he’s still besotted, and she’s coming off a divorce. Although they’ve briefly gotten back together, she now feels the need for some “distance,” so Ron hies himself to a Caribbean island, in part to write about their complex relationship in a new novel. While there, he temporarily takes up with Charlotte, a college student who finds it impossible to comprehend Ron’s continuing infatuation with Emma. On the day he breaks up with Charlotte, Emma comes down to the island, and eventually Ron confesses his relationship with Charlotte. Emma is understandably pissed, so she leaves, and Ron tries to commit suicide by driving his Jeep off a pier. And here’s where things get both crazy and interesting: While everyone thinks he’s dead, he gets a fake passport and leaves for several |
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“Full of irony and contradictions.” from damage control
THE WATER WITCH
Dark, Juliet Ballantine (304 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-345-52424-9 Callie McFay, part-fairy witch and folklore professor, must keep the door to Faerie open and decide which man she’s truly attracted to in the second part of a trilogy written by Carol Goodman’s alter ego. Previously (The Demon Lover, 2011), Callie banished the incubus who was draining her life force and whom she couldn’t quite love completely; however, he continues to have sex with her in dreams. Has he also reappeared physically in Fairwick, the upstate New York college town with a door to Faerie and a lively population of otherworldly creatures? That population is under threat from the Grove, a conservative group of witches who despise such creatures and are insisting that Callie shut the door to Faerie forever. Callie is willing to put all of her power toward thwarting the Grove’s plans, but unfortunately, her magic, while apparently quite strong, seems to be both blocked and uncontrollable. Meanwhile, her handsome new magic tutor, Duncan, and unnaturally helpful handyman, Bill, are vying for Callie’s attentions. Observing Callie, a supposedly intelligent woman, blunder around the magical world and screw up her love life for yet another volume does not actually make for compelling reading. It also seems strange that an up-and-coming young academic isn’t spending her summer doing research and writing papers. As with The Demon Lover, a sexed-up but considerably paler imitation of Deborah Harkness’ far superior All Souls trilogy.
I, HOGARTH
Dean, Michael Overlook (272 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 10, 2013 978-1-4683-0342-1 Dean (Thorn, 2011) imagines the life, spirit and art of the English artist William Hogarth. Born in 1697 to a naïve and inept Latin scholar and an intemperate, dissatisfied mother, Hogarth was apprenticed to an engraver, only to maneuver his way into tutelage from and assistantship to the court painter Sir James Thornhill. Hogarth’s family fractures when father Richard lands in debtors’ prison. Mother and children are assisted by Anthony da Costa, a Portuguese-Jewish moneylender. In da Costa’s mansion, Hogarth glimpses Kate, a strumpet, the vision unleashing the artist’s lifelong appreciation for fleshly sensuality, the dark side of which becomes the incurable “French pox.” Apprenticing as an engraver, Hogarth frequents Lovejoy’s bagnio, there 2758
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meeting John Rakesby, later revealed to be John Thornhill, son of Sir James, a prominent artist. Dean’s narrative of young Hogarth winnowing his way into Sir James’ household shines with authenticity, right down to Hogarth’s seduction of young Jane Thornhill. Dean’s deciphering of Hogarth’s art is as superb as his rendering of the streets of ribald and indecorous London, packed with drunks and thieves, privileged and poor. Dean offers the stories behind Hogarth’s seminal works—the South Seas Scheme, A Harlot’s Progress—and discusses Hogarth’s lobbying for the Engraver’s Copyright Act and support of Capt. Thomas Coram’s quest for a foundling hospital. The fictional autobiographical narrative of the robust and complicated, sensual and sensitive Hogarth intrigues, but what gives the book its resonance is Dean’s learned exploration of the depth and breadth—the sight, sound and stink—of Georgian London. A brilliant exercise in imagination and storytelling.
DAMAGE CONTROL
Dermont, Amber St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $23.99 | Mar. 26, 2013 978-0-312-64281-5
Dermont’s short story collection, which follows her debut novel (The Starboard Sea, 2012), demonstrates the author’s versatility and sardonic humor. The anthology includes 11 previously published stories and three new narratives. A mother and daughter travel to LBJ’s birthplace in “Lyndon” and engage in an unconventional tour that bridges the gulf between them. In the title story, a young man lives with his girlfriend’s mother and runs the family’s school for Southern etiquette while his girlfriend is indicted for securities fraud. This delightful tongue-in-cheek narrative, one of the best in the book, pits old-world manners against modern-day behavior. A woman rents herself out as a companion to elderly travelers following the death of her husband and reflects that, after 46 cruises, travel hasn’t liberated her as it has many of her companions. She also realizes that a recent action she’s committed may be the cause of a current crisis on board the cruise ship. Dermont changes tone in “Sorry, You are Not a Winner,” a narrative that highlights the incongruities between a group of rich, beautiful people playing children’s board games and a young woman who was once a part of the crowd and who now serves as their maid while caring for her terminally ill parents. Questions about faith, family and morality are explored in “The Master of Invoices,” and “Camp” examines amoral behavior among adults who are responsible for reinforcing values in the younger generation. Dermont delivers strong prose and intriguing characters who frequently defy stereotypical ideals. Although a couple of the narratives fail to live up to the high standards the other stories achieve, the overall effect is a tight collection that takes the reader in unexpected, often disconcerting, directions. Full of irony and contradictions, this compilation of contemporary short stories is a worthwhile effort. |
THE MAPMAKER’S WAR
Domingue, Ronlyn Atria (240 pp.) $23.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-8888-7
A map can make sense out of the seen world. But it can also evoke greed. And what of a map of the heart? Legend, allegory, fantasy—this second novel by Domingue (The Mercy of Thin Air, 2005) entwines genres to cast a spell upon its reader. In a faraway realm, a king is eager to know the lay of the land. Our heroine, Aoife, yearning to be free of the restrictions set on women and manipulating Prince Wyl’s affection for her, secures training as a mapmaker. Charged with mapping domains beyond the kingdom’s borders, Aoife discovers a remarkable Utopia. With streets paved in gold and rumors of a treasure guarded by a dragon, these people live peaceably. Aoife instinctively tries to protect them by revealing little when she returns home, but the truth comes out. Soon, Wyl’s cruel and covetous brother, Raef, plots to conquer the peaceable community and gain their treasures. Forced into exile, Aoife must leave Wyl and their children. She seeks shelter within the Utopia, where she finds kindness, compassion and even love. Domingue’s tale is filled with the fantastical and magical, including Voices, women of the Utopian society who intuitively understand all languages and experience all memories. Guiltstricken for having brought war upon the community, however, Aoife will not find peace within herself until she confesses the whole of her past to a witness. A warrior once renowned for never having deliberately killed, Leit returns to the peaceful community scarred physically and emotionally. In bearing witness to each other, Aoife and Leit find a measure of tranquility. Told in the second person (which reads awkwardly at times), the novel forces the reader into the role of witness, too, as Aoife recounts her life with frequent admonitions to “tell the truth.” A curious, thought-provoking story about how the heart’s terrain bears charting, too. (Author appearances in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Agent: Jillian Manus)
short-tempered—and Breal nonetheless gets the job. The setup hints at a high-tech version of The Devil Wears Prada, but the remainder is quite different. No conflict ever develops between the two; Breal in fact becomes a relatively minor character. And the book hinges largely on Lowell’s attempts to maximize his company’s profits and save it from a hostile German takeover. A more promising subplot concerns the friction between Lowell’s mistress, Edna, and his estranged daughter Catherine, who is revealed to have acted in pornographic movies. But readers are likely to lose patience with the lengthy boardroom scenes, which give more background on the development of an integrated circuit than most will ever need to know. And not everyone will relate to Lowell when he wins battles with his two great adversaries, labor unions and the press, just in time for a vacation in Paris. Hints are dropped throughout that Lowell’s health may be failing, but he winds up fully vindicated both as a business visionary and a family man. Because Eisner is himself a former engineering executive who ran a Boston company similar to Electronic Technologies, it’s perhaps too easy to assume that this book is
THE STONE LION
Eisner, William Permanent Press (341 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 15, 2013 978-1-57962-312-8 William Eisner’s (The Sevigne Letters, 1994) tale of corporate intrigue has an interesting start: Laid-off high-tech engineer George Breal spends half a year coping with unemployment and finally secures an interview with Dr. John Lowell, president of the Cambridge, Mass., company Electronic Technologies. Their talk is an apparent disaster, with Lowell living up to his reputation for being eccentric, obsessive and |
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h s t e p h e n m ay In a novel that Kirkus ’ reviewer called “a graphically up-to-date coming-of-age tale,” British novelist and playwright Stephen May captures the caustic voice of Billy Smith, a teen in modern-day Essex. Billy’s mother has been abruptly killed, leaving him and his little brother Oscar on their own. Left to their own devices, Billy and Oscar teeter precariously between youthful self-indulgence and risky behaviors that raise the specter of social services’ intervention. On the eve of the book’s U.S. publication, we exchanged questions and answers about angst and adolescence with the author by email.
Life! Death! Prizes! Stephen May Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $15.00 Dec. 11, 2012 978-1-62040-001-2
Q: Life! Death! Prizes! begins with the untimely death of the narrator’s mother in a random mugging. What made you decide this would be the precipitating event for the rest of your story? A: I was mugged. Two hooded kids tried to grab my laptop in Leeds one winter’s night. They weren’t very good at robbery, and I beat them off surprisingly easily. And I am no hero; it was instinct and adrenalin. Afterward, I thought how stupid I’d been—how I should have just handed over my bag. We’ve all read about the have-a-go heroes who end up stabbed and killed. And I got quite shaky at what I’d risked in fighting back. I thought about how my younger kids might deal with the fallout from that....From there, it was quite an easy step to imagine what might happen to our boys if I was a single parent. Q: Billy and his brother Oscar are lost boys of a sort—schedule-less, takeout-scarfing waifs. How does their lifestyle exemplify Billy’s attitudes toward his brother and their current predicament? A: Billy is doing his best. But looking after small kids is hard work, and Billy has had no practice—he’s learning on the job. He’s also angry, grieving and increasingly desperate, mental states which aren’t conducive to model parenting. Q: You’ve noted that you stayed 19 years old far longer than anyone you know. Does this sort of arrested development help you get inside Billy’s head to unspool his attitudes toward the world?
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Q: The cover really jumps off the shelf. What’s the significance of the title Life! Death! Prizes! A: The U.K. is famous for the inventive, energetic ridiculousness of its tabloid press. And in recent years, a new category of magazine has sprung up too, what Billy calls “trauma porn,” with stories of real-life disaster like “My Father Raped Me On My Wedding Day.” The leading one—Chat —has the words “Life! Death! Prizes!” beneath the masthead, and it’s a phrase that seems to sum up not only the magazines, but what the whole culture is narrowing down to. The stories generally end positively too. Even in the example I quote, the girl marries, has kids, finds happiness....I’m not sniffy about these magazines either. I like them. Q: Several reviews have noted the fast pace and black humor here. Did the style come easily to you? A: Not easily exactly, but after a while, it was a matter of putting up the antenna and waiting for Billy’s voice to come over the airwaves....It’s important to me to be plain and clear and not too tricky. I also want people to turn the pages. And there are also things I’ve noticed about the way we live now that I want other people to notice too. Q: This is your second novel with an adolescent protagonist. What appeals to you about writing about young people in conflict? A: I should probably have therapy. I’m probably trying to resolve all sorts of issues to do with my bullying father and my lack of scholastic achievement. But to be young is to be at risk. Young people—cute kids just months ago—are out in the world without armor and knowing few of the rules of the world they’re in. One averagely unhappy adolescence provides fuel for a thousand novels, I think. Q: The boys’ biological fathers are either absentee landlords or unapologetic bastards, really. What does a story like Life! Death! Prizes! say about the modern family? A: Trust the women. Don’t rely on the men. - By Clayton Moore
p hoto by s a r a h m a s on
A: Not only was I 19 for several years—far longer than the measly 365 days most people get—but I also became a parent in my final year at college, which definitely helped inform Billy’s view of the world. I was also a high school teacher for 10 years, and that is a great laboratory in which to see adolescence unfurl.
A: Jane Austen said of Emma Woodhouse, “I have created a character no one but me will much like.” I wondered if Billy would be like that. Would people be able to warm to him? But I think people recognize the desperate love he feels and his mental energy and sharp humor. Also Billy gets nearly everything wrong, which I think frustrates the reader, in a good way. They want to help him.
partly a memoir. But in either case, it never quite crosses the line that divides a compelling novel from a vanity project.
MAN IN THE EMPTY SUIT
Ferrell, Sean Soho (306 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-61695-125-2
A time traveler has annual reunions with his younger and older selves, with surreal—and often confusing—results. The narrator begins the novel with “Convention Rules,” which can be construed as a pun. The “Rules” include cryptic advice such as “Elders know best,” “Try not to ruin the fun for the Youngsters” and “Never reveal the future.” In the extensive terminology created here, “Elders” refers to older versions of himself and “Youngsters”...well, mutatis mutandis. Amid the mind-boggling travels across time and space, including the Teutoburg Forest in the first century, when Teutonic tribes slaughtered a group of Roman soldiers, the traveler would invariably set his travel raft to alight in New York on the anniversary of his birthday—April Fool’s Day, 2071. There, at the ballroom of the abandoned Boltzmann Hotel, he would have a family reunion of sorts with his various avatars, some of them comically recognizable through fashion statements that have become passé. The traveler identifies these selves with telling, almost allegorical, names (Turtleneck, Ugly Tie, Yellow Sweater, Spats). A tension arises when, on one of his excursions to the Boltzmann, the narrator’s 39-year-old self discovers the body of his 40-year-old self (murder? suicide?), and the Elders point out that he’s got to figure out this mystery or all of his “future” selves will cease to exist. Ferrell has a lot of fun playing out the ramifications of this paradox and complicates things still further by introducing a mysterious woman who shows up at the “reunion” for the first time. A narrative that strikes the head more than it strikes the heart.
TOUCH & GO
Gardner, Lisa Dutton (400 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-525-95307-4 A team of hard-nosed professionals interrupts a troubled couple’s tentative reunion by kidnapping them both, along with their teenage daughter, in Gardner’s latest kitchen-sink thrill ride. Ever since Libby Denbe caught her husband, Justin, a handsome and wealthy Boston construction czar, cheating on her, their marriage has been on life support. Their experimental night out turns into a nightmare when they |
return to find three masked men in their Beacon Hill home terrorizing their 15-year-old daughter, Ashlyn. Swiftly overpowered and driven off in the kidnappers’ van, the family can only wonder why they’re being held in an unused prison in northern New Hampshire. At the same time, corporate investigator Tessa Leoni, whose firm had been hired by Denbe Construction to handle security problems, and New Hampshire county cop Wyatt Foster wonder why all three of them were kidnapped when Justin is clearly the one worth the most money—and why long hours pass with no ransom demand. The clues point to an inside job masterminded by one of Denbe Construction’s top brass: chief financial officer Ruth Chan, chief operating officer Anita Bennett, or construction manager Chris Lopez. Alternating, as in Catch Me (2012), between third-person installments of the search for leads in the case and the beleaguered heroine’s first-person accounts of her torment at the hands of the bad guys, Gardner generates such irresistible momentum that most readers will forgive the combination of cool-eyed professional investigation and heavybreathing domestic soap opera as a family even Libby describes as “three mere clichés” begins to disintegrate still further under the grueling pressure. Even readers who figure out the ringleader long before Tessa and Wyatt will get behind on their sleep turning pages to make sure they’re right.
THE AVALON LADIES SCRAPBOOKING SOCIETY
Gee, Darien Ballantine (448 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-345-52537-6
A novel featuring several ladies living in or near the small town of Avalon, Ill. The tale opens with an interesting and comedic scene of a young woman, Connie, trying to rescue a lost goat she guesses might have been abused. In this scene, we are also introduced to Madeline, who runs the town’s popular teahouse, above which Madeline and Connie live. The scene then moves quickly to Isabel, who is not recovering from the trauma of her husband leaving her before he died; then to Yvonne, a plumber; then to Ava (the “other woman”); then to Frances; and so on. Perhaps these transitions from one character to another in such rapid succession comprise the author’s way of recreating the ambiance of the teahouse at its busiest or the feeling of flipping through a lot of scrapbooks with portraits of a multitude of faces quickly glimpsed. The women become members of a scrapbooking club started by Bettie, who likes to sell her scrapbook decorations at the teahouse. This is a long, crowded book, and a reader who cares about these ladies with their significant problems might feel bogged down with too many details, some over-the-top strange and some completely mundane. This scrapbook of interesting, comic and tragic vignettes needs some nip and tuck to realize its full potential for passing along life lessons. kirkus.com
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IMPULSE
Gould, Steven Tor (368 pp.) $25.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-7653-2757-4 The third of a well-regarded series (that inspired a poorly regarded film) is essentially Teleporting: The Next Generation, as Davy and Millie Rice’s daughter Cent discovers that she, too, can “jump.” Years after teleporter Davy Rice was captured by a mysterious corporation (Reflex, 2004), he remains paranoid that they’ll find him or his loved ones again. He and his wife, Millie, live off the grid in a nearly inaccessible lodge 60 miles from the Arctic Circle, home-schooling their 16-year-old daughter and strongly discouraging her from developing relationships with others. Cent’s unhappiness with the status quo finally persuades her parents to purchase a home in a small town and enroll her in high school. Of course, the Rices’ pretense at a normal life doesn’t last long. Like her parents, who covertly teleport to spearhead relief efforts all over the globe, Cent has compulsive heroic tendencies. She simply can’t resist employing her newly developed teleporting ability against Caffeine, the school bully who’s blackmailing three freshman into serving as drug mules. Davy’s overprotectiveness of his daughter will be most amusing to series fans—as a 17-year-old in Jumper (1992), he was robbing banks and fighting terrorists. One of the strongest aspects of the series is its serious attempt to explore and exploit the possibilities of teleporting (and how to circumvent them), and Cent’s experiments to add velocity to her jumps add velocity to the plot. Readers will cheer for sympathetic Cent, but she’s a bit too perfect; despite her extraordinarily isolated upbringing and claims of social awkwardness, her insightfulness about people is incredibly high, and she’s unreasonably able at negotiating the dating scene. Ultimately, though, this is a great romp with a little social conscience–raising mixed in. Mr. Gould, please write faster.
THE END OF THE POINT
Graver, Elizabeth Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-06-218484-9
This multigenerational story of a privileged family’s vacations on Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay is as much about the place as the people. In 1942, wheelchair-bound insurance executive Mr. Porter (shades of FDR), his stoic wife, three daughters—beloved oldest son Charlie is off training to be a pilot—and gardening expert mother, along with assorted staff, are one of the few families summering at Ashaunt Point, where an Army base has been temporarily set up nearby. Graver (Awake, 2004, etc.) introduces the family 2762
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members, particularly the bright, slightly rebellious 16-year-old Helen, in sharp, nuanced sketches while focusing on Bea, the family’s Scottish nursemaid, who is devoted to youngest daughter, Jane. After the first true romance of her life, 34-year-old Bea turns down a soldier’s marriage proposal in order to remain with the Porters. By 1947, Helen takes the story’s center stage. Studying abroad, newly in love with ideas and a man, she writes reflective but girlishly innocent letters home. By the ‘60s, when Hurricane Donna hits Ashaunt, all three sisters have married. While Jane seems conventionally happy and middle sister Dossy suffers from bouts of clinical depression, Helen is still trying to find her way. Pregnant with her fourth child while enrolled in graduate school, she feels torn between love of family and growing intellectual ambitions. A decade later, Helen’s troubled oldest son, Charlie, named after the uncle who was killed in World War II and always Helen’s favorite, moves into a cabin on the peninsula, which he finds threatened by encroaching development. Helen and Charlie’s difficult but enduring mother–son relationship is particularly moving, but every character is given his/her emotional due. As one generation passes to the next, Ashaunt Point remains the gently wild refuge where the Porters can most be themselves. A lovely family portrait: elegiac yet contemporary, formal yet intimate. (Agent: Richard Parks)
OUT OF THE BLACK LAND
Greenwood, Kerry Poisoned Pen (478 pp.) $24.95 | paper$ 14.95 | Lg. Prt. $22.95 Feb. 1, 2013 978-1-4642-0038-0 918-1-4642-0040-3 paperback 978-1-4642-0039-7 Lg. Prt. Three young people living in the time of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty become a force to be reckoned with. Amenhotep III has ruled Egypt wisely and well, but his deformed and impotent son Akhnaten is about to plunge the country into the depths of misery. Before his father’s death, Akhnaten inexplicably chooses the bright young scholar Ptahhotep to be his Great Royal Scribe. Despite his inexperience, Ptah-hotep quickly finds his feet and does well even though he’s been forced to leave behind his lover Kheperren, who soon finds a place as scribe to the powerful Gen. Horemheb. Akhnaten has chosen the beautiful, self-indulgent Nefertiti as his bride. Her younger sister, Princess Mutnodjme, is a bright, curious child who fights to be educated and becomes a priestess of Isis. Despite her best efforts, Nefertiti is unable to conceive Akhnaten’s child. So, in order to preserve the dynasty, she produces heirs by Amenhotep. Vague and easily influenced, Akhnaten is passionate about his devotion to a single god he calls Aten. Forbidding worship of the other gods, he spends a fortune building a new city devoted to Aten. Ptah-hotep and Mutnodjme, who have become friends and lovers, are appalled at conditions in Egypt, where the people are starving and Gen. Horemheb can |
“There are plenty of surprises along the way.” from the racketeer
barely secure the borders while his troops are used to obliterate all signs of the old gods. As powerful forces fight for control, the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. From the often wildly differing conclusions of professional Egyptologists, Greenwood, best known for her mysteries (Unnatural Habits, 2013, etc.), has fashioned a fascinating, plausible and erotic tale.
THE RACKETEER
Grisham, John Doubleday (352 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 23, 2012 978-0-385-53514-4
Evenly paced, smart legal thriller— trademark Grisham (The Litigators, 2011, etc.), in other words. “Secrets are extremely hard to keep in prison, especially when outsiders appear and start asking questions.” So writes Grisham in the voice of one Malcolm Bannister, a one-time attorney who has gotten himself in trouble and is now “halfway through a ten-year sentence handed down by a weak and sanctimonious federal judge in Washington, D.C.” Grisham locates his story on the familiar ground of the racial divide: Bannister, 43 years old, is black, the only black ex-attorney at the Maryland prison camp to which he has been committed—not a bad place, a “resort” in fact as compared to most pens. And, of course, he’s innocent, or so he protests. Bannister also has come by some inside knowledge of events surrounding the death of another federal judge, which links to witness protection, drugs, Jamaicans and some heavy bad guys—and therein lies Grisham’s longish, complex tale of cat and mouse. Every character in the book is believable, and though some of the plot turns seem just a touch improbable, the reader never quite knows whether things are going to work out for Bannister before the heaviest of the heavies quiets him down for good. “I have a plan,” Bannister says, “but so much of it is beyond my control.” That’s not so of Grisham’s plot, which is carefully mapped out without seeming pat, leading to a most satisfying conclusion. In fact, there are plenty of surprises along the way. As ever, a solid, unflashy performance by Grisham.
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THE ENGAGEMENT
Hooper, Chloe Scribner (208 pp.) $25.00 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-1-4165-6162-0
Erotic games turn menacing and surreal when a woman who role-plays as a prostitute spends a weekend on an isolated Australian estate with her regular “client,” and he tries to keep her there forever. In Melbourne, working in real estate, Liese Campbell starts a game with Alexander, one of her property seekers: She offers him adventurous sex in the rental homes they view, and he pays her. Liese isn’t a prostitute, but she does owe money, and this fantasy apparently amuses them both. When Alexander offers Liese a fat fee for a weekend on his farm, she sees a chance to clear her debts. But once at Alexander’s vast, remote, decaying Victorian mansion, the game changes. He claims to believe she really is a nymphomaniac/whore;
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he even has letters and photos of proof. But he loves her anyway and proposes. Trapped, frightened and no longer certain what is real, Liese is unsure whether to play along or run for it. Much darker than the recent wave of S&M lite, Australian writer Hooper’s (Tall Man, 2009, etc.) novel seesaws between control and terror, honesty and insanity. Gothic twists and psychological turns lead through a hall of mirrors to a last opaque hairpin bend. Unreliable narrators don’t come any more bewildering or unappealing than the couple in this clever, claustrophobic and disturbing chiller.
THE JACKAL’S SHARE
Jones, Chris Morgan Penguin Press (336 pp.) $25.95 | Feb. 25, 2013 978-1-59420-535-4
Once again Ben Webster is reluctantly dragged into an apparent squabble amongst billionaires in Jones’ (The Silent Oligarch, 2012) latest. Webster works for the corporate investigation company, Ikertu Consulting. Darius Qazai, London-based refugee Iranian owner of Tabriz Asset Management, needs their services. A major business deal has gone bottoms up because of negative information turned up by the buyer. Qazai wants Ikertu to search his background and prove the information false. A simple phone call unearths the rat: rumors circulate that Qazai was responsible for the theft of the Sargon relief, a half-ton eighth-century Assyrian stone art object looted from Baghdad post-invasion. This is Jones’ second thriller involving Webster and Ikertu, and he takes time early on to offer an interesting character sketch of the CIA-for-billionaires founder, Ike Hammer. Jones is superb too in presenting off-beat personalities, one being the robotic and enigmatic assistant to Qazai, a French lawyer named Yves Senechal, “small, preciselooking...slight, so pale that the sun seemed to shine through him.” Another intriguingly left-of-center character is Webster’s go-to guy in Dubai, Fletcher Constance, an American banker gone native, “linen suits…extravagant neckwear…antique beard and the solid boom of [a] rhythmic voice.” Despite his connection to an art dealer murdered in Iran, Qazai, “vain, slippery, callously self-assured,” has a bigger problem, one that links his fortune to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Pursuing profits from funds invested post-revolution, the cruel and deadly Guards’ VEVAK intelligence agent Zahak Rad unleashes mayhem and murder. Qazai’s family pays a price too steep, and then Rad threatens Webster’s wife and family. Webster escapes bruised and battered from a deadly confrontation with Rad in Marrakech, retreating to London and then Dubai where he snatches a Pyrrhic victory with a successful-enough extortion double cross. Ambivalent as ever about the ethics of the superrich and his part in solving their problems, Webster proves to be the ethically troubled anti-Bond. A more-than-worthy sequel with deft, complex and believable plotting, tense, gut-wrenching action, and classy literary writing. 2764
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THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME
Jones, Holly Goddard Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-4516-8336-3 The residents of a small Kentucky town react to the disappearance of a local woman in this first novel by short story writer Jones (Girl Trouble, 2009). Emily Houchens, a lonely, deeply unhappy 13-year-old, finds a woman’s dead body while walking in the woods near the working-class subdivision where her family lives. She decides not to tell anyone. Instead, she continues to visit the body, fantasizing that she is sharing her adventure with Christopher Shelton, a popular boy who was kind to her in the past but has turned cruel because her obvious crush makes him uncomfortable. At the same time, Susanna Mitchell, Emily’s competent but insecure English teacher who has been defensively intimidated by Christopher’s highly educated mother, becomes increasingly concerned that she hasn’t heard from her hard-drinking, slightly disreputable older sister Ronnie for longer than usual. Her husband, Dale, a high school band coach who never approved of Ronnie, pooh-poohs her concern, but when Susanna stops by Ronnie’s apartment, she finds worrisome evidence that Ronnie’s sudden departure was not planned. The police detective assigned to Ronnie’s case is Tony Joyce, an old classmate of Susanna’s; she had a crush on him in high school (not unlike Emily’s on Christopher) but was afraid to date him since he was black. As distraught as she is about Ronnie’s disappearance, Susanna is also excited to work on the case with Tony, whose reappearance in her life underlines her dissatisfaction with her marriage to Dale. Yet Dale, who genuinely loves Susanna and their 4-year-old daughter, proves more self-aware than Susanna. Meanwhile, Emily’s father takes in his co-worker Wyatt’s dog after Wyatt suffers a heart attack, the culmination of the humiliation he experienced in a bar the night Ronnie went missing. And then there is Ronnie’s own humiliation that night. There’s not much suspense about the possible crime, but Jones builds intense tension surrounding the choices her flawed but compellingly sympathetic characters make as they fight against lonely isolation within the tight confines of small-town America. (Agent: Gail Hochman)
HAND-DRYING IN AMERICA And Other Stories Katchor, Ben Pantheon (160 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-307-90690-8
The four-year collection of a visionary polymath’s cartoons about urban living. These delicately constructed, one-page epics originally appeared between 2008 and 2012 as the back page of contemporary |
design magazine Metropolis. As written and crafted by Katchor (The Cardboard Valise, 2011, etc.), these “picture-stories” are funnier, more interesting and more focused than some of the artist’s other graphic novels. Some of the most imaginative stories involve buildings with peculiar characteristics—the shoe-fitting bench in “The Symbolic Building,” or “The Souvenir Museum,” where a single souvenir is offered for sale in the gift shop. The drawings are spare, and the humor is arid, particularly in the stories about architecture and the way we engage with urban corridors. In “Behind Sty Center,” a lively row of small businesses is wiped away to the desolate blankness of a visual vacuum. “Three hundred feet from the entrance to a mixed-use entertainment complex, two tourists die of boredom,” Katchor deadpans. Still others delve into the psychological effects that design can effect. “Aisle Lights” laments the wanton use of electricity that stems from our increasing consolation from the warm glow of electric light. “Crowd Control” explores that delicious pleasure that stems from ducking a velvet rope—“The physical expression of our free will,” Katchor’s Everyman dubs it. Many others are simply very funny exercises in satire, such as “Under the Bed,” which illustrates the old urban legend about the famine of rental space in our metropolises. Sure, the subject matter can be a little dry, particularly for those who don’t harbor a secret passion for urban planning and product utility. Katchor’s wry humor and unique view on the subject are well worth exploring. (Author tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle)
grandkids. And the entire group comes together at the traditional family getaway near a remote village, where cellphones won’t work and no electronics are allowed. It is there and in both Saxby and London that a tale of unreasonable, sustained hatred and revenge bubbles up, threatening to tear the happy family apart and leave them with a wound that will never heal. With writing so seductive and multiple voices that are pitchperfect for the characters she’s created, Kelly shows that she is a writer who doesn’t need to keep repeating herself to stay in the game. A book that will consume the reader as fully as the bonfire set by the novel’s characters.
THE BURNING AIR
Kelly, Erin Pamela Dorman/Viking (336 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 25, 2013 978-0-670-02672-2 Kelly has hit her stride in this third outing, a classic dark thriller combining suspense with gorgeous, evocative prose. Told from the perspectives of four individuals, this story is British journalist Kelly’s third offering and by far her most inventive novel. Set in England, the tale involves a close-knit family named MacBride, whose members soon become the focus of a pathological mission to destroy them. It starts with Lydia, beloved mother of the clan and magistrate of the court, who is dying. Lydia confesses in one of the diaries she’s kept most of her life a deed so terrible and life altering that she realizes if her family reads it, the contents would forever change them. But she doesn’t plan on that happening since she intends to destroy all of her diaries before the end arrives. Meanwhile, the rest of the MacBride family continues on with their lives: Her disfigured son, Felix, once a happy and handsome child, brings a mysterious woman into their midst. Sophie, the oldest daughter and mother of three boys and a baby girl, struggles with her once-perfect marriage to Will. And Tara, mother of the mixed-race teen, Jake, seems to finally be happy with her boyfriend, Matt, a surrogate father to Jake. Rowan, the former schoolmaster, mourns his wife but takes great joy in his |
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MIDNIGHT ALIAS
Kennedy, Elle Signet Eclipse/NAL (368 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-451-23944-0 The second installment in Kennedy’s romantic suspense Killer Instinct series (Midnight Rescue, 2012, etc.) pairs lots of naughty words with corresponding body parts and a sloppy plot. Ex–Navy SEAL Luke Dubois and his teammates are pretty bored conducting surveillance on a New York mobster’s strip club, but when Luke gets up close and personal with the gangster’s stripper girlfriend, he perks right up. Olivia Taylor, a beautiful college student, started stripping at the Diamond Mine to help pay her mother’s medical bills and their living expenses, but she’s now Mafia henchman Vince Angelo’s unwilling fiancee. Luke’s team, a group of hard-bodied male mercenaries—not to be confused with their curvy female assassin counterparts—is returning a favor for a DEA official and attempting to discover the whereabouts of a DEA undercover agent who’s infiltrated Angelo’s club. Partnering with a female associate, Isabel, who’s masquerading as a stripper, the team solicits Olivia’s help; in exchange, Luke promises to help Olivia and her mother escape Angelo’s clutches. As the squad unearths leads that might yield the agent’s location, the members also learn details about a major drug deal brokered by Angelo, and Luke and Olivia uncover much more than mere information when they share some explicitly erotic moments. For readers who are willing to suspend disbelief and wade through some pretty risqué language, the book may prove gratifying regardless of the careless plot. But the questions the author neglects to answer might leave some feeling unfulfilled: Would the DEA really use private contractors to do its work? If Olivia decides to follow Luke’s advice and chuck her plans to attend law school in order to pursue a teaching career, will she pass a background check? What about that man she killed? Why did Luke not recognize Isabel, one of his good friends, when all she did to disguise herself for her stripping gig was lengthen her hair? Would the CIA freely share its satellite and thermal images with mercenaries, and how safe is it to send them via email? It’s just too much of a stretch, darlin’.
DEATH’S ANGEL
Killough-Walden, Heather Signet Eclipse/NAL (368 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Dec. 31, 2012 978-0-451-23894-8 Archangel Azrael, the former Angel of Death, has been on Earth for thousands of years searching for his destined mate, so he’s surprised when finding Sophie makes him more vulnerable and 2766
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frustrated, not less; they’ll both need to exorcize some demons— actual and psychological—before they can find happiness. After thousands of years on Earth searching for true love with their destined archesses, four archangels—Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Azrael—believe the time is at hand. Uriel and Gabriel have found their mates, and at Gabriel’s wedding, Azrael meets Sophie, the maid of honor and a woman so compelling, he knows she’s meant for him. The angels have been fighting for good during their time in this realm, and the sudden union of these mates appears to be a threat to darker forces on Earth. Ancient enemies are rising and forming sinister alliances, hoping to weaken the angels’ power by threatening the things they cherish most—the loved ones they’ve been searching for for millennia. As the former Angel of Death, Azrael’s reconciliation is particularly problematic. Unlike his brother angels who came to Earth in human form, he fell to Earth as the firstever vampire. His destined love, Sophie, has unwittingly been hounded by shadowy forces from a young age and left to survive a troubled, painful childhood. Before they can come into their fullest individual powers as a couple, they must overcome self-doubts, mistrust and some fundamental crises of faith. The third installment of The Lost Angels series is an interesting, intriguing blend of vampire myth and archangel legend, with an intense romance reinforced by taut sexual tension and a fastpaced adventure that succeeds through dynamic writing, its well-drawn characters, and the “good triumphs over evil, love conquers all” theme. Some small plot elements and character motivations don’t ring quite true, and a vague underlying religious/spiritual thread depends on some suspension of disbelief, but in general, the complicated mythical and theological backdrop works fairly well. With numerous nefarious villains, fascinating supernatural abilities and details, and an action-packed plot all serving the sweet yet sexy romantic core of the story, this book will keep its intended paranormal-romantic-suspense audience entertained and engaged.
DREAMSPINNER
Kurland, Lynn Berkley Sensation (384 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Dec. 31, 2012 978-0-425-26219-1 Aisling, a weaver’s apprentice, meets Rùnach, a simple soldier, on a quest to find a swordsman to save her homeland; but even sheltered Aisling can see that Rùnach is more than he pretends, and the more time she spends with him, the more she realizes that the world is not as she’s been told—and neither is she. When Aisling of Bruadair is forced into a quest she didn’t ask for but must complete under pain of death, she finds an expansive, magical world she never dreamed existed. Weak and vulnerable, she catches the attention of a wounded hero right out of the storybooks of myth and legend, scarred-yet-handsome |
“An archaeological adventure yarn.” from the death relic
Rùnach, who takes her under his wing and guides her from one grand, mysterious location to the next. While he claims to be a simple soldier, he has pretty manners and inexplicably knows rulers and leaders in each venue. But as one who must guard her own wealth of secrets, she is loath to demand he share his. Nonetheless, as they journey from one awe-inspiring destination to another, searching for answers to continually mounting questions, Aisling understands that there are people who would see her companion dead. The most recent segment to the popular Nine Kingdoms series, this book pairs an unassuming, naïve heroine with an elven prince who is healing from deep injuries. The story and the characters are compelling from the first page, and as Aisling and Rùnach grow to trust and depend on each other, devotion blossoms into a sweet, quiet love. A complicated, magical world is the backdrop for this fantasy romance—indepth fantasy, low-key romance—but Kurland’s superb writing, entrancing storytelling and vast imagination keep us tuned in and engaged. A rather abrupt ending is a great introduction to the next book but a vaguely unsatisfying resolution to this one. An intriguing, delightful romantic fantasy with epic fairy-tale elements; fascinating, well-drawn characters and vibrant descriptions of magical situations and locations reinforce a vivid, enchanting narrative.
HOSTILE SHORES
Lambdin, Dewey Dunne/St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-312-59572-2 The further nautical adventures of Lambdin’s (Reefs and Shoals, 2012, etc.) Capt. Sir Alan Lewrie, baronet. This book begins where Reefs and Shoals left off—with Lewrie commanding HMS Reliant and in charge of a handful of ships tasked with protecting the Bahamas. When a fresh squadron comes to take over defense of the islands, Lewrie wastes no time getting on the bad side of the pompous commodore, who promptly sends Lewrie back to England to have Reliant cleaned and refitted for duty. Once there, left without anything to do, Lewrie must scrounge up fresh orders in order to move Reliant up the long list of ships in need of attention. Using all of his considerable wiles, he manages to get Reliant attached to a fleet
THE DEATH RELIC
Kuzneski, Chris Putnam (464 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 10, 2013 978-0-399-15899-5
Mayas and tigers and bears, oh my. If you like your Mesoamerican archaeology larded with lashings of ham-fisted dramatics, then this is just the book for you. Kuzneski’s setup is promising: ace detectives/adventurers Jonathon Payne and David Jones (The Secret Crown, 2012, etc.) go tearing off looking for a missing team of archaeologists who just might have found something that the guys who are secretly in charge of the world might not have wanted them to find. The clues begin pointing back not to Chichen Itza but to Langley. Payne and Jones are masters of exposition, providing index cards full of information in between spasms of dialogue and the occasional chase, but they’ve got competition in some of the antiquity geeks with whom they consult. Gushes one, “Did you say the Maya? I love the Maya. They’re one of my ten favorite civilizations of all time.” With a fan club like that, it’s sad that the Maya collapsed—especially since they had cool stuff such as the Death Relic, which is not to be confused with the Death God. Or maybe it is, for as we chug toward the end of this endless yarn, we learn that “the difference between the Death God and the Death Relic is this necklace of bones.” Cue lecture. Cue encyclopedia notes. Cue discovery: “[X] stole the treasure? That’s awesome!” We won’t spoil the fun by revealing X’s identity, but suffice it to say that it doesn’t seem so awesome to us. An archaeological adventure yarn with just not enough adventure to it. |
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ferrying soldiers for an invasion meant to take Cape Town from the Dutch. Despite a series of misadventures, while waiting for Reliant’s hull to be scraped, he manages to spend some time with his new love, Lydia Stangbourne. Once Reliant is seaworthy again, he joins the fleet, and upon arriving in Cape Town, Lewrie talks his way into a naval brigade sent ashore with the troops and sees some action on land. But once the British secure the Cape, the admiral in charge sends the entire fleet to South America for a poorly planned invasion of the Argentine. Lewrie has no choice but to follow orders and does his best to make the best of a potentially bad situation. As its title suggests, several important plot points take place on dry land rather than onboard Lewrie’s frigate. Still, the principal draws remain the same: first, an immersive level of detail on everything from the minutia of life aboard ship to the nuances of period speech, and second, Lewrie himself, a compelling blend of duty-bound naval officer and incorrigible scamp. And when Reliant finally does find itself in a scrape at sea, the ensuing battle is absolutely thrilling. More of the same: great naval action and deep historical detail in the vein of O’Brian and Forrester.
THE SILENCE OF BONAVENTURE ARROW
Leganski, Rita Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-06-211376-4 A magically evocative novel set in New Orleans in the 1920s-1950s with a large cast of fascinating characters, each of whom harbors a secret. The prose is lyrically rhythmic and waltzes the reader through the various stories that circle closer and closer to each other until they ultimately merge, resolving the many mysterious and intriguing questions raised along the way. The baby boy, named for a saint, cannot speak but was gifted, early on in his mother’s womb, with the ability to hear the vibrations of the world around him: heartbeats, blood flow, feelings of kindred spirits however far away in time or place. His father, William Arrow, is shot and killed at a grocery store by a crazed man whom no one can identify. This happens shortly before Bonaventure’s birth, but William’s spirit stays close to his family and speaks to his son throughout. Meanwhile, William’s mother, Letice, has a terrible feeling she knows who the killer is and believes the murder was an act of vengeance. Physically and mentally injured and unable to speak coherently, the killer is committed to a mental hospital for the criminally insane and referred to as The Wanderer, or simply John Doe. A private detective hired by Letice is eventually able to uncover the truth that Letice always suspected. A fine novel about love, loss, revenge and forgiveness that also touches on themes of race and class discrimination.
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AFTER ROME
Llywelyn, Morgan Forge (336 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-7653-3123-6 Life after Rome is, to say the least, barbaric, especially for those RomanoCelts still trying to make a go of it in fifth-century Albion. Llywelyn focuses on two cousins, Dinas and Cadogan, who develop different survival strategies in the arduous time after the fall of the Roman Empire. Dinas is a schemer with dreams of political power who, it seems, will always land on his feet, while Cadogan is more of a drifter and dreamer who eventually begins to stake out a new community to escape the chaos swirling about. Dinas is also something of a ladies’ man, quick to drop women when they no longer suit him. One woman whom for obvious reasons Dinas quickly tires of (she affects an aristocratic demeanor even though she’s common-born—and she’s something of a shrew) is Quartilla, so he “gives” her to Cadogan, who doesn’t quite know what to do with her. Much more important to Dinas—and to the dismay and contempt of Quartilla—is his stallion, largely wild and untamed except to Meradoc, a Celtic horse-whisperer. Cadogan wends his way through the bleak landscape of abandoned cities and back home to Cymru (Wales) to see his irascible father, Vintrex, but the Saxons arrive and put it to the torch. The stories of the two cousins tend to run parallel rather than to intersect each other, so the novel feels as though it doesn’t have a center. Llywelyn spins a tale that is interesting rather than riveting, though it is full of the rich “stuff” of this historical period.
PROMISES TO KEEP
Macdonald, Malcolm Severn House (240 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8212-7
Long after a diverse group of families have created a good life in the wake of the horrors of World War II, the past comes back to haunt one of them. The Dower House is home to nine families, beginning with famous sculptor Felix Breit and his wife, Angela, both concentration camp survivors. Most of the community members are engaged in the arts. Their numbers include several architects, an editor, a writer, a BBC executive and the families’ children, collectively known as The Tribe. In 1956, Britain finds itself in a transformative period. So do the Dower House families, who have big plans to buy the estate, owned by a gravel company, create permanent apartments they would own, build several new apartments and eventually establish a golf course. The golf course plans are well in hand by 1963, when Angela goes out to offer a surveying crew some coffee and turns her life upside down. A member of the |
crew known as Inge Dobson is really SS-Aufseherin Irmgard Heugel, who made Angela’s life a living hell in Ravensbrück, where she was a political prisoner. When Inge, whose husband is headmaster at the children’s school, comes back later to talk privately, Angela must decide whether she will ignore the past or confront it. The last in the Dowager House trilogy (Strange Music, 2012, etc.) deftly concludes its often heartbreaking story of love, ambition and redemption.
ONE GOOD EARL DESERVES A LOVER
MacLean, Sarah Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-206853-8
When Lady Philippa Marbury realizes she is headed into marriage and marital intimacy without the appropriate knowledge, she does what any proper woman of science should do—research; and who better to approach as a resource than Mr. Cross, the most notorious rake in London? Pippa Marbury knows she’s odd, so she’s grateful when a perfectly nice earl asks for her hand in marriage. However, she’s a little surprised by how difficult it is to garner information as to what to expect on her wedding night and resents the typical Victorian “lie back and think of England” response. Approaching her brother-in-law’s business partner, notorious reprobate Cross, she’s shocked and disappointed when he turns her down. Unbeknownst to Pippa, though, the damage has been done. Cross is well and truly intrigued by the strange little lady scientist, and her determination to get the answers she’s looking for will lead them both down a dangerous path of passion, secrets and betrayals, ultimately bringing Pippa to a whole new understanding of love, pleasure and sacrifice. She’ll also force her way into the shady Victorian London of gaming hells and the society of prostitutes, while making some enemies who will threaten her physical and emotional safety. As Cross watches, fascinated and bemused, and tries to block her at every turn for her own protection, Pippa stamps her own unique mark on a decidedly male territory—the gambling world—and comes into her own, staking a claim on the man of her dreams and the life she never knew she wanted. McLean’s second Rule of Scoundrels novel is a clever, original historical romance with compelling main characters who are so engaging and enchantingly well-matched you simply don’t want to see their stories end. Cross is a fallenangel archetype with a damaged, guilt-ridden past, but it is the delightful, captivating Pippa whom readers will fall in love with and root for, and readers will love Cross just a little bit more because he does, too. At moments heart-wrenching, at moments comedic, at all times entertaining and satisfying, this book deserves a read if you’re a romance fan.
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THE ABUNDANCE
Majmudar, Amit Metropolitan/Henry Holt (272 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-8050-9658-3 A mother’s terminal illness reveals fault lines as well as enduring bonds in an Indian-American family. Majmudar’s magnificent fiction debut, Partitions (2011), investigated the wrenching moral dilemmas posed by the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947; here, he trains the same unsparing yet compassionate eye on a contemporary family in the Midwest. His unnamed narrator, recently diagnosed with cancer, has made her husband, Abhi, promise not to tell their children and grandchildren until after Christmas. “I did not want the spotlight of their concern,” she confides. “The idea embarrassed me.” Ever since she flunked the exam for foreign medical graduates, she
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“Tense, taut and impossible to put down.” from the romanov cross
has asserted her self-worth by caring for others, particularly with the traditional Indian food she takes pride in preparing— and subtly nags daughter Mala for not making for her own children. Son Ronak, who married a Caucasian and calls and visits far less than dutiful Mala, gets much more hands-off treatment, which has not escaped the notice of his infuriated sister. Yet, as the story progresses and the narrator weakens, we see the profound love that unites the family. Mala, a stressed-out doctor who previously had “no respect for the art...[that] smacked of Old World female subservience,” asks her mother to teach her how to cook; their contentious relationship softens over the spices, and by the following Thanksgiving, Mala is making the entire holiday meal, assisted by Ronak’s wife, Amber. The accumulated grievances of decades still erupt from time to time, but they are mostly subsumed by the simple, basic knowledge that the narrator has very little time left. She allows only occasional glimpses of the grim particulars, such as having fluids drained from her cancer-swollen belly. “This is not a book about dying,” she informs us. “This is a book about life.” Indeed it is, and not life airbrushed by sentimentality, but life as it is actually experienced by flawed human beings—perfectly rendered by their gifted author. Beautifully written and deeply moving.
THE THREADS OF THE HEART
Martinez, Carole Europa Editions (400 pp.) $17.00 paperback | Dec. 31, 2012 978-1-60945-087-8
Debut novelist Martinez attempts an ambitious tale about a woman who creates remarkable transformations with sewing materials, but the story unravels before the end. The narrative follows Frasquita, a folklike heroine who possesses a special gift. Like generations of women before her, she is gifted with mystical powers during a special ritual. Her ability to craft beautiful objects and to heal those who are broken is viewed with suspicion by the townspeople of Santavela, and many shun her as a sorceress. When Frasquita marries José, the wheelwright, the couple has five children and each possesses a unique quality. But José teeters back and forth between sanity and madness. At one point, he moves out of the house to live in the chicken coop with his beloved chickens; after returning to the family, he becomes obsessed with numbers and doesn’t sleep for over a month. Frasquita is always there to help him back to normalcy. As other characters are introduced, the saga lengthens. Floating in and out of the village are Heredia, a young man who’s inherited his father’s olive grove; Lucia, the village whore and Frasquita’s friend who marries the elder Heredia; Blanca, a midwife; and Eugenio, a man of sinister character who becomes the village healer for a small time. After a series of events, Frasquita gathers her children and begins an arduous journey that eventually takes them to Africa. As they travel, they meet a group of anarchists, and Frasquita 2770
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saves the life of Salvador, their leader. She also has another daughter, Soledad, who narrates the winding tale. Though Martinez’s prose is often moving and surprisingly lyrical, even during the goriest of moments, the story becomes frayed and somewhat disorganized as the author delves into excruciating minutiae about the lives of every character she introduces and every situation the family encounters. A three-part book that would have been more interesting without the extraneous details.
THE ROMANOV CROSS
Masello, Robert Bantam (512 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-553-80780-6
A former Army epidemiologist contends with greedy locals and the harsh Alaskan terrain in order to prevent the recurrence of a deadly pandemic. Army major and renowned epidemiologist Frank Slater was stunned to hear he wouldn’t be serving any jail time after his conviction for punching a senior officer. The reason soon becomes clear: Right after his trial concludes, the chief of pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology tells him he must select a top-notch team and report immediately to a graveyard in an abandoned Russian colony on a remote island in the middle of the Bering Strait. The graveyard is full of the frozen and thus still potentially infected remains of victims of the Spanish flu that killed millions in 1918. During a recent shipwreck near the island, crabber Harley Vane was saved by clinging to the lid of a coffin he’d just caught in his net, leading the authorities to believe that one or more of the graves had been compromised. But while Slater and his team are making their way to Alaska, Vane is directed by his wheelchair-bound brother, Charlie, to return to the island to see if there is any more loot to match the striking emerald-studded silver cross Vane found in the coffin that saved his life. Little do the Vane brothers know that if the graves are disturbed, a deadly pandemic might be unleashed upon the world. Interposed with the present-day narrative is the story of Anastasia Romanov—the daughter of the ill-fated last czar of Russia, who was given the emerald cross, along with a strange prophecy, by Rasputin himself—who managed to escape the slaughter of her family. Masello (The Medusa Amulet, 2011, etc.) weaves several disparate genres—medical thriller, historical novel, ghost story—into a coherent whole. A delicious sense of creeping dread permeates the first act, greatly enhanced by its setting in the stark but beautiful landscape of northwestern Alaska. While the novel builds to a tense climax, the final act drags just a hair, but the payoff is an extremely satisfying conclusion. Tense, taut and impossible to put down. (Agent: Cynthia Mason)
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LAKE PEOPLE
Maxwell, Abi Knopf (224 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-307-96165-5 A woman strives to triangulate her history and identity in a melancholy lake town in this gauzy debut. Alice, the hero of this novel largely set in the ’70s and’80s, has spent most of her life not knowing where she came from. Adopted as an infant, she grew up in Kettleborough, a small New Hampshire town where secrets are pervasive but well-kept. What happened, as the reader knows, is that her father died in a car accident—a common occurrence in these pages—and that her mother has ran off. These details aren’t invested with much drama, nor is Alice’s adult life: Her adolescence was marked by an ill-advised relationship with a friend of her father’s, and the closing third of the book tracks her lovelorn correspondence with a man she’s never met. Maxwell labors less on plot than on mood, a blend of modern gothic where men and women are drawn to Kettleborough’s lake, often tragically, and a prose style heavy on sober pronouncements and unrealistic dialogue. (“I’m thirteen and already life has become too much,” one character utters.) Those flaws might qualify as assets in surer hands, but Maxwell’s efforts to give this story an otherworldly quality are undone by its ungainly structure. The novel is arranged much like a collection of linked stories, each bit loosely tethered to the next, and Alice only truly owns the latter half of the book. Earlier chapters are claimed by Alice’s grandmother and other relations, and though they share some of Alice’s qualities—bad love, the gloomy pull of the lake—none are filled out enough to merit pushing its lead character to the side. Maxwell’s passion for storytelling about place and family is obvious, but her command of characters and tone is no match for it. (Agent: Eleanor Jackson)
(“A private detective? An agony aunt? Or simply a friend?”) to hold his hand through these negotiations, advising him of what’s morally the best thing to do for his inheritance, for the painting and for the Scottish National Gallery, to which he’d planned to leave it. Isabel, who’s been brought into the case for more subtle reasons than she knows, and whose role will turn out to be more active and complex, is mildly affronted by Heather Darnt, the denim-clad lawyer acting as the thieves’ go-between, and she’s a bit taken aback when each of Duncan’s grown children, civilized Alexandra and rebellious Patrick, decorously indicate that the other one may well be behind the theft. Luckily, Isabel has other distractions from this seamy business. She’s asked to intervene in the hopeless romance between her niece Cat’s downscale assistant, Eddie, and his girlfriend, Diane, whose parents are convinced she can do better. And she can’t help intervening when she learns that her longtime housekeeper, Grace, has been plying her 3-year-old son, Charlie, with olives (a forgivable indulgence) and instruction in arithmetic (considerably less forgivable).
THE UNCOMMON APPEAL OF CLOUDS
McCall Smith, Alexander Pantheon (272 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 23, 2012 978-0-307-90733-2
Isabel Dalhousie’s ninth case, if you can call it that, casts the editor and owner of the Review of Applied Ethics in her strangest role yet. Country gentleman Duncan Munrowe has inherited quite an art collection, but the last opening of his house to the public has left it without its star, Nicolas Poussin’s Time Reconsidered. Knowing that the painting is insured for its considerable value, the thieves have taken the not-unusual step of negotiating a reward—that is, a ransom, Isabel tells herself—for its safe return. Duncan wants Isabel |
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A TEASPOON OF EARTH AND SEA
Middling for Isabel’s deliciously essayistic adventures (The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, 2011, etc.) among the moral conundrums posed by crime, romance and people you meet in shops.
JACOB’S FOLLY
Miller, Rebecca Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-374-17854-3
A hugely ambitious, wildly imaginative novel by Miller (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, 2008, etc.) about a dead 18thcentury French Jew brought back to life as a fly in 21st-century America. Having died at age 31 in 1773 Paris, Jacob Cerf thinks he’s been turned into an angel when he first “wakes up” hovering above Leslie Senzatimore in front of his Long Island home. But Jacob is no angel, although his supernatural powers include reading thoughts, traveling through others’ memories and perhaps implanting ideas. He quickly understands Leslie, who has coped with his life’s traumas, including his father’s suicide and his son’s deafness, by becoming a gentile mensch. The volunteer firefighter is a devoted husband and father who supports his extended family of losers even when his boat repair business is struggling through the recession. Leslie’s genuine goodness reminds Jacob of his father, an observant Jewish peddler unhappy at Jacob’s lack of interest in Torah, so Jacob wants to topple Leslie from his pedestal of righteousness. Accompanying Leslie on a hospital visit, Jacob wanders off and lands (literally) in the room of Masha, a lovely 21-year-old Orthodox Jew with heart problems and a secret desire to become an actress (theater is a leitmotif throughout). Falling for Masha, the first Jewish woman he ever loved, Jacob decides to enhance her opportunities by separating her from her family’s religious Orthodoxy. He travels between Masha and Leslie planting ideas within their brains until their fates intersect. Meanwhile, Jacob tells his own story: his disastrous arranged marriage, his flirtation with Hasidism, his desertion of his Jewish identity to become the valet of a libertine count, his sexual escapades. The three characters live in different genres: Jacob a comical, absurdist picaresque, Leslie a domestic tragedy and Masha a bittersweet coming-ofage melodrama. Yet the parallels, particularly between Masha and Jacob, are unmistakable. Miller forces readers to consider the dangers along with the values of assimilation and pits moral choice against fate. A challenging read, yet remarkably entertaining and ultimately gripping.
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Nayeri, Dina Riverhead (432 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 7, 2013 978-1-59448-704-0
Elegant aspirational novel of life in post-revolutionary Iran. “The whole town knows the story— the real one—though no one talks about it, because that’s our way. We prefer pretty lies to ugly truths.” Twin sisters Saba and Mahtab Hafezi live at the end of the universe—or, more specifically, in a tiny rice-farming village deep in the Iranian interior, having moved from Tehran to escape the eyes and hands of the mullahs and revolutionary guards. The place is no Macondo: There’s precious little magic to it and a lot of dust and grime. Still, in Nayeri’s (Another Jekyll, Another Hyde, 2012, etc.) richly imaginative chronicle, everyone dreams there, not least Saba, whose expectations crumble in the face of a reality for which she’s not prepared, having instead devoted herself to moving to America and studying endless English word lists in anticipation (“What is abalone?” she wonders). Her mother, a small force of nature, is a fierce champion, though she’s not happy that Saba is out in the sticks: “I won’t have her raised in this place...wasting her days with village kids, stuck under a scarf memorizing Arabic and waiting to be arrested.” Alas, a mother’s protectiveness is not a big enough shield, and Saba finds herself caught up in events much larger than she can imagine. It takes a village full of sometimes odd, sometimes ordinary people to afford Saba the wherewithal to realize her dreams, which take her far, far from there. Lyrical, humane and hopeful; a welcome view of the complexities of small-town life, in this case in a place that inspires fear instead of sympathy.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CANE
Newland, Courttia Akashic (224 pp.) $15.95 paperback | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-61775-133-2
Abducted from a car 20 years ago, a lost child reappears—or is he a fake; someone claiming his identity, someone with a violent streak? In his U.S. debut, British novelist Newland delivers an intense portrait of mental conflict against a gritty inner-city background. The book we are reading is Beverley Cottrell’s journal, an attempt to “make sense of the past twenty years’ quiet madness.” Beverley’s settled life, comfortably married to Patrick, came to an end when their baby son Malakay was stolen. Now the marriage is over, her home is in public housing, and her job is teaching deprived teenagers at an |
“An intense, heartwarming winner.” from crazy thing called love
after-school club. But everything changes when a boy follows her home one day, claiming to be her child. Although wary, Beverley lets him in and listens to his story. But is this young man really her son, and what sense can Beverley—who has complicated dreams of slavery, fire, cane and spider mothers—make of his story? This “journal of my pain” becomes a spiral of cathartic violence during which Newland deftly keeps the reader guessing. Boisterous street slang and the opinions of a younger generation lend vitality to an earnest domestic tragedy, but this is an uneasy fusion of troubled psychology and social issues.
