June 01, 2014: Volume LXXXII, No 11

Featuring 311 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction and Children's & Teen

KIRKUS VOL. LXXXII, NO.

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REVIEWS

CHILDREN'S & TEEN

The Turtle of Oman

by Naomi Shihab Nye With a little help from his grandfather, an Omani boy prepares for a sojourn in the United States in this deeply felt novel. p. 109

NONFICTION

In the Kingdom of Ice

by Hampton Sides A grand and grim narrative of thrilling exploration for fans of Into Thin Air, Mountains of the Moon and the like p. 83

FICTION

Song of the Shank

by Jeffery Renard Allen The brilliantly told tale of a 19th-century piano prodigy who was blind, autistic, and a slave p. 5

on the cover

Cristina HenrĂ­quez kicks off our summer reading coverage with her observant novel The Book of Unknown Americans. p. 12

INDIE

River Talk

by CB Anderson Anderson writes about Maine's welders, bartenders and bakers in her fiction debut. p. 130

from the editor’s desk:

The Kirkus Prize B Y C la i b orne

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

Smi t h

TH E

E IZ

Several days ago, Kirkus Media announced the establishment of a major new literary award for writers who have achieved remarkable literary insight. I’ve been sitting on this news for a few months now, so let me get right to the point: The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate RKUS P the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus R KI Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. The Kirkus Prize honors Claiborne Smith outstanding writing in the categories of fiction, non2014 fiction and young readers’ literature and will be awarded in 2014 on Oct. 23.

Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between Oct. 1, 2013, and Sept. 30, 2014, are automatically nominated for the 2014 Kirkus Prize, and the winners are selected by an esteemed panel comprised of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

• Each of the winning writers receives $50,000; the Kirkus Prize annually bestows $150,000 to outstanding authors.

• Only books that have been awarded the Kirkus Star are eligible to be considered by the judges of the Kirkus Prize.

• The editors of Kirkus Reviews award a star to an average of 10 percent of the 8,00010,000 books we review in any given year.

• Six finalists in each of the three categories will be announced on Tuesday, Sept. 30.

In the Young Readers’ Literature category, the finalists will include two picture books, two middle-grade books and two teen books.

• The winning author in each category will be announced on Thursday, Oct. 23.

• Self-published books that are reviewed by Kirkus’ indie section and that receive the Kirkus Star are also eligible for the Kirkus Prize and will be considered in their respective categories—fiction, nonfiction or young readers’ literature.

• Because a number of indie books are submitted for review past their publication dates, a starred indie book is considered eligible if the date Kirkus publishes its review online falls within the date parameters specified above.

• The official names of each prize category are: the Kirkus Prize for Fiction; the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction; and the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature.

• Judges will confer among themselves to choose the finalists in their categories and will then meet in person to choose the winners before the announcement on October 23.

Questions or comments? I’m at csmith@kirkus.com.

• It’s summer reading time. In the feature sections of this issue, we’ve sifted through the books publishers are offering up this summer to select the stories most likely to keep you entranced, whether you’ll have sand between your toes or are tied to your desk with only minutes to snatch here and there for reading. Enjoy!

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from the editor’s desk

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Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com Editor in Chief C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Fiction Editor L aurie M uchnick lmuchnick@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Indie Editor RYA N L E A H E Y rleahey@kirkus.com Indie Editor D avid R a p p drapp@kirkus.com Assistant Indie Editor M AT T D O M I N O mdomino@kirkus.com Assistant Editor CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Director of Kirkus Editorial JIM SPIVEY jspivey@kirkus.com Director of Technology E R I K S M A RT T esmartt@kirkus.com Marketing Communications Director SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com Marketing Associate A rden Piacen z a apiacenza@kirkus.com Advertising/Client Promotions A nna C oo p er acooper@kirkus.com

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contents fiction Index to Starred Reviews............................................................5 REVIEWS.................................................................................................5 On the Cover: Cristina Henríquez.........................................12 Summer Reading.............................................................................14

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

Mystery.............................................................................................. 37 Science Fiction & Fantasy......................................................... 42 Romance........................................................................................... 44

nonfiction Index to Starred Reviews..........................................................47 REVIEWS...............................................................................................47 Summer Reading.............................................................................62

children’s & teen Index to Starred Reviews......................................................... 87 REVIEWS.............................................................................................. 87 Summer Reading MIDDLE-GRADE..............................................92 Summer Reading TEEN............................................................... 104 back-to-school roundup........................................................ 119 interactive e-books.................................................................. 126

indie Index to Starred Reviews........................................................ 129 REVIEWS............................................................................................. 129 Summer Reading............................................................................136

Appreciations: love medicine turns 30............................. 147

Ben Macintyre returns with a book as well-crafted as an episode of Smiley’s People, full of cynical inevitability, secrets, lashings of whiskey and corpses.

Read the review on p. 75. |

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on the web w w w. k i r k u s . c o m

jail. So what really happens when this cult legend sticks out his thumb and faces the open road? His real-life rides include a gentle 81-yearold farmer who is convinced Waters is a hobo, an indie band on tour and the perverse filmmaker’s unexpected hero: a young, sandy-haired Republican in a Corvette. Face it: Wouldn’t you rather strike out on the road with John Waters than Jack Kerouac? Look for our interview in June with Waters at kirkus.com.

Check out these highlights from Kirkus’ online coverage at www.kirkus.com 9

John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache and a cardboard sign that reads “I’m Not Psycho,” he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. But who should we be more worried about: the delicate film director with genteel manners or the unsuspecting travelers transporting the Pope of Trash? Before he leaves for this bizarre adventure, Waters fantasizes about the best and worst possible scenarios: a friendly drug dealer hands over piles of cash to finance films with no questions asked, a demolition-derby driver makes a filthy sexual request in the middle of a race, a gun-toting drunk terrorizes and holds him hostage, and a Kansas vice squad entraps and throws him in Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/print-indexes Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/advertising-opportunities

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Mary Byrd Thornton could understand how a reporter couldn’t resist the story: a 9-year-old boy sexually molested and killed on Mother’s Day, 1966.

A suspect to whom nothing would stick. A neighborhood riddled with secrets. No one, especially the bungling or complicit authorities, had been able to solve the crime. Now, 30 years later, the reporter’s call will reel a reluctant Mary Byrd from Mississippi back to Virginia, where she must confront her family—and, once again, the murder’s irremovable stain of tragedy. Lisa Howorth’s debut novel, Flying Shoes, is a work of fiction, but the murder is based on the still-unsolved case of her stepbrother, a front page story in the Washington Post. And yet this is not a crime novel; it is the story of a particular time and place in the South, where even calamitous weather can be a character, everyone has a story, and all are inextricably entwined. We talk to Howorth in June at kirkus.com.

