May 01, 2011: Volume LXXIX, No 9

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REVIEWS

t h e nat i o n ’s p r e m i e r b o o k r e v i e w j o u r na l f o r mo r e t h a n 7 5 y e a rs

fiction

nonfiction

children & teens

★ Glen Duncan presents a quirky, brilliant and harrowing novel of lupine transformation p. 729

★ Doug Saunders pens an incisive study of rural-tourban migration and its consequences p. 758

★ A spectacularly eerie ghost story explores teen angst in Vera Brogsol’s graphic novel p. 766

★ A young man waiting for this life to start takes the stage in Michael Griffith’s fun book p. 721

★ Geography and history lessons abound in Roy Cloud’s tale of brotherhood and Bordeaux p. 741

★ Kevin Henkes provides a characteristically keen glimpse into a child’s pivotal moment p. 777

★ John Sayles turns in a superb, sweeping epic of Manifest Destiny that will dazzle fans p. 727

★ Alex Prud’homme offers a comprehensive survey of the complex issue of freshwater p. 756

★ Diego Rivera’s career and mission are explained to young readers by Duncan Tonatiuh p. 790

Chevy Stevens gets close to a serial killer; Tamar Cohen plots revenge; Maggie Sefton is unraveled; Beth McMullen sins; Clyde Edgerton boards the night train; Talia Carner travels to Jerusalem; Darynda Jones walks among graves; and much, much more v i s i t k i rku sre vi e ws. com f or f ull versions of f eatures, q & as and thou sa n ds of archived reviews

The Kirkus Star A star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.

Kirkus Online: Trust the toughest critics in the book industry to recommend the next great read.

Visit KirkusReviews.com to discover exciting new books, authors, blogs and other dynamic content.

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interactive e-books p. 713 fiction p. 763 mystery p. 728

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science fiction & fantasy p. 735 nonfiction p. 737

children & teens p. 763 kirkus indie p. 794

p u b l i s h e r

May is perhaps the biggest month of the year in books. The largest book conference in the United States, BookExpo America, lands in New York City. May also officially marks the dive into summer with Memorial Day weekend and all the fantastic summer blockbusters and beach reads that come with it.

This month, Kirkus will feature many of these titles you absolutely must know about for summer reading, as well as a sneak peek into an exciting fall season of books. We talk to Steve Earle about his debut novel, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive, which received a starred review. Master storyteller Jean Thompson releases yet another stellar book about Midwestern life. Charlaine Harris’ epic series, which is the inspiration behind HBO’s True Blood, carries on with Dead Reckoning. The Devil in the White City author Erik Larson returns with In the Garden of Beasts; plus dozens of others.

Be sure to visit kirkusreviews.com daily to play one of our addictive, bookthemed Qrank quizzes and to read interviews and features with your favorite authors—check out who we have scheduled in May: E. Duke Vincent Charlaine Harris Theresa Giuduce Dick Van Dyke Chaz Bono Pearl Cleage Roy Blount Jr. Paul Theroux Richard Dawkins Duff McKagan

Plus many more—all of this exciting new content contributes to our goal to be the go-to resource for book discovery.

—Bob Carlton

# President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Vice President & Publisher B O B C A R LT O N bcarlton@kirkusreviews.com Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkusreviews.com

Dear Readers,

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Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N

Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkusreviews.com Features Editor M O L LY B RO W N molly.brown@kirkusreviews.com Children’s & YA Books VICKY SMITH vicky.smith@kirkusreviews.com Kirkus Indie Editor P E R RY C RO W E perry.crowe@kirkusreviews.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Editorial Coordinator REBECCA CRAMER rebecca.cramer@kirkusreviews.com Contributing Editor G REG ORY Mc NAME E # for customer service or subscription questions, please call 877-441-3010 Kirkus Reviews Online www.kirkusreviews.com Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/ book-reviews/print-indexes Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ advertising-opportunities Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ submission-guidlines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription/newsletter/add This Issue’s Contributors Maude Adjarian • Bruce Allen • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Amy Boaz • Julie Buffaloe-Yoder • Christina Cintron • Michelle Daugherty • Dave DeChristopher • David Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Ryan Donovan • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Amy Goldschlager • Luke C. Hoorelbeke • Robert M. Knight • Erica Lamar • Paul Lamey • Rebecca Schumejda • Judith Leitch • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Joe Maniscalco • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Chris Morris • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Courtney E. Nolen • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Gary Presley • John T. Rather • Lloyd Sachs • Susan Sebanc • Rebecca Shapiro • William P. Shumaker • Paula Singer • Arthur Smith • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Claire Trazenfeld • Mark Tursi • Steve Weinberg • Carol White • Chris White • Joan Wilentz

interactive e-books ROXIE’S A-MAZEING VACATION ADVENTURE

interactive e-books for children ALICE IN NEW YORK

Carroll, Lewis Illustrator: Tenniel, Sir John Developer: Atomic Antelope (130 pp.) $8.99 | Version: 1.0 March 7, 2011 Even more ambitious than its predecessor, Alice for the iPad, a mash-up that could have gone terribly wrong finds its own magical charm.

Following in the finger-steps of what was considered one of the first great children’s story apps for the iPad, Atomic Antelope’s next outing could have been a straightforward adaptation of Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Instead the development studio has grafted the book’s scenes neatly onto New York City. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are taxi drivers, the Red Queen is a colorful Statue of Liberty and the English countryside is replaced by an Empire State Building Observation Deck view of the city. If it sounds tacky (as the blaring soundtrack and blinking neon signage of the cover page suggest it to be), the careful mix of Carroll’s original text—with only minor updates to adjust the setting—and the stunning adaptations of Sir John Tenniel’s well-known illustrations will soon reassure readers.

As with the previous app, the 26 animated, interactive pages are the show-stoppers; characters and objects wobble, sway or get tossed around based on touch. Incidental music and sound effects are evocative (the “Coney Island” page, for instance, is impressively immersive). Some of the marriage of text to setting seems almost too good to be true (“I declare it’s marked out just like a large chessboard!” Alice says of New York City’s grid), but purists will appreciate how much of Carroll’s prose and poems are left intact.

A faithful—but not slavishly so—adaptation worthy of the Big Apple. (iPad storybook app. 5 & up)

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Illustrator: Munro, Roxie Developer: OCG Studios $4.99 | Version: 1.0 March 25, 2011 Munro (Eco-Mazes, 2010, etc.) shifts into high gear with this new—and first digital—addition to her labyrinthic series.

Composed as a single wordless maze split into no fewer than 15 screens, a network of roadways meanders through city and suburb, countryside, construction site, industrial park and other environments. Players choose one or more of five customizable cars and set out. They “drive” with a fingertip from scene to scene while searching for over 80 letters, numbers, animals or other small items concealed within the busy, finely detailed cartoon landscapes. Small animations and touch-activated sound effects add even more to discover in each scene. Be warned, though: This outing is not for novices or impatient drivers. There are no shortcuts, and there is no way to see more than one screen at a time. Although the artist does provide a complete key to the route, it’s only viewable at the very beginning. Furthermore, adjacent segments of the maze have but one “correct” entrance each. What with the plethora of barricades, one-way streets and other obstacles it’s tough to retrace dead-end routes quickly. Persistent puzzle-hounds, however, will adore this.

Challenging? For sure. To the point of frustration?

Very possibly. Lively, engrossing and well designed? Definitely. (iPad game app. 7-10)

THIS PLACE IS A ZOO! CAPTAIN WALLACE’S ALPHABET EXPEDITION

Newbould, Adrian Illustrator: Barrett, Chris Developer: Meldmedia $1.99 | Version: 1.0 February 3, 2011

Clean, simple toddler-friendly graphics are wasted in an app riddled with bugs and design flaws.

A genial khaki-clad host (who does double duty as the recurrent “home” button) invites young visitors to meet a menagerie of (mostly) familiar animals. Readers can see the animals either by pressing a letter on an alphabetical grid or taking an A-Z

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tour. Depicted in screen-print style, each creature runs through a short and often comical animation, then freezes next to its name and an upper- and lowercase letter. Touching the animal sets off a brief sound effect, and tapping the name and the letters activates pronunciations in two voices (a child and an adult) with British accents (“Z” is pronounced “zed”). That, plus a crowded “Zoo” page on which all the animals gather to sound off, is it for interactive features. Readers can neither activate any of the sound effects nor switch to another page until the animation has finished its course. Furthermore, not only does the Captain’s instruction to bring back the grid by tapping his hat sometimes play at inappropriate times, but any temptation to linger on one page or another is met after a few seconds with, “Shall we go then?” and “No time to tarry!” Also, though the vocals are as bright and lively as the art, the child’s “b” and “d” are indistinguishable.

Visually attractive, but feature-poor and obnoxious to boot. (iPad alphabet-book app. 1-3)

ARCHIE AND THE MYSTERIOUS SPHERE

Veldeman, Johan Illustrator: Albrechts, Maarten Developer: Alfabetweter $0.99 | Version: 1.0.2 Mar. 24, 2011 Series: Antletics, 1

Ant rides golf ball in this forgettable Belgian import.

Seeing a mysterious white sphere fly past and land in “Faira-Way,” Archie the ant sets out to take a closer look. No sooner does he climb atop the sphere than along comes a “Big Foot” to whack it into the air. Small automatic animations join a scattering of touch-activated sound effects or color changes in each cartoon scene. Touching highlighted words in the text opens small windows that offer either definitions or random cultural factoids—a mention of Archie’s “four hands” brings up a note about the Fab Four, for instance, and for “moonstone” a reference to Neil Armstrong. The narrator’s British-accented voice can be paused or turned off. Labored verses (“Was this a meteor or a falling star / Or perhaps a spaceship not yet ajar…”) are paired with extreme close-up views of a buggy, anxious-looking four-armed lad in shorts and T-shirt. This episode, being only the first of a planned eight, cuts off abruptly after only 11 screens, leaving Archie in mid-air. It’s unclear either when subsequent episodes will be available, or whether they will be sold separately or offered as free updates.

Skimpy and unpromising, with nowhere to go but up. (iPad storybook app. 7-9)

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DINOSAURS ACROSS AMERICA

Yeh, Phil Developer: Koobits $4.99 | Version: 1.0.0 February 28, 2011

A low-budget menu of special features and sound effects does nothing to improve a superficial tour of the states originally published in 2007.

Four dinos and a brashly ignorant bunny hop from state to state, the latter offering wrong guesses about each state’s capital (a joke that soon wears thin). The former reel out either common facts or such eye-glazing generalities as, “Indiana is a leader in both manufacturing and farming,” and, “Don’t forget all the great sporting events in [California].” Comics artist Yeh’s crowded, brightly colored style infuses the opening panels with life and energy, but once the tour gets under way, his cartoon figures are pushed to the margins by page-filling views of the states. These are, aside from a few major cities or geographical features, effectively empty space. Readers can swipe along from state to state in fixed alphabetical order or, by starting with the “Explore!” option, either swing through a gallery of page images or cut to any state’s page by correctly sliding a small image into place on an outline map. There is no audio other than marching music on introductory pages and little animation beyond figures that can be moved around with a fingertip.

Thin fare for either active or armchair tourists. (iPad nonfiction app. 7-11)

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fiction THE END OF EVERYTHING

THE MONKEY’S WEDDING AND OTHER STORIES

Abbott, Megan Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (256 pp.) $23.99 | July 7, 2011 978-0-316-09779-6 Edgar Award–winning crime writer Abbott’s sixth novel (Bury Me Deep, 2009, etc.) is a change of pace: a delicate skein of fantasies and obsessions, shared by two adolescent girls and shadowed by an abduction.

Lizzie and Evie are thick as thieves. Next-door neighbors, they are tomboys who think nothing of getting banged up in a hockey game. The 13-year-olds are on the cusp of puberty, and all the revelations it will bring. Lizzie, the narrator, is fascinated by the Ververs. Aside from Evie, there is her older sister Dusty, impossibly beautiful and glamorous, and Mr. Verver, the most fun dad you could imagine. Lizzie’s own dad has split after an ugly divorce. She has the feeling something momentous is coming, and then it does: Evie disappears. Lizzie recalls that Evie had a secret admirer, an older man who would watch her at night, standing in the yard. It doesn’t take long to figure out that it’s Mr. Shaw, a married middle-aged insurance agent, who has driven Evie away. (The location is Anyplace, U.S.A.) The crime element is handled perfunctorily. Abbott’s spin on the situation is what’s important: the possibility that Evie, a willing conspirator, wanted this attention from an older man. After all, thinks Lizzie, doesn’t she have her own huge crush on Mr. Verver? And maybe Mr. Shaw was driven “by the purest, most painful love”?

Abbott guides us skillfully through Lizzie’s hothouse fantasies, but at the expense of action. There’s a long wait for a break in the case. It comes awkwardly, casting Shaw’s wife in an especially strange light. But it’s engineered by Lizzie, who resorts to fibs as she dramatizes her role (“I feel so powerful, like a god”).

The real drama, though, is next door at the Ververs. Right at the end, Dusty reveals a furious sibling rivalry, under the nose of the oblivious Mr. Verver. What do adults know?

A tangled tale that is more provocative than illuminating. (Reading group guide online)

Aiken, Joan Small Beer Press (200 pp.) $24.00 | April 1, 2011 978-1-931520-74-4

Darkly whimsical stories, most of them from the 1950s and six of them previously unpublished, by the late author best known for the fanciful Wolves of Willoughby Chase series and Jane Austen sequels.

Aiken, who died in 2004, was a kind of modern folklorist whose stories (many of which were featured in Argosy) include a repressed English vicar reincarnated as a brazen cat, a mini-mermaid no one wants except the seaman who found her (but can’t keep her), a forlorn 4-year-old boy summoned from the past by the sound of music, an ad writer haunted by octopuses and the chain-smoking devil himself. Then there’s Midsummer Village, which is targeted by a millionaire developer blind to its legendary beauty, which is so great that it exists for only three days a year.

Even in her more realistic stories, there’s a sense of people getting pulled by unexplained or unseen forces, most affectingly in “The Monkey’s Wedding,” in which an elderly artist goes to reclaim his celebrated painting of a German-occupied Eastern European town, 50 years after the work fell into Nazi hands, and his crusty aged mother who discovers the grandson she never knew she had.

Whatever the outcome of these tales, however deep the themes, Aiken writes with surpassing spirit and alertness, never ceasing to find interest or amazement in the traps people set for themselves.

Some of the stories are slight, but Aiken’s elegant restraint and dry wit never fail to leave their mark.

Stylistically, these stories are very much from another era (two of them were originally published under the pseudonym Nicholas Dee), but the moral insights in them are timeless.

THE RANGER

Atkins, Ace Putnam (352 pp.) $25.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-399-15748-6 Home is the Ranger, home from the wars, to a town full of good old boys, bad old betrayals and some fresh ones.

Quinn Colson has been gone from Jericho in deep-south Mississippi since he was a rambunctious, trouble-prone

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“There’s a minor epidemic of sword-and-sorcery epics out there, and now one of them is long-practicing fantasist Bakker’s sequel to The Judging Eye.” from the white -luck warrior

kid. Gone but not forgotten. An 18-year-old hell-raiser, he’d left behind an indelible string of colorful exploits. He’s 29 now, a mission-tested, combat-scarred veteran of all his country’s recent wars. Quinn’s a Ranger sergeant, an elite soldier, complete with a fighting man’s stare and recognizable haircut. On a week’s emergency furlough from Fort Benning, he’s headed home for a favorite uncle’s funeral, the uncle who also happened to be the much-admired, frequently reelected Tibbehah County sheriff, the uncle who has allegedly taken his own life. Hamp Beckett a suicide? Hard for Quinn to accept, and yet there’s the note, cryptic, perhaps, but convincing.

In addition, there’s Acting Sheriff Wesley Ruth, with whom Quinn played high-school football, expounding on the darker aspects of a secretive, skillfully sublimated nature. On the other hand, there’s Deputy Lillie Virgil, holding a dissenting view, which she maintains the on-scene evidence supports, though no one, including Quinn at first, seems in any way persuaded. In all, he soon has much on his plate, including issues with a vicious, unprincipled longtime enemy, a savage crew of no-holds-barred meth dealers and, oh yes, a gorgeous ex-girlfriend currently married to someone else who, despite that, might be disinclined to remain history. Hardly Iraq or Afghanistan revisited, but, as agendas clash, the body count mounts, and suddenly Quinn finds himself fighting battles all over Jericho.

Another solid entertainment from Atkins (Infamous, 2010, etc.), whose estimable Ranger may bring to mind Lee Child’s hard-fisted, soft-hearted Jack Reacher, which is entirely a good thing.

THE WHITE-LUCK WARRIOR

Bakker, R. Scott Overlook (608 pp.) $25.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-59020-464-1

By Crom and Ishtar, Batman: There’s a minor epidemic of sword-and-sorcery epics out there, and now one of them is long-practicing fantasist Bakker’s sequel to The Judging Eye (2009).

As readers familiar with that book know—and if you haven’t read the first volume, you’ll need to—Anasûrimbor Kellhus is “the Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas.” His job description requires him to fight the forces of the Apocalypse here, the weirdlings of the frozen Ancient North there—in short, there’s not much time for golf or a Hawaiian vacation in a place where the gods and one’s kinfolk alike have it in for you. That world is a diverse if violent place: Think of it as Canada and Brazil with magic wands and battleaxes, with the North always coming in ahead, since “commerce with the Nonmen had allowed them to outstrip their more swarthy cousins to the South.” More swarthy? Nonmen? Gulp. The shades of D.W. Griffith are fainter than those of J.R.R. Tolkien, of course, with whom comparisons are naturally to be drawn.

And in that Bakker is found wanting, for though this volume 716

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is dauntingly big, not much happens in it—there’s a lot of back story and a lot of talk, but not much of it adds up. Oh, there are grandmasters of the “Gnostic School of Sohonc,” of course, and Anagogic Schools, and practitioners of Inrithism and victims of “the Inrithi persecution of sorcery”; there are brave warriors of something called the Great Ordeal, which is more descriptive than the author might have intended; there’s a character who can “scry our scrying;” and there are witches and wizards but, at least, seedy brothels in the place of groaning-board inns. Not many of the venues are attractive; “the omnipresent smell of rot seemed to take on a sinister tang,” says our narrator, which unfortunately speaks volumes.

It’s the usual fantasy stuff, in other words, derivative of but much inferior to the Tolkien/Lewis/Peake schools of yore. Take it as good news or bad, but another volume in the series awaits.

THE FREE WORLD

Bezmozgis, David Farrar, Straus and Giroux (368 pp.) $26.00 | March 29, 2011 978-0-374-28140-3 A Russian Jewish family travels to America in decades following the Revolution that defined their patriarch’s life, in this grim first novel from the prizewinning Latvian-born author (Natasha and Other Stories, 2004).

The Krasnanskys—retired businessman Samuil, his stoical wife Emma, their married sons Karl and Alec, the latter’s spouses, and a pair of grandsons—make their way to Rome en route to Chicago. But the relative who was to have sponsored them must instead accommodate a black-sheep sibling, and the Krasnanskys decide to try their luck in Canada (“It’s more European than America, and more American than Europe”). The episodic narrative that develops from this compromise encompasses Samuil’s burden of memories, both proud and regretful (he never ceases mourning the disappearance of his brother Reuven, a more idealistic version of Samuil’s pragmatic self); the troublesome exigencies to which plodding Karl and self-absorbed, sensual Alec drive themselves; and the sorrows of Alec’s winsome, sensitive wife Polina, haunted by fallout from a lost love and an unwanted abortion. Bezmozgis creates a fascinating structure: Events occurring in the narrative present are juxtaposed with flashbacks to similar events which echo and illuminate them. But the resulting fullness gives an impression of redundancy and overemphasis, even when crucial distinctions are lucidly made. It all seems more like “the emigrant experience” than this family’s experience of emigration. And yet, the vividness of its characters and several superbly handled scenes, including a Rosh Hashanah pageant at which Polina endures painfully mixed emotions while watching other people’s children perform, and a brutally funny account of a scam involving stolen Russian ikons which climaxes in a chop shop, keep recalling the novel to vivid life. The result is a flawed, |

fascinating chronicle, reminiscent of another honorable failure about lives stolen, cast away and never fully recovered: Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Shadows on the Hudson (2008).

By no means the book it might have been. But Bezmozgis is a potent writer who may yet astonish us all. (Agent: Ira Silverberg/Sterling Lord Literistic)

THE GAP YEAR

Bird, Sarah Knopf (320 pp.) $24.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-307-59279-8 e-book 978-0-307-59517-1 The daughter’s side of the story, told in parallel with her mother’s, fills in the gaps in a smart, soft-centered, strung-out tale of parental stand-off and reconciliation.

Striving to be Teflon-coated, Zen Mama (“delayed-adolescence annoyance and college jitters expressed as bitchiness slide right off Zen Mama”) is more often seen simply as the “boob-whispering (i.e. lactation consultant) ex-wife of a cult bigwig.” Bird’s (How Perfect is That, 2008, etc.) stressed-out central character, aka Cam Lightsey, is a heaving mass of anxiety and guilt. Her daughter Aubrey has gone missing on her 18th birthday, the day the pair are supposed to go to the bank to clear the trust fund laid down by ex-husband Martin for Aubrey’s first-year college fees. The reasons for the disappearance, which have developed secretly during the preceding 12 months and involve a football jock and ambitions at odds with Cam’s, are chronicled in alternating chapters swapping Aubrey’s sulky teen point-of-view with Cam’s sassy, self-deprecatingly–voiced account of meeting Martin in Morocco, loving him, losing him to the cult of Next and stranding herself in the suburbs as a working single mom for Aubrey’s sake. Bird’s snappy style compensates in part for a slender story with too many cliffhanging chapter ends, but it doesn’t excuse the fairy-tale ending.

Disappointing. Wit and feistiness collapse into cotton candy. (First printing of 40,000)

JERUSALEM MAIDEN

Carner, Talia Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $14.99 paperback original May 31, 2011 978-0-06-200437-6 A young woman struggles against strict Orthodox traditions to realize her inner artist.

Esther Kaminsky, a fictional character based on Carner’s grandmother, grows up in a Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox Jewish) compound in Jerusalem during the waning days of Ottoman rule. In part |

because of the exhortation to be fruitful and multiply, and in part because the men are left mostly free to study Torah, women’s work in this crowded enclave is never done. Esther will be married off as soon as her menses begin (an event she postpones by secretly eating special herbs). Mademoiselle Thibaux, a teacher at a local girls’ school, encourages Esther to develop her remarkable talent as a painter. However, Esther renounces her artistic yearnings after her mother dies of consumption— obviously a sign from Hashem (God) that Esther offended Him, not only by creating graven images but by stepping outside her circumscribed gender role. When her beloved father condemns her outspokenness, and her best friend, forced into marriage to a brutal man, kills herself, Esther plots to escape. Her musically gifted cousin Asher, also harboring forbidden artistic ambitions, wants her to marry him, so they can flee to Paris and pursue their callings. She agrees but is tricked into wedding Nathan, a wealthy Jaffa merchant. The story jumps ahead 10 years to 1924.

Esther, mother of three, is the relatively content wife of Nathan, who is attractive and kind, if a bit stiff. Nonetheless, she still bridles at the restrictions on her life, exacerbated by meddling sisters-in-law. When Esther’s disgraced and divorced sister Hanna arrives to help with the children, and Nathan departs on an extended business trip, Esther seizes the opportunity to go to Paris. Will Esther manage to free herself of the prohibitions which she has internalized and achieve artistic expression and true love? Readers will fervently hope so.

A welcome glimpse into a little-understood world.

(Author appearances in Metro New York)

READY PLAYER ONE

Cline, Ernest Crown (384 pp.) $24.00 | CD: $40.00 | August 16, 2011 978-0-307-88743-6 CD: 978-0-307-91314-2 e-book 978-0-307-88745-0 Video-game players embrace the quest of a lifetime in a virtual world; screenwriter Cline’s first novel is old wine in new bottles.

The real world, in 2045, is the usual dystopian horror story.

So who can blame Wade, our narrator, if he spends most of his time in a virtual world? The 18-year-old, orphaned at 11, has no friends in his vertical trailer park in Oklahoma City, while the OASIS has captivating bells and whistles, and it’s free. Its creator, the legendary billionaire James Halliday, left a curious will.

He had devised an elaborate online game, a hunt for a hidden Easter egg. The finder would inherit his estate. Old-fashioned riddles lead to three keys and three gates. Wade, or rather his avatar Parzival, is the first gunter (egg-hunter) to win the Copper Key, first of three. Halliday was obsessed with the pop culture of the 1980s, primarily the arcade games, so the novel is as much retro as futurist. Parzival’s great strength is that he has absorbed all Halliday’s obsessions; he knows by heart three essential movies, crossing the line from geek to freak. His most kirkusreviews.com

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“A lovingly detailed examination of 20th-century Anglo-Irish culture.” from consequences of the heart

formidable competitors are the Sixers, contract gunters working for the evil conglomerate IOI, whose goal is to acquire the OASIS. Cline’s narrative is straightforward but loaded with exposition. It takes a while to reach a scene that crackles with excitement: the meeting between Parzival (now world famous as the lead contender) and Sorrento, the head of IOI. The latter tries to recruit Parzival; when he fails, he issues and executes a death threat. Wade’s trailer is demolished, his relatives killed; luckily Wade was not at home. Too bad this is the dramatic high point. Parzival threads his way between more ’80s games and movies to gain the other keys; it’s clever but not exciting. Even a romance with another avatar and the ultimate “epic throwdown” fail to stir the blood.

Too much puzzle-solving, not enough suspense. (Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell/Foundry Media)

THE MISTRESS’S REVENGE

Cohen, Tamar Free Press (224 pp.) $15.00 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4516-3282-8

Spiraling down from fatal attraction to woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown, English freelance journalist Sally Islip responds to rejection by her lover of five years with increasingly loopy behavior.

Dumped heartlessly over lunch by Clive Gooding, her serial-philanderer of a lover, Sally is advised by her therapist to keep a journal of emotions and address her scathing, heartbroken, obsessive account of the present and past to the man now putting her through the emotional wringer. Via e-mail, text and bespoke cell phone, the relationship, begun in Devon, later moved to London, has passed along the conventional arc of attraction, seduction, immersion and eventual withdrawal.

Sally, who has a partner and two children, believed Clive when he said they would have a life together, and now that it’s over, she can’t accept it. Instead, she infiltrates herself into Clive’s household, befriending his wife Susan and their two children while neglecting her own family and her work, abusing her prescription tranquilizers and running up tremendous debts. Clive responds with anger and threats while simultaneously planning the renewal of his marriage vows. A bad end is unavoidable.

While Cohen’s clever, sardonic voice diminishes the sense of predictability, this one-note story can, like the affair itself, seem ultimately rather empty.

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CONSEQUENCES OF THE HEART

Cunningham, Peter Gemma (320 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | May 4, 2011 978-1-934848-38-8 In a narrative that spans more than 60 years in the lives of its characters, Irish author Cunningham examines a Jules-and-Jim–type love affair as well as a mysterious incident from D-Day. In David Copperfield fashion, Chud Church begins by recounting the circumstances of his conception and birth. His father was an Italian sailor passing through the Irish port of Monument and his mother a local beauty who dies at a relatively young age. Chud is raised by his formidable maternal grandmother, Ma Church, who becomes a successful entrepreneur and property owner. The core of the story revolves around Chud’s relationship to Jack Santry, scion of a prominent family, and Rosa Bensey, the love interest of both Jack and Chud.

Owing to a coin toss before the two friends set out for the D-Day Invasion, Jack winds up marrying Rosa and Chud is relegated to the status of “good friend.” Fate has other things in store, of course, including a postwar scandal involving Jack’s cowardice on that day and a subsequent attempt on the part of a fellow soldier to blackmail him. Chud finds out about the blackmailer, visits him and, in anger, winds up killing him—though almost no one knows this at the time. Eventually, Chud and Rosa begin a passionate affair, a consummation that for many years Chud has devoutly wished for, despite his own marriage and the birth (and death) of a daughter. As Cunningham traces his story across decades and several generations, we learn that Jack and Rosa’s son Kevin desires to exact revenge on Chud, and he does this through exerting severe economic pressure.

A lovingly detailed examination of 20th-century AngloIrish culture as well as a dissection of personal relationships. (Author tour to New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago)

WITCHES OF EAST END

de la Cruz, Melissa Hyperion (288 pp.) $23.99 | June 1, 2011 978-1-4013-2390-5

First in de la Cruz’s debut adult series about the adventures of a family of Long Island witches.

The author, known for her Blue Bloods YA series featuring undead Manhattan debutantes, again does not have to stretch for likely settings—the Hamptons are the ideal home base for the Beauchamps, a mother and two daughters, longtime residents. Quite a longtime in fact—ever since Salem witch hunters hanged the two daughters, Ingrid and Freya, who were later reborn to their mother, Joanna. After Salem, witchly |

higher-ups restricted the open deployment of magical powers.

The Beauchamps are so deep undercover that the community they inhabit, “North Hampton,” does not appear on any map.

This Hampton is refreshingly devoid of rich people until two brothers, Bran and Killian, arrive to restore Fair Haven, their ancestral mansion. Freya, a bartender, recognizes an ancient soul mate in Bran, and they announce their engagement at a lavish Fair Haven party. Nevertheless, she can’t resist shagging preternaturally handsome Killian in the bathroom during the party. Public librarian Ingrid is chafing at the magic ban—with a simple incantation, she could easily cure a distraught coworker’s infertility. Soon Ingrid is exchanging salutary spells for contributions to the library fund. When she’s not torn between two lovers, Freya lapses back into her own peculiar brand of magic—her aphrodisiac cocktails perform as advertised. Most daringly of all, Joanna raises a local artist from the dead. But once unleashed, the white magic provokes dark retribution: An undersea miasma is killing off fish and wild life, children are contracting a deadly influenza, vampires (vacationing Blue Bloods?) are infiltrating and the police are “liking” the witches for homicide. But this is secular 21st-century New York, not puritan colonial Massachusetts. Things have changed—haven’t they? A decidedly weird mishmash of mythologies, a serpentine plot and a thicket of back stories intertwine as de la Cruz sets up the continuing saga, but it all gels magnificently.

Fantasy for well-read adults.

THE LAST WEREWOLF

Duncan, Glen Knopf (304 pp.) $24.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-307-59508-9

Duncan continues the long tradition of werewolf literature in this harrowing novel of lupine transformation.

In the 21st century the victims of werewolves’ bites have been dying rather than transforming, so when the penultimate werewolf is eliminated, Jake Marlowe becomes the last. Jake is on the hit list for WOCOP, the World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena, and he expects to be eliminated by Grainer, whose family he had killed and devoured during a full moon a while back. Helping Jake is his friend Harley, whom he had saved from a homophobic attack some 30 years before. Jake realizes the stakes are high when Harley’s head is delivered to him...so obviously no help will come from that quarter. We find out that Jake was born in the early 19th century and became a werewolf through a brief and fluky encounter with one while on a trip to Wales. His transformation led him to kill and eat his beloved wife Arabella.

(Duncan gives us much more information about werewolves to devour—for example, that their libidos become hyperactive during the time of the full moon.) Although Jake fully expects to be eliminated, he makes every effort to escape from the various, mostly inept hunters WOCOP sends. And |

then something unprecedented and earth-shattering occurs— his acute sense of smell leads him to find another werewolf, this one a female named Talulla Demetriou. Together they go on the lam, but Grainer continues his pursuit—at least until Ellis, Grainer’s protégé, tries to strike a deal with Jake, for Ellis would like to kill Grainer instead. It seems as though having at least one werewolf alive gives Ellis a reason for living.

Duncan’s writing is quirky and brilliant—and definitely not for kids. (First printing of 100,000)

THE NIGHT TRAIN

Edgerton, Clyde Little, Brown (224 pp.) $23.99 | July 25, 2011 978-0-316-11759-3

James Brown connects two boys, white and black, in a light novel about North Carolina in the tense 1960s.

Veteran novelist Edgerton (The Bible Salesman, 2008, etc.) is profoundly skilled at taking on some of Southern literature’s most difficult themes—race and religion especially—and addressing them with both respect and humor. The hero of his latest, set in 1963, is Larry Lime, a black teenager whose musical talent is nurtured by the Bleeder, the star pianist at a club on the outskirts of a small North Carolina town. Larry takes what he’s learned to his job at a furniture shop, where he advises Dwayne, who’s trying to get his band to play a note-for-note version of James Brown’s iconic Live at the Apollo album. Southern mores demand that Larry support Dwayne (who’s white) without attracting attention, and Edgerton deftly shifts from intimate looks at their growing friendship to wide-angle shots of the racial divides among businesses and residents in the area. And he smartly merges social commentary with comedy: As Larry and Dwayne concoct a ridiculous plot to toss a chicken from a movietheater balcony during a tense scene in The Birds, Edgerton gently highlights how the theater’s segregation policy inspired the idea in the first place. Various subplots involving Larry’s extended family underscore the point that the color line was more porous than anybody wanted to admit at the time, though in the closing chapters Edgerton strains to sound an uplifting note without coming off as mawkish. Still, the command of Southern idioms and culture that earned him his reputation remains solid, and his affinity for simple sentences and clean chapter breaks give this slim novel an almost fable-like power.

Edgerton’s knowledge about music is on full display, as is his understanding of the subtleties of race relations as the Civil Rights Movement picked up steam.

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With his debut novel, I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive, Steve Earle extends the creative renewal that has seen him rise from the ash heap of heroin addiction. Now clean for 16 years since his incarceration, the renowned singer-songwriter hasn’t composed the typical “write what you know” fictionalized memoir, but has conjured a spiritual parable of redemption featuring the ghost of Hank Williams, the fictionalized doctor who treated him, an avenging priest and a young Mexican immigrant who develops miraculous healing powers. The multilayered novel takes place in Earle’s native San Antonio, when President Kennedy makes his fatal trip to the Lone Star state.

I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive

Steve Earle Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $26.00 May 12, 2011 978-0-618-82096-2

Q: How does it feel to add published novelist to your resume?

A: I’m really proud of the novel. It’s better than I possibly could have hoped for. I worked on it a long time, and I was determined to finish it. It’s sort of like the stages of dealing with death [laughs]. It’s a lot longer than a song; it took up a lot more of my life. And there were so many stops and starts because of my day job.

Then there were three or four revelations along the way—good things, breakthroughs—that caused me to backtrack and rewrite almost everything. So I was terrified that it would be horribly disjointed, but I had a good editor who guided me through that process of making it cohesive.

Q: What took so long?

A: There was a month in Barcelona six or seven years ago where a lot got done. I had a friend’s apartment, and it was a great place to write, because I don’t understand Catalan or Spanish enough to distract me.

And then there were a couple of periods in New York where I joined the Writers’ Room downtown to go there to work. I sat down and tried to finish it right before the Townes record came out [2009], and didn’t quite make it. I got to the top of a hill and saw another hill, so I had to delay publication one more time. After Townes was out and I did the tour, I basically finished the novel right here in my apartment in New York City about three or four months ago.

Q: Will this novel surprise readers who might expect more of your life in it?

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Q: The drug episodes seem to reflect some personal experience.

Those parts with Doc detoxing are very, very realistic.

Realistic to the point that it was really hard to write and even hard for me to re-read during the editing process.

Q: Do your various creative pursuits complement each other?

A: As late as I started, I don’t ever expect to be as good a prose writer as I am a songwriter. But I still find it necessary to do it for me. I’d gone through a four-anda-half year, drug-induced writer’s block, and the idea of stretching out, getting out of my comfort zone, was a form of therapy. And I think my new songs on the record I’m about to release [titled the same as the novel, but otherwise unrelated] are a lot better because they were written during the time I was writing this novel. I was running full bore, with every literary muscle that I possess going full blast. Even acting [The Wire, Treme], I’m never going to be a great actor, but I think I’m a better musical performer because of my acting on film.

Q: What’s the next step?

A: I came so close to not being here that I really believe I must have been spared for something. But I’m no longer arrogant enough to believe that I’m necessarily going to know what it is. So I just try to suit up and show up every day, ready for whatever presents itself.

-By Don McLeese

p hoto by t e d b a r ron

A: Never would I suck material out of myself like that.

Patti Smith just won a National Book Award for her memoir, and it’s a perfectly legitimate form. For some people, it’s what they do best. For me it’s just a waste of material. But I am from San Antonio, Texas. And I was at San Antonio International when Kennedy landed the day before he got assassinated. My father was an air-traffic controller and he called my mother and said take the kids out of school and bring them. It’s

an eyewitness account to the best of my 50-year recollection. So it is writing what I know, but it’s fiction.

“A complex coming-of-age story about an only child of Holocaust survivors.” from girl unwrapped

GIRL UNWRAPPED

Goliger, Gabriella Arsenal Pulp Press (336 pp.) $15.95 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-55152-375-0 A complex coming-of-age story about an only child of Holocaust survivors whose keen sense of outsiderness and otherness is intensified by her struggle with coming out as a lesbian.

This debut novel is set largely in Montreal between 1959 and 1970. Goliger (Song of Ascent, 2003) creatively structures the narrative into five parts to correspond with important and often painful passages in Toni Goldblatt’s life. “The Mountain” introduces Toni at eight years old, a tomboy who regards dresses as “a frilly prison,” loves that “their street hugs the wild side of Mount Royal” and can’t possibly live up to “be the miracle child her mother insists God delivered at Toni’s birth.” Conflicts abound.

Her mother Lisa, originally from the Bohemian town of Karlsbad, sews alterations at Shmelzer’s and fiercely wants a better, bigger life for her family. The author effectively weaves strands of residual Holocaust fears with Toni’s own confusing secrets regarding her emerging sexuality. At 15, she’s sent to Camp Tikvah, a Jewish camp in the Laurentians, where she feels like “loose debris,” even more of an outcast than at school, and falls in love with the “sassy” (and straight) song instructor Janet. Swept up by the excitement of the Six Day War, Toni, now 18, embarks for Jerusalem; she returns to Montreal when her beloved book-rescuing father dies. The pace picks up when Toni discovers Loulou’s, an under-the-radar lesbian bar where she continues to question “Who am I? Neither male nor female, neither fish nor fowl”—and moves even faster in part five when Toni does indeed become a “girl unwrapped,” with all its complications and meanings. The personal is emphasized over the political, which is in fact dealt with somewhat superficially, but that is most likely the author’s intent.

Ambitious in scope, at times poetic with strong imagery, this is a literary work that ultimately resonates with hope.

TROPHY

Griffith, Michael Northwestern Univ. (224 pp.) $24.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8101-5218-5 Vada Prickett is dying, pinned under a stupendous stuffed bear, thinking about his short life and a fond-ofpuns God enjoying the “Moon over My Hammy” breakfast at the local Denny’s.

With word play sparkling and crackling across the pages, Griffith cuts and polishes his story with esoteric Bob Dylan–like references and Stephen Wright’s sometimes piquant and sardonic observations. Vada, not quite 30 and “waiting … for his life to start,” was helping his neighbor and best friend, Wyatt Yancey, slip one final trophy into his house before |

Yancey’s marriage to his taxidermy-hating fiancée, Darla. Vada too loves Darla, which adds to the fun. In the minutes between bear-crush and death, Vada recalls his youth, son of a wildlife agent father and a homemaker with the moxie to use a ballpoint pen in an emergency tracheotomy. Vic Prickett’s friendship with the rich and fun-loving Reid Yancey led to the Pricketts enjoying a ritzy lake-side development home near Columbia, S.C. A decent student, Vada reached his first year of college in pursuit of his dream, becoming a large-animal vet. And then his parents were killed by an errant poultry truck while hauling the household trash to the dump. Always a half-beat off in the social dance and all matters practical, Vada, sans parents, has floundered aimlessly as a “Hose Attendant” at the Caw-Caw Car Wash, domain of an admirer of Mussolini, Il Duce. Told in the third-person, the author also often addresses the reader directly: “reader, we are donkeys who pin on our own tails.”

The novel is a surrealistic meditation on, and a send-up of, the American dream, consumerism, God, the modern family and assorted other human foibles, complete with a semi-pro evangelical Christian baseball team, the Risen, with a mascot named “Pablo the Bible-believing Possum.” Griffith’s word wizardy, his facile puns, his insight into the human heart and his topsy-turvy sardonic approach make for a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

A quirky, imaginative, dazzling black comedy.

VLAD The Last Confession

Humphreys, C.C. Sourcebooks Landmark (416 pp.) $15.99 paperback original | May 1, 2011 978-1-4022-5351-5 A novel that sets out to humanize and demythologize Vlad the Impaler... though he’s still very naughty.

The chief rivalry here is between Turks and Christians in the 15th century.

Those sides are represented by Sultan Murad Han—and later by Mehmet, his son—and by Vlad Dracula. We first meet Vlad as a janissary, a 17-year-old Christian slave in the Turkish court, and find he’s a fine pupil, speaker of numerous languages and even reluctant scholar of the Koran. What begins as competition and gamesmanship between Vlad and Mehmet escalates into hatred, especially given the fact that Mehmet’s father, the sultan, has had Vlad’s father beheaded and Vlad’s older brother Mircea tortured and buried alive. Mehmet is pushed over the edge when Vlad kidnaps the young sultan’s new concubine, Ilona, and spirits her away to Wallachia, the small kingdom where Vlad has his castle. For six months, Vlad endures the tortures (literally) of the prison at Tokat, mercilessly flayed (and worse) by a dwarf and his able, sadistic assistant. At Tokat, Vlad not only learns but internalizes the prison motto: “You torture others so they cannot torture you.” And indeed, Humphreys’ narrative is filled with stomach-wrenching scenes of violence. (We find out, for example, that Mehmet has had the stomachs of seven servants slit open because one of them had stolen a cucumber, and he kirkusreviews.com

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wanted to find the thief.) Vlad eventually embarks on a quest to free Constantinople from Muslim rule, an impossibility given the odds against him, but he does have the satisfaction of exacting revenge on some of his previous enemies.

While we learn much about falconry and medieval warfare, we learn rather too much about inflicting pain.

CHILD WONDER

Jacobsen, Roy Translators: Bartlett, Don; Shaw, Don Graywolf (256 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | October 1, 2011 978-1-55597-595-1 From the respected Norwegian novelist (The New Water, 1997, etc.), an artless trifle about the impact of a small girl on a family in Oslo.

It’s 1961. Finn lives with his mother Gerd in a small apartment in the projects. Fate has dealt her a number of blows. Her husband, a crane operator, divorced her.

A year later, he died in an accident on the job. No widow’s pension for Gerd, though, for her ex had re-married. Gerd works part-time in a shoe store; money is tight. Wallpapering the apartment means they must rent a room to a lodger. Their ad draws the attention of the second wife. She’s a drug addict who intends to unload her daughter on them. So their household expands by two: the lodger Kristian, a union official, and 6-yearold Linda, Finn’s half-sister. Finn is the narrator and, we gather, a little older than Linda. He’s a mama’s boy who often breaks into tears. Linda does not make a good first impression. She smells funny, her hair is wild and she’s silent as the grave. Nonetheless Finn has a jealous fit, biting his mother and breaking windows in the building. When that passes, he becomes protective of his new sister, and bristles when Kristian asks if she’s retarded. But maybe she is, or at least dyslexic. We never really know, because this episodic novel is such a muddle, ill-served by a wretched translation. Nor do we know Kristian’s true character, and what is transpiring between him and Gerd, who’s still battling problems from her own childhood (her father abused her). At one point she visits a mental hospital. The story ends when Linda is removed to a foster home. She was, thinks Finn, “destiny, beauty and a catastrophe.” She had had, we infer, a transformative effect on Gerd and Finn, though the novel has failed to make the case.

Jacobsen has a reputation. This work can only harm it.

Jones, Darynda St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $22.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-312-36081-8 e-book 978-1-4272-1243-6 Grim Reaper Charley Davidson (First Grave on the Right, 2011) returns to solve a missing-person case and to protect the Son of Satan Reyes Farrow from demons.

Private investigator Charley Davidson, otherwise known as the Grim Reaper, is woken in the middle of the night by her assistant Cookie, frantically explaining that her friend Mimi disappeared five days earlier and that she received a text message to meet her at a coffee shop. When the two women arrive at their destination, they discover no Mimi, but Charley finds a cryptic message scrawled on the bathroom wall—a clue that will eventually lead them to a tragic event that occurred at a party when Mimi was in high school. Meanwhile, the enigmatic Reyes Alexander Farrow, who has been Charley’s protector and is the Son of Satan, has left his corporeal body and is haunting Charley. In a seductive moment between the two, Farrow confesses that he has left his body because he’s being tortured by demons who want to lure and use Charley as their portal to heaven. Terrified to lose him, Charley insists that he tell her where he has hidden his body to save him from a grisly death.

Interwoven subplots include finding out the mysterious identity of Cookie’s ghostly passenger, who resides in the trunk of her car and refuses to crossover, and Charley’s strained relationship with her family. Jones includes back story in this sequel that explains Charley’s powers as the Grim Reaper and her complex relationship with Farrow. Much of that information does little to enlighten new readers to the series.

An onslaught of over-the-top, sarcastic and infantile one-liners and observations become increasingly tedious.

These inconsequential comments have little connection to the story, and the reader grows weary to not care whether Charley will save Farrow from his demonic torturers or whether she will find the missing Mimi.

THE SOLDIER’S WIFE

Leroy, Margaret Voice/Hyperion (416 pp.) $14.99 paperback original | June 28, 2011 978-1-4013-4170-1 Leroy, whose fiction specializes in prickly mothers, turns from the paranormal (Yes, My Darling Daughter, 2009, etc.) to the historical in this story of torn loyalties during the World War II German occupation of the isle of Guernsey.