CRAZY THING CALLED LOVE
O’Keefe, Molly Bantam (368 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-345-53369-2
The last thing popular morning news show host Madelyn Cornish wants to do is revisit her past, especially her volatile marriage to infamous NHL bad-boy Billy Wilkins 14 years ago—but Billy’s in Dallas now, and her producer’s dead set on a “celebrity makeover” to redeem the
NYPD RED
Patterson, James; Karp, Marshall Little, Brown (400 pp.) $27.99 | Oct. 8, 2012 978-0-316-19986-5 Patterson (Kill Alex Cross, 2011, etc.), here with co-writer Karp, moves to the posh confines of the Big Apple’s Upper East Side as he delves into crimes against the tabloid-dwelling rich and famous. Detective Zach Jordan is all about Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect, the new motto of the NYPD. That’s handy when he and his new partner are dispatched to a posh hotel to investigate the death of a studio honcho in town for “Hollywood on the Hudson,” an event designed to steal movie business from Los Angeles. Jordan’s new partner, and old girlfriend, is Kylie MacDonald, now married to a successful show-business producer. One dead film mogul is only the beginning. Next on the hit list is a skirt-chasing married
sexy hockey superstar. What could possibly go wrong? Billy and Maddy grew up together in a bad neighborhood, and Billy’s loved her since they met. Even if he didn’t fight for her 14 years ago. Even if he’s never been quite whole since she divorced him. Even if the years since she left seem like a never-ending blur of brawling fights, squandered opportunities and unfulfilled expectations. When he’s traded to the Dallas Mavericks, it looks like his career may be truly over, especially after he ends the season in a spectacular brawl with his own team. But fate is a trickster. Maddy is in Dallas, and if there’s anything he regrets more than his ignominious career, it’s losing his wife. So when her morning show asks him to take part in a makeover series, he jumps at the chance. Spending time with Maddy is, well, maddening. Gone is the sweet, spontaneous girl he fell in love with, and in her place is a polished ice queen determined to keep him at arm’s length—and their shared past top secret. He’s not even sure he likes the woman, though there’s no question the chemistry between them is still red hot. But sex isn’t everything, and when the local station digs into Billy’s past and uncovers some surprising news, Billy and Maddy will both have to decide what’s important, what they’re willing to fight for, and who they really are. O’Keefe’s newest romance hits the high notes with a storyline that tugs on the heartstrings, maintains a sizzling degree of sexual tension, and plays on realistic, authentic conflicts that keep the audience emotionally invested from start to finish. Gripping storytelling and convincing character-building allow the story to unfold in the present and in the past, offering windows into the psyches of a damaged hero and his restyled first love. An intense, heartwarming winner.
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actor dead from two fatal rounds from a prop gun supposedly loaded with blanks. The Tinseltown movers and shakers who have descended on Gotham have become targets for the Chameleon, a frustrated working stiff actor who spends his time among the scenery as an extra. But the Chameleon has a talent for makeup and special effects and a sociopath sycophant girlfriend to assist. Via her producer husband, K-Mac knows everyone who’s anyone, and she can don evening wear and mingle where cops aren’t readily visible. That means she’s on the red carpet when the Chameleon’s next victim, vodka-swilling bad boy Brad Schuck, is torched by a Molotov cocktail lobbed into his Hummer limo. With the publicity-conscious mayor leaning hard on Jordan’s boss, a clone of Lt. Van Buren on Law and Order, there are round-the-clock shifts at the 19th Precinct, leaving little time for Jordan to go one-on-one at Gerri’s Diner with his possible new flame, department shrink Cheryl Robinson. First, he has to team up again with MacDonald to save her husband and second, foil the Chameleon’s plot to send a hundred Hollywood types to never-never land with big chunks of C-4. Characters shoot their way through an entertaining script right to a conclusion with a hole in it.
THE DEMONOLOGIST
Pyper, Andrew Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $25.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-9741-4
In Pyper’s (The Guardians, 2011, etc.) sixth novel, professor David Ullman’s marriage has imploded, his closest confidant has terminal cancer, and he’s been approached by a mysterious emaciated woman offering an all-expenses-paid first-class trip to Venice. A renowned expert on Milton’s Paradise Lost, Ullman is a Columbia University professor. Acting on behalf of a nameless client, the Thin Woman, as Ullman calls her, asks him to observe a “phenomenon,” a thing she too has seen, but “there is no name for it I could give.” That evening Ullman’s wife tells him she’s leaving him for another man, and he decides to escape to Venice accompanied by his beloved daughter, Tess, “a smart, bookishly aloof girl,” who like him is plagued by melancholy. In Venice, Ullman confronts one of the devil’s Legion infecting an Italian professor’s body. Ullman panics. Before he can gather his wits, Tess apparently commits suicide. As she leaps to her death, Ullman hears from her, in that same devilish voice, a recitation from Milton’s epic. The action returns to New York City, Ullman confused, near-suicidal and haunted by the fear that all he has not believed may be real. “Screwing the lid off [his] imagination,” Ullman reads Tess’ diary and begins to think his daughter isn’t dead but instead in the clutches of the Unnamed, perhaps one of Pandemonium’s Stygian Council. Plagued by signs and omens, Ullman treks from North Dakota to Kansas to Florida to Ontario and back to New York. His confidant and friend, Elaine O’Brien, another professor, rides along in support. There 2774
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are killings, possessions and philosophical speculations, with the pair shadowed by the Pursuer, perhaps an agent of Rome. Pyper is an intelligent writer, steeped in Miltonian symbolism, gifted with language, enough so that fans of the genre will shiver with cold sweat when the Stygian demon wanders out to bark, spit and hiss. This artful literary exploration of evil’s manifestation makes for a sophisticated horror tale.
I WANT TO SHOW YOU MORE
Quatro, Jamie Grove (224 pp.) $24.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-8021-2075-5
A debut collection of short stories by Quatro that’s more confusing than profound. A married woman tells her mother about her phone-sex relationship with another man; the same woman returns home with her husband to find her dead lover in their bed and watches as her husband lies down beside him; a grueling race is held in which each entrant must carry a metal statue with an erect penis; a woman dying of melanoma struggles to survive, and her husband wrestles with his conscience; an old woman, determined to mail a letter to the president, embarks on a final journey to the post office; the married woman winds up having phone sex and ignores her children; a young girl, embarrassed by her quadriplegic mother, is forced by her grandmother to go to a pool party; other stories center around a deaf man who becomes a cult leader and a young man who has a sinkhole. Quatro’s stories range from the ridiculously strange to the seemingly normal, but there’s certainly nothing ordinary about this darkly themed, graphically sexual book. The stories, set in the area surrounding Lookout Mountain, Ga., rip apart the moral, familial and religious conventions of modern society. Nothing is sacred to the author, who possesses a prolific imagination but fails to connect with the average reader. The stories are interwoven in a manner that makes it extremely challenging for the reader to link the events and the characters, and the writing is often stilted and difficult to follow, at best. Readers who appreciate avant-garde prose and odd humor may find the stories appealing, but the author’s meandering style and strange content will prove too unconventional for others. Bizarre.
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LESSONS IN FRENCH
Reyl, Hilary Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $24.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-5503-2
Debut author Reyl’s coming-of-age novel about a young American artist who paints captivating scenes of life in The City of Light. It’s 1989: A wave of revolution sweeps the Eastern Bloc countries, Salman Rushdie’s inflammatory book, The Satanic Verses, is published, and Kate, a recent Yale graduate, arrives in Paris to work as an assistant for famed photojournalist Lydia Schell. Kate’s an artist who’s still seeking her direction, and she’s excited about the opportunity she’s been offered, even if, per her contract, she has to pay $400 of her $600 monthly salary to live in the tiny garret of the family’s home. Kate’s lived in France before as a child and speaks flawless French. When she was younger, she was sent to live with cousins after her father was diagnosed with cancer. He lost his battle two years later, and Kate’s feelings of being cheated out of being with her father during his final days and her desire to do something that would make him proud are part of the baggage she carries. She’s a naïve young woman who craves approval, and she wants very badly to fit in. But the selfabsorbed, pretentious Schell family doesn’t exactly welcome Kate as one of their own, and she’s treated more like a servant than an assistant: walking the family dog and cleaning up urine; acting as a go-between for Lydia and her husband, Clarence, and for Clarence and a graduate student; acting as a companion to Portia, the daughter, who’s been dumped by a man with whom Kate’s secretly having a relationship. But in her naïve way, Kate rationalizes that she’s learning a great deal from all these experiences, so she’s willing to be the doormat that everyone uses but no one really notices—up to a point. With age and experience, Kate becomes more aware of who she is and what she wants, and ultimately, she grows into her own person. Un bon livre. (Agent: Stephanie Abou)
CROSSBONES YARD
Rhodes, Kate Minotaur (320 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-1-250-01428-3
Rhodes’ debut novel dips into the familiar waters of a woman in jeopardy confronted by a cunning killer. Psychologist Alice Quentin, tortured by a past dominated by an abusive father, submissive mother and mentally ill brother, finds the police on her London doorstep when a convicted murderer is due to be released. Police want Alice to meet the man and tell them whether they should watch him once he’s out. It’s all the more urgent since Morris Cley, the killer, was |
the bosom buddy of an infamous couple of serial killers who slaughtered young women and defaced their corpses with dozens of crosses cut into their skin. When Alice goes out for her daily run, she finds a dead body in Crossbones Yard, a London graveyard where hundreds of prostitutes were buried more than a century ago, and the young girl shows similar markings. Soon, Cley shows up at Alice’s door, and she finds herself under unwanted police protection, but the police are depending on her as the best in her field to help them predict what the killer, who they believe is the now-missing Cley, will do next. Complicating matters is Alice’s violent bipolar brother, who won’t take his medication and insists on living in a camper in the parking lot of her building; her old childhood friend Lola, a gorgeous but unsuccessful actress who shows up on her doorstep; Sean, an abusive ex-flame; and Ben, a dark, serious police officer who finds himself drawn to the psychologist. Rhodes’ writing is competent, but the predictable plot twists disappoint: The plucky, beautiful heroine constantly places herself in danger, every man she meets falls for her, and the police can’t properly pull off the investigation without her help. Why the police need Alice, who is not an expert on serial killers, never quite becomes clear, serving instead as a glaring storyline weakness. The author stretches the reader’s credulity by relying on coincidence after coincidence to propel the fragile plot forward.
ABOVE ALL THINGS
Rideout, Tanis Amy Einhorn/Putnam (400 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-399-16058-5 George Mallory is famous for answering “Because it’s there” when asked why he kept trying to scale Everest, but Canadian Rideout’s debut novel about Mallory’s disastrous last climbing attempt is the story of a love triangle: a man, a woman and a mountain. After two failures, George has promised his wife, Ruth, that he is done with Everest, but in 1924, he leaves Ruth with their three small children in Cambridge, where he is a professor and part of the Strachey/Bloomsbury world, to join a third expedition to the mountain. He is 37-years-old, with movie-star looks and charm. Ruth supported his earlier attempts, but now she is jealous of his time away climbing. She is right to be jealous since the real love they feel for each other is no match for his hunger for adventure or for Everest, which is always referred to in feminine terms. Although a large portion of the novel takes place in Cambridge, where Ruth waits for letters from George while caring for her children, her domestic dramas—insecurity about her abilities as a mother, mild attraction to family friend Will, hostility toward Mr. Hinks, chairman of the Mount Everest Committee, who sponsored the expedition—cannot compete with the drama on Everest itself. George feels the need to vindicate himself on this trip after an avalanche disaster that killed kirkus.com
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seven Tibetans during the last attempt. Five members of the team have attempted Everest together before. The new member, Sandy Irvine, is much younger, still a university student and eager to prove himself, especially to George. Petty tensions arise among the men bound so closely in isolation, but there is indescribable intimacy as well as they face life–and-death challenges on a daily basis. A plodding quality slips in, the sense that Rideout is following the historical dots, but she does a terrific job describing both the extreme physical conditions and the dreamlike consciousness George and Sandy drift into as their memories of home intertwine with their moment-tomoment climb. (Agent: Ron Eckel)
THE BLOOD GOSPEL
Rollins, James; Cantrell, Rebecca Morrow/HarperCollins (496 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-06-199104-2 An entertaining if sometimes farfetched religious-tinged thriller by mysterians Rollins (Bloodline, 2012, etc.) and Cantrell (A City of Broken Glass, 2012, etc.). What if the Vatican were built atop a pet cemetery or the moral equivalent of an Indian burial ground? What if Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents had actually happened? What if Saint Peter, the rock on which the church was built, was an action hero? All these possibilities pop up in Rollins and Cantrell’s confection, which operates on the always tetchy premise that Christ’s blood sacrifice finds responses in the blood sacrifices of others, including unwilling virgins—or so the evidence suggests when an earthquake in Masada, site of yet another blood sacrifice all those years ago, exposes a cave inside of which is found the mummy of a girl throwing most curious mudras. Soon, an unlikely cast from the worlds of archaeology, religion, warfare and crime fighting descends on the place, and what they piece together over the course of the narrative threatens—natch—to shake the world of organized Christianity to the ground, not least because Christ himself has a few revisions to make in the record. There are lots of Indiana Jones–like moments throughout (“It is no mere weapon,” says a warrior priest. “It’s a symbol of Christ. That is beyond weaponry.”), a little romance, lots of car chases and explosions, and lots of oddball twists, including encounters with a strange Russian priest named Rasputin, a mysterious Eastern European heavy with the most suggestive name of Bathory and a gaggle of goal-oriented fanatics. And does the firmament crack open as the “great War of the Heavens looms”? That depends on whether you see room for a sequel at the end of this romp. Good escapist reading in the Dan Brown vein. And these writers can write.
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DID YOU MISS ME?
Rose, Karen Signet Eclipse/NAL (544 pp.) $7.99 paperback | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-451-41409-0 The latest from Rose (No One Left to Tell, 2012, etc.) opens with a prologue in which we find a kidnap victim waking up to his dire situation, and within the first few pages, we know not only whodunit, but also why. The suspense really begins when we meet the victim’s mother, Daphne Montgomery, the prosecutor in a high-profile murder case. Questions are raised about this intrepid woman’s past, and the continuing revelations of her traumatic story grip the reader for the length of the book. She remembers happiness for the first eight years of her life, but then it all came tumbling down when she was abducted by a stranger who was not actually a stranger. This abduction, her escape and the continuing developments comprise a complex journey, and along the way, we glimpse the traumas in the lives of many of the other characters: the losses, the abuses, the angers, resentments and sheer pain that motivate some people to acts of vengeance, others to acts of love. Interspersed with scenes of horror and cruelty, sometimes graphic, sometimes implied, are scenes of love and tenderness. The book is filled with a multitude of stories, and the author handles the interconnected segments with skill. The loving and wise will find relief and redemption, the loving but angry will move from one tragedy to another. In the end, Daphne is able to use what she has learned to influence a few characters in a positive way.
THE YOUNG AND THE RUTHLESS
Rowell, Victoria Atria (304 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-4383-1 Rowell’s sequel (Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva, 2010) about a soapoopera diva and her cast mates parodies the real deal with cookie-cutter characters, bad subplots and cheesy dialogue. Calysta Jeffries, star of World Broadcast Company’s The Rich and the Ruthless, is back on the set after a stint in rehab, but it appears she’s more popular with the viewing audience than with some members of the cast and crew. Racist co-executive producer Stanley Mercury and Edith Norman, president of daytime television, really have it in for her. They engage in a plot to add a little spice to the show and make the actress’ life uncomfortable by hiring Calysta’s 18-year-old daughter, Ivy, to portray her long-lost daughter on the soap. Calysta doesn’t selfdestruct, but mother and daughter knock heads on a regular |
“Apparently meaningful passages mar an otherwise solid effort to tell a compelling story.” from the boy
basis, and Ivy becomes a diva both on and off the set. Plenty more is happening with the countless other characters who are part of Calysta’s life, and they pop in and out of the story so many times it’s hard to keep them all straight: An associate producer who’s married to one of the soap’s stars becomes involved in art forgery; Max Gardner arrives on the set, and sparks fly between Calysta and her new assistant director; Calysta’s grandmother, a stable influence in her life, falls ill; Shannen Lassiter, yet another soap star, becomes upset with a storyline that has Ivy stealing her Latin boyfriend, Javier, who’s also her boyfriend in real life. A veteran of the soap scene, Rowell swoops back and forth between snippets of scripts, first-person observations and third-person narrative with such dizzying abandon, it’s hard not to suffer whiplash. But like the soap operas it lampoons, the book offers readers an escape from reality, at least for a short time— and anyone prepared to overlook the author’s quirky style may enjoy it for that alone. (Author appearances in Atlanta and New York. Agent: Irene Webb)
THE SECRET OF THE NIGHTINGALE PALACE
Sachs, Dana Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-06-220103-4 Sachs (If You Lived Here, 2007, etc.) takes a conventional literary device—a road trip—and uses compassion, humor and good writing to transform the journey into a memorable story. Thirty-five-year-old artist Anna Rosenthal is surprised when she receives a call from her estranged grandmother. They haven’t spoken to each other for five years, ever since Goldie criticized Anna’s determination to marry someone she felt was not right for her granddaughter. Now, Goldie wants Anna to chauffeur her from her home in New York City to San Francisco in her vintage Rolls Royce. She claims she wants to return some artwork entrusted to her when her closest friends, of Japanese descent, were placed in an internment camp during World War II. The prints are breathtakingly beautiful and are links to Goldie’s mysterious past, revealed in flashbacks to the reader as the two travel across the continent. Since theirs is a journey of reconciliation, Anna and Goldie sling verbal spears at each other throughout the trip; but they also have tender moments when Anna believes past wounds are finally healing— until the next contentious round occurs. Anna, a widow for two years, suffers from survivor’s guilt and fears relationships that might once again result in pain and loss, so she evades a suitor’s attempts to contact her. She also resents being told by others that she’s just like her grandmother since she thinks Goldie’s unsympathetic and rigid. But Goldie, a feisty octogenarian, is a paradox: although she’s been used to the finer things in life for years, she’s perfectly happy sleeping in Hampton Inns and dining at chain restaurants as she traverses America. And though |
she refuses to indulge Anna in her grief, she’s unstintingly supportive of and kind to strangers, no matter their station in life. Never forget, she reminds Anna, that every person has value. A solid story. (Agent: Douglas Stewart)
THE BOY
Santoro, Lara Little, Brown (192 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-316-20623-5 A contemporary Mrs. Robinson busies herself destroying lives in a small New Mexican town. Santoro (Mercy, 2007), a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and the Christian Science Monitor, gives us Anna, a train wreck, her precocious daughter Eva and their Latina maid and de facto second parent Esperanza, aka Espi. Some semblance of domestic tranquility is overturned by the appearance of Jack, eldest son of the amused and bemused next-door neighbor, Richard Strand. Jack and Anna move toward one another with the simplicity of the heroic Jack and Jill, except Jack draws Anna not up but down, and when Eva leaves for an extended visit with her father, an uptight, witheringly sarcastic Englishman, Anna decides to plumb the depths. Anna’s fierce love for her daughter cannot save her from her desire to experience her body as an object of affection and a reservoir of lust. It is a believable story, its arc tragic. Anna’s friends Ree and Mia serve as a sort of spaced-out Greek chorus, and Anna’s therapist Dr. Stewart’s office is upholstered in platitudes. Flashbacks hint at sins that eroded Anna’s first marriage, including infidelity and booze. Into this tight story, “meaning” starts to intrude. Soon, whole paragraphs of purple prose, as if pasted in from a different, and far worse, book appear, clotting the narrative. The effect is jarring, exasperating. The final act is abrupt—but punishment is a fixture of contemporary American fiction, and Anna had it coming. The central conflict, between maternal love and adult desire, is genuine. Even if Anna is damaged, her feelings are heartfelt and her crisis resonates. Apparently meaningful passages mar an otherwise solid effort to tell a compelling story. (Agent: Elaine Markson)
THE AFRIKA REICH
Saville, Guy Henry Holt (400 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-8050-9593-7
In Saville’s alternate history, Great Britain pursued peace with the Nazis after Operation Dynamo—the Miracle of Dunkirk—failed and left a quarter of a million soldiers captured. Churchill resigned. Lord Halifax became prime minister. In 1952, there exists the Council of kirkus.com
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New Europe, an uneasy alliance of Germany, countries subjugated by Hitler and an isolated Great Britain. Vichy France, Italy, Spain and Britain retain some colonies, but the heart of Africa is ruled by the Reich, where the SS enforces the Windhuk Decree, with Africans either massacred or sent to labor or death camps. Conquered Slavs and imported ethnic Germans are left to exploit Africa’s riches for the Reich. Burton Cole, Foreign Legion veteran, is approached by a Mr. Ackerman, representing diamond-mining interests. Cole is offered riches to lead a mercenary team to assassinate SS Obberstgruppenführer Walter Hochburg, governor-general of the Kongo. Cole cares neither for money nor politics. Cole only wants Hochburg dead, but not before Hochburg reveals the fate of Cole’s mother, once a missionary. In the SS fortress of Schädeplatz, Cole believes he has finally found justice, but the apparent death of the Nazi at knife-point is the mere beginning of a bloody saga of cruelty and corruption, double-dealing and deception. There are gory battles at jungle airfields, in tunnels vital to the Pan African Autobahn and in Angola. Mercenaries are lost one by one. Only Patrick Whaler, Cole’s American sidekick and former Legionnaire chef, and a few African resistência are left to fight, and all of them absorb enough punishment to wipe out regiments while they leave Nazis and collaborators shot, stabbed, bombed and buried. Hochburg, messianic orphan of a massacred German missionary family, is a worthy villain, right up to paving a square with human skulls and burning prisoners at the stake. The realpolitik seems credible, and while some alternate historical factoids seem far-fetched—a multilane autobahn across Africa in 10 years? supersonic jets?—they don’t overshadow the dark and gruesome narrative dynamic. A skin-of-the-teeth escape at the end foreshadows a series.
A DENIABLE DEATH
Seymour, Gerald Dunne/St. Martin’s (448 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-250-01880-9 The latest thriller from British author Seymour (The Collaborator, 2011, etc.) isn’t the kind you’d turn to for fast action and relentless plot twists. Rather, it’s a book for those seriously into espionage who want to absorb every detail of how a spy mission is planned and carried out. The book’s very title hints at the outcome, as a team of agents is deployed to covertly remove an Iranian bomb expert, turning the actual killing over to an operative. The mission’s two chosen leaders—grizzled veteran Joe “Foxy” Foulkes and 28-year-old police officer Danny “Badger” Baxter—are an instant mismatch; their mutual dislike and frequent clashes provide the human-interest angle. Their target, Rashid, also has a back story; his wife has a life-threatening brain tumor, and his attempts to get her an operation will make him vulnerable. The book gains momentum once Badger and Foxy get to the Iran–Iraq border and begin their “hide”—a grueling undercover 2778
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slog. The suspense hits its peak as Foxy is captured and tortured—also in grisly detail—with lit cigarettes. The mission’s conclusion inevitably goes less smoothly than planned, as Seymour plays his one big action scene for all it’s worth. The book’s conclusion cleverly circles back to its prologue. Some may be frustrated by the slow pace, as it takes more than 100 pages to even get the team selected and the operation underway, but for patient readers, Seymour’s painstaking attention to detail is a plus, as it gives the story an authentic ring and lets the reader experience the mission in real time.
UNTIL THE END OF TIME
Steel, Danielle Delacorte (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-345-53088-2
Steel’s latest novel uses two love stories to pose and answer questions about the meaning of life and love. The first story, set in 1975, is a romance between the son of wealthy, class-conscious parents and a coal miner’s daughter, who has become a successful design consultant for Vogue magazine in New York City. After marrying against his parents’ wishes, Bill Sweet leaves the family law firm to study theology and pursue his dream of becoming an Episcopal minister. His wife continues the work she loves as a fashion consultant, but after surviving an ectopic pregnancy, Jenny decides to give up her career in New York so she and Bill can accept an offer from a church in Moose, Wyo. Reading about their warm welcome and the ease with which they blend into the culture of the Western town is heartwarming, and the significant good Jenny does for some of the women of the town is uplifting and inspiring. The second story is set in 2013. A young Amish woman in Lancaster County, Pa., who has always loved to read the classics, writes a book and secretly sends it to a publisher in New York. The publisher falls in love with the voice of the book and when, with much difficulty, they finally meet, they both feel that fate has brought them together. This story of romance through hardship and across decades has a spiritual appeal.
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THE TIN HORSE
Steinberg, Janice Random House (352 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-6796-4374-6 Suspense writer Steinberg (Death in a City of Mystics, 1998, etc.) folds a missing person mystery into a Jewish multigenerational family history set in Boyle Heights, once a distinctly Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles. About to move into a Los Angeles retirement home, former activist lawyer Elaine is preparing her archives to donate to USC when she stumbles upon a business card from the private detective she worked with in her 20s, Philip Marlowe no less: They met when she was the cute, intellectual clerk in The Big Heat bookstore scene. Soon, 80-something Elaine is revving up a renewed search for her twin sister, Barbara, based on a name she finds scribbled on the back of Philip’s card: Kay Devereaux. Meanwhile, she is remembering her childhood. Steinberg’s Boyle Heights is the quintessential, bordering on stereotypical, early-20th-century Jewish-American ghetto. Elaine’s mother, an immigrant from Romania with a dramatic streak, and her father, a shoe salesman who had to quit high school despite his love of literature after his older brother died in World War I, head the cast of colorful relatives as Elaine’s stories pile on a glut of dramatic coincidences and family lore that may or may not be true. At the center of Elaine’s memories is her relationship with Barbara. As children, the twins were inseparable even though Barbara was social and lively, Elaine quiet and smart. By high school, the sisters were moving in different directions, Elaine toward scholarship and idealism, Barbara toward the Hollywood world of entertainment. They both loved the same boy, Danny, who loved both of them in different ways. Then, in 1939, after an event Elaine is loath to remember, Barbara disappeared. Despite raising provocative questions about twinship, Jewish identity, family roles and betrayal, Steinberg’s attempt to combine a heartstring pulling, realistic family saga and film-noirish mystery-solving feels unsatisfying and slightly bipolar.
THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND
Söderberg, Alex Crown (464 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-7704-3605-6
There’s plenty of life in Scandinavian crime fiction, though the bodies pile up with especially terrifying speed in this book’s grim milieu. The hero of Swedish author Söderberg’s debut, the first in a planned trilogy, is Sophie, a young widow who works as a nurse while raising her teenage son. At the hospital, she meets and starts to fall for |
Hector, who unbeknownst to her, is about to escalate a war with Russian and German mobsters over supply routes for drugs and weapons. Stockholm police are investigating, but true to Söderberg’s peculiar, amoral universe, the cops are as filthy as the hardened criminals. So while Sophie is the novel’s focal point, she feels less like a full-blooded character than a mirror upon which Söderberg can project mockery of traditional concepts of good and evil. One of the cops following Sophie is Lars, a milquetoast prescription drug abuser whose surveillance work takes increasingly obsessive and sexually transgressive turns, while the thuggery of those working under Hector (the Andalucian of the title) has a protective tinge to it. (Only anonymous German and Russian goons are purely blackhearted.) Söderberg is masterful at upending the usual moral expectations for characters like Hector and particularly Lars, whose expansive addiction is rendered as both terrifying and seductive, and the closing chapters so deliberately reverse the stock conceits of vengeance, redemption and recovery that it flirts with satire. Söderberg’s innovations are tempered somewhat, though, by the bagginess of the plotting, overly thick with detail about smuggling schemes. And Sophie’s blankness, however deliberate, makes her so much of a cipher that a tragic turn in the late chapters fails to deliver its intended emotional effect. Much of this book feels like furniture arranging for the sequels, but there’s enough action and gallows humor in this overture to carry it along. A promising start to a trilogy.
ON THE ROPES
Vance, James; Burr, Dan E. Norton (256 pp.) $24.95 | Mar. 11, 2013 978-0-393-06220-5 An oft-praised graphic novel of the Depression era belatedly spawns a sequel. Following the picaresque hobo’s fable of Kings in Disguise (1990), writer Vance and illustrator Burr follow their latter-day Huck Finn, as recast by Steinbeck, into young adulthood. Freddie Bloch is now Fred (except when he isn’t), and he has left the life of riding the rails and living in hobo jungles for employment in a WPA circus. In a setup that is heavily fraught with symbolism and adds resonance to the title, Fred now serves as an assistant to an escape artist who nightly feigns his own execution by hanging. Enmeshed within the plot are a female writer (now also employed by the WPA), some union-busting thugs and a lot of characters from various back stories that both enhance the narrative and confuse it. For the workers, it’s the same old story: “The same demand for dignity and survival. The same answer from those who hold the power. The same lesson learned.” Yet, Fred’s role in this struggle between the powers that be and those who would challenge that power remains murky, even to him, as double crosses lead to the possibility of triple crosses. Relationships reveal various twists as they leap back and forth chronologically, as Fred learns at 18 what he hadn’t known at 13, when he first hit the road: “I’d had no idea how large the world kirkus.com
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was, nor how fragile the lives it contained.” As he attempts to put what he has learned into writing, to tell the story within this story, he learns another lesson: “Most of us don’t want a better world, kiddo. We just want the old one back.” The old world isn’t coming back, but at least one more volume of this series appears inevitable.
EVIL IN ALL ITS DISGUISES
Davidson, Hilary Forge (352 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-7653-3352-0
WE LIVE IN WATER
Walter, Jess Perennial/HarperCollins (192 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-06-192662-4 The debut story collection from Walter proves he’s as skilled at satire and class commentary in the short form as in his novels (Beautiful Ruins, 2012, etc.). Most of the 13 stories here are set in the present-day Northwest, where the Great Recession has left middle-class family men bereft and brought the destitute into the spotlight. “Anything Helps” is told from the point of view of a homeless man whose effort to acquire a Harry Potter novel emphasizes his undoing as a stable parent. “Statistical Abstract for My Hometown of Spokane, Washington” is a parody of pokerfaced government reports, revealing the private frustration of a man living near a battered-women’s shelter. Drug addicts and hardluck cases abound here, but these stories aren’t melodramatic or even dour. Walter’s prose is straightforward and funny, and like Richard Russo, he knows his protagonists are concerned with their immediate predicaments, not the socioeconomic mechanisms that put them there. “Wheelbarrow Kings,” for instance, follows two meth addicts trying to pawn a projection TV, and the story’s power comes from Walter’s deft tracking of their minute-by-minute, dollar-by-dollar concerns and their clumsy but canny attempts to resolve them. Still, Walter can’t resist a zombie story—the quintessential genre for socioeconomic allegories—and in “Don’t Eat Cat,” he’s written a stellar one. Set in a near future in which a powerful club drug has bred rage-prone, feline-craving addicts, the story deftly blends romance, comic riffs on politically correct culture and dystopian horror. Women are largely absent except as lost objects of affection, but the men are not simply of a type: The small-time scam artist in “Helpless Little Things” bears little resemblance to the convicted white-collar criminal in “The Wolf and the Wild,” though they both reflect Walter’s concerns about capitalism gone bad. A witty and sobering snapshot of recession-era America.
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A press junket to Acapulco turns deadly. As she approaches the Hotel Cerón’s reception desk, travel writer Lily Moore has two surprises waiting for her, neither of them pleasant. First, a poisonous snake slithers around her ankle; then she learns that the hotel is part of a chain owned by Martin Sklar, the former boyfriend who had put out a hit on her sister Claudia before she succumbed to heroin addiction. More bad news lurks just down the corridor, where a creepy photographer is trashing his room, and down in the bar, where Skye McDermott, another travel writer also comped at the hotel, disappears after hinting that she’s going to expose a former lover’s evil deeds. Did she mean Sklar? Smarmy hotel manager Gavin Stroud, Sklar’s right-hand man, insists that she’ll return, but Lily doubts it. Skye left her purse with her passport inside at the bar. Where is she, and whom can Lily trust? Certainly not the gun-toting head of hotel security or Gavin, who feeds her tidbits that make her woozy. Then, Skye’s body turns up, Lily is virtually confined incommunicado in her hotel room, and even the PR gal in charge of the press junket lies to her. Worse yet, Sklar, now desiccated from cancer, appears, and a power play for control of the hotel ends in a shootout. The fireworks continue even after Lily returns to New York, where double crosses and nefarious schemes await. Lily’s best friend Jesse, a sardonic gay man (The Next One to Fall, 2012, etc.), appears all too briefly, and her romance with Bruxton of the NYPD is too contrived, but there are tender glimpses of her failed relationships with Sklar and Claudia. (Agent: Judith Weber)
STEALTH
Duffy, Margaret Severn House (208 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8210-3 The connubial crime fighters Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley find themselves yet again in hot water. Patrick is a former MI5 officer who now works for the Serious Organized Crime Agency, with Ingrid as his part-time assistant. Ingrid’s career as a crime novelist gives her the cover to attend a writer’s festival in Cannes so that she can check out Clement Hamlyn, a foulmouthed giant of an author with a dodgy background and a serious drinking problem who’s been meeting with wanted criminals. |
Back in England, the couple investigates the death of an elderly lady who’s written to the police about her neighbor, Hamlyn’s friend Hereward Trent, whom she suspects of dirty dealings. The police and SOCA have accorded her theories a lot more respect since finding her strangled at the bottom of her staircase. It soon becomes apparent that Hamlyn and Trent are involved with a dangerous group of gangsters likely to be involved in drug and arms peddling and perhaps murder as well. The stakes are raised when Hamlyn catches Ingrid snooping and beats her. Upon arriving on the scene, Patrick is captured as well, and they’re both thrown out of a speeding van on the M40. Feeling lucky to escape with their lives, they’re even more determined to find out who’s running the dangerous crime ring. Duffy (Rat Poison, 2012, etc.) once more spices her police procedural with Bond-like thrills, this time adding a closer look into the angst-ridden mind of Patrick, who has to kill more often than he’d like.
LITTLE ELVISES
Hallinan, Timothy Soho Crime (352 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-61695-277-8 In Hallinan’s Los Angeles, where everyone leans on everyone else, investigator/ thief Junior Bender gets leaned on good. Everyone knows that Junior didn’t pull the Hammer job. Junior (Crashed, 2012) doesn’t carry a gun, and the whole job wasn’t his style. Still, Detective Paulie DiGaudio darkly intimates, Junior could end up in the frame if he’s not willing to do a little favor for Paulie’s Uncle Vincent. Like Junior, Vincent, a former Philadelphia music promoter who specialized in grooming Elvis Presley wannabes a generation ago, is suspected of a violent crime. Unlike Junior, Vincent is definitely a live suspect, since he’d threatened to kill lowrent British journalist Derek Bigelow over a little spot of blackmail shortly before Bigelow conveniently turned up dead on Hollywood Boulevard. Now, Vincent has troubles, which means that Paulie has troubles, which means that Junior has troubles. But the search for Bigelow’s killer, which will bring Junior up against some people considerably more hard-bitten than the sometime-thief, isn’t the extent of his troubles. Marge Enderby, his landlady of the month— for the past three years, Junior’s been moving from one dead-end motel to the next to keep ahead of anyone who might be looking for him—wants him to find her daughter Doris, who shows signs of having run off with Lorne Henry Pivensey, aka Lemuel Huff, a man whose earlier experience with vanished women isn’t at all encouraging. Junior, who tiptoes reluctantly into both cases prepared for the worst, is pleasantly surprised when Bigelow’s widow, Ronnie, returns his interest with interest. Versatile Hallinan (The Fear Artist, 2012, etc.) provides a wealth of seamy types, past and present, and a thousand hard-boiled similes for his second-string Philip Marlowe.
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THE DISCIPLE OF LAS VEGAS
Hamilton, Ian Picador (368 pp.) $25.00 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-250-03243-0
The debut of a lesbian forensic accountant with Bruce Lee skills and a much-stamped passport. Toronto-based Ava Lee—just back from Hong Kong, Thailand, Guyana and the British Virgin Islands, where she retrieved more than $5 million stolen from a client—answers a call from her aging, Asia-based partner, Uncle, who has a new case for them to consider. Should they come to the aid of Tommy Ordonez, the wealthiest Filipino-Chinese businessman in Manila, which could net them a fee of several million? Barely pausing to down an instant coffee, Ava heads for Manila, where Tommy explains the problem, which concerns his brother Philip and a Canadian real estate transaction that’s siphoned $50 million from the company’s coffers. Where did it all go? Philip’s online gambling addiction sends Ava to Vegas to interview world-class poker champions and, with the help of two of Uncle’s tattooed sidekicks, they twist some arms and remove some thumbs. There’ll be more instant coffee, a flight to England, more interviews and more threats of torture and blackmail before Ava and Uncle finally earn their fee. Swashbuckling Ava who, like Modesty Blaise, seems best suited to comic-book action, is slated for a second appearance. Unless superheroines on caffeine are your dish, you can safely give Ava a miss.
BLOOD NEVER DIES
Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia Severn House (256 pp.) $28.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-7278-8211-0
How many murders gussied up to look like suicides can a killer get away with before DI Bill Slider catches on? The bathroom was very tidy. No great spurts of arterial blood. No water sloshed on the tiles. The naked body showed no signs of struggle. Still, something didn’t seem quite right, and it wasn’t. The victim was left-handed, but the fatal gash had been made by a right-handed person. Who was the dead bloke? There was no wallet, no papers and no cellphone to identify him. His neighbors barely knew him, and the name he gave them, Robin Williams, was surely an alias. Once Slider, Atherton and the rest of the crew at the Shepherd’s Bush nick start showing his picture around, they soon discover that his hair dye job was recent. So were his tattoo and his stint in a porn video. Furthermore, for some reason, he bought an out-ofprint recording by a group called Breaking Wave that brings sex, drugs and rock-and-roll into the investigation. There’ll be several more bodies, most like the first—neat kills made to appear kirkus.com
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“Colorful characters, shaggy plotting, a seemly modicum of wisecracks, and enough expository and scenic asides for a guidebook.” from aloha, lady blue
as suicides—but with drugs in their system, and a late-night come-on from a mysterious lady. Who was she—someone from Robin’s distant past as a pop star and music journalist, from his recent past as a disco bartender, or from his current life, which includes dancing school? Using Atherton as bait, the coppers plan to inveigle the perp to try one more murder in the hope of catching him in the act. Between his love Joanna’s grouchiness, his superior’s lack of patience, and the case’s seamier byways and drugaddled persons of interest, it’s not the easiest of times for Slider (Kill My Darling, 2012, etc.), but most readers will want to spend even these dour moments with him.
NIGHTRISE
Kelly, Jim Creme de la Crime (256 pp.) $28.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-78029-033-1 Cambridgeshire reporter Philip Dryden (The Skeleton Man, 2008, etc.) returns to solve the mystery of his father’s death—an especially challenging case, considering that the old man apparently died twice. Jack Dryden was swept away while making a gallant, futile attempt to protect the city of Ely from the calamitous floods of 1977. So how is it that his body’s just been discovered burned to death in a car accident? The corpse’s fiery fate would make exact identification difficult even for people who’d seen Jack in the past 30 years. But the general description and the dental work both confirm what his identification papers assert: He’s Jack Dryden. His son, consumed with skepticism and curiosity, would love to devote every waking moment to solving the mystery. But his attention is claimed by two other problems: the death of Fen Rivers Water Authority bailiff Rory Setchey, who seems to have been hung from a gantry, already dead, and then shot several times, and the West Fen District Council’s refusal to release the body of Aque, the infant daughter of David and Gillian Yoruba, to her heartbroken parents. Since David is facing deportation to Niger and Dryden has just become a father himself, he feels especially close to the grieving parents. He can’t imagine that his three cases will turn out to be connected by a long-standing conspiracy as simple and clever as it is monstrous. Even if they never came up with such a diabolical plot, long-winded colleagues could well take example from the generosity and economy with which Kelly (Death’s Door, 2012, etc.) spins his web.
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ALOHA, LADY BLUE
Memminger, Charley Minotaur (320 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-1-250-00778-0
Humor columnist Memminger’s first novel follows a prematurely retired newsman through the paradise of the Hawaiian Islands as he unearths some old and very dirty secrets. Since corrupt Sgt. Jake Stane ended both Stryker McBride’s career at the Honolulu Journal and Officer Jeannie Kai’s life when he shot them two years ago, Stryker hasn’t been looking for trouble. Mourning Jeannie Kai and more or less satisfied that Stane’s rotting in prison, the former crime reporter has been living aboard the Travis McGee, dry-docked at a yacht club for which he’s volunteered to serve as night watchman. But if trouble’s going to find him, it might as well be in the person of Amber Kalanianaole Kam, the high school crush who wants Stryker to find out why her ancient grandfather Wai Lo Fat, a co-founder of Four Gates Enterprises, drowned in five inches of water in a taro field. Amber’s worried that he’s been the victim of foul play; medical examiner Dr. Melba McCall assures Stryker that he hasn’t. So Stryker, whose every move is shadowed by obvious bad guys like Dragon Boy Danny Chung and organized crime enforcer Tiny Maunakea, starts digging, and in no time at all, he’s dug up enough to ruffle the feathers of both Auntie Kealoha, the Godmother of Hawaiian crime, and Amber, who fires him and throws him out. By this time, though, Stryker, who’s obviously read a fair number of books about freelance investigators, has his teeth in the case and refuses to let go. He won’t be satisfied until he’s traced Wai Lo Fat’s death to a coverup of a shameful crime committed before he was born. Colorful characters, shaggy plotting, a seemly modicum of wisecracks, and enough expository and scenic asides for a guidebook.
ROBERT B. PARKER’S IRONHORSE
Parker, Robert B.; Knott, Robert Putnam (384 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-399-15811-7 Not even their creator’s death can slow down newly appointed Indian Territory marshal Virgil Cole and his friend and deputy Everett Hitch (Blue-Eyed Devil, 2010, etc.) as they board a train for a routine journey that turns out to be anything but. Virgil and Everett are returning from a trip down south to bring several Mexican prisoners to the Texas border so that they can be summarily executed back home. They don’t expect their train to be held up by gunslingers, which are so numerous that the nine they kill barely make a dent in their numbers. What |
would attract the attention of such a large cadre of lawbreakers? Not just the presence of the governor of Texas and his wife and daughters, but the $500,000 in cash he plans to invest in a business venture, money the robbers have other plans for. Virgil is rarely at a loss, but he’s surprised when he realizes that the gunmen include Bloody Bob Brandice, who’s just escaped from prison after getting bested by Virgil years before. In addition to being bloody, Brandice is unexpectedly inventive, and the initial robbery turns out to be only the beginning of an increasingly baroque series of maneuvers and countermaneuvers played out first aboard a moving (and eventually a fragmented) train, then in the town of Half Moon Junction, whose leading mercantile establishment is Constable Burton Berkeley’s church-turnedwhorehouse, and finally, in the back country where only burros and iron men venture. Screenwriter Knott effortlessly handles the nonstop plot complications, doesn’t bother to create actual characters and comes a cropper with the laconic dialogue he supplies for Virgil and Everett, who sound like parodies of the strong, silent types Parker created.
HOLY SMOKE
Ramsay, Frederick Poisoned Pen (260 pp.) $24.95 | paper $14.95 | Lg. Prt. $22.95 Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-4642-0090-8 978-1-4642-0092-2 paperback 978-1-4642-0091-5 Lg. Prt. A rabbi is yet again forced to use his skills in critical thinking to solve a murder. Gamaliel, the Rabban of the Sanhedrin, interprets the law for all of Judea, which is suffering under repressive Roman rule in A.D. 29. When a badly burnt body is discovered behind the veil in the temple’s inner sanctum, the high priest, Caiaphas, is eager to write it off as divine punishment. Gamaliel and Caiaphas are always arguing over Caiaphas’ obsession with itinerant preachers like Jesus. Gamaliel, who feels that they are doing no harm, ignores Caiaphas’ wishes and enlists the aid of his friend, the physician Loukas. They quickly discover that the dead man was not a Jew, was a murder victim, and must have been brought to the inner sanctum by the killer, who bribed the Temple guards. Loukas’ Assyrian friend Ali bin Selah shares his interest in the healing arts and has brought Loukas a potent painkiller for his dying servant. But bin Selah’s activities while in Jerusalem arouse the rabbi’s suspicious nature. As the deaths mount, Gamaliel realizes that both he and Loukas are being followed and may be in danger from a killer whose motive remains unknown. Although Gamaliel ignores Caiaphas, he cannot ignore Pontius Pilate, who’s had good reason to admire the rabbi’s skills as a detective ever since he solved a murder in the king’s palace (The Eighth Veil, 2012). The Rabban regrets having to help Pilate, but he cannot overlook the violation of the Temple or the murders that have followed. |
The second in a trilogy set in first-century Jerusalem not only offers a finally wrought mystery, but includes intriguing information on the religious and secular life of the period.
THE SERENITY MURDERS
Somer, Mehmet Murat Penguin (272 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Dec. 24, 2012 978-0-14-312122-0 A classy cross-dresser has to catch a murderous man determined to derail her otherwise fabulous life. The stylish Burçak Veral is dressing up in her best (think a transvestite homage to Audrey Hepburn) for her appearance on Süheyl Arkin’s television show. Though the way the bar owner lives her life offends some callers, the general response appears to be more curious than upset until a final caller disturbs the apple cart. After accusing Süheyl of promoting an inappropriate lifestyle, he goes one step further, threatening to kill someone close to Burçak every week. Though the techies on the show try to trace the call, no one can figure out who the caller is, and Burçak leaves the show a little uneasy but relatively confident that he’s just a harmless crazy. Before all the congratulatory calls to Burçak have ended, Süheyl is shot, and immediately, Burçak knows that the threat was a promise. A gal with an active social life, Burçak fears the worst for her many, many friends, like the adorably melodramatic Ponpon. Unfortunately, when she presses her regular cabbie Hüseyin into service, he feels the threat urgently and demands Burçak’s protection. Hüseyin’s about the last person Burçak wants to pair up with. He’s an oaf and a momma’s boy who vacillates between tearful fearfulness and making eyes at Burçak. Can this unlikely pair get to the bottom of things before they’re in the cross hairs? If you can get past some difficult translations from the Turkish, Somer’s hero/heroine and clan (The Gigolo Murder, 2009, etc.) will delight and dazzle you.
PROOF OF GUILT
Todd, Charles Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-201568-6 978-0-06-1`9936-2 e-book Inspector Rutledge’s 15th investigation concerns a corpse without a name. Although its injuries are consistent with being struck down by a motorcar, the body lying in a quiet street in Chelsea shows signs of having been dragged along, and all identification was removed except for a handsome heirloom watch in a vest pocket. Tracing the origin of the timepiece leads Scotland Yard Inspector kirkus.com
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Ian Rutledge (The Confession, 2012, etc.) to French, French and Traynor, wine merchants: Lewis French, grandson of the founder, inherited the watch after his older brother Michael died in the war. Mr. Lewis French is unavailable to interview. Gooding, the firm’s chief clerk, says he’s in Essex awaiting the arrival of his partner and cousin Matthew Traynor, who oversees the firm’s production of Madeira in Portugal. But is he? His sister hasn’t spoken to him recently. Nor has his fiancee, or his former fiancee. Could Lewis be the Chelsea corpse? Could it be Matthew Traynor, who has yet to arrive from Portugal? Rutledge discovers sibling squabbles and a heated encounter decades ago concerning the ownership of the Portuguese vineyards. Following this lead brings him to the doorstep of a Mrs. Bennett, whose husband is missing and whose staff is composed of prisoners and mental patients released to her care, including the manipulative Alfonso Diaz, who looks forward to returning to Portugal to die. When more unidentifiable bodies turn up, Rutledge will have his hands full putting names to them, identifying motives for their deaths and disproving his Acting Chief Superintendent’s choice of villains. Sturdily if not elegantly plotted, with the ghost of Hamish, the soldier Rutledge ordered executed in the war, still haranguing him.
science fiction and fantasy AMERICAN ELSEWHERE
Bennett, Robert Jackson Orbit/Little, Brown (688 pp.) $13.99 paperback | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-316-20020-2 Urban fantasy that gradually morphs into supernatural science fiction, from the multiple-award-winning author of The Troupe (2012, etc.). When ex-cop and now drifter Mona Bright’s abusive, deadbeat and estranged father dies, she learns that her long-dead mother owned a house in Wink, N.M., which for some reason her father never went near. Wink, Mona finds, is a tough place to locate and even harder to reach: It was once a government town, built to service a mysterious research station atop a local mesa. The station was abandoned in the 1970s, and it seems her mother used to work there. Wink’s inhabitants, furthermore, are decidedly peculiar. Some, unequivocally human, make “accommodations” with unseen entities and never, ever go outside after dark; others, like town clerk and gossip Mrs. Benjamin, the terrifying, unseen Mr. First (he lives in a canyon that nobody goes near) and motel proprietor Parson, who plays Chinese checkers with 2784
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an invisible opponent, are fey and know more than they’re telling; still others live perfect lives, Stepford Wives style, but without any real idea what they’re doing. And nobody admits to having known Mona’s mother—until she digs up a photo of her mother at a party along with a Mrs. Benjamin, whose appearance hasn’t changed in nearly 40 years. To unravel the multiple mysteries, Mona will need all her survival instincts and the skills she acquired as a police officer. Investigating Wink and its weird, secretive inhabitants is enthralling—for about half the book. But then, Bennett starts providing increasingly farfetched and repetitious explanations which ultimately prove far less fascinating than the conundrums. Highly impressive for the most part, but increasingly unrestrained and with a quite frankly absurd finale.
A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS A Memoir by Lady Trent Brennan, Marie Tor (336 pp.) $25.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-7653-3196-0
New Victorian-feminist fantasy and first of a series, from the author of the Onyx Court tales (With Fate Conspire, 2011, etc.). At a tender age, Isabella, daughter of Sir Daniel Hendemore of Scirland, becomes fascinated by dragons and devotes hours of study to sparklings, tiny flying creatures regarded by most contemporary naturalists as insects. In an age when educating girls in science and philosophy is frowned upon, Isabella finds information hard to come by. Once of age, her father insists she marry; luckily, she finds Jacob Camherst, the son of a rich local baronet, not only handsome and charming, but also passionate about dragons. Jacob is willing to indulge her thirst for knowledge and defy convention—in private. But then Isabella’s talents come to the notice of Lord Hilford, a famous naturalist and explorer, who astonishingly consents to her joining the expedition he’s currently organizing to Vystrana in search of rock-wyrms. Eastern European– flavored Vystrana is cold, damp, mountainous, primitive and impoverished, and the locals are far from welcoming. Worse, before they even arrive at the remote village where they will sojourn, they’re attacked by a dragon! Since Vystrani dragons aren’t noted for their bellicosity, overjoyed if rather shaken Isabella resolves to investigate. This isn’t the first such attack, the locals reluctantly confide; smugglers operate in the area, and perhaps other nefarious activities occur that the Vystrani refuse to admit. There are clues, however, and nothing daunted, Isabella starts to put them together. Told in the style of a Victorian memoir, courageous, intelligent and determined Isabella’s account is colorful, vigorous and absorbing. A sort of Victorian why-what-whodunit embellished by Brennan’s singular upgrade of a fantasy bromide and revitalizingly different viewpoint. (Agent: Rachel Coyne) |
“Intensely realized and gripping.” from fade to black
DOKTOR GLASS
Brennan, Thomas Ace/Berkley (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback | Dec. 31, 2012 978-0-425-25817-0 Steampunk whodunit from the author of the New York–set mystery The Debt (2005). The soon-to-be-inaugurated Transatlantic Span, the 19th century’s crowning feat of engineering, bridges the Atlantic from Liverpool to distant New York City. Beneath the bridge, on the Mersey docks, a corpse turns up. Inspector Matthew Langton of the Liverpool police finds the body’s face has been expertly sliced away. More troubling still, the victim was dressed as a Span Company security guard but bears the tattoos of a Boer Irregular. Langton, himself traumatized by his own experiences of the Boer War and still grieving for his recently deceased wife, Sarah, wonders if there’s a conspiracy afoot to assassinate Queen Victoria, who’s due in the city in a few days to officially open the bridge. But in that case, why do so many individuals seem keen to suppress the investigation, from Langton’s boss, Chief Inspector Purcell, to the chairman of the Span Company, Lord Salisbury? Worse, key witnesses keep turning up dead, and the press seems remarkably well-informed of the investigation’s progress. Is somebody leaking information? Even more curious, all the victims show strange burn marks on their necks, and Langton is forced to consider a connection to chilling rumors of the soul-snatcher Jar Boys and their elusive underwriter, the mysterious Doktor Glass. Perhaps professor Caldwell Chivers, suspiciously knowledgeable about such matters, or his assistant, the saintly Sister Wright, know something they’re not telling. And what of Maj. Fallows, who represents himself as a Home Office man but clearly is something else altogether? Other than the inherently improbable concept of the bridge itself, Brennan’s backdrop and plot are remarkably wellcrafted, with visceral, gritty details, a fascinating set of mysteries and a memorably tormented investigator. Another reason to rejoice: Finally, somebody’s moved steampunk out of London.
EVER AFTER
Harrison, Kim Harper Voyager (448 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-0-06-195791-8 The 11th volume in Harrison’s popular ongoing urban-fantasy series (A Perfect Blood, 2012, etc.) continues to chronicle the adventures of Rachel Morgan, who is both a witch and a detective. In Harrison’s alternate universe, set in Cincinnati, the world of magical beings, including vampires, witches, elves, werewolves and demons, has crossed with the |
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world of humans. In partnership with Ivy, a vampire, and Jenks, a pixy, Rachel now works as a freelance investigator. When her friend Quen asks her to watch over Trent, a handsome but stubborn elf who attracts trouble, Rachel bridles at the idea. Then, she discovers that someone is abducting what are known as Rosewood babies, infants stricken with a usually fatal, supernaturally inspired disease. When both Rachel’s close friend and goddaughter disappear, Rachel and Trent have no choice but to put aside past differences and join forces in order to find them and set things right. Along the way, the pair discovers they are up against a merciless and powerful demon named Ku’Sox, who forces Rachel to go outside the realm in which she normally dwells into what is known as the Ever After in order to recover her abducted friends. Harrison’s fans know every corner of the imaginary and intricate world the author has created, including Rachel’s history with Trent, which complicates the path she must take in order to retrieve her friends. Adding to the fanciful characters’ drama is a past when a genetic-manipulation cataclysm reduced the human population and changed the balance of how humans and the others interact. The storyline is populated with insider references that will mystify those who haven’t already been steeped in the world Harrison has created, but for fans of her work, this lengthy and complicated volume will be a welcome new addition to her universe. There’s no denying this tale is skillfully written, but the author’s tendency to rely heavily on endless, mundane dialogue can be a turnoff to readers who would rather have their stories short, sweet and to the point.
FADE TO BLACK
Knight, Francis Orbit/Little, Brown (384 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-316-21768-2 Dark fantasy from England: Sussex resident Knight’s debut and first of a series. The city of Mahala is built layer upon layer, from the sunlit towers where the rich and powerful live to the ghastly black underworld of the ‘Pit, inhabited only by those who have no other choice. When the current rulers, the religion-inspired Ministry, overthrew the old pain mage who governed gangster style, they outlawed pain magic, the source of the city’s motive power. The problem was, the city relied on manufactures for survival, so a new power source was required. “Synth” fulfilled the need for a while, but it proved to be a slow, cumulative and lethal poison that still drips downward toward the ‘Pit. To replace synth, the Ministry invented the much more efficient Glow—but nobody knows where it comes from, and nobody asks. Private detective Rojan Dizon keeps a low profile since he’s secretly a pain mage, with the ability to draw magic from his own pain and that of others, and faces execution if discovered. But then Rojan’s estranged brother, Perak—he’s some sort of bigwig Ministry researcher—asks him to locate his niece:
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she’s been mysteriously abducted and taken to the ‘Pit. Rojan, self-admittedly a rogue, womanizer and shirker of responsibility, can’t refuse. But what he uncovers in the depths of the city is worse than anything he could have imagined. With the carefully if not always logically constructed backdrop, imaginative production and use of magic, the plot doesn’t always add up, and there’s rather more psychologizing than most readers will be comfortable with. Intensely realized and gripping, nonetheless: an auspicious inauguration.