Photo courtesy Maude Schuyler Clay

Photo courtesy Yolanda Perez

After a 14-year estrangement, Maria Venegas returns to Mexico from the United States to visit her father, who is living in the old hacienda where both he and she were born. While spending the following summers and holidays together, herding cattle and fixing barbed wire fences, he begins sharing stories with her, tales of a dramatic life filled with both intense love and brutal violence— from the final conversations he had with his own father to his extradition from the United States for murder to his mother’s pride after he shot a man for the first time at the age of 12.

Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter is Venegas’ reckoning with her father’s difficult legacy. Moving between Mexico and New York, between past and present, Venegas traces her own life and her father’s as, over time, a new closeness and understanding develop between them. Bulletproof Vest opens with a harrowing ambush on Venegas’ father while he’s driving near his home in Mexico.

He survives the assault—but years later the federales will find him dead near the very same curve, and his daughter will be left with not only the stories she inherited from him, but also a better understanding of the violent undercurrent that shaped her father’s life as well as her own. We talk to Venegas about writing her debut memoir at kirkus. com this month.

9 And be sure to check out our Indie publishing series, featuring some of today’s most intriguing self-published authors. We feature authors’ exclusive personal essays and reported articles on how they achieved their success in publishing. It’s a must-read resource for any aspiring author interested in getting readers to notice their new books.

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fiction SONG OF THE SHANK

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Allen, Jeffery Renard Graywolf (584 pp.) $18.00 paper | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-55597-680-4

SONG OF THE SHANK by Jeffery Renard Allen..................................5 MR. GWYN by Alessandro Baricco; trans. by Ann Goldstein............... 6 LUCKY US by Amy Bloom......................................................................8 HURRICANE FEVER by Tobias S. Buckell...........................................10 A BRAVE MAN SEVEN STOREYS TALL by Will Chancellor.............10 PAPER LANTERN by Stuart Dybek....................................................16 ALL I LOVE AND KNOW by Judith Frank..........................................18 THE HOUR OF LEAD by Bruce Holbert............................................. 20 THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD by Michael Koryta...........................21 THE INVENTION OF EXILE by Vanessa Manko................................ 24 US CONDUCTORS by Sean Michaels..................................................25 WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICITY by Christina Nichol................... 26 NO COUNTRY by Kalyan Ray............................................................ 29 LA GRANDE by Juan José Saer; trans. by Steve Dolph..................... 29 BEOWULF by J.R.R. Tolkien................................................................ 33 THE GREAT GLASS SEA by Josh Weil.................................................34 THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF LIES

by Jacqueline Winspear......................................................................... 35 EYRIE by Tim Winton...........................................................................36 DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY by Tom Bouman.................................. 37 A POSSIBILITY OF VIOLENCE by D.A. Mishani............................. 40

One of America’s most gifted novelists projects dark and daring speculations upon the incredible-but-true 19th-century story of a child piano prodigy who was blind, autistic and a slave.

In the waning years of antebellum slavery, a rapidly fracturing America was introduced to a stunning musical phenomenon: Thomas Wiggins, a young black slave from Georgia known only as “Blind Tom,” who “sounded out” his first piano composition at age 5 and, five years later, was famous enough to play before President James Buchanan at the White House. What made Tom even more remarkable was that he was both blind and autistic, thus compounding audiences’ astonishment at his extraordinary ability to not only perform classical works, but to spontaneously weave startling variations on American folk ditties into original musical tapestries.

Because most of the details of Wiggins’ story have been lost to history, there are many blank, enigmatic spaces to fill. Chicagoborn Allen (Holding Pattern, 2008, etc.) assumes the imaginative writer’s task of improvising shape and depth where elusive or missing facts should be. What results from his effort is an absorbing, haunting narrative that begins a year after the Civil War ends when Tom, a teenager, and his white guardian, Eliza Bethune, arrive in a nameless northern city (presumably New York), where they are contacted by a black man who intends to reunite Tom with his newly liberated mother. The story rebounds back to Tom’s childhood, during which he struggles to feel his surroundings despite his compromised senses and finds his only warmth (literally) beneath the piano belonging to Eliza’s slaveholding family. Allen’s psychological insight and evocative language vividly bring to life all the black and white people in Tom’s life who, in seeking to understand or exploit Tom’s unholy gifts, are both transformed and transfixed by his inscrutable, resolutely self-contained personality.

If there’s any justice, Allen’s visionary work, as startlingly inventive as one of his subject’s performances, should propel him to the front rank of American novelists.

(This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

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COLD TYPE

Araton, Harvey Cinco Puntos (224 pp.) $24.95 | $15.95 paper | $15.95 e-book Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-935955-88-7 978-1-935955-71-9 paper 978-1-935955-72-6 e-book A story about a newspaper, a family, a strike, and social and economic change— sketched against the backdrop of New York in the 1990s.

New York Times writer and columnist Araton knows newspapers and knows New York, and in his seventh book (and first novel), he explores clashes more personal, more searing, more universal than any of the sports stories he’s told before. Cold Type is a tale about collisions: between generations, between classes, between different crafts in a rapidly changing economy, between the past and the future, between father and son. These are collisions that no one wanted and that no one could avoid. They break the rules, they break apart families, they create heartbreak. They are as ancient as the hills and as current as today’s news—and the existential crisis that surrounds today’s newspapers. By crossing a picket line that includes his father, a hard-boiled shop steward, the reporter Jamie Kramer crosses a moral line, as well—and the book’s action and its interest revolve around what happens on both sides of those two lines. Tensions rise with the unions out on strike, but management and union defectors ensure that copies of the paper are out on the street. Before long, union workers drift back to their jobs—setting up one of the freshest surprise endings of the stale genre of the newspaper novel.

A novel with a strong whiff of the New York Daily News strike of 1990-1991—and with ominous foreshadowings of what the protagonist describes as “this internet thing everybody’s talking about.” (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

THE EDUCATION OF NANCY ADAMS

Baker, Larry Ice Tea Books/Ice Cube Press (414 pp.) $17.95 paper | Jun. 1, 2014 978-1-888160-78-9 Back in the late 1970s, Nancy Adams had a fling with her high school teacher Russell Parsons. Twenty years later, widowed and adrift and living in her childhood home outside Jacksonville, Florida, she accepts Russell’s offer to teach at her old high school. He’s now the principal.