Originally from London, Vivienne has lived in Guernsey since she married Eugene, with whom she has had a loveless

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“A children’s librarian in Hannibal, Mo., finds herself on a long, strange trip in Makkai’s ruminative first novel.” from the borrower

marriage. In 1940, with Eugene away in the military, Vivienne lives with her increasingly senile mother-in-law and her daughters, 4-year-old Millie and 14-year-old Blanche. Beset by indecision, Vivienne misses the chance to leave Guernsey with the girls before the Germans take over the island. Her anxiety, already high after German bombing kills a friend’s husband, rises when German soldiers move into the vacant house next door. But she also finds herself attracted to one of the captains, Gunther Lehmann, who offers her small favors like chocolate candy and a ride home in the rain. She rather quickly succumbs, and soon he is sneaking into her arms every night at 10 sharp.

Vivienne compartmentalizes her passion for Gunther, her protectiveness toward her girls and her patriotic anger at the Germans. The lovers discuss their pasts but avoid the reality of their situation; it helps that Gunther evinces no respect for Hitler. When gossip spreads about her fraternizing, Vivienne skillfully defuses suspicion. Harder to ignore is the information she discovers about inhumane labor camps on Guernsey. By the third winter, the Germans begin to deport and incarcerate nonnatives like Vivienne, but Gunther keeps her safe. Meanwhile, through Millie, Vivienne meets and helps an escapee from the labor camp. She is preparing the escapee’s breakfast one morning when Gunther shows up unexpectedly. She is not sure how much he knows or suspects, but shortly afterward, the escapee is tracked down and shot. Assuming he turned her in, she breaks with Gunther, only to learn the truth too late, after he has been transferred to the Eastern front.

Vivienne’s measured, astringent voice is riveting and her moral ambiguity deliciously disturbing until the disappointingly maudlin ending. (Reading group guide online)

THE REALM OF HUNGRY SPIRITS

López, Lorraine Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) $13.99 paperback original | May 2, 2011 978-0-446-54963-9 Marina Lucero reads the Dalai Lama, ponders Gandhi and yearns for inner peace. What she has is a challenging and needy family and a demanding and clueless set of friends.

Thirty-something Marina, a San Fernando Valley schoolteacher, had a mother who joined a Carmelite cloister when Marina was a child and a father who drank. Marina remains a bit resentful about her childhood, at least when her extended Hispanic family allows her time to think about it. There’s older sister Della and her aimless dyslexic son Kiko. There’s younger sister Xochi and her hapless sometime boyfriend Reggie. Then there is Rudy, Marina’s former boyfriend, who thinks a failed relationship should provide fringe benefits. Marina does love Rudy’s daughter, Letty, whom Marina mothered into adulthood.

Letty’s new baby, little Rudy, is hospitalized and mortally ill.

Marina must rush to the aid of Letty and her husband, Miguel, a recovering drug addict, because that’s what Marina does. She |

is a motherly caretaker, a woman constantly dancing between fatigue and self-imposed obligation. The book finds Marina teaching summer school, coping with Kiko and Reggie, both living on her couches, and providing intermittent refuge for Carlotta, her sweet next-door neighbor who is a punching bag for her out-of-work husband. Little Rudy dies, Letty attempts suicide, Carlotta is knocked into a hospital bed by her husband and Rudy demands that Marina give a false legal deposition so that his friend, Nestor, a Santeria priest, a voodoo babalawo, can escape child support payments. While dealing with these “hungry spirits,” Marina generates romantic sparks with Carlos Lozano, an attractive and intelligent art teacher, and Arturo Ortiz, a nervous and engaging young doctor finishing his residency. López (Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, 2009, etc.) imagines believable characters and observes their world with literary insight.

An entertaining appreciation of one woman’s journey, sometimes ribald and funny, sometimes ironic and self-deprecating.

THE BORROWER

Makkai, Rebecca Viking (336 pp.) $25.95 | June 27, 2011 978-0-670-02281-6

A children’s librarian in Hannibal, Mo., finds herself on a long, strange trip in Makkai’s ruminative first novel.

Lucy Hull feels sorry for Ian Drake, the most devoted attendee of her readaloud on Friday afternoons. Ian’s reading is severely circumscribed by his mother’s fundamentalist strictures, which rule out everything from Roald Dahl to Harry Potter. Lucy is further appalled when she learns that Ian—whom everyone assumes is gay, though he’s only 10—is forced to attend weekly classes with Pastor Bob, who specializes in rehabilitating “sexually confused brothers and sisters in Christ.” So when Lucy finds Ian hiding in the library one morning with a knapsack, she decides to help him run away. They wind up on a meandering journey that passes through her parents’ home in Chicago, where Lucy picks up some cash from her father, an affluent Russian immigrant with vaguely unsavory business ties.

En route to Vermont, where Ian claims his grandmother lives, Lucy tries to figure out how she got herself into this mess and how she can avoid being arrested as a kidnapper. Makkai takes several risks in her sharp, often witty text, replete with echoes of children’s classics from Goodnight Moon to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as more ominous references to Lolita.

Lucy and Ian don’t bond in the warm and fuzzy way of Hollywood movies, and there’s no big payoff where he recognizes and renounces his mother’s bigoted ways. He remains a smart, difficult kid whose inner thoughts are opaque. This is Lucy’s story, and we have known from the opening pages that her road trip will shake her loose from Hannibal; the interest comes from discovering how and why. The novel bogs down for a long time kirkusreviews.com

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in the middle with an excess of plot, but the moving final chapters affirm the power of books to change people’s lives even as they acknowledge the unbreakable bonds of home and family.

Smart, literate and refreshingly unsentimental.

KILLER MOVE

Marshall, Michael Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $24.99 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-143442-6 A Florida realtor targeted by unknown antagonists is suspected of assorted crimes while a parolee returns to his old stomping grounds to avenge the death of the woman he was convicted of murdering.

Bill Moore makes a good living selling units for a condo chain in the Keys off the coast of Sarasota, Fla., and he’s happily married to a magazine editor, Stephanie. But he wants to become super-rich. While pursuing the big deal that will enable him to start his own business, he starts receiving mysterious messages and getting packages he didn’t order, all tagged with the word “Modified.” When his wife walks out on him after discovering convincingly faked photos of him in a tryst with a co-worker, he becomes an odd man out desperate to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, the convict, John Hunter, is carrying out a cold-blooded plan that involves abducting the man whose $8 million house Bill is hoping to make a killing on. When people around him start dying, Bill begins questioning everyone: Is it possible his wife has set him up for a fall? A solid, workmanlike writer, Marshall (The Intruders, 2007, etc.) evokes the Florida setting quite well. Atmosphere is his strong suit. But much of novel seems forced and secondhand. Moore is not particularly likable, and Hunter is one of the less memorable killers in recent crime fiction.

A mildly enjoyable thriller that sets up a sequel on which only committed fans of the author may want to take a flyer.

ORIGINAL SIN

McMullen, Beth Hyperion (304 pp.) $23.99 | July 1, 2011 978-1-4013-2421-6 In McMullen’s debut, a former spy tries to forget her past and lead a “normal” life as a Bay Area wife and mother— if only her past would forget her.

Right out of college, Lucy Parks was recruited by the USAWMD, a covert agency dedicated to tracking purveyors of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Code-named Sally Sin, she soon found herself dodging death all over the globe, from Afghanistan to Saigon, Budapest to Madrid, Cambodia to Cape Town. Her 724

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handler, Simon Still, trusts her to bring down the depraved nuclear arms smuggler known as the Blind Monk, who wreaks mayhem while swathed in saffron. However, Ian Blackford, a former USAWMD asset who turned traitor and now traffics WMDs himself, has a nasty habit of turning up whereever Sally is and kidnapping her. The narrative ricochets back and forth between Sally’s past adventures and her present life as mother of three-year-old charmer Theo and wife of Will Hamilton, an environmental consultant whose biggest concern for his family is their carbon footprint. Sally has kept her employment history secret from Will, which was not a problem until recently: the fine print in her retirement contract requires Sally to remain on call for espionage. She is tapped by Simon to see what reclusive college professor Albert Malcolm is really up to in his lab, which may entail allowing Blackford, who is also sniffing around Prof.

Malcolm, to abduct her again. After gaining entry to the lab, she photographs some documents, but there is no sign of Blackford.

However, as much as she fears encountering him again, she has to admit that he does bear a passing resemblance to James Bond, in both the Connery and Brosnan incarnations. And the excuses she’s giving to Will for her increasingly frequent absences (while a rookie USAWMD agent babysits Theo) are wearing thin.

Sally’s slapdash, offhand delivery is fun even though the exposition is laborious and the payoff too long delayed—perhaps anticipating the second planned Sally Sin Adventure.

LAMB

Nadzam, Bonnie Other Press (275 pp.) $15.95 paperback original September 13, 2011 978-1-59051-437-5 A journey novel that gets increasingly creepier the further west we go.

The title refers to David Lamb, who’s recently lost his father, and who has had an inadvertent encounter with 11-year-old Tommie, a girl dared by her two friends to bum a cigarette off of David outside a convenience store. Fifty years old, lonely and now detached (in all ways) from his job, David turns the tables on Tommie’s friends by colluding with her in pretending to abduct her for a brief period of time. After he lets her go—and after Tommie finds out that her friends don’t care one way or the other whether she’s been kidnapped—David and Tommie decide to get away for a while. They head west from the dreary Chicago suburb where they live—on the lam (Lamb?) as it were—and try to find a more open, congenial and attractive space in which to let their lives unfold. David emerges as a disturbing character whose intentions are never quite clear. His interest in Tommie is borne out of his loneliness, and while their relationship flirts with the sexual, it never explicitly crosses over—though Nadzam skillfully holds out the possibility that it might. David’s self-professed motivation is to expose Tommie to a wider, more uncommon world than she would ever encounter around Chicago, and he |

“Ross drops seven more doses of disquieting fears and misleading hopes.” from ladies and gentlemen

succeeds in doing this. Complicating the relationship between David and Tommie is the rather unrealistic intrusion of David’s girlfriend Linnie, an alluring woman whose attraction to him is bewildering. Toward the end of the novel, David confesses to Tommie that his exposure to some less-than-nice people has made him “behave a little erratically sometimes...”—and it’s clear this is an understatement.

A disturbing and elusive novel about manipulation and desperate friendship.

THE SNOWMAN

Nesbø, Jo Translator: Bartlett, Don Knopf (400 pp.) $25.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-307-59586-7 e-book 978-0-307-59957-5 Erica Jong meets Stephen King meets, yes, Stieg Larsson in this superb thriller, the eighth by Norwegian mystery writer Nesbø.

Oslo detective Harry Hole returns, world-weary as ever, to puzzle out some very strange, and very discomfiting, events.

The opening is very Scandinavian indeed: two people not married to each other are experiencing some extracurricular bliss—the Erica Jong part—when one notices that they’re being watched, whereupon the woman’s kid, waiting in a car in the wintry outside—the Scandinavian part—informs his mom, “We’re going to die”—and not just because Ronald Reagan has just been elected. The thing is, it’s a snowman that’s doing the watching, and from that fact no good thing can emerge. Nesbø is to be complimented: It’s one of the creepiest opening scenes in recent memory, even if the lovemaking has a sort of late1970s West German soft-porn feel to it. Fast-forward 24 years, when the Norwegians are worried about Dubya, and Hole is on the case of more snowman hijinks, helped along by his fellow officers of the Politioverbetjent (the Crime Squad, that is), one of whom is “attractive without trying” and makes a fine lure for mayhem. Things get creepier as the scene shifts from substation to plastic surgeon’s office to coroner’s gurney, when Harry announces, “I just have the feeling that someone is watching me the whole time, that someone is watching me now. I’m part of someone’s plan.” So he is, and the story resolves with a nice edgy twist that would do Larsson proud. Harry is pleasingly human, with a capacity for hard, grueling work being one of his best features, and the rest of the characters say and do believable things, the murderous snowman notwithstanding. The Norwegian settings are sometimes exotic, sometimes just grimy—who knew that Oslo had a high-crime area?—but always appropriate to the story, which unfolds at just the right pace.

The smart, suspenseful cat-and-mouse game will remind some readers of Erik Skjoldbjærg’s 1997 film Insomnia—and that’s high praise indeed. (First printing of 150,000.

Author tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C.) |

THE SAINTS OF SWALLOW

Roche, Suzzy Voice/Hyperion (272 pp.) $24.99 | September 6, 2011 978-1-4013-4177-0

Singer/actress Roche offers a first novel about a burnt-out indie-rock star who is more connected than anyone thought to her small-town Catholic roots.

Mary Saint became famous for her edgy lyrics and outré performances, but her group Sliced Ham broke up several years ago after her band mate/best friend/lover Garbagio took a fatal dive off a hotel balcony and she went into rehab. Now sober, she lives in San Francisco with Thaddeus, a black transvestite who runs the God’s Kindness Church. Back in Swallow, N.Y., Mary’s mother Jean also lives alone since she moved her senile husband Bub into a nursing home. Devoutly Catholic Jean remains guilty that she didn’t defend Mary against Bub’s cruel, abusive behavior as a father. When Mary dropped out of high school and left Swallow after a particularly ugly scene, Jean cut Bub off emotionally. She rejected his tentative gestures to apologize or reconcile, but she feels more affection for him now that he is senile. After Garbagio’s mother moves into Bub’s facility, Jean develops a friendship with Garbagio’s father. Meanwhile, a local high-school English teacher who is a big Sliced Ham fan—and who sleeps with his student in a (comic?) plot digression that goes nowhere—approaches Jean about organizing a concert featuring Mary. Jean, a mix of prickly common sense and naïve provincialism, is excited to show off her successful daughter but nervous how the community will respond to Mary’s unconventional, irreverent style. Jean is also concerned about the ramifications of a claim Mary made in a letter about seeing the Virgin Mary when she was seven. In fact, Mary tells Thaddeus, who has his own horrific secret, that she writes her music for “the other Mary.” With Thaddeus’s help, Mary holds her concert in Swallow and afterwards gives her mother a bottle of holy water from Lourdes.

Roche knows her way around the music business, but her story lacks focus or drama, and the Catholic uplift is discomfiting.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN Stories

Ross, Adam Knopf (288 pp.) $24.95 | June 30, 2011 978-0-3072-7071-9 Following his dazzling debut, Ross drops seven more doses of disquieting fears and misleading hopes.

Having established his penchant for head-turning narrative architecture in his much-lauded first novel, Ross (Mr. Peanut, 2010) wrings kirkusreviews.com

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k i r ku s q & a w i t h p h i l i p k e r r British author Philip Kerr introduced his series character, World War II–era Berlin private eye Bernie Gunther, in March Violets (1989). He wrote two sequels over the next couple of years but then abruptly discontinued the series, instead producing a succession of stand-alone thrillers.

But in 2006, Gunther reappeared in The One from the Other, set in 1949. It was followed by A Quiet Flame and then If the Dead Rise Not, which won the 2009 Ellis Peters Historical Award. The new seventh Gunther yarn, Field Gray, finds our “hero” being captured off Cuba in the mid-1950s and coerced by French Intelligence to help nab a war criminal.

Field Gray

Philip Kerr Putnam (448 pp.) $26.95 April 14, 2011 9780399157417

Q: What’s the source of your interest in Berlin and World War II? And how well acquainted have you become with Berlin?

A: Over the years I’ve become very well acquainted with Berlin, which is perhaps the most protean and symbolic of all 20th-century cities. This partly accounts for my interest. In the space of just 45 years, there are parts of Berlin that went from being militantly Prussian, to being wildly decadent and liberal, to being Nazi, to being hard-line communist.

I first went there in the early 1980s when it was very different. Berlin is like that. Just as you get to know it, the place changes. Prior to that, my interest was as a jurist—I did a postgraduate degree in German legal philosophy, which was really just an excuse to read German philosophy proper. Poor fool that I am, I once considered an academic legal career. But novels won out. And let’s face it, if you’re going to pick a subject you can’t do better.

The Nazi Revolution is, in my opinion, the most important historical event since the Protestant Reformation, which also started in Germany.

Q: Field Gray is less a novel about murders and their solving, and more about Bernie Gunther’s association with the Third Reich’s military force, the Waffen-SS. Were you merely hoping to shake up the Gunther series by exploring some of the atrocities Gunther has committed, or had you a more complicated agenda?

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Q: You insist you’re not writing crime novels, but instead political novels that masquerade as crime novels. How do you explain that distinction?

A: I write within the tradition of the European political novel, yes. That’s what the novels are about. Politics and morals. It’s disingenuous of me, of course, to say they’re not crime novels when they are that, too.

But I’m aiming a little higher here. I’m ambitious to do more, that’s all. I think it’s always fascinating to write about a boring little murder when there’s mass murder being planned or executed in the wings.

Besides, I don’t care for being pigeonholed at all. All I mean is for the crime novel to achieve something more than just a conventional solution to a grubby crime. I’m not turning my nose up at crime. I just want to do more with it than just have some poor woman sliced open on an autopsy table.

9 J. Kingston Pierce is the editor of The Rap Sheet (therapsheet.blogspot.com).

p hoto by L in d s ey pa r n a by

A: I like shaking up the series every time. I don’t like writing the same book again and again. I believe that it’s important to take risks, and to that end I like to challenge people’s expectations. I don’t know how long I can keep re-inventing things though. And the minute I think I am repeating myself—which, after all, is the basis of so much modern publishing—I will drop Bernie and try something different. However, I did have an agenda with Field Gray, and it is complicated. I wanted to make some modern political points as well as some historical ones. I will leave readers to work out what these might be. That’s the fun of reading after all.

We see Gunther coming to terms here with the choices and mistakes he’s made in life, about his collusion with a corrupt society. But is he a better man for understanding his mistakes, or just a more cynical one for being OK with having made them?

I think any man is a better man for understanding his mistakes. For example, I think I am a better writer for having written several duds along the way.

Failure is helpful and instructive. And, personally, I wouldn’t be without the odd failure to stand in the back of my chariot and remind me that I am but mortal, so to speak. The point of the character is that he is an Everyman figure designed to highlight the moral dilemmas that might have confronted any one of us in the situation he finds himself in, which is of his country run by a bunch of racist gangsters.

That’s the question I am always asking myself in these books. What would I have done?

bleakly funny, if somewhat panicky moments out of this fierce collection of short stories. The opener, “Futures,” drills straight down into the collective discomfort of the American middle class. A man dressed in his best suit tries desperately to hide his anxiety moments before a job interview, fantasizing that his interviewer might just be an attractive woman with a job offer to save his life. His cynicism is tempered, a little, by his affection for his neighbor and her troubled son. But as with most things in America, the wish granted is a far cry from the wish envisioned. In “The Rest of It,” a small-minded professor’s run-in with an aggressive maintenance man turns his thoughts to the human condition. “Because the world seemed too wide, its fortunes too random, and its blessings too fleeting to honor one man’s bravery—or to punish his cowardice,” Ross writes. A remembered tale of college hijinks ends with an awful blow in “The Suicide Room,” while “When In Rome” details the consequences of a long-standing rivalry between two brothers, one a citizen of sorts and the other your basic lowlife. One of Ross’ great strengths is walking that eternally fine line between showing the reader things—a bloody fistfight between brothers, or a Twilight Zone-esque reveal—and the heartbeat monitoring of a character’s internal life. The latter comes into play in the finely honed title story, in which a traveling freelance writer weighs a life-changing moment against the stories she might tell a stranger someday about that very decision. In those moments, these characters are either untethered by their own vividness or weighed down with all the trouble in the world. In either case, it’s impossible to look away.

A fine collection of stories. (Author tour to Birmingham, Greenwood, Jackson, Mephis, Nashville, New York, Oxford, San Francisco, Seattle)

A MOMENT IN THE SUN

Sayles, John McSweeney’s (968 pp.) $29.00 | May 1, 2011 978-1-936365-18-0

Noted novelist/director Sayles (Union Dues, 2005, etc.) turns in an epic of Manifest Destiny—and crossed destinies—so sweeping and vast that even he would have trouble filming it.

The year is 1897. As Sayle’s cat-squasher of a book opens, a greenhorn arrival at the Alaska gold fields meets a man named Joe Raven, who “is something called a Tlingit and there is no bargaining with him.” As so often happens in Sayles’s filmic narratives, the native man possesses wisdom that is crucial for survival—but, alas, too few of the Anglo newcomers, sure of the superiority of American civilization, are willing to admit his usefulness. Hod, the newcomer, is assured that American civilization will come through for him: remarks a fellow miner, “Got a steady man in the White House who understands there are fortunes to be made if the government will just step out of the way and let us at em.” Holy shades of Ron Paul, Batman.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, a young Filipino, |

Diosdado Concepción, is preparing himself for battle against the colonizers of his island; he is brash enough that a fellow fighter is moved to caution, “I am a patriot...but not a suicide.”

Farther away still are two African-American soldiers, Royal Scott and Junior Lunceford, who are discovering just how racist the America of the turn of the century can be. Sayles pulls all these characters onto a huge global stage, setting them into motion as America goes to war against Spain and takes its first giant step toward becoming a world power. The narrative is full of historical lessons of the Howard Zinn/Studs Terkel radicalrevisionist school, but Sayles is too good a writer to be a propagandist; his stories tell their own lessons, and many will be surprises (who knew that there were lynchings in Brooklyn as well as the Deep South?).

A long time in coming, with an ending that’s one of the most memorable in recent literature. A superb novel, as grand in its vision as one of President McKinley’s dreams— but not for a moment, as Sayles writes of that figure, “empty of thought, of emotion.”

WHITE SHOTGUN

Smith, April Knopf (304 pp.) $24.95 | June 23, 2011 978-0-307-27013-9 e-book 978-0-307-27013-9 The latest undercover assignment for the FBI’s Ana Grey cuts uncomfortably close to the bone.

Cecilia Maria Nicosa, a physician in Siena, has a checkered family background that she’s convinced makes her a relative of Ana, who like Cecilia had a Salvadorian father named Sanchez. It’s a nice coincidence, because the FBI badly wants to plant an agent inside the household of Cecilia’s husband Nicoli, a wealthy coffee importer whose mistress, drug dealer/money launderer Lucia Vincenzo, has gone “white shotgun”—that is, missing, presumed murdered by mafia executioners who took brutal steps to insure that her body would never be found. FBI legat Sheila Kuser is convinced that Nicoli Nicosa is hand in glove with the crime families of Tuscany, and she wants Ana to squeeze Cecilia till she talks. But the job turns out to be considerably more ticklish.

For one thing, Cecilia is a lot more closely related to Ana than either of them realizes—so closely that Ana has grave misgivings about her job. For another, Ana’s idyllic stay at the Abbazia di Santa Chiara during the racing festival of Palio is interrupted by a kidnapping. What makes it even trickier than the maddeningly sluggish pace of the kidnappers’ demands is Ana’s dawning realization that every one of the Nicosas—Nicoli, Cecilia and their teenaged son Giovanni—has ties to organized crime that could well be the death of them.

Though the Tuscan setting, now glowing, now rife with criminal activity, makes the horrors of Judas Horse (2008) seem both more picturesque and more normal, the FBI tradecraft summoned by the kidnapping rings true. kirkusreviews.com

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“Sure to be another hit with Unger fans.” from darkness, my old friend

NEVER KNOWING

Stevens, Chevy St. Martin’s (416 pp.) $24.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-59568-5

A Canadian furniture refinisher gets much, much more than she bargained for, none of it good, when on the eve of her wedding she decides to search for her birth mother.

Sara Gallagher has never exactly been comfortable in her adopted family. Her mother-by-choice is loving and kind, but her relationships with her adoptive father and her two non-adopted sisters are rockier. So it’s no wonder that she’d want to celebrate her nuptials to Evan, the rugged outdoorsman who’s fathered her own daughter, 6-year-old Ally, by tracking down the mother who gave her up as a baby. All too soon, Sara learns that the art-history professor who calls herself Julia Laroche is actually her mother. So why does Julia demand that Sara stay far away from her? For that matter, why did she change her name from Karen Christianson? Sara soon discovers that her mother is the only woman to survive an assault by the Campsite Killer—an assault that occurred exactly nine months before Sara’s birth. “I was born in fear,” she realizes in horror.

But her troubled history is the least of her problems. News of Karen’s connection, and Sara’s own, to the Campsite Killer swiftly leaks onto a gossip blog, spreads like wildfire and brings Sara’s father (“You can call me John for now”) into her life in ugly and uncontrollable ways. The man who’s murdered some 30 young people had no idea he had a daughter, and he’s so eager to cultivate a relationship with her—without of course allowing the omnipresent Staff Sgt. Sandy McBride and Corp. Billy Reynolds to capture him—that he makes a series of ever more impossible demands, threatening to kill again if Sara doesn’t meet each and every one. Worse still, the mounting pressure leaves her feeling more and more like her father the serial killer.

As finely calculated in its escalating suspense as Stevens’ grueling debut (Still Missing, 2010). Only the last twist disappoints. (First printing of 150,000)

the experience of small-town living might provide a cure for Willow’s recent penchant of lying about everything, Beth settles into writing another book. She also jumps back into the dating game with Willow’s high-school principal, Henry Ivy, a nice, nerdy sort of guy who has been nursing a secret for many years. But then, this is The Hollows, and everyone has some sort of secret in his past, including Jones Cooper, the retired cop resurrected from a previous novel. Jones has been doing odd jobs for the neighbors since he left from the force.

Now, instead of chasing bad guys, he feeds the neighborhood cats and lets the repairman in while the neighbor’s at work.

But soon a former colleague comes calling and wants his help with a cold case, and a young mother seeks him out to find the missing mom of a classmate of Willow’s. Before Jones knows it, he is back in the investigations business, but a local psychic warns him that she has seen a terrible vision involving him and, if her predictions hold true, this could be Jones’ last case ever.

Unger introduces a dizzying number of characters who seem to have little, if anything, in common except for their location, but manages to tie them all neatly together. Although the outcome is not exactly a shocker since Unger sprinkles clues like breadcrumbs along the way, it’s a satisfying story with an eclectic and interesting cast of characters and believable dialogue. Unger shows her usual deftness at intricate plotting and explores the mother-child relationship from multiple angles, but too often refers to back story from a previous novel without explanation. That tendency often leaves readers wondering if they missed something along the way.

Sure to be another hit with Unger fans. (Agent: Elaine Markson/Markson Thoma Literary Agency)

m ys t e r y THE TWISTED THREAD

Bacon, Charlotte Voice/Hyperion (384 pp.) $14.99 paperback original | June 14, 2011 978-1-4013-4150-3

DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND

Unger, Lisa Crown (368 pp.) $24.00 | August 2, 2011 978-0-307-46499-6 e-book 978-0-307-46519-1

Unger (Fragile, 2010, etc) resurrects characters from a previous novel and continues their journeys in this latest angsty thriller.

Bethany Graves and her teenage daughter, Willow, moved to The Hollows from New York City when the bestselling novelist divorced Willow’s stepfather, a shallow, self-absorbed plastic surgeon. Thinking that 728

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Murder is added to the curriculum at a posh boarding school.

Claire was beautiful, smart and rich.

Everybody at Armitage Academy knew that. But no one admitted to knowing she was pregnant until she lay dead on her dorm-room floor, her head bashed in and her body revealing that she had recently given birth. Why did she die, and where is her infant? These questions become the problems of local cops Vernon Cates and Matt Corelli, who are also saddled with the conflicts between patrician students and working-class townies. Matt, who attended Armitage until a trumped-up charge of plagiarism led to his dismissal, is attracted to Madeline Christopher, a |

new teacher who’s guilt-stricken for not having noticed Claire’s pregnancy or known about an old-school tradition of rather mean-spirited hazing, led most recently by Claire and a cadre of her snobbish friends until Claire did a turnabout and tried to democratize the group. Claire remained close-mouthed, however, about the father of her child, although most observers suspect her boyfriend Scotty. The scandal threatens the academy’s reputation and fund-raising efforts among well-heeled parents who insist on removing their children or blanket them with lawyers. Claire’s journal, which finally provides the reason for her death, reveals her determination to cause the utmost embarrassment to the school and its staff.

A long-winded tome whose creator (Split Estate, 2008, etc.) excels only in proving that uninteresting characters make uninteresting reading. (Author events in Boston and Brooklyn)

CAT IN A VEGAS GOLD VENDETTA

Douglas, Carole Nelson Forge (384 pp.) $24.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2746-8 Petite PR powerhouse Temple Barr joins her noir cat Midnight Louie to solve some long-simmering crimes.

Temple is engaged to priest-turned– radio advice person Matt Devine. But when she gets a phone call from her former lover, the Mystifying Max, she can’t turn down his request for help. Max, presumed dead after a long involvement in fighting terrorism, has actually been in Europe recovering from injuries sustained when he and has mentor were attacked by their nemesis, Kitty the Cutter.

Surviving with little memory of the past, he returns to Vegas looking for answers. In the meantime, Temple has been hired by Savannah Ashleigh to investigate the death of her aunt Violet’s handyman. The dying Violet is surrounded by her beloved cats along with human vultures looking for choice pickings. Temple and Max are also helping Lt. Carmen Molina, who’s anxious to find the Barbie Doll serial killer, a slayer who may have her own daughter in his sights. Molina even suspects her daughter’s father and an undercover cop in the dastardly deaths of teen girls. Temple’s investigation turns up so many surprising connections that it’ll certainly take all of Louie’s many skills to get her through this adventure with her hide intact.

The 22nd title in Douglas’ alphabetical series (Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme, 2010, etc.) will delight her fans by tying up a lot of loose ends, even if newcomers find it hard to keep up.

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DEADLY COVE

DuBois, Brendan Minotaur Books (304 pp.) $24.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-312-56634-0 Ex–Department of Defense analyst Lewis Cole is caught in a fatal crossfire between rabid anti-nuke activists and the corporate and union stalwarts behind New Hampshire’s Falconer Unit 2.

In an eerie prefiguration of last month’s headlines, a calamitous nuclear accident, this one deep inside Russia, has flushed out hundreds of protestors against the construction of a nuclear reactor. Bronson Toles, the aging countercultural hero who runs the Stone Chapel, a pioneering music venue, is joined by Curt Chesak, coordinator for the Nuclear Freedom Front. Or not quite joined, since Chesak is so wary of publicity that he never appears in public and is never seen without a mask except by his most trusted followers.

Denise Pichette-Volk, the hard-charging new managing editor at Shoreline, insists that Lewis (Primary Storm, 2006, etc.) supplement the monthly features he writes to justify a salary that the Defense Department paid for years ago as the price of his silence about an ugly secret with daily hard-news stories about the demonstrations. On top of not liking the pressure of acting like a real reporter, Lewis feels stuck in the middle between idealistic young protestors like UNH student Haleigh Miller and his old friend Diane Woods, of the Tyler Police Department. At length, there’s a murder less important in itself than for its devastating effects on Paula Quinn, Lewis’s ex-lover and colleague at the Tyler Chronicle. And there’s a good deal more violence and soul-searching.

As usual, DuBois works hard to give every possible attitude toward nuclear plants a sympathetic hearing, and he’s honest enough to acknowledge that solving the mystery does nothing to solve the problems he raises so compellingly. (Agent: Nat Sobel/Sobel Webber Associates)

THE BURNING LAKE

Ghelfi, Brent Poisoned Pen (292 pp.) $24.95 | Lg. Prt.: $22.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-59058-925-0 Lg. Prt. 978-1-59058-9267-7 For brooding Russian agent Alexei Volkovoy, the murder of a beautiful journalist is personal.

On a bitter winter night in Moscow, “Volk” gets the news that he has long expected: Internationally acclaimed Russian journalist Katarina Mironova, aka Kato, has been shot dead in the street. Writer Ilya Jakobs, the elderly dissident who informs him, points out that Kato is the 22nd journalist murdered under Putin. It’s unsettling to Volk that Ilya senses (or knows) the closeness of his relationship with Kato, kirkusreviews.com

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which he thought he’d kept secret. Similarly, Volk’s vulnerable lover Valya intuits his intimacy with the beautiful Kato and asks whether they’d had an affair. Volk lies as much to protect her as himself, but his close call doesn’t prevent him from investigating her murder, which includes many flashbacks to their smoldering relationship and the work that ultimately cost her her life. Ironically, Volk’s visit to the Kremlin and a meeting with an imperious figure he calls “The General” leads to his being officially given the assignment. Meanwhile, brutal American agent Grayson Stone, who heads an elite intelligence squad outside the strictures of the NSA or CIA, is methodically torturing Delveccio, a coarse crime boss he’s convinced holds the key to murdered drug runners. When Volk learns the identity of the assassin, his discovery puts him squarely in the cross hairs of Stone’s scorched-earth determination.

Ghelfi’s punchy noir prose holds his fourth Volk novel (The Verona Cable, 2009, etc.) together, and the plot is appealingly twisty, albeit full of stock characters and developments.

FLOWERING JUDAS

Haddam, Jane Minotaur Books (400 pp.) $25.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-64433-8 Good grief. Or grief with a hidden agenda?

When a Cavanaugh Street stalwart, 99-year-old George Tekemanian, collapses during breakfast at the Ararat restaurant, Gregor Demarkian (Wanting Sheila Dead, 2010, etc.) escorts him to the hospital before he leaves Philadelphia for Mattatuck, N.Y., a small town turned small city, to consult on a case concerning a man missing 12 years who suddenly turns up swinging from a billboard at the entrance to the community college. Less interested in the plight of the deceased (Chester Morton) than in the fate of his friend George, Gregor (aka the “Armenian Poirot”) uses only half his little grey cells to consider whether it was murder or suicide and the rest to keep calling his love Bennis and the hospital to see how George is holding up. Still, he probes for the answers to four questions: Why did Chester leave Mattatuck? Why did he return? Whose baby was jammed into a bright-yellow backpack, possibly the only item Chester had with him when he disappeared, now uncovered on a construction sight? And why is Chester’s mom Charlene still demanding information about her missing son if she’s so convinced his former girlfriend killed him that she’s virtually stalking her?

It seems equally abnormal to grieve loudly and conspicuously for a dozen years like Charlene and to grieve for a friend who isn’t yet dead like Gregor. There’ll be two murders; hubbub at a trailer park; incompetence and deceit at the local cop shop; and the theft of Chester’s body from a funeral home storage locker before Gregor wraps up matters and plans are floated to celebrate George’s 100th birthday.

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Will work for those who favor overlooked clues planted in plain sight and great detective summations.

RUNNING HOMELESS

Lamanda, Al Five Star (292 pp.) $25.95 | July 20, 2011 978-1-4328-2538-6

An amnesiac searches for answers about the people he’s executed.

John Tibbets awakens in New Mexico with no memory of why he killed six drug lords and the FBI team sent to extract him. FBI agent Richard Cone is working with Tibbets’ former partner Ben Freeman in an attempt to catch Tibbets, who despite his amnesia has not forgotten the skills that keep him ahead of those desperate to catch him. Cone learns that Tibbets works for a supersecret government agency that specializes in assassinations.

The agency has used drugs and mind control to get Tibbets to kill people and then forget what he did. This time, he’d been stashed in a California homeless shelter. Now that he’s loose in New Mexico, he slowly starts to remember bits and pieces of his past. As he follows his memories, dead bodies pile up behind him. When at length he recalls that he was proclaimed a hero in New York City for rescuing a police officer (Walking Homeless, 2010, etc.), he makes his way to the policeman’s uncle, Howard Taft, a retired NYPD captain willing to help Tibbets in order to protect his own family. Together they scheme to keep ahead of the government agents long enough for Tibbets to regain his memory and get answers to his many questions.

Despite leaving a trail of death, Tibbets is a sympathetic character. Like a flawed Jack Reacher, he provides all the excitement of a first-class thriller.

BUT REMEMBER THEIR NAMES

Locke, Hillary Bell Poisoned Pen (304 pp.) $24.95 | paper $14.95 Lg. Prt.: $22.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-59058-912-0 paper 978-1-59058-914-4 Lg. Prt. 978-1-59058-913-7 Stuck-in-small-town lawyer makes the best of her time by investigating a murder.

Cynthia Jakubec, known as Jake to her colleagues, is living the life she never dreamed of, but not in a good way. A graduate of Harvard Law (like first-time author Locke, who will not let you forget it), Cynthia is packed and ready to start her plum placement at New York’s larger-than-life firm Calder & Bull.

More specifically, she’s ready to be paid, especially because she’s frequently a financial support to fiancé Paul, a writer who’s in |

“Despite many boilerplate elements, Mercer masterfully builds suspense and provides some welcome twists.” from east on sunset

Philly working through “his process.” With the collapse of the financial market, Calder & Bull postpones all new hires, leaving Cynthia stuck at her father Vince’s house in Pittsburgh. Clearly things are not going according to plan. Cynthia spends her days volunteering with the local Law Offices of Luis Mendoza filing predictable briefs and waiting for time to pass, until Caitlin Bradshaw walks through her door. Upper-crust Caitlin has been referred to the office by “Sam the Really Jewish Lawyer,” whose shingle identifies him as Sam Schwartzchild, because her father seems to be mixed up in a bad scene. Days later, when her father’s body is discovered, Cynthia feels an obligation to investigate for her young client. The investigation leads her to the enigmatic Walter Learned, who she’s convinced has more of a story to tell than he lets on. Aided by Paul, Cynthia goes forth in an eager search for the truth, never realizing that her own life may be changed in the process.

Though she unleashes a few zingers, Locke’s highbrow attitude puts a damper on a mystery that readers will solve long before her overeducated heroine.

EAST ON SUNSET

Mercer, Ken Minotaur Books (352 pp.) $25.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-55837-6 The stalemate between a violent drug dealer and the down-and-out ex-cop who put him in prison quickly escalates past the point of no return.

Erik Crandall is released from prison addicted to the powerful steroids that have added 100 pounds of muscle to his small frame, and hellbent on getting the money he thinks he deserves from LAPD detective Will Magowan, who stole a pound of Crandall’s fentanyl after arresting him. Unfortunately for both of them, Will knows nothing about the drugs and has been fired from the police department for his own drug abuse. As he struggles to stay clean, he starts a new job as a security guard at Dodger Stadium and tries to rebuild his strained relationship with his newly pregnant wife Laurie, a yoga instructor. Crandall’s ’roids make him prone to uncontrollable outbursts. His showdown with Will at the stadium is the first of several tense encounters, fatal violence simmering beneath them all. Will’s appeals to police and the parole system are met with indifference and suspicion, partly because of his history. Even after Crandall nearly killed Will and Laurie’s dog during an ambush on a remote hiking path, she forbids Will to bring a gun into the house. So Will visits his retired ex-partner, Ray Miller, who retains strong bonds within the department and promises to take care of Crandall. A few days later, Miller is found shot in the head, an apparent suicide.

Will isn’t so sure.

Despite many boilerplate elements, Mercer (Slow Fire, 2010) masterfully builds suspense and provides some welcome twists. (Author tour to New York, Los Angeles, Northern California, Seattle, Portland, Arizona, New Jersey) |

NO HEARTS, NO ROSES

Murray, Colin Severn House (288 pp.) $28.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6998-2

Although postwar England is slowly recovering from destruction and depravation, the propensity for violence never seems to goes away.

Tony Gérard has left behind a heroic past helping the French resistance. Now he does a little bookkeeping and sorts out problems for Les Jackson of Hoxton Films. The latest such problem is Beverly Beaumont, a starlet who claims to have misplaced her brother Jon, a Cambridge student. Before Tony can even begin to look for Jon, he runs into trouble in the form of Ghislaine Rieux, a wartime flame now married to Robert, a charmingly ruthless resistance fighter. Fed up with his faithlessness, Ghislaine has left Robert in Paris. Tony feels obliged to offer her a bed even though he’s certain the accommodation will lead to trouble. His pursuit of Jon is far from easy, especially once he runs into others who also want him and are not nice about asking questions.

Events go from bad to worse when Jon’s roommate is garroted and when Jon hands Tony a package containing some valuable diamonds for his sister. The package is the property of a tough character named Jenkins who may be a crook or a government agent. Tony will be very lucky to stay alive as he tries to sort out the good guys from the bad.

Murray’s second thriller (After a Dead Dog, 2007) combines dollops of postwar atmosphere with thrills aplenty.

CHILDREN OF THE STREET

Quartey, Kwei Random (352 pp.) $15.00 paperback original | e-book: $15.00 July 12, 2011 978-0-8129-8167-4 e-book 978-0-679-60411-2 Detective Inspector Darko Dawson, of the Ghana Police Service, hunts for a killer who preys on the most vulnerable of all his countrymen: teenagers who live on the streets of Accra.

The first victim, truck pusher Musa Zakari, is stabbed in the back, most of his fingers amputated, and left like a sack of garbage in the Korle Lagoon. The second, shoeshine boy Ebenezer Sarpong, is dumped in Jamestown with his head twisted backward. Porter/prostitute Comfort Mahama is raped and stabbed to death, her knees mutilated. Darko’s investigation gets off to a slow start because he’s worried that his lazy subordinate, Det. Sgt. Philip Chikata, bestirring himself to unusual initiative by his uncle, Chief Supt. Theophilus Lartey, will uncover Darko’s connection to marijuana dealer Daramani Gushegu, and his own continued appetite for the shameful weed. Even after kirkusreviews.com

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that danger passes, Darko, following the killer’s trail from the Brooklyn Gang of street kids to the Street Children of Accra Refuge to the palatial home of Dr. Allen Botswe, the eminent criminal psychologist at the University of Ghana, is hampered by his incorrigible habit of going after the wrong suspect. At home, there are continuing fears that Darko and his wife Christine will never be able to afford the surgery that could close the hole in their 7-year-old son Hosiah’s heart, even if his grandmother can be persuaded to quit feeding him the salty food that makes his condition worse.

Not the most compelling serial killer you’ve ever met, or the best-wrought procedural. As in Wife of the Gods (2009), the real star is Accra, which the killer aptly describes as “the perfect place for a murder.”

UNRAVELED

Sefton, Maggie Berkley Prime Crime (304 pp.) $24.95 | June 7, 2011 978-0-425-24114-1 An unscrupulous Colorado realestate developer pushes his luck one deal too far.

Dumped by longtime boyfriend Steve Townsend, CPA Kelly Flynn (Skein of the Crime, 2010, etc.) still has a lot to console her. Next door to her cozy cottage in Fort Connor is Lambspun, where cascades of soft multicolored yarn await her eager fingers. Surrogate moms Mimi Shafer and Jayleen Swinson offer a warm shoulder. Pals Lisa and Jennifer are on hand to distract her with pizza and beer, while Megan and Marty bubble with wedding plans. Now that her Denver client, Arthur Housemann, wants more and more of her time, her Cherry Creek house is perfect for hot-tub sleepovers.

Too bad that Houseman covets a piece of Poudre Canyon property so much that he’s willing to cut a deal with sleazy Fred Turner, who’s already burned Houseman once. Sure enough, a counteroffer by a mysterious Brit named Birmingham threatens to scuttle Houseman’s dream house. Next thing you know, Kelly and Jen find Turner dead. So Kelly, recruited to play volleyball on real estate hotshot Dave Germaine’s team, takes time off from eying Steve warily across the net to try to discover who bought the World War II Mauser that blasted Turner to his well-deserved last reward.

Sefton’s Rocky Mountain version of Sex and the City is short on the sex but features major chumminess for fans of 20-something volleyball bonding.

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DEADLY REUNION

Shaw, June Five Star (256 pp.) $25.95 | July 20, 2011 978-1-4328-2498-3

A mini–class reunion on an Alaskan cruise is a disaster from day one.

Widowed Cealie Gunther hasn’t seen most of her classmates in years. But she’s still not ready to meet Sue Peterson, who used to be her Uncle Stu before plastic surgery turned him into a stunning woman. The other classmates aboard include Jane Easterly and Tetter Hargroove. Once the most popular girl in school, Tetter admits to a big problem but refuses to talk about it. The last classmate is Randy, a married man with children and grandchildren who is an unlikely addition to the event. Cealie (Killer Cousins, 2009, etc.) feels like a frump compared to her toned classmates. Even worse, her boyfriend Gil Thurman is on board. Gil, who owns a string of Cajun restaurants, wants to marry Cealie, who’s still trying to establish herself as a strong, independent woman. One of Gil’s chefs is on hand to prepare Cajun dishes, and his uncle is the ship’s physician, a job that is more than a sinecure on this trip—especially since the good-looking younger man Sue (or Stu) was flirting with is soon found dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Is it accident or murder? Cealie’s curiosity leads her to investigate Tetter’s problem and wonder whether Sue is a killer and why Randy has joined the cruise. Although she’s crazy about Gil and jealous of all the competition on board, she’s unwilling to commit to Gil. Will she survive long enough to make up her mind?

Cealie’s dithering is a bit annoying, but the killer comes as a surprise.

GREY ZONE

Simon, Clea Severn House (224 pp.) $28.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-7278-6992-0 A sleuthing grad student adjusts to having a new cat companion and sidekick.

Dulcinea “Dulcie” Schwartz is always making things more complicated than they should be. At least, that’s what her boyfriend Chris insists. For example, her thesis on The Ravages of Umbria would be so much easier to write if she didn’t get hung up on the author and the fact that she never published anything afterward. Dulcie’s convinced the reason for her long silence is that she was murdered, but as a Harvard doctorate student of Gothic literature, she can’t help thinking that way. Take the case of missing student Carrie Mines. Dulcie’s advisee Philomena “Corkie” McCorkle insists that Carrie must be fine. But Dulcie’s convinced there’s much more to the story, especially now that a professor’s suicide is being considered a murder. If only there |

f i c t i o n

David Foster Wallace and The Pale King B Y G REG O RY McNA M EE

On April 15—Tax Day, by a meaningful and by no means accidental coincidence—Little, Brown will publish David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel The Pale King.