THE EXPLORER
Smythe, James Harper Voyager (272 pp.) $14.99 paperback | Jan. 2, 2013 978-0-06-222941-0 Space disaster yarn that bears only a nominal resemblance to science fiction, from the author of The Testimony (2012). A group of highly trained astronauts journey into the farthest reaches of our—or possibly another, it isn’t clear which—solar system. Among them is ambitious journalist and first-person narrator Cormac Easton, selected to document the trip. When they emerge from hypersleep, they discover the captain dead, the apparent cause a malfunction in his supposedly fail-safe sleep pod. The mission must continue, but one by one, each of the astronauts perishes in a series of bizarre incidents until Cormac is alone, with no means to turn the vessel around, a rapidly dwindling fuel supply and only a single enigmatic error message for company. So much for part one. The rest resembles a sort of highly embellished instant replay with flashbacks, bringing the characters to life and filling in the details via an imaginative literary (but not science fictional) device. Unfortunately, the devil’s in the details. It’s a voyage to nowhere, with no defined goals, for which the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has stumped up a bunch of money without expecting any return on its investment. Smythe’s concept of space travel seems to be something like a giant locomotive sliding through space on invisible rails, so that if you turn the engines off and gently apply the brakes, the ship will coast to a stop. If you step outside while the ship’s in motion, you’ll be torn off and flung away into space. While the engines are on, there’s no gravity; turn them off, and gravity reappears with a bang. A couple of references to “warp” merely compound the confusion. Readers looking for character-driven fiction and prepared to forgive the ridiculous setting will be gratified; science fiction fans will not.
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nonfiction I DO AND I DON’T A History of Marriage in the Movies
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: SHOUTING WON’T HELP by Katherine Bouton........................p. 2789
Basinger, Jeanine Knopf (432 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 30, 2013 978-0-307-26916-4
THE GOLDEN SHORE by David Helvarg..................................p. 2796 UNKNOWN PLEASURES by Peter Hook.................................... p. 2797 LINA AND SERGE by Simon Morrison....................................... p. 2801 THOSE ANGRY DAYS by Lynne Olson........................................ p. 2803 MY BOOKSTORE by Ronald Rice—Ed.......................................p. 2804 THE DEVOURING DRAGON by Craig Simons...........................p. 2808
THOSE ANGRY DAYS Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
Olson, Lynne Random House (576 pp.) $30.00 Mar. 26, 2013 978-1-4000-6974-3
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Exhaustive, entertaining take on how the silver screen has portrayed wedded bliss and wedded misery. Marriage was a problem for Hollywood and its main business of putting people in theater seats. True, it was familiar to the audience, but familiarity is not entertainment and escape. So Hollywood had the task of making the mundane exotic while still reassuring the audience that marriage was a good thing. The marriage film “had to become negative about itself in a positive way,” writes noted film historian Basinger (Film Studies/Wesleyan Univ.; The Star Machine, 2009, etc.). Sin and tragedy might occur, but in the end, marriage would endure. With prose both light and irreverent—an irreverence often aimed at the ham-handed plot manipulations the genre would at times use—the author traces how filmmakers tried to achieve these dual purposes. With detailed synopses of films both great and not-so-great—from Gaslight and Adam’s Rib to the Ma and Pa Kettle series—Basinger shows how a small number of plot devices or problems could be endlessly redesigned, reinvented and redeployed to both entertain and reassure. These problems might be realistic—money (too much or too little), infidelity, in-laws, incompatibility, class—or more far-fetched—addiction and murder (“When you marry a murderer, your marriage is in trouble”), but every marriage movie would have at least one of them. The main pleasure here is Basinger’s explication of how the movies and stars of the studio system years made all this work. She also touches on how television took over the marriage story via the sitcom and how today’s marriage films deny the closure and reassurance of their predecessors. A fascinating, fact-filled story of marriage and the movies. (136 photos. Author tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New England, New York)
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“An informative, often-heartbreaking portrait of a once-great American metropolis gone to hell.” from detroit city is the place to be
THE PERFUME LOVER A Personal History of Scent Beaulieu, Denyse St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-1-250-02501-2
A memoir and ambitious tour of the perfume world by a Quebec-raised Parisian fragrance writer. “Memories are the ingredients of perfume-making,” writes Beaulieu (Gas Bijoux, 2010, etc.). At the heart of this book is the story of her collaboration with perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour to translate one of her most voluptuous memories into a perfume. Beaulieu mixes juicy personal anecdotes and lush descriptions with an introduction to the history, techniques, industry and culture of the perfume world. She demonstrates how perfumers think about the components of fragrance and how scents can be combined to create complex perfumes that develop through layers and interact with individual chemistry as a form of ephemeral art. For example: “The honeyed melon sprinkled with mandarin, bergamot and clove exhaling a tender jasmine breath; the spiced rounded plum kissed with green tartness; the radiance that keeps unfurling until the dark moss and leather base, anchored to the skin by a warm, creamy base as the jasmine deepens into over-ripe fruit….” Beaulieu also discusses the scents of human secretions and fossilized hyrax urine and does not shy away from perfumes that evoke old ashtrays and cured horse manure. Despite a few stumbles into cliché and kittenish vanity, the overall effect of the writing is seductive, intelligent, friendly and down-to-earth. One flaw is that the book lacks a strong narrative structure; it rambles and circles around. The central story vanishes for as much as a few chapters, and readers may wonder when the collaboration with Duchaufour will reappear. However, it does come around again, and its significance ultimately finds illumination. For knowledgeable perfume lovers, serious novices and those who love an entertaining expert introduction to an arcane subculture.
DETROIT CITY IS THE PLACE TO BE The Afterlife of an American Metropolis Binelli, Mark Metropolitan/Henry Holt (320 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 13, 2012 978-0-8050-9229-5
Rolling Stone contributing editor Binelli (Sacco and Vanzetti Must Die!, 2006) provides an engrossing chronicle of the decline (and possible rebirth?) of a major American city. The author grew up just outside of Detroit, and while he appreciated much of his native city’s cultural history, most 2788
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notably the music, he realized at an early age that the city had many inherent problems—e.g., a crumbling infrastructure, a lousy economy and a justifiably horrible reputation throughout the country. Regardless, Detroit was Binelli’s hometown, and no matter where he lived throughout his adult life, he always kept tabs on the city’s fortunes, most of which proved to be negative. Given his history, Binelli is the ideal writer for the task of examining the downfall of a city that has the potential to come back to life. “It’s undeniable that Detroit feels like a singular place,” writes the author, “and at the same time, just as Greenland might be called ground zero of the broader climate crisis, Detroit feels like ground zero for…what, exactly? The end of the American way of life? Or the beginning of something else?” Binelli describes the city through a series of essays, some personal, some about the people of Detroit and some about the history. The common thread is that the author believes there is a decent place beneath the surface, but the surface is so brutal that it takes a lot of digging to find it. Binelli is a charming writer, and his periodic humorous asides and innate good nature are a welcome contrast to the darker sections. Some may say that the book is problematic since it reads as a series of magazine articles, but many readers will find this a plus, as they can absorb the book in bite-sized chunks that can make reading about Detroit’s urban blight more palatable. An informative, often-heartbreaking portrait of a oncegreat American metropolis gone to hell. (12 photographs; map)
AFTER THE MUSIC STOPPED The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead Blinder, Alan S. Penguin Press (496 pp.) $29.95 | Jan. 28, 2013 978-1594205309
An experienced economist explains the global financial crisis that began in 2008 and continues. Blinder (Economics and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) has accumulated real-world experience in the political realm of finance as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve board of governors and on President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. Noting that numerous books have already chronicled the origins and impacts of the crisis, Blinder suggests that his is unique for a few reasons: It is the most comprehensive so far, is less of a whodunit and more of a “why did they do it,” emphasizes public policymaking over arcane financial dealings and looks to the future. After explaining the genesis of the crisis, Blinder analyzes the responses by policymakers. In the United States, the policymaking yielded a paradox: financial markets left to police themselves after ill-advised, ideologically based government deregulation needed previously unwelcome intervention to avert complete calamity. But then public opinion seemed to view the federal government as villainous. Blinder does not portray government decision-makers as heroic, but
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SHOUTING WON’T HELP Why I—and 50 Million Other Americans— Can’t Hear You
he demonstrates that without their energetic intervention, far more institutions would have collapsed, more homes would have been foreclosed on, and more jobs would have been eliminated. Throughout the book, the author explains nuances unexamined or underexamined in the large number of previous books appearing since 2008. A clearheaded analysis with a final section suggesting that lessons learned from the crisis are already being ignored.
WHO’S ON WORST? The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddest Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History Bondy, Filip Doubleday (272 pp.) $24.95 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-385-53612-7
A collection of anecdotes about some of the worst players, managers and owners in baseball history. Bloopers are an enduring baseball tradition; fans never fail to appreciate watching some of the best athletes in the world stumble, bumble and trip over themselves. In attempting to import such ineptitude from the Jumbotron to the page, however, something gets lost in translation. New York Daily News columnist Bondy (Chasing the Game: America and the Quest for the World Cup, 2010) does his best to craft compelling accounts of horrendous hitters like Mario Mendoza (for whom the infamous “Mendoza Line”—a .200 batting average—is named), poor fielders like Chuck Knoblauch (who inexplicably lost the ability to make a simple throw from second base to first base) and terrible teammates like Rubén Rivera (who once stole one of Derek Jeter’s gloves and sold it to a memorabilia dealer for $2,500). Unfortunately, these player sketches quickly become monotonous, as there are only so many ways to describe ineptitude or outright mediocrity. Chapters on the worst cheaters and oddest ballplayers of all time fare better, highlighting some of the game’s most eclectic characters (including pitcher Joe Niekro, who was caught using an emery board to doctor balls) and intriguing athletes (including Chuck Connors, who would go on to TV stardom in The Rifleman). The author intends the narrative to be humorous, and he succeeds in places—primarily in the captions of the pictures that appear sporadically throughout the book. Too often, however, the most interesting tidbits aren’t related to terrible on-field performance, but rather to the colorful characters themselves, which would have been a far more interesting focus than using advanced sabermetrics to definitively identify players whose weak traditional statistics speak for themselves. The literary equivalent of a mid-July baseball game: a few highlights but largely forgettable.
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Bouton, Katherine Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $26.00 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-374-26304-1 A former New York Times senior editor’s poignant, enlightening memoir of
hearing loss. Hearing impairment is a widespread, and widely misunderstood, condition that afflicts nearly 50 million Americans. With ever-specialized medical technology and increasingly precise diagnostic tools, treatment options are better than ever, but the nature of damage to the inner ear remains opaque. In addition, in a culture dominated by oral communication, a persistent stigma remains attached to going deaf and to its prosthetic aids. Where hearing loss was once associated with the elderly, statistics suggest that an increasing number of young people put themselves at risk for early damage by exposure to overloud music, sports arenas, even subway stations. Bouton, whose own hearing loss has no known cause, details her struggle to accept the disability and to navigate the complex physical and emotional changes that accompany the inability to hear well. Vanity considerations aside—most hearing aids have an exterior element, drawing visibility to an otherwise invisible condition— the decision to wear a hearing aid or to have surgery to install a cochlear implant has financial and psychological ramifications. Most insurance companies don’t cover all costs related to hearing loss, and often such devices don’t work right away or even at all. Vertigo, tinnitus and depression are also common side effects of hearing loss or surgery, and the small adjustments and audio therapy required to get devices to work can take years. By interspersing her story with those of many others—both those suffering with hearing loss and the medical experts working to find a cure—the author provides a relatable, inspiring narrative of taking control, going public and finding comfort and empowerment in connecting with others facing similar difficulties. A well-written, powerful book.
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THE TERROR COURTS Rough Justice at Guantanamo Bay
Bravin, Jess Yale Univ. (448 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-300-18920-9
The Supreme Court correspondent for the Wall Street Journal exposes the post-9/11 legal morass resulting in the detention of alleged terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.
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“Illuminating and entertaining, with some surprising insights from current research in neuroscience and endocrinology.” from top dog
Bravin (Squeaky: The Life and Times of Lynette Fromme, 1997) explains why the administration of George W. Bush felt it could round up the terrorists from nations around the world, transport them in secret to Guantanamo, deny them basic legal safeguards, torture some of them and establish military commissions of questionable legality to mete out punishment. Because verifiable information about the suspects has been so difficult to obtain, Bravin wisely builds the narrative around the prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges who have struggled to understand the procedures and jurisdictional limits of the military commissions. Bush’s White House staff lawyers and U.S. Justice Department lawyers viewed the military commissions as a vehicle to convict terrorist suspects without normal due process of law. The author illuminates why so many of the prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges rebelled against the immoral and apparently illegal conduct of Bush administration ideologues. Perhaps the first among equals within the Bravin narrative is Stuart Couch, a Marine lieutenant colonel assigned to prosecute some of the detainees. Couch fervently wished to carry out his mission until he realized that the administration lacked evidence against an overwhelming percentage of the suspects. Consequently, Couch spoke up, endangering his career and his family life. Bravin also explores the broken promises of President Barack Obama concerning Guantanamo. A damning, brave book by an author who is legitimately outraged by what he uncovered.
THE DUDE AND THE ZEN MASTER
Bridges, Jeff and Glassman, Bernie Blue Rider Press (256 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-399-16164-3 A rambling conversation on all things Zen between the mystic-minded movie star and his spiritual teacher. As the title suggests, this book targets (and might most please) the ardent cult attracted to The Big Lebowski, the movie that gave Bridges (Pictures, 2006) his iconic role. He explains of the book’s genesis, “So…my friend Bernie Glassman says to me one day, ‘Did you know that the Dude in The Big Lebowski is considered by many Buddhists to be a Zen master?’ ” The two proceed to explore one of the movie’s signature lines, “The Dude abides,” from every possible perspective, punctuated by anecdotes from Bridges’ film career and personal life and spiritual sagacity from Glassman (Infinite Circle: Teachings in Zen, 2002, etc.). Perhaps the most revelatory is a close reading of “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat,” where even readers who have heard it thousands of times before will understand “gently,” “merrily” and “life is but a dream” with fresh ears. Some of the rest belabors the obvious, suffers from cliché and hippie vernacular, and even borders on self-parody. When Bridges talks about fan letters, most of which he doesn’t answer and then occasionally feels guilty, Glassman advises, “You need to befriend Jeff. It’s got nothing to do with the letters. You’ve got 2790
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to befriend the fact that Jeff can only do so much….The Dude does not get angry with himself for all the things he’s not doing. He befriends the self.” Bridges makes it a point to distinguish himself from that role, though sometimes he wishes he could be more like the Dude. He writes things like, “Dig is beyond understand. I like digging where I am and what I’m doing, I like jamming with myself.” May lead readers to plenty of better introductions to Zen. You dig?
TOP DOG The Science of Winning and Losing Bronson, Po; Merryman, Ashley Twelve (352 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 | $11.99 e-book $29.99 Lg. Prt. | $29.98 CD 978-1-4555-1515-8 978-1-4555-1516-5 e-book 978-1-4555-2955-1 Lg. Prt. 978-1-61113-012-6 CD
Bronson and Merryman (Nurtureshock: New Thinking About Children, 2010, etc.) combine forces again to debunk truisms of positive psychology. “Competition facilitates improvement,” write the authors. “At a certain point, those with seeds of doubt actually do best,” as they are open to learning from past mistakes and better able to compete. The authors juxtapose what they call adaptive competitiveness (playing by the rules, team spirit and a willingness to accept defeat) with a dog-eat-dog model of ruthless competition and look at how stress can have a beneficial effect on performance. Analyzing record-breaking Olympic performances, high-stakes corporate gambles, competitive chess and more, Bronson and Merryman draw a parallel to sky-diving. “[P]ushing ourselves to the brink is our preferred state. We like competition [because we want]…the thrill ride beyond the limit of our fears.” Probing deeper, the authors cite research showing that women are as competitive as men (and willing to take risks to win) but more strategic in evaluating odds. Though men have a higher testosterone level than women, both benefit from testosterone spikes during competition. The benefits from optimism bias, such as belief in good luck and a winning streak, may seem to work against the authors’ counter-thesis, as they freely admit, but it can lead to disastrous underestimates of risk. As both stage performers and athletes claim, there is an optimal level of stress that helps them give their best performance. Illuminating and entertaining, with some surprising insights from current research in neuroscience and endocrinology.
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ISLAND How Islands Transform the World
MANIA The Story of the Outraged and Outrageous Lives that Launched a Cultural Revolution
Chamberlin, J. Edward BlueBridge (256 pp.) $19.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-1933346564
A delightful, enlightening book that employs islands as jumping-off points for essays on a wide range of topics from A(nthropology) to Z(oology). Chamberlin (Emeritus, English and Comparative Literature/Univ. of Toronto; A Covenant in Wonder with the World, 2012, etc.) introduces each of his island narratives with a bit of history: an entry from the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia of 1830, followed by an excerpt from some early observer’s commentary. Then, there’s no telling where he may take us. The principal islands featured here are Jamaica, Tahiti, Iceland, the Galápagos and Newfoundland, but there are dozens of others, near and far, small and large, real and imaginary. His chapter on Jamaica expands from landscape and people into culture, myths, language, why settlers came there and the larger question of why populations migrate. From Tahiti, Chamberlin launches into the remarkable prowess of Polynesian sailors, the hazards of ocean navigating and the reactions of early European explorers. Iceland leads to a discussion of volcanoes, the appearance and disappearance of islands, and the shifting of tectonic plates. Not surprisingly, the Galápagos chapter introduces the unique flora and fauna that shaped Darwin’s thinking about the origin of species, and bleak, glacier-shaped Newfoundland offers a tale of a place whose once-rich fisheries have disappeared and where people are now asking themselves whether it is time to depart their desolate land. Some passages demand to be read aloud: lists of the names of plants and birds found in the Caribbean and a traditional Polynesian chant from Raiatea, near Tahiti, that directed early sailors on how to navigate their way across the Pacific. Islands in plays, novels and movies, islands in legend and history, and even planet Earth, that island we all inhabit, all are objects of wonder and speculation for Chamberlin, who asks us to think about what they mean to us and what they tell us about our world and about ourselves, our history and our future. A slim book that takes readers on a mind-expanding journey.
Collins, Ronald K.L. and Skover, David M. Top Five Books (464 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-1-938938-02-3 The co-authors of The Trials of Lenny Bruce (2002) return with a sharp-edged
history of the Beats. Collins and Skover, both law professors (Univ. of Washington and Seattle Univ., respectively), focus on the notables of the movement. William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti enjoy the most space, but we also learn about the friends, lovers and criminals swept along in the artists’ wakes—though it’s sometimes questionable whose wake is transporting whom. Early on, Collins and Skover emphasize the lawless culture that attracted the artists: the drugs, drinking, violence, thefts and infidelities that found the Beats in and out of trouble (and jail and mental institutions). The authors begin with a fatal stabbing, introduce us to Herbert Huncke (junkie, hustler, thief) and describe a serious car accident that propelled Ginsberg into an asylum. Then another death—that of groupie Bill Cannastra in a reckless subway stunt—and another: junkedup Burroughs, in a William Tell moment, shooting his lover in the head. Throughout, Neal Cassady jumped from woman to woman. “It was a world,” write the authors, “where, by and large, men were verbs and women objects.” The last half of the volume deals with Kerouac’s long struggle to publish On the Road, Ginsberg’s publication of and ensuing obscenity trail for Howl and Other Poems and Burroughs’ legal problems with Naked Lunch, all of which occurred somewhat simultaneously. Collins and Skover handle the various trials and legal issues with aplomb, and by the end, they soften their criticisms of the Beat lifestyle—though they do suggest, more than once, that Ginsberg, traveling in Europe during the Howl trial, left some San Francisco friends in a precarious position. A balanced history—sometimes admiring, sometimes blistering—of the writers who fractured the glass capsule of literary conformity.
HOW TO THINK MORE ABOUT SEX
de Botton, Alain Picador (192 pp.) $16.00 paperback | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-250-03065-8
It’s not the quantity of thought about sex, but rather the quality of thought about sex. The title begs for all manner of dubious wisecracking, but the narrative is not |
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easily pigeonholed. De Botton (Religion for Atheists, 2011, etc.), who founded the publisher’s School of Life series, of which this book is a part, acknowledges early on that navigating the straits of sexuality, intimacy and eroticism is a challenge for the best-adjusted of us, and that group is a miniscule subset of humanity. “Despite being one of the most private of activities,” writes the author, “sex is nonetheless surrounded by a range of powerful socially sanctioned ideas that codify how normal people are meant to feel about and deal with the matter.” He offers a collection of essays that, taken as a whole, serve to pull sexuality into a philosophical consideration of our drives and desires, to illuminate how we can make sense of the urges that drive us senseless. The chapters alternate between the physical and emotional/mental give-and-take, and de Botton occasionally takes a devil’s advocate approach to questions on touchy subjects such as adultery. If the partner who engages in adultery has succumbed to a horrible weakness, shouldn’t we spend time praising our partners for their strength in fidelity, rather than assume it’s a natural state of being? How do we reconcile the Puritanical wall between love and sex, where the former is goodness and the latter is carnal—and where exactly does this divide happen? Is there justification when a long-term partner feels differently about what quantity of sexual relations is ideal? What can we discern from the changing nature of pornography? The author considers these and many other sex-related questions in this book, which is divided into the “pleasures” of sex and the “problems” of sex. A well-rounded examination of the ways we can marry intelligent thought and physical pleasure.
AMERICAN STORY A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things
Dotson, Bob Viking (256 pp.) $26.95 | Mar. 26, 2013 978-0-670-02605-0
The longtime Today Show correspondent offers a collection of heartwarming stories about ordinary citizens, “people who live the values our country cherishes.” For more than three decades now, Dotson (Make It Memorable, 2003, etc.) has specialized in Charles Kuralt–like stories about people “whose values were never preached, just lived.” Thus, we learn about the photographer whose 10-year project memorializing the giant cedars of western Washington led to the creation of Lewis and Clark National Park; the physician who recruited other retired doctors and nurses to establish a health clinic for the poor on Hilton Head Island; the first African-American in the U.S. Navy to earn a rank that took him out of the galley; the sawmill owner in Oregon who for years handed out $500 scholarships to any senior in town who wanted to go to college; the New York artist who traveled the country, exchanging his paintings for room and board. Dotson has found the last 2792
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living member of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the migrant mother captured forever in Dorothea Lange’s iconic photo and a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, still dancing at 105. The author mixes in a little autobiographical information, but he focuses on a succession of quiet achievers, people whose imagination, grit and goodness might otherwise have escaped the news, had he not gone in search of their stories. Many of the characters require more than the three or four pages Dotson allots them to make any lasting impression, but the sheer multitude of tales underscores his argument about an America chock-full of unassuming people whose lives enrich the nation.
THE POPE’S LAST CRUSADE How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI’s Campaign to Stop Hitler
Eisner, Peter Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-06-204914-8
The story of the race to compose a last top-secret encyclical against Nazi racism before the death of Pope Pius XI. Notwithstanding the spate of current works on the tragic shortcomings of Pius XII during World War II, journalist and producer Eisner (The Freedom Line: The Brave Men and Women Who Rescued Allied Airmen from the Nazis During World War II, 2004, etc.) refocuses the spotlight in this relevant study on his predecessor, who did speak out against anti-Semitism and the threat of Nazism—though he was silenced by an untimely death in 1939. Pius XI, an activist pope since 1922 under whom the Vatican ultimately became an independent city-state achieving political and financial stability, had been deeply moved by an American Jesuit priest’s 1937 book Interracial Justice, about his work among poor Maryland blacks, and summoned the author, Rev. John LaFarge, to the Vatican in 1938. In his 80s, Pius XI had a serious heart condition, yet the growing Nazi menace demanded action: The year before, Pius had issued an important encyclical, With Deep Anxiety, slamming the Nazis for racist policies and oppression of Catholics; now, aware he was on death’s door, Pius was determined to go further in a new message he urged LaFarge to write swiftly and in secret. Eisner traces LaFarge’s work in Paris over the summer of 1938 and his missteps in confiding in the pope’s Superior General Ledochowski as a go-between, a shadowy figure who allowed the document to languish while the pope grew more ill. Ledochowski, like the pope’s secretary of state Cardinal Pacelli (the future Pius XII), believed that the pope was imbalanced and that communism (and Jews) was the menace, not Nazism. Eisner closes with excerpts from LaFarge’s powerful encyclical and the chilling suggestion of what might have been the outcome had it been published. An exciting reminder of how Vatican machinations continue to haunt history.
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“A wildly inventive excursion through the creation of our daily bread—and our occasional carp à l’ancienne.” from the 4-hour chef
BANKSY The Man Behind the Wall Ellsworth-Jones, Will St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-250-02573-9 978-1-250-02574-6 e-book
Graffiti meets high art in the first biographical assessment of a renowned yet anonymous figure. Americans who didn’t follow streetart culture had probably never heard of Banksy until his 2009 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, earned an Academy Award nomination. In Britain, however, Banksy-spotting (discovering that the artist had stenciled a cheeky design on the side of a building or bridge) became a national pastime and earned the mysterious spray painter a cult following. The tricky part started when this once-underground phenomenon moved into art galleries and began commanding staggering prices at auction. Banksy then established his own agency, Pest Control, to authenticate his works, field press inquiries and maintain his anonymity, but misunderstandings and scams abounded regardless. Former Sunday Times chief reporter Ellsworth-Jones (We Will Not Fight…The Untold Story of World War I’s Conscientious Objectors, 2008) presents a patchwork treatment of a subject who simultaneously comes across as both a likable guy with a knack for striking imagery and a control freak who delights in thwarting the aims of anyone who tries to breach his inner sanctum. Since Pest Control refused to grant the author access to Banksy, the author relies on interviews with gallery owners who sell his work for millions, graffiti artists who dismiss their rival as a sellout and devotees who have stood for hours in line to obtain limited-edition prints. Most interestingly, he spoke to a couple who live inside a trailer that Banksy painted for them: When Pest Control declined to authenticate the mural, the pair fought back and negotiated an unprecedented deal to legitimately remove and sell it, thus subverting Banksy’s ironclad control. Entertaining yet inconclusive: the real story of the “Man Behind the Wall” will probably have to wait until the hype dies down. (2-color interior; 4-color endpapers and 16-page color insert)
THE 4-HOUR CHEF The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life
Ferriss, Timothy Amazon/New Harvest (672 pp.) $35.00 | $9.99 e-book | Nov. 20, 2012 978-0-547-88459-2
Four hours? A gimmick, to be sure, but a good one to lure you into this rangy, obsessive immersion in food and its many wonders. |
We should become more conversant with the pot, the pan and all that issues therefrom, writes life-improvement guru Ferriss (The 4-Hour Body, 2010, etc.). You have so much to lose by not doing so. Eating well tones your body and mind, impresses people and increases your mating advantage. Even more, the tools needed to learn to cook well can be deployed in every manner of endeavor, from skinning a deer to memorizing a deck of cards. The author distills them into minimal, learnable units and examines how to order the units so as to keep readers engaged in their endeavors. Ferriss is a beguiling guide to this process, at once charmingly smart aleck-y and deadly serious, and he aims to make readers knowledgeable and freethinking. The author demonstrates how to hold a knife and cut an onion, but he also provides an engagement with the outdoors—how to build a shelter and butcher a kill, how to shop in Calcutta’s outdoor market and recognize a squirrel’s chirp (“akin to a Jack Russell digging through a chalkboard”). Ferriss also examines better eating through chemistry, which leads quite naturally to an extended encounter with Grant Achatz’s legendarily avant-garde cuisine—e.g., cigar-infused tequila hot chocolate. Ferriss is everywhere—preventing fat gain when you binge, poaching an egg, butchering a chicken, using liquid nitrogen, making a bacon rose—but is always focused on the main course: good eating. A wildly inventive excursion through the creation of our daily bread—and our occasional carp à l’ancienne.
A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT The Enduring Saga of The Smiths Fletcher, Tony Crown Archetype (672 pp.) $30.00 | Dec. 4, 2012 978-0-307-71595-1
A full account of the singularly influential English band, drawing on extensive research and interviews with some (but not all) of the major players. Ever since they broke up 25 years ago, The Smiths have been subjected to an endless stream of biographies and cultural studies. So what does Fletcher (The Clash: The Music that Matters, 2012, etc.) have to add? Up-close scrutiny and a broad sense of perspective. He takes in the local history, delving into the 19thcentury politics that formed the gloomy industrial landscape of Manchester, U.K., and shaped the lives of two of its sons: an asexual, vegan, Oscar Wilde wannabe named Morrissey and a T. Rex-worshipping prodigy named Johnny Marr. Fancying themselves the next Leiber and Stoller, they hired bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce and set out on an extraordinary five-year run. Lush, decadent, mopey ballads—about bullying, pedophilia, murder and all-around terminal alienation—appeared at such a frantic rate that not even four studio albums could contain them; some of their best works were singles that arrived in bursts of inspiration. Fletcher, working with
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the full cooperation of Marr and Rourke, but not Morrissey and Joyce, delivers a credible view of life from inside this whirlwind; he captures the lightning-in-a-bottle chemistry of the two leads and closely follows the band’s brief journey from local indie curio to New Wave phenomenon. It isn’t always smooth sailing; the endless backstage business details are a drag to read, and at times (although not always), Fletcher is too charmed by Morrissey to notice just how unpleasant he can be (especially when he’s fantasizing about murdering Margaret Thatcher or romanticizing suicide). An up-to-date and revealing rock biography that sets a standard of completion that will likely prove hard to beat. (8-page photo insert)
FOREST HOUSE A Year’s Journey into the Landscape of Love, Loss, and Starting Over Fraser, Joelle Counterpoint (224 pp.) $16.95 paperback | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-61902-113-6
Fraser (The Territory of Men, 2002) soulfully evokes the year she spent in an isolated forest retreat recovering from the trauma of divorce and exploring the inner landscape of her heart. When the author divorced her husband, the emotional fallout left her devastated. Not only was she unprepared for how joint custody would redefine her relationship to her young son Dylan, but she was also unprepared for the wave of “crippling guilt of being the one who left.” To maintain her privacy in the conservative California mountain town where they lived and ensure Dylan had access to his father, Fraser quietly moved into a tiny, one-bedroom house on the edge of a nearby forest. In this lonely but beautiful setting, Fraser began to examine her life. She thought about her Swedish great-grandmother, who was forced to leave her six children behind and follow a fugitive husband to America, where the two divorced. She eventually reunited with some of her children, but for the rest of her life, she worked “like a slave” in a land far from home. From this extraordinary woman, Fraser came to understand that survival meant “setting a course” for herself and making peace with her choices. She accepted the financial challenges of being a single parent with a low-paying job and found renewed joy in the companionship of her dog and cats. As she learned to appreciate the natural world around her, Fraser came to value both her freedom and the pain that had come along with it. Her injuries, like those done to the great scarred trees around her, were actually a testament to the hidden beauty of life itself—and to the choice to either live in fear or “look for [the] gifts” in every experience, no matter how painful. A poignant study of gratitude for the simple life.
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THE AGE OF EDISON Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America
Freeberg, Ernest Penguin Press (368 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 21, 2013 978-1-59420-426-5
Freeberg (History/Univ. of Tennessee; Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent, 2008) returns with a survey of the transformative changes wrought in American culture by electric light. The author begins at Edison’s facility in Menlo Park, 1879, as the inventor struggles to find a suitable filament for his bulb. Freeberg then takes us on a swift, eclectic tour of the electric world as it emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He reminds us how darkness had characterized human life for centuries and what a startling adjustment it was to live in ample light. The rhythms of daily life changed forever. The author also follows the fortunes of the gas companies, whose monopoly on light was about to topple. (Unsurprisingly, they were not happy.) He shows us how light affected many other aspects of American life, including shopping, transportation, leisure (night baseball as early as 1880), education and medicine. Freeberg also examines how the spread of light across the country came to symbolize not just American inventiveness, but for many, cultural superiority as well. The author notes that, for a while, light was the property of the well-to-do, then of urban dwellers and, finally, of rural Americans, many of whom did not have electricity until the rural electrification projects of the New Deal. Freeberg also shows the gradual growth of the profession of electrician, the standardization of products (bulb sockets) and the rise of university degrees in electrical engineering. Until training and standards became widespread, there were many fires and electrocutions—Freeberg describes some grim ones. A genial, sometimes-jolting account of the social and political consequences of crying, “Fiat lux!”
RADIATION What It Is, What You Need to Know
Gale, Robert Peter and Lax, Eric Knopf (224 pp.) $25.95 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-307-95969-0
A leading expert in nuclear medicine and in dealing with the aftermath of nuclear disasters offers a basis for assessing the risks associated with radiation. With science writer Lax (Faith, Interrupted, 2011, etc.), renowned oncologist and hematologist Gale presents a primer on nuclear radiation. Writing for general readers, the author first establishes what nuclear radiation is, distinguishing the part that is man-made from that of natural origins and then
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“A personal look at the Secretary’s diplomacy via a flexible, pragmatic approach rather than ideology.” from the secretary
what is harmful from what is not. He explains how radiation is measured and what normal background absorption rates are (per year, per person) in different parts of the world. He shows how man-made radiation has increased since nuclear weapons were developed. Surprisingly, the major component of this increase has not been weapons testing, but rather medical and nuclear diagnostics. Gale augments this discussion with a summary of what has been learned medically and scientifically from the nuclear bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as from atmospheric testing programs. Examining the half-lives of nuclear particles, the author shows how thyroid cancer and leukemia arise and how they can be treated. This background enables him to transition to the dangers of radiation in all its forms. He also discusses coal burning versus nuclear electric generation. Another surprise is just how unlikely it is for cancerproducing mutations to arise from atmospheric radiation. Gale ends with a helpful summary of his points. A well-written extension of the reach of reason in an area fraught with phobia and hysteria.
STALIN’S CURSE Battling for Communism in War and Cold War
Gellately, Robert Knopf (496 pp.) $32.50 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-307-26915-7
What did Stalin want? As the Red Army bestrode Europe in 1945, many Western leaders believed he intended to spread communism across the world. After his death, historians began to doubt this idea, and revisionists even blamed American aggression for the Cold War. In this forceful, often angry account of Stalin’s policies after 1941, Gellately (History/Florida State Univ.; Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe, 2007, etc.) maintains that the original fears were on the mark. Preoccupied by Stalin’s Machiavellian rise to power in the 1920s and mass murders during the 1930s terror, historians have taken refuge in history, describing Stalin as a legitimate heir to the czars, carrying on their brutal autocracy, xenophobia and obsession with national security. Gellately discounts this, emphasizing that Stalin remained a sincere Marxist-Leninist, convinced that the demise of capitalism and its replacement by the communism that the world’s workers yearned for (if educated properly) was a scientific fact. Such a glorious future justified any tactic, and the author recounts Stalin’s relentless suppression of democratic movements, persecution of opponents, mass arrests, show trials, executions and appalling ethnic cleansing as he strove with often-spectacular incompetence to achieve this glorious future. Refusing Marshall Plan aid was foolish; the East European satellites remained a chronic drain; Mao, an admirer, wisely ignored his advice; French and Italian communist leaders would have been wise to do the same.
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Gellately makes a good case for his thesis, but this will be beside the point for many readers who will conclude that Stalin was simply an evil megalomaniac.
THE SECRETARY A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power Ghattas, Kim Times/Henry Holt (368 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-8050-9511-1
An intimate, admiring look at the four-year global travails of the secretary of state from a member of her traveling
press corps. A Beirut-born BBC journalist assigned to the U.S. State Department in 2008, Ghattas has closely observed Clinton in her busy, high-profile position as secretary over the last four years. Here, she records her key role in the reshaping of American foreign policy. Ghattas’ work is invaluable in revealing the effort behind the headlines, from Clinton’s choice of Japan for her maiden voyage to sparring with the Israelis, Pakistanis and Chinese, plugging holes from WikiLeaks revelations and riding the eruptions of Arab uprisings. Yet here also is a rare glimpse of the woman behind the glamorous name and powerful credentials: Flanked by her devoted young assistants, Clinton often ventured to the back of the plane, sans makeup and wearing her glasses, to share a drink and chat off the record with the cadre of reporters who regularly traveled with her around the world. Unlike her buttoned-up predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, Clinton seemed to relax amid her staggering travels and meetings, usually running late (“on Hillary time”) but giving everyone her full attention, speaking to rapt audiences and letting the officers who held her agenda sweat it out. Wielding her “soft agenda” of women’s rights, moving to repair much of the damage imposed by the Bush administration, such as the invasion of Iraq, and appeasing foes who gloated on America’s “imperial overstretch,” Clinton was quietly but firmly reaffirming U.S. leadership. Along the way, Ghattas, as a Lebanese woman who keenly felt the American betrayal of her country during the long civil war of 1975 to 1990, comes to a sense of forgiveness and understanding of American might. A personal look at the Secretary’s diplomacy via a flexible, pragmatic approach rather than ideology.
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NATIONAL INSECURITY The Cost of American Militarism Goodman, Melvin A. City Lights (300 pp.) $17.95 paperback | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-87286-589-1
A 25-year CIA veteran examines how recent presidents have handled the military and defense spending. As he left office in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower gave a farewell address in which he warned against the influence of the “military-industrial complex,” theorizing that overinvestment in defense could compromise other domestic issues. Goodman (Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, 2008, etc.) claims that in the 50 years since that speech, Eisenhower’s warning has gone unheeded, especially by the four most recent presidents: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The author takes each president to task for his particular failings in foreign policy or his dealings with the military. While the chapter on the second Bush administration and its manipulation of post-9/11 intelligence reports feels slightly rehashed, the chapters on George H.W. Bush (covering the invasion of Panama and Desert Storm and Desert Shield) and Bill Clinton (which addresses “don’t ask; don’t tell,” as well as military incursions into Haiti, the Balkans, Somalia and Rwanda) are engrossing and thoughtful. After examining these four presidents, Goodman includes a chapter on the national missile-defense program, calling it “the most expensive and least effective weapons system in the U.S. arsenal.” This program was introduced during the Ronald Reagan administration (which spent more than $60 billion to develop it), leaving readers to speculate why Reagan was not included as a president guilty of runaway military spending. Goodman waits until nearly the last page before offering “some good news in the overall picture.” He offers a few words of praise for President Obama, who “does understand that the United States is far less exceptional than his opponents believe,” before ending with an ominous reminder: “The age of the superpower is over.” Engaging reading for those interested in foreign policy and military spending. (Author tour including Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Berkeley, Birmingham, Louisville)
WORLDS OF ARTHUR Facts and Fictions of the Dark Ages
Halsall, Guy Oxford Univ. (384 pp.) $34.95 | Apr. 1, 2013 978-0-19-965817-6
Halsall (History/Univ. of York; Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 2008) studies the veracity of Arthurian legends. The author draws on a lifetime of study on the Dark Ages, encyclopedic knowledge of the few 2796
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known references and detailed notes on area archaeology, and migration. Perhaps the references are the most interesting, not for their content but for the author’s instructions on their use. Citing works written from the sixth to the ninth centuries, including the Venerable Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he searches for hints about Arthur. Of the main works available, Halsall notes that we must understand that chronicle doesn’t necessarily mean factual history. As often as not, their writing was didactic and hagiographic, there to teach a lesson and to laud one particular individual. If there’s little mention of Arthur, is it because the writers didn’t think he was sufficiently important? Or maybe he just didn’t exist. There are records of three historical Arthurs in the sixth century, but that’s the limit of information—just the name. Mere mention of the battle at Mount Badon and the death of an Arthur and a Mordred at the battle of Camlann isn’t sufficient proof of the existence of that idyll. The social, political and economic conditions of the time are better clues to the enigma of Camelot. The author carefully notes that there is little direct mention of Arthur—this doesn’t necessarily prove he never existed, but it doesn’t help prove that he did, either. One of the most thorough scholarly works on the subject. (20 b/w halftones; 15 maps)
THE GOLDEN SHORE California’s Love Affair with the Sea
Helvarg, David Dunne/St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $26.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-312-66496-1 978-1-250-02752-8 e-book
A broad, insightful exploration of the Golden State’s pristine coastline and its social and ecological impact on the nation. Award-winning journalist and environmental documentarian Helvarg (Saved By the Sea: A Love Story with Fish, 2010, etc.) incorporates his work as an ocean conservationist into this examination of the California coast. There’s a distinct passion evident in the author’s language as he writes about his home state, a populous land boasting more than 1,000 miles of “urban ocean and hidden wilderness coves, precipitous coastal cliffs, sea stacks and wild beaches.” Conveyed through interviews with commercial fishermen and scientists and excursions up and down the coast, Helvarg enthusiastically probes the heritage of California’s coastal tribes, its whaling and surfing legacies, and its vital symbiosis with the U.S. Navy—a fact, he writes, that many Southern Californians overlook. The author’s research included early morning excursions aboard marine container ships, diving boats and underwater exploratory science vessels, and he accompanied the San Diego Coast Guard’s nightly migrant patrol to scan for smugglers. Helvarg avoids debating the more usurious aspects of the California lifestyle in favor of praising its “biological richness and diversity, a hallmark of its coast and climate.” The author creates a detailed, handsome
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“Electric transmissions from a bygone era, etched in blood by someone who was there in body and spirit.” from unknown pleasures
history lesson annotated with authoritative commentary on waterside conservation and preservation and climate awareness. In a cautionary final chapter, Helvarg warns of rising sea levels, a genuine ecological menace threatening the beauty and significance of California’s coastal landscapes. A lush, labor-of-love appreciation of maritime California. (12 b/w photographs)
UNKNOWN PLEASURES Inside Joy Division
Hook, Peter It Books/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-222256-5 The propulsive bass guitarist for Joy Division puts his fingers on the beating pulse of one of the U.K.’s most influential bands. After the cinematic portrayals of the band’s tragic central figure Ian Curtis in the films 24 Hour Party People and Control, it’s easy to lose track of their central influences. In an unflinchingly honest memoir, Hook (The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club, 2009) peels away the romantic sheen colored by its dark history and gives unfettered insight into the band’s origins and inspirations, as well as its comedies and tragedies. From Hook’s first vision of the Sex Pistols, the young musician-to-be was hooked. After recruiting mates Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris, they sought out the sensitive, artistic Curtis to lead them forward. Hook captures his lead singer well: “A poetic, sensitive, tortured soul, the Ian Curtis of the myth—he was definitely that. But he could also be one of the lads—he was one of the lads, as far as we were concerned.” What the author does even better is to remember the whole outrageous scene, from the tabloid outcry over the band’s murky name to the explosive shows dominated by bands like The Clash and Throbbing Gristle. Even the expected recollection of writing “Love Will Tear Us Apart” comes with decidedly unexpected truths. From the manifold perils of life on the road to his ongoing guilt over the band’s treatment of Curtis, Hook never pulls a punch. Add in a comprehensive timeline and track-by-track notes on the band’s two sole albums, and this is required reading for anyone who ever felt moved by Joy Division’s cold, dark music. Electric transmissions from a bygone era, etched in blood by someone who was there in body and spirit.
ASSHOLES A Theory
James, Aaron Doubleday (240 pp.) $23.95 | Dec. 4, 2012 978-0-385-53565-6
Great title, clever concept, average execution. If you know anything about James, you wouldn’t expect him to concoct a book with such a profane, in-your-face title. He has a doctorate from Harvard and teaches philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, and his first book had the desert-dry title of Fairness in Practice: A Social Contract for a Global Economy. And yet here he is, delivering a treatise about assholes throughout time, everybody from Machiavelli to Dick Cheney. Granted, the book is not just a quick-hit reference on everything asshole-related, but rather a more philosophical, existential approach to the subject. James tells us about the different types of assholes, a “taxonomy of the different species of asshole,” if you will, and he offers suggestions of professions that attract assholes (two good examples: conservative cable-news pundit and investment banker). James’ writing style leans toward the academic (unsurprising, considering his background) and doesn’t always feel like a logical match with his thesis. Readers picking up the book and anticipating a lot of snarky finger-pointing will be alternately pleased and frustrated. But James’ research is both thorough and imaginative; his impressive source list ranges from obscure philosophy books to popular websites to Rudyard Kipling to Kanye West, hip-hop’s greatest asshole. The author’s enthusiasm for the subject makes it possible to get through the book quickly, but it may lack staying power. While there are moments of great insight and outright hilarity, the book feels more like a sharp magazine article or clever website than a full-length book.
RIVER OF DARK DREAMS Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom
Johnson, Walter Belknap/Harvard Univ. (524 pp.) $35.00 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-674-04555-2
A dense analysis of pre–Civil War Mississippi Valley commerce, culture and society. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson happily included the Louisiana Purchase in his vision of a future America of self-sufficient, white farmers. He ignored the modest debate over allowing slavery into the territory; his wellpublicized objections were purely intellectual. Sadly, Jefferson’s rural Eden never happened, as wealthy slave owners quickly snapped up the best Mississippi Valley land. Mining journals, |
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correspondence, public records and popular literature, Johnson (History and African-American Studies/Harvard Univ.; Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, 2001) reminds us that New Orleans, not Richmond, was the engine of Southern prosperity: its largest city, largest slave market and the center of a booming international trading system. Cotton dominated; nearly 90 percent went to Britain. Johnson describes its biology, cultivation, harvest, sale and transportation via steamboat, a new technological marvel that converted the Mississippi into the world’s busiest river. He emphasizes the dismal story of the slaves who planted, picked, packed and loaded it. Ambitious planters yearned to extend the institution of slavery—not to “bloody Kansas,” where no respectable slave owner wanted to live, but to Cuba and Central America. Many publicly advocated reviving the slave trade. A scholarly work that will appeal to history buffs who can navigate the often academic prose, economic theory and statistics mixed with fascinating anecdotes, grim accounts of slave life and a convincing argument for plantation slavery’s essential role in the 19th century’s burgeoning industrial capitalism.
THE INSURGENTS David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War
Kaplan, Fred Simon & Schuster (448 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-1-4516-4263-6
How a group of farsighted Army officers gradually forced competence in fighting insurgents upon a hostile mili-
tary establishment. When David Petraeus graduated from West Point in 1974, there were no courses on counterinsurgency. The generals were only interested in training for the next real war, by which they meant tank battles on the plains of Europe. The collapse of the world’s third-largest tank army in Desert Storm persuaded some young officers that such a war would never happen. American forces would instead fight small wars against insurgencies—a word that was taboo in the Pentagon for years—and it would be necessary to study and train for these wars if the Army was to conduct them successfully. Pulitzer Prize winner Kaplan (1959: The Year Everything Changed, 2010, etc.) describes how a cadre of officers, of whom Petraeus was only the most prominent, risked reputations and careers to struggle to overturn the Army’s institutional aversion to counterinsurgency. These “insurgents,” as they thought of themselves, assembled doctrines and procedures for fighting such wars from long-ignored, nearly forgotten texts, white papers and dissertations, then field-tested them with considerable success when they were urgently needed in Iraq. Kaplan describes the networking and bureaucratic maneuvering involved as the participants read each other’s papers, met at conferences and began appointing each other to influential positions until they succeeded 2798
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in establishing counterinsurgency as a centerpiece of American military strategy. Along the way, the author incisively examines some of the inherent shortcomings of counterinsurgency doctrine, explaining why it is difficult for Americans to support this approach and why it was more likely to succeed in Iraq than in Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is moving to a more conventional counterterrorism approach. A compelling story combined with thoughtful analysis of the development, application and limitations of a new model of applying American military power. EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was completed prior to the news of the Petraeus scandal. (16-page b/w insert)
PARIS REBORN Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City
Kirkland, Stephane St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $29.99 | Apr. 2, 2013 978-0-312-62689-1 978-0-312-62689-1 e-book
A mildly revisionist history that gives principal credit for the modernization of Paris to the monarch rather than the prefect. Napoléon III was “the man who inspired and initiated [the] transformation of Paris,” writes architect/historian Kirkland. By the time Georges-Eugène Haussmann became prefect of the Seine (responsible for the city’s administration) in 1853, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte had already drafted his plans for transforming Paris from a medieval cluster of narrow, filthy streets into a modern metropolis with broad boulevards and proper sanitary facilities. He had also recently conducted a coup d’état that transformed him from president to emperor; his plans did not include democracy. Haussmann had similarly autocratic instincts. He juggled accounts, avoiding pesky financial oversight from elected officials, and demolished historic neighborhoods. Haussmann’s highhanded ways led to his dismissal in 1870, but by then his main projects were completed: a municipal sewer system, major avenues such as the Rue de Rivoli, parks like the Bois de Boulogne and the great central market at Les Halles. The huge sums of money necessary for these grands travaux required new methods of financing, and new capitalists like the Pereire brothers were happy to oblige. The railroad developers’ bank, Crédit Mobilier, funded most of the grands travaux, but its collapse in 1867 revealed the brazen corruption that was as much a part of the Second Empire as its ambitions. Kirkland evenhandedly assesses the projects’ benefits and costs, concluding that most “could have been achieved in a more sensitive way, without such blind sacrifice of the city’s historic character to the object of modernization.” On the whole, however, he is admiring of the urban amenities built during this period, which still function to make Paris one of the world’s most agreeable cities. Not as groundbreaking as the author imagines, but a solid retelling of an always-interesting tale of the first great urban-planning achievement. (8-page photo insert)
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“A book full of both literary grace and hard-won world-weariness.” from detroit
LADY AT THE O.K. CORRAL The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp Kirschner, Ann Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-06-186450-6
From the dusty trails of the Old West emerges the story that Wyatt Earp’s wife never wanted told: her own. A simple question from a friend about why Earp was buried in a Jewish cemetery prompted Kirschner (Dean of Macaulay Honors College at CUNY; Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story, 2006) to uncover the truth of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, the fourth wife and most constant companion of the famed frontier hero. The author mines letters, archives and manuscripts to tell Josephine’s story, panning for gold in a very muddy family history. After the showdown at the O.K. Corral and long before his death, newspapers and local lore had already made a legend of Wyatt and his family, with plenty of controversy and inconsistencies to fuel it further. To make matters more complicated, beautiful and theatrical Josephine was hard at work on her own self-made myth, burying her poor, Jewish origins and obscuring the more tragic, scandalous and, consequently, interesting periods of her life. From Tombstone to Nome to Los Angeles, Josephine created a maze of challenges for her future biographers, all of which Kirschner handles skillfully. Even with all of the rootless couple’s many adventures to recount, nearly half the book is an untangling of the drama that began just a few years before Wyatt’s death in 1929 and continued through the rest of Josephine’s life and into the next century. With vividness and certainty, Kirschner lays her story to rest at last. Tragedy, adventure, romance and scholarly investigation come together like pioneers to a boomtown, with something for Earp worshipers and casual readers alike.
TEN YEARS LATER Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives Kotb, Hoda with Lorenzini, Jane Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $25.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-1-4516-5603-9
Today Show fourth-hour co-host Kotb (Hoda, 2010) tells the story of six people who faced extraordinary challenges in life and turned their lives around. The stories are heartbreaking. One woman’s partner physically abused her for many years before she found the courage to stand up to him. After she broke away from him to regain custody of her children, she lost 325 pounds through exercise and diet. She now travels around the country talking to victims of domestic abuse. The second story is that of a young woman |
who fought two cancers and managed to preserve her fertility through freezing her eggs. Horrified that no doctor or nurse had discussed that option with her, she founded a nonprofit that raises awareness about fertility options for cancer patients. Another devastating story is that of a man who lost his sister on 9/11 at the exact same moment he was helping a burning woman stay alive. One story that does not fit with the others is that of Roxanne Quimby, founder of Burt’s Bees. In the afterword, Kotb writes that Quimby went from “organic rags to riches.” While that is true, Quimby says that her poverty was a product of her own doings, as she chose to live in the forest to grow her own food. While Quimby is accomplished, it seems disrespectful and odd to put her story alongside those who faced challenges the world threw at them without giving them a choice. Despite the subjects’ inspiring stories, the author fails to create a sense of purpose.
DETROIT An American Autopsy LeDuff, Charlie Penguin Press (304 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 7, 2013 978-1-59420-534-7
Iggy Pop meets Jim Carroll and Charles Bukowski in this gritty downer of a Rust Belt portrait. “I threw my cigarette butt into the sewer grate. I looked up into the rain. That’s when a bird shit on my face.” Thus writes former New York Times and Detroit News reporter LeDuff (US Guys: The True and Twisted Mind of the American Man, 2007, etc.), and he means nothing remotely humorous by it. His Detroit is a set out of Blade Runner, and never mind all that Kid Rock and sundry entrepreneurs have been doing to revive the Motor City; LeDuff isn’t convinced: The place is toast, its people what an editor of his used to spit out: “losers.” “That was 80 percent of the country,” LeDuff counters, “and the new globalized economic structure was cranking out more.” Even the locals have pretty much given up on the place; says one hard-bitten cop, “This whole town is just a worm-infested shit pile, Charlie….It’s a dead city. And anybody says any different doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.” With so much going against the place, readers can’t help but cheer when something goes right, as occasionally it does. Indeed, the heart soars when things don’t go absolutely wrong, as when LeDuff’s scrawny brother stands up to a hoodlum in a vainglorious, near-suicidal encounter at a bus stop. Along the way, the author looks at some of the toxic ingredients that have brought Detroit to its knees, including the aforementioned globalization, the replacement of local industry with a service economy of crime and, particularly, the noxious effects of racism, which he examines through his own family history. There’s little joy in these pages, and one hopes that Detroit will endure, if only to cheer LeDuff up. A book full of both literary grace and hard-won world-weariness.
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WHERE THE CHERRY TREE GREW The Story of Ferry Farm, George Washington’s Boyhood Home Levy, Philip St. Martin’s (272 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-312-64186-3 978-1-250-02314-8 e-book
An excavation of George Washington’s Virginia “Home Farm.” Since 2002, Levy (History/Univ. of South Florida; Fellow Travelers: Indians and Europeans Contesting the Early American Trail, 2007) has been poking around the site of Mary Washington’s old homestead at Ferry Farm, on the Rappahannock’s north bank near Fredericksburg, looking for clues to Washington’s upbringing and life story. Washington lived there from age 6 to about 15, and the author was bent on finding out whether there was any factual evidence behind some of the legends ascribed to the Founding Father by the Parson Weems in his book of dubious veracity, The Life of Washington. Specifically: Did young Washington really chop down his father’s cherry tree and then refuse to lie about it? First, Levy looks at what the successive history of ownership of the land tells about the place, beginning with the first English settlers who arrived in the early 17th century, including ambitious sailor John Washington. In 1738, his son Augustine relocated his growing clan to Ferry Farm, a “very handsome Dwelling house” among 400 acres situated near the commercial town of Fredericksburg. Here young George, the couple’s firstborn, would experience lessons that Levy characterizes as “the most deeply ingrained of his life.” Although the land was bequeathed to George, his elder stepbrother sold off the northern portion in 1748. Nonetheless, the boy was enterprising and went on to start a lucrative career as a surveyor. Levy’s exploration yields clues to George’s life there, such as whether there really was a cherry tree. Not much with which to flesh out Washington’s bio, but a wealth in deliberative detail to contemplate and relish.
A PRINCE AMONG STONES That Business with the Rolling Stones and Other Adventures Loewenstein, Rupert Bloomsbury (272 pp.) $27.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-62040-034-0
Languid memoir by the GermanBritish noble who built a fortune for Mick Jagger and company, among other
pop icons. The prince assures us on several occasions that he didn’t come to the Rolling Stones as a fan. He doesn’t like rock ’n’ roll; though, as the scion of a dynasty displaced by history, he has a 2800
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certain fascination with the power of the band, and especially Jagger, to hold an audience spellbound in the way that a certain Hitler fellow did in the Germany of yore. “I never played a Stones track by choice,” he writes. Yet, noblesse oblige; toward the end of the 1960s, once they’d amassed enough money—if only on paper—Britain’s rock stars began to hobnob with the upper crust, a group that returned the favor by advising them on how to spend their fortunes. In the case of Loewenstein, well known as a capable stockbroker and financial adviser, part of his counsel involved wresting the band from the talons of American promoter Allen Klein, whereupon the millions began to flow. Fans of the Glimmer Twins won’t learn much about the two here, though Jagger won’t like hearing that the prince believes that Keith Richards is the brains in the band. Loewenstein is a touch vague on the exact workings of building a rockstar fortune (he worked with Pink Floyd, Terence Trent D’Arby and other artists besides the Stones), which makes for good accounting but not terribly exciting storytelling. He is better when he turns his gaze elsewhere and goes into full gossip mode, as when he writes of another misplaced noble and his wife: “The Wrangells were often in Europe and by and large lunched on dry martinis and the odd olive.” Stones compleatists will want to shelve this alongside the collected works of Spanish Tony, but ordinary civilians won’t get a lot from the prince’s pages.
HERE COME THE BLACK HELICOPTERS! UN Global Governance and the Loss of Freedom
Morris, Dick; McGann, Eileen Broadside Books/HarperCollins (208 pp.) $22.99 | Oct. 9, 2013 978-0-06-224059-0
Fox News commentator Morris and his wife, McGann (co-authors: Screwed!: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy—and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It, 2012, etc.), seize on the U.N. as the epitome of global government intrusion in this repetitive new work of unbridled paranoia. For the authors, globalization leads inevitably to a usurpation of the U.S. Constitution and the American democratic guarantees of freedom and liberty by assuming control of our economy and courts, imposing arbitrary taxes and nullifying the Second Amendment, among other horrors. Global governance, led by the pernicious environmental movement, which aims to tax our pollution of the air and seas and give the collective fees to corrupt, unworthy poor countries, is akin to the “black helicopters” of the importunate Fish and Wildlife Bureau hovering sanctimoniously over fields and streams to enforce EPA sanctions. The authors look at some of the impending treaties set forth by the Vienna Convention and promulgated by the Obama administration, which are sure to “cede vast swaths of our national sovereignty to the UN”—e.g., the Law of the
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“Research, compassion and outrage combine in a story both riveting and wrenching.” from lina and serge
Sea Treaty, control of the Internet, the Arms Trade Treaty and the International Criminal Court. The authors give a detailed breakdown of the most corrupt countries and how the “third world can’t wait to steal the money.” Ultimately, this over-thetop harangue might even be funny if Morris, who famously predicted a landslide victory for Mitt Romney just days before the election, and his partner weren’t so spectacularly wrongheaded. More proof that biting conservative arguments have lost their teeth.