Nancy, a once-aspiring teacher who wrote book reviews during her time in Atlanta, is anything but a bookworm—we first encounter her sitting on a dock plugging Coke bottles with a gun. But she’s unprepared for the foul mouths and 6

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minimal attention spans of her students. She doesn’t know what to expect from Russell, whose beautiful wife never recovered mentally from a stroke she suffered after giving birth to twins. Nancy does know what to expect from the flirtatious Dell Rose, a handsome one-time basketball star who now coaches the school team, but she isn’t sure what she wants from him, either. And then there’s Dana, a mysterious, prematurely aged senior whose baby may be Russell’s. Why else would he extend such preferential treatment to her? Nancy slowly makes her mark while becoming increasingly committed to her new calling. Much of her “education” as a teacher will be familiar to readers of high school fiction: She learns to deal with faculty members’ egos, students’ special needs and school board politics. But Nancy has such a lively, offbeat presence that you take an instant rooting interest in her. And Baker (The Flamingo Rising, 1997, etc.) depicts the other characters so well, and with such understanding, that the novel overcomes its somewhat dated quality.

A winning portrait of a high school teacher who struggles with her new career and memories of her own days as a student.

MR. GWYN

Baricco, Alessandro Translated by Goldstein, Ann McSweeney’s (280 pp.) $22.00 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-938073-96-0 Two novellas, thematically related by the theme of love...or the lack of love.

The first, Mr. Gwyn, is a tour de force of literary fiction about a mysterious, somewhat reclusive and definitely quirky author. At 43, much to the distress of his agent, Jasper Gwyn has tired of writing books. After a brief and restless hiatus, he’s inspired to create “portraits” in a way analogous to that of visual artists. He rents a studio and even commissions a composer to create “mood music” appropriate for the space. Then, to practice his craft, he hires his agent’s assistant, Rebecca, to visit the studio four hours a day for 30 days. She simply lives her life there (though without clothing), and Gwyn observes her, though some days he doesn’t even bother to show up. At the end of that time, he produces a portrait in words that Rebecca finds extraordinarily insightful and deeply moving. Gwyn develops his talents and winds up with a flourishing business for those who want their portraits “painted” in words; the most meaningful one is for his agent, who has a terminal illness. Throughout the story, Baricco suggests that Gwyn is able to do in words what he can’t in life—get close to people. Rebecca then makes a startling discovery, believing that Gwyn has plagiarized his portraits from another author, Klarisa Rode, but in fact, he’s begun publishing under assumed names. One of his works, published under the name Akash Narayan, is titled “Three Times at Dawn,” not so coincidentally the name of Baricco’s second novella. Though slighter, in some ways, this story is even more

complex, for it focuses on three separate episodes revolving around a seedy hotel. In the first, Malcolm Webster meets a mysterious and seductive woman in his hotel room, while in the second, a young woman flirts with the hotel clerk (perhaps an older Malcolm Webster) as she tries to get some perspective on her relationship with her boyfriend up in their room. In the final section, a teenager, the younger Malcolm Webster, escapes from the squalor of the hotel with a woman detective as he deals with his dysfunctional family.

Although the events he recounts remain cryptic, Baricco’s style is lucid, and the appearance-versus-reality mind games he plays with his readers are fascinating.

ECHO’S BONES

Beckett, Samuel Grove (128 pp.) $24.00 | Jul. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-9407-7 A long-forgotten addendum to More Pricks Than Kicks, restored 81 years after Beckett (The Complete Short Prose, 1996, etc.) wrote this strange, allusive tale.

As Mark Nixon (Univ. of Reading) notes in his introduction, when Chatto & Windus took on More Pricks—a slim book of interrelated stories about a goofball named Belacqua—its editor suggested that an 11th story be added to it, if for no other reason than to bulk it out. He almost certainly didn’t reckon on what Beckett delivered, a Joyce-lite reimagination of Dante’s descent that was full of subtle shaggy dog–isms, with plenty of sexual suggestion: “Can you think of any thing existing, God or Gonococcus, lower than the creature, his three score years and ten

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“On a journey from Ohio to Hollywood to Long Island to London in the 1940s, a couple of plucky half sisters continually reinvent themselves.” from lucky us

of hot cockles?” One sympathizes with Chatto’s decision to pass, though one also wonders if John Lennon somehow got hold of the manuscript before penning A Spaniard in the Works; especially the very last page, with its resonant line, “[s]o the submarine departed, very cross indeed.” Beckett’s sardonic surrealism, so Anna Livia Plurabelle–istic, is on full display here, and whatever its effects on the publisher, it’s clear he was having a good time setting his nightmarish scenario in motion, having killed off its main character earlier and now being forced to come up with some plausible reason to place him once again “up and about in the dust of the world.” But never mind plausibility: Read this as an extended prose poem, an exercise in beautiful language and striking image (“Belacqua, crazed with compassion, rolling about in a maffick of grief in his cauldron or basket, felt it incumbent upon him to hazard a kind word”), and this short text finds its rightful place among Beckett’s novels, plays and poems.

A welcome exercise in literary archaeology, especially for students of modernism and 20th-century literature.

LIFE DRAWING

Black, Robin Random House (256 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-4000-6856-2 978-0-8129-9603-6 e-book The first novel from short story writer Black (If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, 2010) tries to parse the intimacy, love, betrayals and resentments that comprise any long relationship.

From the first sentences, it’s clear that narrator Gus (short for Augusta) is writing after her husband Owen’s death, although the novel covers his last months. Together since their 20s, painter Gus, now 47, and 51-year-old writer Owen didn’t feel the need to marry until a few years ago, when the relationship was rocked by Gus’ brief affair—an affair she blames on her distress over Owen’s inability to father children. When the affair ended, she confessed all to Owen, and they recommitted to each other.

For the last two years, the couple, now legally joined, has lived in happy near isolation on a small farmstead somewhere outside Philadelphia. When middle-aged divorcée Alison moves in next door, she disrupts their Eden, already fraught with marital tension; despite her avowals of deep intimacy with Owen, Gus resents the fact that his writer’s block means she can’t discuss her work with him and she obviously can’t mention the emails she’s been getting from a former art student who happens to be her ex-lover’s daughter. Drawing away from Owen, Gus spends increasing time with Alison, an aspiring painter whose husband abused her. The women discuss art, but Gus also starts confiding in Alison about Owen in ways that feel like a second betrayal.

Then Alison’s daughter Nora shows up. Gus, whose own mother died when she was a small child, is jealous of their motherdaughter intimacy. She also senses that Nora, an aspiring writer who admires Owen’s books, is a sexual threat.

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Black captures the nooks and crannies of Gus’ psyche, both self-aware and self-justifying, but doesn’t allow poor Owen space to breathe; her narrow focus, while often acutely insightful, makes for a claustrophobic reading experience.

LUCKY US

Bloom, Amy Random House (256 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-1-4000-6724-4 On a journey from Ohio to Hollywood to Long Island to London in the 1940s, a couple of plucky half sisters continually reinvent themselves with the help of an unconventional assortment of friends and relatives.