It is whispered in writer-type circles that the book killed Wallace, and indeed getting the huge, unwieldy but always fascinating thing as far as he did clearly cost him emotionally and physically.

Yet, of course, David killed himself, and for many reasons that we can probably only begin to fathom.

I knew him slightly, 20-odd years ago, when I was working as an editor at the University of Arizona and he was enrolled there in the graduate program in creative writing. It was clear to me, talking over coffee or beer, that he was suffering from some unspecified but productive angst—productive because it fueled the all-night, sometimes multi-day bouts of writing for which he was already becoming known, unspecified because David did not talk about his troubles, stoical believer in the redemptive powers of hard work that he was.

It was also clear that his fellow students and even some of the faculty— notably a very senior and very eminent philosopher who shall remain nameless—were scared silly of him. They had cause to be. For one thing, David was the kind of person who would look you up and down over that beer or coffee and then pull out a notebook to render his judgment—also a habit, I’m told, of the late sociologist Erving Goffman, who took pall-casting notes at parties but was invited to them all the same.

For another thing, David outworked everyone, faculty and students alike.

And, another fact, his prodigious talent was well evident. David, his classmates seem to have understood, would publish more in a year than most of them would in a long career of grading papers and leading workshops, and moreover, he would be remembered for his work long after theirs had faded into the sameness of that year’s influences—at the time, Raymond Carver, with lashings of Richard Ford and a civilizing leavening of Louise Erdrich.

Yet he would go on to do that grading and workshopping and teaching as well and apparently would be well liked for it. David would live the MFA’s dream by being discovered before even leaving the academy—he was scarcely out the door with degree in hand when The Broom of the System appeared in 1987, soon to be taught in classrooms nationwide.

Back at his alma mater, subsequent cohorts of creative-writing candidates were given David as an aspirational example, if one whose success was probably impossible to reproduce. “We talked about him,” says Dan Stolar, a 1994 graduate of the program. “Everybody knew who he was. Everybody knew that he had been here, like Richard Russo”—Russo being another notable Arizona student who left his own students and classmates far behind with the publication of books such as Empire Falls and Nobody’s Fool a decade earlier.

David was off and running, too. I heard from him just once after he left Arizona, a postcard of greeting that arrived in my mailbox about the time I was leaving the university to pursue my own writing. Like so many others, I followed his work at a distance, pleased and surprised at his trickster success.

Like so many others, I was astonished by his sad end—and, like so many others, somewhat puzzled by the industry that now surrounds publishing his work from beyond the grave, books that number not just The Pale King but also his senior honors thesis, a philosophical treatise called Fate, Time, and Language: |

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An Essay on Free Will. More books will doubtless follow.

In his collection of essays A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David wrote of an aspiring tennis champion, “He will say he is happy and mean it.

Wish him well.” He meant his words, and there was never a false note to them.

And though I never heard him profess to be so, I hope he found himself happy, at least from time to time, while he was still in this mortal plane. It seems proper to wish him well now, Tax Day and all.

The Pale King

David Foster Wallace Little, Brown (560 pp.) $27.99 April 15, 2011 978-0-316-07423-0 |

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“A P.I. and a psychic team up to solve a series of crimes.” from stolen hearts

were someone Dulcie could confide in. The tutoring Chris has taken on to bring in extra cash has taken him from Dulcie’s side; her roommate Suze has a serious boyfriend; and her mother Lucy is too wrapped up in her hippie-commune things to be present on this life plane. And though Dulcie’s slowly bonding with her new kitten, Esmé doesn’t talk to her the way Dulcie’s former pet Joel Grey once did. While Joel’s ghost makes a few appearances, Dulcie’s biggest fear is that trusting those around her may mean losing Mr. Grey forever.

Although her protagonist is mildly less pretentious than she was last time around (Grey Matters, 2010, etc.), Simon’s fans shouldn’t expect many departures from a formula with which she clearly feels comfortable.

STOLEN HEARTS

Tesh, Jane Poisoned Pen (256 pp.) $24.95 | paper $14.95 Lg. Prt.: $22.95 | October 1, 2011 978-1-59058-937-3 paper 978-1-59058-939-7 Lg. Prt. 978-1-59058-938-0 A P.I. and a psychic team up to solve a series of crimes.

Private eye David Randall’s life is a mess. The death of his daughter in a car crash has left him with a heavy burden of guilt and two failed marriages. Quitting his job with a detective agency to go out on his own, Randall immediately picks up a case. Since he’s been living in his car, he reluctantly takes up his psychic friend Camden’s invitation to stay in his huge boarding house, which even has room for an office. Camden’s boarders are a mixed bunch. Many don’t even pay rent. But Randall is hooked when he sees Kary Ingram, a beautiful college student with a troubled past. His first client is Melanie Gentry, who wants him to find proof that her great-grandmother Laura, drowned 60 years ago, was the real author of a collection of folksongs credited to her lover, John Burrows Ashford.

Randall had recently stumbled on a murder distinguished by a book of musical notations found on the scene. Now bits of music seem to turn up everywhere. Ashford’s great-grandson provides no help, but Melanie gives Randall the names of a few people who might know something. Camden is being pressured by his ambitious girlfriend to take part in a PBS program on folksongs. When he’s suddenly possessed by Ashford’s arrogant spirit, Randall has to do something to solve both the past and present mysteries.

Tesh (A Hard Bargain, 2007, etc.) gets her new series off to a promising start.

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TWO FOR SORROW

Upson, Nicola Harper/HarperCollins (496 pp.) $13.99 paperback original | August 9, 2011 978-0-06-145158-4 Deep into her research regarding the lives of two executed baby killers, mystery writer Josephine Tey succumbs to a romantic crisis.

Staying at the women-only Cowdray Club in London, Josephine postpones contacting her sometime beau, Archie Penrose of the Yard, as she wonders who’s left a gardenia for her at reception. By the time she finds out, Penrose has arrived at the club to deal with the horrific murder of former Holloway Prison inmate Marjorie Baker, who’d been working as a seamstress at the design atelier of Penrose’s cousins Lettice and Ronnie. The girls had been stitching up costumes for the upcoming Cowdray fundraiser starring Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, a gala now in jeopardy. When an accident nearly claims the life of Lucy, a Cowdray servant and friend of Marjorie, Penrose zeroes in on secrets she and Marjorie may have shared involving Cowdray personnel—especially Celia Bannerman, a former warder at Holloway during the execution of Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, notorious baby killers, and Eleanor Vale, another incarcerated evildoer. Meanwhile, Josephine learns who her secret admirer is and wrestles with Sapphic yearnings. The night of the gala finds Noel and Gertie performing while Penrose sets a trap for Marjorie’s killer, who has a major surprise in reserve.

Less a reconsideration of the plight of Victorian women and children via the story of Sach and Walters than a study of same-sex love and obsession focusing on Tey’s relationships (Angel with Two Faces, 2010, etc.).

RINGER

Wiprud, Brian M. Minotaur Books (320 pp.) $25.99 | July 19, 2011 978-0-312-60189-8 Morty Martinez, Brooklyn’s wealthiest ex-housecleaner, returns from Bolivia for another round of criminal mischief and belly laughs.

East Hampton heiress Purity Grant has such a long record in the courts and tabloids that her mother’s widower and executor, Grab-A-Lot founder Robert Tyson Grant, might well want her dead even if her hijinks didn’t play havoc with both his health and that of his corporate balance sheet. With the connivance of Dixie Faltreau, the nubile and naughty director of the Grant Charitable Trust, Grant hires Paco Ramirez, that noted Mexican hit man, to get rid of Purity. But Paco is delayed by this and that, all lovingly detailed. The Latino whom Grant mistakenly welcomes into his confidence is none other than Morty (Feelers, 2009), who’s been |

sent to recover a talismanic ring that Grant stole from a dead conquistador’s severed hand back when he was a child in a La Paz orphanage. No sooner has Morty, who’s just as clueless as Grant about the mixup, arrived than conspiracies and counterplots multiply as quickly as cockroaches. Dixie, whom Morty promptly lures from Grant’s bed, turns out to have ideas of her own. So does the equally homicidal Purity, who’s signed a contract with Ultravibe Media that pays her a whopping bonus if she can stir up three scandals within a week. And let’s not forget Helena, the palm reader who swiftly realizes she can milk Grant for more than a few pesos. The whole carnival of crime is juiced by Morty’s fractured, albeit mellifluous, dialogue and the conceit that he’s submitting the whole story in sort-of-screenplay form to a Hollywood producer the night before his execution for murder.

Wiprud (Buy Back, 2010, etc.) even provides a wholesome moral lesson for “others who have been framed by two insane rich people who were hell-bent to kill each other.”

the wizards. Soon enough, Hedia, Alphena and Corylus separately arrive in Atlantis, where they learn that the seeming bad guys may be bad good guys; and Varus will call upon ancient Egyptian thaumaturgy indicted on a scroll he’s never read.

A much-improved effort, not overly formulaic, with characters recognizable as people rather than online avatars.

THE INHERITANCE & OTHER STORIES

Hobb, Robin; Lindholm, Megan Harper Voyager (400 pp.) $15.99 paperback original | April 13, 2011 978-0-06-156164-1 Author Margaret Lindholm Ogden, better known as Megan Lindholm and as Robin Hobb, contributes new and old work from both her pen names to a single anthology.

The stories by her earlier nom de plume, Lindholm, are all contemporary or near-future science fiction and fantasy, clearly set in our world or something a lot like it. The Hobb (Dragon Haven, 2010, etc.) stories are longer, set in the Realm of the Elderlings, the world where most of her bestselling fantasy epics take place. Lindholm/Hobb claims in her preface that while both pen names bear some core similarities, they explore different “issues.” However, the stories then proceed to belie her assertion. All are beautifully written parables, expressing a clear message but managing not to be too offensively preachy about it. They speak of an intimate knowledge of living on the edge of poverty and desperation, confronting the threat of abuse, feeling pride in forging one’s hard-won way in the world and making necessary sacrifices for both love and art. Of particular note are Lindholm’s “A Touch of Lavender,” about the relationship between a musical alien and a struggling family; “The Fifth Squashed Cat,” which explores both the rewards and the painful costs of accepting a mundane over a magical existence; and Hobb’s “Cat’s Meat,” in which a clever, ruthless cat (is there another kind?) helps a single mother defend her territory.

You don’t have to be a fan of either of the author’s identities to enjoy this collection—but you may become one.

science fiction and fantasy OUT OF THE WATERS

Drake, David Tor (336 pp.) $25.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2079-7

Second installment in Drake’s new four-volume fantasy cycle (The Legions of Fire, 2010, etc.) set in early Imperial Rome or, as the author terms it, Carce.

Once again in the early going, there’s altogether too much emphasis on protocol and manners, but eventually Drake gets his engine warmed up.

Rich, influential senator Gaius Alphenus Saxa, celebrating his promotion to consul, prepares an extravagant entertainment dramatizing Hercules’ conquest of Lusitania. During the proceedings an extraordinary vision intrudes, apparently showing the destruction of Atlantis by the huge sea monster Typhon. Accompanying one of the guests, Senator Marcus Sempronius Tardus—whose official duties involve the prophetic Sibylline books—is a trio of sinister wizards. As Saxa’s scholarly son Varus, Greek tutor Pandareus and Varus’ half-dryad soldier friend Corylus debate the meaning of the vision, Alphena, Varus’ sword-wielding younger sister, reveals that she saw not a monster but a man. Meanwhile, Hedia, Saxa’s astute, honorable trophy wife, suffers terrifying dreams of what is clearly also Atlantis. Varus, whose own magical powers are developing rapidly, discusses the matter with the Sibyl herself. The twisty, reasonably coherent plot develops rapidly once the wizards abduct Pandareus; Tardus, our heroes discover, is a zombie, controlled by |

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FUZZY NATION

Scalzi, John Tor (304 pp.) $24.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2854-0

An acclaimed modern sci-fi writer adds depth and unexpected poignancy to a “reboot” of H. Beam Piper’s classic 1962 novel Little Fuzzy.

In a future, when corporations stripmine entire planets if the Colonial Authority doesn’t stop them first, disbarred-lawyer-turned-prospector |

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“A totally unnecessary endeavor, but an enjoyable and powerful one nonetheless.” from fuzzy nation

Jack Holloway discovers an unbelievably rich seam of sunstones on Zara XXIII, exquisite jewels found only on that planet. His claim on the seam puts serious stress on his already shaky relationship with ZaraCorp, the company that runs Zara XXIII. And that’s before Holloway discovers a race of native creatures whose potential sapience could nullify ZaraCorp’s right to the planet. In his original novel, Piper tackled issues that would go on to be the plot of many a Star Trek episode, including the meaning of sentience and the brutal fallout of colonialism. Scalzi (Agent to the Stars, 2010, etc.) adds more emotional capital to the debate by replacing Piper’s stock characters with richly rendered, realseeming people (and aliens). Piper’s Jack Holloway is a crotchety prospector with a heart of gold; Scalzi’s Holloway is a brilliant, ruthless jerk who makes the occasional moral choice as a way of scoring points against the universe. Scalzi also updates and expands upon the cynicism of the original to be more familiar to a contemporary audience: Piper’s corporation attempts to hide its frequent environmental depredations from notice; Scalzi’s actively papers it over with a public “eco-friendly” campaign. In an author’s note, Scalzi claims that he does not intend to “supplant or improve upon” the Piper novel. However, he may have done just that. In a genre flooded with bloated epics, it’s a real pleasure to read a story like this, as compactly and directly told as a punch to the stomach.

A totally unnecessary endeavor, but an enjoyable and powerful one nonetheless.

like adolescents, making impulsive, ill-informed and often stupid decisions. There are a few tense moments and some issues are resolved, but sense of wonder there is none.

Dull and annoying. (Agent: Martha Millard/Martha Millard Literary Agency)

HEX

Steele, Allen Ace/Berkley (352 pp.) $26.95 | June 7, 2011 978-0-441-02036-2 Addition to Steele’s interstellar colonization saga (Coyote Destiny, 2010, etc.) wherein Earth is kaput, and human civilization thrives on the remote planet Coyote.

In an awfully long first hundred pages, we learn that humans and various alien races cooperate peaceably in the Talus, a sort of galactic club, and that space marine Sean Carson hates his starship captain mother Andromeda for abandoning Sean’s father and lying to him about it. Then one of the alien races, the mysterious danui, announce that they have a planet available for humans to colonize. In due course an expedition departs from Coyote—no prizes for guessing who is aboard—for the planet, but when they arrive they find, instead of a planet, a colossal Dyson sphere composed of billions of hexagons arranged in a spherical shell around a central sun, each hexagon with environments suitable for life, both human and alien. There’s evidence that the intricately constructed and lovingly described Hex has already been visited and perhaps occupied by several of the Talus races. However, instead of waiting for instructions, or attempting to understand what’s going on, Sean, Andromeda and company begin to explore, blundering about 736

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nonfiction TURN RIGHT AT MACHU PICCHU Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time

BUSH’S WARS

Anderson, Terry H. Oxford Univ. (304 pp.) $27.95 | July 1, 2011 978-0-19-974752-8

Adams, Mark Dutton (336 pp.) $26.95 | June 30, 2011 978-0-525-95224-4

Intent on undertaking an audacious open-air exploit, but lacking even rudimentary camping skills or basic gear, an adventure-travel writer recounts his unconventional trek to the mysterious Machu Picchu.

Teamed with an irascible Australian guide and a group of Quechua-speaking mule tenders, Adams (Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet, 2009) journeyed through the wilds of Peru to unravel the persistent puzzle surrounding the Lost City of the Incas: What was its purpose?

The author deftly weaves together two story lines, each peopled with striking characters and astonishing landscapes. Told in alternating chapters, Adams details the life and times of Hiram Bingham III, the outsized early-20th-century explorer credited with “discovering” Machu Picchu, whose reputation has recently suffered due to an archaeological controversy. Overlaid on this extensively researched and entertaining historical framework is the author’s humorous recounting of his personal and physical transformation during the demanding trek. Following one extremely strenuous hike, Adams confronted a vacation dilemma. He could either jump on a train or walk another six miles with his 60-pound pack filled with books. “This might be my only chance to hike like a serious adventurer, to carry my own pack like a traveler,” he writes, “not heave it onto the luggage rack like a tourist.” Coupled with his keen eye for the absurd and his knowledge of the travel industry, the author gleefully remarks on the excesses of the increasingly commercialized adventure-travel business, while never hesitating to point out his own foibles.

A funny, erudite retrospection offering more subtle and lasting rewards than the usual package tour. (Agent: Daniel Greenberg/Levine Greenberg Literary Agency)

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A historian harshly assesses the Bush Administration’s efforts to combat terrorism and wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Brushing aside the former president’s claim that he cannot be fairly judged until after his death, Anderson (History/ Texas A&M Univ.; The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action, 2004, etc.) insists that the legacies and lessons of the Bush presidency are already ripe for appraisal. After supplying useful potted histories of Iraq, “the Improbable Country,” and Afghanistan, “the Graveyard of Empires,” and a 30-year review of U.S. policy toward and battles with al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, the author brings the reader up to 9/11. From there, he focuses on George W. Bush’s presidency, an account of unrelieved hubris, malfeasance, deceptions and incompetence. The short version, widely available prior to this book’s publication, is as follows: Having ignored signals that should have alerted them to al-Qaeda’s attacks, Bush officials pressed for laws that curbed domestic civil liberties, even as they engaged in extralegal methods to fight a misguided and certainly misnamed “war on terror.” Then, taking advantage of a traumatized electorate, an incurious, revenge-minded president, aided by Cheney, Rumsfeld and a brace of Pentagon neocons, abetted by a pliant CIA and a duped Colin Powell, cherry-picked evidence, lied to the country and rushed into a disastrous war for oil in Iraq against an unsavory dictator, easily demonized because he possessed WMDs, an accusation never proven. This horribly wrong turn in Iraq squandered the world’s good will, allowed Osama bin Laden to escape capture and the Taliban to regroup in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a mismanaged, bloody Iraq occupation depleted our treasury, depressed our military and robbed us of any moral credibility. Untroubled by the succeeding administration’s adoption of many of the Bush policies—Guantánamo remains open, the Patriot Act was extended—or by recent upheavals in the Muslim world that have demonstrated once again the difficulties of a properly calibrated American diplomatic and military response, Anderson approvingly cites a fellow professor’s judgment that, when it comes to Bush, there may be “no alternative but to rank him as the worst president in U.S. history.”

A relentlessly tendentious account sure to delight Bush critics and infuriate admirers. (15 halftones)

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“Even with its flaws, the book merits a spin through.

Racing aficionados and armchair racers seeking freewheeling glimpses of the world via bicycle will cherish the trip.” from the man who cycled the world

DON’T KILL THE BIRTHDAY GIRL Tales from an Allergic Life

Beasley, Sandra Crown (240 pp.) $23.00 | July 12, 2011 978-0-307-58811-1 e-book 978-0-307-58813-5

Former American Scholar editor and award-winning poet Beasley’s debut memoir is a fascinating—though at times disjointed—account of living with severe allergies.

The author’s earliest recollections involved birthdays and the way they highlighted her difference from others. While her mother would give her “Sandra-friendly” treats, she would prepare a cake for everyone else and warn guests not to touch, kiss or hug her—hives, anaphylactic shock or death could be the unwelcome result. Needless to say, growing up sensitive to more than a dozen kinds of foods and 10 different kinds of animals and environmental elements was a huge challenge. From babyhood well into adolescence, Beasley and her parents never knew which foods would cause illness. Though her home environment could accommodate her condition, whenever she went out—to school, to friends’ houses and restaurants—she could never be certain that the few foods she could safely eat hadn’t been tainted with traces of what she couldn’t. As a result, from the time she was in elementary school, she had to carry an adult-sized purse loaded with Benadryl, an EpiPen auto-injector and an inhaler. Speaking as the survivor of too-numerous-to-count trips to the emergency room, she writes “[t]here’s a reason they’re called allergy ‘attacks’; you never knew where a food can be lurking.” Interspersed with memories of the daily game of “Russian roulette” she was forced to play well into young adulthood are well-researched sections about such neglected topics as the history of allergy identification and treatment, as well as interesting anecdotes about the little-known social exclusions faced by people with allergies. However, Beasley seems to be trying to write two books in one: the first, about her life, and the second about an important topic (food allergies) that deserves greater attention than it has so far received.

Uneven but humane and informative. (Author events in New York, Washington, D.C., Virginia. Agent: Glen Hartley/Writers Representatives)

THE MAN WHO CYCLED THE WORLD

Beaumont, Mark Broadway (400 pp.) $16.00 paperback original | June 28, 2011 978-0-307-71665-1 e-book 978-0-307-71666-8 A bicycle racer recounts his solo cycle around the world while attempting to break the existing Guinness World Record.

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There is no denying that Beaumont’s journey, riding 100 miles a day for six-and-a-half months always against the clock, entailed a remarkable feat of endurance. He handily trounced the existing record, and the BBC chronicled his trip in an awardwinning TV program. The author does a solid job of revealing his psychological difficulties, his physical challenges and the mundane task of finding food and a safe place to sleep each night, and he delivers tantalizing cultural and geographic tidbits along his route. Among his many stories: staying the night in a Mafia-run hotel in the Ukraine staffed by beautiful dancing girls; feeling overwhelming illness at the sight of the absolute poverty in Pakistan; and experiencing frazzled nerves when he was run over by a kindly old lady in Louisiana, then mugged the same night in his motel room by drug addicts. When Beaumont provides more of a story line, the narrative sails along. However, far too often the author recounts repetitive details while providing only the skimpiest snippets about the people and places he encounters. Beaumont acknowledges this conundrum, recognizing that beating the world record meant speeding by numerous cityscapes “begging for further exploration.” As he crossed the Paris finish line, he struggled to answer many of the journalists’ questions. “The stories lacked the human element and any insight into how I’d actually felt and reflected on my experiences,” he writes, “but they were all I could offer.”

Even with its flaws, the book merits a spin through.

Racing aficionados and armchair racers seeking freewheeling glimpses of the world via bicycle will cherish the trip.

THE SUN’S HEARTBEAT And Other Stories from the Life of the Star that Powers Our Planet Berman, Bob Little, Brown (304 pp.) $25.99 | July 13, 2011 978-0-316-09101-5

Astronomy contributor Berman tenders an overview of the Sun’s many qualities and associations mixed with solar encounters of the personal kind.

“Everything about the Sun is either amazing or useful,” writes the author. Say, it is the sole source of life and energy on planet Earth. What Berman particularly enjoys is the Sun’s quirkiness: that its primary colors are green, red and blue; that what it emits most strongly is the color green (and how that effects the human way of seeing, both day and night); that it bestows health in the form of vitamin D, and steals health in the form of melanoma; that its rainbows cast no shadows. The author’s history of our solar infatuation is fleeting but inspiring, and he offers fine chapters on sunspots; the transit of Venus (how it was used to determine galactic distances); carbon dating; magnetism; the cyclical elements of eccentricity, obliquity and precession; and the sad, excruciating steps of its demise. Berman also examines the Sun’s role in climate change, as he puts into

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context the human agency in such a shift. If Richard Cohen’s Chasing the Sun (2010) and Gillian Turner’s North Pole, South Pole (2010) went into more detail than Berman, they would be hard put to match his intimate association with solar activity. He has been lucky enough, whether on his own dime or on assignment, to witness total eclipses, the transit of Venus and auroras borealis, and he writes of them here with immediacy and a delightful peal of wonderment.

A quick, smart and colorful biography of “yon flaming orb.” (20 black-and-white illustrations)

ALPHABETTER JUICE or, The Joy of Text

Blount Jr., Roy Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) $26.00 | May 17, 2011 978-0-374-10370-5 In a follow-up to Alphabet Juice (2008), the author expands his personalized dictionary.

Blount (Hail, Hail, Euphoria!: Presenting the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup, the Greatest War Movie Ever Made, 2010, etc.) is a classic American humorist in the company of H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Andy Rooney and Garrison Keillor. He is also a regular panelist on NPR’s comic quiz show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and consultant to the American Heritage Dictionary. These biographical elements begin to provide a glimpse of the kind of writing readers will encounter in this text: comic, intelligent, political, insightful and often absurd explorations of words as various as “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “decapitate.” As with previous investigations of language, Blount shows he is a master at blending folksy humor with word play and etymological analysis. His reflections and analyses are witty, funny and unaffected, and his political humor can be sharp. Imagine a collaboration between Normal Rockwell, Groucho Marx and Daniel Webster, and you begin to have a picture of Blount here. If this comparison of sensibilities screams old fashioned, it’s true, but only partly, as many of Blount’s entries deal with current technologies and trends. In one instance, under the entry for “first sentence,” he mocks the opening of Karl Rove’s memoir with characteristically clever sarcasm. However, “folksy” is definitely apropos in describing Blount’s comedy, or maybe even the more recent “old school”—the humor recalls a time when comedy was less crass and offensive, say in Andy Griffith’s Mayberry. A word like “fuck,” for instance, is sanitized and imbedded in an entry for “gollywaddles.”

Read in small doses, a humorous and insightful panoply of word play, political humor and linguistic inquiry.

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THE HONORED DEAD A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World Braude, Joseph Spiegel & Grau (336 pp.) $26.00 | June 14, 2011 978-0-385-52703-3

An improbable pursuit of a strange murder in Casablanca segues into a moving study of cross-cultural friendship.

Journalist Braude (The New Iraq, 2003) procured an “embedstyle access” to a police precinct in Casablanca to observe the interaction between an authoritarian state and its people—or, “how a government and its people conspire to become a society.”

The Judiciary Police, an FBI-like agency, were extraordinarily open to the author’s observations and questions, proud of their low crime rate compared to the United States, although bedeviled by a pesky sect of Islamist militants. Braude was tolerated largely because of his rare background: An American born to an Iraqi Jewish mother, he speaks Arabic fluently (also Hebrew) with an Iraqi accent thanks to a close youthful friendship with an Iraqi called Ali, from whom he had become estranged due to an unfortunate run-in with the federal police some years before.

(Braude, who worked for five years with the FBI on Islamist terrorist cases, gradually reveals the sad, incredible story.) The particular murder that fascinated the author during this period involved a 41-year-old homeless Berber man, Ibrahim Dey, who was beaten to death in a warehouse where he had been sleeping for five years—ostensibly for theft. Dey was well liked and considered a majdub, or someone who brings fortune to others, and his best friend, Muhammad Bari, whom Braude befriended, swore to vindicate the suspicious murder. Like a good murder mystery, the plot thickens as details flesh out, including the activities in the precinct, the family of the victim, the history of Berber and Jewish oppression in the Arab world, the ideological struggle over Islam and the close friendship once enjoyed between Dey and Bari, which reminded the author of his own with Ali. Moreover, the book is infused with the author’s sense of loss and tenderness for his mother’s native land and language, rendering this one of the most affecting, sympathetic accounts of Arab culture in recent memory.

Despite the murky title, this is a beautifully composed, deeply felt journey inside Morocco.

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“Callan marshals 14 years of self-conducted interviews with the star and his associates, generous excerpts from Redford’s personal journals and copious research to compile a revealing portrait of Hollywood’s greatest golden boy.” from robert redford

READ MY HIPS How I Learned to Love My Body, Ditch Dieting, and Live Large

Brittingham, Kim Three Rivers/Crown (240 pp.) $14.00 | May 3, 2011 978-0-307-46438-5

Get rid of the bathroom scales and start living.

Body acceptance is not a new idea, but Brittingham’s memoir has a unique voice. With engaging, well-written prose, the author encourages readers to live full and healthy lives, regardless of their weight. The book begins with Brittingham’s memories of a fat picture of herself as a teenager. In reality, she was not fat at all, and her mother’s many diets were also a product of a culture obsessed with thinness.

Often compared to her “fat Aunt Phyllis,” the author spent years feeling ugly and unworthy. The more she dieted, the more weight she gained. Then came her job as a counselor for the Edie JeJeune weight-loss program and her introduction to the hypocrisies of the diet industry. Brittingham’s style is lively, and her message is powerful. She isn’t afraid of confronting issues head-on, as evidenced when she made a fake book cover called Fat Is Contagious and took it on a bus to gauge other passengers’ reactions. They weren’t pretty. The author does not allow herself to become a victim. When she starred in an NBC Universal video pilot that was turned into an offensive fat stereotype, she created her own video series, Kim Weighs In. This story doesn’t end with a skinny woman. It ends with a large, beautiful woman who revels in the joy of life.

BRAIN BUGS How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives

Buonomano, Dean Norton (290 pp.) $25.95 | July 11, 2011 978-0-393-07602-8

Putting the analogy of the computer to good use, Buonomano (Neurobiology and Psychology/UCLA) makes the case that “our lives are governed by brain bugs” of which we are unaware, although unfortunately there are no “patches, updates or upgrades” to easily remedy the situation.

While digital computers surpass the human brain when it comes to processing information and performing numerical calculations, our brains operate by pattern recognition, which simultaneously accounts for their strengths and their weaknesses. A trivial example is the use of CAPTCHA authentication software, which bars web robots from spamming websites.

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links.” The key, however, is not the brain’s numerical advantage but our ability to extract meaning from the context in which words appear—e.g., the difference between the household pet and the computer mouse. Human learning occurs by association as new synapses are weakened, strengthened or newly formed between neurons that fire simultaneously. This leave us vulnerable to marketers, as was the case when ads showcased celebrities smoking cigarettes. Similarly, the way a question is framed can bias the response, and a lie repeated often enough is fixed in our memory. Buonomano suggests that while we associate cause and effect for things that occur within seconds, over longer periods are judgment becomes weaker. For example, we often fail to save enough for retirement, and the lure of instant gratification makes us vulnerable to manipulation in our purchases and our political choices.

Intriguing take on behavioral economics, marketing and human foibles. (10 illustrations. Agent: Peter Tallack/The Science Factory)

ROBERT REDFORD The Biography Callan, Michael Feeney Knopf (496 pp.) $27.95 | May 5, 2011 978-0-679-45055-9

The life and times of the Sundance Kid. Biographer and novelist Callan (Arise Sir Anthony Hopkins: The Biography, 2009, etc.) marshals 14 years of self-conducted interviews with the star and his associates, generous excerpts from Redford’s personal journals and copious research to compile a revealing portrait of Hollywood’s greatest golden boy, Robert Redford. The author traces Redford’s surprising past as a diffident juvenile delinquent and aspiring artist—he studied painting in Europe and initially pursued a career in animation before turning to acting. Callan dutifully details Redford’s evolution as an actor and star, but gives equal weight to his careers as a political activist for environmental causes and founder of the independent film Mecca Sundance, a spectacular parcel of Utah landscape originally purchased by Redford to protect its natural beauty. The struggling young actor couldn’t afford it but plunged ahead anyway, highlighting an ingrained stubbornness and force of will that would characterize all aspects of Redford’s life. Difficult, uncompromising, autocratic and stubborn as a pack mule, Redford comes across as both a restless egotist and a heroically ahead-of-his-time champion of sustainable ecology and artistically progressive independent film. Callan offers intriguing insights into Redford’s film legacy, limning his complicated friendship with director and frequent collaborator Sydney Pollack, his uncredited contributions to the shaping of such signature vehicles as The Candidate and All the President’s Men, and Redford’s directorial style, informed by both his painter’s training and empathy with actors. The narrative repeatedly cites Redford’s extremely precarious finances, complicated by the Herculean task of keeping

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TO BURGUNDY AND BACK AGAIN A Tale of Wine, France, and Brotherhood

Sundance viable. An all-American beautiful jock with a brutal iron will and the soul of a visionary tyrant, Redford, under Callan’s gaze, emerges as a sui generis American figure.

A gripping, intimate treatment of one of cinema’s last great iconic stars. (32 pages of photographs. First printing of 45,000.

Author tour to Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City, San Francisco)

ALWAYS ON How the iPhone Unlocked the Anything-AnytimeAnywhere Future— and Locked Us In

Chen, Brian X. Da Capo/Perseus (288 pp.) $25.00 | June 7, 2011 978-0-306-81960-5 e-book 978-0-306-81982-7

A swift, engaging analysis of how the iPhone is changing the way technology is integrating contemporary society.

Wired reporter Chen asserts that so-called “always-on gadgets” like high-tech smart phones are ushering in what he calls the “anything-anytime-anywhere future,” where consumers will become increasingly inundated with data and technological functionality. In concise, enthusiastic language, he argues that, however daunting, this type of progress isn’t harmful since the advantages of devices like iPods are limitless in their enjoyment.

The author issues a hefty caveat that users greatly sacrifice their personal privacy in exchange, however. Chen’s narrative includes his personal experiences navigating life armed with an arsenal of modern gadgetry, including a soured online love affair that necessitated him to disconnect from electronic communications for a month. He ably traces the genesis of Internet search engines, web browsers and the “perfect device” itself, the iPhone—from its pricey emergence on the cellular marketplace to a high-demand, second-generation release complete with “App Store” compatibility. The author spends considerable time on the advent of these downloadable applications (“apps”), and, an obvious enthusiast, he extols their many benefits, from everyday conveniences like reading media online or booking a restaurant reservation and a taxicab home, to medical apps that could potentially save lives, assist doctors or find a thief ’s location or a missing person (via GPS). Chen adroitly examines the intricate nuances of the “always-on” society and intelligently puts forth a “realistic portrait of our future.” He claims that while modern technology may be overloading us and enabling our compulsive tendencies, it has also created a “terrifyingly beautiful and exciting time to live.”

A relevant, refreshingly charismatic nod to personal technology, its innovators and, of course, everything Apple.

(20 black-and-white photos)

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Cloud, Roy Lyons Press (224 pp.) $16.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7627-6455-6

Geography, history and viticulture lessons abound in this buoyant tale of brotherhood and Bordeaux.

With New World vigor, debut author Cloud invites the reader into the intimate spaces of wine importing with one of the oldest schools in the book—the vignerons of France. Late in the fall of 1997, the inexperienced Cloud was entrusted with the task of generating a portfolio for a brand-new-wine importing company. With little more than a bad French accent, Cloud invited his brother along to act as translator, adventurer-in-arms and sometimes savior on his maiden voyage to Burgundy. What ensues is both heartfelt and passionate—“Wine is always life.” Readers join the adventure in the brothers’ shiny new Renault, barreling across the ancient French countryside that reveals “a rural way of life that had seemingly changed little since the days of Joan of Arc.” With haunting clarity, readers are invited to taste the “pungent grapefruit” of Sauvignon Blanc in Sancerre and the “delicious silkiness...[that] lingered indelibly” from the Volnay Fremiets of Jean-Pierre Charlot. The book is rich in detail, knowledge and even a bit of wisdom, which, upon conclusion, leaves the reader with the same resignation they might have at the finish of an amazing 1982 Bordeaux—craving another taste, but thrilled at the fortune of experiencing such a wonderful ride.

A deliciously grand romp for any oenophile.

MAD ABOUT MACARONS! Make Macarons Like the French

Colonna, Jill Interlink (128 pp.) $15.00 | May 1, 2011 978-1-84934-041-0

Scottish transplant shares the joy of Parisian patisseries with a glossy guide to

the macaron.

Not to be confused with the mini-coconut haystack some may refer to as a “macaroon,” the gerbet, or Parisian macaron, is the star of Colonna’s debut cookbook. Macarons are known for their smooth “rounds” (airy meringue tops and bottoms), their ruffled trim, known as the “foot,” and their light filling, “macaronnage.” The author provides detailed and precise steps for readers looking to tackle everything from traditional flavors, like Chocolate-Hazelnut, to more unusual and exhilirating combinations like Pistachio-White Chocolate-Wasabi or Prune-Armagnac-Orange.

Those looking to step even further outside the box should head to

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the “Mad Macs,” where they’ll find instructions for Bloody Mary and Tikka Marsala macarons. Readers will need an electronic digital scale, because measurements for macaron making are ultra-meticulous, and Colonna’s instructions are in metric. Suggested wine and tea pairings for each recipe are also a nice touch, as are the author’s suggestions for how to use all those pesky egg yolks you’ve discarded when creating your egg-white–only macaron masterpieces.

Beautifully illustrated, if impractical, cookbook.

THE DIVA DOCTRINE 16 Universal Principles Every Woman Needs to Know

Davis, Patricia V. Bonneville Books (160 pp.) $12.99 | May 1, 2011 978-1-59955-480-8

Davis (Harlot’s Sauce, 2008) gives cheerful advice for young women.

Confidence is the only thing a diva should ever fake, writes the author, who certainly isn’t lacking in confidence of her own. Her latest book lists 16 life principles for women. Much of that advice is milder than one would expect from a book with the word “Diva” in the title, and some of it is thoroughly predictable. Built around a blog post Davis wrote to a younger friend who was experiencing self-esteem problems, entitled “From An Older Woman To A Younger One,” the books reads much like an extended blog post with personal ramblings and a bit of ranting. The author writes that her advice is suitable for all ages, but the style is aimed at a younger audience—e.g., her joke that middle-aged parents really do have sex. Davis also offers advice on friendship, but make of it what you will. She allowed a 20-year friendship to end when her friend “morphed into an alien,” but suggests that they were friends for the wrong reasons from the start. Davis is at her best when providing adult examples that can empower women, such as her own story of embracing risk to begin a business in Greece. She also advises women to take charge of their own finances.

Well-intentioned, but nowhere near the deepest read on the shelf.

THE WILD LIFE OF OUR BODIES Predators, Parasites, and Partners that Shape Who We Are Today

Dunn, Rob Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $26.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-06-180648-3

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human ills and behaviors reflect the evolutionary past of a species that has put itself above nature and all other species.

Thus our antibiotic habits have unbalanced our immune systems, leading to attacks on our own tissues rather than invading organisms. This “hygiene hypothesis” may account for increases in autoimmune maladies like Crohn’s disease. The solution? Repopulate the gut with worms that the immune system tolerates or that may suppress the system’s hyperactivity. Dunn writes that Crohn’s and other such disorders are rare wherever gut parasites are common. He points to a cottage industry selling worm eggs and even suggests going barefoot in a primitive latrine in hopes that worms will infect. Some swear by the treatment; others are not helped. Dunn cites studies suggesting that the appendix, supposedly vestigial, is the nursery for good bacteria needed to replenish a gut decimated by antibiotics and provides examples of microbes essential in human and other metabolisms (think termites’ ability to eat wood).

The author stresses our interdependence with species on a larger scale. Where cows were domesticated, mutations that allow adults to digest milk prospered. Where agriculture flourished, some grew fat and society developed haves and have-nots.

Where venomous snakes abound, human and primate color vision was honed. Throughout the book, Dunn exaggerates his tales to increase the shock value, and he ends with a paean to hope and progress in the form of green city buildings—not just with rooftop gardens, but vertical farms of crops to delight any locavore (for more specific information on vertical farms, see Dickson Despommier’s The Vertical Farm, 2010.)

Dunn provides some useful information and updated evolutionary history, but the book is marred by excessively provocative and often purple prose. (Agent: Victoria Pryor/ Arcadia Literary Agency)

CONSUMING THE CONGO War and Conflict Minerals in the World’s Deadliest Place

Eichstaedt, Peter Lawrence Hill Books/ Chicago Review (240 pp.) $24.95 | July 1, 2011 978-1-56976-310-0

Once again, a journalist familiar with African politics, economics and culture tells a shocking story of widespread corruption, greed and bloody violence, this time in a region rich in tin and coltan, minerals used in the manufacture electronic devices.

As Africa Editor for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting at The Hague, Eichstaedt (Pirate State: Inside Terrorism at Sea, 2010; etc.) traveled around the eastern Congo giving workshops to train local journalists and talking to militia leaders, former child soldiers, businessmen, aid workers and victims. A two-chapter side journey into neighboring Sudan, which seems rather out-of-place here, demonstrates that ethnic rivalries and fighting over a country’s resources is not unique to the Congo.

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“A creative guide on how to define success, achieve career goals without sacrificing morality and make the ‘movie of your life’ a blockbuster hit.” from produced by faith

However, the eastern Congo has become “the rape capital of the world”—and, with more than five million dead in the last decade, the site of “the deadliest human catastrophe since World War II.” Eichstaedt’s reporting reveals in grim detail how rival ethnic militias and the national Congolese army fight for control over the region’s rich mines, how villagers are routinely slain with guns or machetes or by being burned alive, how pick-and-shovel miners are heavily taxed by unpaid soldiers and how rape has become a tactic of war. In their own words, his interviewees often provide unrealistic solutions to their predicament or show a calm acceptance of the chaos and violence around them. The answer, writes the author, is not simply a ban on “conflict minerals” as was recently instituted by the United States, or peace-keeping efforts by the United Nations; it must come from the Congolese people demanding responsible government. Eichstaedt does not offer much hope that it will happen soon.

The welter of unfamiliar names of places, organizations and people makes for slow reading (maps and a cast of characters would have helped), but the main stumbling block for many will be the sheer horror and hopelessness of it all. (8-page color insert. Agent: Michele Rubin)

IN THE SMALL KITCHEN 100 Recipes from Our Year of Cooking in the Real World

Eisenpress, Cara; Lapine, Phoebe Morrow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $21.99 | May 24, 2011 978-0-06-199824-9 Two young cooks serve up 100 recipes and real-world culinary tips.

Friends and food: What could be more fun? That’s the underlying premise of this practical and creative cookbook, written by two friends in their mid-20s. Eisenpress and Lapine don’t claim to be professional chefs, but not many people are. This cookbook caters to those people, with good ideas for young adults who have small kitchens and limited budgets.

Beginning with a list of basic utensils and items that will be needed on the kitchen shelves and in the refrigerator, the book is divided into different sections, including Cooking For One, Potlucking, Brunch and affordable Dinner Party Food. Both vegetarians and carnivores will find variety here. A couple of the easier recipes are run-of-the mill—is there really anyone over the age of 18 who doesn’t know how to make a grilled-cheese sandwich?—but there are plenty of unique, simple recipes, such as Yogurt Carbonara and Green Goddess Soup. Chana Bateta, which the authors claim tastes like an Indian dish, was inspired by leftovers, and their own exotic version of Vietnamese Fisherman’s Stew sounds fantastic. There are also dessert recipes and a chocolate torte that can be made from brownie mix.

Easy-to-read recipes for all occasions, whether eating alone, with a date or partying with friends.

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PRODUCED BY FAITH Enjoy Real Success Without Losing Your True Self

Franklin, DeVon; Vandehey, Tim Howard Books/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $23.00 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4391-7103-5 A Hollywood executive provides insight for achieving spiritual and professional wholeness.

Franklin has experienced the pleasures and struggles that go into working his way up the ladder in the entertainment industry. However, throughout his career, he has been able to maintain a strong sense of faith. In his debut book, the author cleverly interweaves images of the film-production process into informative and intuitive instructions to achieve success through faith. Portraying God as the director of a purpose-driven movie starring the reader—or the film’s writer—Franklin uses clever analogies, factoids about smash hits and box-office bombs and events from his own life to deliver meaning and a profound familiarity to his concept. The author writes that a strong relationship with God can serve as a platform for security within oneself, and can provide opportunities for growth. In viewing lackluster work periods allegorically as moments of “Development Hell,” Franklin compares successful films that faced major obstacles—such as Twilight and Forrest Gump—to aspiring job seekers, proving that despite temporary complications, a more divine purpose can often await. As a preacher and motivational speaker, Franklin passionately encourages readers to utilize all their spiritual resources and to foster and nurture a lasting relationship not only with God, but with their professional peers.

A creative guide on how to define success, achieve career goals without sacrificing morality and make the “movie of your life” a blockbuster hit.

LIFE IS YOURS TO WIN Lessons Forged from the Purpose, Passion, and Magic of Baseball

Garrido, Augie Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $23.00 | May 10, 2011 978-1-4391-8693-0 A legendary college-baseball coach shares his thoughts on the game and how it can be used to improve one’s life.

A self-described no-nonsense coach, Garrido has led his players to more NCAA victories than any other coach in the college dugout. His debut, the title of which is refreshingly direct and to-the-point in the delivery of the author’s philosophy, is as much a biography of the author’s life as a self-help manual. The author writes early on that he will refrain from using a baseball game as a metaphor for life, but he proceeds to

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do so in each chapter. While the author has decades of experience turning his young charges “into men,” his attempt to cram years of leadership and mentoring within the pages of a book isn’t as winning as his record. Garrido has a distinct voice, but he’s a novice when it comes to structuring and framing a story.

He reiterates material incessantly, his inability to stay on topic is often frustrating and the narrative is extremely male-oriented.

Regardless, Garrido’s book is an easy read that may attract nonveteran readers of nonfiction.

A stale rendition of a self-help trope that may appeal to college-baseball fans.

TO DIE IN MEXICO Dispatches from Inside the Drug War

Gibler, John City Lights (200 pp.) $15.95 | June 15, 2011 978-0-87286-517-4

An American journalist delves into the grim, relentless drug war between Mexico and the United States and advocates for legalization as the only answer to stop the violence.