LINA AND SERGE The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev
Morrison, Simon Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (384 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-547-39131-1
An authority on the life and works of Serge Prokofiev charts the sad biographical arc of his wife, Lina, who spent some devastating years in the Soviet gulag. Born in Madrid in 1897, Lina was talented. She knew a half dozen languages and sang well enough to perform in some impressive venues—sometimes with her far more talented and celebrated husband. Morrison (Music History/Princeton Univ.; The People’s Artist: Prokofiev’s Soviet Years, 2009), who had access to the family and significant archival collections, has produced a gripping story of a young woman’s rise into the highest social and musical circles, her marriage to Prokofiev (whose principal affection was for his music, not his family), and their globe-trotting tours and swelling celebrity. But as the Stalin-led Soviet Union commenced its multiple atrocities and outrages, the Prokofievs’ world shrank, their travels were limited and their futures were tightly circumscribed. Morrison shows how the composer gradually wearied of his family and walked out on them in 1941 (for a younger woman) and did little to protect them from the government. Lina—perhaps naïve, perhaps careless—drew the attention of the security services, which arrested her in 1948. She spent eight years in the gulag, a period that is most painful to read about. In all their odiousness, the author relates the interrogations, deprivations, torture and the unrelenting suffering of Lina and many others. When Stalin died and the government slightly softened under Khrushchev, Lina was eventually released and returned to Moscow (Serge had died three years earlier), where she eked out a living until, inexplicably, the authorities allowed her to leave, and she spent her final years in Paris and London, where she died at the age of 91 in 1989. Research, compassion and outrage combine in a story both riveting and wrenching.
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THE MYTH OF PERSECUTION How Early Christians Invented a Story of Persecution
Moss, Candida HarperOne (320 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-06-210452-6
A prickly, uneven survey of Christian persecution that delves into modern-day fundamentalist intolerance. The notion that early Christians were meek, passive and unrelentingly persecuted for their religious beliefs has been manufactured by early church historians like Eusebius, writes New Testament scholar Moss (Early Christianity/Univ. of Notre Dame; The Other Christs: Imitating Jesus in Ancient Christian Ideologies of Martyrdom, 2010, etc.), disguising the true violent, militaristic tone of the early Christian message. The author addresses deeply troubling aspects of an us-vs.-them mentality she sees rampant in today’s secularized world, from Islamic suicide bombers to the use of Joan of Arc by the French political right to Republican Christian voters viewing themselves as a persecuted minority. First, Moss wades through examples in the ancient world, including the high-profile cases of Greek and Roman heroes like Achilles, Socrates and Lucretia, who died for their beliefs, offering a model for the early Christians to borrow from. The author then moves into the early Christian era, when accounts of martyred apostles like Stephen and converts like Polycarp and Perpetua established a rich literary tradition after the imitation of Christ, with details altered and shaped by later Christian apologists. Key to Moss’ narrative is the history of Roman persecution of Christians, which she finds overblown, explaining the “sporadic” persecution as a politically motivated, entirely understandable move to suppress a pesky group of insurgents who constituted a threat to order and piety. The myth of martyrdom—and the expectation of huge rewards in heaven—was effective in organizing a cohesive early Christian identity, which involved the notion of being “under attack” and justified a violent reaction. While none of Moss’ arguments are particularly new or striking, she provides an intriguing venture that begs for more research and focus. A strongly worded polemic on the dangers of defensive exceptionalism.
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k i r ku s q & a w i t h w i l l i e n e l s on ROLL ME UP AND SMOKE ME WHEN I DIE:
Musings from the Road Nelson, Willie Morrow/HarperCollins (192 pp.) $22.99 Nov. 13, 2012 978-0-06-219364-3
Although Kirkus’ archives don’t indisputably resolve the claim, I may be the first reporter in the long, illustrious history of this magazine to interview a writer on his very own, fancy tour bus —a tour bus that is strongly redolent of a substance that was recently legalized in Washington and Colorado. On the subject of book writing, Willie Nelson is largely taciturn, but his book, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road, fills in all the gaps he leaves open in person. The memoir is a hodgepodge of memories, country jokes, song lyrics, tributes from his family and political musings. Kirkus’ reviewer liked the book but cautioned that “how closely readers follow Nelson’s meandering path may largely depend on their own lucidity at the time.” A typical passage reads like this one: “I did an interview today with an old friend from San Antonio named Paul Venema. He’s a great guy and an old friend. I’ll see him tomorrow night in Helotes, Texas, at our show at John T. Floore Country Store. John T’s is one of the better beer joints in Texas. John T. Floore was a really good friend of mine and loaned me money one time when I really needed it. I wrote a song about him,” and Nelson quotes the song. But to criticize Nelson for writing a book that’s a little messy feels fundamentally misguided. His misfortune, loves, observations, and songwriting talent emerge unvarnished in the book. “I seem to have been addicted to something most of my life,” he writes with his usual frankness and then goes on to detail exactly how he was addicted and what the addiction did to his talent. Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die will appeal most to Nelson’s fans, but it’s an affectionate, infectious document of the happiness he clearly feels at this point in his life. Nelson answered my questions just before he went onstage at a show in November in Austin.
Q: Did you write it all yourself, or did you have someone help you shape the narrative of it? A: I wrote it all, and then after I finished, my wife, Annie, kind of put it in form for me and fixed it up. Then we got it like we wanted it and turned it over to the book company. Q: Now that Obama’s been re-elected, do you feel like parity and fairness for farmers is going to come? A: I surely hope so. It’s way past due, and we’ve been having Farm Aids for 27 years now in a row, looking for a better deal for the small family farmers, so hopefully things will get better. Q: And what about the laws that were passed in Washington and Colorado legalizing marijuana?
Q: What inspired you to write the book?
A: I think it’s very positive —I think a lot of the country will head that way once they see that Colorado and Washington are going to do fairly well financially because of it and it will keep the illegal drug dealers from making all the money.
A: Well, the publisher said, “Hey, do you want to write a book and there’s X amount of dollars involved,” and I said “OK.” Q: You’re pretty candid about your life in the book—was it difficult to write those passages?
Q: Do you feel like writing a book allows you to interact differently with your fans than writing and performing songs does?
A: No, it would be harder not to be candid.
A: Yeah, absolutely. Each one tells one story, maybe several (but at least one story), and I like the idea of throwing in a song every now and then to break up the boringness of my writing.
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—By Claiborne Smith
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p hoto BY JASON SHA LT Z
A: I don’t know that it does; I just felt like writing a book. Flip a coin; it’ll be accepted or not accepted. Either way, I got to say what I wanted to say.
Q: You quote your lyrics quite a bit in the book—you feel like your song lyrics tell the story of your life….
“A vivid, colorful evocation of a charged era.” from those angry days
THE FIGHTING IRISH The Story of the Extraordinary Irish Soldier Newark, Tim Dunne/St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-250-01882-3 978-1-250-01881-6 e-book
From the 1690s Battle of the Boyne to today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a military historian clocks the various incarnations of the Irish soldier. Many reasons account for the remarkable Irish military diaspora through the ages, among them the bitter division between Catholics and Protestants, the desire for independent nationhood and the wish to strike a blow, however indirectly, against England. Crop failures, famine and the scarcity of jobs outside agriculture made the army a more attractive alternative to young Irishmen eager for adventure and a chance to prove their manhood. Even at the Boyne, some sided with William of Orange against countrymen fighting for the restoration of the Catholic James II; the Irish constituted 30-40 percent of Wellington’s foot soldiers and cavalry, even as Napoleon fielded his Irish Legion; Irish soldiers fought with Zachary Taylor’s army in Mexico, while others aligned with Santa Anna; during the Spanish Civil War, some fought for the fascist Franco and others for the communist Republicans; as many as 400,000, “the greatest deployment of Irish soldiers in the country’s military history,” fought in World War I. Newark (The Mafia at War: The Shocking True Story of America’s Wartime Pact with Organized Crime, 2012, etc.) treats almost all the major conflicts that prominently featured Irish soldiers, but the breakneck pace allows for little more than the broadest of strokes—he summarizes each war through the tales of only one or two soldiers. A double-time march through 300 years of Irish soldiering. (8-page b/w photograph insert)
THOSE ANGRY DAYS Roosevelt, Lindbergh, and America’s Fight Over World War II, 1939-1941
Olson, Lynne Random House (576 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 26, 2013 978-1-4000-6974-3 978-0-679-60471-6 e-book
A fully fleshed-out portrait of the battle between the interventionists and isolationists in the 18 months leading up to Pearl Harbor. Former Baltimore Sun White House correspondent Olson (Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, 2010, etc.) looks closely at both sides of the U.S. debate about whether to support Britain against the onslaught of Nazi Germany or remain aloof from the European |
conflict, epitomized by the two prominent personalities of the respective camps, President Franklin Roosevelt and Charles Lindbergh. The author clarifies “those angry days,” so-called by Arthur Schlesinger, and the deep, searing divisions within the country: from FDR, his hands tied to aid Britain materially by Senate Midwestern leaders like Burton Wheeler and Gerald Nye, who deeply resented the growing power of the presidency; to pro-German, frankly racist Lindbergh, whose trips to Germany and radio broadcasts helped sharpen the public outcry, gave fodder to prescient journalists like Dorothy Thompson and alienated his own long-suffering wife, Anne Morrow. Once viewed as America’s great hero for his solo transAtlantic flight, Lindbergh spiraled into controversy with his public argument against aiding the English, his rationalization of German aggression and espousal of racial purity. Ostracized by the Europeans, who had not long before sheltered him and his wife after the kidnapping of his son, and excoriated by the press and the East Coast moneyed establishment, Lindbergh took up with the reactionary American First campaign and was increasingly regarded as traitorous. Roosevelt, in turn, warned the country about the “perils of complacency” in his State of the Union speech of 1940 as events in Europe heated up, and he was not averse to stoking fears of “Fifth column” infiltration and restricting civil liberties in garnering support for his policies. Throughout, Olson adroitly sifts through the many conflicting currents. A vivid, colorful evocation of a charged era. (b/w photos)
NOT HOLLYWOOD Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream Ortner, Sherry B. Duke Univ. (352 pp.) $24.95 paperback | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-8223-5426-0
Some incisive insight into independent films framed within a Marxist ethnographic critique that is occasionally impenetrable. Ortner (Anthropology/UCLA; New Jersey Dreaming, 2003, etc.) presents the indie film world as one in which “we encounter a value system in which ‘Hollywood’ is seen as presenting false pictures of reality, as ‘telling lies,’ while independent film sees itself as trying to tell the truth, to represent reality ‘as it really is.’ ” At her most strident, the author seems to agree with such black-and-white oversimplification, as if studio films were incapable of moral ambiguity (or anything more disturbing than happy endings) and that indie film occupies a position of moral superiority of valuing truth over commerce, while “getting audiences to think about the harsh realities of the world.” Yet within what she terms “a kind of Marxist-inflected feminism” that informs her work, Ortner illuminates how producers function within the indie world as creative forces rather than simply a financial resource, and she’s particularly acute in the
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“Everyone who really loves books loves bookstores, and anyone who loves bookstores will appreciate this labor of love.” from my bookstore
chapter titled “Moral Ambiguity,” which casts a critical eye on the ways pedophiles are seen in the world of indie film: “These filmmakers…are obviously not endorsing pedophilia and murder, nor are they embracing the dehumanized post-mortality of the neoliberal economy. What they do seem to be saying is that the world is a very messed up and confusing place, and that we cannot go back to the white hats and black hats of the Hollywood melodrama.” Academics steeped in the work of Pierre Bourdieu will get the most out of this, yet film fans will also find some revelation.
MERCHANT, SOLDIER, SAGE A History of the World in Three Castes Priestland, David Penguin (352 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 21, 2013 978-1-59420-310-7
The author of The Red Flag: A History of Communism (2009) returns to present the skeleton of a new theory of human history. Priestland (Modern History/Univ. of Oxford) employs the term caste to mean “self-interested bodies seeking economic advantage but also as embodiments of ideas and lifestyles, which they often seek to impose on others.” He identifies three of them (see title) and says there is also a fourth (workers and peasants) which, he writes, we should not neglect. He notes that each caste has, historically, allied with the others to varying degrees (the merchant-soldier, for example), but each has sought to dominate discourse and politics. After explaining his terms, Priestland marches us through history, showing us how his model applies to and illuminates everything from the Reformation to Robinson Crusoe, Adam to Adam Smith, Andrew Carnegie to Ayn Rand, Hitler to Putin, and Richard Wagner to Sinclair Lewis (George Babbitt does not fare well here). He notes—no real surprise—that the world tends to get in trouble when it permits one caste to dominate. In recent times, he bewails the warrior ethos that impelled George W. Bush to invade Iraq after 9/11 and the “pervasive merchant value system” which drove the world to near economic collapse in 2008. Occasionally, Priestland sounds very much like Paul Krugman, especially when he declares that the stimulus package of 2008 was too small; he sounds like Elizabeth Warren when he slaps the faces of investment bankers, who, he writes, need firm reins. The author acknowledges that this is a theoretical, not a practical, text, but he does offer some vague solutions: more awareness of history and a balanced contribution of all the castes. Useful, often-clarifying trifocals through which to view the world.
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MY BOOKSTORE Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places To Browse, Read, And Shop Rice, Ronald— Ed. Illus. by Parsons, Leif Black Dog & Leventhal (384 pp.) $23.95 | Nov. 13, 2012 978-1-57912-910-1
A celebration of the independent bookstore by 84 authors who consider them personally and culturally indispensable and who find the ones they favor thriving and vital, despite common impressions to the contrary. Early on, it might seem that too many of these short pieces are repetitive, praising the stores that have hosted and nurtured them as “home,” as the “soul of the community” and other phrases that suggest a bygone era in these days of discount mega-stores and cybershopping. Yet the cumulative impact of this handsomely published anthology is not that of a series of survival stories, holdouts against the tidal wave of technology, but of a literary community that continues to flourish and needs these havens of revelation and sharing. The contributors write of being introduced to the work of other included authors by savvy booksellers and forging lifelong friendships. At least two different authors fell in love and ultimately married because of their interactions at an indie bookstore. Two of the more famous novelists (Louise Erdrich and Ann Patchett) own bookstores but write of someone else’s as “their” store. (And someone else in turn writes of Patchett’s.) Many tell of never leaving an indie bookstore without purchasing something, and most write of discoveries they have found there and/or the thrill of their first reading there. Dave Eggers strikes a characteristic chord: “Maybe it’s the feeling that if a bookshop is as unorthodox and strange as books are, as writers are, as language is, it will all seem right and good and you will buy things there. And if you do, it will persist, and small publishers will persist, and actual books will persist. Anyone who wants anything less is a fool.” Some of the other contributors include Rick Atkinson, Wendell Berry, Ian Frazier, John Grisham, Pico Iyer, Ron Rash, Tom Robbins, Terry Tempest Williams and Simon Winchester. Everyone who really loves books loves bookstores, and anyone who loves bookstores will appreciate this labor of love.
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GRAND CENTRAL How a Train Station Transformed America
Roberts, Sam Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-1-4555-2596-6
A middling account of the architectural splendor that is Manhattan’s Grand Central Station. “Modern time began at Grand Central,” writes New York Times urban affairs correspondent Roberts (A Kind of Genius: Herb Sturz and Society’s Toughest Problems, 2009, etc.), an aperçu he repeats a few times in his paean to what is certainly America’s definitive, if not greatest, railway terminal. The author observes that it was the need of the new railroads to observe an established schedule that resulted in standardized time—no news to readers of Wolfgang Schivelbusch, that great historian of technology, but a useful gauge all the same in explaining why a railroad station should merit our attention. There are other reasons, which Roberts attentively enumerates: In the instance of Grand Central, which indeed pioneered standardized time and has lived through a few incarnations since ground was broken for the modern structure 110 years ago, it contains the world’s largest piece of Tiffany glass, to say nothing of “the largest sculptural grouping in the world” and a ceiling that famously invokes the vastness of the firmament. Roberts closes his rambling, almanaclike narrative with an account of where the ceiling painter went wrong; apparently, railroad officials explained that “the celestial mural represented God’s view.” There’s nothing wrong with an assemblage of oddments and answers to common questions, as any trivia buff will tell you, but at times, Roberts’ book resembles an infodump of semidigested notes; this is nowhere more true than in the section on Grand Central in popular culture. Still, the book is inarguably populated by a fascinating cast of characters, from the barons of the late Gilded Age to Jackie O. Grand Central deserves a deep history as good as the World Trade Center got with James Glanz and Eric Lipton’s City in the Sky (2003). This isn’t it, though railway-history buffs may enjoy this book.
EVERYBODY MATTERS My Life Giving Voice
Robinson, Mary Walker (336 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-8027-7964-9
An autobiography from one of the world’s leading political figures provides a special insight into ongoing civil and human rights questions. Oxfam International honorary president Robinson explores the events that shaped her |
qualifications for the role she played on the global stage. A career of legal advocacy led her first to the Irish Senate, then to the country’s presidency, then to a position as the U.N.’s high commissioner for human rights. Educated in Paris during the Algerian War, Robinson writes about how her views of human rights were shaped philosophically and legally: “I went back to reading about Gandhi…I read more of Martin Luther King.” This foundation stayed with her as she qualified for law degrees on both sides of the Atlantic and began to work in areas where conflict between personal morality and criminal codes became a source of unjust individual suffering. Ireland’s European treaty commitments on human rights provided a lever to secure advances within her own country, which both benefited the cause of individual Irish men and women as well as people throughout Europe. Robinson describes winning Josie Airey the right to separate from an abusive husband “as the type of case [she] loved.” Successful political advocacy helped her become Ireland’s first female president, and Robinson recounts how she transformed the office. Later controversies arising during the Iraq War have not undermined her international stature. She bases her view of human rights on FDR’s “Four Freedoms, and she emphasizes the importance of the universal right to “decent work.” A worthy addition to the growing list of memoirs from world-class servants of the public.
SQUARE PEG My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-theBox Thinkers
Rose, L. Todd with Ellison, Katherine Hyperion (256 pp.) $24.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-4013-2427-8
A “memoir and a manifesto” by the co-chair of the Harvard Graduate School Institute Connecting Mind, Brain and Education, who references his own experiences as a high school dropout to make the case for a much-needed learning revolution. Assisted by Ellison (Buzz: A Year of Paying Attention, 2010, etc.), Rose describes how he was labeled as an incorrigible troublemaker by the age of 13, when he detonated stink bombs in class. Even as a preschooler he was a problem child, bullying his younger siblings. The author explores his boredom, distraction and difficulty concentrating on schoolwork. His impulsive, destructive behavior alienated his peers as well as school authorities. A diagnosis of ADHD and the prescription of Ritalin (which he refused to take regularly) did little to solve his problem. Rose writes that he was caught in a negative feedback loop, failing in school and bullied by other children. While he traces his problems to underlying neurological problems—a poor short-term memory exacerbated by stress and differences in how his brain processed dopamine—the school system in his community failed to deal with his special needs. Only when his
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parents moved to another town was he able to begin the difficult process of getting his life on the track to an academic career in the application of advances in biological and cognitive sciences to education. Fundamentally, these are based on using modern technology to allow students to individualize their learning experience with the guidance of their teacher. For example, dyslexic students can use learning aids such as text-to-speech programs (with headphones), and those with problems following complicated instructions can get step-by-step reminders. An inspiring personal story, but unfortunately, the author relegates his pioneering new methods to a short epilogue.
THE BIRTH OF AN OPERA Fifteen Masterpieces from Poppea to Wozzeck
Rose, Michael Norton (480 pp.) $35.00 | Mar. 18, 2013 978-0-393-06043-0
Full-scale portrait of an art form compiled from thumbnail sketches across four centuries. This close-up approach turns out to be an excellent way to spotlight key moments in the history of opera, although music writer Rose (Berlioz Remembered, 2001, etc.) modestly aspires only “to re-create as nearly as possible the circumstances in which fifteen individual masterpieces have been put together.” Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, created in the early days of a new genre, “achieved for the first time in history the fusion of drama, text and music that was always to be at the heart of opera.” Gluck’s Alceste restored the balance in that fusion by taming the vocal excesses of Italian opera, paving the way for later masterpieces like Berlioz’s Les Troyens. The radical harmonic and thematic structure of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde “led progressively but inexorably” to Schoenberg’s atonalism and to challenging 20th-century works like Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. The personal stories are marvelous: music publisher Giulio Ricordi scheming to put together an aging, cranky Verdi with Young Turk Arrigo Boito to create Otello; the horrified manager in Paris, confronted with Bizet’s groundbreaking Carmen, declaring, “Death at the Opéra-Comique!... such a thing has never happened…do you hear, never!” When Rose writes, “There is no more human opera than The Marriage of Figaro,” he is identifying the characteristic that for him defines opera even more than great orchestrations or spectacular vocalizing: the creation of great characters whose inner lives and connections to our common emotions are made palpable in music. Based on a series of radio programs that originally aired on the BBC, these renderings let us hear the unmediated voices of the composers, librettists and others by drawing on letters, memoirs and other primary documents to bring to vivid life the process of making art. Intelligent and entertaining—a treat for opera aficionados and newcomers alike. (15 photographs)
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DON’T CALL ME INSPIRATIONAL A Disabled Feminist Talks Back Rousso, Harilyn Temple Univ. Press (224 pp.) $24.95 paperback | Feb. 1, 2013 978-1-4399-0937-9
A psychotherapist and leading advocate for women with disabilities chronicles her struggles to overcome prejudice and discrimination. As someone with cerebral palsy, Rousso (Gender Matters: Training for Educators Working with Students with Disabilities, 2002, etc.) had to cope with physical limitations (controlling her motions, blurred speech, an ungainly appearance and contorted facial expressions) and the response of others to them. She describes her own shock at seeing her image in a mirror, and she forced herself to confront the reality of her “loopy, lopsided walk; those darting, dancing shoulders; those wandering, wiggly fingers; that goofy, gimpy smile.” The author credits her mother with nurturing her sense of independence and self-worth, despite her insistence that it was necessary to try to disguise her disabilities in order to make herself more acceptable to “the normalcy brigade.” Growing up in the 1950s, Rousso faced “[i]gnorance, fear, nastiness, and prejudice” against the disabled and the expectation that a woman’s destiny was shaped by her ability to attract a husband. Her father told her that he would not have married someone with her disabilities. Nonetheless, Rousso credits her disability with giving her the freedom to pursue a career outside the home—where she also experienced prejudice. After receiving her master’s degree, she was expelled from the psychotherapeutic training institute where she was enrolled because the staff feared that her appearance would upset clients. Rousso writes that the feminist movement of the 1970s gave her the strength to free herself from internalizing such cultural stereotypes. She became a successful psychotherapist and mentor for disabled young women. Two decades later, the author formed an enduring love relationship. Now, writes Rousso, she is able to accept her body and sense its uncontrolled motions “as signs of life, not limits.” An inspirational affirmation of the unique worth of every individual.
ARCADIAN AMERICA The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition
Sachs, Aaron Yale Univ. (496 pp.) $35.00 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-300-17640-7
Sachs (History and American Studies/Cornell Univ.; The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, 2006) offers a deep-running meditation on life, death, and our place in and responsibility to our world.
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“Indeed, there are plenty of books about Churchill, period. Shelden isn’t of the first rank, but the book holds up well against the competition.” from young titan
The author is an environmentalist of the romantic sort— not flighty, but with a great Whitmanesque inclusiveness, awareness of and engagement with his home places, and a honed appreciation of mortality. With considerable enthusiasm, Sachs pleads the case for the picturesque, so well met by the mid-19th-century cemetery, balancing openness, mystery, the local and the cosmic—a middle ground that brought the country to the city, a constant reminder of the need for green and, critically, a common ground when commons were fast disappearing in the wake of rampant capitalism. In the process of shaping his perspective, Sachs covers much literary and theoretical turf, examining Hawthorne’s fraught association with the communitarian experiment at Brook Farm, Margaret Fuller’s seemingly postmodern understanding of nature and culture, Thoreau’s Arcadian hopefulness, the landscape works of Downing and Olmstead, Mumford’s twining of urban and rural, and the repose of a silent battlefield and a rural burial ground. All the while, threaded through the research is Sachs’ own story, in which the mortality continues to inform his humanity: “the presence of death gives Arcadian life new meaning. Without death paradise is static, lacking the possibility of creative transformation.” An artful blend of reflection and call to action that steers around environmental fatalism toward “the exhilaration and melancholy that mark every life.” (54 illustrations)
BASEBALL AS A ROAD TO GOD Seeing Beyond the Game
Sexton, John with Oliphant, Tom and Schwartz, Peter Gotham Books (352 pp.) $27.50 | Mar. 11, 2013 978-1-592-40754-5
A tour of religious thought from the vantage point of that most perfect of cathedrals, the baseball diamond. “Baseball can teach us that living simultaneously the life of faith and the life of the mind is possible, even fun,” writes lawyer, theologian and New York University president Sexton near the close of this examination of religion’s chief questions as seen through a baseball glove. So it can, and if Stephen Jay Gould observed that science and religion were nonoverlapping magisteria, baseball might just connect them into a Venn set. If science sharpens the mind to a razor edge, then, Sexton counters, religion is a medium of “contemplation, sensitivity, awareness, and mystical intensity”—and so, as every fan knows, is the game, which makes, as Sexton deems it, “a wonderful laboratory.” There are some big questions to ponder, many of which Sexton explores. If there is a just supreme being in charge, for instance, then why have the Cubs labored in the vineyards of hell for so many years? Can God hit a home run so powerful that He can’t catch it? More to the point, Sexton observes, baseball’s calendar is nearly liturgical. Its doubters often become converts to the faith, while its true believers are so often dashed against the rocks; it is a |
matter of saints (Lou Gehrig) and sinners (a much longer list), with some (Shoeless Joe Jackson) fitting on both lists. Sexton’s view is refreshingly small-c catholic, embracing Taoism, Dante and Yogi Berra in a single sweep, and his enthusiasm for both baseball and the otherworld is refreshing. Whether it will make a doubter of a believer is another matter, for while there may be no atheists in the foxhole, there are still those sad souls who march away from Wrigley Field season after season. An elegant little meditation on life and the afterlife, well worth reading while waiting for spring.
YOUNG TITAN The Making of Winston Churchill Shelden, Michael Simon & Schuster (416 pp.) $30.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4516-0991-2
Solid biography covering the first four decades of Winston Churchill’s life, marked by both ambition and heartbreak. The heartbreak comes early and late in Shelden’s (English/Indiana State Univ.; Mark Twain: Man in White, 2010, etc.) account—early with rejection by a young woman for whom Churchill had conceived an unreturned love, late with rejection by his political colleagues at the height of World War I. The ambition is constant: When Churchill, having escaped from a Boer jail in part, one suspects, to impress his intended, gets shoved under the tram of love, he dusts himself off, makes a tidy sum writing his memoir, and wins elective office and ever-growing fame; when he suffers rejection by the elected and the electorate, he changes gears and parties and earns still more influence. Shelden opens with a longish episode that finds Churchill in the United States and Canada on a generally unsatisfying lecture tour about his adventures in the Boer War. He closes with a disgraced Churchill briefly exiting the political stage to fight in the trenches of France: “Like a Byronic figure in a novel that he might have written about his own political adventures, he was suddenly confronted with the possibility that he had reached the last chapter, and must now fight or die.” In between, Shelden offers an unadorned account of Churchill’s dogged pursuit to build his legacy against some long odds (including marked antipathy, it seems, on the part of his elders, family and foe alike). The author might, in fact, have offered more analysis in the place of plain narration, but there are plenty of other books on Churchill that do that. Indeed, there are plenty of books about Churchill, period. Shelden isn’t of the first rank, but the book holds up well against the competition. (16-page b/w insert)
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THE SIGNAL AND THE NOISE Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don’t
Silver, Nate Penguin Press (534 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 27, 2012 978-1-59420-411-1
An anointed wunderkind explains his own success as a prognosticator and explains why so many self-anointed “experts” are often wrong about winners in politics, sports and other realms. New York Times blogger Silver initially gained attention by developing a computer-based system meant to predict performances of Major League baseball players. Eventually, the author turned his talents to nonsports topics, including trying to figure out who would win the U.S. presidency during 2008. In 49 of 50 states, Silver correctly chose the presidential vote winner. In the 35 races for the U.S. Senate, he called every one accurately. In the 2012 election, he accurately called the presidential vote in all 50 states. Silver emphasizes that predictions are ultimately a human endeavor and that computers are programmed by humans. Meteorologists, for example, predict the weather incorrectly more than anybody would like. They have, however, used computerbased data analysis to improve accuracy. In the financial sphere, economists and other professional predictors failed to grasp the coming recession in 2008 despite sophisticated computer modeling. However, Silver writes, “nobody saw it coming” is an unacceptable excuse. The financial collapse was foreseeable with the proper underlying assumptions about economic behavior programmed into the computers. Too many underlying assumptions were misguided. Even more significant, 9/11 could have been predicted as well. Intelligence-agency analysts, however, could not grasp that religious zealots would plot their own deaths in order to kill Americans. No amount of computerized information can rectify a blind spot of that nature, Silver writes. Predicting the future performance of baseball players with well-documented pasts is more conducive to predictive accuracy than trying to understand previously anonymous fanatics. Some of the sections of the book are best understood by readers with mathematical reasoning skills, but the author is mostly accessible and enlightening.
THE DEVOURING DRAGON How China’s Rise Threatens Our Natural World Simons, Craig St. Martin’s (304 pp.) $27.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-312-58176-3 978-1-250-02318-6 e-book
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You can’t fault the developing Chinese world for wanting the same prosperity enjoyed by Americans and Western Europeans. Yet, as China-based journalist Simons notes, the world’s resources are nearly exhausted, and there are simply too many Chinese growing too quickly for healthy sustainability on the planet. In alternating chapters, the author looks at significant facets of the shrinking natural world in China and affected environs due to pollution, exhaustion and extinction resulting from China’s staggering economic growth and industrialization since the 1970s: vanishing fish, such as the Chinese sturgeon and the ancient, blind white river dolphin (baiji), from the polluted Yangtze River; thinning numbers of endangered animals such as tigers, orangutans, rhinoceroses, tortoises and others due to their relentless, widespread use in traditional Chinese medicine cures; and greenhouse gas emissions that have surpassed the West. Simons explores why there is not more of an ecological outcry: New “baselines” of sustainability are continually set, and expectations continue to slide, so ideas about normality have shifted. Simons suggests a helpful way of thinking about and managing the crisis—biologist E.O. Wilson’s acronym HIPPO, or “habitat destruction, invasive species, pollution, population growth, and overharvesting”—and the author reports from shrinking forests in Papua New Guinea and neighboring India for a deeper look at the extent of the environmental devastation. He cites some of the failed progress after the Kyoto Protocol and Copenhagen Accord and suggests that a shared sense of responsibility can help “save what’s left.” A step-by-step grasping of the enormity of an impending biodiversity crisis. (8-page b/w insert)
WHY I LEFT GOLDMAN SACHS A Wall Street Story
Smith, Greg Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Lg. Prt. $27.99 Oct. 22, 2012 978-1-4555-2747-2 978-1-4555-2748-9 e-book 978-1-4555-9886-1 Lg. Prt.
The controversial former head of Goldman Sachs’ United States equity derivatives business for Goldman Sachs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa chronicles his work for, and departure from, the Wall Street financial giant. “If I achieve one thing with this book,” writes Smith, “I hope it will be to empower some people with enough understanding” to call their congressional representatives and ask for a modern version of the Pecora Commission, which investigated Wall Street after the 1929 crash and proposed durable reforms. The author became a figure of controversy when, on March 15, 2012, the New York Times published his resignation letter, in which he called the current atmosphere at the company “as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.” Indeed, controversy, criticism and questions about his motivation and ability continue to swirl around his book. Smith chronicles his career, which
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“A trove of useful insider wisdom.” from with charity for all
began when he applied for Goldman’s intern program when at Stanford University. He explains how the search for revenues from fees came to overshadow the growth of clients’ assets, as dog-eat-dog competitiveness spread among the employees at all levels. In the author’s view, the transformation took place gradually over the 12 years he worked for the company. Goldman became bound up with changing views of employees’ function in financial transactions and the hunt for “elephant trades,” in which “Goldman made $1 million or more in discretionary profit.” Smith links this process effectively to the boom-bust bubble cycle, which characterized the financial world during those years. The author’s personal account of the many facets of daily life at Goldman Sachs gives his memoir the power of persuasion and conviction.
SUPERNATURAL Writings on an Unknown History
Smoley, Richard Tarcher/Penguin (240 pp.) $12.95 paperback | Feb. 7, 2013 978-0-399-16182-7
A skilled sampling of spiritual and religious subjects. Though most of the essays have been published in the New-Age spirituality magazine New Dawn, their collection captures the restless mood of the last quarter of the 20th century—a time, Smoley (The Dice Game of Shiva: How Consciousness Creates the Universe, 2009, etc.) writes, when hope for a “massive awakening of society” once bloomed. Throughout his prolific career, Smoley has plumbed the depths of consciousness, transcendent thought, Gnosticism and religious history, and here, he turns his eye to subjects fresh but not unfamiliar to him and his audience. Skeptical views on future forecasting and of Nostradamus’ “spotty” success record are as pensive as his assessment of the hidden “secrets” of The Da Vinci Code. Though a lack of material evidence has kept the drowned, lost continent of Atlantis little more than a glorified fable, Smoley notes that it remains a cautionary reminder of potential ecodisasters. Most affecting and resolute are short appraisals of metaphysicians, the history of Masonry, light and dark magic, the popularized power of positive thinking, and a chilling chapter about a Swiss psychologist who believed Hitler, and Germany at large, was, at one time, possessed by a malevolent entity. Smoley theorizes how esotericism came into mainstream popularity through these brief but plausible interpretations of the occult and, though mired in conjecture, these subjects are truly spiritualistic food for thought. To the author, they present opportunities to increase consciousness and improve the world without leaning on prognostication and “feeling the need to terrify ourselves into action.” A learned, highbrow approach to matters mystical and extrasensory.
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WITH CHARITY FOR ALL Why Charities Are Failing and a Better Way to Give
Stern, Ken Doubleday (272 pp.) $26.95 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-385-53471-0
The former CEO of National Public Radio exposes the shortcomings of taxdeductible, not-for-profit organizations. Stern, currently CEO of Palisades Media Ventures, writes that a distressing percentage of the approximately 1.4 million charities are poorly managed and fail to accomplish the goals trumpeted to donors. Further, donors rarely examine the organizations to which they contribute, and government agencies offer little analysis of the performance of the charities. As for the small number of private groups that rank charities by performance, writes the author, the examinations are both superficial and focused on misleading measures. Stern emphasizes the importance of donors’ measuring charities’ actual performance versus promised performance prior to giving, much as they might examine for-profit corporations before investing. The author fills the text with insightful, vivid examples, including case studies from his former employer. It is fascinating to learn the behind-the-scenes saga of Joan Kroc’s highly publicized $200 million donation to NPR and the mixed results of how NPR allocated the unexpected gift. Stern then contrasts that windfall to the less-publicized $1.5 billion gift from Kroc to the Salvation Army. For months, Stern explains, Salvation Army decision-makers debated whether to accept or reject the gigantic donation, because Kroc wanted the money spent in specified ways outside the traditional mission of the charity. Eventually, the organization accepted the money, but Stern delineates why that might have been an unsound decision and how the charity’s performance might have suffered as a result. Eye-opening case studies include the absurdities of organizations such as hospitals and college football bowl-game organizers qualifying as tax-deductible charities since they often fail to spend donations for the public welfare. A trove of useful insider wisdom.
THE LEADERLESS ECONOMY Why The World Economic System Fell Apart and How to Fix It
Temin, Peter; Vines, David Princeton Univ. (320 pp.) $29.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-691-15743-6
A rigorous analysis of the collapse of the world economy in 2008—and why things don’t seem to be getting better. Following a crash and a modest bounce back, the world’s economic recovery has been stalled for at least two years, write
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“A well-considered, well-written appraisal of a region that is more complicated than many readers realize.” from the new mind of the south
economists Temin (The Roman Market Economy, 2012, etc.) and Vines (co-author: The IMF and Its Critics, 2004, etc.); moreover, they add, “the world economy is 10 percent poorer than it would have been had economic growth continued smoothly after 2007.” The crisis has been so deep and thorough that, in many ways, it parallels the Great Depression, which occasions a longish account of Keynesian economics and its theories of stimulus and monetary versus fiscal policy—all matters in which economists will be right at home, though general readers not so much. Divided among different shifting blocs at a time of economic regime change, whence leaderless, the world’s economy risks falling into another Depression, the authors argue, unless appropriately post-Keynesian remedies are put into place, particularly to settle the deep imbalance in trade flows and payments. We need only look for examples at the imbalances that obtain between parts of the European Union and between the U.S. and China, but the authors give others over time. Examining alternatives such as a “floating exchange rate world” and a China willing to export less (and a U.S. willing to consume less, for that matter), they explore the possibilities, however remote, of avoiding further calamity. Suffice it to say that austerity is not one of them. Dense and detailed. One doesn’t have to hold a doctorate in economics to read this sobering treatise, but it helps.
THE NEW MIND OF THE SOUTH
Thompson, Tracy Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4391-5803-6
A Georgia-born journalist tries to make sense of today’s American South. Once relatively isolated and immigrant-free, the states of the Old Confederacy have changed significantly, casting off the “Confederate flag-waving, ‘Dixie’-singing school of Southern identity” and transitioning to a multiethnic society, writes Thompson (The Ghost in the House: Real Mothers Talk About Maternal Depression, Raising Children, and How They Cope, 2007, etc.). For a supposedly tradition-bound region, the South remains a place where change “comes quickly and with stunning force.” In this bright blend of research and reporting, the author identifies key aspects of the region’s evolving identity. Hispanics, mainly from Mexico and Central America, now make up 5 percent of the population. In Asheboro, N.C., now 20 percent Hispanic, Latino teenagers text, play video games, listen to rap and reggae, and do not think of themselves as Southerners. Meanwhile, traditional residents—black and white—are beginning to confront a past that they have ignored or distorted by celebrating the Lost Cause myth and bowdlerizing history texts. Disparate trends are prompting honest conversations between the races, including the advent of a generation of youth who have never experienced overt discrimination and the aging of the civil rights generation, with its need to find its place in 2810
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history. Other signs of change include the growing black remigration into the region and the many new marriages between blacks and whites (about double the national average). While rural areas are experiencing a brain drain, cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville have turned into urban melting pots. For all the changes, the South still retains a deep sense of community. Thompson draws nicely on personal experiences, interviews and visits to conventions of the Children of the Confederacy and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. A well-considered, well-written appraisal of a region that is more complicated than many readers realize.
HEADS IN BEDS A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality Tomsky, Jacob Doubleday (256 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 20, 2012 978-0-385-53563-2
Kitchen Confidential for hotel-goers. Tomsky is the ultimate hotel lifer. He’s performed virtually every task that a hotel worker can perform, including room service, maid service, car service, concierge service, etc. (If nothing else, his debut memoir teaches us that it takes quite a few people to run a hotel.) Despite the many frustrations involved with the tasks of his job—not to mention having to deal with the exasperating clientele—Tomsky found a happy home in the hotel world. To many readers, this may not seem like a glamorous profession. However, when the author is passionate about his career and is able to express his passion on the page, it can be a joy to read about (see Kitchen Confidential). In his debut, Tomsky doesn’t quite hit the top level, but he provides an enjoyable chronicle. From the opening bit about his adventures with valeting, it’s clear that Tomsky worships at the altar of Anthony Bourdain, arguably his era’s finest service memoirist. The comparisons between this book and Bourdain’s work are inevitable, and Tomsky’s didactic and sometimes overly lengthy explanations slow the book down. For many readers, the behind-the-scenes stories about hotels are intrinsically less interesting than those about restaurants, but the author’s anecdotes are at best hilarious and at worst, mildly entertaining. Ultimately, Tomsky’s enthusiasm for his profession and keen eye for detail keeps his book from becoming just another backstage look at the service industry. Lacks the spark of Bourdain’s work, but readable and often engaging.
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ALWAYS LOOKING Essays on Art
Updike, John Knopf (224 pp.) $45.00 | Nov. 27, 2012 978-0-307-95730-6
Final musings on mostly modern art by the prolific lion of American letters. This posthumous collection of essays by Updike (Higher Gossip, 2011, etc.) has been gorgeously collected and edited by Carduff and elevated by reproductions of the artwork under review. The author was an infamous gallery-crawler with a sensitive eye for American art, and his scrupulous aestheticism is on full display here. The book opens with a sad preface in the wake of the author’s death in 2009; Updike offers a full and honest remembrance of a photo of himself reading a Mickey Mouse comic at the age of 9. What follows are 13 richly illustrated essays on various art exhibitions ranging from the opening salvo, “The Clarity of Things,” deconstructing the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Picturing America collection, to “The Art of our Disorder,” a look at a 2005 exhibition of American surrealists. But Updike reserves his most acute analysis for collections by individual artists, including Claude Monet, Joan Miró and others. These essays, like those in his earlier collections, Just Looking (1989) and Still Looking (2005), are incisive in their examinations of individual artwork but don’t carry the self-conscious or cynical air that accompanies much postmodern art criticism. One exemplary essay, “Degas Out-of-Doors,” takes the great French impressionist out of his traditional context: “His eccentric perspectives, his truncated compositions, his increasingly daring juxtapositions of color make us reflect, in modern style, upon the operations of perception—or, more precisely, upon the synthetic tensions that occur when a vision in three dimensions is reduced to a two-dimensional colored surface.” In “Bridges to the Invisible,” Updike delves into the New Objectivism of Max Beckmann, but also gives a rich description of descending into the Guggenheim’s Soho cousin, which inhabited a converted warehouse rather than its celebrated main emporium on the Upper East Side. A rich trove of insights for art lovers of all stripes.
GYPSY BOY ON THE RUN My Escape from a Life Among the Romany Gypsies
Walsh, Mikey St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $24.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-250-02187-8 978-1-250-02188-5 e-book
The boldly intimate memoir of an English Gypsy’s struggle to define himself and his sexuality outside the bounds of traditional Romany culture. Walsh (Gypsy Boy, 2012) grew up in the rough-and-tumble world of Gypsies, where men “oozed testosterone and |
masculinity” and “drank, argued over women and produced sons.” From the time he was a young boy, though, he knew he was different. His father wanted to transform him into a fighter worthy of the family name. However, “thrashing the stuffing” out of boys “just for the sake of some misguided sense of honour” made no sense at all. Tired of both his father’s inability to accept him for what he was and of the secret sexual abuse he endured from his father’s brother, Walsh ran away from home at 15. He went to live with his lover Caleb, who protected him from the Gypsy thugs his father hired to track them down. Walsh fled to Leeds and then Manchester, struggling to build a life among the “Gorgias.” His relationship with Caleb did not survive, but other friends he made in the gay community helped him find his way. Against all odds, Walsh earned a college degree and also gained a coveted place at the Guildhall School of Drama in London. But he missed his family and worried for the safety of his youngest brother, who he feared would be molested by his unscrupulous uncle. Eventually, he exposed his father’s brother for the predator he was. Neither Walsh’s father nor his fighter-brother, however, could ever fully accept that homosexuality was part of their macho family heritage. Sadly aware that he would never be able to “go back to the family home again,” Walsh nevertheless continued to love them from the new home he had made for himself outside the Gypsy community. A great-hearted book of tenderness and brutality.
EVANGELICAL CATHOLICISM Deep Reform in the 21stCentury Church
Weigel, George Basic (304 pp.) $27.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-465-02768-2
A call for pride, sincerity and depth in Catholic life and community. Weigel (Faith, Reason and the War Against Jihadism, 2007, etc.) falls short in this sweeping, yet shallow call for “deep reform” in the Catholic church. The author argues that Counter-Reformation Catholicism, after a three-century reign, has been slowly dying in the face of modernism. The church of today had its genesis with the election of Pope Leo XIII in 1878, who began reforms that led to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. As the Catholic church grapples with a rapidly changing world, Weigel writes, it must finally shed the remnants of Counter-Reformation Catholicism and fully embrace Evangelical Catholicism, “a counterculture that seeks to convert the ambient public culture by proclaiming certain truths, by worshipping in Spirit and in truth, and by modeling a more humane way of life.” The bulk of Weigel’s book examines how this new Catholicism can be applied to the episcopate, priesthood, liturgy, laity, etc. The author makes many important points, and his call toward a deeper spirituality and sense of mission in Catholic life is laudable, but he is stunningly silent on many important issues. Although he does not ignore the clergy sex scandals of recent decades, he glosses over them. “Fidelity
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“A well-honed chronicle of a significant national disaster, especially timely following the destruction of Sandy.” from washed away
WASHED AWAY How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
and deeper conversion to Christ…not ‘reforms’ ” are called for to solve such problems, an answer few would accept as practical or comprehensive. Likewise, he does not address the drastic shortage of clergy and gives little thought to the emerging role of the third-world church and their particular needs and points of view. Weigel’s call for reform is based in attitude more than in structure, which may fall flat with many readers interested in “deep Catholic reform.” Long on evangelism, short on reform.
AMERICAN TURNAROUND Reinventing AT&T and GM and the Way We Do Business in the USA
Whitacre, Ed with Cauley, Leslie Business Plus/Grand Central (304 pp.) $28.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-4555-1301-7
A tough-talking Texan offers business truisms. Whitacre is a turnaround specialist who took AT&T from a $9 billion “Baby Bell” to a global giant with annual revenues of more than $120 billion; he later took the reins of General Motors and saw it through the tough process of federally mandated reorganization. “None of this is magic,” he faux modestly avers. It does, however, have everything to do with good management, and by his account, good management is in exceedingly short supply. The truisms begin to mount as he proceeds: “People are the number one asset of any business”; “Good managers know that change is the only constant in business, so they actively manage their businesses—smartly, aggressively, and as humanely as possible”; “Life, when you really think about it, is basically just a series of key moments or turning points.” Such things might seem self-evident and obvious, but when Whitacre serves up horror stories of corporate culture run amok, including places where ordinary employees weren’t allowed to ride in the same elevators as top management and where those same ordinary employees were made to feel as if they were scarcely worth being seen, let alone being heard, then it becomes more obvious that common-sensical approaches have to be beaten into the heads of some of the privileged corporate elite. There’s no sense of privilege in the author’s pages, though it’s obvious that he’s made a vast amount of money. Instead, Whitacre provides a refreshing amount of sunshine and fresh air, with guardedness surrounding only the question of why he left GM, an event that still seems a touch mysterious. A keeper in a field of undercooked, underwritten books by CEOs.
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Williams, Geoff Pegasus (336 pp.) $27.95 | Feb. 20, 2013 978-1-60598-404-9
Deeply researched, personal accounts of the Midwestern natural disaster whose ramifications can be felt today. Journalist Williams (C.C. Pyle’s Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America, 2007) offers an eerily prescient work that comes in the wake of another storm of the century, Hurricane Sandy. In mid-March 1913, a series of tornadoes accompanied by a deluge of rain on saturated, thawing ground caused inordinate damage to a swath of Ohio and Indiana, impacting both neighboring states and those as far away as Vermont and New Jersey and leaving approximately 1,000 dead and untold damage to the heartland. Williams has delved into the archives and extracted the stories of survivors and many who perished, tragedies witnessed by many and recorded in newspapers, books and memories passed down. The beginnings could be felt on March 23, in Omaha, Neb., when a twister ripped through town and killed 140 people and destroyed thousands of homes; other tornadoes wreaked havoc from Chicago to Terre Haute, followed by a downpour that swelled the rivers, coursing rapidly through towns. Williams pummels readers with countless anecdotes and pursues the fates of such characters as the Red Cross’ national director Ernest P. Bicknell, who scrambled in the field to lend aid, or the young residents of the Allen County Orphans’ Home in Fort Wayne, Ind. The author also looks at the lessons taken from the aftermath, such as the work of engineer Arthur E. Morgan, who implemented a revolutionary flood-control system for the region. A well-honed chronicle of a significant national disaster, especially timely following the destruction of Sandy. (16 pages of photographs)
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“Not all of the adventures lead to insights for readers, but most will enjoy the trip nonetheless.” from the fear project
THE BIRD The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych
Wilson, Doug Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 26, 2013 978-1-250-00492-5 978-1-250-02114-4 e-book
A reminder of the time when America fell in love with a tall, lanky, curlyhaired pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. For a short time in the 1970s, the country was in thrall to Mark Fidrych, who came to be known as “The Bird” for his resemblance to Big Bird. Fidrych emerged seemingly from nowhere in the summer of 1976 and became an unlikely but legitimate phenomenon. Wilson (Fred Hutchinson and the 1964 Cincinnati Reds, 2010) tells the Bird’s story in this biography of the Massachusetts native whose antics included tending to his own pitching mound during games and allegedly talking to the baseball. Wilson also dispels a few myths along the way, namely disputing the demotion of Fidrych to a “flake,” despite his antics. He also paints Fidrych as a product of his time and argues that only in the 1970s could someone like Fidrych become such an icon. The beloved pitcher’s every move drew national attention, and his appearances sold out stadiums, whether for away games or for the home games of some lousy Tigers teams. Unfortunately, knee and throwing-shoulder injuries curtailed the career of the Bird. Wilson is not the most graceful prose stylist, but he has clear affection for the star-crossed Fidrych, and that passion, not to mention the built-in interesting story, overcomes some clunky writing. Fidrych, whose post-baseball career showed a man truly contented with life and with a deep passion for giving back to the world, died in 2009. Fidrych transfixed the country, albeit too briefly. This book serves as a reminder of why. (8-page b/w photo insert)
reaction trumps cognitively understanding the risks involved and how to ameliorate the fear afterward—led Yogis to embark on what he refers to as “an obsession” with exploring a subject not often discussed. This obsession led him to experience firsthand some common fear-inducing situations, as well as personal fear-trigger circumstances, to take a closer look at his responses and learn more about universal responses. Yogis relates scientific research as naturally as a conversation with a friend—often, the book reads as though it was transcribed rather than written. The author fluidly links discussions of frontal lobes, the modern adaptations of fight or flight and negativity bias with his own experiences—e.g., his foray into some of the most dangerous surfing conditions in the world. Yogis pulls these unusually fear-inducing situations in some surprising directions. Not all of the adventures lead to insights for readers, but most will enjoy the trip nonetheless.
THE FEAR PROJECT What Our Most Primal Emotion Taught Me About Survival, Success, Surfing... and Love
Yogis, Jaimal Rodale (256 pp.) $25.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-1-60961-176-7
A mix of autobiography and research comprises this exploration of what we fear and how we fear it. Journalist and photographer Yogis (Saltwater Buddha: A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea, 2009) shares an anecdote about his childhood, telling how he loved doing math as a child until a failed test somehow instilled a “fear memory” so deep inside him that he has avoided math as much as possible ever since. Understanding fear—how the split-second instinctual |
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children’s & teen EXPOSURE
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Askew, Kim; Helmes, Amy Merit Press (224 pp.) $17.95 | Jan. 18, 2013 978-1-4405-5261-8 Series: Twisted Lit, 2
THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR YOU by Barbara Kerley..........p. 2828 HATTIE EVER AFTER by Kirby Larson......................................p. 2829 CAKE by Joyce Magnin; illus. by Olga Ivanov; Alexsey Ivanov.............................................................................. p. 2833
Death, betrayal, ruthless plots to seize the “crown”—all the seeds of stage tragedy take root and flourish in this clever modern-day homage to Macbeth. Skye Kingston has always been more comfortable hidden behind the lens of her camera than out in front of it. Senior year at East Anchorage High lands her center stage in both a dangerous love triangle and a high-stakes plot to conceal what really happened the night Duncan, the captain of the hockey team, turns up dead. Skye nearly meets her match in the manipulative, power-hungry Beth, who will stop at nothing to reach the pinnacle of popularity, and that means using whatever means necessary to keep Craig, her boyfriend and prom-king-heir-apparent, away from Skye. Though Skye’s angst over whether or not to reveal what she knows about Duncan’s death grows tiresome, readers will surely cheer for this smart, reluctant heroine as she struggles to follow her heart and her head, even as those around her unravel. Unfortunately, in one of the novel’s greatest shortcomings, Duncan’s character is woefully underdeveloped. So, aside from the intrigue surrounding his untimely end, readers won’t much notice his absence. As it turns out, high school is rife with just enough passion and treachery to set a suitable stage for some Shakespearean-level drama. (Fiction. 13 & up)
ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell..................................... p. 2837 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNNY! by Elizabeth Garton Scanlon; illus. by Stephanie Graegin........................................................... p. 2838 MIDWINTERBLOOD by Marcus Sedgwick................................. p. 2838 CHEETAH CAN’T LOSE by Bob Shea.......................................... p. 2838 TIME-OUT FOR SOPHIE by Rosemary Wells..............................p. 2842 SPOT THE ANIMALS by American Museum of Natural History; illus. by Steve Jenkins................................................................... p. 2844 PLAYBOOK FARM by Corina Fletcher; illus. by Britta Teckentrup............................................................p. 2847 THE LEGEND OF MOMOTARO by Corey Finkle; illus. by Jason Nemec; Thom Adams....................................................................p. 2859 LOLA AND LUCY’S BIG ADVENTURE by Jane Jensen and Robert Holmes; illus. by Signus Labs............p. 2860
AMY AND THE MISSING PUPPY
THE LEGEND OF MOMOTARO
Barkley, Callie Illus. by Riti, Marsha Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (128 pp.) $14.99 | paper $4.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4424-5770-6 978-1-4424-5769-0 paperback Series: The Critter Club, 1
Finkle, Corey--Adapt. Illus. by Nemec, Jason; Adams, Thom Ghost Hand Games $2.99 | Nov. 2, 2012 1.0; Nov. 2, 2012
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Amy, left alone while her friends travel or are otherwise occupied during break, solves a mystery in this series opener. Amy whiles away her time helping with her mother’s veterinary practice. She misses her friends but looks forward to their next sleepover when everyone returns. When she’s not busy, she dives into her newest Nancy Drew book. When her |
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“Parts of this tale are remarkably suspenseful, especially the escape across the frozen lake and Ivan’s scheming at the German headquarters as he puts his plan into place.” from finding zasha
SURFACING
mother’s wealthiest client’s puppy, Rufus, goes missing, it’s time for Amy to use what she has learned from Nancy Drew to find the little Saint Bernard. When she does, the millionaire client generously plans to start a local shelter, at which the four friends can volunteer, opening the door for further adventures of the Critter Club. A mystery for emerging chapter-book readers has to provide easy-to-see clues, and this one does, enabling readers to solve the mystery right along with Amy. At times, the narrative is a bit too obvious: There is probably no need to have a full paragraph explaining the purpose of a vet’s office nor descriptions of the girls’ physical characteristics, given that each page is illustrated. With four likable, diverse characters and the surefire appeal of cute puppies and other pets, the Critter Club is off to a promising start. (Mystery. 5-7)
Baskin, Nora Raleigh Candlewick (208 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-4908-1 When Leah was 9 and Maggie 5, the sisters made a forbidden trip to the condo pool, where Leah drowned. Now 15 and a swim-team star, Maggie interprets her world, her worth and her choices through the prism of that loss. Loner Maggie has one loyal friend, Julie, and acquires another in Nathan, the boy she’s drawn into her life for reasons she can’t explain. (Maggie’s abrupt, often self-destructive choices may puzzle readers.) With heartbreaking clarity, Baskin limns a family tragedy that’s marked each member, showing how, for even the youngest, grief and loss can scab over into guilt and blame. Leah’s death even haunts Maggie’s twin brothers, born years later. Water, the all-purpose metaphor, serves the tale well, but other tropes are less successful, like Maggie’s unwanted, near-magical power to draw deeply personal confessions from others. In encounters with these undervalued characters (their only role to confess), Maggie’s indifference to their pain casts her in a harsh light. Throughout, Leah makes ghostly appearances, describing the motivations that led to her drowning with unvarnished honesty. Yet her voice also sounds a quasifantastic note that undermines the story’s closely observed, lyrical realism. At once frustrating and deeply moving, this ambitious novel comes tantalizingly close to getting it right. (Fiction. 14 & up)
FINDING ZASHA
Barrow, Randi Scholastic (352 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-545-45218-2 978-0-545-53223-5 e-book In a prequel to Saving Zasha (2011), Barrow provides a mildly harrowing depiction of life in Russia during World War II. Speaking in a plausible first-person voice, 12-year-old Ivan, a talented concertina player, begins the war living in Leningrad. Conditions swiftly deteriorate as the Germans both bomb and lay siege to the city. After his mother is sent to work in a distant factory, Ivan escapes across a frozen lake with Auntie, his wise elderly neighbor. In swift succession he joins the partisans, then deliberately—planning to work as a spy—attracts the attention of a sadistic Nazi, Maj. Axel, who keeps him in his headquarters to provide musical diversion. Axel owns a pair of German shepherd puppies that he’s planning to brutalize into becoming virtual bloodhounds, hoping to use them to track down Russians. Ivan is determined to steal the dogs; surprisingly, he convinces the partisans to help. Parts of this tale are remarkably suspenseful, especially the escape across the frozen lake and Ivan’s scheming at the German headquarters as he puts his plan into place. At other times, especially near the conclusion, the effects of the war become muted, lessening both the impact and the believability of the story. This effort will especially appeal to readers of Saving Zasha, but those who enjoy historical fiction will also find it to be an engaging read. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
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AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL Together We Stand Bates, Katherine Lee Orchard (32 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-545-49207-2
What better way to make this patriotic song meaningful to kids than with these lively illustrations by 10 different illustrators? Each spread portrays a line or phrase from the song with a sidebar quote from a president (cherry-picking from Washington to Obama). For “For amber waves of grain,” Mary GrandPré depicts three kids and a dog pretending to be sailing on a boat that’s a dead tree amid a field of wheat; this is paired with a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “I believe…that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.” An interior spread (“with brotherhood”) by LeUyen Pham repeats the cover, picturing kids wearing red-and-white striped outfits representing the flag’s stripes and kids in blue sweaters with stars completing the flag. The quote is from Theodore Roosevelt: “Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.” The other illustrators are Diane Goode, Jon J Muth, |
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Yuyi Morales, John Hendrix, Bryan Collier, Chris Soentpiet, Raúl Colon and Sonia Lynn Sadler. Handsomely designed, this is a beautiful tribute to America and Americana. (selected national landmarks and symbols, biographical note, song lyrics, definition of democracy) (Picture book. 5-9)
They are very insular, forsaking television, film and other cultural lynchpins. Among their immutable beliefs is that girls and women behave and dress modestly. Ditty’s friend’s mother has hidden a TV in her bedroom, though, and when the girls sneak in to watch it, she sees a performance of The Nutcracker and is hooked. Over the next few years, she manages to take classes, spinning a web of lies and deceit to her mother to cover her actions. She is quite talented, which leads to advanced classes on Saturday—in violation of the Jewish Sabbath. Finally, the lies are exposed, and Ditty must choose irrevocably between her family and ballet. Bavati traces a difficult path, on which Ditty increasingly questions her beliefs and sees them anew through the eyes of non-Jews. Readers should note that the ballet studio is not as strong a presence as the arena of religious conflicts. Glossaries of ballet terminology and Australian-isms would have been helpful to supplement the incomplete Hebrew/Yiddish glossary. A balletic variation on the familiar story of teen rebellion. (Fiction. 12 & up)
DANCING IN THE DARK
Bavati, Robyn Flux (336 pp.) $9.95 paperback | Feb. 8, 2013 978-0-7387-3477-4
Love of ballet clashes with the strict religious beliefs of a young teen’s family. Ditty has been raised in a haredi community. These ultrareligious Jews focus their lives on following God’s commandments as written in Jewish scripture.