In 1939, 12-year-old Eva is abandoned by her feckless mother on her father’s Ohio doorstep after the death of his wealthy wife. After a couple of years of neglect, Eva and her glamorous older half sister, Iris, escape to Hollywood, where Iris embarks on a promising career in film—until she’s caught on camera in a lesbian dalliance with a starlet, which gets her blacklisted. With the help of a sympathetic gay Mexican makeup artist as well as their con-artist father, Edgar, who has recently reappeared in their lives, the girls travel across the country to New York and finagle jobs at the Great Neck estate of a wealthy Italian immigrant family. Hired as a governess, Iris promptly falls in love with the family’s pretty cook, Reenie, inconveniently married to Gus, a likable mechanic of German ancestry. In this partly epistolary novel interspersed with both first-person and third-person narration, Bloom (Where the God of Love Hangs Out, 2010, etc.) tells a bittersweet story from multiple viewpoints.

The novel shares the perspectives of Eva, Iris, Edgar, Gus and Cora, a black nightclub singer who becomes Edgar’s live-in girlfriend and companion to Eva. Though the letter-writing conceit doesn’t always ring true, since it’s unlikely that one sister would recount their shared experiences to the other in letters years later, the novel works in aggregate, accumulating outlooks to tell a multilayered, historical tale about different kinds of love and family.

Bloom enlivens her story with understated humor as well as offbeat and unforgettable characters. Despite a couple of anachronisms, this is a hard-luck coming-of-age story with heart. (This review was first published in the BEA/ ALA 2014 issue.)

STARFIRE

Brown, Dale Morrow/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | May 6, 2014 978-0-06-226239-4 978-0-06-226236-3 e-book The development of an orbiting solarpower plant leads to conflict between American and Russian military forces.

The newest military thriller from Brown (Tiger’s Claw, 2013, etc.) continues the saga of the late, legendary fighter pilot Patrick McLanahan and his rapidly maturing son, Bradley. In the not-too-distant future of 2016, Kenneth Phoenix is the first American president to fly in space, and he implements a plan to expand the U.S. space program. This decision infuriates the Russian president, who’s still recovering from emotional wounds inflicted during the battle between American and Russian forces a decade prior. To complicate matters further, college freshman Bradley McLanahan is leading a team of gifted scientists and engineers working on an orbiting solar plant, which would be a boon to America’s interstellar presence. With his father dead, however, Bradley is left vulnerable to Russian agents under orders to settle an old score with his family. To protect himself—and the future of his cutting-edge project—Bradley hooks up with his father’s old allies while developing the skills necessary for his own emergence as a first-rate fighting man. In a world where old vendettas merge with global tensions, Bradley learns that every step could be his last and political intrigue can quickly turn into an outright war. With no room for extraneous character development or expansive narrative details, this story rests on the author’s deep knowledge of flying and the space program.

A page-turner filled with an insider’s knowledge of military aircraft.

took off, and Paul hires a publicist to keep the case in the headlines. Now, Rachel is trying desperately not only to find Marley, but to figure out what prompted the girl’s flight. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Rachel and Marley during the days after Marley’s departure, Brown explores the reasons Marley left, as well as her parents’ suppositions about why she left. Marley’s is the more authentic voice of the two and the most sympathetic— a typical young girl on the cusp of womanhood, anxious to rush that process along while looking for love and acceptance. Rachel, however, nurses a secret that could change everything, including her relationships with both her daughter and husband. Brown does a credible job of following Marley’s progression as she hurtles toward change, but Rachel’s case is different. In addition to her often jumbled thoughts and paranoia, she’s neither sympathetic nor likable, making it easy to empathize with Marley and her decision to flee her self-centered mother.

Brown’s take on the family’s personal dynamics proves insightful, but families of real runaway teens will shake their heads at the kind of police and media attention the author blithely assumes this type of case would draw.

DON’T TRY TO FIND ME

Brown, Holly Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $25.99 | $14.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-230584-8 978-0-06-230586-2 e-book Brown, a marriage and family therapist, examines a family in midcrisis when the 14-year-old daughter runs away, leaving her parents struggling with demons of their own.

Rachel and Paul recently moved with their daughter, Marley, from San Francisco to a smaller town in a rural part of California, abandoning their friends and Marley’s budding social life for what they hope will be something better. But Rachel has no idea how negatively the move has affected her daughter until she finds a message on the kitchen whiteboard indicating that Marley has run away from home. Despite Rachel’s initial fears that Marley might have been abducted, Paul and the police believe the girl |

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THE FRACKING KING

Browning, James Little A/New Harvest (208 pp.) $23.00 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-544-26299-7 Probably the first novel to bring together the disparate elements of hydraulic fracturing, a struggling boarding school and tournament Scrabble.

Winston Crwth (rhymes with “truth”) is a junior at his third high school in three years. He learned Scrabble at an early age and even at 17 tends to think in anagrams. For example, at Hale, his new boarding school, he tries to get into Orwell 101—a senior course taught by Tom Urlacher, the poet laureate of Pennsylvania—by rearranging the letters of the first sentence of 1984 into a whole new sentence; unfortunately, what he comes up with sounds like a suicide note to the school authorities. We soon learn that Stephen Ha, a student at Hale and a brilliant Scrabble player, had taken his own life a few years earlier, leaving a suicide note in his last Scrabble play. Although Winston doesn’t get into Urlacher’s Orwell course, his roommate is Richard Urlacher, the poet’s son, who has severe dyslexia and can barely read and write. The plot revolves around Winston’s determination to win the Pennsylvania state Scrabble tournament so he can meet the governor, Linda King LaRue, and convey to her a jar of water to prove the appalling effects of fracking. The villains of the piece, such as they are, are the members of the Dark family (Browning is attuned to allegorical names), which owns a gas and oil company that has tried to cover up the dangers of fracking—and to complicate the issues even further, Winston is attending Hale on a Dark scholarship, which he earned (at least in part) by impressing one of the family members by beating him at Scrabble.

The novel is fine as long as we’re attuned to the quirky characters, but the action remains rather precious and contrived.

HURRICANE FEVER

Buckell, Tobias S. Tor (304 pp.) $24.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7653-1922-7

A stormy, aptly named thriller set in the Caribbean of the near future.