An intrepid California-based journalist who risked his life to pursue the interviews he records with Mexican officials and victims here, Gibler (Mexico Unconquered) recounts an endless litany of violence that has exploded during the tenures of Carlos Salinas, Ernesto Zedillo, Vicente Fox and, especially, Felipe Calderon. The various drug cartels—the Gulf cartel, the Zetas, the Sinaloa Cartel, among others—have only grown stronger over the years (the Sinaloa Cartel has been responsible for 84 percent of the recent drug murders). From the time a substance moves in its rawest form—100 kilograms of coca leaves reaps $1,000 for the Colombian farmer—to its arrival on the streets of America (a kilo of cocaine is worth $100,000), its value has increased by more than 3,000 percent. Hence, drugs are big business, especially for the banks, who launder the spectacular profits. The corruption of organized crime has infiltrated every segment of Mexican society, as Gibler demonstrates here, visiting prisons and civic groups, who express an utter sense of hopelessness and despair. However, the author has found fighting spirits, such as young murdered men’s mothers who show up bravely and demand a police reckoning; and the journalists mourning their murdered fellow colleagues at El Diario de Juarez. Gibler argues passionately to undercut this “case study in failure.” The drug barons are only getting richer, the murders mount and the police and military repression expand as “illegality increases the value of the commodity.” With legality, both U.S. and Mexican society could address real issues of substance abuse through education and public-health initiatives.

A visceral, immediate and reasonable argument.

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THE INFLUENCING MACHINE Brooke Gladstone on the Media

Gladstone, Brooke Illustrator: Neufeld, Josh Norton (192 pp.) $23.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-393-07779-7

Though the graphic format employed here is often playful and always reader friendly, this analysis of contemporary journalism is as incisive as it is entertaining, while offering a lesson on good citizenship through savvy media consumption.

As co-host of NPR’s On the Media, radio veteran Gladstone must have gotten a change-of-pace kick out of a project so dependent on visuals in general and her own caricature in particular. She finds an ideal collaborator in artist Neufeld, whose A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (2009) could be categorized as graphic journalism. While the current technological revolution has many claiming that journalism has reached a state of crisis, if not obsolescence, the author takes a longer view, emphasizing not only that “we’ve been here before,” but that “Everything we hate about media today was present at its creation.” Instead of wringing her hands over manipulation and distortion, as well as the pesky impossibility of objectivity, Gladstone focuses more of her attention on biases that are institutional rather than ideological. Among them: commercial bias toward “conflict and momentum” (the narrative momentum that attracts readership), the access bias that results in self-censorship, the fairness bias that makes it seem like two sides have equal weight (when there could be many sides). The author also shows how every president eventually considers the press an adversary, and why war reporting tends to be particularly problematic (“Every media bias shows up in war reporting, in spades.”

Ultimately, she urges a democracy that relies on media to share responsibility “by playing an active role in our media consumption.”

While some may see a sign of bias in the author’s own media affiliation, this historical analysis of how and why media and society shape each other should prove illuminating for general readers and media practitioners alike. (Author tour to New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston. Agent: Jim Rutman/Sterling Lord Literistic)

THE NATURAL MYSTICS

Marley, Tosh, and Wailer Grant, Colin Norton (320 pp.) $26.95 | June 20, 2011 978-0-393-08117-6

A wide-ranging look at the cultural, political and religious forces that inspired the pioneering reggae group.

This history of the Wailers, among the first acts to bring reggae to a worldwide audience in the 1970s, doesn’t function like most music

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biographies. Grant (Negro With a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey, 2008) resists assembling detailed family trees for the band’s prime movers, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.

Nor does he obsess over discography or even dwell much on the musical shifts the trio made as it evolved from playful, syncopated ska to emotionally intense Rastafarian reggae. Instead of writing from a critical remove, Grant freely injects the story with first-person asides about his experiences with interviewees.

All these tactics are assets, because they help the author avoid stock band-history patter and instead drill into the broader cultural life of 20th-century Jamaica. Looking at Trench Town, the slum from which the trio emerged, Grant explores British colonialism, violence, race relations and sexual mores that defined life on the island. He offers a pocket history of Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie (aka Ras Tafari) and his messianic following, and those passages go a long way toward de-glorifying the mythology of marijuana and Rastafarianism that wafts around the Wailers. The book never feels digressive or off-point, though the three musicians occasionally seem to get lost in the shuffle.

Some of the interviews—as with Island Records chief Chris Blackwell, who popularized the Wailers’ music in the United States—feel perfunctory. (Grant seems more engaged with a West Indies scholar who specializes in Jamaican slave life.) Still, the book clarifies the band’s impact in its home country, which collectively mourned when Marley succumbed to cancer in 1981 and Tosh was murdered in 1987.

A lively, informed study of the Wailers, though not a straightforward introduction to them. (8 pages of color and 8 pages of black-and-white photographs)

FATHERMOTHERGOD My Journey Out of Christian Science

Greenhouse, Lucia Crown (320 pp.) $25.00 | August 9, 2011 978-0-307-72092-4 e-book 978-0-307-72094-8

In this powerfully affecting memoir, ex–Christian Scientist Greenhouse tells the story of how her parents’ fervent adherence to their religion tore the family irrevocably apart.

From the outside, the author’s comfortable Minnesota childhood seemed perfect. She and her two siblings grew up going to the best schools surrounded by a host of loving relatives. Unlike the other members of their extended family, however, the Greenhouse clan was different. They were Christian Scientists who did not believe in taking medicines of any kind, including aspirin. From an early age, the author was all too aware “of the difference between the way my family does things and the way other people do [them],” and of the irony that her mother was a doctor’s daughter. Over time, her parents’ beliefs deepened.

Soon after the author’s 13th birthday, the family moved to London so her father could become a Christian Science practitioner (or faith healer) and her mother a Christian Science nurse. Four |

years later, they returned to New Jersey where they found a home near a Christian Science care facility. Greenhouse became more openly rebellious, expressing her defiance by buying a pair of much-needed eyeglasses. When her mother became sick with a mysterious illness—a “little problem” later identified as cancer—underlying family tensions came to an explosive head. Both parents vehemently denied her mother’s rapidly deteriorating condition. For nine horrific months, the author stood helplessly by as her mother fought her disease armed only with the belief that all illness was error. With its meditations on the many whys of this event, the narrative reads like a personal exorcism, but Greenhouse’s skill in rendering family relationships under the intersecting stresses of illness and conflicting beliefs make the book worthwhile—but difficult—reading.

Wrenchingly courageous. (Author events in Westchester, N.Y. and Minneapolis. Agent: Kim Witherspoon/InkWell Management)

MISSING A Memoir

Harrison, Lindsay Scribner (256 pp.) $25.00 | August 2, 2011 978-1-4516-1193-9

Harrison, a college student when her mother committed suicide in 2006, tries to make sense of the death.

Now in her mid-20s, first-time author Harrison devotes the first portion of her memoir to the 40 days between her mother’s disappearance and the discovery of her body.

The remainder of the book consists of a chronicle of the author’s coping with the reality of the suicide, flashbacks to her childhood and the attempts to move forward. Harrison, who grew up in Massachusetts with two older brothers, was a child of divorce who tended to side with her mother Michele against the father who left, and who considered her mother a best friend. Michele Harrison sometimes acted emotionally, but seemed stable to Lindsay, and enjoyed her work as a special-education teacher. Shortly before her suicide, Michele signaled subtly that she might do so, but none of the children believed it would really happen. Despite the devastation, the author managed to finish her education at Brown University and attend Columbia School of the Arts. Along the way, though, she abused alcohol and pills, and even made a feeble gesture at suicide herself. Her father, an engineer who has remarried and started a second family, re-entered Lindsay’s life in a constructive way after the suicide, creating a heartwarming daughter-father bond. Although the memoir is intensely personal, the sense of loss is universal. Harrison’s relationships with her brothers are rendered with all the complexity that can be summoned when emotions trump deep conversation. As for the deceased, Michele seems vivid on the page, a mother who desperately loved and needed her children and cared about humanity, even as she spewed bile aimed at her departed husband.

A well-written account by a youthful author who is bouncing back from grief.

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LICENSE TO PAWN Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver

THE NEXT WAVE On the Hunt for Al Qaeda’s American Recruits

Harrison, Rick Keown, Tim Hyperion (272 pp.) $23.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4013-2430-8

Host of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars unsentimentally breaks down the curious world of buying and selling pre-owned merchandise.

Harrison’s straight-shooting business style adapts well to the pages of a memoir brimming with stories of his 20-plus years at the family-run World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. Before dropping out of school in the 10th grade, the author recalls a San Diego childhood spent peoplewatching and reading, yet marred by debilitating grand mal seizures and “fatalistic” drug abuse that led to rehab at age 14.

Since his father (“Old Man”) was a gold dealer and his “newera” mother dabbled in real estate, both livelihoods honed his interest in commercial commerce. When the family relocated to Las Vegas, the author was hooked. Trolling swap meets fed a need to unearth the “overlooked treasures” of estate sales, and once his father opened his dream pawn shop, Harrison and Keown dictate a continuous strand of stories about the customers pawning their frequently odd sale items at Harrison’s “poor person’s bank” (there’s a 10 percent monthly interest rate). Desperation takes many forms. Twenty bucks can sell a pair of alligator cowboy boots or a Gucci bag, but more lucrative (and outlandish) sales feature a gold tooth (extracted on-site) or one of the shop’s prized possessions: authentic Iwo Jima battle plans hand-drawn in color. Throughout his career, Harrison has balanced failed business endeavors (in-house gold refinement) with impeccable negotiation skills and eagleeye appraisals that have prevented the acquisition of fake Confederate swords and Rolex watches. The author lives and breathes his subject matter, but his voice, too-often oscillating between a hard-nosed tradesman and a starry-eyed TV personality, lacks the immediacy of his on-camera persona. Fans of unorthodox trades will find his tales shocking yet tastefully delivered, yet lacking the punch of the visual medium.

A fascinating guided tour of what Harrison calls “the greatest business in the world.” (Agent: Richard Abate)

Herridge, Catherine Crown Forum (272 pp.) $25.00 | June 21, 2011 978-0-307-88525-8 e-book 978-0-307-88527-2

Solid account of the growing threat of homegrown terrorists.

In 2009, FBI director Robert Mueller stated that Americanborn recruits to al-Qaeda posed a “real and growing” danger to the United States. Drawing on a six-month investigation for Fox News, where she is a national correspondent covering homeland security and the intelligence community, Herridge debuts with a revealing report on a new generation of terrorists and the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has inspired many of them to commit violent acts. Now believed to be in Yemen, al-Awlaki was targeted for killing by the U.S. government in 2010.

He is linked to three of the 9/11 hijackers, the massacre at Foot Hood, the attempted Christmas Day 2009 bombing and the cargo printer plot in October 2010. Drawing on documents and interviews, the author shows how the charismatic al-Awlaki has become a leading al-Qaeda propagandist, using the Internet to recruit alienated American youths, many newly arrived in America, to join the terrorist cause. There are several hundred important jihadist websites, and al-Awlaki crafts messages (“44 Ways to Support Jihad,” etc.) for them using rap music and other Western marketing techniques. His target audience consists of under30 individuals who are unsure of their identity and welcome a chance to connect anonymously online. In recounting al-Awlaki’s activities and the stories of young jihadists, Herridge notes that homegrown terrorists are often U.S. passport holders who travel abroad for training, and Americans who are radicalized at home in chat rooms. She offers evidence that al-Awlaki may have been part of a terrorist cell within the United States that paved the way for 9/11, and that American officials may have tried to turn the cleric into an informant.

A sobering view of why the 9/11 nightmare continues a decade later. (8-page black-and-white insert. Agent: Mel Berger/ William Morris Endeavor)

THE STATUES THAT WALKED Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island

Hunt, Terry Lipo, Carl Free Press (288 pp.) $26.00 | June 21, 2011 978-1-4391-5031-3

Modern research techniques enable debut authors Hunt (Anthropology/Univ.

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“An enthusiastic account of a coterie of physicists who, during the 1970s, embraced New Age fads and sometimes went on to make dramatic discoveries.” from how the hippies saved physics

of Hawaii at Manoa) and Lipo (Archaeology/California State Univ., Long Beach) to review the “mysteries” of the Easter Islands and offer some solutions of their own.

Rapa Nui (aka the Easter Islands) have long been thought to illustrate how human environmental overreach led to collapse, as advanced monument builders undermined the ecology, beginning an inevitable slide. The authors make a counter-argument that “the problems were social, not a result of environmental ruin. History is the witness that Rapa Nui suffered near genocide, not self-inflicted ‘ecocide.’ ” They offer an alternative to Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s thesis that human settlers had arrived by 400 CE. Based on “all of the over 120 radiocarbon dates published for Rapa Nui,” Hunt and Lipo confirm that the arrival of human settlers, including monument builders, was later than previously thought, and the deforestation earlier.

Modern research has established the likelihood that rats were responsible for the destruction of the native giant palm. The authors also muster the evidence to show, contrary to what Heyerdahl claimed, that “the portrayal of an island dominated by a strong central ruling authority, or torn asunder by warring tribes, is simply wrong.” The island’s population, including statue makers, probably functioned as small, peaceful, cooperative agrarian groups that settled successfully in an environment already denuded of trees. They developed food-production techniques which worked in an environment already denuded of trees. What did the islanders in was the stream of ship-borne Western visitors—and the diseases they brought—that began in the 18th century.

A fascinating new chapter of the unwitting but tragic decimation of the native Rapa Nui populations, brought about unwittingly by cultural contact rather than the decline of their own society. (8-page black-and-white insert)

LET THERE BE PEBBLE A Middle-Handicapper’s Year in America’s Garden of Golf Jack, Zachary Michael Univ. of Nebraska (352 pp.) $24.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-8032-3357-7

A golfer’s unabashed love letter to one of the world’s most spectacular courses.

With the possible exception of Augusta National, home of The Masters, no American golf course is as respected and beloved as Pebble Beach. Located near Carmel-on-the-Sea on California’s breathtaking Monterey Peninsula, Pebble’s ingenious layout and glorious vistas have permeated the consciousness even of the non-golfing public thanks to TV coverage stretching back to the old Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, which featured the then-novel spectacle of professionals teeing it up alongside celebrities like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon and Sean Connery. Confessing to at least a mild case of midlife angst and taking a sabbatical from his professorship, Jack (English/North Central Coll.; |

What Cheer: A Love Story, 2010, etc.) resolved to spend a year immersed in the honeyed, moneyed milieu of Carmel covering four tournaments: the Wal-Mart First Tee Open, the Calloway Golf Pebble Beach Invitational, the AT&T Pro-Am and the 2010 U.S. Open, hosted by Pebble for a record fifth time.

The author dutifully reports the progress and outcomes of each of these tournaments, but his real subjects are the history and idiosyncrasies of Carmel and the course itself, whose fabled difficulty and mystical charm have made it a golfing mecca. On pilgrimage, Jack played the course—for a whopping $500, Pebble is the rare U.S. Open course accessible to the public—and interviewed a wide variety of pros, golf teachers, writers, celebrities, business titans and longtime Carmel residents. He charts his frequently amusing efforts to negotiate on the cheap one of the world’s most expensive environments. Too often he affects an annoying, hipsterish tone, but he can turn a memorable phrase—he defines a caddy as “the quintessential wingman”— and occasionally supply arresting insight. After interviewing the course superintendent, he notes that “taking care of a masterpiece would be the most perfect kind of hell.” In the end, any sins are forgiven because of Jack’s refusal to take himself too seriously and because of the allowances we customarily make for someone who’s so obviously in love.

A real-life golf fantasy year, boldly lived and exuberantly told.

HOW THE HIPPIES SAVED PHYSICS Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival

Kaiser, David Norton (384 pp.) $26.95 | June 27, 2011 978-0-393-07636-3

An enthusiastic account of a coterie of physicists who, during the 1970s, embraced New Age fads and sometimes went on to make dramatic discoveries.

In his first book, Kaiser (Physics/MIT) paints a gloomy portrait of his field during that decade. The golden age of Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, Pauli et al was history. The Cold War and increased government support had vastly increased the number of physicists, including many who yearned to explore Einsteinstyle paradoxes and the nature of reality but were bored by classes which stressed mundane practical applications. In 1975, Berkeley graduate students took matters into their own hands, organizing an informal “Fundamental Fysiks Group.” They attracted likeminded hip doctorates, so discussions mixed quantum theory with the latest counterculture delights from LSD to Eastern mysticism to ESP. They received generous media attention, including a Time cover story and produced a flood of publications about the “new physics” including bestsellers such as Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics. With financial support from unexpected sources such as the CIA (worried about possible Soviet PSI weapons) and various young millionaires including Werner Erhard, they

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“Built on solid scientific research, a rodent tale both fascinating and entertaining.” from the lab rat chronicles

explored complex, hitherto ignored areas such as Bell’s theorem and quantum entanglement while annoying the establishment by exploring their links to the paranormal. The end result was a transformation in cutting-edge physics and major discoveries in quantum information science, now a thriving industry.

Readers will enjoy this entertaining chronicle of colorful young scientists whose sweeping curiosity turned up no hard evidence for psychic phenomena but led to new ways of looking into the equally bizarre quantum world. (46 illustrations. Agent: Max Brockman/Brockman Inc.)

THE GIRL’S GUIDE TO HOMELESSNESS A Memoir Karp, Brianna Harlequin (336 pp.) $16.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-373-89235-8

An inspiring memoir of the modernday homeless person.

After managing to sail past her stormy adolescence, Karp forecasted blue skies ahead. But when the crippling recession hit, the author was laid off in a stroke of bad luck that left her homeless but not “hopeless.” As a result, writes the author, she went from being an independent woman to a social outcast in a matter of mere months.

She briefly found refuge with her mother and stepfather, but with a dysfunctional family tree rooted in incest, abuse and mental disorder, she swiftly returned to the streets. Karp ultimately found a haven in the 30-foot trailer she inherited after her biological father’s suicide. But instead of wallowing, the author turned her hard luck into an opportunity to remove the negative associations from homelessness. Karp’s language is direct and sometimes unsophisticated, but it keeps in line with the graphic nature of the text. Faith is no savior here; the author associates her rocky family dynamics with her upbringing as a Jehovah’s Witness, often referring to the religion as a cult. Karp’s story reverberates with immediacy and honesty, and readers will be more than a little dismayed by the frightening notion that the author’s fate could just as easily befall them.

A haunting personal story that gives a face and a name to homelessness.

THE LAB RAT CHRONICLES A Neuroscientist Reveals Life Lessons from the Planet’s Most Successful Mammals Lambert, Kelly Perigee/Penguin (272 pp.) $15.00 | June 7, 2011 978-0-399-53663-2

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A neuroscientist burrows down deep into the lives of rats and emerges with clues to model human behavior.

The most successful mammals on the planet have already contributed much to the field of scientific research, but Lambert insists that there’s still plenty to learn from them. In this jauntily written examination of the lives of the lowly lab rat, she suggests that we would do well to emulate the prodigious achievements of our mammalian cousins—and the first steps just might be to fire the maid, ditch the Lexus and start getting our hands dirty. Rats, Lambert writes, are blue-collar creatures who owe much of their happiness to an unambiguous work ethic. Deprived of this, they soon begin to exhibit the same telltale signs of anxiety, frustration and depression now afflicting so many among our cushy Western culture. Unlike humans, however, the rats studied here are more likely to beat the blues with a spin on the exercise wheel than by downing a synthetic drug.

It’s a radical prescription, indeed, with potentially far-reaching effects on how we live, work and play. Wrinkle your nose if you must, but the “whisker wisdom” these rodents display in their quest for survival is tough to dismiss. If the author is right, the caged lab rat could provide humans with the means of escaping the workaday prisons so many currently inhabit.

Built on solid scientific research, a rodent tale both fascinating and entertaining.

KOSHER CHINESE Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion

Levy, Michael Henry Holt (256 pp.) $15.00 | July 5, 2011 978-0-8050-9196-0

An ex–Peace Corps volunteer chronicles the two years he spent living and working deep in the Chinese hinterlands.

With intelligence and zesty good humor, Levy tells the story of his sojourn as an ESL teacher in Guiyang. “In American political terms,” he writes, “it was red China, as opposed to the blue, progressive, latte-sipping China of the coast.” As the only white native speaker of English at Guizhou University, Levy soon became the center of attention. But it was his Jewish identity— which he shared with Chinese cultural icon Karl Marx—that made him a particular object of student fascination. Drafted as the leader of the Guizhou Jewish Friday Night English and Cooking Corner Club, he prepared challah bread on his day of Sabbath, “no matter what Rabbinic rules were broken.” Levy’s students and colleagues also pressed him into service as resident love advisor.

As one girl told him, “Americans like him [had] been falling in love since Shakespeare and [had] many examples to follow.” Chinese people did not. The college basketball coach eventually recruited him as the star player on the Guizhou team, and Levy earned the moniker “Friendship Jew” and notoriety for his hirsute body. At first bewildered by culture where guanxi (personal connections) were crucial to upward mobility and where Wal-Mart, Pizza

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Hut and KFC were considered the height of Western cosmopolitanism, the author learned to accept contradiction as one of the defining trait of modern China. His most profound insights came from a group of graduate students he taught who identified with writers of the Lost Generation. Like these men and women, the students “lived in a world that seemed unmoored from traditional values.” Knowing that he could change neither the world in which he found himself nor the fate of those whom he befriended, Levy found unexpected comfort in the pop-culture wisdom of a teen singing sensation named Li Yuchun: “You cannot change the course of a river, [b]ut you can learn to appreciate its beauty and power.”

A rollicking, thoroughly refreshing debut.

EXTRA LEAN FAMILY Get Lean and Achieve Your Family’s Best Health Ever Lopez, Mario Peña, Jimmy Celebra/Penguin (272 pp.) $25.95 | May 3, 2011 978-0-451-23412-4

Actor Lopez expands his cookbook series to encompass families.

A new father, the author shares sage advice for parents about the importance of diet and nutritional awareness for their children. While his first book, Extra Lean, focused on balancing carbohydrates, fats, proteins and portion size, here Lopez introduces more mindful food choices via a three-part regimen of understanding, preparing and applying his lean-family principles to everyday life. Other sections describe how food influences metabolism and why carbohydrates are so addictive, and the author stresses the importance of Omega acids, fiber, water intake and keeping a food journal. Lopez’s comprehensive five-week meal plan includes a grocery list, time-saving tips and food suggestions heavy on fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Big-dish dinners include Spicy Turkey Chili, “PaellaStyle” Chicken and Rice and Bacon and Cheddar Macaroni Casserole—all healthfully reinvented. Curry-Roasted Shrimp with Cashew Couscous, Ginger-Garlic Shrimp and Chili-Rubbed Pork Chops tempt with the robust flavors of cumin, curry and lime juice. For the blander palate, recipes for Homemade Fish Sticks made with cod and cornflakes, omelets and turkey meatloaf are offered alongside several realistic dessert recipes—e.g., premium ice cream is encouraged for sundaes, just limit the portion size. Outside of graphs and nutrient charts, the visuals are not the book’s strong point. Mundane photos of baby carrots, eggs and sliced bread hardly complement Lopez’s stock, stiffly posed photographs. However, the author effectively demonstrates how parents can effectively coach their children about healthy snacks, vitamins and how to “dejunk” life.

A must-have for Lopez fans, but this one’s written for families who want better control over the dining-room table.

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THE AUTHENTIC ANIMAL Inside the Odd and Obsessive World of Taxidermy

Madden, Dave St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $26.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-64371-3

Madden (English/Univ. of Alabama) investigates the subculture of taxidermy, a subject he admits is repellant

to many readers.

The author attempts to answer the question, “Why do we stuff animals?” Among the many characters in his account are grieving pet owners, local hunters, big-game hunters and museums, including the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History. Madden begins with Carl Akeley, “the father of American taxidermy.” Akeley invented many still-employed techniques and moved taxidermy out of private collections and into public displays when he mounted P.T. Barnum’s elephant Jumbo. Madden explores why people choose to attend places like Dan Rinehart’s Taxidermy School, and he considers the relation between taxidermy and the killing that is called “collecting.” He tells us about those who supply taxidermists and their products and methods, and he visits the competitive championships where the results are displayed. He traces the history, from the Renaissance-era Cabinets de Curiosites down to Barnum, and introduces us to freaks like the “Feejee Mermaid” and other manmade monsters like Jackalopes. Madden can be a bit tongue in cheek, too, like when he wonders “what would happen if the tables were turned?” and the animals put the humans on display. “We kill animals for all kinds of bullshit reasons,” he writes. However, a “taxidermized animal is a remembered animal, a memorialized animal, and something memorialized is something loved.”

Readable, sometimes chilling tour of an intriguing subculture. See also Melissa Milgrom’s Still Life (2010).

WILFRED THESIGER The Life of the Great Explorer Maitland, Alexander Overlook (544 pp.) $35.00 | July 1, 2011 978-1-59020-163-3

An eccentric explorer in the tradition of T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) lived with tribal warriors in Africa, traveled on camel through the Arabian desert and journeyed to the hitherto-unknown source of the Awash river in Ethiopia.

Maitland (A Tower in the Wall: Conversations with Dame Freya Stark, 1983, etc.) relies on Thesiger’s extensive publications, many of which he helped edit, and he had access to personal correspondence as well as personal conversations over

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the 40 years of their friendship. Thesiger spent his early years in Ethiopia, where his father served in the British diplomatic service. While his childhood was a time of idyllic freedom, his education in England at the elite St. Aubyns and then Eton and Oxford was an unhappy period, in which he was beaten by sadistic headmasters for minor infractions and isolated by his peers.

After graduation, he received an appointment in the Sudan Political Service, which gave him the opportunity to hunt big game and explore the wilderness areas as well as acquaint himself with tribal customs that included the murder and castration of enemies whose genitals were preserved as trophies.

During World, War II, he served with British Special Forces and participated in the liberation of Ethiopia from the Italian occupation. As a big-game hunter, he was licensed to shoot two elephants per year and sought “the heaviest-tusked animals he could find.” He also claimed to have killed 1,000 wild boar in 1958. The author quotes Thesiger’s experiences living with Arab nomads, as “times of excitement and hardship, accidents, pig hunts [and] blood feuds.” The explorer’s adventures are impressive, but some of his pejorative remarks about Africans became tiresome—at certain points in the narrative, he comes across as a Colonel Blimp type character.

For those nostalgic about for the glory days of the British empire, this biography should have a certain appeal.

REASONABLE DOUBT The Fashion Writer, Cape Cod, and the Trial of Chris McCowen

Manso, Peter Atria Books (448 pp.) $25.99 | July 5, 2011 978-0-7432-9666-3

Examination of a murder investigation perhaps gone awry, with Caucasian racism against African-Americans as the

leading cause.

Manso (Ptown: Art, Sex and Money on the Outer Cape, 2002, etc.) has resided off and on in Cape Cod, Mass., for decades. One of his neighbors was Christa Worthington, an heiress and fashion writer from a prominent family. In early 2002, Worthington was murdered at her home, leaving her toddler daughter in the house with the bloodied body. Despite the large cast of suspects, for years local police and prosecutors could not announce a solution to the puzzling homicide. Finally, in 2006, the trial of Christopher McCowen began. McCowen, an African-American garbage collector who serviced multiple Cape Cod towns, had been measured with a borderline IQ, but seemed to manage well in his geographically constricted realm, especially with Caucasian women who allegedly found him sexually alluring.

Worthington, portrayed by Manso and his sources as sexually promiscuous, might have engaged in casual sex with McCowen.

But the author believed from the start that McCowen was being investigated primarily because of racist police and prosecutors.

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even a few women, all Caucasian, were far more likely subjects.

As the investigation and the trial unfolded, Manso began openly assisting McCowen’s defense lawyer. Because of that role, the author believed he was being singled out for harassment by the prosecutor, who is portrayed throughout the book as dishonest, incompetent and personally unpleasant. Manso says repeatedly that the book is meant as an unbiased account of an investigation, a town and an entire island. Yet his claim of unbiased journalism is contradicted repeatedly by his loaded language. The author devotes 240 pages to the trial itself, presenting a day-byday chronicle that contains useful information but eventually becomes tedious.

A flawed account of a sensational murder case. (Author appearances in Boston, Cape Cod, New York)

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor

Marks, Howard Columbia Univ. (192 pp.) $29.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-231-15368-3

The chairman and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management explains investing.

The world of market investing is often complex and uncertain, but Marks presents his knowledge and experience in an understandable style. The author’s debut originated from a series of “investment philosophy” memos he wrote for clients over the past 20 years. Marks’ advice is meaty and useful, and covers a number of dense economic concepts, such as market efficiency versus inefficiency, understanding and controlling market risk and defensive investing. His thorough reckoning of the material leads to savvy, in-depth economic advice. Investors are encouraged to employ second-level thinking, Marks writes, because the “buy low, sell high” philosophy is just a simple, first-level thought—determining a stock’s intrinsic value delves deeper and often results in better return. Interestingly, Marks wrote a memo 10 years ago that described the 2008 financial crisis. While the author is aware investing has very few certainties, his two core principles hold firm—the market is cyclical, and the greatest opportunities arise when others forget the cyclical nature of the market. Readers should not miss “The Poor Man’s Guide To Market Assessment,” an exercise Marks recommends as a gauge. Also includes charts and graphs to help investors avoid the many potential hazards along the way.

A clear and expert resource for all investors.

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“Eat your heart out, James Bond.” from kicking ass and saving souls

KICKING ASS AND SAVING SOULS A True Story of a Life Over the Line

THE END OF COUNTRY

McGraw, Seamus Random (256 pp.) $26.00 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4000-6853-1

Matthews, David Penguin Press (288 pp.) $25.95 | July 25, 2011 978-1-59420-296-4

A rapid-fire biography about the improbable life of humanitarian Stefan Templeton, a “bad guy gone good because he’d never really been that good at being bad.”

Matthews (Ace of Spades: A Memoir, 2008) met Templeton in 1977, when both were the only two mixed-race children at their Baltimore school. But where the author was a skinny, fearful outsider, his friend was already revealing himself as the relentless force of nature he would become. Born to a Norwegian mother with “blood ties going back to the 900s and Olaf the Holy” and a black Vietnam vet turned philosophy professor, Templeton was a walking singularity from the start.

He spent his childhood and adolescence in Europe and the United States, shuttling between the sophisticated chaos of his mother’s bohemian circles and the stable but square world of his father’s middle-class home. Though a soft “mama’s boy” at first, he learned Taekwondo from his black-belt father and became a first-class fighter, both in the dojo and on the streets.

His exposure to European culture and education and the intellectual discipline of his father shaped him into a profoundly thoughtful young man—and a magnet for girls and women on both sides of the Atlantic. Despite his self-confidence, Templeton lacked real direction. He attended a prestigious university-preparatory school for international students in England where he became the lover of a rich Parisian girl. From there, he went trekking through jungles in Colombia, then trained in Marseille to join the Cousteau diving team. He then drifted into the Scandinavian criminal underworld and fled to Japan, where he almost killed a man in barroom brawl. In Thailand, he experienced the unexpected spiritual awakening that transformed him from warrior criminal to warrior hero dedicated to helping those in need. Matthews’ narrative reads like “the stuff of fiction, the stock-in-trade of thrillers and James Bond movies”; it’s also an exhilarating narrative about redemption and the power of personal choice.

Eat your heart out, James Bond.

Part memoir, part investigative report about what happened when the naturalgas industry arrived in rural northeastern Pennsylvania in 2007.

In his debut, freelance writer McGraw constructs the narrative around land owned by his widowed mother, his sister and himself, as well as by neighbors atop the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation stretching for hundreds of miles in all directions. Natural-gas reserves embedded in deep rock could be extracted with a technology generally known as fracking. But the technology spoils the land, at least temporarily, disturbs the peace and alters daily life forever. On the other hand, the natural-gas exploration companies were willing to pay lots of money for drilling rights.

Listening to competing offers, McGraw’s bewildered mother learned she might receive as much as $250,000 up front, with the possibility of millions in royalties much later, depending on the success of the drilling. The author’s mother involved him and his banker sister in the difficult decision making, turning portions of the book into a compelling, sometimes humorous family chronicle. McGraw also conducted interviews with residents inclined to accept the money, residents inclined to reject the money, natural-gas executives, environmental regulators within government and elected representatives. The author mines all of the story’s dimensions equally well—environmental, moral and family. After the McGraw family decided to accept money from one of the exploration companies, the family members remained relatively cohesive. Other families, however, began to fray because of the dilemmas.

An unusual—and successful—marriage of memoir and investigative journalism. (Author tour to New York, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia. Agent: Byrd Leavell/Scott Waxman Agency)

RED SUMMER The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America McWhirter, Cameron Henry Holt (368 pp.) $30.00 | July 5, 2011 978-0-8050-8906-6

Masterly examination of the widespread outbreak of racially motivated mob violence in the summer of 1919.

In his debut, Wall Street Journal staff reporter McWhirter describes in gripping detail a wave of incidents of mob violence that erupted across America in the summer following the end of World War I. Chicago, Washington and Knoxville became battlegrounds, and in Omaha the mob sacked the |

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“Inside the life and entertainment career of America’s greatest daredevil, who lived ‘as if his pants were on fire.’ ” from evel

county courthouse and nearly hanged the mayor. The Tuskegee Institute recorded 83 lynchings during the year, a record that still stands. The federal government did nothing; the Justice Department, led by the red-baiting Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer, attributed the violence to radical agitators among black workers. As McWhirter skillfully demonstrates, the true causes of the violence were complex, arising in part from social dislocations resulting from the “Great Migration” of Southern blacks to northern cities in search of industrial jobs, a trend that exacerbated racial animosities in volatile societies that were often already ethnically fragmented. Lynchings and race riots had occurred throughout American history, but in 1919 white thugs encountered something new—the nation’s black communities now included soldiers returned from France who were determined to resist mob violence by force of arms.

Their efforts were supported by black civic leaders like James Weldon Johnson, Walter White and W.E.B. Du Bois of the NAACP, who pressed for justice for the rioters’ victims in the press, the courts and Congress, and thereby established their burgeoning organization as the preeminent group advocating for black rights. In this new spirit of resistance, McWhirter sees “the start of a process—a great dismantling of institutional prejudice and inequity that marred American society.” Throughout the book, the author writes with professional detachment, permitting his subjects’ words and deeds to speak eloquently for themselves, amplified by liberal quotation from the vibrant black press of the period.

An unsettling reminder of the cruelty and hatred that can lie beneath the surface of a nation formally committed to equal justice for all, but also a monument to the suffering and perseverance of a people at last determined to demand rights promised but too long denied. (16-page black-and-white insert. Agent: Geri Thoma/Elaine Markson Agency)

I ALMOST DIVORCED MY HUSBAND BUT I WENT ON STRIKE INSTEAD

Mills, Sherri Bonneville Books (176 pp.) $12.99 | June 8, 2011 978-1-59955-517-1

An innovative method of cutting off the dead ends in your marriage and creating new life.

As a hairdresser, Mills had the advantage of being immersed in her clients’ lives for generations— when they sat in her salon chair, they shared their secrets.

“Often, when paying for a haircut,” she writes, “a client would joke, ‘Now what do I owe you for the therapy session?’ ” The author witnessed firsthand the fallout of splitting up, the waves of negativity that continued even after divorce was finalized and how people were destined to repeat their problems in the next relationship because of all the baggage they brought along. So when Mills’ own marriage became strained, she turned to the information she’d gathered from her clients’ experiences and 752

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conceived a clever way to solve her domestic distress. To remedy the underlying communication issues that made it impossible for Mills to get her point across to her husband and children, the author went on strike. Since her husband understood union contracts, she presented him with one that addressed their needs. The author couples personal anecdotes with clear instructions on how to conduct a successful strike. The book is designed for the busy reader; each chapter can be read individually and concludes with bullet-point reminders highlighting the best advice. She includes not only her contract, but also sample chore lists and a chart that predicts which results will occur when communication is ineffective.

A solid blueprint for a successful relationship.

EVEL The High-Flying Life of Evel Knievel: An American Showman, Daredevil, and Legend Montville, Leigh Doubleday (336 pp.) $26.95 | May 3, 2011 978-0-385-52745-3

Inside the life and entertainment career of America’s greatest daredevil, who lived “as if his pants were on fire.”

Bestselling author and veteran sports columnist Montville (The Mysterious Montague: A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery, 2008, etc.) points to the first biography of flamboyant risk-taker Robert Craig Knievel (1938–2007) as a cheaply commissioned, “cockeyed” screenplay (George Hamilton starred, angling for a career revival) based on “a collection of tall tales designed by the man himself to make people perk up and pay attention.” It was 1971, and while the film critically tanked, the publicity skyrocketed Knievel’s his popularity. Montville’s version ably describes his childhood raised by his grandparents in depression-era Butte, Mont., and then as a young, streeteducated loner and general troublemaker. Greatly entertaining and anecdotal, the narrative covers the controversial aspects of the high flier’s history, tracking Knievel’s fearlessness as record-breaking smaller motorcycle tricks gave way to powertripping death-wish jumps marked by countless broken bones, hospitalizations and even a coma—all observed by wife Linda and their three children. Whether cruising the talk-show circuit in a zebra-striped leisure suit, crashing onto the pavement at Caesar’s Palace or serving six months in jail for assaulting an event promoter, Knievel consistently treated his adoring (often aghast) fan base to reckless extravaganzas, increasingly perilous stunts and erratic, unbecoming behavior. Montville confidently narrates Knievel’s daredevilry with characteristic panache and presents his subject as a “one man ethical dilemma” who spent the bulk of his career testing the limits of his physical prowess with an unquenchable thirst for fame and fortune.

A biography as sensationalist and superior as the daredevil himself. (8-page color insert)

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“Fodder for ardent admirers of the former president; otherwise, slim pickings.” from reagan’s journey

REAGAN’S JOURNEY Lessons from a Remarkable Career

Morrell, Margot Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $25.00 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4516-2085-6 Ronald Reagan’s rise from lifeguard and sportscaster to movie star, governor and president, seen through the eyes of a fan.

Morrell (Shackleton’s Way, 2001) presents the former president as the man of many mentors, maker of countless speeches and endlessly cultivated contacts, with boundless positivism as he worked his way up from Midwestern obscurity. The author, briefly a staffer, is clearly still in Reagan’s thrall and cannot write a disparaging word about the man. At worst, he had a bad day, as in the first presidential debate with Walter Mondale. At his best, he learned to perfectly elucidate what was in the hearts and minds of his broad base of supporters, always with an eye on the crowd to see what played. Morrell is most at home describing her subject’s formative years, and his eventual branding of himself as the affable and ever-positive leader with steely American convictions. The presidential years fly by in a maze of Swiss-cheese history, with whole epochs ignored or barely mentioned. The most historically enduring Reagan utterance, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” pops up with little context.

Always the Gipper abided, and then with a smart salute exited the public stage from its pinnacle. Each chapter ends, somewhat jarringly, with a self-questionnaire to help readers emulate the Reagan method. This may provide difficult for those who lack his charisma and oratorical perfect pitch.

Fodder for ardent admirers of the former president; otherwise, slim pickings.

THE FIRST DETECTIVE The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq, Criminal, Spy, and Private Eye Morton, James Overlook (272 pp.) $24.00 | July 1, 2011 978-1-59020-638-6

The picaresque adventures of the legendary French thief, cuckold, turncoat and spy.

Former lawyer turned proficient crime writer Morton (Gangland Soho, 2008, etc.) finds an irresistible subject in Eugène-François Vidocq (1775–1857), who discovered his lucrative calling as a prison informer and founder of the first detective agency in Paris in the 1830s. His criminal exploits and successes inspired his own fiction, as well as characters like Balzac’s Vautrin, Victor Hugo’s Jean Valjean and Javert and Edgar Allan Poe’s detective Dupin. Morton tries to sift the fact from |

fanciful fiction, and while amused by Vidocq’s own tales, relies heavily on accounts by previous biographers. Born to a baker and a mother who would stand by him his whole life despite his delinquency, Vidocq would soon be burgling his own parents, joining a circus, falling in and out of the army, provoking duels, conducting romances with ladies who routinely shook him down and duped him, thieving, forging and then being thrown in prison. “With a show of bravado worthy of the Scarlet Pimpernel or Fan-Fan La Tulipe,” writes Morton mischievously, Vidocq was frequently in disguise, “ducking, diving and dining all over the city.” Escape from prison was his forte, before being transported to the formidable “prison-cum-lunatic-asylum-cum-hospital-cumpoorhouse” at Bicêtre. Becoming an informer saved his life, and by 1811, he had arrived as an effective mouchard at the Brigade de Sûreté. Vidocq’s reputation in cleaning up Paris spread his fame to London and elsewhere.

Wry and rollicking, these escapades offer old-fashioned literary fun while somewhat taxing reader credulity and patience.

THE WAY OF THE PANDA The Curious History of China’s Political Animal Nicholls, Henry Pegasus (336 pp.) $25.00 | June 15, 2011 978-1-60598-188-8

Like his beloved cousin the teddy bear, the cuddly panda is also a mascot— an emissary of good will, an icon of the World Wildlife Fund and a symbol of China’s national identity.

Science writer Nicholls (Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of the World’s Most Famous Tortoise, 2007) deconstructs the panda as a cultural icon and unravels the fascinating story of its real life—not as a bored, sometimes fractious presence in a zoo, but as a remarkably resourceful, elusive inhabitant of the forests of China. The giant panda first came to Western notice in the mid1800s, and author relates exciting tales of those early encounters. For the next 100 years, naturalists argued about whether this huge animal with its distinctive markings was more closely related to the raccoon, whose markings were somewhat similar, or the bear. (Modern DNA testing has resolved the issue in favor of the bear.) The Chinese have used the panda as a brand for its state electronic factories, and the WWF puts it forward to rally support for endangered species. The gifts of young pandas of opposite sexes were a symbol of moves toward detente with the Soviets, even though the two pandas in question refused to cooperate and the efforts to breed them were abortive. More significant was China’s 1978 agreement to partner with the WWF in a major research program to observe pandas in the wild, in order to protect its continued existence in its natural habitat and understand how to breed and manage them more humanely in captivity. Nicholls provides a deeper, more meaningful understanding of “real wild pandas” and why their

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continued existence matters, not for our amusement but so that we can come to understand their “undeniable mystery.” He also writes that “[t]he conservation of wild pandas has also become a test of ourselves as a species.”

A welcome addition to the panda bookshelf.

PRECIOUS OBJECTS A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life Oltuski, Alicia Scribner (368 pp.) $24.00 | July 19, 2011 978-1-4165-4512-5

A polished young guide takes us on an insider’s tour of the recondite world of diamonds and garnishes it with an introduction to her family.

Oltuski sees the business from a favored vantage. Her father, an experienced dealer in precious stones, is based in New York’s diamond district on 47th St. There, in little booths, dusty factories, locked offices, appraisal labs and on the busy street, fabulous deals are made with one Hebrew word and a handshake. The industry is still founded, as it has been for generations, on good names and reputations for honest dealing. As ever, the value of those precious stones, often passed hand to hand in little paper packets, depends on carat weight, color, clarity and cut—the four Cs. Eye appeal counts, as well. Oltuski summarizes with authority how the hard little pebbles become valuable and attractive objects of romance, and the author recounts the story of De Beers and “the syndicate,” of distribution and marketing. She writes of geology and gemology, of cleaving and cutting, polishing, setting, selling, the physical properties of the gems and the anxieties of dealing in them. She touches on security measures, blood diamonds and the industry’s efforts to deal only in “kosher” diamonds.

In forays away from 47th St., we travel uptown to an upscale auction house and to shows in Las Vegas and Switzerland. The author notes that the real estate of the street is shifting, and younger dealers are scarce. Carbon-based gems, she writes, are formulated in laboratories, and she relates the odd fact that the remains of loved ones, once carbonized, may be permanently transformed into precious diadems and rings.

Clear, colorful reportage. (Agent: Julie Barer)

JELLY SHOT TEST KITCHEN Jell-ing Classic Cocktails— One Drink at a Time Palm, Michelle Running Press (208 pp.) $17.00 | May 24, 2011 978-0-7624-4054-2

The frat-party favorite is all grown up.

Hot off the blogosphere, Palm (jelly-shot-test-kitchen. blogspot.com) has cooks up great fun in the kitchen with her 754

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debut. Part chemistry and part mad science, with a healthy dash of hipster cool, Palm’s springy step-by-step guide brings this beloved party shot to lofty new heights. Posing the question asked by famed cocktail website The Art of the Drink, “Is a Jelly Shot a bite or a beverage?,” Palm encourages readers to find out for themselves. She rates each recipe from “Easy” to “Advanced” and offers readers the tools for getting creative with color, layering and shape as they gain confidence. Palm reinterprets classic cocktails such as the Tom Collins, as well as the newly invented Peanut Butter and Jelly Martini, providing jelly-shot options for both high- and low-brow tastes. She even includes a thoughtful section on pairings. Her recipes are well fleshed-out, making it obvious that each has been treated with love and care in their development. Illustrated with fullpage photographs so polished and posh even Victoria Beckham would have trouble resisting.

A saucy addition to any mixologist’s library.

TROPIC OF CHAOS Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

Parenti, Christian Nation Books/Perseus (320 pp.) $25.99 | July 1, 2011 978-1-56858-600-7 An investigative journalist’s tough analysis of how some of the world’s most vulnerable states—those with a history of economic and political disasters—are confronting the new crisis of climate change.

The Nation contributing editor Parenti (Lockdown America, 2008, etc.) focuses on the region of the planet that lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. He expects nations in this area to face a catastrophic convergence of poverty, violence and climate change—hence the label “Tropic of Chaos.” The danger he foresees is that the reaction of the United States and other developed countries to this disaster may be to become “armed lifeboats” with militarized borders and aggressive anti-immigration policies. In Parenti’s view, the militarism of the Cold War and America’s economic policies of privatization and deregulation are to blame for pushing many developing countries into political and economic instability. The social effects of climate change in a given country can be neither understood nor planned for, he writes, without knowledge of the country’s history. To remedy this, he offers a grim account of the history of several countries in the Tropic of Chaos, including failed and semi-failed states in Africa, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Brazil and Mexico, making specific connections between economic history, political violence and climate. Water, he argues, has long been a key driver of conflict, and with climate change bringing extreme weather with droughts and flooding, it will become an even greater issue. The chapter on South America leads directly to his discussion of immigration to the United States, where immigrants are met with “the calumny, hatred, and ideological

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“That fact that it took this long for someone to write this book seems as blatantly wrong as the practice itself. Perlin provides a welcome, long-overdue and much-needed argument.” from intern nation

TOO MANY BOSSES, TOO FEW LEADERS The Three Essential Principles You Need to Become an Extraordinary Leader

spittle of rightwing demagogues” like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. In the final chapter, Parenti offers his ideas for how the United States might respond otherwise.