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YOKO ONO Collector of Skies
Pug does not like him anymore. Pug realizes what has happened and sets out with dogged determination to make things right and successfully plan a birthday surprise. Cartoonist Breen gets the pacing and tone just right. The layout features varied sets of panels along with a few dramatic full-bleed spreads executed in mixed media of watercolor, acrylics and colored pencil. This design enhances the reading experience by turning a gentle, humorous story into a bit of a page turner. Readers will relate to the bruised feelings, mistaken mix-ups, challenges and ultimate joys of best friendship. Let’s just hope Pug and Doug return for more adventures. (Picture book. 4-6)
Beram, Nell; Boriss-Krimsky, Carolyn Amulet/Abrams (184 pp.) $24.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4197-0444-4 On the verge of her 80th birthday (Feb. 18, 2013), Ono steps out of her iconic late husband’s shadow for a sym-
pathetic profile. The authors present her as a groundbreaking creative artist whose work has been misunderstood, not to say derided, for decades and who was unjustly vilified as the woman who broke up the Beatles. They describe a comfortable upbringing in Japan and the United States, childhood experiences in World War II and artistic development as part of New York’s avantgarde scene in the 1950s and early ’60s. The book goes on to chronicle her relationships with various husbands, including “soul mate” John Lennon, and her two children, life as a peaceactivist celebrity in the ’70s, and (in much less detail) her activities, honors and exhibitions after Lennon’s death. The account is occasionally trite (“Yoko and John were stressed to the max”) or platitudinous, and it’s unlikely to persuade younger (or any) readers to appreciate Yoko’s creations—which run to works like an 80-minute film of naked rumps walking by and sets of chess pieces that are all the same color—as great art. Nevertheless, it does impart a good sense of conceptual and performance art’s purposes and expressions along with a detailed portrait of a complex woman who for several reasons has a significant place in our cultural history. Even rabid fans of Lennon or the 1960s will find new information and angles in this searching study. (photos, timeline to 2009, resource lists) (Biography. 12-15)
TREASURE ON SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN
Broach, Elise Illus. by Cararo, Antonio Javier Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (224 pp.) $15.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-8050-7763-6 The Barker brothers (Jack, Henry and Simon, ages 6, 10 and 11) encounter new adventures on Superstition Mountain in this second page turner. The action resumes two weeks after the first tale’s events (Missing on Superstition Mountain, 2011). After the boys’ friend Delilah, in a walking cast after her canyon fall, rejoins them after their grounding, they pore over the secret artifacts they’d brought down the mountain: a bag of old silver coins and a mysterious map. Among the coins, they discover a gold nugget, which stokes their shared curiosity about the legendary Lost Dutchman’s Mine and the colorful locals who once worked it—and those seemingly, mysteriously bent on its rediscovery. The children revisit the local library, explore an old ghost town and puzzle over the scanty but intriguing clues they assemble. When the boys’ vivacious, flighty Aunt Kathy arrives to mind them during their parents’ anniversary getaway, the foursome mounts another clandestine foray into the foreboding mountain’s secret canyon to search for the mine. But someone—or something—seems equally intent on scaring them away. Impulsive young Jack provides believably humorous moments. Combining cliffhanging chapter ends, sinister messages, a creepy librarian, Henry’s thoughtful internal monologues and the danger of unsupervised adventures in the Arizona landscape, this is a worthy second in Broach’s appealing series. Best enjoyed after the first, this absorbing, old-fashioned adventure will make readers eager for the next installment. (Mystery/adventure. 8-12)
PUG & DOUG
Breen, Steve Illus. by Breen, Steve Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 10, 2013 978-0-8037-3521-7 How can two best friends that have a lot in common come to terms with their differences and resolve a huge misunderstanding? Leave it to these canine buddies to show how it is done. Pale yellow Pug and pastel purple Doug both enjoy munching on day-old doughnuts, dancing to polka music and greeting each other with “a secret pawshake,” but they have unique personalities and preferences. Doug is artistic, imaginative and dramatic. Pug, not so much. In fact, “Doug thought that sometimes Pug could be a real stick-in-the-mud.” But Pug is actually quite loyal, methodical and persistent. When Doug glimpses an unfinished entry in Pug’s journal and misinterprets a few of Pug’s earlier actions, his imagination leads him to believe that 2818
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“Catalanotto employs brief, action-filled sentences and clear, simple dialogue that is accessible to children newly comfortable with independent reading.” from monkey & robot
WE GO TOGETHER! A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse
emotions. An odd, unnecessary preface states that the friends met at work and depicts them floating in air in a space capsule, which is probably unrecognizable to the intended audience. A fun-filled view of a warm, unlikely friendship. (Fiction. 5-8)
Brown, Calef Illus. by Brown, Calef Houghton Mifflin (40 pp.) $9.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-547-72128-6
SHADOWHUNTERS AND DOWNWORLDERS
In a collection that celebrates loving friendship, Brown artfully captures the comforting, sometimes odd moments of true affection. Each of the 14 poems dabbles in a bit of wordplay while experimenting with varied compositions of rhyming couplets. The qualities of best friends are the dominant theme: “If someone makes a crack / or puts me down, / you back me up / and stick around. / Always there / when I get in a tangle. / I lean on you / at a steep angle….” In the title poem, two guys liken themselves to silly pairings: “We go together / like fingers and thumbs. / Basses and drums. / Pastries and crumbs. / We go together / like apples and plums. / Molars and gums. / Genuine chums.” Flat acrylic illustrations not only supplement the text, but add to the quirky humor. For all the admirable qualities found within, this will probably have limited appeal due to the less-than-scintillating subject matter, and given the small trim size, sharing with a group will be challenging. Consider giving as a gift for a special pal. (Picture book/ poetry. 5-8)
Clare, Cassandra--Ed. Smart Pop/BenBella (256 pp.) $12.95 paperback | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-937856-22-9 Series: Mortal Instruments
A selection of essays about the Mortal Instruments series edited by the series’ author offers a couple of gems and a lot that’s not. Amid the mostly shallow veneration, a few entries stand
by Shelly Dickson Carr
MONKEY & ROBOT
Travel back to 1888 London with Katie Lennox. Can this smart, gutsy teen stop a serial killer?
Catalonotto, Peter Illus. by Catalonotto, Peter Richard Jackson/Atheneum (64 pp.) $12.99 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-4424-2978-9
“You’ll be torn by the need to race through the pages of RIPPED to discover what horror happens next, and the desire to a Jack the Ripper Time-Travel Thriller slow down and savor the fascinating details of Victorian London. A ripping-good novel!”
A really odd couple of friends shares fun and adventure. Monkey is clueless and innocent, while Robot is endlessly kind and patient. In four stand-alone chapters, sweet, funny vignettes depict a warm, accepting friendship that transcends differences. When they watch a monster movie, Robot suggests many diversions to ease Monkey’s terror, and his gentle reassurance turns the evening into a great success. A board game also causes some worries; Monkey is convinced to play just for the fun of it. Following a misconception about the singular form of the word “dice” and some antics when a dog runs off with it, the game ends in hilarity. In the final chapters, a cocoon and a game of hide-and-seek lead to more angst for Monkey and happy outcomes thanks to Robot. Catalanotto employs brief, action-filled sentences and clear, simple dialogue that is accessible to children newly comfortable with independent reading. It is formatted in large print with lots of white space and illustrated in black and white with graphite pencil and ink, complementing the text with strong visual clues and carefully conveying the characters’ |
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a YA Novel 520 pages, 6×9 in. 60 illustrations $19.95 paperback eBook Available
ISBN 978-1-939003-00-3
–Ellen Yeomans
Available December 15, 2012 From Ingram and Baker & Taylor
author of
Rubber Houses
www.ripped-book.com
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“Cobb deftly defines scientific terms such as lichen and permafrost, while simultaneously portraying the daily life of Alaskans…” from this place is cold
CHASING JUPITER
out. Kate Milford’s “Unhomely Places” is not so much about the Mortal Instruments series as it is a love song to New York as seen through the uncanny lens of the books. Michelle Hodkin, in “Simon Lewis: Jewish, Vampire, Hero,” examines both the parallels and the contradictions of Judaism and vampirism, closely reading Simon to see the heroism in his complex combination of the two. Other essays miss the mark. Kami Garcia’s “Why the Best Friend Never Gets the Girl,” for example, uses John Hughes movies to explain why Simon would never date Clary; are there no recent appropriate cultural touchstones? Multiple entries heap praise upon the series for its incorporation of queer relationships and mixed-race characters, though none of those essays point out that these queer and mixed-race characters are never the protagonists. Most of the entries focus on the series’ romantic aspects: incestuous tensions, one-sided crushes, brotherly love. Textual analysis sits side by side with “Malec” as a portmanteau describing the Magnus/Alec relationship, “OTP” to refer to the idea of a fan’s one true pairing and Facebook relationship statuses to explain character interactions. Self-serving, but enjoyable for committed fans. (Nonfiction 15-18)
Coker, Rachel Zondervan (224 pp.) $15.99 | Dec. 26, 2012 978-0-310-73293-8
Scarlett, 16, will need faith to guide her through a series of tribulations. Scarlett’s 10-year-old brother, ever-sowinsome Cliff, is perhaps afflicted with some type of high-functioning autism. Somewhat implausibly, Scarlett is the only one in her dysfunctional family who understands him at all. Her older sister, Juli, a budding hippie, is too wrapped up in her boyfriend, her parents are too busy fighting over money and politics— a conflict that never emerges as more than background noise—and her live-in grandfather is losing a battle with Alzheimer’s. After a promise to outer-space–focused Cliff, Scarlett starts earning money by baking peach pies so that she can build him a replica of a rocket ship. In this effort she is helped out by the son of the owner of the peach orchard, sensitive, smart Frank. Then there’s a terrible accident, heavily foreshadowed, with a nearly unbelievable outcome, and Scarlett must either succumb to despair or find a path to peaceful acceptance through God. Coker, a teen herself, too often lets her authorial voice intrude on Scarlett’s narrative, creating attractive (and frequently redundant) sentences that ring false—“I enjoyed the warm, breezy air kissing my windblown cheeks”—and weakens the narrative by too-often resorting to telling rather than showing. The 1969 time period is never well-realized. Christian teen readers may enjoy this average effort by one of their own, in spite of its flaws. (Historical fiction. 11-16)
THIS PLACE IS COLD
Cobb, Vicki Illus. by Lavallee, Barbara Walker (32 pp.) $8.99 paperback | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-8027-3401-3 Series: Imagine Living Here Updated from the 1989 version, this reissue still has enough incredible facts and bitter cold to make readers shiver in excitement. Can you imagine living in a place where your eyelashes freeze? But you don’t dare rub them because they might break off completely! Or did you know that polar bears have black skin under their white fur? Cobb explores the animals, plants, climate and residents of the mighty cold 49th state, Alaska. With a new typeface, bold subject headings and a tightened text, the revised design is much less cluttered than the earlier one. Plus, Lavallee’s watercolors are given a chance to shine. Colors are sharper, and the newly created space around the text allows the illustrations to open up and breathe. Cobb deftly defines scientific terms such as lichen and permafrost, while simultaneously portraying the daily life of Alaskans (although the umbrella term “Eskimo” is used instead of more specific ethnic terms). One completely new addition to the text is the section on global warming, an important and timely topic to include. Alaska may seem like an unforgiving landscape, but set within the safety of these pages, readers can travel far and wide. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 5-8)
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Craven, Tracy Leininger Zonderkidz (160 pp.) $9.99 paperback | Dec. 26, 2012 978-0-310-73053-8 During the French and Indian War, Native Americans capture two sisters, 12-year-old Barbara and 9-year-old Regina, from their frontier Pennsylvania farm. The sisters are separated within days of being taken captive. The third-person narration follows Barbara: her long overland journey, then her life as a captive and eventually, an almost fully accepted member of the Allegheny tribe. Having never given up hope, after three years, Barbara and three other teens flee, embarking on a perilous 200-mile-long escape across the Ohio River and back to the safety of Fort Pitt. From the outset, this tale reads almost as a parable, the introduction intoning, “a handful of families came to dwell there. They lived happily in harmony both with God and man—even with the Indians.” Because of its relative brevity and the sometimes distancing didacticism of the narrative, the full impact of Barbara’s trials is often blunted. Although Native Americans are sometimes sympathetically depicted, they never |
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become much more than pidgin-speaking cardboard characters. A final moral/religious lesson in the form of Barbara’s later reaction to a good-hearted potential suitor seems superfluous. I Am Regina (1991) tells the same story, more sympathetically. A potentially fascinating story of the survival of a powerful, sustaining human spirit is too often bogged down by an intrusively preachy narrative voice that never trusts readers to draw their own appropriate conclusions. (Historical fiction. 11-16)
Dishing up appetizing facts and observations (“The pack may start to eat even before their victim is actually dead”), the author opens big with “Killer Cats,” feral canines, sharks and other carnivorous macro-creatures. Then she seats a guest list of such smaller fry as owls, snakes, “[t]eeny and [t]oxic” box jellyfish and spiders around Nature’s table, leaving room for latecomers with defense mechanisms like noxious sprays (bombardier beetle) or poison skin (puffer fish). Following delicious cautionary notes about smart and stupid human behavior around wild animals (and an off-flavored remark about the dangers of working in “poor tropical countries”), she rounds out the banquet with assorted amuse-bouches relating to the importance of predators to ecosystems and the potential uses of venoms in medical research. Layton garnishes his doodled cartoons with can’t-end-well dialogue (“here snakey, snakey…”) in balloons and occasional splashes of gore. Despite all this, all these creatures look like Twinkies next to the unmentioned microbial clan. Easily digestible, if not particularly nutritious. (index, glossary) (Nonfiction. 7-9)
THE DIFFERENT GIRL
Dahlquist, Gordon Dutton (240 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 21, 2013 978-0-525-42597-7
Four nearly identical girls living with their teachers on a tropical island have difficulty getting along with a new girl who seems different from them in this unusual and enigmatic science-fiction outing. Written entirely from the point of view of one of the island girls, Veronika, the simple prose slowly reveals who—or what—the girls might be. At first glance, the only difference appears to be hair color, but each turns out to have a different focus. They spend their days learning in their classroom from adults Robbert and Irene and taking observational walks. The girls look closely at everything they see, describing it all when they return. Robbert strives to hide the girls from any outside eyes and makes sure they don’t get wet. Things go awry when Veronika discovers May washed up on the beach, apparently the survivor of a shipwreck. Once she recovers from her injuries, May rejects the four girls and flees, but when an outside danger intrudes, it’s May who steps up to save them. Dahlquist trusts his audience to notice his sparse but clear clues in order to decipher the true differences between May and the four island girls, and astute readers will have little difficulty with his scenario. The author never reveals why the girls are hidden away and what their purpose might be, leaving that to readers’ imaginations. Most intriguing. (Science fiction. 12 & up)
DEADLY! The Truth About the Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth Davies, Nicola Illus. by Layton, Neal Candlewick (64 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6231-8
Davies (Talk, Talk, Squawk!, 2011) rips viciously into another popular topic with this gallery of animals “decked out for killing”—from tiny venomous spiders to big cats for whom humans are just slow-moving “meals-on-legs.” |
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“Out of the vampire-hunting-ground frying pan into the freakish-religious-cult fire.” from the prey
JUST ONE DAY
ruin her chance for freedom. Although Forster supplies twists and mystery, moments of revelation are somewhat lackluster. A romance thread targets readers older than those who’ll be riveted by Nisha’s special relationship with wild cats. (Bizarrely, those two themes eventually converge.) Moreover, Bhinian culture is a troublingly arbitrary amalgam of South Asian and East Asian details—jeera puffs and mukhwas, tea ceremonies and fan dancing, names like Akash tar’Vey or Lotus Emperor. Memorable but bumpy. (Fantasy. 11-15)
Forman, Gayle Dutton (384 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-525-42591-5
At the end of a European tour for teens the summer before college, a rulesfollowing, 18-year-old girl impulsively travels to Paris with a handsome Shakespearean actor, a one-day adventure that becomes the catalyst for big changes in the way she sees herself and her place in the world. Nicely integrating the work of Shakespeare as a thematic jumping-off place, author Forman explores “the line between true self and feigned self,” the multiple personae, roles and identities that coexist in a single soul. After Allyson, the dutiful, emotionally muted daughter of a pulmonologist father and helicopter mother, finally breaks out and has a romantic adventure with aforesaid handsome actor, she wakes up alone. She feels betrayed and played, precipitating a hard-to-buy psychological crisis. Once in college, Allyson finds herself unengaged by the pre-med curriculum her parents designed. Although she feels trapped by their expectations, with the support of classmate Dee (who tiptoes through various identities and roles himself) Allyson begins the business of figuring out who she is and what she wants. As she blossoms and emerges from her tedious depression, the novel becomes absorbing, and readers will find themselves rooting for Allyson’s more autonomous and interesting self. An overlong coming-of-age novel that takes forever to get going but soars at the finish. (Fiction. 14 & up)
THE PREY
Fukuda, Andrew St. Martin’s Griffin (336 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-250-00511-3 978-1-250-02075-8 e-book Series: Hunt, 2 Out of the vampire-hunting-ground frying pan into the freakish-religiouscult fire. Gene, Sissy and the boys aren’t free of the bloodsuckers yet. Their thrilling escape from the hunting compound at the conclusion of The Hunt (2012) brought them to a serendipitous boat; now they rocket down the river as the monstrously strong vampires pursue them by night. Will their quest lead them to the promised Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit and Sunshine? A hidden village of generous, well-fed, happily singing villagers seems to glow with all the hope of their promised paradise. But all is not well in this compound: Gene worries that Sissy is forced to stay apart from both the boys and the village’s eerily cheerful and heavily pregnant girls. As further evidence of wrongness, the village’s charismatic leader has “smooth, effeminate” skin, and he and his henchmen are “all blubber and liquid fat”—clear indicators of his untrustworthiness and the general air of sexual violence. The standard creepycult-compound chapter of many a dystopian series is enhanced by a fast-paced escape sequence, peppered with the grotesqueries that mark Fukuda’s vampire mythos. A few mysteries are solved, only to reveal further puzzles, and it all wraps up with a cinematic cliffhanger. A lengthy interlude in creepsterville, with the promise of a return to gory thrills. (Science fiction. 14-16)
CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS
Forster, Miriam HarperTeen (368 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-06-212130-1 978-0-06-212131-8 e-book
A vivid but uneven debut takes place in an Asian-blend fantasy world. The Bhinian Empire has a “twochild law.” Because boys are more valued, infant girls were smothered or left for wolves until the creation of the City of a Thousand Dolls. Not a city but rather “a large private estate ringed by a high stone wall,” this refuge grooms girls in one of six Houses—Flowers, Beauty, Pleasure, Combat, Jade and Music—until a man claims them as wife or mistress or until (shown less often) a healer or tradesperson selects them as apprentice. Now 16, Nisha has been here since age 6. Her unknown parentage and unique status (working as “Matron’s shadow” rather than training in a House) render her a predictable fantasy archetype. When girls begin turning up dead, Nisha pursues the truth—accidents? murders? suicides?—hoping to circumvent the Council’s plan to sell her and 2822
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MAGGOT MOON
flowers (white oak, white pine, balsam fir and beech). Children unaware of the distinction might become distracted from the rhythm of the book and ask questions. Unfortunately, there are few answers in the poetic text. The ending pages show all the blossoms on one page, followed by a description of the transformation of trees in the spring, which includes a paragraph on male and female flowers. Evan’s block-print-and–watercolor artwork provides clean and colorful images of the blossoms, although the medium seems to work better with the snow scenes and evergreens of the duo’s Winter Trees. An artistic seasonal book, best appreciated by flower lovers. (Informational picture book. 4-7)
Gardner, Sally Illus. by Crouch, Julian Candlewick (288 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6553-1 Standish Treadwell, 15, has lost parents, neighbors, best friend: All disappeared from Zone Seven, a post-war occupied territory, into the hellish clutches of the Motherland. Now a new horror approaches. Though it’s unnamed, the Motherland’s distinguishing features scream “Nazi Germany.” Life in Zone Seven is a dreary round of familiar miseries. Standish and Hector spin fantasies about the far-off tantalizing consumer culture they glimpsed on television (now banned), but they lack a vision of the future beyond vague dreams of rescue. Food is scarce; surveillance constant. Loved ones vanish; teachers beat children to death while classmates look on. Abetting the powerful, residents inform on their neighbors for food. Kindness revealed is punished; solutions are final. Call it Auschwitz lite. Why the brutal state bothers to educate those, like Standish, labeled “impure” (his eyes are of different colors and he’s dyslexic), is unclear. Despite short chapters and simple vocabulary and syntax, the detailed, sadistic violence makes this is a poor choice for younger readers, while oversimplified characters, a feeble setting and inauthentic science make it a tough sell for older ones. In this nuance- and complexity-free world, scarcity rules. Standish dreams of “icecream-colored Cadillacs” and drinking “Croca-Colas.” Wealthdisparity, climate change and childhood obesity don’t exist. Despite intentions, this tale never connects past to present, resulting in a book with a message but no resonance. (Speculative fiction. 13 & up)
SPRING BLOSSOMS
Gerber, Carole Illus. by Evans, Leslie Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 1, 2013 978-1-58089-412-8 978-1-60734-594-7 e-book The third in a seasonal series by Gerber and Evans (Winter Trees, 2008, etc.), this picture book presents 10 different spring-blooming trees. Two young girls hold hands and skip out into a new spring day. “Spring is bursting out all over. / The sun is up. It’s warm. Let’s go! // Trees, so bare and plain in winter, / are dressed up for their yearly show.” Gerber’s gentle and informative text moves gracefully through the pages, providing descriptions of flowering trees. The dogwood and crab-apple flowers are easily recognized. Less familiar are the white oak and magnolia tree blossoms. Four of the examples show the difference between the male and female |
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ROBINSON’S HOOD
moments, and the story builds to a climax both inevitable and wrenching. Readers who invest in this quirky set of characters and circumstances will be rewarded. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Gottesfeld, Jeff Saddleback Educational Publishing (126 pp.) $8.95 paperback | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-62250-000-0
REVEL
The first in a planned series is slight in length as well as in concept. Robin—short for Robinson—lives with his grandmother “on the toughest street in the toughest hood in the tough city of Ironwood.” Devoted to school and to his grandmother, he spends his days outside school at the Barbara Jordan Community Center and helping out at his gramma’s Shrimp Shack. Although readers may relate to the bullying and gang violence Robin encounters, they will most likely not swallow his teacher’s-pet narrative voice (“He’d already done his summer reading, an amazing novel called Bud, Not Buddy... and written a great five-paragraph essay too”). His lack of street smarts is similarly unbelievable: Even readers who aren’t skeptical when Robin cheerfully asks the local bully, “You all ready for school?” will surely struggle when, out of just slightly more than idle curiosity, Robin goes to a spot where he sees a gang member hiding something and finds almost exactly enough money to save the Center from closing. An abrupt cliffhanger leaves the story completely unresolved, but with so many flaws, it’s hard to imagine there will be much clamoring for the follow-up volume. Misses the mark almost completely. (Fiction. 10-14)
Guibord, Maurissa Delacorte (352 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | PLB $19.99 Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-385-74187-3 978-0-375-98734-2 e-book 978-0-375-99029-8 PLB An orphan girl seeks a family and finds more than she could have expected. When her mother dies, Delia tries to reach the Maine island where her grandmother lives but finds it cut off from the world. Finally, an old man takes her there, but no one welcomes her. Uncovering the secrets of the island, she learns that a race of demigods tied to ancient Greek mythology controls everything that happens there, while the occupants do their best to accommodate those they see as their protectors. Those accommodations, however, include demanding great sacrifices from some of their young people. Worse, real monsters lurk just under the surface of the sea, and a few might be found on land as well. But when the celebration of Revel arrives, Delia acts as no other has dared in the history of the island. Tension flares when both Delia and Jax, her supernatural protector, step outside the rules. Demigod or not, Jax doesn’t control the forces or the true rulers of the island. Guibord keeps the focus on the island’s unfolding mysteries and on the adventure, throwing in two possible romantic partners for Delia: a handsome local boy and Jax, the (thankfully) unhandsome, rebellious demigod. Characters come across as believable and engaging, especially Delia’s tough grandma, Ben, the seaman who, as he says, is older than he looks, and iconoclastic Jax. A smooth and imaginative-enough adventure, complete with romance, monsters and mythology. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)
THE WHOLE STUPID WAY WE ARE
Griffin, N. Atheneum (368 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-4424-3155-3
The friendship between optimistic Dinah Beach and depressed, nihilistic Skint Gilbert is tested in a carefully crafted and highly stylized tale. The narrative is written in third person and told with a degree of distance from each point-of-view character (mostly Dinah, but occasionally Skint and twice Dinah’s baby brother, Beagie), and it is initially difficult to discern how much to take at face value. How sincere is the pair’s devotion to the Girls’ Friendly, a service club at the church where Dinah’s father is warden? How seriously are readers to take language like Dinah’s internal “Tchah to Mrs. Beach’s Alone Night!” or her mother’s “You look bilious....What’s wrong?” The closeness between Dinah and Skint, at least, is clear from the outset, and so are the conflicts between them. Skint thinks constantly about human cruelty; Dinah wants playful distractions. Skint lives with a father suffering from dementia and a mother who is bitter, angry and occasionally violent; Dinah takes care not to bring up Skint’s family. Images of Skint wandering coatless through the New England winter haunt even the narrative’s cheerful 2824
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PEACE
Halperin, Wendy Anderson Illus. by Halperin, Wendy Anderson Atheneum (40 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-689-82552-1 It is difficult to teach the concept of peace, especially through words alone. Wisely, Halperin buttresses her words visually. Halperin pulls readers in by letting them create their own stories. In the first half, when the narrator explains what must be done (“For there to be peace in nations, / there must be peace in |
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“[E]very squirrel, mole and badger on every page feels genuinely alive.” from cheer up, mouse!
CHEER UP, MOUSE!
cities”), small, detailed vignettes show people around the world in trying circumstances. Readers see anger, loneliness, bullying and more. But when the structure switches and works its way from the microcosm back out (“There will be peace in our cities / when there is peace in our nations”), readers can find resolutions to all the problems of the previous pages. Halperin invites children to pore over the colored-pencil drawings, carefully inspecting each miniature storyline to imagine what happens. In the first nations/cities spread, for example, one vignette depicts an old man with a cane walking past a full bench on a subway car; in the second, a boy has stood to give him his seat. Quotes from noted peacemakers wind in ribbons around the vignettes. The center spread, which declares the ever-earnest advice that peace must start in our hearts, includes drawings from actual children—all of which hopefully inspire readers that they can make a difference, no matter how small. Soft-spoken, yet powerful; Halperin not only tells, she makes readers think, which is the best way to learn. (Picture book. 5-8)
Henry, Jed Illus. by Henry, Jed Houghton Mifflin (32 pp.) $12.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-0-547-68107-8 Who doesn’t love a parade? In this book, the parade starts on the copyright page. A badger juggles ripe plums. Birds toss flower petals into the crowd. A squirrel plays a fiddle made out of a walnut shell. Sitting in the middle is the saddest mouse in the world, staring at his feet. He won’t cheer up even when his friends bounce him through the air on a blanket. He’s not a parade sort of mouse. He spends several pages of the book just looking wordlessly down at the ground. (The story is a better study of depression than some textbooks.) The narrative sometimes shifts suddenly from pages filled with dialogue to pages with no words at all. The contrast is sometimes shocking, but the book teaches readers as they turn the pages. Each animal has an elaborate cure for
ABRAHAM LINCOLN Birth of a New Freedom
Helfand, Lewis Illus. by Manikandan Campfire (108 pp.) $12.99 paperback | Feb. 1, 2013 978-93-80741-21-5 Series: Graphic Novel Heroes
Lincoln’s life gets a graphic treatment, but the prose reads like a school report, and even the battle scenes look staged. The book takes the form of an autobiographical lecture to his son Tad that highlights his intense opposition to slavery. Lincoln carries his story from early days (“On February 12, 1809, in Hardin County in Kentucky, I was born in a small, one-room log cabin”) to his departure for Ford’s Theatre. At this point, an omniscient narrator takes over to cover the assassination and the later ratification of the 13th Amendment. Though Helfand slips in short flights of eloquence from Lincoln’s oratory, his own writing runs to lines like “Nor could he accept that the future of his nation should be resigned to slavery and injustice” and “This new guy, Abraham, is going down.” The illustrator tries to add pace and energy by slanting and overlaying his squared-off panels and adding discreetly sized sound effects (slave catchers’ dogs: “Woof! Woof!”). Despite this, neither the occasional cleanly drawn battlefields nor the many scenes of men in suits exchanging political views are the stuff of compelling visuals. Reasonably accurate—but the historical territory is already thoroughly surveyed elsewhere, and the unusual format doesn’t compensate for the routine content. (appendix) (Graphic nonfiction. 11-13)
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“Blake’s sprightly, quirky signature ink-and-watercolor illustrations vibrate with playfulness and humor…” from rosie’s magic horse
sadness, and their expressions alone tell the story every time they try a new scheme. The message of the book is a little slight: Sometimes a mouse just needs a hug. But every squirrel, mole and badger on every page feels genuinely alive. And it’s true: Sometimes a mouse does just need a hug. Simple and satisfying. (Picture book. 4-8)
sassy new stick boldly asserts he could be something, “maybe a horse.” At bedtime, Rosie wishes for a treasure chest to help her parents pay their bills while her fingers arrange the sticks into a horse shape. Midnight arrives, and Rosie awakens when a horse named “Stickerino” gallops out of the cigar box, promising to take her where there’s treasure. Rosie and Stickerino fly over cities, jungles, oceans and deserts until they arrive at an ice-pop mountain, where Stickerino “stickles” some pirate toughs while Rosie grabs a treasure chest. Next morning, Rosie presents her amazed father with a chest of gold while the sticks recover from their adventure. Blake’s sprightly, quirky signature ink-and-watercolor illustrations vibrate with playfulness and humor as they transport Rosie and Stickerino from their mundane urban world across color-washed pages to a rainbow-hued ice-pop mountain populated with rascally pirates, hilariously tickled into submission by empowered ice-pop sticks. It’s an exuberant reminder to dream big, although, sadly, Hoban’s text has been Americanized, losing some of its flavor. (Picture book. 4-8)
FALLING OUT OF PLACE
Higgins, M.G. Saddleback Educational Publishing (191 pp.) $9.95 paperback | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-62250-021-5 Series: Gravel Road Unusually expressive for its simple vocabulary, the latest from the Gravel Road series sees high schooler Gabby Herrera coping with depression, strict parents and her own impulsive
NEVER SAY DIE
decision-making. When Gabby earns a C-average on her report card, her parents’ response is swift and harsh. Gabby is forbidden to use her phone, required to start an after-school job at the Grocery Mart warehouse and, worst, forced to quit the basketball team. Angry and powerless, Gabby lashes out at those closest to her. That Gabby’s fighting, drinking and unkind comments are disproportionate to the situation and alarming to those who care about her is made apparent to readers through subtle detail and the words of well-drawn characters. Gabby’s relationships with friends and family are similarly complex. Camaraderie develops among Gabby and her new friends from work, but readers can observe ways the older co-workers treat Gabby poorly: sending her home from a party with a drunk driver; flirting with her but, confusingly, hooking up with other girls. Most poignant is Gabby’s relationship with her favorite uncle, Mike, who only she knows is gay, and the way Gabby’s mental stability unravels when her family rejects Mike is both believable and heartbreaking. A many-layered tale, simply told. (Fiction. 12-18)
Hobbs, Will Harper/HarperCollins (224 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | PLB $17.89 Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-170878-7 978-0-06-222384-5 e-book 978-0-06-170879-4 PLB Half-Inuit Alaskan Nick, 15, finds adventure with his older, white half brother Ryan on a National Geographic photographic expedition in Yukon Territory. Nick’s discovery of a grizzly/polar bear hybrid at the very outset of the book sets the stage for a nonstop survival adventure. Extremely aggressive and predatory, the 900-pound bear becomes a symbol of the frightening consequences that occur in the wild due to human meddling in the environment. On the expedition, one possible disaster after another occurs, and Nick and Ryan have to cope with them all, relying on knowledge of the terrain and the best survival techniques of both cultural heritages. Narrator Nick’s voice is consistent, befitting his upbringing in the small town of Aklavik. The geography of the area and climate are well-delineated, becoming an integral part of the story. The final confrontation is a bit far-fetched, but readers who have stuck with the story that far will likely not care. “Man vs. nature” is a recognizable subgenre of adventure stories, but Hobbs skillfully inserts an eco-conscious twist, asking readers and characters to recognize that in this case, “nature” is man-made. Solid adventure fare. (Adventure. 11-16)
ROSIE’S MAGIC HORSE
Hoban, Russell Illus. by Blake, Quentin Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-6400-8
A little girl finds a discarded ice-pop stick, triggering a surprising adventure in this rib-tickling fantasy. When Rosie discovers a used icepop stick, she automatically adds it to the cigar box housing her collection of other ice-pop sticks. The other sticks whine they are “nothing” without their frozen confections, but the 2826
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DIG THOSE DINOSAURS
word mistress is used), and while danger is indeed described, it is bleached of any horror. The cover shows a smiling girl in a trench coat and a fedora, about as inappropriate an image for these brave and resourceful women as can be imagined. (bibliography, end notes) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Houran, Lori Haskins Illus. by Marquez, Francisca Whitman (24 pp.) $15.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-8075-1579-2
New and preliterate readers will happily clap along to the incantatory rhythms of this primary-level call to “dig, dig, dig”— in both senses of the word—dino fossils. Using repetition and rhyme, Houran comments as paleontologists carefully excavate fossils from a site, wrap them up for shipment (“So big, big, big those dinosaurs / Big, big, big those dinosaurs…”), then lay them out in a museum lab (“Jig, jig, jigsaw dinosaurs”), to be assembled (“Rig, rig, rig…”) into a display with painted backdrops and finally surrounded by a flood of admiring museumgoers. With simplified but reasonable accuracy, Marquez depicts each stage of the process in softly modeled, harmoniously colored scenes, and her crew of paleontologists is diverse in both ethnicity and gender (although, sadly, the crew supervisor is a bespectacled white man). Both author and illustrator digestibly expand on each step of the process in a closing spread. A rousing prelude to Aliki’s more detailed dino discourses, tailor-made for reading aloud. (Informational picture book. 3-5)
MY FIRST DAY
Jenkins, Steve; Page, Robin Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Houghton Mifflin (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-547-73851-2 Jenkins and Page find yet another inviting way to connect young human readers and listeners to creatures who share their world, presenting 22 baby animals that describe their very first day of life. From the kiwi that kicked its way out of its egg to the polar bear cuddled up with its mother snug and warm under the snow, each page or spread reveals an animal’s initial independence and the level of parental care. There’s a splendid variety, from familiar tigers and giraffes to capybaras and megapodes—even a parent bug, which gets its name because the mother, unlike most insects, stays around to guard her young larvae. The focus of Jenkins’ cut-and-torn paper illustrations is on the babies, each shown against a plain background whose color may represent something of its world. Sometimes the parent is visible or partially visible. A short paragraph of read-aloud text appears on the page along with a tiny label. The backmatter reintroduces each animal with further information about where it can be found, how big it will get to be and other behaviors. While the authors have a splendid track record, it would still be nice to have sources or at least an acknowledgement that an animal expert had vetted these facts. Appealing to a wide age range, this is another crowd pleaser. (Informational picture book. 2-7)
IN DISGUISE! Undercover with Real Women Spies
Hunter, Ryan Ann Aladdin (176 pp.) $17.99 | paper$9.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-1-58270-383-1 978-1-58270-382-4 paperback
Updated from a 2003 edition, this catalog of female spies is depressingly sanitized and breathless. The language is plain, simple and occasionally clichéd, enlivened by far too many exclamation points. It seems that nearly every one of these 40-plus women was beautiful or attractive, but far more interesting is how many of them knew several languages and were more educated than was typical for girls of their time. The authors (Hunter is a pseudonym for Pamela D. Greenwood and Elizabeth G. Macalaster) cover 300 years, from the Anglo-Dutch wars and Aphra Behn to Valerie Plame Wilson (a one-page “Spotlight”) and Lindsay Moran. The wide range of wars and women includes Ann Story, who spied for and protected the Green Mountain Boys in the American Revolution, and Eva Wu, a dancer who spied against the Communist Chinese in Hong Kong. “Spycraft” activities include making a fake rock to hide documents in and creating a cover identity. Chef Julia Child, actress Hedy Lamarr and Mata Hari are mentioned, although in brief Spotlights rather than full chapters. The language strives mightily to avoid any hint of sex (although the |
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ANDREW JENKS My Adventures As a Young Filmmaker
Jenks, Andrew Scholastic (224 pp.) $19.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-545-41727-3
A well-told tale of a young filmmaker’s progress. This autobiography—here as in all things, the 26-year-old Jenks is a fast starter—is a steady and revealing window into Jenks’ life. With considerable brio, he not only charts his filmmaking precociousness, but tenders what are often aching glimpses into his personality. These range from his challenging youth (as for puberty, “I hadn’t become a man but a huge baby”) to his present-day whirl of activity. And it is a wonderful thing |
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to witness Jenks letting the ants in his pants get to work. In high school, he was already getting into hot water with his short documentaries for the local free TV station (the pizza guys didn’t like him dissing their product). He moved on to highly imaginative works that included a tender portrait of an assisted-living home (when he was 19) and nine months in the life of maverick baseball coach Bobby Valentine (in Japan). From there, he went to an MTV show that documents everything from a homeless youth to horse slaughter farms in Miami, with the emphasis on his determination to connect kids with the issues. None of this was a gimme; Jenks worked like a dog for it all, though obviously with more than a spoonful of native talent. One happy and spirited object lesson in what tenacity can bring. (Nonfiction. 10 & up)
Taken from her pathetically ill-treated mother, Ginger is brought to a pet shop where she’s bought by a shallow couple as an inappropriate Christmas present for their 2-year-old son. Acting as puppies do, Ginger gets herself in enough trouble that she’s turned over to an animal shelter. Then she’s taken in by a kindly man who understands her needs but—inevitably—leaves her with an irresponsible pet sitter. Eventually, she ends up on the streets with a group of feral dogs. After getting passed to a pet rescuer, things finally begin to look up for Ginger, providing a final object lesson on what constitutes a good pet home. While Ginger’s first-person narration is relatively believable, the plot seems driven by the need to inform young readers about the many pitfalls mistreated pets encounter, rather than by the desire to tell a good story. But including such a wide range of unfortunate situations diminishes the separate impact of each one, since there is only room to lightly sketch them in this brief chapter book. Attractive, realistic drawings in each chapter fully capture Ginger’s placid nature. Assisted by Ginger’s attractively gentle voice, pet lovers may be willing to overlook the sometimes heavy-handed narrative. (history of golden retriever breed, information on puppy mills, rescue groups, animal shelters, and how to choose a dog.) (Fiction. 8-12)
THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR YOU
Kerley, Barbara National Geographic (48 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-4263-1114-7 A stirring invitation to leap, dive, soar, plunge and thrill to the natural world’s wonders and glories. “Right outside your window there’s a world to explore,” writes Kerley. “Ready?” In huge, bright, sharply focused photos, a hang glider and a mountain climber dangle in midair, a paleontologist carefully brushes dirt off a fossil, an astronaut dangles near the International Space Station, and spelunkers clamber amid spectacular crystals. These dramatic images mingle with equally eyefilling scenes of muddy, soaked, laughing young children—some venturing alone down a forest path or over jumbles of rock, others peering into a snow cave or a starry sky. “Size things up,” suggests the author. “Get a firm grip. Then… / …start climbing.” This may well leave safety-obsessed parents with the vapors, but that may be all to the good. Explanatory captions for several of the photographs, from very brief profiles of the explorers to the stories behind the photos themselves, appear at the end. Vivid glimpses of what waits for anyone who is willing to stop just looking and go. (Picture book. 6-8)
WINTER’S TIDE
Kline, Lisa Williams Zonderkidz (240 pp.) $10.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-310-72619-7 Series: Sisters in All Seasons, 4 In the latest installment of this series following two very different stepsisters through the seasons, each brings unique gifts and deficits to the task of coping with tough life issues. It’s Christmas, but holiday spirit is in short supply. A moment of anger gets Diana suspended from high school. Stephanie, who remembers her stepbrother Matt’s drunken threats when she overheard him bragging about stealing beer, dreads encountering him during the obligatory visit to her mother. Then Matt’s badly injured in a car accident, and Stephanie’s grandmother is hospitalized with pancreatitis. The family heads to the North Carolina shore to care for her home and beloved dog, Jelly. When Jelly takes a dislike to Diana, she’s devastated—her self-esteem is founded on her connection with animals—but discovering a beached pilot whale soon distracts her. Stephanie worries about Grammy Verra and feels guilty over wishing harm to Matt. Although both girls continue to seem younger than their stated ages, characterization remains a strong suit. Contrarian, courageous, empathy-challenged Diana struggles with a serious mood disorder. Compassionate, self-aware Stephanie is easily immobilized by anxiety. Demonstrating that less is more and showing trumps telling, the plight of endangered species and the gentle, inclusive message that faith can be an anchor in troubled times are implied, not hammered home. (Fiction. 10-16)
GINGER
Klimo, Kate Illus. by Jessell, Tim Random House (160 pp.) $6.99 | $6.99 e-book | PLB $12.99 Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-307-97899-8 978-0-307-97902-5 e-book 978-0-307-97901-8 PLB Series: Dog Diaries, 1 Ginger, a golden retriever, is the product of a brutal puppy mill, inauspicious beginnings that don’t improve much. 2828
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“Readers will fall for this earnest, wide-eyed and strong-minded young woman…” from hattie ever after
MY CROCODILE DOES NOT BITE
and confusion reigns until Sherlock has one of his trademark eureka moments. The ensuing spectacular chase through Moscow’s streets results in a breathless (and surprising) climax and satisfying resolution of most of the book’s mysteries. Sherlock Holmes fans will enjoy the electrifying adventure and value the insights into the character traits that make the adult Holmes so fascinating. (Mystery/adventure. 13-17)
Kulka, Joe Illus. by Kulka, Joe Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.95 e-book | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-7613-8937-8 978-1-4677-0955-2 e-book Cindy Lou and her miniature poodle Fifi become just desserts at the school pet show. Kulka introduces readers to Ernest as Ernest is introducing his pet crocodile, Gustave, to his friends while they get ready for the school pet show. Cindy Lou, a sniffy brat, says that Gustave should be banned. “What a stupid pet….He’ll bite everybody!” His crocodile doesn’t bite, says Ernest. He is well-behaved and does tricks, like juggle and ride a unicycle. But Cindy Lou keeps up her barrage of insults—and dastardly deeds like tripping Gustave—her face screwed into a rictus of disdain. She is such a nasty, sneering piece of work that it comes as a pleasure when she accidentally bounces a ball into Gustave’s maw. Cindy Lou and Fifi enter in pursuit, and well, it turns out that Gustave may not bite, but he has a great capacity to swallow. Au revoir, Cindy Lou, ma chère. Kulka softens the story at the very end, though it still packs a surprising punch. There is a pillowy softness to Gustave, though the rest of the characters have a crisp gaiety, all but you-know-who—Kulka draws Cindy Lou very broadly; still, into every life a Cindy Lou will fall. An amusing twist that will make readers wonder about the meaning of a really well-trained crocodile. (Picture book. 5-9)
HATTIE EVER AFTER
Larson, Kirby Delacorte (240 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | PLB $19.99 Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-385-73746-3 978-0-307-97968-1 e-book 978-0-385-90668-5 PLB Plucky Hattie Inez Brooks, star of Hattie Big Sky (2006), returns to try to find her place in the world. Having spent a year trying—and failing—to make a go of Uncle Chester’s Montana homestead, Hattie is now 17 and working at Brown’s Boardinghouse in Great Falls. She decides to “[throw] a lasso around a dream even bigger than a Montana farm” and heads to San Francisco, aiming to be a reporter like Ida Tarbell and Nellie Bly and do Grand Things. And though Charlie Hawley wants to marry her, Hattie fears that “saying yes to him was saying no to myself.” She needs to find her place in the world, a place she has concluded is “connected to the working end of a pen.” Larson’s prodigious research allows her to accurately recreate San Francisco between 1915 and 1920, and the city will come alive for readers as much as it does for Hattie, with crowds of people, clanging streetcar bells, the smells of China Town and 10-story-high skyscrapers. Readers will fall for this earnest, wide-eyed and strong-minded young woman who does indeed become a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, covering baseball, an airplane excursion and an earthquake and even interviewing President Woodrow Wilson. Historical fiction with heart. (Historical fiction. 10 & up)
BLACK ICE
Lane, Andrew Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-0-374-38769-3 Series: Sherlock Holmes: The Legend Begins, 3 In this third in an ever-improving series, the teenage Holmes plunges right away into an adventure that involves his brother Mycroft and a trip to Russia disguised as a member of a troupe of actors. An introductory interlude featuring Sherlock and his mentor Amyus Crowe is mercifully short and leads logically (of course) into another Holmes-ian escapade. Returning home from the United States, Sherlock and Amyus travel to London for a luncheon only to find a knife-wielding and stunned Mycroft in a closed room (alone) with a corpse. Mycroft, shaken by the implications of this event, decides to involve Sherlock in his professional life—he’s a spy master for the British government—as his companion on an upcoming Russian mission. Readers will appreciate the broad cast of characters and varied settings, as well as the mystery elements. Red herrings abound, |
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THE COLOSSUS RISES
Lerangis, Peter Illus. by Reagan, Mike Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-06-207040-1 978-0-06-207042-5 e-book Series: Seven Wonders, 1 The Seven Wonders series debuts with a bang: 13-year-old Jack McKinley will die unless he can locate the magic Loculi containing the ancient powers of Atlantis. No time for lush descriptions of setting and insightful |
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“A gripping debut embraces the trend toward gritty grimdark fantasy.” from the cadet of tildor
THE CADET OF TILDOR
characterizations here. A belching barefoot giant who looks like a Viking appears on the very first page, and the action begins—a fast-paced, page-turning adventure that quickly takes Jack from Belleville, Ind., to what’s left of ancient Atlantis. It turns out that Jack is a descendant of the lost civilization and has a rare genetic condition that will kill him unless he can tap into the island’s powers. The problem is that when Atlantis was destroyed, its source of power was stolen, divided into seven containers and hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Finding the powers will not only save Jack’s life, but also give him superpowers. Jack and his new friends Cass, Marco and Aly climb volcanoes, confront a griffin, enter a maze, find a waterfall that gives life to the dead and seek the Colossus of Rhodes. Jack, like his kindred spirit, Percy Jackson, is a good-hearted narrator, unsure of his powers but up to the challenges of his fated journey. Fans of Riordan, Rowling, and ancient myths and legends will welcome this new, if derivative opportunity for adventure and enchantment. (Fiction. 8-14)
Lidell, Alex Dial (416 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 10, 2013 978-0-8037-3681-8
A gripping debut embraces the trend toward gritty grimdark fantasy. Lady Renee de Winter has rejected her aristocratic upbringing to train at the elite Academy of Tildor. But Cadet de Winter’s schoolwork is slipping, and despite constant practice, she cannot match her male classmates. When rival crime factions entangle her in their schemes, Renee must choose between every claim on her loyalty—family, friends, teachers, crown, even her own life—and the greater needs of Tildor. Workmanlike prose effectively grounds an energetic plot and solid worldbuilding in earthy descriptions and precise details. Every character is complex and multilayered, each with a story beyond just propping up the protagonist. Renee herself is a flawed but sympathetic heroine who capitalizes upon her strengths, learns from her (serious) mistakes and slowly evolves from her rigid judgmental inclination to appreciate ambiguity and nuance while never compromising her essential integrity. Hints of romance, thankfully, take second place to friendship, trust and duty, not to mention looming war and imminent death. No fairy-tale resolution here; rather a warts-and-all portrayal of believable characters struggling with realistic conflicts affecting every level of society. (Fantasy. 12 & up)
WHEN THUNDER COMES Poems for Civil Rights Leaders
Lewis, J. Patrick Illus. by Burke, Jim; Christie, R. Gregory; Engel, Tonya Chronicle (44 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-1-4521-0119-4 The Children’s Poet Laureate salutes 15 men and women, including one child, who spoke out and acted for equality and liberty, several at the cost of their lives. The names are familiar: Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Jackie Robinson, Harvey Milk, Josh Gibson, Aung San Suu Kyi. They are less well-known: Mitsuye Endo, Helen Zia, Sylvia Mendez, Dennis James Banks, Muhammad Yunus. They are wives or mothers: Coretta Scott King, Mamie Carthan Till. One is a child, Sylvia Mendez, who wanted to attend a whites-only school in California. Three died too young on a dark road in Mississippi: Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Cheney. All receive a stirring page of rhymed verse accompanied by a single- or double-page spread painting created by one of five artists: Jim Burke, R. Gregory Christie, Tonya Engel, John Parra and Meilo So. So’s bright colors against a white background speak of affirmation and pride for Kyi, Zia and Milk, while Burke’s somber palette evokes the fear of the three civil rights workers and the “nightmare world” of Mandela’s imprisonment. Parra decorates his pages with details from the lives of Mendez, Yunus and Endo. From political activists to an astronaut and from baseball legends to a typist in a World War II internment camp, they raised their voices and sometimes their fists. Somber and inspirational. (thumbnail sketches) (Poetry. 10-16)
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LINCOLN’S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Lincoln, Abraham Illus. by Daugherty, James Whitman (48 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-8075-4550-8
Only a few presidential quotes or speeches have outlasted the test of time, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is probably the most famous and most significant. Originally published in 1947, this pictorial version has been updated with a new afterword by Gabor Boritt, a Civil War scholar, in time for the 150th anniversary of the speech. The original illustrations by Daugherty are brightly hued and hewn and dramatize the 15 sentences of Lincoln’s speech with great vigor in a style evocative of Depression-era WPA murals. In another picture-book depiction, Michael McCurdy’s blackand-white engravings (1995) contrast sharply and are forcefully composed, alternating between the action of battle and the quiet artifacts left behind. Daugherty’s heroic tableaux attack the emotions with highly symbolic imagery. “A new nation conceived in liberty” depicts two men, black and white, raising a flag while another white man unshackles a beaten, scarred slave; on |
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the right, a woman, her children and her frontiersman husband look on; above all, a bald eagle flies into the sun. The typeface accompanying Daugherty’s art is large and stately, resembling chiseled letters and matching the text. In a valuable, additional feature following the afterword, 15 small-scale reproductions of Daugherty’s interpretations appear above explanations of the imagery in each one. A vividly visual interpretation of a still-momentous speech. (reproduction of handwritten speech) (Picture book. 7 & up)
and her boyfriend, Slade, is a shape-shifter and future king of the Dark Créatúir, but up until her 16th birthday, Rhea has gone to school, bickered with her sisters and done household chores just like any typical high school student. However, as soon as Rhea turns 16, she begins to have visions of her former life as an Egyptian queen. Alas, Rhea isn’t the only one intrigued by her growing powers. Soon she finds herself caught up in a war between two ancient, secret orders, one determined to protect the Egyptian queen reincarnate and the other hellbent on harnessing her powers for their own dark and deadly purposes. Rhea is both an entertaining narrator and a compelling heroine, whom readers will increasingly enjoy rooting for as she begins to embrace her fate and battle to protect the ones she loves. Unfortunately (and astonishingly, given the genre), the novel misses an opportunity to explore a potentially intriguing love triangle involving Rhea, Slade and Declan, the handsome young member of the Order of Antony who is determined to protect Rhea, often in spite of herself. Still, this is an entertaining, quick read. (Fantasy. 12-15)
CATHERINE
Lindner, April Poppy/Little, Brown (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 2, 2013 978-0-316-19692-5 After discovering that her mother, Catherine Eversole Price, had not died, as her father told her, but instead deserted the family and then disappeared, 17-year-old Chelsea Price goes on a quest to find out what happened to her. The narrative, a loose-limbed take on Wuthering Heights, is told in the alternating, first-person voices of daughter and mother. However, the emotional heart of the story belongs to Catherine, who as a senior in high school, was a young woman torn between an all-encompassing love for musician Hence and a desire to pursue her own ambitions. The story is set in motion when Chelsea unearths a 14-year-old letter from her mother. The return address leads her to Manhattan’s Lower East Side and a legendary rock club called The Underground. There she meets the adult Hence, now the club’s owner. Hence is a furious exposed nerve of a man, but surprisingly, he shows, if not a soft spot, then at least a less-hard one toward Chelsea, who greatly resembles her mother. The strands of mother’s and daughter’s stories come together during the suspenseful climax, when Chelsea discovers what actually happened to Catherine and gains a measure of peace and maturity. Not as emotionally engaging as readers might desire, but solid and well-told. (Fiction. 15 & up)
NORA’S CHICKS
MacLachlan, Patricia Illus. by Brown, Kathryn Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-4753-7 This low-key slice of life, apparently adapted from the author’s grandmother’s experiences as an immigrant child, offers a glimpse of another time and reminds young listeners that friends, whether feathered or human, are among life’s sweetest gifts. Nora, her baby brother, Milo, and her parents have come to the United States from Russia. The prairie landscape is bleak and unfamiliar, Milo is still too small to speak, and Nora is lonely. A neighbor, not near but closer than anyone else, has potential as a friend, but like Nora, is too shy to connect. Nora welcomes a stray dog who joins their little family, but Willie bonds with Milo, so she is still alone. Then her father brings home some poultry, intending the birds for their table, and Nora finds “something all [her] own” at last. That her feathered friends lead her to a new companion will please young listeners, who’ll appreciate the happy ending (which is really a new beginning). MacLachlan’s relatively lengthy, leisurely, straightforward text is realistic without bogging down in details as the action moves along. Brown’s watercolor illustrations are the perfect complement, bringing characters to life, mirroring the plot, portraying the rural setting clearly (if a bit ideally) and evoking a simpler time. Like her novels, MacLachlan’s latest picture book is a heartwarming—but never saccharine—tale with an oldfashioned feel. (Picture book. 5-8)
CLEOPATRA ASCENDING
Lipinski, Maureen Flux (240 pp.) $9.99 paperback | Jan. 8, 2012 978-0-7387-3193-3 Series: Shadow’s Edge, 2
Readers who enjoyed Leah Spencer’s mystical adventures in the first series outing, Shadow’s Edge (2012), will find even more to love in the second. For a Spencer sister, Rhea lives a relatively normal life. Sure, she’s the reincarnation of Cleopatra, |
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The Other Side of the YA Boom b y v i c k y
s m i t h
in September that 55 percent of the buyers of young-adult books were not, in fact, young adults but garden-variety adults, I was mildly pleased. After all, it’s validation of a sort. The vast majority of what I read is published for teens or children, and I feel perfectly satisfied intellectually. If more and more grown-ups are reading books for kids, then I stand to get more respect at cocktail parties. And why wouldn’t adults want to read books written for teenagers? If J.K. Rowling’s A Casual Vacancy is representative of what’s being published in the world of fiction for adults, it’s a wonder anyone is buying any of it. It’s a simple equation: glacial portrait of middle-class discontent vs. story with plot and characters one actually likes. Who wouldn’t go for plot and characters, given that choice? But as I thought longer about it, I started getting a whole lot more pessimistic about this boom in YA. Yes, I’m glad that there’s at least one segment of our industry that’s doing well. Yes, I’m glad that literature for teens is leaving its ghetto. But what does that mean for the kids that literature was meant for? It’s a relatively young slice of the market, one that didn’t really begin to define itself as unique from either adults or children till the late ’60s or so. Librarians serving teenagers had established a separate Young Adult Services Division (now the Young Adult Library Services Association, or YALSA) within ALA in 1957. Between their efforts to meet the specific needs of adolescents and the growing volubility of youth within the larger culture in the ’50s and ’60s, the time was ripe for a literature just for teens. Constant pressure from, mostly, adult taste-makers combined with a greater willingness on the part of authors and publishers to stretch boundaries to move YA fiction beyond the so-called “problem novel” to the vibrant scene of the past decade-plus. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers; Feed, by M.T. Anderson; The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak; Mortal Engines, by
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Philip Reeve; Mistik Lake, by Martha Brooks; Breakout, by Paul Fleischman; Not the End of the World, by Geraldine McCaughrean; Graceling, by Kristin Cashore; A Thief in the House of Memory, by Tim Wynne-Jones….These and more provided enough narrative trickery and moral provocation (plus plot and likable characters, for the most part) to thoroughly satisfy sophisticated readers, whether teens or adults. But what the adults mostly found was Twilight and, a little later, The Hunger Games. A readership that had been given permission to dabble in kids’ books by the Harry Potter series took to paranormal and then dystopian romance like addicts to heroin. Regardless of the individual merits of Stephenie Meyer’s or Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular series, they have spawned some pretty good successors but also warehouses full of derivative dreck. Go into any big-box bookstore and find the teen section: You will see shelf after shelf of face-out black
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books, each one trying to be the next Twilight or the next Hunger Games— and I will wager that behind the vast majority of those books’ marketing plans is a calculated appeal to the 30-44 market. Obviously, there’s no reason teens can’t read these new teen books, but when teens are not the primary audience for their own books, how long can they expect to have a literature created to meet their needs? With avarice (or survival—there’s two sides to any coin) at the front of bean-counting publishers’ minds, how long before these gloomy YA sections become something else entirely—perhaps “Books for Adults Who Want Something Fun to Read”? And for those of us who care deeply about maintaining excellence in literature for actual teenagers, what will be left? Vicky Smith is the children’s & teen editor at Kirkus.