“Destruction brewed in the far-off trade winds,” writes the narrator, who spent his early years in Grenada and the Virgin Islands. In this story, hurricanes are rated up to Category 6, yet humans threaten to do even more damage than nature. Prudence “Roo” Jones is a former operative of the Caribbean Intelligence Group who now wants simply to enjoy sailing his catamaran, Spitfire II, and dodge an approaching hurricane. He thinks he has “left all that spy shit behind.” Then a friend and a relative die, a package arrives, and Roo is up to his dreadlocks in trouble. A mysterious woman 10

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named Kit claims to be the sister of Roo’s dead friend Zee, and a company named Beauchamp Industries may prove a bigger threat than the worst of storms. There are terrific action scenes with flying debris, falling bodies, poisoned projectiles and tattooed neo-Nazis. Roo (don’t call him Prudence) is a tough gent who can take seemingly endless physical abuse and never look like a victim. Violence is present, of course, but it’s never excessive or gory. The stakes are higher than one might expect, and even the specter of racism comes into play. Buckell has written a smart and well-constructed tale that’s filled with excitement and the flavor of the Caribbean isles. The only nit is the prominence of Aves Island, a rock squabbled over by Venezuela and Barbados that in reality barely peeks out of the ocean but in the story hosts skyscrapers and a harbor patrol. But any reviewer who points that out is just reaching for something to criticize.

So don’t wait for a dark and stormy night to read this novel; you’ll have plenty of fun.

A BRAVE MAN SEVEN STOREYS TALL

Chancellor, Will Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-228000-8 A father searches for his vanished son in this edgily comic first novel, which has fun with the worlds of art and academia.

California athlete Owen Burr loses an eye in a college water polo match and his berth in the Athens Olympics. He impulsively goes to Berlin to become an artist and gets embroiled in the drug-fueled machinations of an art-world star. Back in the U.S., Owen’s widowed father, classics professor Joseph Burr, has heard nothing from or about Owen until he receives a disturbing hospital report. His efforts to rescue his son start with a lecture he gives near the site of the games that is meant to signal Owen. But when a provocateur runs onstage and hands Joseph a Molotov cocktail, the stunned academic’s effort to throw it safely away from the audience ends in a fiery explosion, and a riot ensues.

More violence at Art Basel, a hungry polar bear in Iceland, the theories of Laminalism and Liminalism, and a helpful Siren named Stevie are part of the Continental odyssey during which Burr père et fils manage to constantly stay out of touch with each other. Yet sometimes, unknowingly, they’re in sync: Each finds himself challenged by camping equipment in separate, humorous scenes. Chancellor, in a rare misstep, has Owen kick down a 60-pound German door the same day he leaves a hospital barely able to walk. That aside, the author maintains an almost thrillerlike pace while taking well-aimed shots at academic and art-market fads and helping two lost souls through essential transformations. It’s a bracingly rich mélange of a novel in which scholarship spotlights Al Pacino’s Scarface and plain exposition suddenly turns into prose that might be noirish or downright strange: “Everything of value stretched and shrapneled, lapping the circular walls in lethal vorticity.”

Some readers may stumble over the Latin, argot and allusions, but these are minor challenges in Chancellor’s polymorphous entertainment.

MARINE PARK Stories

Chiusano, Mark Penguin (208 pp.) $15.00 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-14-312460-3 The 17 stories in Chiusano’s debut collection center on the people and events in a remote neighborhood of southeast Brooklyn.

Many of these stories feature family dramas and childhood memories with several recurring characters, most notably two brothers, Lorris and Jamison. Chiusano paints a vivid portrait of Marine Park, a strangely provincial

portion of the city. An eccentric neighbor pets the children’s heads in “Palming,” the brothers ride the bus alone to buy Christmas presents in “Open Your Eyes,” and the same barber cuts residents’ hair for years in “Haircut.” At their strongest, the stories uncover forgotten truths of youth, as when the narrator of “Air-Conditioning” remembers the “spring of people breaking their wrists.” But the quiet tales bleed into each other, and the scenes and characters soon feel too familiar. When Chiusano does break his established patterns, he finds varying levels of success. “Vincent and Aurora” opens with the routines of an older married couple but takes a surprising, action-packed twist that reads like a thriller and feels out of place. “Clean,” a similar misfit, follows the outbreak and spread of a strain of herpes among a group of friends in the 1970s. On the other end of the spectrum is “We Were Supposed,” a stylistic standout. The two-page story of run-on sentences is a litany of lost opportunities that builds a mosaic of a life unlived. “We were supposed to go see a movie, get coffee, return calls, kiss, be alone, share a meal together…” it begins. “Shatter the Trees and Blow Them Away” also benefits from deviating from the standard, traveling

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On the Cover: Cristina Henríquez Reveals the Gamut of the Immigrant Experience in Her New Novel Photo courtesy Michael Lionstar

In love and locked out of any reasonably cool social scene in high school, Mayor Toro and Maribel Rivera are the misfit teens at the heart of Cristina Henríquez’s new novel The Book of Unknown Americans. Everyone in this bighearted ensemble of a story is an outsider, though: Set at a scrappy but familial apartment complex—“an island until itself,” as Henríquez calls it—in Newark, Delaware, The Book of Unknown Americans is a pan-Latino novel, with characters from Panama, Venezuela, Mexico and Puerto Rico, among other nations. “People tend to lump everyone from Latin America together,” Henríquez says. “To an average person a Venezuelan is the same as a Colombian and I wanted to differentiate them.”

Interspersed among the chapters about Mayor and Maribel’s fumbling, tentative love story are chapters devoted to the back stories of the other residents of the complex. Henríquez, who grew up in America but whose father is Panamanian, covers the gamut of the immigrant experience: how they arrived in America, why they came, what they think of their new home, whether they miss their first home.

In other words, she captures an experience at the heart of this country’s history that is often a cursory, incomplete story in the media. All of her characters, Henríquez says, “feel unknown and are struggling to have a piece of the world that they live in.” Poor and at the mercy of forces they do not entirely understand, her characters nonetheless experience victories that no one but their families and the fellow residents of their complex share. “I hope this book can play a small role in maybe opening Americans a bit more to empathy” about the immigrant experience, Henríquez says. “When people are closed off, they’ve heard messages that aren’t the full story and maybe they’ll realize there’s more to the story.”

—Claiborne Smith

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farthest from the titular setting. The story occurs in New Mexico at the testing facility for the atomic bomb during World War II. The love story that unfolds, while predictable, is told in stunning language and is a refreshing change from the typical themes of Chiusano’s work.

Though Chiusano proves himself a skilled storyteller, connections to Marine Park limit rather than unite these stories. A reader begins to wish Chiusano, like his characters, could break free.

THE STAGER

Coll, Susan Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-374-26881-7 Coll (Beach Week, 2010, etc.) ratchets up the level of wit and mean edginess in her newest satire, which chronicles the absurd efforts put into marketing a highend house outside Washington D.C. Former Swedish tennis star Lars, an obese, pill-popping basket case since knee injuries stopped his career, is financially dependent on his wife, Bella, the highly visible executive in charge of “transparency” for a troubled multinational corporation. One of those seemingly unflappable, highly competent and enviably beautiful women whose life appears disgustingly charmed, Bella stays with Lars partly for the sake of their daughter, Elsa, and partly out of guilt over a decade-old infidelity that left Elsa’s paternity clouded. While Lars and Bella spend a few days in London, where the family is relocating for Bella’s career, Elsa remains at home with a nanny. After her pet rabbit, Dominique, runs away, Elsa—precocious but troubled and terribly lonely—bonds with Eve, a stager hired by the real estate agent to spruce up the property before its open house.