A dark look at a looming world crisis in which the United States comes off as one of the worst villains.

Peshawaria, Rajeev Free Press (256 pp.) $26.00 | May 10, 2011 978-1-4391-9774-5

INTERN NATION How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy

Perlin, Ross Verso (272 pp.) $22.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-84467-686-6

An intrepid ex-intern finally states the obvious—that internships are illogical, unfair and potentially dangerous to an already precarious economic system.

In the business and political worlds, interns have been around long time, making copies, fetching coffee and occasionally inciting scandals that call for the impeachment of influential elected officials. But, as Perlin deftly points out in his well-reasoned narrative, the number of unpaid interns in the workforce has skyrocketed in recent years, creating a bizarre, vicious economic cycle. Put simply, since the economic crash of 2008, there are fewer jobs than there have been for the better part of the century, which means scores of graduates who can’t find work but need experience. As this talented, educated workforce arrives willing to work for free, employers are saving tremendous amounts of money (to the tune of $600 million per year), and therefore have even less incentive to create paid jobs, thus creating an even bigger void for the next crop. The logic here is certainly not earth-shattering, but the actual numbers are staggering. Another seemingly obvious but thus far uninvestigated point is the issue of the law. With so many fair-labor laws on the books, Perlin examines how it is legally possible that nearly half of 2008 college graduates have jobs with no pay or health benefits—he discovers that most are not entirely legal and certainly violate the spirit of the law. This point becomes particularly sticky because interns lack not only compensation, but also basic protections guaranteed by the same labor laws, essentially giving them no legal rights as workers—this adds complexity to an argument that can at times feel repetitive.

That fact that it took this long for someone to write this book seems as blatantly wrong as the practice itself.

Perlin provides a welcome, long-overdue and muchneeded argument.

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Peshawaria defines leadership with hands-on directives for managers and entrepreneurs.

As chief learning officer for more than 20 years at companies like Morgan Stanley and Coca-Cola, the author knows that fortune should not be the driving force behind a vision. His guide for effective leadership principles prompts readers, whether working alone or managing thousands of employees, to define their purpose, utilize their energy and realize the sacrifices that accompany power. Much of the book examines leaders of large organizations, like former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack, who, despite bad publicity, pressure from regulators and fears of a global economic meltdown, boldly refused to sell to JPMorgan when the jobs of his 45,000 employees were at stake. Small businesses can also can benefit from Peshawaria’s motivational concepts. Accompanied by charts and bulleted points, the author’s clear-cut prose moves readers through the organizational structure, or the “bones, brains and nerves,” of a successful business model. Memorable stories include visionaries like Jacqueline Novogratz, who wanted to help the underprivileged and left a profitable career to create the Acumen Fund, which now manages more than $50 million in philanthropic capital.

Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos ensured a productive company culture by exhibiting behaviors he wanted his employees to emulate. Peshawaria’s examples and solid advice will help leaders lay the foundation for company growth.

An effective tool for managers or aspiring business leaders.

THE ROSE A True History

Potter, Jennifer Trafalgar (560 pp.) $35.00 | June 1, 2011 978-1-84887-834-1

A beautifully produced exploration into the cultural history of the rose.

It’s hard to imagine a 500-page book dedicated solely to roses that isn’t comprised primarily of prints. British horticultural historian Potter (Strange Blooms, 2008, etc.) has dug deep into the roots of rose history and produced an admirable dissection of all that the rose signifies now and throughout history. Transporting readers around the world—from ancient Greece to Europe to China to the United States—the author attempts to answer a very complex question: “Why the rose?” Readers will find her answers

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“Prud’homme offers a comprehensive, even encyclopedic, survey of the dangers, debates, frustrations, failures, technology, greed, apathy and rage that whirlpool around the phenomenally complex issue of freshwater.” from the ripple effect

as multilayered as the rose itself. The flower, she argues, has been around for a long time (we have rose fossils as evidence); it appears in a great variety of climates and locations; and it is, quite simply, beautiful. By studying works of art from Sappho to Shakespeare to Gertrude Stein—she even throws in references to contemporary American films—Potter unearths what the rose has meant to different cultures. Innocence, sex, politics and the afterlife—to name just a few associations the rose inspires—may explain the flower’s continued popularity, she suggests. The glossy paper and superb prints make this book ideal for gift-giving, although its greatest appeal will be to serious rose aficionados and even art historians.

Historically lush, detailed study of the world’s favorite flower.

UNLIKELY BROTHERS Our Story of Adventure, Loss, and Redemption

Prendergast, John Mattocks, Michael Crown (272 pp.) $24.00 | May 17, 2011 978-0-307-46484-2 e-book 978-0-307-46486-6

Unusual split memoir of the intertwined lives of a reformed drug dealer and a misfit turned Africa diplomat.

In alternating chapters, Prendergast (co-author: The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa’s Worst Human Rights Crimes, 2010) and Mattocks describe the bond that began many years ago, when Prendergast started an informal “Big Brother” relationship with Mattocks when he was seven years old and homeless.

Prendergast depicts his own adolescence as deeply unhappy.

Scarred by acne and familial estrangement, he retreated into athletics and fantasies of becoming a “do-gooder.” He’d already discovered a preoccupation with Africa, specifically the suffering which the West ignored, that would eventually lead to his life’s work, but also impulsively befriended Michael and his younger brother, James, while visiting a Washington D.C., shelter in 1983: “These boys had nothing and yet radiated with life and sunshine.” Over time, Prendergast provided a vital emotional lifeline to the Mattocks boys while trying to assuage his interest in Africa, moving from internship to lobbying on behalf of a small philanthropy, Bread for the World, and visiting the continent’s trouble spots. Eventually, the author’ss dedication to this lonely cause led him to the Clinton White House, where he was Director for African Affairs at the NSC, and to involvement with celebrities like Don Cheadle and Angelina Jolie. The chapters that capture Mattocks’ perspective are written in an unadorned, colloquial style that is nonetheless effective in capturing the forgotten realities of black urban America during the ’80s, when gun violence and crack hellishly transformed daily life in places like D.C. Mattocks’ depiction of his and James’ gradual immersion in the drug trade is chilling, and he considers himself fortunate to have escaped, but also acknowledges that Prendergast’s mentoring made a crucial difference: “Even 756

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though my dad left, we had J.P…. he cared about us in a way even my mom and my aunts didn’t know how to.”

A feel-good narrative that underscores the brutal effects of poverty at home and injustice abroad. (Author events in Washington, D.C. Agent: Sarah Chalfant/The Wylie Agency)

THE RIPPLE EFFECT The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century Prud’homme, Alex Scribner (448 pp.) $27.00 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4165-3545-4 e-book 978-1-4391-6849-3

Freelance journalist Prud’homme (The Cell Game: Sam Waksal’s Fast Money and False Promises—and the Fate of ImClone’s Cancer Drug, 2004, etc.) offers a comprehensive, even encyclopedic, survey of the dangers, debates, frustrations, failures, technology, greed, apathy and rage that whirlpool around the phenomenally complex issue of freshwater.

The author conducted interviews with principals on all sides of the issue—consumers, entrepreneurs, politicians, business executives, bureaucrats, the rich and the thirsty—and visited key sites, and he provides a generally balanced view of the looming freshwater crisis. He educates us about the depletion of aquifers, the role of big business in the race for water (billions of dollars at stake), the demands that power generation (coal, nuclear) place on water resources, the effects of agricultural runoff on rivers, oceans and marine life, the process of wastewater treatment, global warming, the difference between “gray water” and “black water,” the fragility of cities (due to water demand) as geographically distant as New York City and Los Angeles, the mining industry’s passion for some prime Alaska real estate, droughts and floods, dams and salmon, desalination, shrinking reservoirs and our human determination to keep doing what we’re doing until it’s too late to save ourselves. Prud’homme lauds the Dutch for looking ahead and protecting their land (at enormous expense), and the Singaporeans for their stewardship; praises Intel for recycling much of the water used in computerchip fabrication; blasts the bottled-water industry, reminding us that about half of the products available are mere tap water— and they generate all those throwaway bottles that most people don’t bother to recycle. And what would a story about liquid gold be without a walk-on by T. Boone Pickens? Hopefully, the author’s commonsensical solutions will be heeded.

As essential work about a topic too-often ignored.

(Agent: Tina Bennett/Janklow & Nesbit)

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ETHAN ALLEN His Life and Times

Randall, Willard Sterne Norton (580 pp.) $29.95 | June 13, 2011 978-0-393-07665-3

Randall (History/Champlain Coll.; Alexander Hamilton: A Life, 2003, etc.) delves beneath the myth to fashion the definitive biography of the frontier hero and founder of Vermont.

Best known for leading his paramilitary Green Mountain Boys on a daring attack on British-held Fort Ticonderoga, at Lake Champlain, on May 10, 1775—the first American action in the Revolutionary War—the charismatic Allen was a Connecticut-born farmer, businessman and politician who would become an American folk hero. Self-educated, foul-mouthed and over six feet tall (unusual for the time), he was celebrated for his legendary physical prowess. He could lift a bushel bag full of salt with his teeth and throw it over his head, the stories said. “He was a Paul Bunyon before Bunyan ever existed,” writes Randall. When Allen first moved to Vermont in 1770, the territory was claimed by both the colonies of New Hampshire and New York. Determined to see Vermont become part of New England, where he owned land, Allen and his militia waged a five-year campaign of intimidation to drive away New York settlers. This same rag-tag band of Vermont farmers and hunters took Ticonderoga, without the Continental Congress’s approval, shortly after hostilities began at Lexington and Concord. Randall’s authoritative, vivid book is especially good on Allen’s nearly three-year imprisonment after his failed attack on Montreal in 1775. Harshly treated, first in England and then in New York, he was finally released in a prisoner exchange. He then served Vermont as commander of the militia, chief diplomat to the Continental Congress and advisor to the governor. “The war hero, the counselor of state, he became the public face of Vermont, inside and outside the republic,” writes the author. Allen’s prison memoir was a bestseller during the Revolutionary era.

Colorful, well-written and nuanced. (16 pages of illustrations. First serial to American Heritage. Author tour to Manchester, Vt., Boston, Providence, Hartford, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.)

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD The Magic of Louis Armstrong’s Later Years Riccardi, Ricky Pantheon (400 pp.) $28.95 | June 21, 2011 978-0-307-37844-6

The second half of the trumpetersinger’s career receives a thorough but uneven chronicle. |

The story told by Armstrong blogger and jazz pianist Riccardi will be familiar to readers of Terry Teachout’s graceful 2009 bio Pops. Riccardi takes up the musician’s career in 1947, when he formed his long-running combo the All Stars. The author styles his work as a defense of latter-day Satchmo. Armstrong was criticized for vaudevillian tendencies and sticking to a stale repertoire while leaning on pop material in later years, and reviled for his ever-ingratiating onstage demeanor, which was viewed as “handkerchief-head” Uncle Tom antics during the rise of the civil-rights movement. While Riccardi makes a compelling case for Pops as an all-around entertainer who scored major hits with unlikely material like “Mack the Knife” and “Hello, Dolly,” some musician sources testify that they could leave the band for years and return to find its set unchanged. Armstrong’s status as a black celebrity is more problematic, and complicated by his position as an informal goodwill ambassador on his many tours abroad. Though he was never servile, his symbiotic relationship with his bare-knuckled white manager Joe Glaser, who acted as protector, slave master and bank teller, is a troublesome part of the story. Even when Armstrong spoke out about race relations—as he did in 1957, when he chastised President Eisenhower for his handling of school desegregation in Arkansas—he came under fire from both bigots and blacks. In the end, Armstrong was a compulsive performer who allowed himself to be literally worked to death at the age of 69 in 1971. Riccardi recounts his tale in sometimes excessive detail; unsifted mountains of source material leave newly unearthed gems like a priceless letter from Armstrong to Glaser about marijuana somewhat lost in the shuffle. The smitten writer is also unable to resist the use of superlatives, and his constant abuse of the word “arguably” may make readers want to rap his knuckles with a ruler.

Late Satch gets a deep look, but Riccardi’s main theses remain unproven.

THE PSYCHOPATH TEST A Journey Through the Madness Industry Ronson, Jon Riverhead (288 pp.) $25.95 | May 12, 2011 978-1-59448-801-6

From the author of The Men Who Stare at Goats (2005), another readable, entertaining excursion into extreme territory.

London-based journalist Ronson delves into the realm of mental illness, traveling to the notorious British facility Broadmoor to meet “Tony,” who claimed to have successfully “faked” madness—he feigned a disorder to avoid jail for a violent assault, and has been held ever since despite his protests. Psychiatrists assured Ronson that Tony was not insane, but psychopathic, a distinction that led the journalist to Canadian psychologist Robert Hare, who developed a “checklist” of personality traits to reveal psychopaths (who are by definition glib and deceptive). Ronson interviewed Hare and took his seminar. Hare contends that “psychopaths are quite incurable”

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due to brain abnormalities, and that his research provides the best methods for rooting them out. Hare’s seminar suggests that the detached sadism and lack of empathy which criminal psychopaths demonstrate can be seen in the wider world, where they cause great harm despite being only 1 percent of the population. “Serial killers ruin families,” he says. “Corporate and political and religious psychopaths ruin economies.” With this notion in mind, Ronson experienced chilling encounters with a Haitian death-squad leader and with Al Dunlap, a corporate raider who took great joy in firing people. Although the book’s various strands don’t fully coalesce, they remain engaging; Ronson is skilled at handling disturbing subject matter and difficult interview subjects with breezy insouciance. Yet the undertones are disturbing: While society seems unable to stop true psychopaths before they inflict major damage, Ronson argues that disturbed people like Tony essentially become “nothing more than a big splurge of madness in the minds of the people who benefit from it.” The author’s critique of these individuals within the mental-health industry will surely attract controversy.

Bizarrely captivating look at the terrifying mental disorder of psychopathy, the difficulty of its treatment and the professional infrastructure surrounding it.

FORBIDDEN LESSONS IN A KABUL GUESTHOUSE The True Story of a Woman Who Risked Everything to Bring Hope to Afghanistan

Sadeed, Suraya Lewis, Damien Voice/Hyperion (304 pp.) $24.99 | June 21, 2011 978-1-4013-4131-2

“For the cost of one [American] bombing run,” the author writes in this hard-hitting debut memoir, “I doubtless could have fed and clothed and cared for those 100,000 displaced Afghan refugees. For the cost of another…I likely could have educated their children.”

With assistance from Lewis (Apache Dawn: Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, 2009, etc.), Sadeed, the founder of the nonprofit Help the Afghan Children, chronicles her many trips behind the lines in Afghanistan, where most aid workers feared to go. In 1993, at the time of her first trip back, the Soviets had withdrawn from Afghanistan, but the country was divided into in warring fiefdoms, making travel dangerous. The author weaves together her personal story with that of her native land in this gripping memoir.

After the 1979 Soviet invasion, Sadeed and her husband had been fortunate to be able to emigrate to the United States. The birth of her daughter and her career as a successful real-estate broker occupied her until the sudden death of her husband in 1993. In an effort to move on after her personal tragedy, Sadeed decided to raise money in order to provide basic necessities for the 100,000 people who were living in a temporary refugee camp on the outskirts of Jalalabad, and deliver it to them personally. The author describes the dangers she faced and the many brave, open-hearted people 758

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she encountered on this and subsequent trips. Some episodes were hair-raising, others heartwarming. She was able convince some Taliban leaders to assist her humanitarian mission, while, unknown to them, she was secretly funding underground girls’ schools and health clinics for women. Sadeed provides insight into the traditional values which still sustain the culture, while making an eloquent appeal for understanding, compassion and aid for the people of Afghanistan, and for more schools in order to educate young people and break the cycle of violence.

A moving message from a courageous humanitarian, and more timely than ever. (Discussion guide available online.

Agent: Jesseca Salky/Russell & Volkening)

ARRIVAL CITY How the Largest Migration in History is Reshaping Our World

Saunders, Doug Pantheon (368 pp.) $27.95 | March 22, 2011 978-0-375-42549-3

Incisive study of worldwide ruralto-urban migration, its complex social mechanisms and the consequences of

institutional neglect.

Globe and Mail European bureau chief Saunders reveals how responses to the greatest migration in world history will either secure socio-economic stability or sink it into a galaxy of civil unrest and revolution. Every year, approximately two billion people migrate from rural villages to “arrival cities” across the world.

Often constructed in haste and desperation, and in the margins of the main city, arrival cities are highly susceptible to social instability. Successful ones, like New York’s Chinatown, overcome this adversity to later become highly desirable places to live, reversing the internal-urban migratory patterns. This reversal, often derogatorily referred to as “gentrification,” is a result of an arrival city’s success, not its failure. With thousands of arrival cities across the world, success leads to a flourishing middle class, failure to violence, gang activity and sometimes revolution and civil war. Left ignored, essential social services can be provided by migrant-driven ethnic movements, like the Shiv Sena in Mumbai, who provide substantial community services, but accomplish the tasks through criminal practices like bulldozing slums, neglecting the most basic sanitary needs. These movements, however, only take hold when governments take rural migrants for granted, allowing dangerous and divisive politics to fill the vacuum. Ruralurban migrants need stable networks to provide fundamentals like security and equity, including a system of urban remittance on which many villages depend. Governments that recognize this and help provide for such essentials as home ownership, land titles, schools, hospitals, security forces and transportation services can interrupt the mechanisms of social upheaval that lead to violence and revolution. Never speculative, Saunders dexterously weaves personal case studies—some of which are

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practically unspeakable and ultimately overwhelming—with the broader institutional context.

An essential work for those who pay attention to the effects of globalization—which is, or at least should be, nearly everyone.

EAT GREENS Seasonal Recipes to Enjoy in Abundance

Scott-Goodman, Barbara Trovato, Liz Running Press (240 pp.) $24.95 | May 3, 2011 978-0-7624-3907-2

Healthy recipes for every taste bud.

Broccoli has never looked so appealing. With more than 120 simple, easy-to-prepare recipes, this cookbook makes it easy to eat green. The attractive design includes color photographs and boxed reference guides that show calorie and nutritional value.

Novice gardeners will enjoy a few tips, and the authors urge those who can’t grow their own to visit a farmers’ market or local produce stand. The fresher the vegetable, the better these seasonal recipes will taste. Twenty-six green vegetables are presented in alphabetical order, from artichokes to zucchini, and each includes a background. Southern chefs will be happy to know that Smoky Collard Greens are included, as are recipes for dandelion greens, while chefs looking for new ideas will find Collard Greens and Parmesan-Roasted Fennel. Kids may hate vegetables, but veggie-laden pizzas and Macaroni and Cheese with Swiss Chard are clever ways to get them to eat their greens. The sheer variety of recipes and kitchen techniques the authors manage to pack into this slim and generously illustrated volume will stun readers—cooks can enjoy tantalizing soups, salads, sauces and pestos. Pasta lovers will find Creamy Linguine with Fresh Peas and Pancetta, and Roast Pork with Fennel or Pan-Seared Salmon with Braised Mixed Greens is a healthy way to tempt meat eaters.

Grab some cabbage and start cooking green today.

PACIFIC AIR How Fearless Flyboys, Peerless Aircraft, and Fast Flattops Conquered the Skies in the War with Japan

Sears, David Da Capo/Perseus (416 pp.) $27.50 | June 1, 2011 978-0-306-81948-3

As a former naval officer who served during Vietnam, Sears (Such Men As These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies Over Korea, 2010, etc.) brings an insider’s knowledge of combat to this comprehensive history of the air war in the Pacific during World War II. |

The author begins with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, so unexpected that tragically the only group of American fighters to take to the air was shot down by friendly fire. Sears juxtaposes that chaotic scene with festivities at a new Grumman Aircraft Engineering facility scheduled to open the next day. America had begun to prepare for war with an impressive buildup during the previous year. By the end of the war, Grumman had put about 30,000 planes in the air, including 12,000 advanced F6F Hellcats, which gave U.S. forces a significant advantage in the Pacific—even though at the start of the war, the Japanese Zero was a faster fighter plane with a better climb rate and turning radius. Sears also tells the less well-known, fascinating story of the fearless test pilots who risked their lives.

They were employed by Grumman beginning in the 1930s— before the 1941 boom—in the aircraft industry, and many were killed testing the capabilities of dive bombers as well as the new generation of fighter planes. The author shows how American fighter pilots compensated for the early superiority of the Zero by developing new tactical formations that allowed them to outfly the enemy, and he goes behind the scenes to describe the high morale of American airmen.

A lively depiction of America’s development of superior air power.

THE OPTIMISM BIAS A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain Sharot, Tali Pantheon (272 pp.) $24.95 | June 21, 2011 978-0-307-37848-4 e-book 978-0-307-37983-2

Our mind deceives us by parking rose-colored glasses on our nose, writes neuroscientist Sharot, but only with the

best of intentions.

In this lively, conversational book, the author puts on firm footing what many of us have sensed all along—that we are, by and large, a pretty optimistic bunch. Indeed, “optimism may be so essential to our survival that it is hardwired into our most complex organ, the brain.” So prevalent are these optimistic tendencies that they compose a bias, a steady inclination to overestimate the likelihood of encountering more positive events in the future than negative ones. The optimism bias protects us from being stymied by the inevitable tribulations of everyday life, or to perceive that our options are limited in some manner; it helps us relax, improves our health and motivates us to act. Sharot is a friendly writer—her book brims with anecdotes and scientific studies that attest to optimism’s gentling hand—though no empty smiley face: There is plenty in these pages about how we cope with root canals and chemotherapy, disappointment and dread. Sharot presents this evolutionary scenario: “an ability to imagine the future had to develop side by side with positive biases. The knowledge of death had to emerge at the same time as its irrational denial…It is this

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coupling—conscious prospection and optimism—that underlies the extraordinary achievements of the human species.”

Otherwise, considering the future would be paralyzing. The author circulates through much of the optimism/pessimism map, touching down on the importance of control, relativity and anticipation. What is most stunning, however, are the ways in which optimism not only evokes new behavior in the individual (optimistic heart-attack victim modeling healthy new behavior), but helps deliver the irrationally expected goods (Joe Namath guaranteeing victory in Super Bowl III).

A well-told, heartening report from neuroscience’s front lines. (Author tour to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. Agent: Kevin Conroy Scott)

KILLER STUFF AND TONS OF MONEY Seeking History and Hidden Gems in Flea-Market America

Stanton, Maureen Penguin Press (336 pp.) $25.95 | June 13, 2011 978-1-59420-293-3

A tour d’horizon of the world of antiques, from flea markets to antiques shows to high-end auction houses, with a brief stopover at eBay and the Antiques Roadshow.

Before Stanton (Creative Nonfiction/Univ. of Missouri) reconnected with her pseudonymous old college friend, “Curt Avery,” who had become a professional antiques dealer, she was “the self-anointed Queen of the Flea-Market Dollar Table.” Like many Americans, she was on the lookout for an appealing bargain and just as happy with an inexpensive reproduction as the real thing. When she and Avery met again in 2000, she agreed to fly across the country to attend an auction where some old bottles that he coveted were on offer. He asked her to be his proxy bidder while he hid at the back and signaled his bids.

This was her introduction to a fascinating subculture, which she calls “the ‘flea’ realm.” Over the years, she attended many fairs and flea markets with Avery as what she calls a “participant observer,” getting up before dawn to help him set up displays, grabbing food on the run and camping out next to his truck at night. “The greatest reward of trailing Avery,” she writes, “has been to rekindle my fascination with history.” Stanton writes about the thrill of spotting a pair of late-18th-century sugar snips mixed in with a pile of tools, and learning the history of opium bottles, which were produced in the millions until the 20th century, when the sale of opium in grocery stores was prohibited. The author learned to truly value these objects—which preserved the collective memory of a past way of life—and to value the craftsmanship they embodied.

A treasure-trove of a book, especially for would-be antiquers.

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THE COMPASSIONATE DIET How What You Eat Can Change Your Life and Save the Planet

Stephens, Arran Rosen, Eliot Jay Rodale (160 pp.) $17.99 | May 24, 2011 978-1-60961-063-0

A case for vegetarianism from the perspectives of health, morality, ecology and spirituality.

Founder of Nature’s Path Foods Arran and health writer Rosen present an elegant universal plea for compassionate dietary change on several levels: for the animals who suffer to become our food, for the millions of starving humans and for the preservation of the planet, which is being rapidly consumed to feed the meat addiction of wealthier nations. Supportive and staggering statistics from Environmental Defense and the EarthSave Foundation describe the massive quantities of crops, acreage and money it takes to support the meat industry, along with its impact on health and the environment.

Shaded text boxes contain applicable quotes from famous vegetarians like Albert Einstein, religious texts, or medical professionals: “I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of their lives,” states Dr. Dean Ornish. Considering the authors’ backgrounds, it’s no surprise that the strongest portion of their argument is their sharing of the significant nutritional benefits of the meatless diet, which include lower cholesterol, decreased risk for cancer and a longer life span. Spiritual rationale for the fleshless diet abounds in various religions, and the authors have dug deep to find supportive passages from each. However, in attempting to portray Jesus Christ as a vegetarian, the authors reach for corroboration using ancient literary evidence that contradicts most versions of the Bible. The brief chapter describing karma and our complicity in killing when we consume the flesh of other sentient beings would have sufficed.

Wonderful quotes and legitimate arguments for an animal-free diet make up this manageable, convincing book.

THE SHOOTING SALVATIONIST J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial that Captivated America Stokes, David R. Steerforth (384 pp.) $27.00 | July 12, 2011 978-1-58642-186-1

Account of a highly publicized 1926 murder in Fort Worth, Texas, and the trial of accused killer J. Frank Norris, a fiery fundamentalist preacher.

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Norris, whose Fort Worth church reputedly attracted more parishioners than any other in the United States during the 1920s, preached a gospel of hatred against African-Americans, Catholics and other targets. Using a newspaper he founded and a radio station, he reached audiences in a similar manner as Jerry Falwell decades later. Regularly inserting himself into controversies about the direction of Fort Worth government and business, Norris collected enemies and friends with equal aplomb. A lumber tycoon named Dexter Elliott Chipps became one of the enemies. One day in 1926, Chipps, known for his drinking, womanizing and large physical presence, called Norris at church to announce he would be walking over for a talk.

When he arrived, Chipps apparently warned Norris to withdraw certain criticisms of Fort Worth leaders. Claiming to fear for his life, Norris pulled a gun and shot the unarmed Chipps dead in the church office. The criminal trial moved from Fort Worth to Austin because of prejudicial publicity. Journalists from around the nation and world covered the trial, which centered on the question of whether Norris had killed Chipps in self-defense.

The jury acquitted Norris, who then remained active in fundamentalist church circles and right-wing political circles until his death in 1952. Sharing the spotlight in the narrative are the Chipps family members, church employees and congregants loyal to their minister, Fort Worth social and political big shots and well-known lawyers on both sides of the case.

A mostly chronological account based on thorough research but marred by repetition and a melodramatic tone. (Author events in Texas, Florida, Michigan, New York, Washington, D.C.)

THE BIG ROADS The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways Swift, Earl Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (384 pp.) $27.00 | June 9, 2011 978-0-618-81241-7

Quick: Who built the interstate highway system? If you answered President Eisenhower, then you’re not even half-right, writes Swift (The Tangierman’s Lament: and Other Tales of Virginia, 2007, etc.).

The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, as it’s formally known, was inaugurated during the Eisenhower years, of course, when the lessons of Hitler’s autobahn system, able to bring troops here and evacuate citizens there, were fresh in mind for those now engaged in the Cold War. Yet, writes the author, “Franklin Roosevelt had a greater hand in its creation than Eisenhower,” and even the ignoble Warren G. Harding and the hapless Herbert Hoover moved it along. But Swift reserves much of his account for men—almost always men—we’ve never heard of, most born in the days of horse and buggy or bicycle and enthralled by the possibilities of getting from one coast to the other in days if not weeks rather than months. One of his |

heroes, for instance, spent his early years contemplating how his native state of Iowa came to a halt during the thaw, when erstwhile dusty and then snow-covered roads turned into a thick mud the locals called “gumbo.” And then, of course, there is legendary terraformer Robert Moses, well studied in the literature, to whom Swift imparts a huffy malevolence that a Caesar would have admired. A little of this goes a long way, though, and Swift too often bogs down in the minutiae of admittedly fascinating stuff—fascinating, that is, if you’re a fan of the Wolfgang Schivelbusch school of how-things-came-to-be history, an acquired taste. The best parts of the book come when Swift injects Blue Highways notes into the enterprise and prefers the personal to the textbook-ready, as when he relates a cross-country trip with a preteen daughter and her friend that went better when they left the tranquil back roads and joined the flow: “On the old Lincoln, we’d tooled along. On U.S. 30, we toured. On I-80, folks were hauling ass.”

Despite occasional stalls along the narrative path, the book is a road geek’s treasure—and everyone who travels the highways ought to know these stories. (8-page black-andwhite insert. Agent: David Black/David Black Literary Agency)

SUE ELLEN’S GIRL AIN’T FAT, SHE JUST WEIGHS HEAVY The Belle of All Things Southern Dishes on Men, Money, and Not Losing Your Midlife Mind Tomlinson, Shellie Rushing Berkley (336 pp.) $15.00 | May 3, 2011 978-0-425-24085-4

The bestselling author of Suck Your Stomach In & Put Some Color On! (2008) continues the tradition of generously bestowing her grand ol’ insight into all things Southern.

Tomlinson’s graceful ability to sensibly break down the difference between “normal crazy” (piercing your nose) and “straight running crazy” (piercing your private parts) is appreciated. She rails on topics such as modern-day potty training and reaffirms the importance of being a lady at all times, at any cost.

Sometimes it seems as though random stories are included for no other purpose than to take up space on a page, but Tomlinson’s dialect (“I’m as busy as a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs myself ”) is by and large engaging and peppery enough to make readers wish they were sitting on a porch in the heat sipping a tall, cold glass of sweat tea. Tomlinson intersperses her southern-fried yarns with a collection of recipes to match, more than a handful of which include “The Holy Trinity of Southern Cooking” (one cup each chopped onion, bell pepper and celery).

Most enjoyable are the author’s inclusion of reader-generated material, which recount her fans’ own Southern Mama-isms, such as “I’m going to pinch your head off and spit in the hole.”

Why? “Because spit burns!”

A little bit redneck and a whole lot of charm.

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“Against the background of war and rivalries between Italian states, Unger traces the development of Machiavelli’s cynical, secular, anti-clerical views.” from machiavelli

MACHIAVELLI A Biography

Unger, Miles J. Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $28.00 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4165-5628-2

The story of the obscure civil servant who became the world’s most famous cynic.

Art historian and New York Times contributor Unger (Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de’ Medici, 2008) offers a captivating biography of Italian philosopher and playwright Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), whose classic book, The Prince, remains a definitive handbook for practicing politicians. Born into an old, down-on-its-luck family, Machiavelli grew up in the small, independent Republic of Florence at a time of peace and prosperity. The fabulously rich Medici family ruled; great artists like Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci flourished; and bright young Machiavelli, with little money or influence, came of age aimlessly, devoting his free time to reading, whores and gambling. Yet he was ambitious. At 29, he became Second Chancellor, serving as a diplomat and handling state correspondence for 14 years. Prickly and abrasive, he was dismissed in 1513 over policy decisions leading to the fall of the republic.

With no means of supporting his wife and children, Machiavelli began writing his small book on the secrets of statecraft based on his own observations during government service. He hoped The Prince would lead to a new government job; instead, the book propelled him into political and literary history. Against the background of war and rivalries between Italian states, Unger traces the development of Machiavelli’s cynical, secular, anti-clerical views, and examines the blunt precepts of his masterpiece that announced “the coming of the modern world.” Shattering cherished assumptions about God-centered government, Machiavelli declared that rulers must rule by whatever means necessary. Now commonplace, his original, pragmatic insights simply stated what he called “the actual truth of things.” Ironically, writes Unger, despite his disdain of honesty, he was actually “the most honest” and least Machiavellian of men.

Lively, well-researched portrait of a master political strategist. (8-page 4-color insert; 2 maps)

which was less a straightforward memoir than a series of memories that blurred fiction and fact and past and present. It is only fitting then, that literary scholar Zanganeh, obsessed with Nabokov since finding a copy of Ada on her mother’s nightstand long before it was appropriate reading material for her, uses a similarly vague structure in this work. The author intertwines her memories as a reader of Nabokov with scenes from his life and his books, as well as present-day visits with his son Dmitri. Zanganeh is not the first to wax philosophical about Nabokov, though her interrogation of his work and her own experiences with it is more scholarly and less immediately compelling than that of her famous counterpart, Azar Nafisi. Structuring the narrative around the notion of happiness, Zanganeh delves deeply into his feelings on love, both in his novels and in his lifelong passionate relationship with his wife and unconditional affection for his only son. She muses on place, traveling through the American West that so enchanted Nabokov, and on nature, focusing on his absolute passion for butterflies. Though the author at times brilliantly captures Nabokov’s calculated whimsy, some of her material feels gimmicky and detracts from her scholarship. The recountings of conversations with Dmitri, for example, are both lovely and informative, and are far more effective than imagined conversations with his long-dead father.

There are moments of real beauty here, but emulating Nabokov is not a task to be taken lightly. Zanganeh’s literary hero left behind some awfully big shoes, which she just can’t quite fill. (12 illustrations)

THE ENCHANTER Nabokov and Happiness

Zanganeh, Lila Azam Norton (256 pp.) $23.95 | May 2, 2011 978-0-393-07992-0

An odd, genre-bending tribute to Vladimir Nabokov.

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children & teens PRINCESS PALOOZA

Allen, Joy Illustrator: Allen, Joy Putnam (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-399-25455-0

A scant, slapdash tale of princess play told in lumbering rhyme.

In verse that doesn’t exactly fall trippingly from the tongue, Allen describes six princesses traveling to Princess Park for a Princess Palooza Party. When they arrive at the park, the girls spot six more princesses who are on their way to join them. Ballerina Princess teaches the girls a dance, Cowgirl Princess leads a game of double Dutch and the princesses swing and cavort until the sun starts to set. “Now it’s getting dark, time to gather wands and tassels / And march on home to their own Princess castles.” And what are they going to do tomorrow? Why, the same thing, of course! The watercolor illustrations are a bit more engaging and entertaining than the story. They depict a diverse array of princesses, and though the majority of them sport frilly dresses and heels, there is one decked out in a baseball outfit with a crown emblazoned on her cap.

Not even the glitter on the cover or the hot-pink cutout Princess Palooza crown inside can save this one. (Picture book. 4-8)

THE EMPIRE OF GUT AND BONE

Anderson, M.T. Scholastic (336 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-545-13884-0 Series: The Norumbegan Quartet, 3 The third of what is now billed as the Norumbegan Quartet, this sequel to Game of Sunken Places (2004) and Suburb Beyond the Stars (2010) gives new meaning to the term “introspective.”

Bent on tracking down the elven Norumbegans in order to save Vermont from an invasion of dream-sucking Thusser, Brian, Gregory and the mechanical troll Kalgrash pass through an interdimensional curtain—to find themselves inside an organic alien body. It is so vast that entire cities of both Norumbegans and their now-rebellious mechanical servants have sprung up despite sudden destructive floods of ichor and other |

bodily fluids. Arriving at the capital city in, literally, the heart of the “Empire of the Innards,” the trio discovers that the elves are an effete, degenerate lot dwelling in a slum, wrapped up in their own intrigues and about to be assaulted by the teeming hordes of resentful mechanicals they created. Along with tucking in plenty of poker-faced absurdity, Anderson really stacks the deck here. Not only are the boys able to raise no more than flickers of interest in their cause from their self-absorbed hosts, they become embroiled in a murder investigation. Worse yet, as the relentless Thusser spread back on Earth, they also begin appearing in the Empire.

Readers new to the series will find themselves hopelessly lost; returning fans will find the unapologetically intellectual looniness uncannily, happily familiar. (Fantasy. 12-14)

STARCROSSED

Angelini, Josephine HarperTeen (496 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-201199-2 What if Bella Swan were a demigod?

Helen is the loveliest girl on Nantucket, but until the sexy Delos family comes to the island, she’s always tried to stay under the radar. It’s not just her looks that attract attention; Helen knows her strength, speed and hearing all approach superpower levels. But she can’t stay hidden in the presence of the Delos cousins, Jason, Hector, Cassandra, Ariadne and the sexiest one, Lucas—yes, Lucas. (Some complicated handwaving explains why he is named Lucas instead of—as was intended—Paris.) Readers trained on trendy Greek mythological fantasy won’t be surprised to learn both Helen and the newcomers are demigods. In their blonde beauty (really!), they look exactly like their quasi-mythological ancestors and are cursed by the Furies and the gods to replay ancient dramas across history. Lucas and Helen are both drawn together and forced apart by fate and desire. The cousins, meanwhile, help Helen develop her powerful demigod abilities while tutoring her on the massive forces arrayed against her. Though weirdly inconsistent perspective, startling shifts of voice and scenes that feel like they’ve been copied almost directly from Twilight break the flow, the drama’s epic scale complements the love story’s pacing. A refreshingly strong heroine carries readers into the setup for book two.

Teens who have outgrown Percy Jackson and moved into the paranormal-romance phase won’t mind the amateurish prose; they’ll be caught up in the we-must-we-can’t sexual tension. (Paranormal romance. 13-15)

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“With finely crafted, carefully detailed close-up watercolors, Long depicts dozens of caterpillars and butterflies, each one posed to best advantage, unobtrusively labeled and so lifelike that it’s almost a surprise to page back and find them in the same positions.” from a butterfly is patient

BEYOND LUCKY

Aronson, Sarah Dial (256 pp.) $16.99 | June 30, 2011 978-0-8037-3520-0 A tense, superstitious, hardworking boy learns that luck is generated from the inside out.

Ari Fish, 12, the younger son in a supportive but educationally ambitious family, is obsessed with soccer and luck.

Before he plays a game, he goes through a series of obsessive rituals designed to maximize his good fortune. His best friend, Jerry Mac MacDonald, is cut from a different cloth entirely. The son of an indifferent single mother and unknown father, Mac, who is their team captain, social top-dog and star player, is looseygoosey cool, a bundle of pure natural talent. Mac and Ari’s friendship is tested when a girl, Parker Llewellyn, the daughter of a hard-driving soccer dad, makes it onto the team. In addition to sexism, this event brings out other themes, including the value of preparation and the importance of putting your team first. After an overlong set-up, matters are brought to a head when Ari’s lucky soccer card disappears from his backpack. Mac and Parker each accuse the other of stealing it, dividing Ari’s loyalties and putting him in a tough social and ethical position.

It’s a credible middle-grade dilemma, but Aronson couples it with some unnecessary drama involving Ari’s firefighter brother.

The play-by-play sports action is nicely integrated, though, and it enhances the plotline. The novel ends on a high though bittersweet note; the right thing won’t please everyone.

Solid. (Fiction. 8-12)

A BUTTERFLY IS PATIENT

Aston, Dianna Hutts Illustrator: Long, Sylvia Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | May 18, 2011 978-0-8118-6479-4

crafted, carefully detailed close-up watercolors, Long depicts dozens of caterpillars and butterflies, each one posed to best advantage, unobtrusively labeled and so lifelike that it’s almost a surprise to page back and find them in the same positions.

Similar butterfly albums abound, but none show these most decorative members of the insect clan to better advantage. (Informational picture book. 8-10)

THE LITTLE LITTLE GIRL WITH THE BIG BIG VOICE

Balouch, Kristen Illustrator: Balouch, Kristen Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $12.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4424-0808-1 Anyone who’s spent time around young children will immediately recognize this little girl, an irrepressible kid who wants only to find a playmate who can keep up with her.

Exuberant, stylized illustrations in bright pink, peach, coral, lime, orange and lemon effectively portray this girl and her energy. Bands of color radiate outward from her relatively small image, visually expressing her spirit (and “big, big voice”). The brief, simple text begins as if it were a folktale—”There was a little, little girl”—and proceeds deliberately, almost at a stately pace: She visits animal after animal, scaring off each one in turn.

It isn’t until a lion roars back at her that she realizes she has met her match. Other kids might cry or be afraid, but she just laughs, overjoyed. Folkloric elements in the art complement the text; patterns repeat in the girl’s hair, on the animals’ hides and in the backgrounds. However, the overall look is modern, with bold use of color and shape making the images pop. While ethnicity isn’t directly addressed here, this little girl’s brown face and glossy black hair make her an accessible everygirl for a contemporary, diverse population.

Young readers can practically hear this little, little girl’s big, big voice from where they’re sitting, and most preschoolers will know exactly how she feels. (Picture book. 3-6)

TWELVE DANCING PRINCESSES

Another interwoven flight of poetry, natural history and lovely art from the creators of An Egg Is Quiet (2006) and A

Seed Is Sleepy (2007).

Beneath hand-scripted headers that sometimes take license with facts but create lyrical overtones (“A butterfly is creative”), Aston offers specific and accurate descriptions of metamorphosis, pollination, camouflage, migration and other butterfly features and functions, along with the differences between butterflies and moths. Imagination-stretching comparisons— “monarchs weigh only as much as a few rose petals,” the wingspan of the Arian Small Blue is “about the length of a grain of rice”—lend wings to the body of facts, and though the author avoids direct mention of reproduction or death, a quick closing recapitulation that harks back to the opening page’s hatching egg provides an artful hint of life’s cyclical pattern. With finely 764

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Reteller: Barrager, Brigette Illustrator: Barrager, Brigette Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-8118-7696-4 The particular challenge of redoing a well-known, oft-published fairy tale is to offer a fresh or fruitful take, and this

one doesn’t.

Digital illustrations vary in format from spot art to fullbleed spreads, but everything from the begowned princesses to the sparkling underground land they visit each night falls flat. The princesses are named for blossoms, each one “lovelier

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than the flower she was named for,” but their impossibly tiny waists and huge blue eyes look like a cheap, dull version of Disney. Their dance postures barely connote motion. On the page that displays the tale’s premise—that “[e]very morning, without fail, the soles of the princesses’ shoes were worn out and full of holes”—Barrager shows (nine) slippers that are grubby and scuffed but lack a single hole. Matching the insipid aesthetic is a text stripped of grit. No men lose their lives trying to solve the mystery before the hero (here, Pip the cobbler) does, and there are no men in the princesses’ underground boats, which “float silently” of their own accord. The boats need to float of their own accord, because these princesses have neither agency nor consciousness: They’re asleep from start to finish of the dancing escapades.

In addition to this mind-numbingly bland attempt to capitalize on princess fads, a Princess Matching Game is sold separately. (Picture book/fairy tale. 3-5)

LET’S LOOK AT DINOSAURS

Barry, Frances Illustrator: Barry, Frances Candlewick (32 pp.) $12.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5354-5

Barry’s latest interactive text appeals to the youngest of dinosaur aficionados, presenting them with some very basic facts about how dinosaurs lived.

Through a pseudo–question-and-answer format, readers are given the opportunity to ponder their own answers to the author’s wonderings: “I wonder why minmi is watching her eggs. / Her eggs are hatching.” One or two sentences in a smaller font give more information: “Dinosaurs laid eggs in nests on the ground.” As the text progresses, children learn what dinosaurs ate, how big they were, how they might have defended themselves and communicated, what is left of them today and how fossils are found. Barry uses the words “may” and “might” liberally, remarking that scientists are still learning. The 12 featured prehistoric beasts include a nice mix of popular/lesser-known, large/small, land/sea/air and vegetarian/carnivore. While Barry’s illustrations are brightly colored to attract young children’s attention, the textures of the papers used in the collages more closely echo those found in nature. But the real draw will be the interactive features—smack Ankylosaurus’ tail club, watch Pterodactylus spread his wings and open two flaps to get a sense of just how long Diplodocus was. Endpapers serve as a pronunciation guide, give some quick facts and feature dinosaur silhouettes in sizes proportionate to one another so readers can get an idea of their relative sizes.

Dinosaurs, pop-ups and flaps to lift—what could be better? (Picture book. 2-5)

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MY BABY BLUE JAYS

Berendt, John Photographer: Berendt, John Viking (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-670-01290-9

When two blue jays build a nest on a third-floor balcony of his New York City home, Berendt documents their work and the progress of their three eggs and chicks, right to the first fledgling’s surprising first journey.

The author’s 4”x6” snapshots, with scalloped white borders, are mounted one or two to a page above or alongside a short paragraph of exclamation-point littered text. These images, some perhaps taken through a window, are not always very clear.

His text ascribes human emotions and actions to these birds and often talks down to his audience. “And what do you think he gave them to eat? Bugs and worms!” He also presumes gender, assuming it’s the male who chose the nest site, began the construction and does the feeding, though he admits at the end that the only time he could tell them apart was when the female laid the eggs. He describes the birds’ actions as if he were talking to grandchildren, using a first person conversational voice and occasional direct address. This is a first title for children by the city-dwelling author of best-selling adult nonfiction.