CAKE Love, Chickens, and a Taste of Peculiar
atmosphere, but obscure riddles, Sol’s homemade computer and several other elements turn out to clutter the story rather than contribute to it. Furthermore, David’s fatalistic ruminations on his curse (recorded in multiple journal entries) are likely to leave even adult readers cold, and his relationship with Monique comes off as, at best, ambiguous. Tanaka’s scenes of androgynous-looking children gradually acquiring animal parts ably abet the atmosphere. Extraneous elements, rampant psycho-symbolism and multiple point-of-view switches turn this into a loosely woven grab-bag, but the resolution does provide some satisfaction. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Magnin, Joyce Illus. by Ivanov, Olga; Ivanov, Alexsey Zonderkidz (208 pp.) $14.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0310733331 Can an oft-rejected orphan settle into the stable, loving home of a pair of gentle sisters who are retired missionar-
ies to Africa? Twelve-year-old Wilma Sue’s been bounced from home to home in her short life. Now it’s hard for her to believe she even deserves a real home. In a winsomely attractive first-person narration, she relates her growing wonder with Ruth, a social activist, and Naomi, who bakes cakes that are somehow infused with magic. Naomi brings the cakes to deserving members of their tightknit community, each confection perfectly matched to its needy recipient. The sisters also keep chickens that move from being Wilma Sue’s responsibility to her calling. Penny, a girl who lives just down the street seems like the only obstruction to happiness. In many ways, she is more damaged than Wilma Sue, struggling to satisfy her widowed mother’s unmet needs, an impossible task. Magnin maintains a delicate balance between a fablelike fantasy and reality fiction as Wilma Sue gradually discovers that not only is she eminently worthy of love, but that she can also help the people around her by loving them. Wilma’s captivating, clever language and short declarative sentences perfectly exemplify her wary but reverential view of the world. Although the message is sometimes spelled out instead of implied, it’s a minor flaw in this worthy, heartwarming effort. (Fantasy. 10-15)
ASUNDER
Meadows, Jodi Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-206078-5 978-0-06-206080-8 e-book Series: Incarnate, 2 The undemanding sequel to Incarnate (2012) goes down slow but easy, leaving characters poised for a third book. Singular newsoul Ana finds herself increasingly isolated in the wake of the catastrophic Templedark her biological father engineered, in which almost 80 souls were permanently killed after thousands of years of reincarnation. Far too many of the remaining oldsouls have grown increasingly distrustful of Ana, even becoming violent. When more newsouls are born to fill the new void in souls, they attract hostility as well. The romantic tension established between Ana and guardian/not-quite-lover Sam in the first book continues, with lots of steamy kissing and little else, as angst (Ana: can a newsoul truly love? what about all his lovers from his many past lives? Sam: he’s meant to be Ana’s guardian, not her lover) predictably ends the consummating clinch over and over. Things are brought to a head by the escalating violence against pregnant women and baby newsouls, sending a reluctant Ana back into the Temple to confront the godlike, hostile entity Janan to find answers. A recognizable, modern-day question of ethics threads its way through the pedestrian prose of Ana’s first-person narration: Is the unborn soul more or less worthy of life than the one that is already in the world? Readers who want the answer will have to wait for the sequel. (Dystopian romance. 13 & up)
THE WITCH’S CURSE
McGowan, Keith Illus. by Tanaka, Yoko Henry Holt (304 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-8050-9324-7
Having narrowly avoided becoming dinner in The Witch’s Guide to Cooking with Children (2009), sibs Sol and Connie face another folkloric fate in this equally
gothic sequel. Hoping to leave child-eating neighbor Fay Holaderry far behind, Sol and Connie board a departing bus—but then incautiously step off while the driver fixes a flat and are immediately lost in a justly ill-reputed forest. Fortunately, they run into Monique, a friendly forester who leads them to her cabin. Unfortunately, Monique is another evil witch, who transforms the children into animals for her bespelled huntsman, David, to hunt down and convert into taxidermy exhibits. McGowan infuses his tale with Brothers Grimm–style motifs and |
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“Miller pens an enjoyable, fast-paced action novel that’s full of danger, mystery, humor and violence, with lots of gross-out scenes and plenty of hairpin-turn plot twists….” from how to lead a life of crime
ARE THE DINOSAURS DEAD, DAD?
that will keep readers guessing. Her only misstep in this exciting read is an overdose of references to Barrie’s Peter Pan, but readers will still make the right connections to the characters and probably devour the novel in one setting. An enigmatic page turner full of intrigue. (Adventure. 14 & up)
Middleton, Julie Illus. by Ayto, Russell Peachtree (32 pp.) $16.95 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-1-56145-690-1
THE GOLDEN RECTANGLE
What do parents know? When it comes to dinosaurs, maybe not as much
Neimark, Gillian Aladdin (160 pp.) $15.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-1-4169-8042-1
as they think. Squiring young Dave through the museum’s dino exhibits, Dad condescendingly laughs off his son’s anxious queries about why they’re winking, grinning and even trying to snatch his burger as figments of an active imagination. Until, that is, one final question—“Then why is that one following us, Dad?”— sparks a cogent parental response: “Run, Dave, RUN!!” Ayto provides labels with pronunciation keys for each exhibit, but rather than depict the fat-bodied, skinny-limbed dinos as fossil skeletons, he fleshes them out with brightly colored hides and toothily predatory expressions. He goes nuts with perspective and scale, depicting a gigantic Tyrannosaurus snout squeezing its way through a doorway—the cracks in the marble bode ill for its structural integrity—while a tiny “In case of emergency break glass” to the side demonstrates just how futile modern protections will be. The final view of that T. Rex towering over the two fleeing humans bodes ill for Dad. Maybe he should have paid closer attention to what his offspring was telling him. (Picture book. 6-8)
Lucy Moon, an aspiring horse rustler from Georgia, teams up with fashionista Flor Bernoulli from New York City to outwit the tiny Square Man, who wants to destroy all the curves in the universe. In this disjointed sequel to The Secret Spiral (2011), the two 10-year-olds, previously strangers, discover that they were destined to become pals and partners in saving the world from Square Man’s twisted designs. From Puddleville, Ga., and Brooklyn, N.Y., the two are transported to Planet Square along with Lucy’s ice-block manufacturing father, Buddy Moon, and Flor’s pie-making friend, Dr. Pi, who guards the Spiral. They befriend their lobster guard, Red Eye, escape thanks to the relationship between golden rectangles and spirals, travel through several worlds and convert their captor. Rather than building to a climax, the contrived plot collapses, leaving the wooden characters back in Georgia, asleep. The author tells, rather than showing, recapping the back stories in lengthy summaries and describing her characters rather than revealing their attributes through their actions. In spite of some foreshadowing early on, Flor’s particular superpower comes as a surprise, and the dialogue does not ring true. A barely concealed message about the consequences of bullying is likely to be lost on readers, if they get that far. Skip. (Fantasy. 9-11)
HOW TO LEAD A LIFE OF CRIME
Miller, Kirsten Razorbill/Penguin (448 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 21, 2013 978-1-59514-518-5
A teen pickpocket attends a school for the criminally minded. Tough, 17-year-old loner Flick lives on the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and makes ends meet by relieving the upper class of their wallets. His only ally is a teen girl named Joi, who operates an underground rescue camp for homeless teens and wields surgical tools like a pro. Enter well-dressed, smooth-talking Lucian Mandel, the headmaster of the infamous Mandel Academy, who makes him an offer he can’t refuse: If Flick agrees to enroll in Mandel Academy, Lucian will hand over the evidence that connects Flick’s wealthy father to the murder of his brother. Flick agrees, and he soon finds himself immersed in a student body of teen sociopathic murderers, liars, thieves and embezzlers—all embroiled in a violent race to the top of the class. Miller pens an enjoyable, fast-paced action novel that’s full of danger, mystery, humor and violence, with lots of gross-out scenes and plenty of hairpin-turn plot twists 2834
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SECRET ADMIRER
O’Connor, Jane Illus. by Glasser, Robin Preiss Harper/HarperCollins (128 pp.) $9.99 paperback $8.99 e-book Jan. 2, 2012 978-0-06-208295-4 978-0-06-208296-1 e-book Series: Nancy Clancy, 2 When there are no mysteries to solve, Nancy and best friend Bree turn their sleuthing skills to the business of love. It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, and young girls’ hearts turn to love. The little girls play matchmaker after Nancy’s guitar teacher, Andy, and best baby sitter in the universe Annie each |
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THE MAGICIAN’S TOWER
break up with their respective love interests. Who could be better matched than their two favorite high schoolers? What with Nancy’s trademark grown-up words, interesting facts about hearts from their teacher, Mr. Dudeny, and Annie’s fondness for French vocabulary, this love story has a little more substance than most chapter books for new readers. Readers will enjoy seeing Bree and Nancy set Annie and Andy up for their “surprise” date and will secretly be relieved when Annie figures things out for herself. Platonic love might not be as exciting to the young girls as romantic love, but it is nice (and more realistic) to see old friends like Annie and Andy enjoy each other’s company as friends. Gentle, black-and-white line drawings combine with easy-to-read font and familiar characters to make this the logical series for fans of Fancy Nancy to fall in love with. Ooh la la! What will these two friends think of next? (Fiction. 5-8)
Odyssey, Shawn Thomas Egmont USA (304 pp.) $15.99 | $16.99 e-book | Feb. 26, 2013 979-1-60684-425-0 978-1-60684-426-7 e-book Series: Oona Crate Mystery, 2 Can Oona meet the challenges of the Magician’s Tower? Three months after 13-year-old Natural Magician Oona Crate’s last mysterious and magical adventure (The Wizard of Dark Street, 2011), the time has come for the Magician’s Tower Competition. Every five years, a new tower is built along Dark Street, the only conduit between Faerie and New York City, with new challenges, physical and mental, installed on each floor. Contestants compete through four days of elimination challenges in hopes of reaching the final challenge: a puzzle box no one has solved in the 500 years the contest has been running. Oona sets aside her Wizard’s apprentice duties to compete against her old acquaintances and rivals Adler and Isadora Iree and Roderick Rutherford, among others. Can she beat them and reach her goal or will she be distracted by the mystery of the missing punch bowl? Odyssey’s sequel suffers from many of the same problems as its predecessor. Though it is set in 1877, the historical setting is given nary a nod. The characters don’t rise above clichés, and each has one characteristic trait that quickly grows old. The flabby prose teems with detail but pays little attention to it once it is introduced. Oona’s back story has a mystery or two left; sequels will likely follow and hopefully improve. (Fantasy. 9-11)
TOO MANY TUTUS
O’Connor, Jane Illus. by Enik, Ted Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-06-208308-1 Series: Fancy Nancy The lover of all things fancy is back in this early-reader offering. Nancy’s fondness for tutus is threatening to take over her closet space; even though some are torn or too small, she doesn’t want to give any away. When the children in Nancy’s class measure themselves, their teacher suggests a project that might solve a number of problems. Ms. Glass helps the class sponsor a swap-and-shop where the children gain points for donated clothes and can spend their points on new-to-them clothes. When Nancy spots the tutu of her dreams a few seconds after classmate Grace does, she makes a decision that shows that she is growing up in more ways than one. Sunny illustrations based by Enik on the art of Robin Preiss Glasser grace the interior pages, while the cover art is by Glasser. Nancy’s emotions are clear in every situation, but the tussle with Grace and the special tutu is especially effective, showing the intensity of the word “Mine!” Though Nancy’s “fancy” words will be new to beginning readers, they are easily decoded. The glossary at the end reinforces the new words, making them more likely to enter the child’s spoken vocabulary. Little girls with a tutu habit (and mothers with bulging closets) will enjoy the further adventures of little Nancy, and soon they will graduate to the chapter books about their heroine. Amusing, which is fancy for “fun.” (Early reader. 4-7)
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OUT OF NOWHERE
Padian, Maria Knopf (352 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | PLB $19.99 Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-375-86580-0 978-0-375-89610-1 e-book 978-0-375-96580-7 PLB When Somali refugees move to his Maine town, a soccer captain matures in this Chris Crutcher–reminiscent drama
based on a true event. High school senior Tom Bouchard is comfortable in the middle. He’s uncomfortable with both his racist, working-class uncle and his anti-racist, college-educated aunt. He likes the Somali kids on his soccer team but doesn’t mind that his hot girlfriend is a bigot. As more and more immigrants populate Enniston, rising tensions force Tom to pick sides. Richer towns, alarmed at the amazing soccer players among Enniston’s Somali immigrants, challenge the eligibility of star player Saeed. The concerns of locals—ranging from outright racism to worries about an infrastructure collapsing under the influx of English |
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THE LEGEND THIEF
language learners—lead to taunts, fights and worse. Highlighting this tension (with an unexpected subtlety, compared to Tom’s tendency to explain facts about Somalia he learned on Wikipedia) are the French last names of almost all of Enniston’s white residents, grandchildren of Québecois once beaten in school for speaking French. Tom is a complex enough character to carry the heavy weight of racism, classism, sexism, culture shock and Islamophobia that comprise his story, with a believably encouraging coming-of-age. Still, the Somalis are here for Tom’s education—as Tom’s father says to him, “aren’t you lucky? Knowing all these stories”—not for their own sake. Pair this novel with one from an immigrant’s viewpoint, such as Marina Budhos’ Tell Us We’re Home (2010). An encouraging, if incomplete, tale of high school sports in the melting pot. (Fiction. 13-16)
Patten, E. J. Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-4424-2035-9 Series: The Hunter Chronicles, 2 After moving to Exile and watching his Uncle Phineas get attacked then disappear (Return to Exile, 2011), Sky learned that monsters are real. A year later, he is monster-hunting with his friends when a greater threat comes to light. Morton, Phineas’ foe and father of the imprisoned Hunter of Legend Solomon Rose, intends to free his son and bring to fruition Solomon’s nefarious plan to claim the powers that the monster Legend had held over “all other forces and nature itself.” The only threat to the agenda is Legend’s son, Bedlam, who is physically incapacitated but able to Edgewalk and thus possess another’s body. Sky’s oddities make him the most likely host; therefore, Morton wants Sky dead. Fans of the first book will continue to root for snarky, wily Sky; new readers will thrill at the monster clashes—especially the one that occurs in the middle of the homecoming game (Sky’s bossy, cheerleader sister leads players and hunters forward in team formation: “Hike!”). All will continue to be perplexed by the complex back story and the confusing cast of characters and monsters who change loyalties, identities and shapes. Some threads are left dangling, no doubt to be tied up in future installments, and another plot twist is revealed in the epilogue to hook readers. Alas, many will be unwilling to return to Exile. (Fantasy. 10-14)
THE NAMESAKE
Parlato, Steven Merit Press (288 pp.) $17.95 | Jan. 18, 2013 978-1-4405-5457-5
Evan Galloway, in his third year at Saint Sebastian’s Catholic High School, is told to “write what you know” for his college-application essays. But it’s what he doesn’t know that is haunting him. “It’s funny how perfectly life splits into before and after,” Evan says. Before his father killed himself, home life was pretty normal—Campbell’s soup casseroles, Monopoly tournaments, building model airplanes and Dad falling asleep in the leather chair. Now there’s a hole in that life that can’t be filled or explained. Evan takes on a quest for answers: What is God’s plan? Why didn’t his father stick around to see what Evan would become? Just as Evan’s first-person narrative begins to feel awash in angst, he finds his father’s journal, and the story becomes compelling, as answers to questions slowly surface. With his friend Alexis, Evan goes “Dad-excavating.” His digging for answers “let[s] the dragon out of the cave,” though, as troubling information unfolds about his father’s school life, his job as an altar boy and Father Fran’s unusual interest in offering private art lessons. Parlato’s debut novel, many years in the making, is a painstaking dissection of a father’s past and its reverberations in his son’s life. A memorable, disturbing story, carefully wrought. (Fiction. 14 & up)
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AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY
Rampersad, Arnold; Blount, Marcellus--Eds. Illus. by Barbour, Karen Sterling (48 pp.) $14.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4027-1689-8 Series: Poetry for Young People A sampler worth sampling, despite pallid illustrations and a roster entirely made up of dead or veteran poets. Kitted out—as usual for volumes in the Poetry for Young People series—with biographical headers and an outstanding introductory overview, the 33 short selections follow a generally chronological course. Atypically, the editors steer largely clear of explicit racial or religious themes in their selections. Phillis Wheatley’s pointed “Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, / May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train,” and James Weldon Johnson’s “The Creation” stand as exceptions. Along with contributions from James Baldwin and Richard Wright (both better known for their prose), notable additions to the standard African-American poetic canon include 19th-century writers George Moses Horton and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. More-recent meditations from Melvin Dixon (b. 1950) |
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“Through Eleanor and Park’s alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love…” from eleanor & park
and Elizabeth Alexander (b. 1962) also help to freshen up the collection. Sadly, what vivacity these poems retain is sucked dry by Barbour’s monotonous succession of sad, big-eyed faces and drably colored collages. Well-intentioned, and at least as valuable for its editorial additions as its lyric contents. (index) (Poetry. 10-13)
devoted to Bible verses, Christian life, planet Earth, the larger worldwide family, festivals, times of need and a variety of blessings, including bedtime prayers. The collection of over 150 entries includes many familiar choices from the Bible such as the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm and an interpretation of the Ten Commandments. Some well-known prayers, short verses and words to favorite hymns are included, supplemented by original prayers from the author/compiler. Prayers from many countries and cultures include several from Native American groups and African countries. Pleasant pastel illustrations show children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds involved in activities that relate to the prayer subjects, such as making music, gardening or tending sheep. Other prayers are illustrated with striking, golden-winged angels, flying doves or small scenes from nature. An internal illustration of children flying kites on a beach is repeated as the cover illustration, with muted tones of turquoise and purple that appear washed-out, giving an oldfashioned look to the cover. Overall, a thoughtfully selected and arranged anthology, appropriate for larger library collections and church libraries as well as observant homes. (index of first lines) (Religion. 4-9)
PIRATES VS. COWBOYS
Reynolds, Aaron Illus. by Barneda, David Knopf (40 pp.) $16.99 | PLB $19.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-375-85874-1 978-0-375-95874-8 PLB Argot issues nearly spark a brawl in this addition to the trendy “head-to-
head mashup” genre. These antagonists confront one another not on the base paths as in Mark Summers and Aaron Frisch’s Pirates at the Plate (2012) but on the dusty streets of Old Cheyenne. They square off after noxious Capt. Burnt Beard’s uncharacteristically civil “Be ye knowin’ where we’d be findin’ a fair scrub and a swish?” is greeted with an uncomprehending sneer by Black Bob McKraw and his band of rustlers—themselves “nastier than week-old chili, and twice as gassy.” It seems pirates don’t speak cowboy, and cowboys don’t speak pirate. Happily, the opportune arrival of Pegleg Highnoon, “the world’s only pirate cowboy,” literally clears the air as he insults both gangs in their respective jargons. Having found common ground (“Yes, it was their stench. But it was a start”), all head amicably for the town’s only bathhouse and saloon. Using muddy colors to provide an unwashed look, Barneda pits a scurvy crew of sea creatures led by an octopus against a posse of prairie critters headed up by a scowling bull. All are dressed in occupation-appropriate duds, including Highnoon (a generic-looking reptile presumably intended to be a marine iguana), who sports a mix of iconic gear from peg leg to Stetson. A refreshingly atypical exercise in waging peace, despite the tired “X vs. Y” scenario. (Picture book. 6-8)
ELEANOR & PARK
Rowell, Rainbow St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 26, 2013 978-1-250-01257-9 Awkward, prickly teens find deep first love in 1980s Omaha. Eleanor and Park don’t meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. Park, the only half-Korean fan of punk and New Wave at their high school, is by no means popular, but he benefits from his family’s deep roots in their lower-middle-class neighborhood. Meanwhile, Eleanor’s wildly curly red mane and plus-sized frame would make her stand out even if she weren’t a new student, having just returned to her family after a year of couch-surfing following being thrown out by her odious drunkard of a stepfather, Richie. Although both teens want only to fade into the background, both stand out physically and sartorially, arming themselves with band T-shirts (Park) and menswear from thrift stores (Eleanor). Despite Eleanor’s resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for clichés, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park’s alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor’s survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park’s own imperfect but loving family life. Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike. (Fiction. 14 & up)
THE LION CLASSIC PRAYER COLLECTION
Rock, Lois Illus. by Williams, Sophy Lion/Trafalgar (96 pp.) $15.99 | Jan. 1, 2012 978-0-7459-6302-0
This attractively illustrated collection offers a traditional, comforting anthology of Christian prayers and Bible verses for children, suitable for use at home or in church programs. The selections are organized thematically into sections |
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“The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Lost in this chilling exploration of love and memory.” from midwinterblood
WHY DID THE WHOLE WORLD GO TO WAR? And Other Questions About World War II
characters as a family of anthropomorphic bunnies, introducing a veritable peaceable kingdom of relatives and friends who come to celebrate on the special day. Graegin’s illustrations employ pencil-and-ink washes that are then digitally assembled and colored, and they mark her as an up-and-coming artist to watch, as they evoke a style akin to that of Peter McCarty, Laura McGee Kvasnosky and Polly Dunbar. Happy birthday to a splendid book for new birthday boys and girls. (Picture book. 1-4)
Sandler, Martin W. Illus. by Barrett, Robert Sterling (32 pp.) $12.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4027-9621-0 Series: Good Question
MIDWINTERBLOOD
A very simple overview of World War II. Sandler’s approach to questions about WWII is unapologetically direct: “Hitler wanted Germany to take over other countries and rule the world.” Subtle, no, but there’s no quibbling about the bottom line. Some young readers will likely have questions about how A leads to B: Germany had to “get rid of its military” after World War I but was able to invade Czechoslovakia just two decades later, though Sandler does not explain how Germany reincarnated its military, for instance. With selected, specific topics, on the other hand, Sandler comfortably hands over the goods: on blitzkriegs, the Battle of Britain, the role of spies, great battles, the reason Anne Frank was in hiding and the contributions of the Tuskegee Airmen. The artwork is appropriately dramatic—bold colors applied to a nubbly canvas, catching melodramatic moments—and appears alongside handsome and richly informative maps; there is a brief timeline as an appendix. Some glitches are less problematical—backward swastikas—and some are of greater concern. “World War II was the deadliest war in history. More than 15 million people lost their lives”—yes, like an additional 25-45 million people. Further reading and a bibliography are available at the series website but not in the book itself, making it difficult for young readers to delve deeper. An elementary steppingstone, but nothing more. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Sedgwick, Marcus Roaring Brook (272 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-59643-800-2
The Time Traveler’s Wife meets Lost in this chilling exploration of love and memory. A dystopian start to the novel finds journalist Eric on remote Blessed Island in the extreme north in the year 2073. Tasked with gathering information on a rare orchid that is rumored to stop the aging process, he feels instant attraction to native islander Merle. As Eric drinks a strange tea brewed from the orchid, he begins to forget his life on the mainland yet remembers feelings for Merle. But how and when did he know her? Seven linked stories progress backward across centuries, following Eric and Merle’s relationship as it takes on many forms, such as father/daughter or brother/sister, throughout time. Presented as different cycles of the moon, the stories feature various genres, from realistic and war stories to stories about ghosts and Viking vampires, ending with a hint of mystery to be revealed in subsequent chapters. This form, as well as the novel’s reliance on adult protagonists, is a rarity in literature for teens. Inspired by Swedish artist Carl Larsson’s controversial painting, Midvinterblot (translated as midwinter sacrifice), Sedgwick crafts these seven treats with spare, exact prose in which no word is unnecessary. Together, their reoccurring motifs of orchids, moons, blood and language—to name a few—reinforce Eric and Merle’s enduring love. Haunting, sophisticated and ultimately exquisite. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 13 & up)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNNY!
Scanlon, Elizabeth Garton Illus. by Graegin, Stephanie Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 15, 2013 978-1-4424-0287-4 Scanlon delivers a sweet, rhyming text to tell the story of a little bunny’s birthday in Graegin’s debut picture book. The succinct phrasing from page to page marks this as a text for very young children just learning about birthdays and birthday parties. The text takes a natural question-and-answer format as the birthday girl asks about each activity, and her mother offers loving replies. Scenes devoted to getting dressed up, greeting guests, celebrating with music and play, blowing out birthday-cake candles, opening gifts, taking pictures and looking back at past years provide an overview of the festivities. Perhaps taking a cue from the closing line’s reference to the girl as “sweet honey bun,” Graegin casts the unnamed central 2838
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CHEETAH CAN’T LOSE
Shea, Bob Illus. by Shea, Bob Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-06-173083-2 Loudmouth speedster Cheetah is sure that race day will be a walkover, but two clever little cats have other ideas. Much like Shea’s little red roaring dinosaur (Dinosaur vs. |
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Bedtime, 2008, etc.), for all that he’s bigger than anyone and kitted out in a tracksuit, Cheetah obnoxiously announces at the outset that he’s winning every race. Not only do his jokes fall flat—“Oh boy! If you guys had pajamas, I would be them! Because I’m the cat’s pajamas—get it? Never mind”—but so does he after scarfing down five pies in a preliminary pie-eating “race” and the huge sundae that his smiling feline competitors present as a reward; they also award him boxes for his feet and a too-big crown to cover his eyes as “prizes” in other events before the main race. Shea cranks up the energy with loud hues and figures that bound across broad expanses of white surrounded by emphatic bursts of multicolored text. He brings this variant on a trickster tale (most recently retold in Nathan Kumar Scott’s The Great Race, illustrated by Jagdish Chitara, 2012) to an unexpected close: Rather than glory in crushing Cheetah’s self-esteem, the cats give him their first-place medals and assure him that yes, indeed, he won that race too. A high-volume victory for compassion. (Picture book. 5-8)
Snadowsky, Daria Delacorte (240 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | PLB $19.99 Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-385-73798-2 978-0-375-89737-5 e-book 978-0-385-90705-7 PLB
Snadowsky’s candid follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend (2007) takes readers through ambitious pre-med Dominique’s second sexual relationship. Dominique returns home after her freshman year at Tulane still reeling from her breakup with Wes, her first love and first sexual partner. Dom’s best friend, Amy, normally content to hook up without getting emotionally involved, is spending the summer in a long-distance relationship with a boy she met at college. While interning at a hospital, Dom meets Guy, a fraternity brother at a local university, and the two soon become involved. What’s the difference between a relationship that might be forever and one that’s just for the summer? How does sex affect relationships? What’s sex like, anyway? The book’s answers are frank, though sometimes didactic or expressed clunkily (“I wonder how many more penises I’ll have inside me in my lifetime”). In its best moments, the book presents a multiplicity of opinions and stories about sex, intimacy and relationships and lets readers come to their own conclusions. Some options, however, are still off the table: All the main characters are heterosexual, and masturbation is only ever depicted as weird or tragic. A mixed bag, but the blunt sex talk fills a niche. (Fiction. 14-18)
FERAL NIGHTS
Smith, Cynthia Leitich Candlewick (304 pp.) $17.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-5909-7 Shape-shifting werepeople battle to survive on a remote island while vampires, Yeti-like creatures and other creeps hunt them for sport in this actionpacked, goofy companion novel featuring secondary characters from the series that began with Tantalize (2007). Werecat Yoshi heads toward Austin, Texas, looking to find his sister Ruby, who’s been missing since her involvement in the death of an evil vampire chef and a well-liked teenage werearmadillo, Travis. He enlists the unlikely help of Travis’ friends, a human, Aimee, and a wereopossum, Clyde. The trio is eventually kidnapped and spirited to the island, where the story takes its surprising Survivor/Hunger Games turn. Teens who favor humorous paranormal romance that never takes itself too seriously will enjoy dialogue that sparkles with wit, filled with both literary and pop-culture references. (“You’re saying that you and my sister perform exorcisms on vomiting children with rotating heads?”) Aimee, Yoshi and Clyde take turns narrating in the first person, each of them sarcastic, with varying levels of self-deprecating snark coloring their inner monologues. It may be difficult for readers to keep track of the vast ensemble of characters, particularly if they haven’t read the previous four books, but many won’t care—instead they’ll be wrapped up in the playful, smart tone. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)
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THE LONGEST NIGHT A Passover Story
Snyder, Laurel Illus. by Chien, Catia Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | PLB $20.99 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-375-86942-6 978-0-375-96942-3 PLB
A Jewish child living under Pharaoh’s rule narrates the days marred by the devastation caused by the 10 plagues and the Jews’ exodus from Egypt. Working as hard as any adult slave, this young girl expresses her bewilderment and fear as leaping frogs and itching, biting fleas disturb the masters. Fatal illness creeps in, affecting beast and man except in the Jewish homes marked with lamb’s blood. Rhyming verse carries the Passover story with a lyrical flair. “Made our way to sifting sands, / Scrambling feet, but clasping hands. / Thirsting, thrilling, full of fright— / None of us were slaves that night.” Ominously dark and murky paintings done in acrylic portray the frightened, fleeing throng finally reaching a wild, thrashing sea that is “ripped in two!” Confusion and |
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“Priceman’s swirly and vivid gouache-and–India ink artwork is an excellent foil for the text, which directly addresses young readers’ own experience….” from who says women can’t the doctors?
trepidation turn to joyful surprise, as indicated by the rose-colored backdrop behind a smiling daughter and mother, thrilled to have crossed over to the open land and freedom. This poetic, child-oriented interpretation brings a dramatic insight and illumination to the ancient legend. A vivid and compelling introduction to the 10 plagues portion of the Seder ceremony. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book/religion. 5-7)
her cat, Watson, and a handy petrifying cactus to find a stolen artifact. For his final exam in Investigation Techniques, hapless student detective Dash has to find the fragile tablet showing the location of an undiscovered tomb. Naturally, he enlists the help of his cousin Agatha, an aspiring mystery writer whose prodigious memory and attention to detail he needs. Chandler, posing as Agent DM14, provides an adult presence while the two work. Dash’s school-issued EyeNet gadget does everything from track warm bodies to identify the chemical composition of bits of dust. Fast-paced action, plentiful dialogue, humor and intriguing technology combine in this promising launch for an original paperback series focused on Agatha’s international adventures. Stevenson is the pseudonym of Italian writer Mario Pasqualotto. His text has been ably translated by Kelly and adapted by Gold. Turconi’s illustrations, ranging from spot art to a full double-page spread, provide cartoony images of the characters and add to the exotic sense of place. A cast of characters and mission description appear just after the title page, and the book concludes with a hint of adventures to come—in Bengal. A lively and auspicious beginning. (Mystery. 8-12)
THE CALL OF THE BULLY
Starkey, Scott Simon & Schuster (272 pp.) $15.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4424-5674-7
Will Camp Wy-Mee get the best of Rodney Rathbone, or can he survive bullies in the wild? Twelve-year-old Rodney survived his first school year in Ohio thanks to luck and bully-avoidance skills (How to Beat the Bully Without Really Trying, 2012). His plans for spending the summer with new friends (and girlfriend) are shattered when his parents decide to send him to camp without asking what he wants. (Were they prompted to send him by nefarious forces?) Even worse, school bully Josh Dumbrowski’s headed for camp, too. Once there, Rodney finds Josh is small potatoes when it comes to bullying; Todd Vanderdick (seriously) and his snooty friends are ready to make Rodney’s summer unbearable. To top it off, Mrs. Periwinkle, the camp owner, and her staff have it in for Rodney from the get-go. Rodney and his quirky cabin mates make the best of strange situations; but when the future of the camp rests on their shoulders, will they be up to the task? Starkey’s second title featuring unconventional bully-bester Rodney again has a few pop-culture references that will sail over the heads of the target audience. Several characters’ obsessive focus on girls further narrows the age range. Rodney’s snarky narration can be funny, but his double standard on two-timing (it’s okay for boys, not girls) and his judgmental nature (despite protestations to the contrary) make him less than admirable. Standard summer-camp–centric fare: Meatballs with bullies. (Fiction. 11-14)
WHO SAYS WOMEN CAN’T BE DOCTORS? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell Stone, Tanya Lee Illus. by Priceman, Marjorie Henry Holt (40 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-8050-9048-2
“Women cannot be doctors. They should not be doctors.” Elizabeth Blackwell received 28 rejections from medical schools before one accepted her. Stone takes a lively and conversational approach to the life of the first female doctor in the United States. A tiny but adventurous girl, Elizabeth Blackwell once carried her brother over her head until he stopped fighting with her, and she got the idea to go to medical school from a sick friend who confided that she would much rather be examined by a woman. When Geneva Medical School in New York state accepted her, she didn’t know that the (male) student body had voted on her acceptance as a joke, but she graduated with the top grades in her class. Priceman’s swirly and vivid gouache-and–India ink artwork is an excellent foil for the text, which directly addresses young readers’ own experience while reminding them that in the 1840s, things were different, and that one very determined girl had changed that. The author’s note describes the difficulties Dr. Blackwell experienced setting up her practice and her career treating the poor women and children of New York City. It also notes that today, more than half of all students in U.S. medical schools are women. A bracing, vivacious account of a pioneering woman. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOH
Stevenson, Steve Translated by Kelly, Siobhan Illus. by Turconi, Stefano Grosset & Dunlap (144 pp.) $5.99 paperback | Feb. 7, 2013 978-0-448-46217-2 Series: Agatha Mistery, 1
Twelve-year-old Agatha Mistery journeys to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings with her cousin, Dash, her butler, Chandler, 2840
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. Let Freedom Ring
her confidant as she delves deeper into the mystery of who she is. Terry’s world is remarkably like today’s, with some changes; computers and Internet use are totally state-controlled, for instance. Not all details stand up to scrutiny, but the romance and politics keep suspense ratcheted up. With no real resolution, it’s clear that more of Kyla’s story is to come. Intriguing—readers will be on tenterhooks for the next one. (Dystopian romance. 11 & up)
Teitelbaum, Michael; Helfand, Lewis Illus. by Kumar, Naresh Campfire (88 pp.) $12.99 paperback | Feb. 1, 2013 978-93-80028-69-9 Series: Graphic Novel Heroes
An inspirational biography in graphic format—highlighting both King’s passion for his cause and his devotion to Gandhi’s nonviolent methods. The authors craft original dialogue that reads like policy statements and have Dr. King even as a child spouting lines like “We are being treated as inferior people solely because of the color of our skin. How unfair.” Nevertheless, they deliver a clear, cogent account of their subject’s upbringing, the vicious racial (and, later, social and economic) issues that sparked his involvement in the civil rights movement and the ensuing course of his short but enduringly influential career. Not all of the dialogue balloons and narrative boxes are properly placed, but Kumar draws facial features accurately. With a mix of overlaid and separated panels, he creates a strong sense of drama whether he’s depicting Dr. King firing up a crowd or Rosa Parks’ quiet composure. Numerous passages (not always accurately quoted: “the arm [sic] of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”) from Dr. King’s speeches and writings add oratorical authority to the account, and a folding timeline at the end provides a broad historical overview of African-American history up to Barack Obama’s first presidential election. Despite occasional stumbles, a worthwhile reminder for readers who will recognize his name but may be a little hazy on what he stood for. (Graphic biography. 11-13)
ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
Trenc, Milan Illus. by Trenc, Milan Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-8050-8948-6
In this blatantly commercial retread, the author of Night at the Museum (1994, revised 2007, film version 2006) gives the marine exhibits a turn to frolic. Having hurried to work, museum guard Larry frets as he nods off that he’s left the bathtub faucet on back home—which translates in a dream to a flooded Manhattan and a museum building pushed out to sea by the blue whale and other reanimated specimens. The cartoon art looks equally dashed off, with sketchy backdrops fronted by hastily drawn figures like an octopus that never shows more than five tentacles and a seahorse that’s the same size as the adjacent sea turtle. Unsurprisingly, with help from his daughter Melissa, Larry gets the faucet turned off, the water drained away and the exhibits back in their proper places before dawn. Earnest closing disclaimers that it’s not actually possible either to flood Manhattan from a faucet or to pull the American Museum of Natural History anywhere are superfluous, if not downright condescending. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, flooding New York might not be the best-timed story idea. Larry’s promise of yet more sequels in the works is equally ill-advised. (Picture book. 5-7)
SLATED
Terry, Teri Nancy Paulsen Books (352 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 24, 2013 978-0-399-16172-8
EMPTY
What would it be like to live in a world in which the fear of terrorists has resulted in the technology to wipe out memories or shut you down completely if you become deeply sad or angry? Kyla’s memory has been wiped clean, and she’s starting life with a new family. It’s 2054, and since the ’20s, the United Kingdom has lived with the Lorders, the Law and Order movement. Slating, as it’s called, is a technique whose use is limited to people under the age of 17. Kyla is the second Slated child in her family; her new sister Amy is now a cheerful, happy person. Gradually, Kyla realizes that she is unique in that while she has no memories of the time before she awoke, she is able to think more clearly and has a different reaction to stress than Slated people should. Another Slated boy becomes |
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Walton, K.M. Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 13, 2012 978-1-4424-5359-3 In a cautionary tale about merciless bullying, does generic characterization allow readers to look in a mirror, or does it dilute the point? Dell’s callous father has abandoned her; her drug-addicted mom’s emotionally absent and cold. Former best friend Cara now hangs out with mean, popular kids who demand that Dell repeatedly perform a mooing sumo wrestler imitation. She always acquiesces, |
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“Sophie greets readers on the title page, a bibbed mouse awaiting a meal. With this seemingly innocuous image, Wells makes readers Sophie’s accomplices….” from time - out for sophie
TIME-OUT FOR SOPHIE
humiliated. The plot marches on, presenting trauma after trauma without nuance. Dell’s former crush, Brandon, cajoles her upstairs at a drunken party and rapes her; then, “BEWARE OF THE RAPIST BOVINE,” trumpets an anonymous sign on Dell’s locker as rumor breaks out that Dell raped Brandon. Positive that nobody would believe that “the enormous, ugly, fat girl…was raped by the hottest guy in school” and viewing Cara’s choice between her and the good-looking bullies as “being offered a bowl of shit or a bowl of ice cream,” Dell’s too self-loathing and depressed to notice the two adults who might help. With nowhere to turn except food (chips are “greasy, salty calm”) and her baby sister (a well-written dash of warmth, but toddlers can’t save teens), Dell just wants everything to end. It’s subtle as a truck—see Ellen Hopkins’ Impulse (2007) for a complex, layered treatment of suicide—but the stock portrayals may let readers (bullied, bully or observer) slot themselves in where appropriate and heed this red flag. (Fiction. 14 & up)
Wells, Rosemary Illus. by Wells, Rosemary Viking (32 pp.) $15.99 | Jan. 24, 2013 978-0-670-78511-7
Little Sophie gleefully makes mischief until Granny cleverly responds in this soon-to-be favorite about the joys of raising (and being) a toddler. Sophie greets readers on the title page, a bibbed mouse awaiting a meal. With this seemingly innocuous image, Wells makes readers Sophie’s accomplices—the bib suggests innocence, while her impish expression forebodes trouble of the hilarious kind. Tonight, Sophie happily throws her dinner on the floor. Gently but firmly, Mama chides her and makes more. The throwing becomes exuberant, and it’s time-out for Sophie. Daddy fares no better when his adorable daughter wants to help with laundry. Folded clothes are tipped; on the second try they’re flying, leading to another time-out. But when Sophie asks for a book and then takes Grandma’s glasses repeatedly, it’s Granny who goes into time-out. With the tables turned on the puckish toddler, Sophie re-evaluates. Wells’ signature mixed-media illustrations are at their best: playful, fresh, deceptively simple yet intricately rendered and absolutely revealing. A bespectacled Sophie’s self-satisfaction while Granny extends a gentle and patient hand; the loving tenderness Sophie shows when placing the glasses on Granny’s nose; the cuddly deliciousness of the two reading together—all affirm Wells’ skill at depicting family relationships and their attendant challenges and joys. Readers will clamor for more of the irrepressible Sophie, while parents will secretly smile—sheer delight. (Picture book. 2-5)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. A King Family Tribute
Watkins, Angela Farris Abrams (96 pp.) $18.95 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-1-4197-0269-3
Family and friends remember Dr. King as a role model and dedicate them-
selves to his mission. Watkins, Dr. King’s niece, has assembled their writings and excerpts from their speeches. All pay tribute to his spirit, abiding faith and dedication to the cause of civil rights, and they affirm their own commitment to “following the path he walked,” as his nephew, Derek B. King, states. King’s father’s remarks are excerpted from his autobiography. The chapter for Dr. King’s mother quotes from and reproduces a loving letter he wrote to her in 1948. There is no entry from Coretta Scott King. Those who knew him personally consistently refer to him as playful, loving and caring. This is, however, not a biography; his campaign for civil rights is not specifically detailed, nor is there any discussion of his assassination or funeral. Similarly, the many handsomely reproduced and arranged photographs depict the Kings at family events and gatherings. The concluding chapter showcases the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall. This attractive title is infused with a dominant aura of faith and devotion to God’s work; it should be useful in Sunday school settings and as a pictorial supplement. (foreword by Andrew Young, afterword of beatitudes, brief biographies of contributors, index) (Essays. 12-18)
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DR. FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTERS
Weyn, Suzanne Scholastic (256 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-545-42533-9 978-0-545-51011-0 e-book Abandoned at birth, twin teen sisters Giselle and Ingrid discover that they’ve inherited a castle in the Orkneys from
their father, Victor. For giddy Giselle, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to throw a huge party, with the likes of Lord Byron and the Shelleys on the guest list. For the more studious Ingrid, her father’s old journals—and the dusty science lab hidden underground—provide not only exciting insights into her father’s work, but also the tools with which to outfit Walter, the moody and disabled exsoldier to whom she’s given her heart, with a new arm and leg. Weyn plays this unlikely scenario as gothic romance. She folds in stilted dialogue (“But we are entirely different in personality |
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and presentation”), chapters written as alternating journal entries, and a supporting cast of historical figures and likely young men with varied agendas. There is also a sudden spate of local murders and occasional grisly details, such as a decayed but strangely familiar woman’s head that washes ashore. In the climactic flurry of revelations, it turns out that one sister is a decidedly unreliable narrator. This thriller is saddled with such a wildly contorted plot that readers may be more inclined to snort than sigh. (afterword) (Gothic romance. 11-14)
First, of course, there’s the waiting for spring, summer and fall to pass. Once the pond freezes, it’s time to whirl, twirl, spin (and take a few falls, but never mind) before an admiring crowd of birds and family members. Afterward, champions will also need hot chocolate, a hot bath and, at bedtime, warm blankets to snuggle beneath. Hurried along by a narrative that often runs to just a line or a few words per spread, the illustrations portray a rabbit family tending a garden, paddling lazily in the pond or gathering in a cozy tree-trunk home through the seasons. They then watch anxiously from the snowy sideline as their “champion” resolutely weaves, glides and crashes on the ice. Along with leaving her brushwork visible on heavily textured canvas, Wright uses a palette of harmonious pinks and browns to imbue each scene with an air of comfy domesticity. The rabbits, however, all look so alike that it’s often hard to pick out the narrator, and though the narrator is addressing readers or listeners, neither she nor anyone else ever looks up from their activities to make eye contact. A healthy if impersonal dose of self-affirmation delivered by a cast with long, fetching bunny ears. (Picture book. 5-7)
IVY IN THE SHADOWS
Woodworth, Chris Farrar, Straus and Giroux (208 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-374-33566-3 When Ivy’s newly divorced mother takes in a young boarder, the 12-year-old strongly disapproves. Ivy’s mom joins a local church and then takes in Caleb, also 12 and the son of missionaries. Likable enough, he does everything he can to please, including being exceptionally helpful in entertaining Ivy’s energetic kindergarten-aged younger brother, JJ, a child she’s too-often tasked with mothering. In a believable subplot, Ivy’s best friend has taken on a lot of unpleasant new behaviors in an effort to be accepted by the populars at their school. Ivy is torn between friendship-ensuring compliance with her unreasonable demands and a normal urge to draw the line somewhere. Meanwhile, Caleb tells JJ stories about difficult living conditions in Haiti, but Ivy, in the face of seemingly strong contrary evidence, decides he’s making up the tales. She’s such a grounded, generally sensible kid that her irrational rejections of Caleb feel forced and frustratingly out of character, just as is his unwillingness to set her straight. Ivy’s eavesdropping on her mother’s conversations provides a needed humorous counterpoint to the real issue she’s encountering: the need to take on too much adult responsibility at a time when she’s not quite mature enough to handle it. A coming-of-age tale with sufficient heart, an appealing narrator and an unusual conflict combine for a fine read. (Fiction. 10-14)
THE GRANDDAUGHTER NECKLACE
Wyeth, Sharon Dennis Illus. by Ibatoulline, Bagram Levine/Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-0-545-08125-2
Drawing on family history, Wyeth exalts intergenerational bonds and the heirloom that symbolizes them. An author’s note details the African-American author’s discovery of her Irish forebear, Frances Stward, who immigrated to the United States in 1861. Wyeth takes artistic license in having Stward wear the titular “granddaughter necklace” during her Atlantic voyage, saying that this detail was inspired by “crystal beads worn by [her] mother and grandmother.” Stward’s “glittering necklace” is handed down from one generation to the next, and the story begins with Stward on the deck of a ship in a breathtaking seascape that Ibatoulline renders in warm, sunset colors. It then shifts to the narrator’s childhood as she asks her mother to retell the story of the necklace’s journey from one woman to the next. This storytelling moves back through time to Stward’s own gift of the necklace to her daughter born of her union with a free man of color. The closing scene shows the narrator giving the necklace to her own daughter in the present day. The story’s play with temporal space distinguishes the narrative, and Ibatoulline’s acryl-gouache paintings present ornate depictions of domestic scenes and stunning landscapes. The latter category of illustrations is the most successful, with some of the domestic scenes falling a bit flat with stiff renderings of human subjects. A lovely family tribute. (Picture book. 5-8)
BUNNIES ON ICE
Wright, Johanna Illus. by Wright, Johanna Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-1-59643-404-2 Bursting with confidence, a young skater describes what it takes to be a champion (at least in her own mind) in this wobbly but amusing manifesto. |
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“A perfect lift-the-flap exploration of color and natural history.” from spot the animals
board book round -up PANTONE: BOX OF COLOR 6 Mini Board Books!
abramsappleseed Illus. by Bennett, Meagan abramsappleseed (60 pp.) $12.95 | Nov. 1, 2012 978-1-4197-0419-2
SPOT THE ANIMALS A Lift-the-Flap Book of Colors
This set of six blocky board books, each in a different color range, is better suited to play than reading. The design is simple: Every title, whether red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple, includes five pages that look as though they could be Pantone® color-matching chips used by graphic designers, each of these pages in a slightly different hue. Three pages of each minibook include die-cut shapes that form one object and then another on the verso. In Green, the die-cut peapod becomes a caterpillar via the page turn and the strategic placement of a few black accent lines. The official Pantone® numbers are included, and the names of the colors, which are not official, often speak to the object depicted in the die cut (the sunny-side-up egg is in “Omelet Yellow,” and a whistle is in “Police Officer Blue”). A simple caption labels each of the objects at the bottom of the page. With a couple of exceptions, most of the die-cut holes are sturdy and have rounded edges. While the minimal text and almost-too-subtle variation between the pages make these books ill-suited to shared reading, the shape and weight of each book are fine for block play and solo exploration. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
American Museum of Natural History Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Sterling (16 pp.) $6.95 | Oct. 2, 2012 978-1-4027-7723-3 A perfect lift-the-flap exploration of color and natural history. Readers are beckoned to spot various animals of different hues that nestle behind die-cut flaps that simulate their natural habitat. Hyper-realistic collagist Jenkins is at his best here, depicting several unusual creatures, such as a ghost crab, a giant stink bug and an emerald tree boa, which are hidden behind grass and leaves respectively. The simple text queries readers directly on each page—“Can you spot the blue animal?” (or purple or orange)—thus reinforcing the unifying theme of color. Readers reveal the hiding animal by opening the sturdy flaps, which have nicely rounded edges for little fingers and allow hints of the animal’s color to poke through the die-cut holes. Just enough for the audience, there is one sentence of factual information for each creature per spread. The last two pages review the colors and animals depicted in a graphically clean layout. This peekaboo expedition is a delightful introduction to the animal kingdom for budding young naturalists. (Board book. 2-4)
1-2-3 DINOSAURS BITE! A Prehistoric Counting Book
American Museum of Natural History Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Sterling (18 pp.) $6.95 | Oct. 2, 2012 978-1-4027-7722-6
GO! GO! GO!
Bird, Nicola Illus. by Land, Fiona Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $10.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-545-42545-2
This dinosaur counting book doesn’t completely add up. Jenkins provides his signature cut-paper collage for this prehistoric outing with a text attributed to the American Museum of Natural History. Five of the page spreads feature a different dinosaur species, such as Microraptor, Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus. Readers are invited to count the ever-increasing bites on the page supposedly made by the dinosaurs (they are created by die cut). While a clever gimmick, the book design serves it poorly. The jagged bite marks are difficult to count, since other bite marks from subsequent pages show through, as well as stray images and partial lines of text. While the book 2844
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lets readers count to five spread by spread, the next page rushes the counting the rest of the way to 10 with an abstract list of items to count. It is unclear what and where the “8 jagged bites that make these pages disappear...” are. The next page is a little more useful, with one sentence of dietary facts for each of the featured dinosaurs. The last spread reuses the art that has come before to give readers more items to count, but this feels like an afterthought. Four pages of backmatter are too much for a board book, and a more thoughtful design would have served the entire package better. Despite the star power here, skip this one. (Board book. 2-4)
A transportation book for very young enthusiasts. In bold colors and with blocky graphics, each double-page spread focuses on a different class of vehicle, such as cars, construction equipment, water vessels and flying machines. The right-hand side of the spread features a full-page image of a machine with a textural element embedded in the page. In the |
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I SAY, YOU SAY ANIMAL SOUNDS!
pithy text, readers are invited to touch the corrugated cardboard adorning an ambulance, the shiny foil embellishing a rocket, the mirrored portholes on the submarine and more. The lefthand side of the spread features smaller images of a variety of vehicles, each within a boldly colored or patterned panel. Onomatopoeic machine noises (“vroom!” “Wee-oo! Wee-oo!”) are strategically placed near each vehicle to simulate action. Additional phrases float throughout the panels and encourage readers to wave to the vehicles and the smiling passengers onboard. The line “Baby, say,” which appears in each left-hand corner of each spread, is the only unclear invitation. The cleverest gimmick is the die-cut tab in the shape of a vehicle indexing each page, which allows readers to easily turn the pages and return to their favorite scenes. Young readers will enjoy perusing and playing with the pages independently or during lap reading sessions. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
Carpenter, Tad Illus. by Carpenter, Tad LB Kids/Little, Brown (18 pp.) $6.99 | Sep. 11, 2012 978-0-316-20073-8 Series: I Say, You Say
A playful lift-the-flap read-aloud encourages children to chime in. “I say dog, you say...” reads the predictable text, encouraging youngsters to fill in the blank and make each animal’s signature sound—“WOOF!” in this case—once the flap is open. A mother or father animal is featured in its habitat, and under the flap, which opens up, down or to the right, multiple offspring cavort and make their iconic sound. The final spread encourages a boisterous review of all the animals’ noises that have come before. Carpenter’s doe-eyed animal caricatures are goofy, inviting and easily recognizable in the double-page spreads. Quirky moments, such as calves dancing to a boombox and a frog doing the backstroke, add to the fun of the inevitable repeat readings. The corners of the flaps are rounded for little fingers, but this thoughtful feature is inexplicably missing from the regular pages and the cover. The gatefold flaps are sturdy, as are the glossy card-stock pages. With bold, active art and a noise-inducing, interactive text, this offering, part of the I Say, You Say series, will work for both group and one-on-one read-alouds. (Picture book. 18 mos.-3)
COLORASAURUS
Bryant, Megan E. Illus. by Powell, Luciana Navarro Chronicle (20 pp.) $9.99 | Sep. 5, 2012 978-1-4521-0814-8 Series: ...Saurus One in a series of concept books both shaped like and featuring dinosaurs. Velociraptor, Giganotosaurus and Triceratops, among others, encounter a rainbow of objects such as red fireballs, yellow sand, and blue water to explain the concept of color to little ones. The text is straightforward, and the color that is the focus of each spread is printed in a bold font of a corresponding shade. Powell’s friendly-looking dinosaurs, created with a mottled brush stroke and rounded lines, are age-appropriate if not entirely accurate. The dinosaur shape of the book is eye-catching when closed, but it results in strange page crops when the book is open (the Diplodocus has a V-shaped chunk cut out of the middle of its back). The other books in the …Saurus series demonstrate counting, the alphabet and shapes. Alphasaurus successfully lists a prehistoric creature for each letter. Countasaurus lets readers count the different parts of various dinosaurs up to 10, but some of the dinosaurs, such as Ichthyosaurus, are a little scarier than others in the series. Shapesaurus, probably the least successful, feels a little forced, with unnatural, square-shaped rocks and comically rectangular Triceratops teeth. A series for those seeking concept books married with (mostly) kinder, gentler dinosaurs. (Board book. 2-4)
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LITTLE GINGERBREAD MAN
Caviezel, Giovanni Illus. by Donati, Giuliana Barron’s (10 pp.) $7.99 | Oct. 1, 2012 978-0-7641-6541-2
A happy gingerbread man builds a house of gingerbread just in time for Christmas. In the slight text—which has nothing to do with the traditional story of “The Gingerbread Boy”—the Little Gingerbread Man delivers a monologue about how he is going to build a perfect gingerbread house using all manner of candies and sweets. Other gingerbread people, likely his friends and family, appear to cheer on his construction skills or drop off gifts for the season. On the last page, readers learn that even Santa likes his gingerbread house. The art, in muted and hazy colors, presents greetingcard–like scenes of Christmas trees, playful gingerbread people and familiar gingerbread-house building materials. The verse has a couple of fudged rhymes, a stilted rhythm in several sections and an overly effusive tone throughout. While young browsers may initially be attracted to |
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“Parents, who are absent in these scenes and obviously not needed in this Utopian world, will appreciate Cowen-Fletcher’s positive approach.” from baby be kind
the candy-coated cover, once opened they will realize that, with only four scenes in the whole book, this saccharine package is not worth the time, money or calories. (Board book. 2-4)
date. Parents, who are absent in these scenes and obviously not needed in this Utopian world, will appreciate Cowen-Fletcher’s positive approach. An Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten for the still-in-diapers set. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
LET’S GET DRESSED!