Like Bella, Eve is a former journalist, but unlike Bella, Eve’s career and life paths have followed downward trajectories, and she approaches her work with a large dollop of bitterness, if not bile. By the time Elsa and her parents reunite, Lars is spiraling into a serious mental breakdown, unless he really is clairvoyant and able to speak to rabbits; Bella, who may be rekindling her old affair, is exposed as a full-blooded narcissist; Elsa is as unhappy and confused as ever; and Eve is at the breaking point.

Thanks to bad drugs, bad smells and spilled red paint, marketing this house is a nightmare. Coll tells her story from the points of view of everyone involved, including Dominique. In fact, Dominique may be the sanest character in the book; after causing a lingering odor problem, the rabbit escapes early.

Although the nastiness becomes repetitive, Coll’s vicious depiction of upper-upper-middle-class suburbia is often excruciatingly funny.

ENDANGERED

AFTER EVERYTHING

Cush, Jean Love Amistad/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $24.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-06-231623-3 An African-American teen accused of murder experiences the terror of the court system while his mother and his lawyers pursue an unusual argument for justice.

It’s only 22 days into the New Year as this desperate novel begins, and there have already been 29 murders in Philadelphia. Cush (Tattered Bonds, 2006) draws on her experience in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to paint a frightening picture of the awful day-to-day realities faced by impoverished children accused of crimes. The child at issue here is 15-year-old Malik Williams, who finds himself violently slammed to the ground by a white police officer and charged with the murder of another black kid; he’s to be tried as an adult for a crime he did not commit. His mother, Janae, is a cafeteria worker and a woman of faith who lacks the resources to help her only child. She’s suspicious when approached by Roger Whitford, a human rights attorney who wants to spark a national debate over Malik’s defense. “I believe we can make a solid argument that African-American boys ought to be deemed legally endangered,” he tells a startled Janae. “Their very lives are threatened with extinction, or at least any meaningful existence, and thereby ought to be afforded certain protections based on their classification as such.” It’s a bold and risky defense, but Janae is running out of options. Buoyed by the genius of Calvin Moore, an ambitious defense attorney on loan from a high-end firm, Malik’s defenders navigate the hostile and dangerous ground between the justice system, the media and the American public. There’s not much mystery—Malik’s defense eventually becomes a case of figuring out who really committed the crime—but Cush makes a passionate argument for the defense of young men whose only crimes were being born black in America.

A frightening and realistic story about the realities of racism, poverty and injustice in the Obama era.

Dainty, Suellen Atria (320 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-4767-7137-3

Move over, millennials: There are few folks younger than 50 in the lovethwarted but intriguing circle of friends created by debut novelist Dainty.

The center of the action is an unhappy London family, riven by a recent divorce.

Wife Penny is seeking peace of mind through a solipsistic life in a charming French town; adult daughter Emily has escaped to India, where she’s a devotee of an unseen guru; and grown son Matthew is a nonrecovering druggie. Husband Sandy, a oncecelebrated songwriter whose inattention and infidelities broke up the marriage, is faring worst of all; early in the book, he tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide by hurling himself in front of an oncoming car. The surrounding characters are middle-aged

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S U M M E R R EA DING

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Photo courtesy Jennifer Bastian

The Vacationers

Those Who Wish Me Dead

By Emma Straub 304 pp. | $26.95

Straub refreshes a conventional plot through droll humor and depth of character. Starting with the somewhat generic title, Straub has all the predictable elements in place: family and close friends, gathering at an exotic remove from their daily lives, reveal secrets (and articulate unacknowledged truths), learn how well they know each other and how well they don’t, discover which relationships will endure—even strengthen—and which will dissolve. A novel that is both a lot of fun to read and has plenty of insight into the marital bond and the human condition.

Fourth of July Creek

By Smith Henderson 480 pp. | $26.99

Social worker Pete Snow is wellused to what happens to people with too little money and too much booze or meth in remote northwestern Montana. But he’s not prepared for how years of being used to such things can wear a person down—and what will touch him off to the point that he’ll smack a client. Henderson finds room for deep-turning plot twists in the superficially simple matter of a man looking for meaning in his life while trying to help others. The story goes on a bit long, but the details are just right: It’s expertly written and without a false note.

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By Michael Koryta 400 pp. | $26.00

Hiding a teenage murder witness among a bunch of delinquent kids in a survival-training program in Montana seemed like a good idea. But when two coldblooded killers track him there from Indiana, everyone’s life is at grave risk. Having joined the ranks of the very best thriller writers with his small-town masterpiece, The Prophet (2012), Koryta matches that effort with a book of sometimes-unbearable tension. With the exception of one plot turn you’ll likely see coming, this novel is brilliantly orchestrated. Also crucial to its success is Koryta’s mastery of the beautiful but threatening setting. Summer reading doesn’t get better than this.

The Book of Unknown Americans

By Cristina Henríquez 304 pp. | $24.95

Two families from Latin America (Mexico and Panama) settle in Delaware as each strives to repair emotional and physical wounds in Henríquez’s dramatic page-turner.

The novel alternates narrators among members of the Rivera and Toro families, as well as other immigrant neighbors, and their stories stress that their individual experiences can’t be reduced to types or statistics; the shorter interludes have the realist detail, candor and potency of oral history. A smartly observed tale of immigrant life that cannily balances its optimistic tone with straight talk.

The Rise & Fall of Great Powers

The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing

By Tom Rachman 400 pp. | $27.00

In 2011, Tooly has washed up in a Welsh village, where she uses the last of her money to buy a used bookstore.

Twelve years earlier, she’s a 20-year-old on the streets of New York who talks her way into law student Duncan’s apartment by pretending it was her childhood home. Actually, her childhood was spent traveling around Asia with her father until, in 1988, she falls in with a band of peripatetic misfits. The three storylines collectively explore how Tooly came to be the remote, hard-drinking woman who seems to be marking time in Wales. Brilliantly structured, beautifully written and profoundly sad.

By Mira Jacob 512 pp. | $26.00

Jacob’s darkly comic debut— about a photographer’s visit to her parents’ New Mexico home during a family crisis—is grounded in the specifics of the middle-class Indian immigrant experience while uncovering the universality of family dysfunction and endurance.

Comparisons of Jacob to Jhumpa Lahiri are inevitable; Lahiri may be more overtly profound, Jacob more willing to go for comedy, but both write with naked honesty about the uneasy generational divide among Indians in America and about family in all its permutations.