Exciting as this encounter with nature was for him, he hasn’t translated it into a successful children’s book; a better choice is Pamela F. Kirby’s What Bluebirds Do (2009), with its large, sharp photographs, objective description and helpful end matter.

Subpar photography plus patronizing text keep this one from flying. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE PENDERWICKS AT POINT MOUETTE

Birdsall, Jeanne Knopf (304 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $19.99 e-book: $16.99 | May 10, 2011 978-0-375-85851-2 PLB: 978-0-375-95851-9 e-book 978-0-375-89898-3 Music and melodrama waft on the ocean breezes as the Penderwicks spend time on the Maine coast, in the third installment about this charming family.

Well, most of the Penderwicks. Dad’s on his honeymoon; eldest sister Rosalind is away at the Jersey shore. Joining the three remaining sisters and their beloved aunt is dear friend Jeffrey, introduced in the first novel. Skye, second eldest, is now overseer of her sisters and isn’t happy about it, especially when the third, Jane, develops a crush on a most unworthy boy. Then Batty, the youngest, confounds everyone by discovering musical talent that no Penderwick has ever displayed. Most dramatic of all is the startling revelation that slowly reveals itself in the musician living next door. Readers who enjoyed the previous

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books (The Penderwicks, 2005; The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, 2008) will like this one, too, because of its cozy familiarity, and Birdsall writes with a warm, sure hand. The girls are, as usual, kind, endearing, self-possessed, self-aware and comforting.

Readers will also be happy, though wary, about the surprise disclosure but will likely see it coming. That’s OK. Penderwick fans like their stories old-fashioned, replete with coincidences and gently soap-opera–esque elements.

Somewhere, there are families like the Penderwicks.

Lucky them. The rest of us just get to read about them.

Lucky us. (Fiction. 9-12)

WOOF MEOW TWEET-TWEET

Boyer, Cécile Illustrator: Boyer, Cécile Seven Footer Press (48 pp.) $15.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-934734-60-5

The differences among three animals— a dog, cat and bird—are explored in this sophisticated concept book that replaces character drawings with text representations.

Appealing, Modernist illustrations create lovely vignettes for the protagonists, who are depicted by the sounds they make.

Each animal is assigned a specific typeface, the size, color and placement of which are altered to emphasize the various traits and emotions of its owner. In a cage, the bird’s “tweet-tweet” is small and controlled, but when he’s free, his “tweet-tweet” runs broad and askew, soaring across the sky. Despite these text modifications, young readers may find it difficult to be continuously drawn to the personality or expressiveness of each character.

Boyer tries to make up the difference with some playful potty jokes: “WOOF” tilts up against a brick wall, a trail of piddle coming from the “F.” These may not be enough for the animal lover, who would prefer to see the majesty of an actual bird’s wings in flight. However, the artwork is attractive. Flat shapes done in a sophisticated, Pantone-catalog palette lend to Boyer’s hip and minimalist aesthetic. Her excellent graphic sensibility makes each spread worthy of a single print advertisement.

Winner of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2010 Opera Prima Mention, this design exercise is notable. But while intellectuals and college design students may find it brilliant, children may not find it particularly gratifying. (Picture book. 4-7)

MY LIFE UNDECIDED

Brody, Jessica Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-374-39905-4

As a toddler, Brooklyn Pierce followed a lizard into a mineshaft, and her multi-day rescue operation received national television coverage. Now, having just burned down her realtor mother’s model home in an ill-fated drunken party, Brooklyn is grounded, socially exiled and sentenced to 200 hours of community service.

That decision-making is the issue at hand is impressed on readers at every corner, from the police officer who says of her mineshaft misstep, “I bet you regret that decision, huh?” to the You Choose the Story novels Brooklyn reads to Miss Moody, a cantankerous resident at the assisted-living facility where Brooklyn does her community service. Putting her every decision to a vote on her blog forces Brooklyn into new territory: She joins the debate team, hangs out with nerds to whom she has previously given the cold shoulder and forgoes sneaking out despite an invitation from a hot newcomer. That her blog becomes popular enough to go viral is difficult to believe, but the tugs she feels between her new life and her old one, her own decision-making and her readers’, create engaging drama.

A pleasant, if gimmicky, romantic comedy. (Fiction. 12-15)

ANYA’S GHOST

Brosgol, Vera Illustrator: Brosgol, Vera First Second/Roaring Brook (224 pp.) $15.99 paperback original | June 1, 2011 978-1-59643-552-0 A deliciously creepy page-turning gem from first-time writer and illustrator Brosgol finds brooding teenager Anya trying to escape the past—both her own and the ghost haunting her.

Anya feels out of place at her preppy private school; embarrassed by her Russian heritage, she has worked hard to lose her accent and to look more like everyone else. After a particularly frustrating morning at the bus stop, Anya storms off, only to accidentally fall down a well. Down in the dark hole, she meets Emily, a ghost who claims to be a murder victim trapped down in the dank abyss for 90 years. With Emily’s help, Anya manages to escape, though once free, she learns that Emily has traveled out with her. At first, Emily seems like the perfect friend; however, once her motives become clear, Anya learns that “perfect” may only be an illusion. A moodily atmospheric spectrum of grays washes over the clean, tidy panels, setting a distinct stage before the first words appear. Brosgol’s tight storytelling invokes the chilling feeling of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002), though for a decidedly older set. In addition to the supernatural elements, Brosgol interweaves some savvy insights about the illusion of perfection and outward appearance.

A book sure to haunt its reader long after the last past is turned—exquisitely eerie. (Graphic supernatural fiction. 12 & up)

A teenager fed up with the consequences of her actions creates an anonymous blog and asks readers to take control of her life choices.

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“There is plenty of slapstick, a few silly dream sequences and the obligatory gross bits.” from bad kitty meets the baby

BOY WONDERS

getting stuck in trees. There is plenty of slapstick, a few silly dream sequences and the obligatory gross bits. An appendix on cat training rounds out Bad Kitty’s Baby encounter.

Further proof that Bad Kitty can be good…especially in the eyes of her many fans. (Humor. 6-10)

Brown, Calef Illustrator: Brown, Calef Atheneum (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4169-7877-0 This boy doesn’t just wonder, he throws readers a forceful invitation: “May I ask you something? / Are you ever perplexed? / Completely vexed? / Do you have questions? / Queries? / Odd theories?” He does.

Brown’s book is in the grip of an effervescent momentum.

Not that it really has anything to do with asking questions—of curiosity, of inquiry—though the boy sure does ask lots of questions. It is what, and especially how, he asks that spins the wheel.

The story is shuttled along on Brown’s fine artwork: slightly jittery, slightly sinister, with blasts of color alternating with pages in shadow and clever interpretations of the boy’s increasingly loopy questions. His mind is a tinderbox to which Brown applies a match. “Do onions cry?” “Is water scared of waterfalls?”

He adds some subversive wordplay as kindling: “Do clouds get jealous during storms, and steal each other’s thunder?” And “[i]f I’m too tired, am I a bike?” Soon thereafter, great logs are thrown on the fire. “Would a happy toucan / from the Yucatan / become cantankerous / up in Anchorage / or the Yukon? / What about Tucson?”

In the end, the questions and words are whole lotta fun, but it is the music the book makes that is the most arresting entertainment. (Picture book. 6 & up)

BAD KITTY MEETS THE BABY

Bruel, Nick Illustrator: Bruel, Nick Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (144 pp.) $13.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-59643-597-1

In Bad Kitty’s return, she attempts to answer one critical question: “What the heck is that thing?”

In the beginning was Kitty. She was alone, and she liked it that way. Dark times arrived with the stinky, leaking, omnipresent Puppy; Kitty reconciled herself to that travesty. But after Kitty and Puppy spend a brief and ill-advised time in the guardianship of Uncle Murray, IT comes home with the humans. It plays, it stinks, it drools; Kitty is sure it’s a dog. When all her friends come over for a special round of Pussycat Olympics, they conclude IT is a New Kitty. (A Bad Kitty Screaming Temper Tantrum ensues).

Will Bad Kitty have a change of heart once she learns the origins of the family’s new arrival? Bruel’s fourth long-form tale of Bad Kitty (Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray, 2010, etc.) offers his trademark spastic black-and-white illustrations in full-bleed and spots with plenty of baby and cat sounds in dialogue bubbles (translated into English where necessary). Uncle Murray’s Fun Facts return with occasional chapters on cat climbing and |

CHARLIE AND KIWI An Evolutionary Adventure

Campbell, Eileen Illustrator: Reynolds, Peter H. Atheneum (48 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4424-2112-7

For a school report, Charlie and his stuffed kiwi travel in time to learn why a kiwi is so unlike other birds.

With Kiwi leading the way, Charlie goes back to 1860 to meet his five-times-great-grandfather, Charles. The three then journey to the New Zealand of 30 million years ago to see the early kiwi’s world, then to 150 million years ago to see dinosaurs with feathers. From then, they go slowly forward in time to the point when the first true bird developed before returning to their respective times. The straightforward story line demonstrates the theory of evolution as the process of a series of small changes over generations, each of which led to ever more successful reproduction. Reynolds’ cheerful cartoon-y figures think in speech bubbles; they share space with the narrative text, which is told with humor, plentiful dialogue, font sizes that vary for emphasis and attention to word choice. All this is set on generous white space, inviting and accessible to middlegrade readers and younger listeners. Produced in conjunction with a project and traveling exhibit developed by the New York Hall of Science and Reynolds’ FableVision studio, an animated bilingual (Spanish and English) version of the title is available on the exhibit website.

With appealing child and animal characters, a touch of fantasy and an adventurous narrative arc, this conveys an important scientific concept in a child-friendly package.

(Informational picture book. 5-9)

THE ASCENSION A Super Human Clash Carroll, Michael Philomel (384 pp.) $16.99 | June 30, 2011 978-0-399-25624-0 Series: Super Human, 2

Carroll heads back to the world he created for Super Human (2010) for a second adventure in teen-superhero territory.

After narrowly defeating the Helotry and Krodin, the ancient Fifth King, Roz Dalton, Lance McKendrick, Abigail de Luyando, Solomon Cord and James Klaus expect to return to their normal lives—or at least as normal

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“One of those rare sequels that exceed the first.” from the ascension

as teen superheroes can manage. When a strange mist briefly envelops the world, though, the five teens find themselves in a new America, one ruled by Krodin and controlled by martial law overseen by the Helotry. With their memories of Krodin’s viciousness and unnatural abilities intact, the teen team must find allies and attempt to defeat the Fifth King in a world he controls. The characters are much less absolute in their morality than in their first outing, making the narrative even more engaging. The teens struggle with the impact of their choices, and some of the former superheroes make appearances supporting the Helotry’s ruthless policies. Lance’s intelligence and quick wit are as strong as ever, while the reluctant Abigail comes more into her abilities. Futuristic technology integrates nicely with the superpowers for the climax.

One of those rare sequels that exceed the first. (Adventure. 10-14)

DISPLACEMENT

Chaltas, Thalia Viking (364 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-670-01199-5

In first-person free verse with halting rhythm, 17-year-old Vera narrates her sojourn in a tiny desert town she’s never seen and doesn’t know.

Vera wants to be someplace unfamiliar, someplace that doesn’t invoke her younger sister, who died in a drunken ocean swim, nor her older sister, who’s tried to replace their absent mother but seems aloof, so she hitch hikes to the desert and gets out at Garrett, where “nobody knows me.” Despite her obvious grief, Vera’s voice doesn’t easily inspire sympathy. In a mostly abandoned mining town characterized by “scraping-the-bean-can / unapologetic / starkness,” Vera squats in a deserted house and scoffs at the two part-time jobs she finds (“It’s certainly not what my once best friend Rob / would have called ‘rocket surgery’ ”).

Mercantile owner Tilly lisps, her pronunciations mercilessly spelled out: “He’th an artitht! / Bowlth, jugth, plateth, / thellth it all it all on the Internet.” Vera crushes on Lon, a businessman whose Indian identity is frequently reiterated: “I glare at him, / leaning forward / having dumped the heaviest words / directly onto his black-feathered Native head.” Lon doesn’t live up to Vera’s expectations (“Frickin’ noncommunicating-handsomehalf-Hopi,” she stews), and the text casts him as bad guy; only Milo the ceramicist is truly likable here.

The verse’s irregular, faltering beat matches Vera’s defensive grief well, but Vera herself retains an unlikable air of entitlement even as she moves on from the desert and back into her real life. (Fiction. 12-15)

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FINS ARE FOREVER

Childs, Tera Lynn Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-191468-3 PLB: 978-0-06-191469-0 The second installment to Childs’ mermaid-princess adventure (after Forgive My Fins, 2010) takes up just weeks after the Seaview high schooler has resolved to renounce her title to the underwater Thalassinia throne and become a “terraped” college-bound senior.

Princess Waterlily, daughter of King Whelk, would rather settle down as the plebian Lily Sanderson with her boyfriend, Quince—the pesky neighbor of the former tale, now loveobject—than assume her royal Thalassinian duties. Or would she? Lily makes a perfunctory stab at studying for her SATs and applying to a marine-biology program at a community college, when she is distracted by the sudden visit of her despised younger cousin, Dosinia. Sent by the king to live with Lily and her Aunt Rachel in order to learn how to appreciate humans, the flirtatious Doe charms Lily’s old crush Brody instantly—even bonding with him by kiss!—and generally making Lily’s life miserable in the two weeks leading up to her 18th birthday, when she plans to renounce the throne. Childs works in plenty of sea-worthy puns, though the plotting feels a little fishy and repetitive in this insistently lovey-dovey tale. Moreover, Lily’s cavalier ambivalence about assuming her patriotic duties and her air-brained negligence of her academic pursuits seem sadly retrograde.

For established fans of the first. (Fiction. 12 & up)

GILBERT THE HERO

Clarke, Jane Illustrator: Fuge, Charles Sterling (32 pp.) $12.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-4027-8040-0

Big brother shark thinks quickly and saves the day.

Gilbert the great white shark wants to take his new little brother, Finn, everywhere with him, but Gilbert’s friend Rita Remora wants nothing to do the tyke, who, in her opinion, is too small to play with them. Indeed, Finn struggles on the see-saw and is too slight to play finball. He does like the seaweed swing, which Rita and Gilbert strap him into so that they can go skating. All of a sudden, the sea goes as dark as night and all the fish scatter; it’s a killer whale! And he spots Finn, still strapped into the swing. Gilbert grabs the seaweed holding Finn just in time, but the whale doesn’t give up.

He chases Rita, Gilbert and Finn, who speed to a sunken fishing boat and elude the orca. All seems safe, but Gilbert gets a little panicky when he can’t find Finn and Rita. They pop out of a barrel, laughing. Rita and Finn have become friends, and the trio

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swims off together. This slapdash story of brotherly love is not improved by undistinguished illustrations or a chase scene that feels an awful lot like any number of animated kids’ movies. The copyright page includes interesting facts about sharks, but their placement makes them likely to be overlooked.

This fish story smells stale already. (Picture book. 3-6)

CATCH THAT BABY!

Coffelt, Nancy Illustrator: Nash, Scott Aladdin (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4169-9148-9

When bathtime is over, the whole family pitches in to help catch “Nudie Rudy,” who hides to delay having to get dressed.

Rudy is an adorable one-toothed toddler who just loves to be naked. As he dashes through each room of the house, more and more family members good-naturedly join in the chase to corral him and put his clothes on. They run fast, but Rudy somehow manages to evade them with his gymnastic feats, ability to find great hiding spots and his shouted mantra, “Nudie Rudy!”

By the end, Mom and Dad, brother and sister and grandma and grandpa have all joined in the chase. But by then, another burst of independence has transformed the tot from Nudie Rudy to Cutie Rudy, and the family gathers round to shower him with love. With yellows, blues and oranges predominating, the colors and style of Nash’s digital illustrations lend them a retro ’70s feel. Clever placement of props and body parts allow Nudie Rudy some semblance of privacy, although there are glimpses of his bare bottom: Be prepared for uproarious giggles.

Hysterical fun to share with the older siblings of all the Nudie Rudys out there, and for those Nudie Rudys as they outgrow this stage…but parents beware the power of suggestion and urge to imitate. (Picture book. 4-8)

Z. RAPTOR

Cole, Steve Philomel (240 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-0-399-25254-9

locals (the island’s name is no coincidence), Adam is lucky enough to run across other humans. Unfortunately, it turns out that they were also kidnapped, and not by anyone as benevolent as the FBI. With the raptor population on the island divided between two different types and one unusually intelligent velociraptor helping the humans trapped there, it seems that everyone is part of an experiment to see who will survive. Cole mercifully builds back story into his exposition to orient readers and then steps on it.

A non-stop ride from beginning to end, this installment is well constructed, larded with frequent and often violent action and reads even better than the first, leaving plenty of room for another book yet to come. (Science fiction. 10-14)

THE BIG WISH

Conahan, Carolyn Illustrator: Conahan, Carolyn Chronicle (36 pp.) $16.99 | May 4, 2011 978-0-8118-7040-5 If wishes were dandelions, then... a whole town might go crazy.

Little Molly’s yard is a carpet of dandelions. Her neighbor Granny Perkins, who also happens to be the mayor, calls them “a public nuisance.” But to Molly they represent a big wish that she’s growing: a World Record Wish, in fact. Molly’s idea that each dandelion represents a wish quickly catches on with the community. Even Granny Perkins dreams of the fame that a world record would bring to the town. Molly and her friend Poppy put banners and posters and wish boxes all over the place.

Close on the heels of the deposit of personal wishes comes a public argument about what’s the best “big” wish for the world.

Joy? Wisdom? A clean environment? The debaters turn to Molly to decide, but she finesses the question, saying that she needs to check and see if the dandelions are ready. They are! They’re white puffballs, ready for wishing. Then a threatening wind, sign of a pending storm, endangers the whole enterprise. Citizens speedily mobilize with heartwarming teamwork to protect the puffballs. And they succeed. Disaster averted, everyone picks up a dandelion and, in perfect unison, blows their wishes into the air. Conahan’s whimsical watercolors, full of swirl and movement, complement her gentle fable of community harmony.

Quirky and full of heart. (Picture book. 5-8)

In this sequel to Z. Rex (2009), Cole picks up the action with barely time to take a breath.

Thirteen-year-old Adam Adlar still has nightmares of trying to avoid the highly advanced, scientifically engineered dinosaurs that his father unwittingly helped create. Coming to New York City for Christmas vacation with his dad, he sets out from the hotel for a lunch date only to be kidnapped by the FBI. The next thing he knows, Adam’s on a boat in the Pacific Ocean, under attack by underwater creatures. Washing ashore on uncharted Raptor Island, scrambling to stay out of jaw- and claw-range from the |

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LEXIE

Couloumbis, Audrey Random (208 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 e-book: $15.99 | May 24, 2011 978-0-375-85632-7 PLB: 978-0-375-95632-4 e-book: 978-0-375-89322-3 Quietly and ever so gently, Couloumbis explores the topics of divorce |

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and remarriage and how they affect the children involved.

Ten-year-old Lexie is off for a week at her family’s beach cottage on the Jersey Shore, reluctantly leaving her mother behind for the first time since her parents’ recent divorce. What she doesn’t expect is that her father has invited his new “friend,” Vicky, and her two children, 14-year-old Ben and 3-year-old always-sticky Harris, who makes constant truck noises, endearingly preferring to be called Mack—for the truck, of course.

Vicky’s Mary Tyler Moore smile, perpetually pasted on her face, makes her real feelings hard to read, and Ben’s a bit prickly.

What’s worse is that Lexie didn’t see it coming; her father, afraid of her reaction, hadn’t told her this relationship is serious.

The cottage is small, so all of them quite believably get in each other’s way while exploring what this new family might feel like.

Lexie’s fears—becoming a guest in her father’s house and that her mother will be deeply hurt—are valid, but her worries are eased by the loving relationships surrounding her. Convincing characters and solid dialogue enhance the credible plot, which is more focused on feelings than action.

This tender, realistic tale might go a long way toward soothing the doubts of many children who are dealing with similarly trying situations. (Fiction. 9-12)

NIGHTSPELL

Cypess, Leah Greenwillow/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-195702-4 The distinctions between life and death are dissolved with sinister consequences in this dark companion to Mistwood (2010).

In the night-shrouded court of Ghostland, the dead do not rest quietly; they mingle freely with the living, dominating their amusements, intrigues and politics, centuries after their bodies have rotted away. Despite their disgust, the nomadic Raellians sent Callie, their youngest princess, as a prospective royal bride. Now her siblings have come at last: Prince Varis, ambitious for alliance (or conquest), and Princess Darri, determined to rescue Callie from her ghastly fate. Callie is not ready to leave, however, and the living and the dead each have their own agenda for their “barbarian” guests. While only a secondary character links this to the earlier title, fans will recognize the poetic style and rich characterization. The three protagonists stand out in their blunt vitality, but every character is portrayed with complexity and clear-eyed sympathy; none is unambiguously hero or villain. Elegant, allusive prose conveys both the claustrophobic horror and overripe allure of the decadent court, where the dead exude macabre charm, disarming sorrow and a dreadful “otherness.” Some may be disappointed in the lack of dramatic resolutions; the more thoughtful will appreciate the fluid navigation between good and evil, freedom and duty, life and death, with only love reigning supreme.

Morbid and moving, transcendent and triumphant.

(Horror. 14 & up) 770

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PRUDENCE WANTS A PET

Daly, Cathleen Illustrator: King, Stephen Michael Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-1-59643-468-4 A classic theme feels fresh as a squiggling kitten.

Prudence pines for a pet and adopts anything handy. Will a tree branch do? A twig? A tire? Daly’s matter-of-fact text is amusing but never mocking: “Prudence puts out a bowl of water for Branch. So far Branch has not been thirsty.” But “Branch is an outdoor pet…. Branch tripped Dad…. / Dad broke Branch into little bits and put them on the woodpile.” Other endeavors are equally short-lived. Pet Twig “ran away in the rinse cycle”; Prudence “frees” a pet shoe in the junkyard. (Narration toggles between past and present tense.) When “sea buddies” that “come in a package and are dry like Kool-Aid” fail to come alive, it’s the last emotional straw: “Prudence goes to live in the closet for the rest of the day.” Her crushing disappointment touches her parents, who kindly—despite qualms—take the only final step that could satisfy. With a touch of Quentin Blake flavor, King draws his animated figures in black line, washing selected bits in color.

Eyes are sometimes dots, sometimes googly (sometimes one of each!). The book’s shape is a horizontal rectangle; adults are too tall for their faces to show, underscoring its orientation firmly in a child’s emotions.

Demure yet mildly impish; when Prudence’s eyes “get hot and tingly” at the end, it’s for the best reason of all. (Picture book. 3-6)

ROBINSON CRUSOE

Defoe, Daniel Illustrator: Gelev, Penko Reteller: Graham, Ian Barron’s (48 pp.) $8.99 paperback original | June 1, 2011 978-0-7641-4451-6 Series: Graphic Classics A labored retelling of the classic survival tale in graphic format, heavily glossed and capped with multiple value-added mini-essays.

Along with capturing neither the original’s melodrama nor the stranded Crusoe’s MacGyver-esque ingenuity in making do, Graham’s version quickly waxes tedious thanks to forced inclusion of minor details and paraphrased rather than directly quoted dialogue in an artificially antiquated style (“You Friday. Me Master”). Frequent superscript numbers lead to often-superfluous footnotes: “Crusoe, a European, assumes that he is superior to other races. This attitude was usual at the time when the story was written.” Shoehorned into monotonous rows of small panels, the art battles for real estate with both dialogue balloons and

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“Set in 23rd-century post-apocalyptic Lunden, this electrifying sequel to Diamand’s Raiders’ Ransom (2009) is a thrill ride from start to finish.” from flood and fire

boxed present-tense descriptions of what’s going on (the pictures themselves being rarely self-explanatory). Seven pages of closing matter cover topics from Defoe’s checkered career to stage and film versions of his masterpiece—and even feature an index for the convenience of assignment-driven readers.

At best, a poor substitute for Cliffs Notes and like slacker fare. (Graphic novel. 11-14)

IN DEFENSE OF THE REALM

Deshpande, Sanjay Illustrator: Sharma, Lalit Kumar Campfire (104 pp.) $12.99 paperback original | June 14, 2011 978-93-80028-64-4 Series: Campfire Graphic Novel Classics An info-comic wrapped in a sketchy, overloaded plotline, this historical tale chronicles a fictional clash between the ancient Indus Valley kingdoms and an invading army of Akkadians.

Pausing for frequent but largely speculative infodumps about a civilization that remains almost entirely unknown, the author, an archeologist, sends the modern-sounding prince (“Oh! I so wish I was down there”) of a besieged city and his pedantic mentor on a tour. They go to neighboring MohenjoDaro and then Harappa, both to gather an army of allies and to marvel at the “very efficient system of regulations,” the public hot baths (“Another miracle of systematic construction”) and civic organization (“I have heard it is divided into three parts—a citadel and two large population centers”). Sharma leaves plenty of skin exposed as the buff, shirtless prince battles a leering traitor and then, with help from a bangle-laden dancing girl (who happens to resemble the prince’s lissome but warlike betrothed), contrives to ambush the Akkadian general. Still, readers are unlikely to care much about the characters, the setting or the clumsily expressed theme that “tact can win kingdoms without much loss of blood.” A closing spread of information about the mysterious Indus Valley ancients veers off into a discussion of the Rosetta Stone.

Despite occasional action sequences and all the skin, readers will be yawning. (Graphic info-novel. 11-13)

GILBERT GOLDFISH WANTS A PET

DiPucchio, Kelly Illustrator: Shea, Bob Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-0-8037-3394-7

when a dog arrives and befriends Gilbert, the little fish is over the moon. That is, until all that barking begins to irritate his nerves. Gilbert is happy when the yappy dog departs, but he still wants a pet. Next to come by is a mouse. Gilbert thinks she will make the perfect pet, but she disappears once she realizes that though he is orange, Gilbert is not, in fact, a piece of cheese. Gilbert next meets a fly, but that relationship quickly ends with the unceremonious “Thwack!” of a fly-swatter. Poor Gilbert. Will he ever find the perfect pet? Shea’s bright, cartoonlike illustrations place the emphasis on Gilbert’s emotional rollercoaster. His excitement and disappointment as he gets to know each possible pet are palpable, with swift digital semicircles charting his ups and downs.

Pair with Emma Dodd’s What Pet to Get (2008) or Fiona Robertson’s Wanted: The Perfect Pet (2010) for surefire petcentric fun. (Picture book. 4-8)

FLOOD AND FIRE

Diamand, Emily Chicken House/Scholastic (368 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-545-24268-4 Set in 23rd-century post-apocalyptic Lunden, this electrifying sequel to Diamand’s Raiders’ Ransom (2009) is a thrill ride from start to finish.

In alternating chapters, readers hear from former fisher-girl Lilly, whose mission is to return her friend Lexy to her father, the Prime Minister of England, and from raider Zeph, who is being forced to betray Lexy and Lilly in order to save all of the Angel Island raiders from a gruesome execution. Divided loyalties and crosspurposes abound as the three young people try to figure out how they and their precarious friendships can survive a world in turmoil. Even PSAI, supposedly the world’s only remaining computer, winds up with an identity crisis when he meets and is downloaded by a military supercomputer. Lilly, Lexy, Zeph and PSAI will all have to make hard choices and sacrifices to survive the violent conflicts escalating around them. To create a world in which unlikely friendships like theirs can flourish, they will have to do even more. Are they up to the challenge? Alas, readers will have to wait.

The rare combination of action at breakneck speed and significant, believable character development makes this just about impossible to put down. (Science fiction. 9-14)

A fresh, funny take on a popular topic—the perfect pet.

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“The book demands to be read aloud so children can join in the cacophony—and with this book, they will learn the meaning of the word.” from meow said the cow

MEOW SAID THE COW

an elemental, diminished state on the left page, while the good acts are fulsomely painted on the right.

Too didactic by half, with little cleverness to amuse while it instructs. (Picture book. 3-6)

Dodd, Emma Illustrator: Dodd, Emma Levine/Scholastic (40 pp.) $16.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-545-31861-7

A trickster cat causes mayhem in the barnyard.

Endpapers feature the monotone silhouette of a farm before dawn, and on the first spread of the story, readers see cat comfortably curled and sleeping. Not for long! Rooster throws back his head, and “Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!” tears across the barnyard. With that, the awakened, annoyed cat casts some spells. The next morning, rooster can only manage, “Squeak, squeak, squeak!”

The cow meows, the sheep bark, the horse quacks and, most ridiculous of all, the mice moo. Dodd’s digital art captures the mounting chaos with varied perspectives and intense colors that sometimes resemble block-print ink or broad crayon strokes. Bold typography careens across the pages, conveying the noise, and rhyming text helps build the pace as the confused animals chase cat up a tree demanding their voices back. Cat relents: “With a flick of his tail, the spells were undone. / All, that is, except for one…” Turn the page, and there is one last surprise. The book demands to be read aloud so children can join in the cacophony—and with this book, they will learn the meaning of the word.

Even Old MacDonald will applaud this edgy addition to the canon of books about mixed-up animal sounds.

(Picture book. 4-8)

GET HAPPY

Doyle, Malachy Illustrator: Uff, Caroline Walker (32 pp.) $14.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-8027-2271-3 A too-simple guide to walking on the bright side of the road.

Doyle’s intentions are honorable, and his clear opposites are aspirational. “Squabble less. Share more!... / Grumble less.

Giggle more! / Zone out less. Zoom around more!” A few of the admonitions are problematical. How, for instance, is a child supposed to warmly snuggle rather than sniffle when tangles are being combed from her hair? Why, for goodness sake, shouldn’t a kid feel a sense of worry (which, anyway, can deliver a disarming frisson) when thunder and lightning cracks and flashes through the night sky, instead of a sense of wonder? But for the most part, Doyle points kids away from selfish or rude or indulgent behavior, away from the evil twin and toward the happier one: “Pick less. Plant more! / Grab less.

Give more!… / Sulk less. Sparkle more!” (Or at least try to.)

Uff ’s artwork displays Helen Oxenbury–esque warmth if little of the master’s subtlety. The unworthy behavior is depicted in 772

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NO ROOM FOR DESSERT

Durand, Hallie Illustrator: Davenier, Christine Atheneum (192 pp.) $14.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4424-0360-4 Series: Dessert, 3

Lively third-grader Dessert returns for more comic classroom and family fun as she learns to cope with jealousy in her third outing (Just Desserts, 2010, etc.).

Dessert certainly doesn’t lack confidence. She’s sure she’ll easily win the prize for the best invention in her classroom’s Thomas Edison unit. At home, however, things don’t look as promising. Her mom spends all of her time with her two baby brothers and barely notices Dessert, while her dad concentrates on managing the family’s restaurant, devoted entirely to fondue.

As her despair at home increases, her certainty that she’ll win the classroom prize increases, especially when she privately judges her classmate’s inventions as obviously inferior to her own Vending Dresser, which would dispense a full month’s worth of complete daily outfits at the mere press of a button.

If she doesn’t win, however, this fully realized, vivacious little character might learn some important lessons beyond those her teacher, Mrs. Howdy Doody, includes in the curriculum. When Dessert’s mom forgets to pick her up at school, some family lessons may make Dessert feel much better, especially as she gets to eat real dessert—first!—at the family restaurant. Davenier’s sparkling line drawings help young readers visualize the action.

Another romp full of zesty, true-life fun. (Fiction. 7-10)

THE SCHOOL FOR THE INSANELY GIFTED

Elish, Dan Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $17.89 | June 21, 2011 978-0-06-113873-7 PLB: 978-0-06-113874-4 From the author of Attack of the Frozen Woodchucks (2008) comes an equally surreal cyber-caper loosely attached to an incoherent story line.

At 11 3/4, Daphna is already a talented composer, whose music transports listeners into refreshing trances—so she fits right in with the rest of her genius New York schoolmates.

Harkin “Thunk” Thunkenreiser is developing a chewing-gum computer that puts the chewer online as long as the flavor lasts, and her friend Cynthia is recasting Macbeth as a one-woman

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musical while starring in a string of smash Broadway hits. Two months after her mother’s disappearance at sea, ineffectual pursuers wearing antelope masks pursue grieving Daphna and her allies to a hidden valley on Mount Kilimanjaro, where the children find evidence that the school’s great benefactor, digital entrepreneur Ignatius Blatt (think Steve Jobs with the fashion sense of Ronald McDonald) has actually stolen all the wildly popular digital gadgets he claims to have invented himself.

Thanks to a spy in Daphna’s circle of friends, Blatt releases contact-lens computers that give him control (through a ring on his finger) over the minds of those who wear them. The shoveledtogether climax is of a piece with the rest of this overstuffed, self-conscious tale.

Confused readers will wish that the author had spent a lot more time fitting together the random and extraneous elements here. (Fantasy. 10-12)

THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE

Erskine, Kathryn Philomel (256 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-0-399-25505-2 Sent to stay with octogenarian relatives for the summer, 14-year-old Mike ends up coordinating a community drive to raise $40,000 for the adoption of a Romanian orphan. He’ll never be his dad’s kind of engineer, but he learns he’s great at human engineering.

Mike’s math learning disability is matched by his widower father’s lack of social competence; the Giant Genius can’t even reliably remember his son’s name. Like many of the folks the boy comes to know in Do Over, Penn.—his great-uncle Poppy silent in his chair, the multiply pierced-and-tattooed Gladys from the bank and “a homeless guy” who calls himself Past—Mike feels like a failure. But in spite of his own lack of confidence, he provides the kick start they need to cope with their losses and contribute to the campaign. Using the Internet (especially YouTube), Mike makes use of town talents and his own webpage design skills and entrepreneurial imagination.

Math-definition chapter headings (Compatible Numbers, Zero Property, Tessellations) turn out to apply well to human actions in this well-paced, first-person narrative. Erskine described Asperger’s syndrome from the inside in Mockingbird (2010).

Here, it’s a likely cause for the rift between father and son touchingly mended at the novel’s cinematic conclusion.

A satisfying story of family, friendship and small-town cooperation in a 21st-century world. (Fiction. 10-14)

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BELLADONNA

Finn, Mary Candlewick (384 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5106-0 A story as carefully and beautifully rendered as the anatomical studies that inspired it.

When Thomas Rose, “unteachable as a rabbit plucked by its ears from the market,” is kicked out of grammar school in rural England, 1757, he faces an uncertain future. Though he works hard, he doesn’t love the family wheelwright trade, and becoming a glover like his grandfather would be worse. Yet he must do something. A chance encounter with a young acrobat— Hélène, who goes by the stage name Ling—leads him to join a search for her missing circus horse, Belladonna, which in turns leads him to an unsettling apprenticeship under a man named George Stubbs. Stubbs’ fame as the greatest painter of horses in history is far in the future; for now, he’s dissecting rotting horse cadavers in order to fully understand their anatomy. Thomas needs a strong stomach as well as strong arms. Meanwhile, Ling fights not only for her mare but for her very survival; her history, gradually revealed, shows how completely alone she is. The plot flows slowly but gracefully, culminating in a realistic ending that offers hope without pat solutions. Thomas’ voice is thoroughly grounded in time and place, with a sense of history that informs but never overwhelms.

Best of all are the characters, particularly Ling, shown in all their flaws and glories, very much like a painting by Stubbs. (Historical fiction. 11 & up)

THE LOST HEIRESS

Fisher, Catherine Dial (384 pp.) $16.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-8037-3674-0 Series: Relic Master, 2

Character development trumps story advancement in this second entry of a fantasy tetralogy.

Surly Relicmaster Galen and his naive apprentice Raffi have escaped from the Watch with the message that the “Makers” (ancient space settlers, worshipped by the Order as gods) have promised to return. Rumors of an heir to the murdered Emperor lead the pair, along with their alien Sekoi companion, to follow mystical clues through the dreary Unfinished Lands, with old friends and foes alike in pursuit. This quest merely forms the plot framework; the heart of the tale lies in the struggles of Carys Arrin, the clever, cynical, maybe-friendly Watchspy. Along with Galen and Raffi’s searches, her explorations of the ancient palace coopted by the Watch allow Fisher to indulge her flair for fantastical worldbuilding, hinting at a rich imaginary history and the

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dark secrets behind its corruption. Meanwhile, Carys’ inner conflicts between curiosity, duty and loyalty provide a parallel journey into the price of personal integrity. These separate plot threads intertwine in a satisfying climax, posing puzzles to keep readers ensnared while providing pleasing narrative momentum to the overall series.

A sturdy, above-average adventure tale with flashes of brilliance. (Fantasy. 11-16)

OWL HOWL

Friester, Paul Illustrator: Goossens, Philippe NorthSouth (28 pp.) $6.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4017-1 A baby owl in distress brings out the best in all the forest animals.

The silence of the dark night is disrupted by a terrible howl. Could it be a wolf? The hedgehog is the first animal to find the howler, a tiny owl with enormous eyes. Next come a crow, the industrious ant and the squirrel. None can get the owl to explain her distress or get her to stop crying, even with offers of food and fun. The mole tries a bribe of a beautiful flower necklace...which also doesn’t work, though it looks nice hanging around the owl’s neck. The stag beetle tries tough love, but this only makes the owl howl even louder. Feeling terrible, the stag beetle then suggests rocking the little owl to calm her and finds a cobweb that, stretched between two trees like a hammock, is perfect for the job. They rock the little owl while the mole sings a lovely lullaby.

Suddenly, the little owl flies out of her makeshift hammock and into the air, landing in the wings of Mommy Owl, who gently asks what’s wrong. And the little owl stops howling. The slight bedtime story is enhanced by beautiful illustrations in deep hues and an offbeat cast of forest animals. Laminated pages make it appropriately sturdy for the very young target audience.

It may not be especially new, but it is awfully sweet. (Picture book. 3-5)

MY NOT-SO-STILL LIFE

Gallagher, Liz Wendy Lamb/Random (192 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $18.99 e-book: $15.99 | May 10, 2011 978-0-375-84154-5 PLB: 978-0-375-94330-0 e-book: 978-0-375-89974-4 A self-proclaimed artist learns lessons about friendship, thoughtfulness and the importance of having something to say.

Restless, exuberant and brightly colored in pink hair and rainbow eye shadow, Vanessa knows she’s not like the other “zombie kids” at her Seattle high school. Living with her 774

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Grampie and her dockworker mother, who settled down after becoming pregnant with her as a teenager, Vanessa longs for freedom and adulthood and assumes those around her do too (she constantly insists her mother should go on more dates, for instance). Readers instantly see the hurt she causes, despite her justifications, when Vanessa crosses boundaries to give the people in her life what she thinks they want—outing her gay best friend or spilling the beans to her shy musician friend Holly’s crush. Her desire for new, transformative experiences is clear as she falls in with an older artist crowd and makes dubious, impulsive choices involving an older boy, a fake ID and a pinup calendar. The device of an art teacher helping her realize deeper truths about herself and her art feels familiar, and the insinuation that dyeing one’s hair pink is merely a ploy for attention seems more like an adult’s assumption than a teen’s experience.

An adequate portrait of an art-obsessed teen, but, unlike Vanessa, it doesn’t stand out. (Fiction. 12-14)

PRINCESS ZELDA AND THE FROG

Gardner, Carol Photographer: Young, Shane Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-60325-0 Dog meets frog in this amusing retelling of “The Frog Prince,” which uses photographs of costumed English bulldogs against computer-generated backgrounds to illustrate the fairy tale.

In this version, Princess Zelda is the pampered princess pooch, dressed in brocade ball gowns and jewels as she plays with her favorite golden ball. When her ball lands in a mud puddle, a helpful frog (actually another bulldog in a frog costume) appears with a promise to rescue the ball if Princess Zelda takes the frog into her life as her BFF (best friend forever). The plot follows that of the familiar story, with the frog sharing the food and pillow of the disgusted princess. After a peaceful night’s sleep next to each other on a golden pillow, the frog reverts to a dog and Zelda changes her mind, declaring that she and the handsome canine prince were meant to be together always.

The story is told with a contemporary flavor, using abbreviations and expressions that don’t quite match up with the lavish, Renaissance-style costumes. The depictions of the frog prince are a drawback, because the dog in a frog costume doesn’t clearly show that the dog has been changed into a frog by a magic spell.

Without a warts-and-all depiction of the odious frog and his subsequent transformation into a handsome prince, the fairy tale loses its bite. (Picture book/fairy tale. 4-8)

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“As they outrun police on the rooftops of Paris and spar with exile Valks on their zany pursuit, David experiences ‘gustative biochemistry’ (aka his first kiss)—and more.” from how i stole johnny depp’s alien girlfriend

HOW I STOLE JOHNNY DEPP’S ALIEN GIRLFRIEND

Ghislain, Gary Chronicle (176 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-8118-7460-41

Fourteen-year-old David Gershwin, who’s waiting for another growth spurt, is used to troubled teens staying at his famous therapist dad’s home in Normandy, France, but one in particular captures his attention: Zelda, a girl of Amazonian stature who claims to be from the planet Vahalal (where men are forbidden) and who’s looking for her “chosen one.” By Zook, this potential mate just happens to be Johnny Depp.

David’s over-the-top humorous narration drives this slim, fast-paced debut, which is reminiscent of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. When he discovers that Zelda has secretly followed him to Paris, where his chain-smoking, designer-clothes–devotee mother lives, he vows to serve Zelda as her “Pudin” (comically confused as “pudding”) and enlists the help of his older quasi-stepsister Malou, whose playful banter often borders on flirtation. As they outrun police on the rooftops of Paris and spar with exile Valks on their zany pursuit, David experiences “gustative biochemistry” (aka his first kiss)— and more. Surrounded by so many tough females, he can’t help but finally muster some self-confidence, while no-nonsense, kickass Zelda, who claims that love is a sin on her planet, may be giving in to their “Earthling display of affection (EDA)” and re-evaluating her real chosen one.

With the end always in sight, readers know from the get-go that this cosmic romance will be one wild ride. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

THE SECRET PRINCE

Haberdasher, Violet Aladdin (512 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4169-9145-8 Series: Knightley Academy, 2 Plainly averse to messing with a successful formula (albeit one more closely associated with another author) Haberdasher (pen name for Robyn Schneider) returns to the politically tense “Britonian Isles” of her Knightley Academy (2010) for more boarding school pranks and intrigue.

Roaming freely about the conveniently deserted halls of both Knightley Academy and a rival school in the Stalinist North, first-year student and mysterious orphan Henry Grim and sidekicks exchange friendly insults, discover additional hidden rooms, organize an illegal weapons club that somehow remains a secret to most of the student body and join a clandestine counterrevolutionary cabal. Once again massive contrivances are required to keep things moving: As Henry and his |

garrulous roommate Adam, food-loving scion of Jewish bankers, sneak with relative ease back and forth across a guarded border, for instance, on one trip they run into the female lead, Frankie, who has just happened to run away andsurprise! hidden on that very train. Also as before, despite talking a good line of spunk, Frankie serves no role beyond upsetting others or putting them into danger.

Still, as new friendships form and older ones fade, clouds of war gather and Henry and Frankie finally get around to snogging, this muggleverse’s characters, settings and themes offer at least the comfort of familiarity to Harry Potter fans. (Fantasy. 11-13)

SCAPEGOAT The Story of a Goat Named Oat and a Chewed-Up Coat Hale, Dean Illustrator: Slack, Michael Bloomsbury (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2010 978-1-59990-468-9

There is nothing quite like giving a goat grief. That is, after all, why they are called goats. And the young protagonist in Hale’s mostly rhymed tale drapes all manner of blame on the horns of the family goat.

“Where is your coat?” Mrs. Choat asks her son, Jimmy when he comes breezing through in his shirtsleeves. The family’s goat, Patsy Petunia Oat, answers for him—“He left it in the park”— but since the Choats didn’t speak Goat, Jimmy blithely says: “My coat? It was eaten by P. Petunia Oat.” He blames everything on her: the lost TV remote, the boogers in the tote, the baby’s broken boat, her own shaved throat. That is until the day neighbor Sproat, who happens to be fluent in Goat, provides Mr. and Mrs. Choat with the goat’s-eye view, and Jimmy sets about eating a little crow. The wordplay here is enjoyable—“On Friday, Baby Choat’s boat would not stay afloat, and Mama asked Jim, ‘Did you break Baby’s blue boat?’ The Choat goat, Patsy P. Oat, raised her head and said, ‘He hit it with a rock’ ”—and there is a neat double comeuppance at the end, though neither approach incandescence. Slack’s Photoshop/collage artwork is attractively involving, edging toward Lane Smith but stopping short of his spidery spookiness.

No matter; readers will all be rooting for P. Petunia.

(Picture book. 4-8)

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“Most endearingly, Violet’s newly found ghost dog attaches itself to her as though it were a living pet.” from haunting violet

DON’T STOP NOW

Halpern, Julie Feiwel & Friends (224 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-312-64346-1 A road trip from Chicago to Portland, Ore., in a Chevy Eurosport with Dad’s credit card for expenses makes for a mildly enjoyable summer read.

The trip’s not really about Lillian’s stated need to find Penny, who might have faked her own kidnapping. No, it’s more about spending time with best friend Josh, who has never shown any romantic interest in Lillian, and enjoying a little freedom after graduation from high school and before the reality of college. Both Josh and Lillian enjoy the peculiar, and they aren’t afraid to indulge their whims. As they proceed from the House on the Rock to various museums and roadside highlights such as Wall Drug, the two find themselves struggling with Lillian sexual attraction for the uninterested Josh. Through it all, Josh and Lillian manage to let their quest for Penny, who is less a friend than an obligation, keep them on the road and moving forward. The dialogue sounds true without being crude and repetitive, and readers will enjoy narrator Lillian’s sharp wit. Credibility issues—the lack of financial limitations, miraculously blasé parents and the relative lack of interest from the authorities regarding Penny’s whereabouts—keep this closer to fantasy than anything deeper.