LLAMA LLAMA ZIPPITY-ZOOM
Church, Caroline Jayne Illus. by Church, Caroline Jayne Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-545-43637-3
Dewdney, Anna Illus. by Dewdney, Anna Viking (14 pp.) $5.99 | May 1, 2012 978-0-670-01328-9 Series: Llama Llama
Parents will appreciate this how-to book on getting dressed, and kids will enjoy the easy-to-open flaps. A toddler of undisclosed gender gets ready for the day with the help of a playful puppy and a teddy bear. From underwear (which potty-training parents will appreciate) to shoes, this youngster takes readers through the stages of putting on clothes. The little protagonist appears on the left-hand side of the spread, and bold lines of text appear opposite, giving readers a clue about which article of clothing is to come. The text is unfinished until readers lift the extra-thick flap to reveal the tyke in the garment. A tab in the same print as the article of clothing underneath makes this title particularly toddler friendly. The rhyming verse is fun on some pages (“First we need a brand-new pair / of super-duper // underwear!”) and serviceable on others. Atop speckled papers that have a handmade feel, Church’s cartoon toddler and a puppy are delightfully animated in warm colors and gender-neutral prints. While not necessarily a topic toddlers clamor for, there is enough interactivity and simplicity here for them to enjoy the ride. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
Llama Llama, of Red Pajama fame, stars in this board-book ode to active toddler play. Joined by an uncredited Nelly Gnu, who appeared in Llama Llama, Time to Share (2012), Llama Llama rides a scooter, a tricycle, a playground swing and a toy car. The repetitive, rhyming text is appropriately empty: “Llama Llama ZIP! / Llama Llama ZOOM! // Llama Llama Red Pajama VROOM VROOM VROOM!” The duo continues their romp until a near-collision encourages them to stop for a Popsicle break under a shady tree. Unlike many board-book spinoffs from picture-book franchises, the inviting and cheery art is original to this offering. By alternating animated full-page and spot-art paintings, she gives the title momentum and energy. Youngsters unfamiliar with the picture books may wonder why the hero is nicknamed Llama Llama Red Pajama, as there is no sleepwear in sight, but this confusion will likely pass as they get drawn into a familiar, playful world. A pleasing addition and introduction to the Llama Llama series. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
BABY BE KIND
1, 2 AT THE ZOO
Cowen-Fletcher, Jane Candlewick (18 pp.) $5.99 | Sep. 25, 2012 978-0-7636-5647-8
DiCicco, Sue Illus. by DiCicco, Sue Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $6.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-545-43239-9
While not very realistic, this useful book models ideal toddler behavior. Cowen-Fletcher takes readers through scenes of two toddlers playing and interacting. This duo eagerly takes turns on playground equipment, happily shares snacks and gently takes care of a puppy. The preachy rhyming text addresses readers directly, telling them how to behave in various situations, but Cowen-Fletcher’s soft art gives each line of verse a grounded sweetness. While some of the children’s movements and actions may be a little too mature for their age, she does capture the posture and proportions of her cute cherubs faithfully in soft watercolors and pastels outlined in delicate pencil. One page spread, showing the youngsters sharing warmth in winter and shade in the summer, jars and feels out of place, since most of the tableaux seem to take place over the course of one play 2846
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Only going up to the number two, this is a minimalist counting book with gatefold flaps. Set at the zoo, each left-hand page features a close-up of one segment of an animal. The right-hand page shows two of the same creature, and behind a gatefold, each duo is fully depicted in their zoo habitat. The giraffe page shows one giraffe neck, then two giraffe heads next and finally, behind a flap that opens vertically, two giraffes munching on leaves. The penultimate flap reveals two elephants in an oversized foldout page. In the final, four-panel spread, a Caucasian mother and her child are seen visiting the zoo. To focus on counting only up to two is refreshingly age-appropriate, though some of the other choices as to what to count seem illogical and counterintuitive. Why count only one penguin foot? Several of the close-ups are |
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TUSHES & TAILS!
strangely cropped, making them hard for readers to identify. The book design, with thinner-than-normal board-book pages, is helpful for toddlers transitioning to paper books. DiCicco’s cheery colors and smooth lines give the book a soft focus. The companion book, 1, 2, 3 in the Sea, takes the counting up to three, but it is even more confusing in its page layout and choice of close-up images. While there are some appropriate and amusing features here, some of the author’s choices don’t add up. (Board book. 1-3)
Frattini, Stephane Illus. by Frattini, Stephane Sterling (18 pp.) $9.95 | Aug. 7, 2012 978-1-4027-7980-0 A lift-the-flap tale of animal butts— who could ask for anything more? In this 8-inch-square board book, imported from France, each page boasts a full-size flap with an extreme close-up photo of an animal’s derrière. Readers are invited to guess whose backside is pictured and raise the flap for the answer. Frattini has captured an impressive array of rear ends on film, even a bumblebee and a porcupine. A large image of the animal, from the front and in its habitat, is hidden under each flap. On a boldly colored background, several animal facts appear on the flap’s verso in an appropriately playful and conversational tone, while a smaller picture of the animal floats alongside as spot art. A few of the creatures are easy to guess, such as giraffe, cow and squirrel, but there are several stumpers here: okapi, ibex and penguin. The last spread has eight more mini flaps of animal buttocks to enjoy as part of a rapid-fire guessing game. With thoughtfully rounded corners, the flaps are quite sturdy. The trim size and the content will make it appealing to kids who have long moved beyond board books. A distinctive, funny and informative entry into the liftthe-flap genre—kids will hate to see it coming to an end. (Board book. 3-7)
PLAYBOOK FARM
Fletcher, Corina Illus. by Teckentrup, Britta Nosy Crow/Candlewick (12 pp.) $24.00 | Sep. 11, 2012 978-0-7636-61656 A delightful playmat and pop-up book all in one. This novelty kit comes with its own box, a pop-up “book” and a pocket with an assortment of stand-up paper animals, people and farm vehicles. Readers can choose to turn the pages of the book, in the conventional manner, for a pop-up experience or to flip it over to read very simple animal facts in 2-D. The book can also be folded flat to create a nearly 31-by-24-inch playmat. The paper figurines, made of two-ply card stock with a simple foldout base, add to the fun of the pop-up portions of the mat and encourage play. The paper engineering is quite sophisticated and includes a pop-up barn and sheep pen with doors that can open and a windmill that spins with a flick. The text for the pop-up side of the book is a simple catalog of noises and movements heard and seen on a farm and reads aloud fluidly. The flip side, which does have some tricky pages that fold up or down instead of right to left, asks readers to guess the “job” an animal does on the farm. Some of the explanations may strike adult readers as incomplete (“Horses like to trot, gallop, and jump!”), but with wonderful pop-ups waiting on the other side, this side of the book is not going to get much airtime. Teckentrup’s digitally created artwork has a homespun, folksy feel. Her flat forms are softened and rounded by the application of color that resembles mottled brush strokes and textured block prints. With the choking-hazard warning on the back and the delicate nature of the pop-ups and paper figures, buyers should follow the age recommendations closely on this one. This is a charmer for preschoolers and their grown-ups alike. Here’s hoping more “Playbooks” are on the way. (Popup/board book and novelty item. 3-6)
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LETTER WORK
George, Bobby & George, June Illus. by Nassner, Alyssa abramsappleseed (24 pp.) $9.95 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-1-4197-0411-6 Series: Montessori, While in board-book format, this and its companion title, Number Work, are really interactive teaching tools for preschool and primary-aged children to use with a knowledgeable adult. Here, letters are grouped not alphabetically but by the way they are written. Lowercase “b” and “h” are paired since they both include a down stroke followed by a curved line when formed. Above each letter is the sound the letter makes, not what the letter is called. Goat is accompanied by the text “guh” to describe the hard “g” sound that starts the word. Each letter is embossed with a rough texture and includes an arrow showing beginning writers how to trace the letter. All the letters are listed and accompanied by simple, recognizable pictures of items that help put the letter and letter sound in context. An illustration of an ant hovers near “a,” and a dog tags along for “d.” The two introductory pages offer some simple guidance for parents written by the authors, Montessori experts, who also |
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“Goose’s predicament is infinitely familiar to toddlers, who can have difficulties expressing their wants and needs.” from goose needs a hug
include a page of lines and curves for youngsters to trace even before they tackle the letters. The final spread builds on what has come before and allows young learners to try the letters over again in a smaller size font. Number Work uses the identical, tall format and the same tactile feature for writing numbers. Taking children from the concrete to the abstract, the authors provide objects for children to count and then reveal the numeral on the verso. A few small but important pieces of information are missing for unversed parents, such as how letters and numbers should be traced with one stroke, but parents and teachers who have educated themselves in the Montessori method will find these volumes to be both handsome and helpful. (Board book. 3-6)
that can be had in autumn. The feathered friends have no luck finding a pumpkin in a pile of leaves or up an apple tree. Thistle suggests they try the pumpkin patch, and the final spread shows the twosome marching off with an extra-large pumpkin and congratulating each other on their pumpkin-finding abilities. While some of the jokes will likely go over most toddlers’ heads, youngsters will identify with Duck and Goose’s distractibility and their obsession with something new. Hills’ oil paintings, done in warm fall tones and stretching to the edge of the oversized pages, are as fresh and lively as any of the other titles in the series. The text is told entirely in snatches of dialogue; Duck, Goose and Thistle’s utterances hover close to the speaker and help to differentiate the three characters. This autumn tale is charming enough to enjoy throughout the year. (Board book. 2-4)
BABY’S FIRST PRAYERS
GOOSE NEEDS A HUG
Goodings, Christina--Ed. Illus. by Barker, Stephen Lion/Trafalgar (12 pp.) $5.99 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-0-7459-6265-8
Hills, Tad Illus. by Hills, Tad Schwartz & Wade/Random (22 pp.) $6.99 | Dec. 26, 2012 978-0-307-98293-3 Series: Duck & Goose
A lackluster collection of prayers for little ones. The text is a compilation of one or two stanzas of traditional religious verse, original poems and well-known hymn lyrics, all credited on the back of the book. While there is no mention of Jesus, most of these prayers are from Christian sources. With selections from the likes of C.F. Alexander’s “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and the traditional “I See the Moon,” the choices are simple and age-appropriate, and most have a lovely, soothing cadence that makes this good bedtime fare. What’s disappointing here is the art, which looks to be pastels. Barker tries for a childlike simplicity with his animal and human cartoons against bright backgrounds, but his work looks stiff and amateurish instead. Characters float isolated on pages with little to ground them or add interest to the composition. While age-appropriate, nonsectarian religious books will always be in demand, the visuals here do little to elevate the soul. (Board book. 3 mos.-2)
Goose has a hard time conveying to his gaggle of friends what he really wants. “I’m feeling sad. I think I need—” Goose says, but then he is interrupted by his overly helpful pals. They suggest a variety of cheering-up activities, such as a game of hide-and-seek, splashing in puddles and a happy song, but keep missing the mark. In a bold, double-page spread with a telling headshot of Goose pleading, “A HUG!” the buddies finally let Goose finish the request. The last two pages show the gang engaging in a group hug with the accompanying punch line, “Well, why didn’t you say so?” Hills’ double-page–spread paintings, depicting a bucolic, green landscape and his playful cast of birds, are as expressive as ever. He expertly conveys emotions through subtle tilts of heads and placement of eyes and eyebrows. Like other Duck & Goose titles, the tale is told only in dialogue, and each character’s lines caption their actions. Goose’s predicament is infinitely familiar to toddlers, who can have difficulties expressing their wants and needs. The sparkly, tactile words on the cover will attract young readers, but what’s inside will provide real emotional resonance. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
DUCK AND GOOSE FIND A PUMPKIN
Hills, Tad Illus. by Hills, Tad Schwartz & Wade/Random (22 pp.) $10.99 | Jul. 10, 2012 978-0-307-98155-4 Series: Duck & Goose Playful and comically hopeless Duck and Goose are back in a fall-themed board book. In this episode, the duo admires their friend Thistle’s pumpkin. They set out to find one, but they look in all the wrong places and become distracted along the way by the fun 2848
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“While the Lego® constructions within these board-book pages are ingenious, Kenney’s artistry may be lost on those not yet beyond Duplo® blocks.” from amazing abc
NASCAR ABC
With Katz board books about spring, summer and fall already in the bag, let’s hope winter is on the way to round out baby’s year. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
Jordan, Christopher Illus. by Jordan, Christopher Tundra (30 pp.) $7.95 | Oct. 23, 2012 978-1-77049-429-9 Series: My First NASCAR Racing
HOW DOES BABY FEEL?
Katz, Karen Illus. by Katz, Karen Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $6.99 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4424-5204-6
A poorly designed and sometimes overly abstract introduction to NASCAR for the very young. “A is for automobile. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series cars are very cool automobiles.” The text progresses through the rest of the alphabet in a similar fashion. Each highly saturated page features a bold upper- and lowercase letter at the top, a photo of the object in the middle and a caption below. Some of the photos are eye-catching, such as those of the cars, a blimp and a checkered flag, but most are so heavily cropped that they lose context. The picture of the engine floats isolated on the page, and the image of the oval track is small and strangely warped. A few of the choices are far too confusing for toddlers to grasp, such as “qualify” for the letter Q. Others in the series use the same format and also have issues of clarity. In NASCAR Colors some of the photos of cars and uniformed drivers only hint at the hue in question. NASCAR Shapes pairs a simple image of a shape with a NASCAR photo and is a little more successful, but the trapezoid windshield looks quite odd detached from a car. NASCAR 123 takes readers up to 12, but again, the isolated images surrounded by white outlines will only mystify. With the popularity of NASCAR and the love many toddlers express for vehicles, it is a shame these books could not cross the finish line. (Board book. 2-4)
In a playful lift-the-flap title, Katz’s cherubs are getting in touch with their
feelings. The multicultural cast of plump babies demonstrates hungry, happy, sleepy, silly, sad and loved. The first half of each page spread sets the stage and asks readers such questions as, “Baby wants milk and crackers. How does baby feel?” Across the spread, on the facing page, there’s a full-size flap illustrating the scene in Katz’s bold cartoons and her colorful and recognizable patterns. Each baby’s full emotional state is both pictured and captioned under the flap with parents helpfully in the background to soothe, cuddle or engage. An up-to-standard addition to Katz’s extensive boardbook oeuvre. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)
AMAZING ABC
Kenney, Sean Illus. by Kenney, Sean Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (30 pp.) $7.99 | Jul. 3, 2012 978-0-8050-9464-0
BABY LOVES SUMMER!
While the Lego® constructions within these board-book pages are ingenious, Kenney’s artistry may be lost on those not yet beyond Duplo® blocks. From an apple to an owl to a zipper, Legos® make up almost every object in this book. Each page features a Lego® sculpture, the first letter of the item constructed out of the blocks and a one-word caption labeling the object, all against a solid background. A full alphabet is included on the last page with, again, each letter built out of bricks. That a man can make a living building with blocks is astounding, and several of Kenney’s Lego® creations are impressive and clever, particularly the shoe, the violin and the zipper. Many of the items will be easy for young children to identify in their Lego® forms, such as a house, an owl, a train and a red wagon. Others will be difficult for youngsters to name without some adult assistance, like the goblin, the kites, the nails and the yo-yo. The choice to publish this as a board book is puzzling, since children enjoying board books are typically not building with choke-hazard Legos®, and those kids who love Legos® tend to find board books babyish. Stick with Kenney’s hardcover titles for the Lego®obsessed. (Board book. 2-4 years)
Katz, Karen Illus. by Katz, Karen Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $6.99 | May 1, 2012 978-1-4424-2746-4 In another of Karen Katz’s bright, lift-the-flap board books, a toddler explores the sights and sounds of summer. A little red-haired girl wearing a hot pink bathing suit spies the sun behind a curtain, her swimming tube under the towel and, finally, Mommy behind a tree with a garden hose ready for some water play. The Q-and-A format is presented with the question outside the flap and the answer printed on the verso inside. “What could be in the beach bag? / These are my flip-flops, sunglasses, and green hat!” The polka-dot ice cream is a little peculiar, and a couple of the flaps don’t fully line up with the illustrations. Despite these minor flaws, this book has everything Katz fans know and love: an exuberant, cartoon toddler, art featuring familiar objects and scenes in bold patterns and happy colors, and large, sturdy flaps with mostly rounded corners. |
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“Kuo, a talent to watch, paints on blond wood, and this adds a natural warmth to her appealingly dainty animals and landscapes.” from everyone eats
NOW I AM BIG!
EVERYONE EATS
Krensky, Stephen Illus. by Gillingham, Sara abramsappleseed (12 pp.) $6.95 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-1-4197-0416-1
Kuo, Julia Illus. by Kuo, Julia Simply Read Books (22 pp.) $9.95 | Oct. 6, 2012 978-1-897476-74-1
A young toddler reflects on his life and contrasts all things he did as a baby to what he can do now. Krensky’s simple rhyming scheme provides clear comparisons: “I used to be short. / Now I am tall. // I used to be slow. / Now I play ball.” Gillingham’s cartoons in primary colors have the look and feel of retro newspaper prints and depict the child’s past on the left and his big-kid self on the right. She places this rosy-cheeked protagonist in easy-to-recognize situations. The final spread shows the child as a baby stacking three blocks next to his present-day toddler self creating towering block structures. The caption to this scene is empowering: “I used to be little. / Now I am big!” Mom, when needed, is suitably at the periphery of most scenes. The companion title, I Can Do It Myself, features a young girl and her bird sidekick demonstrating a DIY attitude when putting on clothes or blowing her nose. The taller-than-normal format of these titles reinforces the big-kid energy of the text and art. Should give toddlers a satisfying dose of independence. (Board book. 2-4)
A simple board-book catalog of the foods eaten by both animals and humans. Each spread features an animal eating a favorite item on one side, a sentence explaining this in a blocky font on the other, and an image of how people prepare and eat this foodstuff hovering above the text. For example, in one illustration, a bear climbs a tree toward a beehive. This picture is paired with the simple sentence: “Bears eat honey.” Above this phrase is a spot image of a Winnie-the-Pooh–like honey pot and a honey dipper. The last spread features a young girl, who appears on the cover and on one previous interior page, eating all the foods mentioned previously while her animal co-stars look longingly at the repast. Some of the animal food/human food connections may be a little abstract for youngsters (“Mice eat seeds” is paired with an image of seed-encrusted crackers), but the spare text will hopefully encourage adult readers to fill in the blanks for their youngsters. Kuo, a talent to watch, paints on blond wood, and this adds a natural warmth to her appealingly dainty animals and landscapes. Although slightly too abstract in concept in some instances, the art is a feast for the eyes. (Board book. 2-4)
THE BIGGEST PUMPKIN SURPRISE EVER
MY RACE CAR
Kroll, Steven Illus. by Bassett, Jeni Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $6.99 | Jul. 1, 2012 978-0-545-40285-9
Landers, Ace Illus. by White, David A. Scholastic (10 pp.) $4.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-545-43646-5
A playful lift-the-flap, seek-and-find pumpkin tale with gentle Halloween images. To simple verse by the late Kroll, a bevy of intergenerational, anthropomorphic mice visit a farm stand at harvest time, tend to a pumpkin patch, decorate a suburban block for the season, go trick-or-treating and gaze upon a gigantic jack-o’-lantern. Despite a wobble in meter at the end, the rhyming text sets the mood and invites interaction. “We all love pumpkins. There are so many kinds. How many pumpkins can you find?” Young readers will enjoy poring over Bassett’s loose, double-page–spread watercolor tableaux and lifting the flaps to count the various pumpkins tucked away. The relatively sturdy flaps blend in nicely with each scene, but this makes them a little tricky to find and lift without adult help. Most of the flaps provide satisfaction when opened, particularly the giant, ghost-costumed “pumpkin surprise” finale. Festive and fun. (Board book. 2-4)
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From the shiny cover to the fast-moving text, this carshaped board book will catch the eye of the youngest NASCAR fans. Car 33, a bold red, blue and yellow machine, races through the pack to win the race at an Indianapolis-style track. The rhyming text is slight but to the point: “Race car, race car, / zoom, zoom go! // Around the race track, never slow.” The sleek art, likely created using a computer, depicts the energy of the track well: The race cars are in focus, while the roadway and the spectators are blurred. The book’s one die cut, the passengerside window, doubles nicely as a handle for carrying and manipulation in play, but its presence on every page cuts oddly shaped holes at the top of each scene and looks like it won’t stand up to the wear and tear of active toddlers. While not a core purchase for young vehicle fans, it will help fill their need for speed. (Board book. 18 months-3)
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BIG GIRL PANTIES
HORNS, TAILS, SPIKES, AND CLAWS
Manushkin, Fran Illus. by Petrone, Valeria Robin Corey/Random (24 pp.) $7.99 | Sep. 11, 2012 978-0-307-93152-8
Mills, J. Elizabeth Illus. by Czekaj, Jef Cartwheel/Scholastic (10 pp.) $6.99 | Jul. 1, 2012 978-0-545-39385-0
A festive celebration of a young girl’s transition to underwear. “Bye-bye, diapers! / I wear panties! // Happy panties! Snappy panties! / Panties! Panties! Hip hooray! Panties for every single day,” says the dark-haired Caucasian heroine, who cavorts through the pages modeling undergarments with colorful prints and patterns. Midway through the book, she claims her “big girl” status and playfully scolds a baby (likely a sibling) and a toy crocodile for even considering wearing panties. On the last page, she calls the panty-wearing reader “a big girl, too!” The flat, pleasing, retro illustrations on slate blue backgrounds echo the text’s tone nicely. While this book isn’t going to convince girls to make the change without other interventions, parents will appreciate the rhyming, bouncing text’s exuberant cheerleading. Here’s hoping the boy’s version of this brief tale (punintended) is not too far away. This is one of a handful of diaper-to-underwear books that is fun to read more than once. (Board book. 18 mos.-4)
Youngsters can create a wacky assortment of monsters in this mix-and-match board book. Each creature is cut into thirds: head, mouth/arms/torso and tummy/legs, all of which can be flipped and swapped for several permutations of fun. The left page includes one- or two-word labels in a large font for each upper, middle or lower section, and on the right is a monster atop a color-coded background that lets readers know which creature they are looking at. The monsters are appealingly crazy-looking even before any inevitable mixing-up takes place. Among Czekaj’s kooky and loose cartoons, there’s a Sendak-like Wild Thing with tentacles, a one-eyed sea monster with wings and paws, and a fanged robot with legs for arms, along with two more mutants for readers to choose from. While the board-book format may strike some big kids as babyish, the cover and the content are goofy enough to attract and hold their interest. The pages turn relatively easily, and this design works better than the typical spiral binding often used for mix-and-match books. The back cover states that children can create 125 creatures, and aspiring Dr. Frankensteins will enjoy rising to the challenge. (Board book. 3-5)
GOOD MORNING / BUENOS DÍAS
Membrillas, Sergio Bilingual Press (16 pp.) $8.95 | Oct. 2, 2012 978-8-492968-17-6
MIRABELLE AND THE BOUNCY RED BALL
Despite a few abstract images, this is a useful bilingual title in Spanish and English. The comforting, repetitive text, with English in a white type and the matching Spanish in black, both laid against the sky blue backgrounds, consists of a rosy-cheeked baby greeting the world. Seen only in profile, the baby bids good morning to the sun, his toys and the world outside. In the final scene, readers see the baby greeting a baby in the mirror’s reflection. The retro, Art Deco–like images in muted colors are lovely on some pages and too abstract for the audience on others. While the birds, a teddy bear and the baby are iconic, the sunflowerlike sun, a ball with a prominent nose and a trio of fairy-tale characters emerging from a shelf of books are likely to confuse the very young. Following the same format, the companion book, Good Night / Buenas Noches, has similar strengths and weaknesses in darker bedtime hues. These dusky colors make sense for nighttime fare, but the choice of muted blues and yellows for Good Morning / Buenos Días is a strange one. Nevertheless, talkative and interactive bilingual parents should be able to make both board books work. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
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Muller, Mike Illus. by Muller, Mike Workman (10 pp.) $6.95 | Sep. 25, 2012 978-0-7611-7165-2 Series: Happy Dog Adventure
In this installment of the Happy Dog Adventure series, Mirabelle, a black-and-white Boston terrier, enjoys a romp outside with her red ball and her owner, Mr. Muller. The ball bounces a little too far, and Mirabelle goes off leash to retrieve it. When Mirabelle catches the ball at last, Mr. Muller exclaims, “Every day is an adventure with you, Mirabelle.” The text is her owner’s running commentary on Mirabelle’s activities. Muller, a photographer, collage artist and owner of a real Boston terrier named Mirabelle, uses a combination of photos and drawings assembled against stark white backgrounds to create the illustrations. With his cartoon head, photo hands and photo-collaged suit embellished with bow tie and buttons, Mr. Muller embodies artist Muller’s techniques. Mirabelle herself, another cartoon drawing, is cute in some scenes and stiff in others. The dog-walking plot in this offering is not that different |
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from Mirabelle Goes for a Walk, and the settings—a sidewalk with stylized trees—are nearly identical. Mirabelle and the Butterfly, set in a garden this time, provides a little variety, but a few amusing moments are not enough to make for true adventures. Stylish but slight. (Board book. 2-4)
they have encountered on previous pages. Some of the photos are quite inviting to peruse, but more than a few look jarringly altered and out of proportion. Given National Geographic’s rich catalog of eye-catching photos, it is puzzling that they would need to doctor any. Companion Shapes! suffers from proportion issues and a couple of inaccuracies. This overly didactic book may confuse rather than enlighten young learners. (Board book. 2-4)
KISS, TICKLE, CUDDLE, HUG
Musgrave, Susan Orca (24 pp.) $9.95 | Oct. 1, 2012 978-1-4598-0163-9
NOODLE LOVES TO DRIVE
Nosy Crow Illus. by Billet, Marion Nosy Crow/Candlewick (10 pp.) $8.99 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-0-7636-6273-8 Series: Noodle
Big, beautiful photos of babies demonstrate a range of infant emotions and
the needs they imply. These head shots of ethnically diverse youngsters show their happy, silly, angry and sad faces, to name a few. In a nice departure from the typical baby-photo board book, each child is named, and the need their facial expression reveals is also explored: “Lucy makes a happy face. Lucy needs a kiss. / Abrahm makes a silly face. Abrahm needs a tickle.” The photos stretch to the edge of the page, and the text, in a simple, strong type, appears on the facing page over soft-colored backgrounds. The usual emotional suspects are here, but there are some clever diversions. In one, a young boy with his mouth and nose impishly scrunched up is paired with the lines, “Henry makes a monkey face. Henry needs a banana.” A small quibble: The photo of Hannah does not look particularly sad, only serious. The final spread breaks from the pattern of the rest of book for Sam’s surprised face, including “Boo!” as a playful last line. Sure to elicit some parent and child kisses, tickles, cuddles and hugs. (Board book. 3 mos.-18 mos.)
A playful touch-and-feel exploration of toy vehicles. Noodle the panda, of refreshingly indeterminate gender, plays through these pages with a model digger, a tricycle and various toy cars. The tactile and shiny elements embedded in each page are varied enough to engage interest, especially the clever rearview mirror on Noodle’s ride-on car. While the rhyming text, with one line per page, is a bit minimal and the title is deceptive (Noodle really only drives two cars), the inviting art is the attraction here. The graphic cartoon settings with clean, round lines frame Noodle nicely, and the panda’s world is populated with familiar and easily recognizable objects, toys and animals. Noodle, with oversized head, eyes and ears, is just as endearingly playful here as in other books in the series. While this newcomer may not reach the superstar status of Maisy, Max or Spot, it is worth taking Noodle for a spin. (Board book. 1-3)
OPPOSITES!
NOODLE LOVES THE FARM
National Geographic National Geographic (24 pp.) $6.99 | Aug. 14, 2012 978-1-4263-1043-0 Series: National Geographic Little Kids Look & Learn
Nosy Crow Illus. by Billet, Marion Nosy Crow/Candlewick (10 pp.) $8.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-7636-6275-2 Series: Noodle
National Geographic offers a muddled take on opposites for little ones. In bright photos and with simple captions, various animals, people and objects demonstrate such concepts as big/little, soft/ hard and black/white. A big orca and a little goldfish is the first example, and on the next spread, readers are invited to identify big and little polar bears in a snowy field. Subsequent pages follow the same pattern, introducing the concept and then inviting readers to identify opposites within a scene. These scenes include “Guess What?” bubbles that share related facts and vary from the age-appropriate (“A baby sheep is called a ‘lamb’ “) to too abstract for toddlers (“The world’s biggest pillow fight had 3,706 people”). The final tableau shows a family enjoying a marshmallow roast in the snow, and youngsters are asked to review all the concepts 2852
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Noodle, a young panda of nonspecific gender, explores the farm in this touch-and-feel adventure. With mother in tow, Noodle meets the usual farm suspects: horses, sheep, chickens and more. Each of the farm residents gets its own double-page spread and one tactile element for little fingers to explore. A pig on the cover has pink, leathery skin, and the sheep has a fuzzy coat on an interior page. There is a nice variety of touch-and-feel elements, and most of them look sturdy enough for enthusiastic toddlers (the chicken “feathers” may be the first to go). As with Noodle Loves to Drive (2012), the last spread features a Mylar mirror, in the shape of the cows’ watering hole, to bring the child reader into the book. One or two lines of rhyming text per page allow for nice pacing, |
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“[Patricelli] does a lovely job of capturing toddler-and-parent interactions; especially ebullient: the depiction of a family pileup hug on the floor.” from huggy kissy
TRUCKS
“Noodle loves the horses. / Noodle loves the sheep. / Noodle loves the cat. Shh, she’s fast asleep!” Another appealing addition to the toddler-friendly Noodle series. (Board book. 1-3)
Powell, Debbie Illus. by Powell, Debbie Candlewick (16 pp.) $5.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-7636-5934-9
HUGGY KISSY
Powell presents some of the most popular construction vehicles with spectacular graphic simplicity. Each page is embossed with textural and glossy elements and depicts a single truck and its driver’s silhouette in action. While digitally created, Powell’s renderings of a dump truck, a steamroller, a crane, a digger and a cement mixer have the grainy look of woodcut prints, with a pleasing mix of strong and muted colors against a cream background. The bold red text, featuring playful truck noises (“Brrrm, brrrm” and “Whirr, whirr”), frames the construction activity and gives each piece of heavy machinery added energy. While most modern steamrollers are dieselpowered and don’t make a “Puff, puff” noise, this is only a minor flaw. On the final page, readers discover the project that ties these five trucks together: a new house, complete with sparkly foil windows, for the unseen narrator. While other titles in the prolific construction-book genre have more detail and more text, this one is just enough for the very youngest truck enthusiasts. (Board book. 1-3)
Patricelli, Leslie Illus. by Patricelli, Leslie Candlewick (24 pp.) $6.99 | Dec. 11, 2012 978-0-7636-3246-5 Patricelli’s huggable, cartoon baby is back in an exploration of hugs and kisses. “A kissy when I cry, a hug to say bye-bye, / I don’t want this hug to end. Now I hug my friend!” So goes the rhyming verse narrated by the iconic, diaper-clad tot, who explains physical affection among babies, families, friends and pets. Each spread features one, two or multiple scenes of Patricelli’s acrylic cartoon characters with thick, black outlines against bold backgrounds in red, dark pink or purple jewel tones. She does a lovely job of capturing toddler-and-parent interactions; especially ebullient: the depiction of a family pileup hug on the floor. As in Patricelli’s other books in the series, the final spread provides several smaller captioned cartoons on the theme. While this list of the variety of kisses and hugs people share and their idiomatic names is fun, it is troubling that Patricelli chose to include “Eskimo Kiss,” a pejorative and outdated term, showing a dark-skinned young child dressed in a stereotypically oversized jacket rubbing noses with the Caucasian baby protagonist. An unfortunate choice in an otherwise charming package. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)
TWEET HEARTS
Reagan, Susan Illus. by Reagan, Susan Robin Corey/Random (22 pp.) $5.99 | Dec. 26, 2012 978-0-307-93153-5
MONKEY WORLD ABC
A heart-laden counting board book with art that’s better suited to the Valentine greeting-card market. In rhyming couplets of a single line per page, Reagan invites youngsters to count various hearts in several different scenes dramatized by two canary yellow birds. Starting at 10, one of the birds attracts 10 hearts with a magnet, then the twosome releases nine hearts from a bird cage, and next one bird blows eight soap bubbles in the air. The countdown continues to the number one, with the reveal of the book’s sole pop-up: one heart emblazoned with the words “I love you.” While the cartoon birds have a Tweety Bird–like cuteness, and the highly saturated color palette of yellow, pink and red is attractive, the scenes will go over most little ones’ heads. Babies and toddlers still learning the basics of our world won’t get the visual metaphors. With so many board books expressing the sentiment of love in a more developmentally appropriate manner, skip this one. (Board book. 2-4)
Porter, Matthew Illus. by Porter, Matthew Simply Read Books (26 pp.) $8.95 | Oct. 15, 2012 978-1-927018-07-1
From Artist to Zookeeper, Porter’s big-eyed monkeys sport a dizzying array of costumes. With one image per page, a simple caption beneath and the first letter highlighted in color, these monkeys look simultaneously modern and folksy as they course through the alphabet. Using a mix of bold and muted tones and black outlines, Porter paints on wood, and the grain shows through, giving each illustration a subtle texture and a handmade feel. The back page says this work is “An A to Z of occupations,” but this gathering of characters is more playful (pirate, queen and snake charmer are in the mix) than aspirational. While not a core alphabet title, a fun selection for monkey fans. (Board book. 2-4)
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“[T]he easy-to-open flaps blend in nicely with the rest of the page. Better yet, as the flaps open, each animal’s movements animate, flip-book fashion.” from move!
MY VERY LITTLE NOAH’S ARK STORY
WHO’S HIDING
Scholastic Inc. Illus. by Swanson, Weldon Cartwheel/Scholastic (12 pp.) $6.99 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-0-545-45903-7 Series: Skip Hop
Rock, Lois Illus. by Ayliffe, Alex Lion/Trafalgar (12 pp.) $4.99 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-0-7459-6318-1
In 13 lines of verse and simple cut-paper art, Rock and Ayliffe manage to tell the story of Noah and the Flood. The language is simple and direct enough for young children to grasp. Parents should take note that, unlike some children’s versions of the story, the text is true to Genesis and makes it clear that God causes the flood because the “world has all gone bad.” Despite a couple of small wobbles, the rhyme and meter are fluid. While Ayliffe’s delicate collage captures the action well, and her representations of people and animals have a friendly, cartoony feel, the 4-inch-square trim size does not give the images room to breathe and makes it difficult for little eyes to pore over the detailed scenes. A laudable attempt that would have better served this iconic story in a larger format. (Board book. 2-4)
This Skip Hop–branded debut is standard lift-the-flap fare. Mama Owl loses her owlet and is helped by the other nearby mother animals. Under every flap she finds their babies instead of hers until she discovers her baby tucked into their own nest. Shaped flaps cover each baby, but a little of the animal is revealed so repeat readers can guess who the hider might be. The final spread features the animal mommies with liftable arm-shaped flaps that reveal each baby nestled on the animal mommy’s lap. While the flaps themselves could be a little sturdier, there is a helpful indentation by most of them to help little (and not so little) fingers pry it open. Parent fans of Skip Hop baby products will recognize the company’s friendly cartoon animals within these pages, and each mama animal sports one of the company’s signature fabric designs. Fitting in with the farm/outdoor setting, the color palette includes friendly yellowish greens, sky blues and woodsy browns. Unfortunately some of the baby animals are so washed-out against the background that they don’t stand out when readers open the flaps. The simple rhyming text has pleasing cadence and reads aloud smoothly. There is enough interactivity to please parents and babies alike. While its first board-book outing is less than perfect, Skip Hop does get a few things right. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)
ARE YOU SLEEPING LITTLE ONE
Schmidt, Hans-Christian Translated by Lindgren, Laura Illus. by Nemet, Andreas Abbeville Kids (18 pp.) $6.95 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-0-7892-1120-0
MOVE!
Animal parents lull their offspring to sleep in this uneven German import. Each dyad, from a giraffe and its calf to a duck and a duckling, is featured on its own page and paired with a rhyming couplet. The final duo is a human mother and child snuggled up together. While it has a soothing cadence, the translated verse is often forced. Some lines are delightful: “Are you sleeping, little puppy, / Dozing on paws soft and fluffy?” Others are stiff: “Are you sleeping, little flamingo, / Balancing on one leg under soft moon glow?” Német’s gentle paintings, in what looks to be watercolor, are appropriately cozy, but the pages seem jammed together and don’t flow across the page-spreads. Particularly jarring is the image of the kangaroo and joey in the dry Outback jutting up against the watery picture of a fish and its little one. This feels like a paler knock-off of Mem Fox and Jane Dyer’s classic Time for Bed (1993) or Diane Muldrow and Jui Isida’s more recent Somewhere So Sleepy (2010). The animal-babies-at-bedtime format has been done before with better success. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)
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Slegers, Liesbet Illus. by Slegers, Liesbet Clavis (12 pp.) $7.95 | Jul. 1, 2012 978-1-60537-118-4 A playful exploration of animal movements animated by lift-the-flap technology. An unseen narrator asks a monkey, a fish, a turtle, a frog and a bird a simple question: “How do you move?” The animals answer with an “I” statement: “I climb!,” “I swim!,” etc. Although rounded corners would have been ideal, the easy-toopen flaps blend in nicely with the rest of the page. Better yet, as the flaps open, each animal’s movements animate, flip-book fashion. The frog appears to jump and the birds fly as the flaps are opened and closed. Slegers’ paintings, in fully saturated hues and with thick outlines, present cartoon animals in a simplified environment. Surprise, also by Slegers, uses strong colors as well and the same bold line, but here, animal mothers are asked where their babies are hiding, and the flaps, without the animation special effect, reveal the answer. A welcome lift-the-flap addition to the shelf. (Board book. 1-3)
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WINTER SNOW
IN THE WOODS
Slegers, Liesbet Illus. by Slegers, Liesbet Clavis (12 pp.) $5.95 | Nov. 1, 2012 978-1-60537-123-8
Spurr, Elizabeth Illus. by Oliphant, Manelle Peachtree (22 pp.) $6.95 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-1-56145-582-9
A toddler encounters a variety of winter phenomena and tells readers about wearing a hat and scarf, building a snowman and riding on a sled. The layout follows a set pattern throughout. The left-hand page shows an object or objects against a white background, and the right-hand page puts the object in question in context. Stand-alone snowballs on the left are paired with the toddler throwing them on the right, and a birdfeeder to the left is next to a close-up of a bird eating on the right. Some of the isolated objects, such as a bare branch, some falling snow and an old-fashioned sled, are very hard to recognize in their decontextualized state and look stark and lonely against the white background. It is odd that a book dubbed Winter Snow has only three scenes involving the stuff. Slegers’ cartoon toddler clad in bright colors and wearing a perpetually crooked smile is friendly, but the Caucasian tyke’s presence is not enough to fill out the sparse pages. There is a fine line in board books between simple and slight. Unlike other books by Slegers, this offering is a little slim. (Board book. 1-3)
Following the same format as their first book, In the Garden (2012), Spurr and Oliphant continue the story of the same outdoors-loving young boy. This time, he enjoys fishing while on a camping trip with his father. Again, individual words paired on each page make up the rhyming text. Spurr’s staccato poetry fits nicely with the rhythms of fishing: “Boy baits. / Boy waits. // Bee buzzes. / Boy dozes. // Pole shakes. / Boy wakes. // Line jiggles. / Fish wiggles.” When the young boy catches his fish, he brings it back to his father to cook. The two enjoy roasted marshmallows and some campfire music before hunkering down in their tent. The rounded, colored-pencil lines and soothing watercolors in blues and greens set the scene nicely and soften the clipped verse. As with the first book, the boy accomplishes his outdoor feat solo. Safety-conscious readers may balk at a young child fishing near a brook with no adult supervision, but a close inspection of the illustrations reveals that he is within view of his father. While fishing may not be as common an early-childhood activity as gardening, this is a likable follow-up. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
FALL LEAVES
THINGS THAT GO
Slegers, Liesbet Illus. by Slegers, Liesbet Clavis (12 pp.) $5.95 | Nov. 1, 2012 978-1-60537-122-1
Sterling Children’s Books Sterling (28 pp.) $4.95 | Aug. 1, 2012 978-1-4027-9894-8 Series: Say & Play
From watching squirrels gather acorns to hearing leaves swirl in the wind, a young toddler explores the sights and sounds of autumn in this import from Holland. Like its sister book, Winter Snow (2012), this title shows an isolated image of an object on one side of the page with some short descriptive text. The facing page places the object in context, often with the young protagonist using it. Since most of the images in Slegers’ thick-lined and boldly colored cartoons are simple and clear, there doesn’t seem to be much need to spotlight each object on its own page. The title may confuse children and adults, as autumn leaves are only pictured in two of the six spreads. Safety-conscious parents will cringe that an entire spread is devoted to this curious toddler admiring a patch of mushrooms that bear a striking resemblance to the very poisonous Amanita muscaria. While many of Slegers’ books are simple and enjoyable, this one is unfocused and does a poor job of introducing the season. (Board book. 1-3)
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With 26 photos of vehicles in all, this offering gives young transportation fans what they want. All the favorite machines are here, from an airplane to a fire truck to a school bus, but there are some surprising choices, too, like a blimp, a double-decker bus and a pair of roller skates. Many photo-illustrated board books on this theme are overwhelmingly busy, but here each image is given its own page and centered on a clean, white background. The clarity of the pictures makes the accompanying one- or two-word labels almost superfluous. While the images, on close inspection, look to be a potpourri of retouched stock photography, computer-generated images and photos of models, the intended audience won’t care. With so many cars, trucks, buses and more to pore over, this is a good bang for the board-book buck. (Board book. 18 months-3 years)
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COLORS
girl a little serious, so here’s hoping prospective readers will take a look inside. The joy within repays daring readers amply. (Board book. 2-4)
Sterling Publishing Sterling (28 pp.) $4.95 | Aug. 7, 2012 978-1-4027-9892-4 Series: Say & Play
WHOSE TOES ARE THOSE?
This entry in the Say & Play series is a refreshingly simple board book that combines clear photos with minimal text. Each spread showcases a large photo of a familiar object, such as a pink pig, a yellow school bus, a black dog and a purple flower, against a white background. The facing page labels the color in white or black text on a solid background of the featured hue. With copious white space and crystal-clear photos, there is plenty of room for youngsters learning to talk to shout out the names of objects and animals they recognize. While the gray kitten is difficult to distinguish in color from the silver star, and health conscious parents may wish the book creators had not chosen a sugary orange Popsicle and a rainbow lollipop, these are minor quibbles. The other titles in the series are equally user-friendly. Numbers, featuring one through 10, invites little ones to count up and then count back down. Oink, Moo, Meow shares the usual animal-sound suspects along with a few rare noises, like “Hee-haw!” and “Coo!” Baby Animals features adorably cute critters on every page. First Words highlights photos of things common in most babies’ lives: bottle, ball, bath, hat and book. While some of pictures are used in more than one title, this repetition will only reinforce language acquisition. An infinitely useful series for babies learning to name objects and for older children with language delays. (Board book. 3 mos.-2)
Symes, Sally Illus. by Sharratt, Nick Candlewick (22 pp.) $4.99 | Dec. 11, 2012 978-0-7636-6274-5
Symes and Sharratt, who delighted little ones in Yawn (2011), pair up once again for more board-book fun. Familiar animals take center stage in the spreads and hide behind flaps shaped as appropriate landscapes or objects. As a mouse dashes behind cheese and a bear ambles on the other side of a mountain range, youngsters guess their identities with only a tail, a foot and a nose peeking through as hints. The text, which balances repetition and variety nicely, provides clues: “Whose tail? / Whose toes? / Whose cold, wet nose?” The verso of the flap reveals the answer, dog in this case, with a one-word caption. The final scene shows a bald-headed Caucasian baby with rosy cheeks hiding behind a toy box that houses smaller versions of all the animals depicted before, now in toy form. The text now includes a reference to the baby’s fingers instead of a tail. The flaps are easy to open and relatively sturdy, but rounded corners would have been a thoughtful addition. Sharratt’s bold palette and simple, thick-lined cartoons are iconic and cheery. A playful, predictable experience for lift-the-flap lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)
THE SWING
CHECKERS AND DOT
Stevenson, Robert Louis Illus. by Morstad, Julie Simply Read Books (16 pp.) $8.95 | Oct. 6, 2012 978-1-897476-48-2
Torres, J. Illus. by Lum, J. Tundra (16 pp.) $8.99 | Oct. 9, 2012 978-1-77049-441-1 Series: Checkers and Dot
A board-book version of Stevenson’s classic poem with retro illustrations. “How do you like to go in a swing, // Up in the air so blue? // Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing / Ever a child can do!” begins this ode, one of the poet’s best-loved poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses. Morstad’s paintings, reminiscent of Gyo Fujikawa’s work, feature a multiracial cast of children flying on swings in various bucolic settings. Her throwback color palette, of yellow-greens paired with pale pinks on dark backgrounds, and the classic clothes worn by the youngsters in each scene blend well with Stevenson’s more formal language. The youngest readers may have a difficult time relating to the images (the swings depicted are not the enclosed baby swings with which they are familiar, and the recognizable A-shaped swing frame almost always appears off the page), but older toddlers should be able to make the visual leap. The cover is a little dark and the 2856
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In black and white with striped, dotted and checkerboard patterns, this board book seems made to order for developing newborn eyes, but the attempt is misguided. True to their names, Checkers, a young boy, wears a checked shirt, and Dot, a little girl, wears a polka-dot dress. Readers are introduced to these characters as well as their pets, a cat named Stripesy and a dog named Spot. The next spread, divided into quarters, encourages little ones to look at the patterns on each character more closely, but the designs and the faces of each character are far too small for very young babies to focus on. Most books for the birth-to-3-month set eschew creating characters as it is so hard to do in such a limited color palette and truly unnecessary for babies still learning they have a separate |
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“The cleverest feature by far is the baby tiger that lows readers a Bronx cheer via a pull-tab and a noise maker embedded in the book on the very last page.” from lick!
identity from their caregivers. In the sequel, Checkers and Dot at the Zoo, the boy and girl see a panda, zebra, penguin and gorilla placed against more high-contrast backgrounds of stripes, lines and swirls. A larger image of each animal would have served as a better introduction. While there is little doubt the high-contrast patterns will hold the gaze of newborns, the real question is if the small images of the characters will have any meaning for them. (Board book. 0-6 mos.)
ICK! / Tongue tastes yummy—lick, lick, lick!” The interactive features are the real star here, from rough, slick and sticky tactile tongues to heads animated by oversized, easy-to-manipulate pull-tabs. The cleverest feature by far is the baby tiger that blows readers a Bronx cheer via a pull-tab and a noise maker embedded in the book on the very last page. Probably to keep production costs down, a couple of pages have no movable or touch-and-feel parts and may leave youngsters searching for something to do. With this offering and Sniff (2012) already in print, one wonders if Van Fleet will take on the other three of the five senses next. Despite quibbles, this is sure to be hit with action-oriented toddlers. (Board book. 2-5)
COUNTING BIRDS
Tsong, Jing Jing Illus. by Tsong, Jing Jing Tiger Tales (28 pp.) $8.95 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-1-58925-638-5
PLAYTIME FOR TWINS
Weiss, Ellen Illus. by Williams, Sam Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (30 pp.) $7.99 | Jun. 12, 2012 978-1-4424-3027-3
While the package is stylish, this gathering of birds turns into an unclear counting experience for little ones. “One bird singing in the singing tree. Tweet, come sing with me!” says a little yellow canary sitting alone as a large blue bird flies to join it. The next spread shows both birds in the tree as a green bird peeks in from off the page. More and more birds of different hues join the tree, making their own signature calls as they enter. By the time the tree is full, the bird calls are a playful, cumulative read-aloud: “Tweet! Tweet! Tikka-ka-ka! Coo! Chee-chee! Wee!” and so on. “Whoo, WHO?” is the call of a purple owl, the last bird to arrive, who spots a paw reaching up the tree from the bottom of the page. On the next two spreads, a teasing kitty chases the birds away and claims the tree for napping. The text and the numerals are color-coded to match the birds. While the appropriate number of birds is in the tree at each time, the additional bird shown approaching the tree will confuse young counters. Despite Tsong’s appealingly retro images on the graphically organized pages, this book just doesn’t add up. (Board book. 2-4)
Twins enjoy a day of play at home and at the park. Although the illustrations and text are intentionally vague, the twins in question are likely a fraternal pair of undefined gender. The duo engages in traditional toddler play: block building, pot banging, pulling every book off the shelf, swinging and sand play. In Weiss’ light verse, the twins describe their activities in rhyming couplets: “Hooray! We love to play! / What will we do today?” Williams’ watercolorand-pencil art, which previously appeared in three early-reader titles also penned by Weiss, seems tailor-made for board books. On white backgrounds and in muted colors, this cartoon pair of curly-haired tykes are recognizably toddler in their actions, gaits and expressions. While the twins change outfits inexplicably a couple of times throughout the day, youngsters won’t particularly mind or notice the continuity issues created by merging illustrations from three different books. The companion title, Bathtime for Twins, also with some previously published art, takes the siblings through their bath and bedtime rituals. In both books, safety-conscious parents may balk as the twins play with a balloon (a known choking hazard) or pour excessive amounts of shampoo on their own heads. All in all, given that there are so few board books about twins available despite the recent rise of multiple birth rates, this pair is a welcome new arrival. (Board book. 1-3)
LICK!
Van Fleet, Matthew Illus. by Van Fleet, Matthew Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $9.99 | Jan. 29, 2013 978-1-4424-6049-2 With incredibly sturdy pull-tabs and other tactile features, this board book will take a licking from enthusiastic toddlers. Using the expressive animal cartoons he employed in his larger-size pop-ups, Heads (2010) and Tails (2003), Van Fleet shows readers the variety of tongues in the animal world and some of their unique capabilities. Something of a tongue twister to read aloud, the rhyming text is forced on some pages and playful and droll on others: “Tongue tastes sour, Tongue tastes |
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“Moving a finger from right to left along the iPad screen advances the story as if it were on a roller, revealing an ongoing series of warmly painted animations.” from clover!
interactive e-books
OLD MACDONALD HAD A FARM And Other Favorite Children’s Songs
THE WHOLE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA CLAUS
Wood, Hannah Illus. by Wood, Hannah Tiger Tales (22 pp.) $8.95 | Sep. 1, 2012 978-1-58925-874-7
Balpe, Anne-Gaelle Illus. by Castanie, Julien La Souris Qui Raconte $2.99 | Nov. 9, 2012 1.1.0; Nov. 18, 2012
From the perennial classics, such as the titular “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” to lesser-known traditional tunes, like “Mr. Sun,” this is a passable song anthology illustrated in bubblegum colors. The lyrics of each song are reproduced on single- or doublepage spreads, while friendly animals and pink-cheeked people demonstrate the action. Wood’s soft and hazy cartoons are lively and tooth-achingly cute. With all the multitude of traditional songs available, it is troublesome that the compilers chose and didn’t update the antiquated “Farmer in the Dell” line: “The farmer takes a wife.” No directions for singing the additional verses of “Bingo” or movements for some of the action songs, such as “I’m a Little Teapot,” are included in these pages. With no CD or music notation, this title is only for parents or others familiar with these traditional tunes. Since there are plenty of lovely and more complete anthologies of children’s songs available, this is strictly an additional purchase. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)
No sleigh, no reindeer, no elves, no North Pole, not even a beard. Santa’s actually a construction worker named Fred. Read in a decidedly pointed manner—“They say that no one has ever seen him. Do you believe all that?”—by a British narrator (there is also an option for French), this exposé dismisses all the Santa mythology. It goes on to explain how Fred leads a host of friends in gathering funds and Christmas gifts on weekends and holidays all year to distribute by bus. Why? Because he likes to give presents to people and watch their faces light up. Along with various low-rent animations and tap-activated sound effects, the retro-style illustrations offer views of a multicultural cast of “helpers” with names like Nouara and Karim pitching in as the holiday season approaches. Fred himself dresses in red for department-store gigs (“because being a fake Santa Claus is a good way to make money”) and jingles not bells but the set of master keys he uses to sneak into your house on Christmas Eve. That last bit seems a bit off-kilter, but giving over Santa’s annual role to good-hearted “ordinary people living in ordinary places” is at least somewhat closer to reality. So charmingly offbeat that readers who still believe should survive their initial disappointment. (iPad holiday app. 7-9)
WHERE’S ELLIE?