I Am Pilgrim

Photo courtesy Urszula Soltys

The Quick

By Lauren Owen 544 pp. | $27.00

An elegantly written gothic epic that begins with children isolated in a lonely manor house; takes a spin through the velvet-draped salons of late-Victorian literary London; then settles in to the bloody business of an outbreak of evil magic. The year is 1892, and James Norbury, a poet fresh from Oxford, has taken rooms with an intriguing young nobleman. Alas, the joys of youthful gay abandon don’t last long. James disappears, and his sister Charlotte comes to London to find him. A book that seems to begin as a children’s story ends in mayhem; the journey from one genre to another is satisfying and fresh.

By Terry Hayes 624 pp. | $26.99

Tom Clancy meets Robin Cook in a thriller that should find a place in many beach bags this summer.

Pilgrim, a federal agent, is a brilliant student of the human psyche who just happens to have awesome killing skills that he’s practiced on several continents. He finds plenty of scope for his talents when put up against a former mujahedeen ominously codenamed The Saracen, who’s resolved to wreak all kinds of havoc on the West for its offenses against Islam. Good entertainment for readers with a penchant for mayhem, piles of bodies, and a lethal biochemical agent or two.

Photo courtesy Rainer Hosch

Photo courtesy Laurie Richards

The Matchmaker

By Elin Hilderbrand 416 pp. | $28.00

Hilderbrand’s latest Nantucket heroine has a very particular kind of clairvoyance: She can always tell whether a couple is compatible or not. The complications mount until, suddenly, Hilderbrand’s essentially sunny setup, bolstered by many summer parties and picnics (and lavishly described meals), takes a sudden, somber turn. Hilderbrand has a way of transcending the formulaic and tapping directly into the emotional jugular. Class is often an undercurrent in her work, but in this comedy of manners–turned–cautionary tale, luck establishes its own dubious meritocracy. Beach reading with an unsettling edge.

Midnight in Europe

By Alan Furst 272 pp. | $27.00

Another tense drama of pre– World War II Europe from a master of the period. Furst owns the dark blanket that covers Europe between the two world wars. He portrays Europe with masterful foreboding, a mood that paints the continent in shades of gray. On both sides, people disappear at the slightest suspicion of treason. As usual, Furst manages to hold the reader’s rapt attention without blood-and-guts action. His latest is a satisfying, thought-provoking read.

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friends of the couple; most carefully drawn is Jeremy, Sandy’s school friend and benefactor, a boastful, Madoff-like financier. No one in this crowd can find the formula for an enduring romantic relationship, least of all Tim, an impotent therapist whose longtime marriage to the irritating Angie is nevertheless the matrimonial prizewinner here. Despite the midlife angst that abounds, Australian-born journalist Dainty, who lives in rural England, knows how to tell a good story and keeps the narrative moving. A notable exception, though, is the geriatric sex scenes, which are unconvincing or, worse, gross. (Sandy’s “penis jumped like a minnow in a stream, then retracted. It wasn’t used to this.”) Jeremy, who has a predilection for rough sex with underage girls, ultimately betrays Sandy, though the songwriter had saved him from doom decades before. In the end, almost everyone is damaged goods with little chance of achieving satisfaction.

No good news can be good news nonetheless; the troubled cast’s tribulations make for an absorbing read.

THE PROFESSOR AND THE SIREN

di Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi Translated by Twilley, Stephen New York Review Books (96 pp.) $12.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-59017-719-8

Three parablelike pieces of short fiction from Lampedusa (1896-1957), best known for The Leopard (1958), his sweeping novel about Sicilian aristocracy.

This trio of stories doesn’t provide a large enough sample size to determine if Lampedusa could have been a great short-form writer, but each is marked by an ironic wit and the intimate knowledge of Italian class distinctions that infuses The Leopard. “The Professor and the Siren” is narrated by a young journalist who allows himself to be routinely browbeaten for his ignorance by an aging scholar of ancient Greece.

Set during the rise of fascism in Italy, the tale is an allegory about the perils of forgetting the past, but Lampedusa gives that message a lively and subtle cast, turning on the scholar’s alleged encounter with a mermaid. “Joy and the Law” is a brief comic story about a man whose Christmas bonus includes a large cake that proves to be a burdensome reminder of his obligations to others, and it’s as light as its “easy come, easy go” message. The closing, “The Blind Kittens,” is made of much more ambitious stuff and was written as the first chapter of a followup to The Leopard. Centered on the Ibba family, whose rapacious land grabs have made it one of the most powerful forces in Sicily, the story follows a group of men gossiping. As they exchange “envies, grudges, fears,” they also share rumors about the clan, and in their chatter lays a hint of a widescreen epic that would capture the family’s rise to power. But it has punch as a stand-alone story about jealousy, with a glint of humor: “[E]ach of them wished for Ibba’s millions so that others would invent similarly sumptuous lies about him,” Lampedusa writes.

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Three entertaining sketches, though mostly of interest to fans of The Leopard.

ECSTATIC CAHOOTS Fifty Short Stories

Dybek, Stuart Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $15.00 paper | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-374-28050-5 Sure, this new collection of brief fiction by MacArthur Fellow and writer’s writer Dybek is a miscellany, a grab bag.

Some of the 50 stories collected here, ranging in length from two lines to 13 pages, first appeared in print decades ago; and some of them, fragments and one-offs, seem a bit thin. But the best of them—for instance, “The Start of Something” and the bizarre and whimsical “Ravenswood,” in which a nun knocks a streetcar conductor cold and embarks on a kind of joy ride—are quirky miniature masterpieces. There are few if any American short story writers who have the same gift for cityscapes, and especially for capturing on the one hand the loneliness of the lovelorn urban dweller and on the other hand the urban dweller in love’s sense of living in a densely packed solitude, in a world consisting only and blessedly of two. Few writers can command the apparently autobiographical first person with such finesse and with such daring; few attempt such a variety of apparently loose, shambling and discursive—but in fact sturdily built—structures.

Dybek is especially a master of the ways in which lovers, creating a kind of privacy in public, feel that they are, in a title phrase he borrows from The Great Gatsby, in “ecstatic cahoots”—both with each other and, fleetingly, with the world in which they roam, a world that can seem in such moments as if it were built only for them.

PAPER LANTERN Love Stories

Dybek, Stuart Farrar, Straus and Giroux (208 pp.) $24.00 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-374-14644-3 The nine stories gathered here have appeared, scattered across two decades, in the most prestigious American outlets for short fiction; they make for a remarkably unified and consistent collection.

That’s in part due to the fact that Dybek is a writer whose characteristic subjects (especially erotic love and the twinned joy and scourge of nostalgia) and settings (especially Chicago) have remained startlingly consistent—perhaps “obsessive” would be more accurate—over the decades of his career.