There is enough weirdness in this lighthearted road trip to keep it entertaining, although there is not quite enough depth or suspense to make it rise above the average.

(Fiction. 14 & up)

SUMMER JACKSON: GROWN UP

Harris, Teresa E. Illustrator: Ford, A.G. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $17.89 | May 17, 2011 978-0-06-18757-7 PLB: 978-0-06-185758-4

parents climb into her bed when they are scared or play on her swings, readers will laugh along with Summer at her predicament. African-American girls are rarely depicted in picture books, so it’s nice to see such a beautiful, confident little girl with her caring parents.

With a little bit of sparkle and a whole lot of sass, Summer will be right at home with any young girl eager to enter the work world. (Picture Book. 5-9)

HAUNTING VIOLET

Harvey, Alyxandra Walker (352 pp.) $17.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-8027-9839-8

In Victorian England, the daughter of a fake medium finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery when she starts seeing real ghosts.

Sixteen-year-old Violet has learned to pick pockets and set up rooms for fake séances, but she knows she’ll be stuck in poverty if she doesn’t marry a wealthy man. Fortunately she’s beautiful, and her domineering mother’s growing fame as a medium has brought them to the country estate of Lord Jasper, a devotee of spiritualism.

Almost immediately, Violet begins seeing the apparition of Rowena, a wealthy girl who drowned the year before. It’s clear to Violet, though, that Rowena was murdered and that the dead girl’s haughty twin sister faces equal danger. Harvey keeps the narrative moving smoothly and well as she weaves romance, suspense and even a bit of comedy into the story. She portrays many of Lord Jasper’s aristocratic guests convincingly as snobbish and uncaring, although a few befriend Violet. The author makes her fantasy believable by having Violet see not just one ghost, but roomfuls of them, both ancient and modern. Most endearingly, Violet’s newly found ghost dog attaches itself to her as though it were a living pet.

A well-paced, clever and scary supernatural-suspense story. (Paranormal suspense. 12 & up)

ME & JACK

When 7-year-old Summer Jackson decides she wants to be a grown-up right

now, she means it.

Sporting high heels, blazer and a briefcase, she sets off for school, intent on being the consultant she imagines herself to be. When Mama and Daddy slyly agree with their headstrong daughter, Summer finds out that being a grown-up is a little different than she imagined. It’s not all phone calls, meetings and bossing everyone around. There are dishes to do, Summer!

Warm pinks and violets, outlined in black ink, reflect every emotion of this little wannabe adult. Her cocked eyebrows and curly ponytail let readers know that she means business.

Her parents stick to the background, but clearly love their little girl and are bemused by her antics. When Summer’s 776

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Haworth, Danette Walker (240 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-8027-9453-6 Joshua, 11 or 12, knows all the hidden rules for making new friends, because his father is a frequently transferred Air Force recruiter.

When they arrive in rural Pennsylvania in the midst of the Vietnam War—a hard time to be a recruiter—he’s delighted when his father gets him a large (and rather unruly) dog from the pound. Jack turns out to be a Pharaoh hound, a rare breed of hunting dog.

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When trashcans are overturned, then a cat is killed and a horse attacked, neighbors believe Jack must be responsible, creating a witch-hunt atmosphere and doing nothing to improve Joshua’s friend-making prospects. Ray, a boy of his age, seems like a good friend-candidate, but he’s usually paired up with angry, spoiled, rich boy Prater, who plays with guns and seems to hate the newcomer from the start. Almost as bad, Joshua’s father, conscious of his own unpopular place in the community, sides more with the neighbors than with his son, leaving the boy on his own in his efforts to prove the dog’s innocence. While other characters are predictable and lightly sketched, Joshua is vividly depicted through his first-person narration and amusing interior monologues, and the conflicts he deals with are effectively realized.

In all, it’s an entertaining boy-and-dog adventure set against a not-often-depicted era of political strife that’s notably similar to the present. (Historical fiction. 9-13)

JUNONIA

Henkes, Kevin Illustrator: Henkes, Kevin Greenwillow/HarperCollins (192 pp.) $15.99 | PLB: $16.89 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-196417-6 PLB: 978-0-06-196418-3 Every year, Alice celebrates her birthday week in February with her parents in a cottage on the beach in Sanibel, far from her snowy Wisconsin home.

This year, as she turns 10, the expected holiday company varies just enough to feel odd and challenging: The neighboring Wishmeiers’ grandchildren didn’t come; another neighbor is snowbound in New York; “aunt” Kate arrives with a new boyfriend and his six-year-old daughter in tow. Alice’s longedfor find, a prized junonia mollusk shell, never quite materializes as expected. Henkes’ deceptively economical language is rich and complex, cognizant of the ways that the world of adults reveals itself to children, aware of the emotional weight of objects. The third-person narration offers a sense of depth and story beyond the borders of the novel itself, providing distance enough for readers to draw their own conclusions. The author’s own drawings grace the cover and chapter openings; the overall book design is elegant and supremely comfortable for middlegrade readers. An only child surrounded by affection, routine and attention, Alice has the space to realize that life can be an adventure experienced independently, even while held closely by those one loves.

Very few writers have such a keen understanding of the emotional lives of children; here Henkes is at the top of his game. (Fiction. 8-12)

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THE NIGHTMARE NINJA

Higgins, Simon Little, Brown (384 pp.) $15.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-316-05533-8 Series: Moonshadow, 2

In this second outing, Moonshadow’s world is still threatened by war.

The Fuma clan is ramping up attacks against members of the Grey Light Order, while Silver Wolf is building up his armies and agitating against the current shogun. When Moonshadow and Snowhawk receive a summons from the White Nun, they quickly head out to the mountain to protect their helpful psychic, but soon they realize the mission is a Fuma trap.

As they face down hardened gangster Jiro, freelancer Kagero and dreamweaver Chikuma, Moonshadow finds he must also watch out for Snowhawk, who is struggling to control both her anger and her death blows. Will Moonshadow’s skill be able to prevent a Twilight War between ninja clans? While Higgins keeps the swords slashing and the action rolling, things bog down a bit when the focus falls too heavily on Moonshadow’s mystic ability to connect with and control animals. Though the villains are treacherous and possess powerful talents, the two teen ninjas are able to defeat them too easily, slightly reducing the narrative tension. The author considerately blends definitions for many Japanese words into the main text and includes a helpful glossary.

Though inevitably fighting middle-novel syndrome, Higgins effectively uses this work to set the stage for a compelling third installment. (Adventure. 10-14)

ELIZABETH I, THE PEOPLE’S QUEEN Her Life and Times, 24 Activities

Hollihan, Kerrie Logan Chicago Review (144 pp.) $16.95 paperback original | June 1, 2011 978-1-56976-349-0 Series: For Kids Biographical narrative combines with activities to bring good Queen Bess to life, with mixed results.

Queen Elizabeth’s reign, like Shakespeare’s theater, was high drama, and during that reign the tiny island nation of England rose in stature among world powers. It was the Age of Exploration, the era of the Reformation, a time of drama in politics, in the church and on the high seas. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, but the king longed for a boy, an heir to the throne, and Henry’s divorces and multiple marriages in pursuit of a male heir caused much political and religious unrest. Elizabeth’s 45-year reign, though, was long and strong, as she made little England a military power and cultural giant. Billed as an “interactive biography,” this attractive entry

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in the For Kids series offers 21 activities to supplement the text and provide a sense of what Elizabethan England was all about, but there is a disconnect between the challenging, dense historical narrative and the activities, which include carving turnips, dancing courtly dances, singing madrigals and munching on marzipan. The many illustrations, maps, sidebars and the descriptions of activities accomplish what the text, as well written as it is, may not, by enlivening the volume and offering parents and teachers a way to make the era come alive.

A very qualified success. (timeline, bibliography, index) (Biography. 9 & up)

THE WOODS

Hoppe, Paul Illustrator: Hoppe, Paul Chronicle (44 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-8118-7547-9 The night light is on and the bedtime story firmly in the young narrator’s grasp, but stuffed bunny is nowhere to be found! There’s only one thing to do: He has to go into the woods, which are conveniently right next to his bedroom.

With a toy sword and a wastebasket serving as a helmet, he marches (in his pajamas) boldly ahead, right into the path of “a big, scary brown bear!” Luckily, the bear is scared of the dark too, so the boy shares his night light. The duo sets off into the deeper woods, where they meet two scary giants. These guys in green are just bored, so the boy shares his bedtime story with them. Off this quartet ventures, and comes upon a pink three-headed, fire-breathing dragon... And so on. The procession comes to a big scary dark cave and, holding hands, summon the courage to enter. Inside is a big, hairy, scary monster—holding a tiny red bunny! Mystery solved; the boy invites everyone back to his room, where a final illustration shows him smiling and clutching stuffed versions of all his banished fears. The refrain—”we weren’t afraid at all. Until…”—sets a comfortable pattern, and the fuzzy watercolors on thick creamy stock enhance the coziness of the tale.

Hoppe’s delightfully quirky monsters enhance this pleasant tonic for bedtime fears. (Picture book. 3-6)

TIGER’S QUEST

Houck, Colleen Sterling (496 pp.) $17.95 | e-book: $9.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4027-8404-0 e-book: 978-1-4027-8486-6 Series: Tiger’s Curse, 2 Break out electric fans and warn readers to schedule cool-down periods: Houck cranks the love-o-stat up another notch.

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In this sequel, the hypersteamy romance kindled in Tiger’s Curse (2011) between American teen Kelsey and immortal Indian were-tiger prince Dhiren flares into epic bouts of agonized soul-searching, inane lovers’ games and “hot, melty, smoldering” (but still chaste) make-out sessions. Kelsey also has multiple opportunities to measure her chiseled “warriorarchangel,” her peanut-butter–loving “golden-bronze Adonis” against not only several mortal would-be boyfriends but Ren’s own nearly as hot and certainly more libidinous younger brother Kishan, also a were-tiger. The actual plot gets under way when, at length, Ren is captured by malign sorcerer Lokesh.

Kelsey and Kishan flee from Oregon to India, then set out on an extended journey through hidden Shangri-La and other realms of myth in search of magical weapons to mount a rescue. Putting her background research to thorough use, the author punctuates Kelsey’s narrative with Hindu endearments and cultural information, plus encounters with such supernatural entities as the goddess Durga, fairies, wood nymphs, sirens, a gigantic snake (“I ssseennsse your purposssssse is not malicccioussssss.

Perhapsssssss you will be succccessssssful”) and Odin’s ravens.

A shocking, heart-rending, soul-tearing, dolorific, tear-starting, hanky-soaking development sets up further barriers to fulfillment in the next episode (due out in Fall 2011).

Perhaps best read as a sendup. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)

SHOOT FOR THE MOON Lessons on Life from a Dog Named Rudy

Humphrey, Corinne Illustrator: Humphrey, Corinne Chronicle (32 pp.) $15.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8118-7783-1

Humphrey ascribes to her dog Rudy a number of platitudes on life and living splashed onto brightly colored pages.

Rudy, a brown-and-white dog with a red heart on his collar, is the protagonist. “Find a hero,” says the text in big, bold script opposite an image of Rudy gazing upon a poster of a becaped Superdog who has captured a thief. “Find a balance …” finds Rudy balanced on two paws on a red-and-white ball. Rudy stretches and leaps and rolls with it and follows his star, ensuring that he, and readers, “will find happiness wherever you are!” The back story for this self-indulgent pseudo-philosophy is the author/artist’s adoption of Rudy from a shelter and how she began painting him, finding in him the source of her life lessons. The rich colors and simple shapes are eye-catching, but the simplistic advice is not. There is not a lot of child appeal. It is more like the kind of thing adults give to other adults instead of a fancy greeting card, although some of those evoke deeper emotions.

Ten percent of the net proceeds from sales will go to the Friends of Animals Utah, where Rudy was found. Or you can just make a direct donation. (Picture book. Adult)

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“Through Margot’s transformation from quiet girl to troublemaker, Humphrey thoughtfully explores the repercussions of bullying. Preteen readers will relate to Margot’s insecurities about her looks and her longing to fit in.” from mission (un)popular

MISSION (UN)POPULAR

Humphrey, Anna Disney Press/Disney Hyperion (416 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-1-4231-2301-9 With a mother who reads tarot cards, 2-year-old triplet half sisters and an embarrassing stepfather, Margot longs for a more mundane life.

On the eve of seventh grade, Margot has a lot to contend with, including a humiliating new nickname following a disastrous attempt to impress the popular crowd. Now that her BFF Erika is attending private school, Margot agonizes over how to capture the attention of her crush, Gorgeous George, while avoiding her arch nemesis, Sarah. In her haste to reinvent herself, Margot befriends edgy, cool new girl Em, entranced by Em’s defiant attitude toward Sarah. The constant barrage of Sarah’s subtle cruelty takes a toll on Margot, pushing her toward increasingly reckless behavior. Spurred on by Em, the situation between Margot and Sarah escalates and the stakes become dangerous as events spiral out of control. Ultimately, Margot must decide if being popular is worth sacrificing everything she knows to be right. Through Margot’s transformation from quiet girl to troublemaker, Humphrey thoughtfully explores the repercussions of bullying. Preteen readers will relate to Margot’s insecurities about her looks and her longing to fit in.

Margot’s cautionary tale offers an insightful look at a young girl’s journey of self-discovery and acceptance. (Fiction. 11-14)

POSSESSION

Johnson, Elana Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (416 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4424-2125-7 This debut dystopia succeeds at suspense and tension but fails at moral complexity.

Vi lives in the beige Goodlands, where good people wear required “oatmeal-colored shirts” and, by prohibition, never hug or touch.

But Vi does touch and kiss her boyfriend Zenn, and she crosses forbidden borders and unplugs herself from mandatory brainwashing transmissions. She explains early on that “Goodies are walking paper dolls, devoid of personality—and brains” while authoritarian Thinkers “do the thinking so regular people won’t have to.” Unlike speculative fiction that successfully questions whether eliminating wars and providing adequate food for everyone might be worth losing cultural freedoms, this tale manages neither nuance nor ambiguity. Vi escapes from prison with hottie rebel Jag and travels to seek asylum, pursued

by Thinkers of unknown loyalty, slowly realizing that she and Jag can control others. They lie to each other constantly, their supposedly deep love reading like simple sexual chemistry. Vi’s |

voice is sarcastic—“we were in the park after dark (gasp!)”— with random bits of teen syrup (Jag has “blueberry eyes”). Revelations come hard and fast but don’t feel meaningful, due to thin worldbuilding and sketchy details; in this society, how could Vi possibly understand a concept like “rights”?

Moral subtlety loses out to breathless pacing; the ending is derivative of Scott Westerfeld’s superior Uglies (2005).

(Science fiction. 14 & up)

SCARY SCHOOL

Kent, Derek Taylor Illustrator: Fischer, Scott M. Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $15.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-06-196092-5 Kent takes school integration to a new level with breezy tales of “learning, horror, and mayhem” at a grade school attended by a mix of humans and monsters.

As narrated by a chem-class fatality, the school year kicks off with the near-total consumption of a fifth-grade class by its strict teacher, Dr. Dragonbreath, for not following Class Rule Number Five: “No student is allowed to read this sentence.”

Further reductions in the student body come thanks to a temperamental vampire teacher, the aptly named Principal Headcrusher, the peckish librarian/disciplinary officer Mrs. T (for Tyrannosaurus) and a variety of “accidents.” By year’s end, the survivors of these and such other hazards as the playground’s “well of a thousand screams” have also had a gross and vivid lesson in anatomy from a half-zombie who shucks off his skin to show his organs in action, enjoyed delicious lunches prepared by a student of WereWolfgang Puck and are ready for a climactic round of Ghoul Games against a worldwide array of all-monster schools. Aside from being mostly monsters, the cast looks like a typical set of students and teachers in Fischer’s frequent spot-art sketches. A dedicated web site offers further goofs and games, and the author repeatedly promises sequels.

Familiar light fare for fans of the Wayside and Bailey School series, the Zack Files, Ghostville Elementary, etc., etc. (Funny horror. 8-11)

999 TADPOLES

Kimura, Ken Illustrator: Murakami, Yasunari NorthSouth (48 pp.) $16.95 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7358-4013-3 Having outgrown their pond, a frog family moves out, crossing a field where they meet a scary snake and then a hungry hawk that unwittingly flies them to a perfect home.

Opening with an image of proud parents admiring their numerous tadpoles in a circular pond, the next spread shows the

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“Combine a Pulitzer Prize–winning poet with a National Book Award–winning artist and, honestly, it’s hard to go wrong.” from oh, harry !

grown froglets, crowding each other beyond the pond’s borders.

Mother says, “We’ll have to move,” so off they go, following their father in a long, long line. Kimura captures the impatience of children on a trip (“When will we get there?”). Murakami, an illustrator well-known in Japan, uses just enough detail in his expressive images to make his simple, suggestive shapes and crayon line meaningful. With their extensive white space, these illustrations will show well to a group. When the hawk captures father and the rest of the family holds on, the landscape tilts and the line of young frogs is reduced to a chain of dots, emphasizing the height and distance of their flight. Their splash into a new, large pond is immensely satisfying. (First published in Japan in 2003, this tale may be confused with a book/CD kit that has the same English title but a different narrative arc, published in Australia but also available here.)

This well-paced journey, with just enough tension to keep young listeners engaged, will be a solid storytime choice. (Picture book. 3-7)

THE SIREN’S CRY

Kogler, Jennifer Anne HarperTeen (384 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-199443-2

Twelve-year-old Fern is an Otherworldly, a vampire—though why a non– blood-drinking, non-immortal, naturally born, teleporting telekinetic is called a “vampire” is left as an exercise to the reader.

After fighting the evil Blouts in The Otherworldlies (2008), Fern must now face a deadlier menace: rooming with the school’s mean girls on a class trip to Washington, D.C. Fern’s only distraction from the bullies tormenting her is her vision of a boy in a cage. The boy, she discovers, is Miles Zapo, a kidnapped Otherworldly just Fern’s age. Fern suspects Miles, like her, is one of the Unusuals, destined to do something or other. (It’s not clear what’s so Unusual, and it doesn’t really matter; as long as there’s a prophecy it’s important, right?) The kidnapper is the dastardly Silver Tooth, also known as Haryle (“Hair-uh-Lee”) Laffar, brother of evil Vlad from Fern’s previous adventure, and possessed of even more mysterious and evil secrets. The Smithsonian, the Hope diamond, moon rocks and mohawked, scaled, monstrous birds all play a part in Haryle’s villainous plans for Miles and Fern. A firmly middle-school adventure (despite packaging attempting to capitalize on the paranormal craze among older teens) composed of cartoon villains, unconvincing heroes and a muddled, nonsensical plot.

Volume one was far more coherent than this sequel— too bad. (Fantasy. 9-11)

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OH, HARRY!

Kumin, Maxine Illustrator: Moser, Barry Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-1-59643-439-4 Combine a Pulitzer Prize–winning poet with a National Book Award–winning artist and, honestly, it’s hard to go wrong.

Among the elegant equines at Adams & Son, Harry the Horse stands out—not for his admitted homeliness and lack of show-ring liveliness, but for his ability to soothe and befriend each and every restless new horse in the barn. Enter a high-strung human child. Has Harry met his match? Kumin knows horses—she breeds them—and her affection for them comes through clearly. Her jaunty couplets beg to be read out loud, though a few—“But before he set Algie down again / Harry shook him to dust off the grain”—strain just a bit under the rhyme scheme. As he did in The Tale of Funny Cide (written by The Funny Cide Team, 2006) and Our Cats Nick and Nora (written by Isabelle Harper, 1995), Moser uses vibrant watercolors from multiple perspectives against dramatic white backgrounds to convey animal personality and movement in an uncluttered way. His Harry grins and rolls his eyes in ways that, like the text, are fanciful but grounded in reality. Harry the Horse emerges as a full personality, and if the same can’t be said for young Algernon, that’s a small quibble.

Good fun for the preschool set and slightly beyond. (Picture book. 3-7)

THE ABANDONED LIGHTHOUSE

Lamb, Albert Illustrator: McPhail, David Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $15.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-59643-525-4 Poorly paced text delivers a choppy story unlikely to engage readers despite McPhail’s familiar, endearing art.

An abandoned rowboat, not the titular lighthouse, is the link between an amiable bear, a little boy and his dog. The text begins abruptly, announcing that the bear goes to a beach waterfall “to wait for fish to come tumbling down.”

A rowboat appears on the facing page, and because it “smelled good” the bear decides to nap in it. The sleeping bear in the fragrant boat sails off, arrives at the abandoned lighthouse on the next page, finds good fishing in nearby rocks and doesn’t notice when the rowboat again floats away. The boy and his dog find it, and while they are sleeping within it, they float to the lighthouse as well. No longer abandoned but occupied by bear, boy and dog, the lighthouse allows the threesome to save an approaching ship when they light the “nine wicks of the giant oil lamp” and use a “giant reflecting mirror” to make the light gleam.

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Quite as abruptly as it began, the story leaves the characters back where they started, while the ship is safely tugged into harbor and the little rowboat sails away. An unsatisfying read. (Picture book. 4-6)

THE LYING CARPET

Lucas, David Illustrator: Lucas, David Andersen/Trafalgar (78 pp.) $15.99 | June 1, 2011 978-1-84270-441-7 Children are ready for philosophy at a very young age: “What is real?” asked the Velveteen Rabbit, after all.

This beautiful and mysterious volume is not quite a graphic novel, although its black, white and gray pictures fill the pages and hint of Edward Gorey. There are an epigraph and a coda, which are also mysterious, asserting that “Truth and Lies are one.” A marble figure of a little girl, barefoot, looking up from the open book in her lap, sits on a plinth carved with her name, Faith. But one day she speaks, and the carpet—a tiger skin—answers her. She wants to move, to stretch, to finish her book, but the Carpet tells her that she is a statue, a work of art. He tells Faith that she might be under a magic spell; he tells her the shocking story of how he became a rug and how His Grace used to come to this room and read to the statue. He spins many tales, and then he says that everything he speaks is a lie. His Grace dies, and Faith jumps down from her plinth, flying off in the night on her tiger carpet. The house is filled with another family, and the youngest child finds the shut stone book, which one day opens in her hands. Stories—truth and lies—spin around each other, thick as the ornamentation that fills every page.

Fabulous (as in fablelike), this will tug relentlessly on the mind and heart of any child ready to read it. (Fable. 8-12)

ONE FOOT, TWO FEET An Exceptional Counting Book

Maloney, Peter; Zekauskas, Felicia Illustrators: Maloney, Peter; Zekauskas, Felicia Putnam (48 pp.) $12.99 | May 12, 2011 978-0-399-25446-8

the subsequent page: one snowman, five snowmen; one die, six dice; one ox, seven oxen. In each group illustration, the appropriate numeral is worked into the art (a coal-button 5 on the front of one of the snowmen; an 8-ball tattoo on one of the octopi). The illustrations are as deceptively simple as Thomas the Tank Engine and as elemental in their engagement. Maloney and Zekauskas add little touches—a small plane scooting by on each page, amusing asides within the artwork, a cumulative gathering of what went before on the verso of the die-cut page that serve as a reminder of the progression of numbers—to further beguile young readers.

A classy, well-turned piece of work. (Picture book. 3-5)

SYMPHONY CITY

Martin, Amy Illustrator: Martin, Amy McSweeney’s McMullens (48 pp.) $17.95 | June 7, 2011 978-1-936365-39-5 On her way to a concert, a young girl loses the hand of the adult taking her.

Following a trail of music through the city, she finds her way home where “the best songs love you back.”

This familiar home-away-home narrative arc is set in a busy city. Coming out from the subway, the girl hears music everywhere, beginning with a flute player whose notes emerge embodied as yellow birds. Music is on street corners, floating through windows and in the natural world. Kites carry her to the rooftops, where she dances with ballerinas. Double-page spreads feature clean, stylized shapes. Gray at first, these illustrations gradually fill with color. The yellow of the child’s slicker matches the birds she follows; though small, she’s easy to find. Cats are everywhere.

The minimal text is set in a small font, often part of the negative space on the page. This is clearly designed for sharing, not for independent reading. Adults will need to interpret the image of an empty turntable that opens the story and to provide reassurance on the scary pages where the two hands separate and the girl is lost among the faceless crowd.

This lovely tribute to the power of music to take us away and soothe our fears will likely fly over the heads of its intended audience. (Picture book. 4-7)

TÍA ISA WANTS A CAR

Medina, Meg Illustrator: Muñoz, Claudio Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4156-6

American English, as a language, has much to answer for, not least being irregular plural nouns—foot, feet; mouse, mice; goose, geese—but this cut-above counting book explicates them by wedding the numbers two to ten to plurals while the number one introduces the singular of each.

It is a clever conception—akin to the work of Laura Vaccaro Seeger—and executed with an elegant design. A die-cut window displays one of the group that will be discovered on |

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Since most of their extra money goes to help the family still on the island, Tía Isa and her niece know it will take time. The car will not only get them to the beach but will also be large enough for the rest of the family, once they start moving to the States, too. As the unnamed first-person narrator, the niece starts telling people around the neighborhood about her aunt’s dream and begins earning money by helping the produce man at his store, an elderly woman with her kittens and the librarian with her Spanish. Soon, they have enough saved. The car they choose is shiny green with plenty of room for the whole family. The two drive back to their apartment to celebrate the purchase with Tío Andrés. The last two pages show the young girl, now reunited with her parents, on the beach. Muñoz captures all of the action in watercolors accented with ink and pencil. Besides the pleasant story, the interwoven Spanish and references to “Helping Money” and families divided by immigration may make the book particularly appealing to immigrant Latino children.

A pleasant tale of determination. (Picture book. 4-8)

THE LOST CROWN

Miller, Sarah Atheneum (448 pp.) $17.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4169-8340-8

Tsar Nicholas II’s four ill-fated daughters provide a fictional, inside look at Imperial Russia’s dying days in this thoroughly researched, poignant and compelling account of how the deposed Romanovs coped with abdication and arrest from 1914 to 1918.

At the beginning of World War I, Russia’s grand duchesses, Olga (19), Tatiana (17), Maria (15) and Anastasia (13) lived privileged, protected lives with their mild-mannered father, Nicholas, their anxious mother, Alexandra and their hemophiliac younger brother, Aleksei. Relying on letters, diaries and photographs of the imperial family as well as memoirs of people who shared their last years, Miller imagines how war and revolution irrevocably transported the Romanovs from their palace to house arrest in rural Tobolsk and final captivity in Ekaterinburg. The human side of their story is related chronologically through the alternating first-person voices of insightful Olga, organized Tatiana, kind-hearted Maria and impish Anastasia.

Removed from the political drama exploding outside their doors, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia emerge as isolated, unique young women with their own dreams and fears. As they nurse wounded soldiers, care for their fretful mother, amuse their ailing brother and suffer humiliation and deprivation, the four sisters symbolize family devotion and enduring hope in the face of bitter fate.

A fascinating, moving exploration of the endlessly fascinating Romanovs, buttressed by extensive and fascinating backmatter. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

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TEN THINGS WE DID (AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE)

Mlynowski, Sarah HarperTeen (368 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-06-170124-5

A teenager discovers independence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

When her self-involved parents split up and leave town, 16-year-old April maneuvers to stay behind in her hometown of Westport, Conn., with her friend Vi, whose mother is always on the road for work. With little preparation, she is thrown abruptly into the adult world of housekeeping and money management, with predictably disastrous results.

April gets everything she thinks she wants well before she’s actually able to handle it. As the title implies, April makes a series of poor decisions she eventually regrets when she finds herself mired in the consequences of her choices. Mlynowski deals sensitively with the pitfalls of adolescence—self-esteem, sex, drinking—with fluid prose and judicious use of profanity, giving her characters credibility without making the dialogue sound forced. Her pitch-perfect rendering of the utter self-centeredness of the teen experience makes April’s gradual awakening feel genuine. While chick-lit, this is far more thoughtful and funny than such standards as Gossip Girl or The A-List.

Teen readers will respond to this entirely believable heroine as she navigates an at-times unbelievable situation.

(Chick-lit. 14 & up)

THE NAME GAME!

Moss, Marissa Illustrator: Moss, Marissa Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (80 pp.) $5.99 paperback original | July 12, 2011 978-1-4424-1738-0 Series: Daphne’s Diary of Daily Disasters, 1 On her first day of fourth grade, Daphne starts a diary that quickly becomes one of doodles and disasters and sets up a new series by the creator of Amelia.

In this series opener, her teacher, Ms. Underwood, mispronounces her name when calling the roll, so that classmates— except best friend Kaylee—are calling her Daffy. The very slim plot involves Daphne’s discovery that the name game has happened to others. Her solution is to nickname her teacher, but she realizes that she’s not the first to call her teacher Mrs. Underwear. The first-person narrative includes familiar middlegrade scenes—a trip to the orthodontist and the boredom of watching her younger brothers’ soccer practice—sketches of people and things, even rebuses. In a companion story that publishes simultaneously, The Vampire Dare, her vampire costume turns out to be a disaster, prompting classmates to claim she has cooties. Again Daphne turns the tide by transferring the onus

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“As soon as the first unfortunate skull is cracked open, [readers will] be catapulted head first into a world so ridiculously twisted that they won’t know what hit them.” from brother/sister

to a cootie-catching old doll. This light reading is made even lighter by the fact that the last quarter of each volume is taken up with extra material: lists and sketches of name disasters in the first and costume disasters in the second.

Hand-lettered on lined paper like Moss’ hugely popular Amelia’s Notebook (1995) and its sequels, this series is likely to appeal to the same middle-grade audience but feels a touch too familiar. (Graphic fiction. 8-11)

THE CROSSING

Napoli, Donna Jo Illustrator: Madsen, Jim Atheneum (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4169-9474-9 Riding in a cradle board on his mother’s back, Sacagawea’s baby son Jean Baptiste provides a fresh perspective on Lewis and Clark’s monumental westward journey from Fort Mandan, N.D., across the northwestern United States to the Pacific and back between 1805 and 1806.

When Shoshoni guide Sacagawea embarks with the Lewis and Clark expedition, little Jean Baptiste tells readers, “Rolled in a rabbit hide, I am tucked snug in a cradle pack in the whipping cold of a new spring.” Along with Jean Baptiste, readers will sail the Missouri River, portage waterfalls, traverse snowcovered mountain passes on horseback, glide in canoes through canyons embellished with rock paintings, gather roots in rain forests, build winter camp and explore whale bones on Pacific shore. As seasons pass and landscapes change, Jean Baptiste describes tall grizzlies, sparkling salmon, prowling cougars, romping elk, racing ermine, clambering goats, jumping deer and buzzing bees with childlike wonder. Richly hued, realistic, digitally rendered illustrations capture the pristine grandeur of the American west and its first inhabitants. The wee narrator, Jean Baptiste, appears on his mother’s back or in her arms in every double-page spread with high plains, waterfalls, mountains, forests and ocean as backdrop until he runs free in the final scene.

Experience the wonder of Lewis and Clark’s journey with the youngest expedition member. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

THE SECRET SPIRAL

Neimark, Gillian Aladdin (208 pp.) $15.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4169-8040-7

Mathematics, humor and fantasy just don’t add up in this awkward, misguided effort.

A magic hat, a missing parent, not one but two eccentric adult acquaintances and a couple of travelers from outer space all complicate 10-year-old Brooklyn-born Flor Bernoulli’s life in this briskly paced adventure. Unfortunately, the convoluted plot, |

flat characters and sometimes-too-obvious (a thin woman known as Mrs. Plump), sometimes-obscure (a cat called Libenits) wordplay combine to make Neimark’s first novel for children decidedly less than the sum of its parts (she wrote Bloodsong, 1993, for adults as Jill Neimark). Flor’s escapades start when she discovers that the friendly local baker, Dr. Pi (really), is actually the protector of a secret recipe—make that math equation—that allows him to, among other things, see the future and slow down time. Like Flor, readers are likely to say “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Since they’re free to put the book down, though, it’s unlikely they’ll bother to travel through time and space, across oceans and down spiraling lighthouse stairs, into a “mending a broken family” story and back home again for the resurrection of a dead alien only to discover that the whole long saga is apparently a set-up for the next installment.

Tedious, frustrating and utterly impenetrable. (Fantasy. 9-11)

BROTHER/SISTER

Olin, Sean Razorbill/Penguin (256 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-1-59514-386-0 When Ashley and Will’s violently drunk-ass mom is institutionalized by her strange, stoner boyfriend for the umpteenth time, the two siblings are left to fend for themselves.

Will is a sensitive, protective, outsider type with a penchant for golf clubs and harbors a serious anger-control problem; his knockout sister Ashley plays b-ball and tends to fall for douchebags who are more interested in getting into her pants than into her heart. Alone and left to their own devices, the two throw a house party that quickly moves from a drunken bash to a brawl to bloodshed. Melodrama reigns in first 100 or so pages, and Olin packs on the “oh-no-she-didn’t” moments heavier than an episode of Jerry Springer, which teen readers will adore. The tensions that arise are obviously forced, but readers won’t care as the body count soars—fans of Olin’s previous effort, Killing Britney (2004), will know he spares no one. Listening to the alternating voices of the siblings, astute readers might find themselves wondering whether this narrative conceit is a medium for confession or if it’s simply moving the plot along.

Most readers won’t care, however. As soon as the first unfortunate skull is cracked open, they’ll be catapulted head first into a world so ridiculously twisted that they won’t know what hit them. (Horror. 14 & up)

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“Everything you wondered about dogs but were afraid to ask is answered in this slim, friendly volume of canine Q&A.” from doggy whys ?

LONG STORY SHORT

calling to excess. The adult characters, particularly Carly and Arlo, are unusual and well-drawn, and the intimacies and betrayals of the relationship with Sarah ring painfully true.

A warm and substantive character study and a welcome addition to stories about LGBTQ teens. (Fiction. 14-18)

Parkinson, Siobhán Roaring Brook (160 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-1-59643-647-3

The first half of this intriguing but flawed tale from Ireland’s first children’s literature laureate is spellbinding.

Caring for his little sister, Julie, now 8 years old, has been a struggle for Jono, 14, since Da took off, but with Gramma’s help, he kept the household going. Now that Gramma’s dead, there’s not enough money left over to support them after Ma’s bought her sherry. Without a clear plan, Jono flees with Julie from Dublin to Galway, where Da lives. Jono’s an appealing, funny and observant narrator, so it’s all the more shocking when, halfway through the book, readers discover he’s left out key events that will transform how they perceive him, lying by omission. Unreliable first-person narrators can be tricky, and here’s where the story runs into a wall. Because readers never learn why Jono lied to them or how to gauge when he can and can’t be trusted after they do, they are unable to interpret the story. Working backward from the abrupt ending, readers can by inference distinguish some truths from lies, but with a lingering sense of betrayal.

In fiction, as in life, trust is essential to emotional engagement. Without reason to trust Jono once his lies come to light, it’s hard to care what happens to him. (Fiction. 12 & up)

SHE LOVES YOU, SHE LOVES YOU NOT...

Peters, Julie Anne Megan Tingley/Little, Brown (288 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-316-07874-0 Kicked out of her father’s house for being a lesbian, Alyssa adjusts to small-town life with the mother she barely knows.

Carly, who had Alyssa when she was a teenager, works as a stripper and lives, to Alyssa’s suspicion and surprise, in a $4 million house. Carly’s profession disturbs and angers Alyssa for reasons that are never fully explored, and Alyssa is initially hostile toward Carly and irritated when nearly everyone she encounters in their small town of Majestic, Colo., recognizes her as “Carly’s girl.” Alyssa takes a job at a local diner, working for gruff but kindly Arlo, one of relatively few characters in teen fiction to use a wheelchair, and alongside Finn, who instantly pings her gaydar and piques her interest. Flashbacks, some written in second person, describe Alyssa’s relationship with Sarah, her last girlfriend, and the complex and frustrating dance of hiding the relationship from Alyssa’s father and stepmother. The issue of stalking receives subtle treatment; Alyssa is afraid she cannot be trusted with a phone, and flashbacks show her texting and 784

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DOGGY WHYS?

Prap, Lila Illustrator: Prap, Lila NorthSouth (40 pp.) $16.95 | June 11, 2011 978-0-7358-4014-0 Everything you wondered about dogs but were afraid to ask is answered in this slim, friendly volume of canine Q&A. Questions range from why dogs bark and wag their tails to why there are so many breeds to that perennial question of why they sniff each other’s bottoms. Each spread features a question on canine behavior or attributes, which is followed by whimsical and arch offerings from a chorus of cats (“Why do dogs do what we tell them? Because they don’t know how to use their own heads. Because they can’t open a can of dog food on their own. Because they want people to like them more than people like cats”). Factual, accessible text then provides straightforward answers and a focus on a breed that personifies said characteristic, complete with a textured illustration in rich earthy tones and a description of the breed and its assets as a pet. Endpapers show different breeds as well as imaginary mixed breeds to identify (answers are at the back of the book).

Filled with questions any child might ask, replete with a sense of warmth and good cheer and packing enough offbeat facts to entice even the most reluctant reader, this is bound to be a classroom favorite as well as a great choice for any dog lover. Can a selection on cats be far behind?

(Informational picture book. 4-8)

THELONIOUS MOUSE

Protopopescu, Orel Illustrator: Wilsdorf, Anne Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-374-37447-1 Day after day, Thelonious Mouse sings cat-taunting scat, skittering through the house, tail swishing, daring Fat Cat to awaken and give chase.

His antics worry his cautious parents, and his timid siblings display neither talent nor inclination for the exuberant jazz that inspires Thelonious to dance and sing. When Fat Cat chases him into the playroom, Thelonious discovers a dollhouse just his size. Later, a toy piano captures the interest of the curious mouse. “The box had black and white steps, but they didn’t seem to climb anywhere. Each step rang out as he

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ran, hitting higher and higher notes.” That piano’s the catalyst for an unlikely new duet, as Fat Cat (now Glad Cat) leaps up to yowl and dance along with Thelonious, clearly mesmerized by the mouse’s infectious syncopations. Wilsdorf ’s antic mice are reminiscent of Valeri Gorbachev’s nuanced animal illustrations, though Fat Cat is more, er, broadly drawn. Plenty of action and droll interior details to spy should capture kids’ fancy, while grown-ups trying this as a read-aloud might need to pause to untangle their tongues.

Replete with scat-y, cat-and-mouse–y wordplay, this is giggle-worthy fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE DEMON’S SURRENDER

Rees Brennan, Sarah McElderry (400 pp.) $18.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4169-6383-7 Series: Demon’s Lexicon Trilogy, 3

Demons aren’t the worst evil stalking a gritty alternative England in the conclusion to an outstanding urban-fantasy trilogy.

Dancer Cynthia “Sin” Davies is a true daughter of the Goblin Market, the motley alliance of folk on the magical fringe. When the Ryves brothers—charming, manipulative Alan and vicious, inscrutable Nick—instigate open warfare with a Circle of murderous magicians, Sin finds herself competing for Market leadership.

Sin’s complicated background and her current dilemma provide almost too many plot conflicts, as she juggles loyalties to her families, her community, her friends and herself. Unfortunately, half the story is weighed down by romantic dithering before it finally explodes into a relentless rollercoaster of magical intrigue, deception, betrayal, counter-betrayal, violence, tragedy, heartbreak and sacrifice. Against impossible odds, the (more-or-less) heroes manage to pull off an ambiguously upbeat ending. But Sin remains a strangely shallow protagonist, ever the consummate performer and obsessed with appearances.

She dances chameleonlike through all the mayhem, observing and reacting, rather than instigating and resolving, as too many pivotal events occur off-page. This odd detachment diminishes the fiercely intimate exploration of family love that gave the first two books their emotional power.

Flashes of quicksilver humor and a tentative HappyFor-Now don’t quite overcome the ominous reminder that, when treating with demons, they “always take more than you can afford to pay.” (Urban fantasy. 14 & up)

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WITHERING TIGHTS

Rennison, Louise HarperTeen (288 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-0-06-179931-0

Fans of Georgia Nicolson will be thrilled to meet her cousin Tallulah in Printz Honor–winner Rennison’s new madcap melodrama.

Fourteen-year-old Tallulah Casey is headed to summer theatre school in Yorkshire armed with nothing more than a good-luck letter from Cousin Georgia and sheer determination to become a star. Because other than a penchant for breaking into Riverdance whenever she gets nervous, Tallulah has no talent to speak of. Desperate to impress her teachers in order to win a permanent spot at Dother Hall, Tallulah choreographs a bicycle ballet called “Sugar Plum Bikey,” which unfortunately ends up having the opposite effect and the added bonus of spraining her ankle. Meanwhile, she’s also nursing crushes on three local boys: older Alex, bad boy Cain and sweetheart Charlie.

It is almost summer’s end before Tallulah gets kissed and discovers that her talent might be making people laugh. But is being funny enough for Tallulah to be asked back after her fake-moustache–twirling turn as Heathcliff in the final summer production? Though some of Tallulah’s Briticisms may be confusing to American readers, her utterly hilarious glossary in the back will help. “The Bronte Sisters: Em, Chazza, and Anne…they wrote Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and loads of other stuff about terrible weather conditions and moaning. But in a good way.”

Rennison’s writing remains reliably, undeniably entertaining; Georgia would be pleased. (Fiction. 12 & up)

ASTRONAUT ACADEMY Zero Gravity

Roman, Dave Illustrator: Roman, Dave First Second/Roaring Brook (192 pp.) $9.99 paperback original | June 1, 2011 978-1-59643-620-6 This book will make readers want to flip through the author’s doodle pad, in case he has ideas that are even wilder.

Dinosaurs show up early in the book. They’re in outer space.

They come with wheels, so students at Astronaut Academy can race them. The school also has a time-traveling panda and a league of villains in footy pajamas. There is a plot here—something about a student being chased by his robot double—but Roman is more interested in playing with language than anything else. He uses intentionally awkward syntax (“ATTACKING is something frowned upon by people because someone may get hurt in the process”) and made-up spelling: At one point he even uses “bee” as a verb, as in “To bee or not to bee.” Some readers may be looking for a more focused plot—the author seems just to be finding his footing in the early chapters—but it’s hard not to

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like a school where Wearing Cute Hats is on the lesson plan. Fans of Harry Potter or Archie comics might appreciate the romances among the students. As in those series, the couples don’t get together in the first volume, but there are talking bunnies to see in the meantime. Some of them know karate chops.

Roman’s quirks may irritate a few readers, but many children will run to their own scratch pads to draw fierce bunnies, wearing cute hats. (Graphic novel. 10-14)

DARKE

Sage, Angie Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (656 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-124242-7 Series: Septimus Heap, 6 The penultimate episode in this wellcrafted series pits apprentice wizard Septimus and allies against a relentless tide of Things bent on overwhelming the Magyk that protects the town of Castle and establishing a penumbral Darke Domaine.

Their 14th birthdays become more battles for survival than celebrations for Sep and Princess Jenna when she is captured by the powerful Port Witch Coven. His planned visit to the deadly subterranean Darke Halls takes on special urgency after the Darke finds an opening in the palace and begins pouring out in a deadly tide through the streets. As usual, not only is the cast, particularly the large and tumultuous Heap family, sharply drawn both in the tale and in Zug’s finely detailed character studies at the chapter heads, but the danger and the spellcasting alike seem vividly real and credible. Lightening the load with humorous byplay and tucking in plenty of ghosts, strong-willed characters, deft literary references—a character named Bertie Bott, a house on There And Back Again Row—and a particularly exciting dragon battle, Sage expertly weaves multiple new and continuing plotlines together. An appendix ties up what loose ends it can while leaving the door open for the conclusion.

A memorable, edge-of-the-seat escapade that will enthrall confirmed fans and newbies alike. (Fantasy. 10-12)

WHO’S THERE?

Schaefer, Carole Lexa Illustrator: Morgan, Pierr Viking (32 pp.) $15.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-670-01241-1 Schaefer and Morgan have again paired up (Kids Like Us, 2008, etc.), this time bringing readers an emotionally expressive and linguistically playful book

about nighttime fears.

BunBun is an exuberant young rabbit who has no problem going to bed. But once he’s there, he hears noises down the 786

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hallway. With Boo, his bear, he is initially able to brush aside his fears, but as the noises get closer, he dives under the covers. His overactive imagination envisions the nasty creatures that must be creeping toward him. It might be a “Crusty Dumply Ogre, / with gnarly curly toes,” or it could be a “Grimy Gooey Ghoulie / with a snuffly droozly nose.” BunBun’s reactions mirror those of a small child—hiding under the covers, freezing in fear with heart beating madly. And the noise? Just his little brother come to check out the noises he heard. Courage restored, BunBun is able to act the part of protective big brother. Schaefer masterfully plays with language both in lines that often rhyme and in invented words that could feasibly have come straight from a young child’s imagination. And Morgan’s ink-and-gouache artwork perfectly captures this. Her portrayal of BunBun’s imaginary monsters are just silly enough not to spark fears in readers.

Make room for this one—with its spot-on characterization, humorous details and wordplay, this stands out even among the crowd of similar books. (Picture book. 3-5)

THE SECRET INGREDIENT

Schaefer, Laura Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $15.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4424-1959-9

Schaefer (The Teashop Girls, 2008) reunites best friends Annie, Genna and Zoe and presents them with their newest challenge, a baking contest featuring some tech-savvy publicity for the shop.

The summer before ninth grade, Annie, barista extraordinaire at her grandmother’s Steeping Leaf teashop, is fully immersed in her scone recipes, endeavoring to create the most original, tasty one for a competition with a grand-prize trip to London. Rules stipulate that entrants keep a food blog to generate interest in their ideas. Finalists for the Chicago-based bakeoff will be chosen from the five blogs with the most followers.