Yoon, Salina Illus. by Yoon, Salina Robin Corey/Random (18 pp.) $6.99 | Aug. 28, 2012 978-0-307-97806-6
CLOVER
Ellie the elephant plays an unsatisfying game of hide-and-seek with readers. A semicircle is cut out of every page except the last, so that Ellie’s gray, touch-and-feel trunk is present on every spread. The text asks “Where is Ellie hiding? Is she behind the plant?” Readers see the elephant’s trunk poking out from behind a house plant. At the turn of the page, readers discover that this was not Ellie’s trunk at all, but a teapot’s gray spout or a gray hat’s wide brim. Ellie is finally found hiding behind a fat apple tree at the end. Even though Yoon’s invitingly rotund cartoons in cheerful colors are accessible, this hide-and-seek format is not as engaging as the classic lift-the-flap variety. The gray garden hose that Ellie’s trunk is mistaken for is hard to identify without the text—not to mention a mundane object to find in a game of hide-and-seek. While Yoon is the current reigning queen of inventive board-book gimmicks with such titles as Kaleidoscope and At the Beach (both 2012), this one-note creation is not as successful as these earlier offerings. Sit this particular game out. (Board book. 1-3)
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Bergstrom, Scott Illus. by O’Brian, Amanda Soma Creates $0.99 | Oct. 9, 2012 1.0.1; Oct. 30, 2012 An adventurous dog takes an improbable global trip to find her master. Clover, a blue Scottie dog wearing a pink scarf, loves her owner, a jet-setting architect who’s about to take a work trip to Beijing. Stowing away, Clover winds up in Paris, where she meets a grimy street canine named Le Rat. The two find transportation to Moscow, then Beijing in a journey filled with conversation, coincidences and many humans willing to look the other way while dogs rack up frequent-traveler miles. The app stands out by eschewing all buttons and navigation prompts for an endless series of swipes. Moving a finger from right to left along the iPad screen advances the story as if it were on a roller, revealing an ongoing series of warmly |
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painted animations. It’s a beautiful method of creating an interactive book, but it’s also exhausting. The story is so long that it requires dozens and dozens of swipes to get to the end of the tale, and swiping too quickly or too slowly wrecks the pace. The text isn’t inspired, even for a story largely set in the mind of a restless dog: “Clover thought about how much she’d miss her friend and how much she had always wanted to see China.” Still, there’s a lot to admire in an app sprung from a bold design choice that errs on the side of simplicity and which, for the most part, works very well. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
A candy-coated piece of gum’s fate is fraught: “Imagine, one minute you and your friends are enjoying a sleepover and the next you’re in a horrible, slimy mouth.” Green would rather be a bug in the garden. His friends help him make his wish real. Once in the garden, he meets up with a grasshopper, a Japanese beetle and a caterpillar, each with talents both spooky and fascinating. When they are swept up and put in a collection jar, Green gets to display a very special talent of his own. This is a short app, with a Zen-like simplicity of focus, spidery lines and washed colors that together defy the unlikely premise. Each page has a pulsing orb that lets readers trigger some action: Green is jettisoned from the package, whispery skulls rise from the leaf being eaten by the beetle—illustrating the word “skeletonising,” just one of a half dozen juicy words (mandible, dazzling) comfortably worked into the text—a butterfly net sweeps through the air—plus a couple with slapstick qualities. Green’s progress through the garden has its share of lessons, such as using your natural abilities, though it is plain engaging in its own right. A memorably fine example of amusement and instruction. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)
THE GLOW
Bucheit, Jennifer Illus. by Becker, Jarrod Willow Frog $2.99 | Nov. 4, 2012 1.1; Nov. 4, 2012 A firefly finally gets the hang of glowing by thinking of “his favorite thing to do in the world”—flying. Steering well clear of biological accuracy (fireflies flash to attract mates), Bucheit introduces Nigel Duncan Gordon— depicted as a popeyed insect with a bright red head—who just can’t get the glow going. Finally, a wise old frog’s instruction to “think of the one thing that makes you happiest of all” leads him to figuratively and literally see the light. Both story and prose are amateurish (illogically, having learned to “believe in himself,” Nigel “join[s] the stars, the luminescent luminaries of the sky”). Becker renders flora and fauna with reasonable precision in the watercolor wetland scenes, but the text is printed in a cramped sans serif on crudely whited-out strips. The digital design is equally primitive, as taps will induce a few jerky movements or set glowing dots adrift, but there is no page index, nor any language available other than English despite claims to the contrary in the App Store ad copy. Furthermore, selecting the “Read” rather than “Listen” option at the beginning cuts off not only the bland audio narration, but the background music too. Interactive features notwithstanding, this doesn’t hold a candle to Eric Drachman and James Muscarello’s identically themed Leo the Lightning Bug (2001) or Eric Carle’s at least moderately franker The Very Lonely Firefly (1995). Skip. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)
THE LEGEND OF MOMOTARO
Finkle, Corey--Adapt. Illus. by Nemec, Jason; Adams, Thom Ghost Hand Games $2.99 | Nov. 2, 2012 1.0; Nov. 2, 2012 With help from a trio of squabbling animals a young boy born from a giant peach takes on a squad of ogres in this unusually elegant rendition of the popular Japanese folktale. Separated by fade-outs but placed between wood-grained borders as if on a continuous roll, the multilayered scenes catch the eye immediately. They glide past at touch-controlled speed as Momotaro travels from his parents’ rural house through a forest and over waves to the ogres’ castle to reclaim stolen treasure. Viewers can zoom in at will for closer examinations of the delicately detailed figures and settings. Along with occasional subtle animations, background sounds change, and figures in the scenes shift position to match the described actions, as the artfully placed and similarly touch-sensitive text is scrolled up or down. Touching the text will also toggle the lightly accented audio narration on or off. Tapping elsewhere causes the defeated ogres to growl sourly along with other similar, quiet sound effects. It also activates in each scene a half dozen or more windows that unfold like origami either to gloss the significance of certain types of flowers or other points of traditional Japanese culture, or to display a Japanese word in Roman lettering (“Romaji”), Hiragana and traceable Kanji. On multiple screens, Momotaro can also be outfitted with customizable (savable, sendable) Japanese armor. A fine version, formal but never stiff, and seamless both in presentation and software design. (iPad storybook app. 7-10)
THE CHEWING GUM ADVENTURES
Emmins, Alan Illus. by Christensen, Martin Fodge Happy Ink Publishing Sep. 4, 2012 1.0.0; Sep. 4, 2012 A piece of chewing gum by the name of Green gets an entomology lesson when he escapes from the pack. |
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LOLA AND LUCY’S BIG ADVENTURE
silliness can ensue. Tapped at any time, a draw-your-own menu icon brings up a simple pear with a choice of colors, if only one line style, for personalized scribbling. Other options include captions in any of four European languages and the ability to save any image to an in-app gallery (for better or worse, there is no “share” option). A playful game of matching and silly mismatching. Children will probably figure out how to use this faster than their parents. (iPad bestiary app. 1-3)
Jensen, Jane; Holmes, Robert Illus. by Signus Lab Pinkerton Road $4.99 | Oct. 25, 2012 1; Oct. 25, 2012
Spectacular illustrations and digital diversions drive this sweet tale of two Vermont bulldogs in search of a purpose. Having learned that dogs are supposed to have jobs and, from a peek online, that bulldogs were bred to hold bulls’ noses, Lucy and Lola embark on a cross-country quest. It takes them from Wall Street’s bronze bull to a dairy farm, South Dakota (in search of “Sitting Bull”), a western rodeo and other bullish locales—all of which are laid out on a retractable map of the United States. A laid-back California bull finally lets them take an anticlimactic grab (“His nose was cold, wet and not very exciting. ‘I guess it isn’t the same if the bull lets you,’ Lucy said”). He then clues them in before a happy closing reunion with their frantic human family: “A dog’s job is…to bring comfort and joy to the human heart.” The dogs’ wrinkled mugs steal the show in the photorealistic visuals, but the plethora of interactive elements aren’t far behind. Along with the map, a multi-entry encyclopedia of dog breeds, two paint boxes and 13 dexteritybased minigames, 286 animations or sound effects respond to screen taps (as an incentive to start over, readers are presented at the end with a tally of how many they found). Furthermore, the narrative is available in either “Picture Book” or “Chapter Book” versions, with optional audio readings and an auto-play option. A doggy road trip with nary a dull moment…no bull. (free sampler in iTunes) (iPad storybook app. 5-9)
OUR BIG CITY
Mitgutsch, Ali Illus. by Mitgutsch, Ali Ravensburger Digital $2.99 | Oct. 11, 2012 Series: Look and Find Books 1.0.1; Oct. 25, 2012 A pioneer of the “busy, busy crowd scene” style of illustration slips into the digital domain with tablet versions of several classic titles— including this low-key but involving example. Viewers can zoom in and pan around seven screens, each an angled aerial view of several dozen active people in an airport, zoo, swimming pool, city intersection or other town setting. There is no animation, but along with quiet crowd and traffic background noises, many figures will respond to taps with exclamations, giggles or other sounds. These are signaled, strangely, by a flurry of visible musical notes, though except for a busker in one scene, there is no music. As an ongoing test of visual memory, children can collect stars by using a feature that opens a set of albums on each screen with “snapshots” of fine details in the larger scenes to spot and capture with a roving “camera.” Signs on shops and elsewhere change according to which of the five European languages is selected at the beginning, but in a translator’s bobble, one scene is titled “On the Market” in English. Less fixable are the antique cassette-tape players, on-shoulder video cameras and other period details in the art. Still, Mitgutsch’s cartoon figures are clear and sharply focused at any magnification and their jobs or activities easy to follow. A short set of visual puzzles, closer in overall complexity to Richard Scarry than Where’s Waldo. (iPad seek-and-find app. 3-5)
MY PEAR
Kiehl, Stephane e-Toiles Editions $4.99 | Oct. 5, 2012 1; Oct. 5, 2012 Very simple graphics on two sliding layers give precocious toddlers a chance to assemble a huge menagerie of animal variants and even to create new species. Presented without instructions, the app offers a horizontal slide show of 18 pear-shaped silhouettes (one per screen) sporting a range of single colors and suggestive antlers, wings or other features. Readers can overlay a further 19 transparent line drawings of faces and other details, with identifying captions like “my monkey” or “my butterfly.” Side-to-side and up-and-down finger swipes create hundreds of interchangeable combinations, most of them fanciful but more or less recognizable. A gray pear with feet becomes “my reindeer” with the addition of antlers, ears and hooves; a sideways swipe inserts a purple pear with eight spidery legs into the reindeer accouterments. Much 2860
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HANSEL AND GRETEL Lost
PB&J Publishing PB&J Publishing $3.99 | Oct. 5, 2012 1.0; Oct. 5, 2012
A charming, if heavily edited version of the old German tale. From the get-go, what strikes users of this app are the stunning colors and the slightly spooky 3-D |
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“If Old MacDonald had an iPad, this might be his favorite book.” from farm
FARM
imagery. Any real scariness is beveled substantially by the manically wide-eyed, chirpy lead characters and the interactive components, such as the frog tongue that shoots out upon touch or the pieces of candy that likewise come flying off the house in the woods. There is no evil stepmother here, no duplicitous father, no famine on the land, but there are the dark forest and the cage and the cook fire into which Gretel cagily boots the witch. Opportunities for engagement abound, as well as lots of cues as to how readers can engage—making it appropriate for the quite young (and the story has a follow-the-bouncingball–style narration). It feels more sophisticated than its ease of interaction suggests, as when Gretel scrambles up a tree, with the landscape unfolding and the great moon rising, or when she swings on the chandelier, or as Hansel gets fatter and fatter as the witch plumps him for the kettle. And even if the tale ends with the message that the forest is a wicked place where no child should venture, readers will probably be enticed therein in search of that candy house. An eye-catching, trim and attention-holding version of the unnerving fairy tale. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)
Scheffler, Axel Illus. by Scheffler, Axel Nosy Crow $3.99 | Oct. 18, 2012 Series: Animal SnApp 1.0.1; Nov. 7, 2012 A winning interactive farm adventure that’s sure to appeal to babies and
toddlers. This app offers up six different stories, all of which can be selected by matching the top and bottom halves of their protagonists. Cuddly Cow is tired and is trying to find a quiet place to rest. Lucky Lamb is lost and needs to get back home. Gobbly Goat is hungry and is searching for something to eat. Each page of every story provides commentary, both in the form of narration and dialogue—the latter of which is triggered by tapping the animal. Thus, readers are apprised of the animals’ thoughts and ideas as the story progresses. Narration is in keeping with Nosy Crow’s other offerings (Cinderella, 2011, and Franklin Frog, 2012, to name two), which means that charming children with animated British accents provide the rhyming voice-overs and dialogue. Developers have, apparently intentionally, made it a little difficult to activate page turns or interactions, which is tremendously helpful in warding off tap-happy fingers that would skip over the story in favor of finding the app’s whistles and bells. (However, it might be frustrating for those who are accustomed to super-responsive interactive elements.) Diggity Dog, who has lost his bone, sounds much like a meowing cat when whimpering, but other than that, this offering is rock solid. If Old MacDonald had an iPad, this might be his favorite book. (iPad storybook app. 6 mos.–3)
THE NIGHT NIGHT BOOK
Richmond, Marianne Illus. by Richmond, Marianne Sourcebooks Nov. 15, 2012 Series: Put Me in the Story
A superficial, lackluster adaptation of Richmond’s 2010 traditional book. The defining feature (and marketing push) of this app is personalization. Alongside the requisite reading options, there’s a button that says, “Put me in the story.” Readers can insert a photo into a Polaroid-like frame and enter a child’s name, which supposedly makes them part of the story. But really, it doesn’t: The photo is never to be seen again after the initial screens, and the use of the child’s name to label items (“[child’s name]’s bed”) is lost on little “readers,” as this book is clearly aimed at pre-readers. Do parents really need a teleprompter to mention their child’s name in the narrative? In personalized mode, most of the book’s pages are silent, though a few have sound effects like crickets chirping, a cat purring or bubbles forming in the bathtub. There is a “Read to me” option, though the personalization disappears when it is chosen. Throughout the story, glimmering stars indicate interactive hotspots, alerting readers to profoundly primitive interactions—twirling buttons and stars, to name a few. This book is one installment in a series designed to personalize “bestsellers, award winners and classics,” but the gimmick doesn’t even come close to justifying the adaptation (at least in this case). Don’t be fooled by the hype: For a much better treatment of “personalization,” check out Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Run This App! (2011). (iPad storybook app. 1-4)
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NED THE NEURON
Warp, Erica Illus. by Warner, Andy Kizoom $2.99 | Oct. 9, 2012 1.1; Oct. 9, 2012
A deep-dish serving of brain matter, but surprisingly digestible for all that. There is no skirting around the fact that the brain is a complex instrument and that its parts are identified by words of an equally complex order: amygdala, sensory homunculus, thalamus. But Warp manages to glean the salient points while connecting the parts of the brain like so many axons. Ned is a trainee neuron who travels about the brain and the central nervous system while trying to solve a problem for his host, Sophie, who has stepped on a rock and is now in danger of having to stop doing cartwheels. This has Ned in a lather, as he loves cartwheeling. The story is rather silly and immature for the material being covered, but it does add light relief—as does the playful, Hanna-Barbera–like artwork—when |
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confronting action potentials and hippocampi, dendrites and synapses. The app is designed to work deeply into the brain, one layer leading to the next, though readers can also skim—thus allowing for a broad range of ages and capabilities—and there is frequent opportunity to revisit brain parts and activities for refreshers, either via hot words in the text or a handy toolbar at the top of the screen. Both the story and the curricular narrators keep a light, unthreatening tone. A rangy introduction to the parts of the brain and their functions that skips or dives, your choice. (works on iPad 2 and above) (iPad informational app. 10-14)
OFF TO BED!
Yerga, David Illus. by Ben Arab, Màriam DADA Company $0.99 | Oct. 3, 2012 1.0; Oct. 3, 2012 This countdown to sleepy-time explores the dreamy comforts and joys of slumber for little ones who dare to go. All around the world, sleep-deprived parents face the nightly challenge of luring willful little ones toward dreamland. This unassuming tale gives parents an edge, with every sleep-inducing possibility an app can provide. The 15-page story—with its singsong-y rhyme scheme, model-of-calm narration and lullabylike musical score—invites sleepyheads to fly off to dreamland to discover what awaits them there. And who wouldn’t want to go where you are the king or queen of dreams, flying about on a blanket while cute little animals swing on stars and slide down rainbows, excited at your arrival? Is there a soul in the world who wouldn’t be eager to be rocked and kissed by moonbeams? Each page features age-appropriate interactive elements for tiny fingers to explore, along with repetitive, skillbuilding moments (counting sheep, counting down to sleep) for more alert babies and toddlers. Parents and children alike will find this drowsy, dreamy tale an indispensable delight. The big question is who’ll doze off first. (iPad storybook app. 6 mos.-2)
This Issue’s Contributors # Marcie Bovetz • Sophie Brookover • Timothy Capehart • Julie Cummins • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Carol Edwards • Brooke Faulkner • Laurie Flynn • Omar Gallaga • Judith Gire • Megan Honig • Julie Hubble • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Deborah Kaplan • K. Lesley Knieriem • Megan Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Ellen Loughran • Lori Low • Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • Jeanne McDermott • Daniel Meyer • Rachel G. Payne • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Melissa Riddle Chalos • Leslie L. Rounds • Mindy Schanback • Dean Schneider • Robin Smith • Rita Soltan • Monica Wyatt • Melissa Yurechko
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indie HOT TIMES IN PANAMA What Would You Do to Serve Your Country?
These titles earned the Kirkus Star: BETWEEN BODIES LIE by H.M. Blanc..................................... p. 2864
Babb, Frank Wheatmark (174 pp.) $9.95 paperback | Mar. 15, 2012 978-1604947137
THE TURQUOISE TATTOO by Vaya Dauphin.............................p. 2865 BLACK ART by V.T. Davy............................................................p. 2865
Babb’s debut novel tells of a young Missouri boy drafted during the Korean War and selected for a counterintelligence school. Frank Blake is draft-ready for the U.S. conflict with Korea, but instead, he’s trained as a Counter Intelligence Corps agent. He’s sent to the CIC detachment in Panama, where he lives with his wife and amasses intel to circumvent Communist activity. His time in Panama is short but memorable, particularly the night spent at the Hotel Central with the enigmatic Julia. The prologue sets the mood almost immediately; it works as a tease, mentioning Julia and certain life-altering decisions. Most of the book follows Frank’s career and training in counterintelligence, but hostility looms in Panama, where information is the coin of the realm. Friendly banter can be a precursor to requesting intelligence, and Frank acknowledges that even his supervisor, Luis, isn’t telling him everything. Foreign presence and foreignness prevail as themes: Frank noted that the locals “smiled a lot, but it didn’t mean they liked you.” The agent counters harsh Panamanian life with understated cynicism; neighborhood kids broken or killed by war had a spot of “really bad luck.” There’s even some humor, e.g., the colonel thinks his shoeshiner is a Communist spy and hopes surveillance will solve the problem while allowing him to retain the man’s excellent services. Chapters are so tight and self-contained, they could stand alone as short stories. The author allows the mystery of Julia to drive the story home to a rewarding conclusion that is just open-ended enough, and an epilogue wraps up the specifics, historically speaking, on the Korean War. A riveting history lesson on communism in the 1950s.
NEW WORLD TRIBE by Doc McKay Jr......................................p. 2869
THE TURQUOISE TATTOO
Dauphin, Vaya BookPal (286 pp.) $14.35 paperback $10.99 e-book Feb. 1, 2012 978-1742841908
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BETWEEN BODIES LIE
continues to play golf at a high level. As he tries to make the cut, he finds himself embroiled in stuff that doesn’t typically attend a golf match: murder, embezzlement, sexual stalking and international intrigue. To Burton’s credit, he not only makes these episodes (four separate stories, each about 60 pages) credible, but he has what appears to be a comfortable familiarity with police procedural work and golfing—its joys and sorrows and the elemental feel of the golfing landscape. There are moments of stiff interior dialogue, as when Zach struggles to understand what he’s seeing—“Is he just in over his head with this tournament….Or is it something else? His behavior is certainly out of place here”—and Burton’s irksome fondness for ellipses (“He needed a spectacular save out of the deep woods on 12…firing blind…not even sure he could get it back onto the fairway much less the green…amazed to find his ball ten feet from the hole…no idea how it got there”) doesn’t always work on literary or psychological levels. Yet the stories have the muscularity and acceleration to keep the reader involved, and Burton has great success with his characters, particularly Zach and the sassy Thai “princess,” a former professional golfer who joins him in three of the adventures. Those two also share a considerable amount of time in the sack—“The bed springs groaned loudly, no doubt unaccustomed to such a workout”—from Sweden to Southeast Asia, where Burton displays a decent hand at scenery description. A solidly entertaining, mildly raunchy quartet of golfing capers.
Blanc, H.M. AuthorHouse (346 pp.) $23.95 paperback | $3.99 e-book Oct. 10, 2012 978-1477269114 A disillusioned writer travels to the tropics in search of inspiration in Blanc’s emotionally astute debut novel. Cristobal Porter is a British writer whose work is in decline. With each novel garnering less critical acclaim than the last, the author spends more time looking out of windows than he does writing. Badgered by his publisher and tormented by a difficult first relationship following the death of his wife, he retreats to an unnamed island in the tropics, where civil unrest lurks beneath the surface of everyday life. On his arrival, Porter uneasily slips into society following his introduction to the slick yet lascivious American diplomat, Jack Kaplan. Kaplan’s wife, the enigmatic Ana, is a patron of the arts, and Porter finds himself lingering at the edge of her cocktail party, staring at the backs of artists and wellheeled expats. While Kaplan dismisses the art scene, Ana finds a kindred spirit in Porter, and a bond tentatively forms between them. Porter goes about his book research but is almost immediately encumbered by the unannounced arrival of Nadia, his dangerously seductive young mistress. As his yearning for Ana grows stronger, Porter recognizes a growing intimacy between Nadia and Kaplan. When Ana finally learns of her husband’s affair, she draws Porter closer, but a tragic secret from her past rocks their budding relationship. As the plot unfolds, the whispers of uprising grow louder. Blanc is supremely sensitive to the trials and tribulations of the creative process; he writes with the wisdom of an established author grown weary of the literary scene. Some readers may consider the depiction of an emotionally disheveled yet unconventionally dashing novelist to be somewhat clichéd, but that thought is far outweighed by Blanc’s brilliantly detailed study of human connections and disconnections, in which even the most indiscernible movements of body, mind and heart are painstakingly recognized and charted. A masterfully written exploration of the beauty and cruelty of love, as sharp as it is sensual.
THE BASTARD A Secret Never Told
Canter, Mark Vita Brevis Books (426 pp.) $8.99 e-book | Oct. 12, 2012 In Canter’s (Second Nature, 2011, etc.) latest novel, a paleographer discovers an ancient text recounting Jesus’ missing years. Jude Hunter is an expert in authenticating antiquarian books, and his former student, now a Greek Orthodox monk, asks Hunter’s opinion on the age of a statue of Mary Magdalene. Hunter discovers that the sculpture was made by Leonardo da Vinci and has a hidden compartment containing a manuscript that could change the world: a chronicle of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, written in Jesus’ own hand. The ancient text tells the story of a young outcast, punished by his culture for being born out of wedlock, who abandons his home and family to join the Roman army. Unable to become a legionnaire because he is not a Roman citizen, he attaches himself to the cavalry in hopes of one day moving up the ranks. He takes the Latin name Martis and travels with several others: an African stableboy named Owiti, who becomes like a brother to him; Maurus, an African intellectual and one of the most fearsome warriors in the cavalry; and Magdalene, a slave girl he knows he’s destined to love. While stationed in Germania, Martis learns knife-fighting from a native warrior woman and becomes an apprentice to the
MIXED FOURSOME The Zach Roper Mysteries Burton, M.H. Amazon Digital Services (313 pp.) $0.99 e-book | Mar. 10, 2012
A retired police detective turned wannabe golf professional can hardly find his way to the green without finding a body in Burton’s fun mixture of mulligans and mayhem. Zach Roper turned in his cop’s badge and is now trying to make it on the PGA Champions Tour, where the over-50 crowd 2864
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“It’s rare to find a novel that blends genres so well, with such a fully fleshed-out, distinctive protagonist at the center.” from black art
BLACK ART
medicus (physician), balancing the dual sides of his nature: killer and healer. After the legion is defeated by native German tribes, Martis begins to believe that if he follows the example of Germania’s oppressed people, he could become the messiah—and free his own people from the thumb of Rome. While Canter never loses sight of Jesus the man, his tale is more about historical Rome and its expansion efforts, and he brings those vividly to life. He uses solid research to place Jesus in the context of his era and to create a wide-ranging, vibrant world. He also weaves Hebrew scripture and New Testament references throughout the narrative, while also connecting Jesus’ teachings to Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism; he draws on ancient Greek philosophy for good measure. A compelling what-if story about an approachable, human Jesus.
Davy, V.T. Liberation Publishing (254 pp.) $12.99 paperback | $2.99 e-book Oct. 30, 2012 978-0957408807 Set in modern-day Ireland, Davy’s neonoir mystery follows a transgendered (female to male) man investigating the disappearance of a famous actress’ grandmother during World War II. Arty Shaw, a genealogist working for a television show called Roots that uncovers the family histories of celebrities, is no stranger to delving through family trees and old records to piece together the truth in a person’s past. He gets more than he bargained for, however, when tasked with helping Helen Valentine, a luminary of the London stage, discover why her grandmother seemed to abandon her mother in the 1940s. For some reason, though, a few dangerous people don’t want him to reveal the truth to the world. Meanwhile, Helen becomes cagey when Arty repeatedly confronts her with questions about why it’s all of a sudden so important for her to learn whether her grandmother had run away or been sent to a concentration camp by Nazis. Davy, in his debut, spins an engrossing mystery that shines a light on a lesser-known aspect of World War II history. The straightforward story allows the reader to follow Arty’s process every step of the way—reminiscent of Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time (2011)—which grants the story authenticity and humanity. Arty’s examination of Helen’s family history comes to parallel his coping with his own past while dovetailing elegantly with the novel’s Holocaust theme of persecution. Davy’s personal experience with gender reassignment comes through in the dignity and grace with which he matter-of-factly depicts his protagonist’s own experiences of gender reassignment. It’s rare to find a novel that blends genres so well, with such a fully fleshed-out, distinctive protagonist at the center. An extremely satisfying read, as thrilling as it is humane.
THE TURQUOISE TATTOO
Dauphin, Vaya BookPal (286 pp.) $14.35 paperback | $10.99 e-book Feb. 1, 2012 978-1742841908 A young woman comes of age while simultaneously realizing her Maori-related powers in Dauphin’s debut YA fantasy. Scarlet Flint is a little different from most girls. For starters, she can read the minds and feelings of others, causing her no shortage of trouble. Her unstable life gets more chaotic once she moves from her Australian home to New Zealand. She ends up in the middle of the feud between the mysterious Sterling and his menacing brother, Manu. Her involvement turns out to be greater than she ever imagined just as her telepathic abilities increase. Scarlet is an Elemental, a half-human with supernatural abilities, a gift described in Maori legend. Sterling, another Elemental, quickly becomes her greatest ally—and possibly something more—as she struggles through the dangers she faces because of her powers. While fantasy books based on myth aren’t uncommon, stories based specifically on Maori myth are, making this novel unusual. Detailed explanations of Maori myth provide solid context—Dauphin even includes a glossary—but do not slow the narrative. The characters also help set the book apart. Scarlet is a remarkably strong young woman who faces each new challenge bravely. She is loyal to her love interest but also allows herself to be frustrated with him when he deserves it, and she aims to walk beside him, rather than chase after him. Sterling, too, intrigues. At times, he’s a charmer, evoking in Scarlet “the same feeling [she has] for stray puppy dogs,” but he also has a clouded past that he struggles with, making him a good boy with bad-boy appeal. Skillful foreshadowing appears throughout, and most chapters end with a teaser that keeps the pages turning. Intriguing good guys struggle against ominous supernatural threats amid the lush backdrop of Maori legend.
THE LAST NEWSPAPERMAN Di Ionno, Mark Plexus Publishing, Inc. (232 pp.) $22.95 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 17, 2012 978-0937548745
Newspaper columnist Di Ionno offers a multifaceted debut novel about a journalist at odds with whether to educate or exploit his audience. In the last month of 1999, a young, unnamed reporter yearns to write the capstone clincher sure to close out the century with a bang. In a nursing home, he meets nonagenarian Fred Haines, a retired journalist who formerly covered the New Jersey beat and has enough secrets to make him the ideal subject for an article. The |
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tale unfolds as the narrator reads Haines’ manuscript, a chronicle of his life. Haines tells the reporter about how he began his career as an idealistic young reporter but became a “tabloid guy” whose behavior and lack of ethics made him partly responsible for the proliferation of yellow journalism in the 1920s and ’30s. He compromised himself with stunts like snapping photos of murderer Ruth Brown Snyder’s electric chair execution and slandering influential rival newspaperman Walter Winchell, which ended up relegating him to writing flashy tabloid news pieces for the lowbrow Daily Mirror. On a routine assignment, Haines stumbled upon the biggest story of his career: the 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping, its gruesome aftermath and subsequent investigation, which affected his life and livelihood. Brilliantly interwoven throughout the novel are revelatory associations—between the sage old man and the inquisitive younger one—about how sensationalistic journalism continues to influence the industry today. Haines remarks that, as news people, “We spread the crimes and tragedies but ignore the better side of humanity.” Di Ionno’s love of his home state of New Jersey is evident not only through the nonfiction he’s published and his columns for the Star-Ledger, but in this first novel which impressively merges fact and fiction into a resonant story of morality and meaning. A creative double-edged, historically inspired debut.
sharp writing and its motley crew of likable supporting characters. The novel is fast-paced throughout, and Natasha and Marciano are fully developed as multidimensional protagonists in a strong, engrossing tale. Its conclusion leaves things open for a potential sequel. An engaging novel that will please teenage and adult urban-fantasy fans.
NO HERO
Fishburne, Thomas Conway CreateSpace (322 pp.) $12.99 paperback | $8.95 e-book Dec. 29, 2010 978-1456331597 Fishburne offers an engaging debut thriller about an Atlanta man who must choose between his family and his most cherished beliefs. High school football coach and newly appointed assistant principal Danny Chambers is a nonviolent Christian; when he served in Iraq, he flew medevac choppers instead of firing weapons. But while stopped at a traffic light, he rescues a woman in another car from being savagely beaten, accidentally hurling her assailant into oncoming traffic. The press hails Danny as a hero, but the dead young man’s father, Francisco Ramos, is not so forgiving. Ramos, aka Cisco Ram, heads a ruthless gang called the Latin Death Lords, and he launches a campaign of terror against Danny and his family. When the police provide Danny with little help, he struggles with his deeply felt religious beliefs. The plot twists and turns as Fishburne weaves together a large cast of characters, including an ambitious reporter, a crooked judge, a gambling addict and a school janitor who once had a problem similar to Danny’s. In the end, Danny must reconcile his pacifism and faith with the life-threatening reality of his situation in an action-packed, satisfying and surprising denouement. The author is especially skilled with minor characters; he portrays some members of the Latin Death Lords particularly well—men with street names like the Knife, the Drunk, and the Butcher—and some readers may find their personalities, motives and dialogue more intriguing than those of people more important to the story. A thoughtful high-action novel that blends exciting urban drama with moral conflict.
FANGS AND STILETTOS
DiFiore, Anthony inGroup Press (256 pp.) $14.95 paperback | $4.95 e-book May 15, 2012 978-1935725077 DiFiore (co-author: Maverick Men: The True Story Behind the Videos, 2010, etc.),crafts a clever urban fantasy story set in the world of high fashion in his first solo outing. In a post-Twilight world, readers have enormous appetites for mythical romance and gripping fantasy tales. In DiFiore’s offbeat entry, vampires, werewolves, zombies and other unusual beings work in the fashion industry. Adopted twins Natasha and Marciano, along with their nonadopted sister Betty, are headed to New York City for fashion week, encouraged by their designer parents to have fun and get to know the world of haute couture. However, the twins’ adopted family has kept a secret from them for all of their 21 years: they are both “supernaturals” who are immune to the effects of others of their kind. The twins soon run up against a shadowy group called the Caligae, led by famous designer Candice Brown, which seeks to keep other supernaturals in line. It turns out that the twins are members of another group known as the Thirteen, which seeks to dethrone the Caligae queen. During the busiest week of the fashion industry, the twins take part in a plan to take Brown down, using Brown’s model daughter as bait. Along the way, both siblings find love with other supernaturals. Once readers accept the somewhat wonky premise, they will enjoy the novel’s 2866
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THE TROUBLED HEALTH DOLLAR How It Affects the Care You Receive
HOW TO BUY A BUSINESS WITHOUT BEING HAD Successfully Negotiating the Purchase of a Small Business
Fredman, Steve Virtualbookworm.com Publishing (262 pp.) $14.95 paperback | $3.99 e-book Feb. 27, 2012 978-1602649354
Gibson, Jack Trafford (244 pp.) $26.95 | paper | $16.95 | $7.69 e-book Jul. 10, 2010 978-1426936197 978-1426936180 paperback
Author and doctor of internal medicine Fredman offers a balanced collection of discussions about the health care system. This easy-to-read book will thoroughly inform readers who want to know more about the U.S. health care system, how it started and the reasons behind its changes. Rather than pointing fingers at a particular plan or political party, Fredman rewinds to the early 1800s and examines the progression of health care. This approach sheds light on the way health care, like many other industries, has evolved into a “factory”-type system in which numerous workers handle fewer tasks; hence, the rise of physician assistants, nurses, nurse aides and more task-oriented jobs. Aside from facts and statistics, each chapter supplies anecdotes that illustrate changes in the industry, from emergency rooms to gynecological services to health care for minority groups like Native Americans and African-Americans. He also explores the intersection of the health care and legal systems, as malpractice shifts the types and frequency of certain procedures based on risk. Yet, Fredman doesn’t stop at just one side of the issue; instead, he examines how malpractice has been both good and bad for the progress of medical care, offering clear, reasonable explanations for his position. With chapters spanning medical procedure changes to the costs of medical education and technology, Fredman covers many sides of the complex equation that explains the rising cost of medical care. One chapter offers a surprising view of how patients facing terminal illnesses are “sold” a variety of solutions and treatment options by different doctors. Shopping for health care can be a confusing process when “experts” hold such differing views and opinions. Often, the best options are limited in supply, as they require expensive technology and formidable medical training. Ultimately, Fredman makes an argument about the feasibility of “Obamacare” and offers several solutions of his own to mitigate current kinks in the system. The book demonstrates just how complex health care has become and will enlighten and challenge readers who think there’s a quick fix rooted in budget balancing or privatization. Well-researched and digestible.
Gibson’s niche how-to guide makes the intricacies of acquiring an established company easy to understand and a little less daunting. With 30 years of experience in business development and brokerage, Gibson has written a specialized book for prospective buyers who have a specific business in their sights. He discusses three reasons people buy businesses—the pursuits of autonomy, happiness and wealth—and gives plenty of advice for deciding when to buy based on business cycles, economic indicators and the buyer’s (and seller’s) motives. Primarily, though, he concentrates on the enigmatic minutia that might make the eyes of would-be entrepreneurs glaze over. Imagining a cabinet shop called Doozy Manufacturing Company (“Doozy”), Gibson provides helpful explanations of the role of business brokers, the lay definitions of “small business,” “fair market” and “ROI,” and how to decipher prospectuses and other financial statements. Gibson displays his knowledgeable, accessible style by illustrating how to determine the earnings capacity of a business—“What could Doozy earn in the future?” In discussing how to cautiously forecast Doozy’s annual and monthly expenses, he reminds entrepreneurs that “the owner gets paid last.” Mostly, Gibson serves as an excellent teacher, explaining that “not being had” means being able to understand “the elements of value” and “opinions of value,” particularly how both are calculated and interpreted. He provides case studies, a convenient glossary and a helpful appendix, complete with samples of promissory notes and a boilerplate for a purchase contract. For the nonfinancial aspects of determining the right business to buy, he asks potential buyers to consider such things as their complementary skills, desired work environment and location, which, even though these aspects may not be as critical as the financial characteristics, Gibson still advises that they “should be looked at in depth” before moving forward. Patience is key, he stresses; taking the time to study, negotiate and “perform more adequate due diligence” leads “to making a successful investment.” Meticulously researched and crystal clear, a good investment for anyone in the business-buying business.
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“Funny, poignant and thoughtful, this collection captures New York and its denizens at their best.” from big city gems
BIG CITY GEMS
estate. Maig’s daughter Elspeth forms a unique bond with Gibb’s youngest son, Enoch, as she learns to read, write and study the Bible alongside the boy. While Enoch moves on to higher education and the ministry, Elspeth follows in her mother’s footsteps, also becoming a skilled and respected “brewster.” Eventually, Elspeth settles down with a family, and Enoch returns home to lead the parish of Sauchiedale. The story of Elspeth and Enoch provides a window into broader events of 17th-century Scotland, a period wracked with extreme weather leading to famine and widespread death. In an era of superstition and fear, uneducated people turn to hysteria as they search for the source of their suffering. There are mass trials and burnings of witches, and reasonable and caring neighbors accuse each other and blame the devil for their misery. Elspeth and Enoch continue to cross paths as Elspeth seeks answers to the mystery of God, suffering and loss, in a thoroughly researched historical novel with an engaging narrative form. The author lays the groundwork beautifully for her story, introducing well-rounded characters and crisp, realistic dialogue. She draws readers into the story and the minds of her characters, using a series of journal entries to reveal the remote, repressed mind of Enoch. By the end, the transition of the villagers from a tightknit group of neighbors to an accusatory and hysterical mob seems a forgone conclusion. A solid contribution to a popular genre, this novel skillfully brings history to life.
Goldman, Marvin CreateSpace (238 pp.) $9.25 paperback | $9.25 e-book Sep. 17, 2012 978-1475288100 Quirky characters and their antics enliven Goldman’s collection of short stories set in New York City. In the mid-1900s, a time when luxuries included a refrigerator and a telephone, memorable characters filled New York City’s streets as they fled World War II and its aftermath in Europe. Goldman presents slices of life via men and women who cautiously navigate this foreign city with trepidation and ultimately success. As his characters settle in tenements, summer in the Catskills and retire in Florida, the author reveals the world of Jewish New York circa 1950. Emotions run high in “The Way it Was” as Leona Grant fights for the chance to attend college, insisting she wants to be more than just a wife and mother, shocking her traditional parents. While Leona tries to achieve her dreams, other dreams are deferred in “The Making of Eddie Bazinski,” a story featuring a young boy determined to turn his high school baseball success into a career—until, that is, he discovers girls. In “When Comic Books Were Legal Tender,” a friendly bet results in a young boy wagering all of the furniture in his apartment—until his mother comes home. Tragic family news from overseas devastates a young boy’s 10th birthday in “My Haunted Heart”; the boy says, “On that frenetic day when I believed my life was beginning...my mother realized her parents’ lives were coming to an end.” Writing in a straightforward, easy-to-read manner, Goldman delivers charming tales of confusion and dawning realization. Each story captures a moment of humor or reflection as the characters stumble their way through misunderstandings and weaknesses. Funny, poignant and thoughtful, this collection captures New York and its denizens at their best. A variety of tales, ranging from comical to bittersweet, encapsulating another era in New York City.
ASK TAMMY MANNERS Looking for Tips on Proper Etiquette & Manners? Ask Tammy! Manners, Tammy CreateSpace (250 pp.) $14.99 paperback | $9.99 e-book May 23, 2012 978-1475102970
In this quirky collection of essays, outrageous advice columnist Tammy Manners tells her readers like it is. Sort of. Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Tammy Manners is a dethroned homecoming queen, a disgraced sorority sister, and an ex-Mary Kay saleslady stripped of her pink Cadillac. Now, this rabblerousing Jewish Republican Junior Leaguer, who once maxed out a gold card on a bender in New Orleans, is a queen on the clock, offering “advice” to lost souls looking for tips on love, religion, popularity, fashion and every social grace in between. Tammy launches into elaborate tales of carousal and mischief— while upholding the highest traditions of etiquette—all set against the gun-toting, big-haired backdrop of north Texas. Her answers are wry and irreverent, veer wildly off course and often have very little to do with the question at hand. “What an absolutely bleak picture you paint,” she responds to one reader in a rut. “After reading this question, I want to pluck out my eye and send it to you in a box.” Thus Miss Manners dives headlong into a frenzied story of her addiction to hashish, which led to an addiction to Taco Bell drive-thrus and culminated in her
FALLING FOR THE DEVIL
Holmstrom, Britt CreateSpace (398 pp.) $20.00 paperback | $3.50 e-book Aug. 15, 2012 978-1477693452 Holmstrom’s novel (Leaving Berlin, 2011, etc.) is a well-researched, riveting tale of witchcraft and hysteria. Maig Bannatyne arrives in the small Scottish village of Sauchiedale on a bitterly cold night in 1604. She’s a pregnant widow and skilled brewer of ales who is searching for her late husband’s family. And though she does not find the family she seeks, Maig is welcomed by laird Edward Gibb, and she makes her home on his 2868
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NEW WORLD TRIBE Faces of Sacrifice
discovery of God. Though which God she found (Prada, perhaps?), we have no idea. What began as a blog has made its way into book form, and while the 50-plus essays at times tend to drag (no pun intended)—there’s some repeated material, and her thoughts wander so far astray that at times, they’re difficult to follow—the book, like the character herself, is very funny, and sometimes even poignant. Fans of Kids in the Hall veteran Scott Thompson’s famed monologist Buddy Cole will appreciate the wild, weird and often laugh-out-loud yarns that Tammy spins. But because her tales are so meandering and tangential, and the line between reality and parody sometimes blurry, her larger-than-life personality gets a little lost. A raucous, absurd, often downright hilarious collection from an entertaining persona who might be better suited for the stage than the page.
McKay Jr., Doc LOCEM Books (331 pp.) Dec. 10, 2012
McKay’s adventure tale set in two timelines—present day and the 16th century—explores the complex fears and hopes that arise when very different cultures confront each other. In present-day Honduras, an assorted group (church members, others) sets out to make contact with a remote jungle tribe. Before long, their expedition runs into trouble. Lost in the jungle without any way to signal for help and battered by floods, they find their supplies being stolen by mysterious jaguar-spotted forest people, who also abandon a young boy to their care. When the group spots a different band carrying off a body, their fears about cannibalistic jungle tribes multiply. Or, as Zoe puts it, “I’m like…hu-u-uh? What do we do about them? Do we give them gifts? Oh, my god, it’s scary! It’s like…majorly crucial that we work all this out!” Architect Howard’s closed heart opens to Rachel, a young team member, but he’s thrown into guilt and despair when he accidentally injures her. Meanwhile, in the Aztec year One-Reed (1519 to readers), young villager Atl, just coming into manhood, travels with a few others from his small village to trade in a larger town, where they get their first glimpse of Europeans: a man with pink skin and orange hair, “other men in costumes like clowns,” and one (Cortés, in fact) “badly dressed for the wet heat in a stiff animal skin….He seemed to be a leader, except he wore no feathers.” Atl returns home safely, but after disaster strikes the village, a revenge mission brings him and his friend Deer of Stone into Cortés’ army as porters. Aztec tribute-takers have made many locals willing, naïve allies of the Spanish. In both timelines, getting past barriers of language, custom and culture is extremely difficult and, as Zoe would put it, majorly crucial. Issues of faith, despair (echoed in the name of the cynical Dr. DeSparr), sacrifice, repentance and love challenge several characters in important ways but never abstractly. In McKay’s novel, trust, love and sacrifice are things you do, not just feel, as when looking after the sick, crossing a shaky bridge, offering food. Both timelines use well-researched, authentic, vivid details. The author has a gift for dialogue; each character sounds unique, often amusingly so. His writing is rich, complex and beautiful, whether describing a complicated battle scene or a heartfelt conversation, and his characters are equally rich, revealing layers of complexity and closely held secrets as the book develops. Deeply felt, humane, with every emotion and insight well-earned, this is a thick, rich, satisfying novel that deserves a wide audience.
GO GET THAT SCHOLARSHIP! Mast, Nate; Donnelly, Shawn CreateSpace (144 pp.) $10.00 paperback | $9.50 e-book Oct. 5, 2012 978-1478398431
The director of basketball operations for Southern Illinois University offers young players (and their parents) a stepby-step guide to developing the skills and good habits necessary to obtain a college
hoops scholarship. Mast has an authoritative tone that comes naturally from his years of experience. Chapters like “What Coaches Want” offer an insider’s look at how coaches think and the criteria they use to evaluate players. The author includes comprehensive checklists and skill benchmarks for all age levels, strengthtraining and nutritional advice, tips on how to handle interest from coaches, how to become an attractive walk-on, and even a how-to guide for self-marketing and creating a personal highlight tape to send out to colleges. Mast uses an informal, conversational style that’s relaxed and easy to read (“Did I just make a ‘Larry the Cable Guy’ reference? I apologize…”), and he understands how bewildering and, at times, intimidating the whole process can be for a high school kid and his parents. So he breaks things down here in the simplest, easy-to-understand terms for his target audience. There’s no substitute for being good enough, fast enough or big enough, and Mast is fairly candid about that. But there are simply so many adjustments any player can make to improve his or her game and become more attractive to college hoops programs—some of them sweeping changes and others deceptively minor—that any potential National Collegiate Athletic Association recruit will gain something from a close reading. A must-read for anyone who is serious (or whose child is serious) about playing college hoops, and it doubles as an interesting take on the recruitment process for fans of the college game.
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‘How I Did It’ b y t r av i s
K i rk us M e di a L L C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer MEG LABORDE KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2012 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 19487428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 13 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 13 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 13 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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These are some of the things I have not done: I haven’t picked a box and decided to stay inside it. Boxes are restraining, and after awhile you start to feel claustrophobic. They’re square and hard and nothing like the shape of your heart and soul. I haven’t had that one book published which all my other works before and after will be judged by; that defining novel; the one that everybody can point to; the one that overshadows everything else. I haven’t ever gone through the motions in any of the 20-plus works of fiction I’ve written. Every single story I’ve told, whether it was a love story or a horror novel or a film novelization or a collaboration, has had a chunk of myself poured inside it. Every single book of mine is truly my own, regardless of how big my name is on the cover. The writing process has never been easy. I’ve never simply come up with a story and then told a publisher about it and had everything work out smooth and easy. It’s never, ever been quick, even in projects that needed to be written in a very short time frame. Everything has taken an incredible amount of time. My patience has been, and continues to be, tested on a daily basis. I haven’t ever picked a pattern and stuck with it, the way a lot of best-selling authors do. They figure out a formula that works and keep at it. Change characters and settings and themes but keep the overall tone and feel. I’ve tried every single point of view, including second person. I’ve never finished a manuscript and said, “Well, that’s that. I’m never going to write anything better than that.” I’ve finished many with tears in my eyes and a surge of emotion in my soul. But I’ve always—always—felt that I could do better. My proudest work to date is The Solitary Tales series, yet I still can see some of the flaws inside it. I still feel like I can do better. I’ve never been at a point where I could take a break in my writing career. For a long while, I needed to find time to juggle a full-time job along with my publishing journey. For the last five years, I’ve done everything I could to simply continue to survive as a full-time writer. I’m thankful projects have continued to come my way (as unexpected as some of them might be), but I’ve also had to keep knocking on doors waiting for an opportunity. So all this list of things I haven’t done or achieved or had happen led me to be able to say this is how I did it. This is how I became the writer I always wanted to be: telling a variety of stories that mean something to me while continuing to stay out of the box and away from being permanently branded. As a full-time novelist for over five years now, my love of the craft has only grown. I feel I’ve learned
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so much and still have so many stories to tell. I believe my defining novel is yet to come, along with my breakout work and my fan favorite. Years ago, I rarely shared my dream of having a bunch of books in print. The dream looked too outrageous, especially since I hadn’t even been published. Then, after being published, I seldom talked about the desire to do a variety of different types of novels until I’d already managed to do exactly that. The way I managed to see my dreams come true is simply by doing this thing day after night after day. There are times when I look at my writing and know I have a long way to go. There are times when I look at my bank account and wonder what in the world I’m doing. Yet when I step back and survey my writing journey, I remain thankful to God and humbled that I’ve been able to come so far. As long as I continue to have a mind to imagine, I’m going to keep telling stories. I’m going to keep dreaming of places to go. And I’m going to continue to see a whole list of things not happen in order for me to get there. Travis Thrasher is the author of over 20 works of fiction in a variety of genres. He has collaborated with musicians, filmmakers and pastors. His stories all feature broken characters on journeys toward redemption. Upcoming books for 2013 include the novelization of Home Run and Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not? co-authored with the band Thompson Square. Travis and his wife, Sharon, live in a suburb of Chicago and have three daughters. For more information on Travis, go to www.travisthrasher.com. Author photo courtesy of 2012 Brio Media Photography & Design. All rights reserved.
“Overstake’s novel exudes sweetness; in some ways, it feels as if it takes place in another era, as it lacks the dark edge seen in other popular YA stories.” from maggie vaults over the moon
APHRODESIA
the farm without him. She’s the only child left to take over the family business, and she has a sinking feeling she’ll be trapped there forever. As she begins her senior year, she still suffers from grief and anxiety about what to do with the rest of her life. When it appears that she’ll never be able to get over these difficulties, she begins talking to her deceased brother; to her surprise, his voice answers her. Alex’s voice guides her to take up pole vaulting, and he coaches her on how to be the very best at it. Through his coaching, Maggie finds her purpose. Overstake’s novel exudes sweetness; in some ways, it feels as if it takes place in another era, as it lacks the dark edge seen in other popular YA stories. Former sportswriter Overstake’s crisp style also gives the pole-vaulting scenes authenticity and tension. The story will most likely engage younger teenage girls, but its themes will resonate with anyone who has suffered profound loss. A fine YA novel about perseverance in sports and in life.
Oehler, John CreateSpace (349 pp.) $13.95 paperback | $2.99 e-book Oct. 15, 2012 978-1477680308 A sensually evocative thriller that satisfies and arouses. Eric Foster is one of the most perceptive and creative “noses” in the perfume industry. His future looks and smells bright. While a student at the most prestigious perfume academy in France, Eric recreates, against the admonishments of his professor, a long-lost fragrance said to have been used by the queen of Sheba to lure a reluctant King Solomon to her bed. This aphrodisiacal perfume, Balquees, contains a rare ingredient, the acquisition of which gets Eric expelled. Cast out by his mentors and abandoning his project, Eric rebuilds his life in New York by moonlighting as a scent-based forensics consultant (paired with his trusty three-legged bloodhound, Daisy) to the NYPD. When a counterfeit version of Balquees, called SF, begins to wreak havoc by driving would-be lovers to kill each other in extreme bouts of lust, the police have an obvious suspect. Eric, who would never hurt anyone (or produce such an inferior product), races to clear his name and discovers that his friends and colleagues may not be as professional—or innocent—as they appear. Working side by side with the sardonic, emotionally wounded forensics expert Tanya, Eric is thrown into a series of increasingly violent incidents, the culmination of which forces him to face his disgraced past. Oehler is marvelously versed in the intricacies of perfume manufacturing and history; luckily for the reader, he’s also a compelling writer. In particular, the convincing sex scenes flow with the right balance of graphic language and tastefulness. Readers will come away with a new appreciation for all those sparkling bottles of fragrance and maybe even an understanding for their extraordinary price tags. A brilliant, engaging twist on the traditional crime novel.
THE SHARPSHOOTER 1862-1864
Phillips, Charles All Things That Matter Press (236 pp.) $16.99 paperback | $5.99 e-book | Jun. 26, 2012 978-0985778910 Phillips’ work of historical fiction follows a Civil War–era sharpshooter in the Union Army. Debut author Phillips’ tale spotlights Jurian Baecker, the son of a minister from Texas in the 1860s, whose keen eye and sure-footedness gain him an important role in the Civil War. After Jurian loses the woman he loves and his parents die, he moves to Mexico and becomes a cattle thief, selling livestock across the border to earn a living. Jurian, who gains a reputation as the “flying Dutchman” for his skills in night raids on the cattle farms, ends up killing a man who’d threatened his livelihood in Mexico during a business transaction. He realizes that “his new life had somehow brought him to a place where killing another man was what he must do.” It is this turning point that moves Jurian to say goodbye to the love he will never have, change his name to Jake Baker and join the Union Army to “wait for the chance to kill someone Jake knew, in all likelihood, was not so different from himself.” He travels to New Orleans and joins a special unit with regimental commander Col. Berdan. Equipped with a breech-loading rifle, he learns how to “fire from a prone position, use all available cover and move after each shot so his powder smoke can’t be used to target him.” Phillips thoroughly describes Jake’s military prowess, which helps the Union Army triumph in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. When an injury to his head and leg leaves him unable to fight, he relies on the warmth of Gisela, a local woman, who nurses him back to health so he can return to the war. Phillips tells an intriguing story for Civil War buffs and anyone who appreciates a good, comprehensive plotline and a multidimensional protagonist. A suspense-filled journey through the Civil War told by a brave, skilled soldier.
MAGGIE VAULTS OVER THE MOON Overstake, Grant CreateSpace (222 pp.) $10.00 paperback | $6.95 e-book Oct. 11, 2012 978-1478296874
In this debut young-adult novel, a farm girl rebounds after a family tragedy, soaring to new heights as a pole-vaulter. Teenager Maggie Steele has just lost her brother Alex in a tragic car accident. He was a beloved son and brother and also an all-star high school athlete in a small Kansas town where high school sports matter. Maggie is reminded each day of her brother, and she struggles to cope with life on |
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A LAWYER
murdering women who stray. Tanz crosses his story with that of mob hit man Julian Gando, a Philadelphia transplant whose life revolves around killing and his former-call-girl live-in love, Bryant Merril. Bruce and Julian are both being watched by the city’s top-notch Organized Crime Task Force, whose undercover cops and computer code crackers doggedly pursue the blood-soaked criminals. Tanz creates a wickedly twisted world, although Titell’s transformation from upstanding businessman to crazed murderer is a bit rushed. Yet it’s hard to put the book down because Titell and Gando pursue their crimes in such a heartless, detailed fashion. Spelling errors and strange details, such as what every character eats or drinks, tend to slow down the story, and Tanz sometimes bogs down the flow with updates on when Titell decides to go shopping or head to bed. Fortunately, there’s plenty of intrigue to make up for these minor storytelling deficiencies. In particular, Titell’s use of cheater websites and his ability to morph into his killer character—“SmoothAssSilk”— provide fascinating chapters, pulling the character’s madness into disturbingly realistic depths: “He pushed back from the desk, took a long sip of whiskey and turned on the computer. After loading, he clicked on Favorites and entered the site. He smiled broadly when he noticed two replies and four flirts adorning his inbox.” It’s chilling to watch the two men descend from their everyday lives into complete darkness. The technical snags are defeated by two vicious criminal minds.
Ruiz, Ronald L. CreateSpace (268 pp.) $14.00 paperback | $9.99 e-book Sep. 7, 2012 978-1475119503 A lawyer’s memoir of a lifetime arguing cases in court. Before retiring in 2003, former district attorney and North California trial lawyer Ruiz (The Big Bear, 2003) spent over 36 years practicing law and defending clients. Before and during that career, Ruiz wrote well-received novels, and those same writing skills are on display in his new memoir. The book opens with frank, clearly written vignettes from his childhood: “How I despised my brown skin,” he writes of himself as a boy. “How I dreamed and longed to be born again, but this time with blond hair and blue eyes.” He then continues to his legal career, focusing on a handful of major trials that taught him his craft and tested his resolve. When assigned the case of a man accused of shooting someone 40 times, Ruiz found himself thinking, “[I]f I held myself out to be a criminal defense attorney, then I couldn’t refuse to represent any defendant, no matter how heinous the charge might be.” Enlivened by vivid details and engaging dialogue, these accounts read like enthralling legal fiction. They’re interspersed with digressions on a wide array of law-related topics, from the arrogance of judges to the present-day broken state of California’s penal system, where the “war on drugs” has led to overcrowded prisons and dangerous criminals being granted early release. As Ruiz writes: “If you weren’t a hardened criminal when you entered prison, the chances were very good you would be one when you left.” Through his triumphs and setbacks, including his first panic attack, suffered in court at the age of 56, Ruiz maintains an involving, unpretentious narrative flow that keeps the reader interested and on his side. A well-written, engaging look at a life of law.
NORTHERN LIBERTIES
Vanstrum, Glenn—Ed. Amazon Digital Services (334 pp.) $2.99 e-book | Sep. 24, 2011 Murder, fine art, wartime trauma and ideological battles over surgical procedure collide in Vanstrum’s smartly written historical fiction. Opening in 1875, the novel centers on the creation of Thomas Eakins’ painting The Gross Clinic, which, although considered an American masterwork today, was highly controversial at the time because of its graphic nature. Vanstrum follows multiple plot threads in his exploration of the people, fictional and otherwise, involved in the tale. The key figures include Eakins, who struggles with bipolar tendencies and attempts at fame; Samuel D. Gross, the famous surgeon at the center of the artist’s painting, who disdains the then-current theorizing of Joseph Lister on the cause and prevention of sepsis; Abigail Doverlund, a newspaper owner and grieving mother; and George Callahan, a Civil War veteran and detective whose investigation into a number of missing prostitutes runs headlong into the other characters’ lives, resulting in the exposure of secrets, scandal and an impressive number of corpses. Despite the often-salacious material that weaves in copious amounts of sex and violence, Vanstrum avoids being exploitative in a character-rich narrative that paints heroes and villains alike with nuance and care. In keeping with the tenor of the times, Vanstrum also introduces issues of the day through
SILK ON THE ROCKS
Tanz, David S. CreateSpace (234 pp.) $14.95 paperback | $4.99 e-book Jul. 24, 2012 978-1477431016 There’s no sophomore slump for Tanz as he brings his Philly style back to this cat-and-mouse crime story that weaves together the lives of two serial killers. Bruce Titell is a classic computer geek: His life revolves around computing power, processors and software updates. His wife, thinly fleshed-out Julie Donovan, has repaid his lack of interest in their marriage with multiple affairs, all procured from online “cheaters” websites. After her shocking death in a car crash, Titell takes his deep-seated rage and fuels it into a revenge plot that ultimately involves 2872
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“[N]ever sulky or morose, Zaher exudes hope for a ‘spontaneous transformation in the traditional society of Afghanistan,’ however impossible it may seem.” from it is your enemy who is dock-tailed
Succeeds in both respecting and enriching the venerable original.
background detail and character discussion, such as the booklong debate over the role of cleanliness in the surgical arena and the public’s increasing awareness of Darwin’s writings. More impressively, he integrates the intellectual content in a way that furthers the plot, which never sags. Transitions among the various threads are handled smoothly, and none of the characters are shortchanged in the process. Although some readers may object to the bit of artistic license Vanstrum employs in his depiction of historical figures—particularly Eakins—his evenhandedness and creativity keep even negative characters, such as the pimp Slam Perkins, sympathetic. Strong characters and deft handling of multiple narrative elements make for a fascinating read.
IT IS YOUR ENEMY WHO IS DOCK-TAILED
Zaher, Hamid iUniverse (302 pp.) $31.95 | paper $21.95 | $6.99 e-book Aug. 15, 2012 978-1475933673 A homosexual Afghan man soberly details his journey from a discriminative country toward freedom. Originally published in Farsi in 2009, this affecting memoir recounts Zaher’s experiences as a fearful gay man growing up in Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul. Armed with uncommon resilience, the author stayed true to his feelings, in defiance of the region’s widely accepted, sometimes violent targeting of homosexuals. Despite the palpable sense of fear, he continually hoped the exposure of his sexuality would inspire others to join him in solidarity. From early adolescence, Zaher “did not feel like a man from the inside” and exhibited “girly traits” and affectations that he neither concealed nor was particularly ashamed of. To avoid being ostracized, the author writes of how he spoke “from the depth of my throat in a thick voice.” Eventually, after being frequently victimized because of his sexuality, he developed a stern desire to abandon the country altogether via impassioned appeals to the U.N., much to his family’s horror. His attraction to older men ushered in the first of many awkward and dangerous sexual encounters, and his need to be acknowledged increased as well. Zaher paints a harrowing portrait of his life through the late 1980s and ’90s as a college student, then struggling in Pakistan after 9/11, working in Iran, then employing a guide to help him border-hop through Turkey, culminating in a botched attempt to reach Greece by boat. Zaher’s recollections conclude in 2008 when, after his deliberate troublemaking, the U.N. relocates him to Canada as a refugee. The memoir calls out the regressive “cultural ignorance” and superstitions of Afghan society, where “no one knows a homosexual except himself or herself.” In Afghanistan and elsewhere, leading a nontraditional lifestyle can be a death sentence, just like the indictment for government conspiracy that resulted in his father’s execution. And still, never sulky or morose, Zaher exudes hope for a “spontaneous transformation in the traditional society of Afghanistan,” however impossible it may seem. A remarkable, eye-opening autobiography that’s as relevant as it is revelatory.
THE BEOWULF TRILOGY
Webber, Christopher L. CreateSpace (382 pp.) $20.00 paperback | Jul. 31, 2012 978-1475108309 A new translation of the Old English classic alongside two sturdy sequels. Though the monstrous Grendel has been defeated by the conclusion of the original epic poem, the story ends on a cliffhanger: The titular hero is dead, and the future of his people is uncertain. In his sequels, Webber (American to the Backbone, 2011 etc.) picks up right where Beowulf left off, with the Geatish people struggling to maintain their power and security. When a mission to defeat the nearby Swedes goes catastrophically wrong, Beowulf ’s young comrade Wiglaf insists that the Geats must abandon their homes and sail in search of a new, peaceful land. The first sequel (Beyond Beowulf, first published in 2006) is the story of that search, the challenges the tribe faces—raging storms, fearsome trolls—and the people it encounters along the way. Yrfa’s Tale, the second sequel, covers the same ground, but it does so retrospectively in the voice of Wiglaf ’s wife. Rather than discussing battles and glory, Yrfa focuses on the emotional effects of the journey and what they ultimately mean for the Geats’ future. Webber’s translation of the original Beowulf is meticulous and vivid. In the introduction, he states his intention to preserve the text’s aural effect by following a strict alliterative structure akin to the original’s; indeed, his translation’s clean, musical lines are excellent for reading aloud. The two sequels also maintain the original’s language and narrative style. Tonally, however, Beyond Beowulf rings slightly off. Wiglaf ’s constant insistence on peace and cooperation jars against Beowulf’s glorification of bloodshed and warfare; as such, it feels uncomfortably modern. Yrfa’s Tale is the real standout of the trilogy. Yrfa’s reflections on family and relationships bring an immediate humanity and realism to the epic tale that the other two volumes lack, and those universal themes are likely to appeal to a contemporary audience while remaining true to Beowulf’s original context. Yrfa’s beautifully rendered emotions are enjoyable and enlightening: “The phantoms that I fear the most are formless / And hold their power in the human heart.” |
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THE WHIPPING CLUB by Deborah Henry
"Henry weaves multilayered themes of prejudice, corruption and redemption with an authentic voice and swift, seamless dialogue. Her prose is engaging, and light poetic touches add immediacy...Henry's tale reveals what happens when good people remain silent." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A powerful saga of love and survival.� ISBN-13: 978-0-9845531-8-1 Hardback, $19.95 ISBN-13: 978-0-9845531-7-4 Paperback, $14.95
For information about publication rights, email deborahhenry88@gmail.com or call 203-522-3328. www.deborahhenryauthor.com