With the deadline approaching, Annie enlists her friends, family, shop patrons and residents at large of Madison, Wisc., to comment as often as possible on her daily entries of recipes, successes and failures. Annie’s dialogue-oriented narration smoothly melds fair competition with information about scone baking and the myriad wonders of tea drinking without feeling out of teen character. Genna’s return from New York with indications of some anorexic behavior is lightly addressed, as is Zoe’s interest in organic gardening. Meanwhile, Annie’s busy summer is made all the more confusing by a first kiss from her nemesis, Zach, and a nagging feeling that one competitor is displaying poor sportsmanship.

There is nothing like a good clean competition to convey some wise lessons about life, love, friendship and honest achievement. (Fiction. 10-13)

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“Abby’s emotional growth from her experiences, conversations and introspection emerges ever so slowly but will satisfy many teen readers. Leisurely but gratifying.” from between here and forever

THE DAY BEFORE

Schroeder, Lisa Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4424-1743-4 Letters from the past are interspersed into a free-verse chronicle of a crucial day for two teens who meet by chance at a beach town.

Amber heads out to the beach for a day by herself away from the family she loves, and, through a chance encounter with Cade, makes a lifetime connection, as this is also a critical day for him. Cade recognizes Amber as a child who was switched at birth in the hospital.

Her birth parents have gone to court to have her live with them for half the year; the child they raised has died. Amber’s anxious and angry, and somehow Cade is the balance she needs, due to his own mysterious challenges. Sometimes the poetry just tells the story, and other times it is almost too precious: “Lips on lips, / feel the heat. / Silky soft, / honey sweet.” Teen jargon (including some cursing) appears just often enough to feel realistic, and it helps to keep the cloying effect of the plot line in check. Unfortunately, as the day goes on, the intensity of this brand-new relationship that’s been forged in moments strains credulity. Like the limo ride from home to the beach, the connections over shared music and the secret Cade shares that makes him so vulnerable, it’s all a tad overdone.

Melodrama heightened by romance. (Fiction. 12-16)

BETWEEN HERE AND FOREVER

Scott, Elizabeth Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4169-9484-8 As she watches over her older sister lying in a coma following a car accident, 17-year-old Abby sorts out her own jealousies and fears in a feast of introspection.

Abby’s real relationship with the seemingly perfect Tess belies her younger sister’s concern.

Abby envied Tess’ beauty, confidence and ability to attract the approval of everyone she met. She even pushed herself into a relationship with one of Tess’ cast-off boyfriends, although she knew the boy loved Tess and not her. At the hospital, Abby meets Eli, an extraordinarily handsome boy who, it turns out, finds Abby attractive. Abby, however, won’t allow herself to encourage him, even though Eli entrances her. Scott slowly unfolds Abby’s damaged psyche as the girl grows in her understanding of both herself and of her sister. Abby’s ability to accept herself as an attractive person develops in parallel to her slow acceptance of the reality of her sister’s injury. Most likely, Tess will never emerge from her coma. The author creates well-developed characters in Abby, Eli and, eventually, in |

Tess, as Abby learns much more about her sister than she ever had expected to know. Supporting characters, too, easily stand out as real individuals.

Abby’s emotional growth from her experiences, conversations and introspection emerges ever so slowly but will satisfy many teen readers. Leisurely but gratifying.

(Fiction. 14 & up)

THE UNDERPANTS ZOO

Sendelbach, Brian Illustrator: Sendelbach, Brian Orchard (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-545-24935-5

In rhyming verse that sometimes stumbles, Sendelbach’s picture-book debut showcases a zoo where all the animals wear underwear.

From tighty whiteys to boxers and even a union suit, underpants of all styles, colors and patterns are depicted in bright acrylic illustrations. “Kangaroo’s boxers need / plenty of bounce. / For the sloths, / fluffy comfort is what counts.” Some animals’ choices will prove no surprise—the spots on the leopard’s underwear or the fact that elephant’s underpants are size extrajumbo gigantic. Others are a refreshing change—the zebras prefer stars on their underwear, and crocodile’s skivvies have to be seen to be believed. Many choices either solve or cause problems for their wearers—the penguins’ are prechilled in the freezer, camel’s are always collecting sand and anteater’s?

Well, readers can surely guess his problem. Sendelbach keeps his backgrounds and details simple, allowing children to focus on the humorous depictions of animals in underwear, some of which may cause adults to raise an eyebrow (the snakes share one pair, for instance). Overall, though, this tries too hard to be too many things.

While the word “underpants” may get readers to give this a try, repeat trips to this zoo are unlikely—better to buy additional copies of the Barretts’ Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing (1970) and Animals Should Definitely Not Act Like People (1980). (Picture book. 3-7)

ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE

Sheinmel, Courtney Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $15.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4169-9717-7

A seventh grader shouldn’t need to be an expert on the differences between jail and prison, should she?

Carly Wheeler is a popular student at Westchester County Day School. On Teacher Organization Day each year, she and her best friend Annie accompany Carly’s mom, Leigh, to the

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“Layers of watercolor over bits of collaged found paper deliver deft, dappled illustrations with remarkable depth, leaving readers feeling as if they’re peering down into rippling waters.” from jonathan and the big blue boat

set of the soap opera Lovelock Falls, where Leigh is a stylist. Carly and Annie overhear a strange conversation between Leigh and her boss Vivette, and Carly’s world is soon turned upside-down.

Both Vivette and Leigh are arrested and charged with embezzling money by using company credit cards for personal purchases and cash advances. Carly and her stepfather, or Faux Pa, as she calls him, are dumbfounded when they learn that Leigh is, in fact, guilty of the charges leveled against her. Realistically, there is much fallout, and there are many decisions to be made. Leigh must decide whether she will go to trial or plead guilty. Carly tries to sort out her feelings for her mother as she navigates an increasingly complicated and occasionally hostile social environment.

Faux Pa tries to resolve the legitimate anger he feels toward Leigh while salvaging the beleaguered family finances.

Although the plot and the first-person narration often come off as contrived, the compelling subject and likable characters will please drama-loving fans of the problem novel well enough. (Fiction. 9-13)

EARTH TO CLUNK

Smallcomb, Pam Illustrator: Berger, Joe Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8037-3439-5

The boy in Smallcomb’s story starts as a put-upon grouchypants but slowly turns over the course of a pen-

pal correspondence.

When his teacher tells him to write to his pen pal, he’s all grumps: “I don’t want a pen pal named Clunk from the planet Quazar.” He completes the assignment by sending his bratty older sister along with the letter. Clunk sends back a Zoid. The boy fires back with his dirty socks (a welder’s helmet and tongs are necessary to handle them, all part of Berger’s bright, sunny interpretations of the story’s brooding crankiness.) Clunk posts three Forps (“Forps smell like dog food”). Things escalate until the boy’s mother demands his sister’s return. Clunk takes a while to respond—the note has been sent in a box full of moldering lasagna—and the boy realizes how much he has enjoyed the skirmishing with Clunk. This tale scales no new heights of much anything, but there is no denying the pleasure of its dry, matter-of-fact delivery: “I got a package from Clunk today!

Inside is a disgusting glob of something. And my big sister.” And Berger’s artwork, with its Southern California–bungalow cheeriness, has a wonderful way of turning the story’s gravity in on itself, then stirring the ingredients into broad, spirited humor.

Rarely have school letter-writing exercises been so much fun. (Picture book. 4-8)

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JONATHAN AND THE BIG BLUE BOAT

Stead, Philip C. Illustrator: Stead, Philip C. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-59643-562-9

After Jonathan’s parents trade his teddy bear Frederick for a more useful and age-appropriate toaster, he sets sail on a rusty Big Blue Boat to find his lost toy.

Layers of watercolor over bits of collaged found paper deliver deft, dappled illustrations with remarkable depth, leaving readers feeling as if they’re peering down into rippling waters. Children will happily shift their focus from big to little, from large shapes to tiny numbers, from Jonathan’s story to the pieces that make up its pictures. A similar, subtle (and enchanting) disjointedness occurs as readers hear how Jonathan picks up his unlikely crew: a mountain goat, a circus elephant and a whale. The story sounds almost improvised, spouting spontaneously from a child’s rambling mind and taking a random, fanciful course. The Big Blue Boat teeters on top of a mountain after a storm, then runs into a circus, then meets up with scaredy-cat pirates, then finds itself saved from sinking by a whale. Stead gently establishes an element of suspense through both his patchwork illustrations and his bumpy narrative, keeping readers on their toes. When Jonathan steps inside a city shop and sees his bear in the arms of the girl behind the counter, they’re right with him.

Stead encourages children to puzzle over minutia, readying them to think about more opaque topics: growing up, obsolescence and the intrigue of old, forgotten things.

(Picture book. 2-6)

EDWIN SPEAKS UP

Stevens, April Illustrator: Blackall, Sophie Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | PLB: $19.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-375-85337-1 PLB: 978-0-375-95633-1 Edwin’s mother is the epitome of 1950s femininity—smartly dressed, elegantly coiffed and preoccupied with adult concerns throughout this entertaining supermarket romp.

Oblivious to the rambunctious antics of Finney, Fergus, Franny and Fiona, when Mrs. Finnemore finally loads her ferret family into her sleek, powder-blue Chrysler (with anachronistic seatbelts and a car seat), she also misses the meaning of Baby Edwin’s earnest babble. Therein lies the satisfaction for those who do attend to his speech bubbles. Had his mother been concentrating, she, too, would have realized that “Gloo poop SHOE noogie froo KEY” meant the car keys were in her son’s shoe or that “Gimpin chalk lil wiz um SWEETIN’ do a bye bye,” combined with Edwin’s endearingly outstretched arms, signaled that

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the sugar she was purchasing for his birthday cake was disappearing in someone else’s cart. Blackall’s highly patterned watercolor, gouache and ink scenes, infused with pink and turquoise, contrast with the white balloons surrounding his words—a choice that focuses attention. Stevens’ inclusion of potty words in the phrases will add to young listeners’ surprise and delight. They will cheer Edwin on as he patiently takes matters into his own hands, occasionally glancing winsomely at his audience, even as his mother wonders when he will begin talking.

This tongue-in-cheek tale of birth-order blues is a confection as sweet as it is silly. (Picture book. 4-7)

IMAGINARY GIRLS

Suma, Nova Ren Dutton (352 pp.) $17.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-525-42338-6

A sexy, surreal and touching exploration of the outer limits of sisterly love’s power.

In upstate New York, Ruby and Chloe have reared themselves after being abandoned by their useless drunk of a mother, and they nearly own their idyllic town. Ruby is a casually sultry beauty whose magnetic appeal allows her to get her way in matters of fashion, finance and affection. Ferociously protective of Chloe, who feels she’s “a pencil drawing of a photocopy of a Polaroid” of her sister, Ruby Makes Things Happen. When a fellow teen dies during a summer party at the town’s reservoir, where an entire neighboring town lies, silent and drowned, Chloe exiles herself to Pennsylvania to live with her father. But two years later, Ruby calls her home to discover that London, the girl who died at the party, is alive, and nobody remembers she was dead. Ruby is full of even more odd stories and rules, and Chloe is torn between a dreadful curiosity—how are Ruby, London and the reservoir connected?—and relief at being back in her sister’s fierce, loving orbit.

The mystery unfolds a tad too incrementally, but this glittering puzzle box of a story about the exertion of one girl’s will over life and death is as moving as it is creepy. (Psychological thriller. 14 & up)

FORBIDDEN

Suzuma, Tabitha Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (464 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4424-1995-7

spending her time and money on clothing, drinking and dates with her boss. Caring for their younger siblings is chaotic and draining, a fact impressed upon readers both by heavy-handed exposition and by repetitive food disputes, bickering and belligerent outbursts from angry, defiant and reckless middle child Kit, by far the best-developed character. Over 100 pages pass before Lochan and Maya discover their feelings for each other.

Though the author spares no cliché in evoking their tragically star-crossed love (Lochan even laments aloud, “How can something so wrong feel so right?”), she expertly manipulates tension, creating both pathos (“I can think of no other kind of love that is so totally rejected”) and urgency (“Being with you every day but not being able to do anything...[i]t’s like this cancer growing inside my body”), then delivering sizzling, multi-page frenzies of kissing, touching and more in the pair’s rare moments of privacy.

Titillated teens will pass this guilty pleasure on to their friends, but they may advise skimming all but a few memorable scenes. (Fiction. 14-16)

KILLER PIZZA: THE SLICE

Taylor, Greg Feiwel & Friends (352 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-312-58088-9 Series: Killer Pizza, 2

Touring the Killer Pizza Headquarters in New York, 14-year-olds Toby, Annabel and Strobe are sucked into a high-stakes case involving a teen runaway and a deadly Halloween sacrifice.

When Calanthe, a shape shifter, asks the teen monster hunters for shelter, Hidden Hills, Ohio, seems to be the perfect place for her, especially after she selects Toby as her guide into the world of normal teen behavior. When she gains the ability to shift into a giant snake, though, the mysterious Tall Man and his invisible rukh creature show up to hunt in Hidden Hills, but for the Killer Pizza team, surrender is not on the menu. In this sequel to Killer Pizza (2009), Taylor partially succeeds in ramping up the creepy factor, though the characters and plot still feel half baked. The Tall Man’s mystic tracking snakes become embedded in Strobe’s flesh in an undeniably icky turn of events, but the rukh’s abundance of teeth and tendency toward invisibility are more comical than threatening. Characterization is stiff again, with Toby, Annabel and Strobe behaving as though the author has programmed them and set them on a rigid path.

The same recipe as before produces predictably similar results. (Horror. 10-14)

Perhaps inspired by V.C. Andrews’ infamous Flowers in the Attic, British author Suzuma spins a tawdry ta le of an illicit brother-and-sister relationship.

Lochan and Maya, the oldest of five siblings, narrate in alternating chapters. Their mother, an alcoholic, neglects the children, instead |

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DIEGO RIVERA His World and Ours

Tonatiuh, Duncan Illustrator: Tonatiuh, Duncan Abrams (40 pp.) $16.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-8109-9731-8

A simple picture-book biography of Diego Rivera concentrates on his artistic career and encourages children to imagine themselves painting their own world.

Tonatiuh moves quickly through Rivera’s childhood and early career, concentrating on the artist’s murals and their inspirations. Clear language contextualizes the artist: In Spain, “he learned the classical way to paint, which means the finished paintings looked very realistic, almost like photographs,” but then in France, “he met young artists who were painting in new and exciting ways.” Without belaboring the point, the author honors Rivera’s politics as well as his love of his homeland.

(Notably and appropriately absent is any mention of Rivera’s problematic personal life.) Like his subject, Tonatiuh celebrates his ethnic heritage with brown-skinned, muscular, stylized figures. His shapes have an elemental look to them; heads are virtually round, and lines are clean and straight. Digital coloring adds both texture and whimsy. Concluding, he suggests that if Rivera “were alive today,” he might “paint students at their desks… / … just as he painted factory workers in the production line.” By establishing a link between modern readers and Rivera and challenging them to “make our own murals,” the author makes art both aspiration and action.

Both solid introduction and exhortation, this book will thrill budding artists. (glossary, author’s note, bibliography, lists of museums and paintings) (Picture book/biography. 5-9)

BECAUSE

Torrey, Richard Illustrator: Torrey, Richard HarperCollins (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-06-156173-3 Since Torrey’s wobbly, irresistible artwork tells the whole story, there is no reason to ask any explicit questions— such as, “Why is half the cake eaten?” or, “Why are you covered in Band-Aids?”—but young Jack always has the answer.

Following on the heels of Almost (2009) and Why? (2010), this book nods toward a survey of that classic response, so elegant in its singularity: “Because.” Most of the time, however, Jack has a perfectly good reason for doing what he is doing, with a “because” tacked on to the start of the response. Why is he sitting in the laundry basket with the dirty laundry flung all about? “Because it’s my spaceship,” which could just as easily have been “It’s my spaceship.” The whole pleasure of the simple 790

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“because”—that if the person asking doesn’t know the answer, well, then, really…go fish—has been undermined. “Because” serves here as prelude to the preposterous or comical. “Because you cheated,” Jack tells the dog that he has sent to the corner, a game of checkers left unfinished on the floor.

But still, because or no because, it’s a pleasure to see Jack learning to negotiate his way through the world, from longing questions to innocent answers that reveal far too much plain honesty. (Picture book. 4-8)

SHARKS & BOYS

Tracy, Kristen Hyperion (272 pp.) $16.99 | June 28, 2011 978-1-4231-4354-3

Thoughtless teen behavior leads four sets of twins on a deadly adventure in a horribly realistic but often very funny survival tale.

These eight teens have been part of a research study and know each other all too well. Enid, the only girl (she is a fraternal twin), is on a break from dating Wick, whose brother conspired to diss her in a zine co-authored by Burr and Skate, twins whose parents have just died in an accident. Narrator Enid isn’t funny on purpose, but her angst and stalker behavior are hilarious, as she abandons her responsibilities and drives five hours to eavesdrop on the guys, who are partying. The boys head to the Gretchen, a boat owned by Burr and Skate, for a slightly tipsy outing on the high seas, and Enid follows, sure that Gretchen is female and possibly a stripper. She ends up hiding on board in the head. When the boat goes down and they are left with only a plastic raft, the reality turns increasingly deadly as the often-fortunate coincidences of survival tales don’t help these kids out. As Enid names a few of the circling sharks, their increasingly dire situation reveals more about all eight twins, with twins Munny and Sov, who’ve seemed vulnerable, exhibiting unsuspected strength.

William Golding updated with humor. (Adventure. 12-17)

ADELAIDE

Ungerer, Tomi Illustrator: Ungerer, Tomi Phaidon Press (40 pp.) $14.95 | May 1, 2011 978-0-7148-6083-1 The third English edition of a justly obscure tale (it was originally published in 1959) featuring a winged kangaroo whose travels end in Paris.

As soon as she’s able, Adelaide flies away from her parents— first to visit India and other locales with a pilot, then to tour Paris with a well-to-do gentleman, become an exotic dancer in his music hall and injure herself rescuing two children from a burning

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“Striking illustrations and a pitch-perfect portrait of an unnamed pet’s personality combine to showcase charming (and practical) advice on how to make friends with a feline.” from a cat like that

building. Recovering, she falls in love with a kangaroo in a local zoo and, after a fancy church wedding, settles down to produce little winged offspring with the rather fatuous reflection that “her adventures could have only happened with her special set of wings.” The terse text is matched to sketchy, two-color illustrations in which the garish red of earlier versions has been replaced with a drab, café-au-lait brown. Unlike recent revivals of Ungerer titles—Three Robbers(2008), Moon Man (2009) and especially Otto: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear (2010)—this both shows its age and offers no compensatory graphic interest or emotional depth.

While it could be read as a metaphorical bildungsroman by adults, children will likely be indifferent.

Slight when new, it’s now a period piece to boot. (Picture book. 6-8)

ALONG A LONG ROAD

Viva, Frank Illustrator: Viva, Frank Little, Brown (40 pp.) $16.99 | June 7, 2011 978-0-316-12925-1

homophobia is nurtured by his firefighter dad and frowned on by his teacher mom and sister Jeannie, the school’s Fashion Club VP and Alan’s friend. That Alan, the club’s sole male, is its president goes unnoticed; gender bias is beyond the one-issue scope.

Alan’s dad is an Army colonel and clueless bigot. Manliness here equals homophobia; the one tolerant male adult is Adonis’ hippie, ponytailed English teacher. Adonis’ dilemma propels the action. (Oddly, he’s never teased about his name). Melody, the girl he’s pursuing, believes, approvingly, that Adonis belongs to the pro-Alan faction. Adonis’ football-team peers will reject him unless he treats Alan with ridicule and contempt. Chief among these one-dimensional stereotypes is Alan—kind, noble and the dullest drag queen ever to wear dresses and lipstick. Is he gay, transsexual, cross-dressing or questioning? We’re never told. Nuanced distinctions of character don’t exist in this curiously retro world in which no one watches Glee and gays in the military aren’t on anyone’s radar.

Weighed down by earnest good intentions, this tale of high-school homophobia falls flat. (Fiction. 12 & up)

A CAT LIKE THAT

What was one continuous 35-foot long work of art turns into a nifty visual exercise and an engaging image for young folk.

There are only four colors—black, white, blue and rust— except for that long, long road, which is a shiny ocher. The text is equally minimalist, with only a handful of words per page. The cycling hero curls over his racing bike, now like a crochet hook, now like the capital letter L, now like the letter U, sideways. He races around the town, through a tunnel, over a bridge, hitting a bump, stopping, riding again. That shiny road widens and narrows but never ceases, and readers will gaze wide-eyed at what is along the way: a boy getting ice cream from a truck; a pregnant woman, with boy and dog in tow, buying groceries and waving; the circus tent outside of town and the lighthouse at water’s edge.

Viva, an international cyclist and designer of New Yorker covers, among many other things, has a pleasing graphic style that indicates shape and movement with geometric form and line.

Great fun to look at; kids will feel the speed of the bike and the there-ness of place. (Picture book. 4-8)

CROSSING LINES

Volponi, Paul Viking (256 pp.) $16.99 | June 9, 2011 978-0-670-01214-5

An unsubtle and old-fashioned exploration of homophobia.

The football team is grossed out when Alan, flamboyantly effeminate, transfers to their high school (cue a relentless stream of homophobic jokes). The novel’s narrator, varsity player Adonis, battling a negative body image from chubbier days, is no exception. His |

Wahman, Wendy Illustrator: Wahman, Wendy Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-8050-8942-4 Striking illustrations and a pitch-perfect portrait of an unnamed pet’s personality combine to showcase charming (and practical) advice on how to make friends with a feline.

A large black cat with yellow eyes narrates, but on some pages the cat appears instead to be red, blue or purple. These color shifts effectively convey changes in emotion, activity or time of day and definitely add to the visual appeal but do run the risk of confusing young listeners. The cat’s litany begins: “If I could pick a best friend…” and then catalogs desired qualities. Many subsequent sentences echo the opening by including the phrase “I’d pick a friend…” While none of the criteria detailed are unexpected (no yelling or dragging, privacy when appropriate and good rubs make the list, for example), Wahman injects plenty of visual humor to keep things interesting.

Bright colors, off-kilter perspectives and stylized, exaggerated shapes bring her eye-catching artwork to life. Some paintings are reminiscent of Matisse, while others are cozier and more realistic. The final sentence circles back to the beginning and speaks directly to readers: “If I could pick a best friend in the whole wide world…I would pick YOU!” Cat lovers will be instantly smitten, and even those who aren’t as immediately enthusiastic may well be won over by this slinky, strong-minded, creature. (Picture book. 4-7)

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“Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother describes high-pressure parenting to produce high achievers; Yang explores the other side of the equation.” from level up

WAR & WATERMELON

Wallace, Rich Viking (192 pp.) $15.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-670-01152-0

Twelve-year-old Brody Winslow says, “It feels like my whole life’s about to change. Moving into junior high is like stepping out of childhood, whether you want to or not.”

And the summer of 1969 is an exciting and confusing time to grow up. When Brody’s first-person account begins, it’s August 11th. Men walked on the Moon last month, Woodstock starts on Friday, the Vietnam War is raging in the background, the Mets are losing as usual and Brody is beginning to be interested in girls, even if he does see himself as uncool, scrawny and awkward. Older brother Ryan turns 18 soon, draft age, a cause for conflict with his father, who wants Ryan in college, safely deferred. Mr. Winslow may be gruff, but readers may see his point of view as much as Ryan’s, who never comes off as an angry young peacenik, more a kid playing at possibilities. Mrs. Winslow, from the background, offers food as a palliative for all family crises. Wallace (Wrestling Sturbridge, 1996, etc.) may throw a barrage of historical references in the opening chapters, details jammed in like rock fans at Woodstock, but he still manages an accessible story rooted in a colorful time.

Readers will enjoy Brody’s story as he, in these few weeks, makes one small step toward manhood. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

WINDOWS ON THE WORLD

White, Andrea namelos (238 pp.) $9.95 paperback original | June 1, 2011 978-1-60898-106-9 If you could save one person in history from dying prematurely, should you? This dystopia explores that question through the eyes of a 13-year-old girl in the year 2083 as she comes to understand her connection with another orphan, who is trapped in the events of September 11, 2001.

On the same day that street-wise Shama Katooee in the slums of LowCity D.C. manages to steal a precious BriZance bird egg (a living machine that bonds with its owner’s DNA upon hatching), she receives an unexpected offer of a place at the Chronos Academy in UpCity D.C., the refuge in the sky created by the wealthy and powerful. While struggling to fit in with the other cadets, all raised in great privilege, Shama wonders why Lt. Bazel, a Time Design professor, singled her out. Was it because of their similar backgrounds or does she figure in the political intrigues surrounding control of the QuanTime machine? The third-person narrative focuses mainly on Shama, with intermittent chapters on Maye Jones back in NYC in 792

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2001 and Lt. Bazel. White, who has written about 2083 before (Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083, 2005), subtly poses other questions surrounding advancements in technology and capitalism in this well-imagined and disturbing future.

Readers will be eager for the sequel, so they can learn more about the logic of Chronos time travel and follow the next steps in Shama’s fateful journey. (Science fiction. 10-14)

LEVEL UP

Yang, Gene Luen Illustrator: Pham, Thien First Second/Roaring Brook (160 pp.) $15.99 paperback original | June 7, 2011 978-1-59643-235-2 Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother describes high-pressure parenting to produce high achievers; Yang explores the other side of the equation.

Dennis Ouyang’s destiny, as decreed by his late, Chineseimmigrant father, is to become a gastroenterologist. Except he’s flunked out of college, done in by his passion for videogames.

In the nick of time to rescue his dad’s dream, four little angels arrive. (Dennis recognizes them from the card his dad gave him when he was eighth-grade valedictorian.) They cook and clean for Dennis, get him reinstated and make sure he studies. Cute but relentless, they won’t let him pause to celebrate his admission to medical school but march him on to the next step in Project Gastroenterologist. When Dennis develops a social life, the angels reveal their scary side, pushing him to decisions of his own—but, frustratingly, the story punts on why Dennis chooses as he does. Pham’s slyly muted art, infused with console-game design, gives Dennis an appropriately (given his issues) childlike look. Those creepy angels will stay with readers. As narrative, Yang’s immigrant-parent theme—like the “be yourself ” message of his Printz Award–winning American Born Chinese—is conventional; braided with parallel strands of startlingly original imagery, though, it becomes more.

A piquant, multilayered coming-of-age fable for the wired generation. (Graphic novel. 10 & up)

CITY OF ICE

Yep, Lawrence Starscape/Tom Doherty (384 pp.) $17.99 | June 1, 2011 978-0-7653-1925-8 Series: City, 2 The chase after an evil sorcerer who is gathering up the scattered parts of a scarily powerful magical bow continues in this sequel to City of Fire (2009).

As the bad guy, Roland, and his dragon, Badik, don’t show up until near the end and then only for a few moments the central plotline takes a back seat to

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the ongoing squabbles of the motley group of pursuers. The chase takes place in a world populated by figures from world mythology and Yep’s imagination in such hordes that they seem to outnumber its human population. Riding a sky raft driven by an amusingly boastful wind spirit, young Scirye and companions (which range from her fierce lap griffin and a selfabsorbed, shapechanging badger to a maternal dragon and a troubled street youth) fly to the Arctic city of Novia Hafnia and the frozen wastes beyond, encountering wonder upon wonder along the way. Because even in the midst of battle and disaster the author always allows his characters time to marvel and exchange repartee, this won’t hold much appeal for readers after tightly woven, suspenseful tales.

Readers who enjoy inner conflicts, barbed dialogue, casts replete with supernatural creatures and fantasy epics that don’t take themselves too seriously will find it a treat. (afterword, bibliography) (Fantasy. 10-12)

THE DETENTION CLUB

Yoo, David Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $16.99 | June 21, 2011 978-0-06-178378-4 Being cool in the sixth grade turns out to be an unexpected challenge.

Peter Lee isn’t surprised to be accepted into the academically gifted program. Fifth grade was a breeze, and he and best friend Drew were popular because of their expert collecting skills. Peter’s perfect, older sister Sunny warns him that middle school’s completely different; she couldn’t be more right. On the first day, Peter and Drew learn that no one followed through on their mica-collecting challenge from last year. There’s no recess. Everyone grew. By the end of the day, Peter’s pretty sure they’re losers. How can they regain their popularity? Following Sunny around only proves she’s busy, not popular. Faked pictures from parties “in another town” impress no one. Even a cool escapist act for the talent show only nets them embarrassing nicknames. When Peter ends up in detention, inspiration strikes, though it jeopardizes his friendship with Drew. Yoo’s lovable loser becomes a whole lot less so when he preys on his best friend’s naiveté.

His journey from totally self-centered dweeb to team player is littered with wacky speed bumps (mostly of his own unwitting design), and preteens will see themselves and their peers in the halls of Fenwick Middle.

A slow start and a few uncomfortable laughs mar this at-times funny tale of a sixth-grade outcast. (Fiction. 9-12)

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BLOOD RED ROAD

Young, Moira McElderry (512 pp.) $17.99 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4424-2998-7 Series: Dustlands, 1

Born on Midwinter Day, Saba and her twin brother Lugh are opposites— she’s dark, scrawny and cantankerous, while he exudes calm with his golden beauty—but that doesn’t stop her from rising to the occasion when he needs her.

Weeks before their 18th birthday, four rough horsemen ride into their isolated, desert homestead, killing their star-reading Pa and taking Lugh captive. Saba embarks on a treacherous journey to save Lugh, with her pet crow, Nero, and her 9-year-old sister, Emmi, in tow. Saba and Emmi are kidnapped by slavers, who sell Saba to the Cage Master of the Colosseum, where she becomes known as the Angel of Death. Overseeing this macabre world is a king who keeps people in check with a narcotic, convincing them to renew his life by sacrificing a boy born on Midwinter Day. Saba learns about Lugh’s fate from Jack, a fellow prisoner.

With the help of Nero and a group of freedom fighters, Jack and Saba escape and rush to Lugh’s rescue. This debut is a mashup of Spartacus, the court of Louis XIV and post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Saba’s naive, uneducated voice narrates this well-paced heroic quest in dialect, an effective device for this tale that combines a love story, monsters and sibling rivalry.

Readers looking for a strong female protagonist will find much to look forward to in this new series. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

This Issue’s Contributors #

Kim Becnel • Amy Boaz • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Katie Day • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Lisa Dennis • Carol Edwards • Diane B. Foote • Omar Gallaga • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Megan Honig • Jennifer Hubert • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • K. Lesley Knieriem • Robin Fogle Kurz • Megan Lambert • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Hillias J. Martin • Jeanne McDermott • Kathie Meizner • Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • John Edward Peters • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Lesli Rodgers • Leslie L. Rounds • Ann Marie Sammataro • Mindy Schanback • Dean Schneider • Chris Shoemaker • Robin Smith • Rita Soltan • Jennifer Sweeney • Jessica Thomas • Monica D. Wyatt

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NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Tracking North America’s Sasquatch

Jevning, William CreateSpace (290 pp.) $19.95 paperback | $10.00 e-book | February 28, 2011 ISBN: 978-1452848013 Jevning’s book makes the case for the existence of Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot, through a variety of sources, from historical to anecdotal.

Jevning divides his book into two parts; the first section relaying the history and first attempts to track Sasquatch, the second concentrating on modern anecdotal accounts and scientific evidence. The idea of simian animals living in North America dates back more than 400 years; Native American peoples have long told stories of hairy, manlike creatures in the woods. Since then, there have been hundreds of similar reports in newspapers, ranging from the 1800s to the present. Jevning has collected many of these stories and presents research he has conducted on several of the “major” incidents, such as the famous 1967 film footage of a walking Sasquatch. From this point, Jevning talks about his sighting a Sasquatch at a young age, his involvement in the Sasquatch-tracking community and his personal field research and findings from the last 40 years. While Jevning would be the first to agree that there is no hard evidence supporting the creatures’ existence, the sheer amount of personal accounts and historical research he has culled is impressive. Newspaper stories from the late 1800s and early 1900s not only give weight to his case, they also provide a fascinating look at how such incidents were responded to by the media of the day. In cases of incidents occurring after the 1950s, Jevning has located and interviewed the people involved. These interview portions of the book (written in a question and answer format), while informative, can be meandering and make the book’s pacing a bit rocky at times. While Jevning is clearly a believer and enthusiast, his tone is always evenhanded, addressing incidents that he believes to be faked and giving as much factual information as he can to back up his claims. The latter half of the book, chronicling his experiences alongside some of the first people to investigate Sasquatch, effectively pieces together the physical character of these creatures, as well as what their habits may be.

Writing with experience and thoughtfulness, Jevning gives an intriguing glimpse into the mystery of Sasquatch.

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“A delightfully playful cross-genre novel whose science fiction is every bit as enjoyable as its historical fiction.” from the shield that fell from heaven

THE SHIELD THAT FELL FROM HEAVEN

Kerr, William S. Groton Jemez (254 pp.) $1.99 e-book | January 27, 2011 A French journalist encounters the American Civil War—and something even stranger—in 1861 Kentucky.

Edouard de Grimouville, a supercilious French stringer for Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, travels to the town of Somerset, Ky., on the eve of the Civil War—a conflict in which the neutral state is coveted by both sides. The newspaper’s better-known, more diligent and more talented (monsieur is somewhat lackadaisical) reporters are covering the higher-profile areas of the state, leaving de Grimouville free to gather background by interviewing the colorful locals, including Susannah, the hilariously filthy minded girl he impregnates and mildly likes; Mr. Graham, the enigmatic old coot who lives on the edge of town; and Nick Bromfield and his friends, who challenge their visitor’s conception of politics in the course of many spirited, and endearingly readable, late-night debates.

These same friends also challenge de Grimouville’s concept of reality by revealing to him a mysterious instrument that manufactures odd little stones; when someone holds one of these stones and so wills it, an invisible force field springs to life around that person. Light passes freely through the field, but nothing else does, including sound—and bullets. In a daffy turn of events that is nevertheless convincing and entertaining, these gentlemen spend as much time philosophizing about how the existence of a perfect defensive device alters the nature of societal relations as they do strategizing about how best to use the device against the loutish Southern soldiers who occupy and despoil the town. Civil War fantasies, such as those of Harry Turtledove’s Guns of the South, are here given a far more idiosyncratic and thoughtful twist, in chapter after chapter of sharply intelligent and pithy prose.

A delightfully playful cross-genre novel whose science fiction is every bit as enjoyable as its historical fiction.

AMERICAN INFERNO

Lowery, Bret CreateSpace (348 pp.) $19.99 paperback | $9.99 e-book March 2, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456575274 A crazy, wild journey up an Appalachian Trail paved with the stones of a philosophical quest.

Lowery totes plenty of baggage on this walk from Georgia to Maine— Dante as his guide, with a soupcon of Pynchon, a nod to the pre-Socratics, Basho, Robert Frost, Shakespeare, Whitman and others, making the work akin to The River Why and Golf |

In the Kingdom. But, delightfully, the end product is Lowery’s own. Dr. Durant Allegheny—could it be his real name? perception is the crux here—has hit the trail into the wild, looking for surcease from a life gone sour, or at least for his soul. He travels with Virgil, a runic, mostly monosyllabic, guilelessly endearing character. Early on they meet Padma, a virtuous pagan (or is it God or the Devil?) who bestows upon them a gift—guides to map the pair’s way forward. These guides prove to be incandescent trials-by-fire, as is negotiating Lowery’s writing—dense, probing, elegiac and as sinuous as the trail it charts, then becoming clear as a view from a summit. There is caterwauling, the swift transformation of emotions, psychotropic episodes, condemnations and deep investigations into decency and humanity, backlit by some of the ugliest company the Devil could throw at you. Though moving steadily northward, Durant spirals through confrontations with the curse of fear, greed (“We’re all petty and selfish and primitive Baptists.”), God (“Maybe it wasn’t over, maybe God was still evolving, maybe God would change. Which made for a really terrifying thought.”), truth, justice, love, pride and choice.

Allegheny finds a girl, too; Beelzebub, by name, who advises against his “intellectually-fueled avoidance of reality.” Lurking amid the intellectual fuel are lovely descriptions of places— the rhododendrons and trillium of springtime Tennessee; or his maelstrom “of the dead, the Mistress, the Amarita, the cognitive dissonances, the Atlantean inkblots”—and utterly winning, joyful talk about camping equipment; the real Lowery as innocent, enthusiastic hiker abroad on the land.

Deserves to be a cult classic.

EIGHT SECRETS TO ANSWERED PRAYER

Otto, Martin CreateSpace (88 pp.) $12.95 paperback | March 3, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456459123 Otto challenges the conventional idea of prayer, replacing its rigid notions with more generous methods through which to communicate with a higher power.

While studying to become a minister, Otto questioned the concepts he was being taught. If God truly is all-loving and all-powerful, why is punishment of sin such a crucial pillar of many religions? Why is the Bible—written by man, not God—scrupulously obeyed?

These concerns led him out of seminary and into a search for inclusive spirituality—one that embraces and unifies, not domineers and rejects. His book assists readers in connecting with a higher power of any kind, and instructs how to communicate with the power most effectively. The work is most beneficial for a reader searching for spirituality absent of deduction, but can also expand the satisfaction of one’s current religious practice. If readers reconsider their prior religious beliefs, it won’t be because the text instructed them to do so, but because of the author’s well-presented, strong ideas. This is the mark of

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k i r ku s q & a w i t h h . p. m a l l o r y Q: Walk us through your self-publishing experience. What things did you find most effective?

H.P. Mallory is an e-book phenom, racking up tens of thousands of monthly e-book sales of her two supernatural series. Those impressive numbers have caught the eye of traditional publishers and now the next three books in Mallory’s Jolie Wilkins series—about a civil war in the Underworld and, naturally, vampire love—will come out under Random House’s Bantam imprint.

Here, Mallory talks to us about cultivating an audience, straddling the traditional/self-publishing divide and the power of the paranormal.

Q: According to a list compiled from information on the Kindle Boards, you’re among the highest-selling independent authors. The list also contains many other paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels. Why do you think that genre is so popular right now?

A TALE OF TWO GOBLINS: Book 2 of the Dulcie O’Neil Series

H.P. Mallory Kindle Direct 358 KB $2.99 March 21, 2011

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SVP, Finance J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny

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Q: Do you still make use of the Kindle Boards?

A: I have Google Analytics set up on my website and blog, so I’m able to track all types of information about my visitors including which keywords they typed to get to my site. I check all my sales date through Amazon and B&N’s platforms.

A: Keep them cheap! Don’t charge more than $3.99 and you’ll get more readers. I charge $0.99 for the first books in both of my series. That has worked very well for me so far.

Q: Have you noticed any trends with your books sales? What kind of tools do you use to analyze your sales information?

Q: How do you define success for yourself? Is it selling as many copies as possible on your own, or is it signing with a traditional publisher?

A: I define success as being able to make more writing as a full-time author than I did in my previous job, which I quit to become a full-time author. I actually did just sign with a traditional publisher for three books in my Jolie Wilkins series, which will be coming out in 2012. I’ll still continue my Dulcie O’Neil series as a self-published author, though.

A: I’m not as active a blogger as I’d like to be. I am actually much more active on Facebook. But, yes, it is all about building a community. It’s really important to reach out to your readers and interact with them, to build a relationship with them. Facebook has been my favorite way to do that so far, but I also tweet and I also blog.

Q: What is most important to keep in mind when engaging your readers?

– By Perry Crowe

A: Readers really want to find out all there is to know about the author as well as the author’s books, so it’s important to ensure that your website has a plethora of information on it. I offer lots of fun stuff like surveys, pictures of characters and places, interviews, etc.

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Copyright 2011 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 0042 6598) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744.

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1 may 2011

Q: What is your attitude toward setting the price for your books?

Q: You feature guest bloggers on your website. Is it important to get a variety of voices involved?

SVP, Online Paul H o f f man

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A: The paranormal genre has always been hot— think of Frankenstein, Dracula and the gothic novels from the Brontë sisters. I think people will always have a fascination with things that go bump in the night. And with the rise of Twilight and True Blood, it seems people can’t get enough. Lots of people have asked me what I’ll write when the paranormal phenomenon dies away, but I don’t think it will. I think my readers will always be out there, demanding more and more creativity in the paranormal genre.

A: I don’t really use the Kindle Boards anymore simply because I don’t have the time. I do love the [Kindle Boards’] Writers’ Cafe, though. It’s a great place to learn more about self-pubbing and what it means to be an indie author.

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A: Self-publishing for me started, really, as a last resort. I’d attempted the traditional route to publishing and I’d snagged an agent, but that went nowhere.

So I uploaded to Kindle on the first of July and Barnes and Noble on the 7th of October and here I am today. What was most effective for me in spreading the word in the early days was contacting book reviewers and asking if they’d read and review my books. That really allowed me to get more and more reviews up and helped spread the word. I also posted quite a bit to various forums and I think that helped, too. I think some pointers to keep in mind for selfpubbers: The cover is crucial. It must be professional looking so if you can’t do it yourself, hire someone.

a quality book—writing that shows, not tells. Otto phrases his sentences in positives (even criticisms of the most dogmatic aspects of religion lack negativity) and suggests readers adopt a similar tone when expressing their prayers. Otto suggests rephrasing statements containing words such as “never,” “don’t” or “can’t” so that a prayer is sent out with positive energy, thus increasing the likelihood of a response containing the same. Though writing in the first person, Otto stays in the background; his book is devoid of specifics concerning his religious beliefs and personal life. The few anecdotes he includes are succinct and perfectly illustrate the concept at hand. Perhaps most praiseworthy is the author’s certitude—Otto never qualifies, nor defends, his statements. Potentially controversial subject matter is not preceded or followed by meek warnings—an unfortunately common maneuver in the genre. Otto spends no time arguing an idea’s legitimacy, and it is this confidence that, paradoxically, makes his book so convincing. This title deserves a reading or two, as the curiosity Otto imparts to readers leaves them eager to attempt, or at least consider, putting his suggestions into practice.

Otto’s knowledge, insight and spiritual satisfaction effortlessly transfer to the page.

THE GREATNESS GAP

Sprouse, Mike Advantage Media Group (193 pp.) $15.99 paperback | February 1, 2011 ISBN: 978-1599322667 Former tennis pro Sprouse coaches readers on how to achieve their potential.

Sprouse’s self-help book relates the story of his challenges growing up, maturing and forging two successful careers (first as a tennis pro and then as a marketing practitioner), using his experiences as teaching points for the reader. At the end of each short chapter about a particular time in his life, Sprouse includes a Coach’s Challenge that encourages the reader to think expansively about what the author has discovered and how to apply it to his or her life.

For example, in a chapter entitled “Realizing That Misguided Passions Are Still Valuable,” Sprouse tells the story of choosing accounting as his major in college because he was good at numbers, but realizing he wasn’t passionate about the subject.

He learns this lesson after an interview for a summer internship that didn’t get him excited. Sprouse writes, “I failed myself that day, and it was the best thing to happen to me. It helped me realize the difference between being ‘decent’ at something with a little passion and trudging through every day, and being ‘great’ at something with tons of passion and embracing every day.” In the Coach’s Challenge, Sprouse asks the reader, “What have you been good at, yet were surprised about being good? Or, have there been things you’ve been good (not great) at but NOT passionate about? Now think about those elements that caused you to have some success, but left you devoid of passion. Those very specific items you can list DO mean something. For me, it |

was the numbers and analytics in accounting—but not accounting as a discipline. What about you?” Every chapter is a little pearl of wisdom like this one, an inspirational moment that should provide self-reflection and help the reader jump the gap to greatness. Sprouse is plainspoken but a pleasure to read. The book includes autobiographical glimpses of the author, replete with self-effacing humor, woven together with sound counsel that could have a measurable impact on the reader’s attitude toward life. And the foreword was written by legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.

A well-constructed, engaging call to action.

DOWN THE RIVER

Wilma, David CreateSpace (300 pp.) $16.95 paperback | March 10, 2011 ISBN: 978-1434884176 Wilma’s historical novel of slavery in the American South rings with the power of its first-person narrator, the real-life Phyllis Lewis.

The story begins with two letters— one from a Lewis family lawyer presenting the book’s manuscript and the other from Lewis herself as she bequeaths her story to her children as she nears death.

A parentless, light-skinned slave, Lewis is very much an outsider from the beginning. Soon after her owner David Morgan moves his plantation from Virginia to Kentucky, Lewis gains entry to his home and Morgan begins to manipulate her life, first buying her a husband, then, after the couple has produced children, selling the husband off. Upon Morgan’s murder, Lewis is accused and held by authorities, though she’s ultimately returned to the custody of Morgan’s wife—but not before her slave community, including her children, is shipped off on a Mississippi-bound boat. Mrs. Morgan turns out to be a kind woman who solidifies in Lewis a yearning for Christianity and also takes her to Ohio where she frees Lewis to find work on her own. This new frontier offers Lewis a setting to examine the severe trials and losses in her life, to continue her education and to write down her story. The narrative Wilma recreates is based on fact, his interest piqued by learning the story of Mr. Morgan, an ancestor. Straddling the world of fact and fiction is tricky and leads to the story’s lack of tension, producing a sense that the book is largely a barrage of events, one after the next. Overall, what seem to be missing are the sensory details to pull a reader into the world the author creates. Still, Wilma’s evocation of Lewis’ voice is most impressive in the ways that this character manages to find strength in the bleakest of situations.

A new slave narrative that finds hope in the least expected places.

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