Impressively, those themes have retained their holds on his imagination for the most part without hardening into tics or

“With its wheeling stars, magical rabbi, disgraced angels, black dogs and European hinterland, Feldman’s novel—though set substantially in contemporary New York—has the flavor of Chagall’s visionary art.” from the angel of losses devolving into tiredness. A few of these stories—most notably the volume’s longest piece, “Four Deuces,” and “The Caller”— don’t quite take fire, but others rank with the best of Dybek’s excellent body of work. Among the conspicuous successes are a few fictions—the title story, “Oceanic” and “Tosca”—in which Dybek employs a loose-limbed, digressive structure akin to that of a tone poem. He does so not only without sacrificing narrative momentum, but in a way that, surprisingly, quickens and reinvigorates that momentum. At times, these stories read almost as parodies of the au courant in American fiction: “Paper Lantern” starts with a flamboyant frame featuring a time machine and a fire and then doubles back, for fully three-quarters of its length, to Dybek’s beloved old territory and mode… to a richly detailed and sexually charged memory of decades before. It’s a reverie that constitutes and provides its own—and Dybek’s preferred—sort of time travel.

A very fine book from a gifted practitioner of the short story form.

THESE CAN’T BE CHOICES

A Novel Cori Di Biase Awarded the Kirkus Star

THE ANGEL OF LOSSES

Feldman, Stephanie Ecco/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $25.99 | $13.99 e-book | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-06-222891-8 978-0-06-222893-2 e-book Figures from Jewish mysticism and mythology, a Russian grandfather’s legacy and the fate of a newborn child entwine in an inventive if at times obscure debut.

With its wheeling stars, magical rabbi, disgraced angels, black dogs and European hinterland, Feldman’s novel—though set substantially in contemporary New York—has the flavor of Chagall’s visionary art. Its central characters are previously devoted sisters Marjorie and Holly Burke, whose close relationship has been disrupted by Holly’s unexpected marriage to an orthodox Jew, Nathan. Marjorie, the studious one, is working on a Ph.D. about the Wandering Jew, while Holly has given birth to her first child, Eli, named after

Ben lives in fear of the hurt he has caused.

“Readers are thrown drowning into the maelstrom that is his mind...

“Brilliant, frightening, and skillfully written.”

—Kirkus Reviews

For information about film or publication rights, visit www.apparentsublime.com

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“A 9-year-old Brooklyn Heights girl picks up some hard lessons about fidelity, race and family after World War II.” from when the world was young

the girls’ grandfather (who died recently, and to whom Marjorie was especially close). Searching through old Eli’s possessions, Marjorie finds one of four notebooks in which he wrote stories of the White Rebbe, a religious guru of great stature who carries the Sabbath Light and owes a promise to the Angel of Losses. While seeking the other three books, Marjorie meets Simon, another student doing research in a similar area, who will become her lover; she also repeatedly encounters a strange, possibly sinister elderly man with piercing blue eyes who gives her an amulet and seems to know a lot about old Eli. As Marjorie learns the truth about her grandfather’s tragic past, young Eli falls gravely ill and Nathan disappears. By turns gothic, heart-rending and impenetrable, Feldman’s story sometimes seems too wrapped up in its theology but eventually reaches a cosmic climax in which Marjorie embraces her destiny while reestablishing her connection to Holly.

Readers may enjoy this two-tier story more for its accessible romantic and family dramas than its convoluted religious arcana, but Feldman devotes passionate storytelling and powerful narrative skills to both. (Author appearances in Boston, New York and Philadelphia)

ALL I LOVE AND KNOW

Frank, Judith Morrow/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $26.99 | $15.99 e-book | Jul. 15, 2014 978-0-06-230287-8 978-0-06-230228-5 e-book Frank chronicles the difficult adjustments of a gay family formed by tragedy in her compelling follow-up to Crybaby Butch (2004).

As the novel opens, Matthew Greene, a self-described “normal, young, shallow queen,” is on a plane to Tel Aviv with his devastated partner, Daniel Rosen, whose twin brother, Joel, and sister-in-law, Ilana, have just been killed by a suicide bomber. It’s been four years since Matt fled the New York City whirl of drugs and casual sex to move in with the older, more sober Daniel in Northampton, Massachusetts, and both men are still slightly stunned by their opposites-attract relationship. The news that Joel and Ilana named Daniel guardian of 5-year-old Gal and baby Noam appalls her parents, devout Holocaust survivors, nor are the secular, American elder Rosens very happy about their grandchildren being raised by Matt, whom they don’t really like. But the real problems, once Gal and Noam are settled in Northampton, stem from the overwhelming grief that makes Daniel a virtual specter in his new family.

He’s emotionally distant and critical of Matt’s more relaxed parenting style; their conflicts are exacerbated by the volatile Gal, understandably given to acting out in the wake of hideous loss and traumatic relocation to a new nation, culture and language.

It seems quite possible the men’s relationship will not survive these stresses, which Frank explores in depth and without reassuring sentimentality. She also excels at the social backdrops for her characters’ drama, from the fraught political climate in 18

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Israel (Daniel and Matt are both left-wing proponents of the peace process) to the cozy, gossipy world of gay and lesbian life in Northampton. Daniel isn’t always very likable, but his disabling sorrow and controlling ways are believable impediments to his love for Matt and make it all the more moving to watch them work through to reconciliation.

Strong storytelling driven by emotionally complex characters: first-rate commercial fiction.

WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG

Gaffney, Elizabeth Random House (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-1-4000-6468-7

A 9-year-old Brooklyn Heights girl picks up some hard lessons about fidelity, race and family after World War II in this lively sophomore effort from Gaffney (Metropolis, 2005).

Conventional wisdom dictates that American society in the years immediately after World War II was highly segregated and built on traditional nuclear families. Gaffney is determined to unsettle those assumptions by focusing her story on Wally, a girl whose home life is decidedly complicated. As the story opens on V-J Day, Wally’s father is stationed overseas while her mother, a doctor, has taken in a boarder with a mysterious government job. Wally loves her grandmother, who lives nearby, but the girl feels closer to Loretta, grandma’s black maid, and Ham, the mixed-race boy Loretta is raising as her son. Wally and Ham are the stars of the story, and if their dual obsession with ant farms is a bit metaphorically on-the-nose for a story about postwar society, Gaffney does a fine job of showing how they grow wise and slightly jaded as they experience more of the adult world. The two absorb racist taunts, dig up some family secrets and discover how easily apparently stable relationships can come undone. (The boarder Wally’s mom took in, for instance, was more than just a boarder.) The novel pivots on a tragedy in Wally’s life that occurred on V-J Day, and Gaffney expertly moves back and forth in time to show how much more sophisticated Wally becomes about that event as she reaches college age. A personal crisis involving Ham after he serves in the Korean War is relatively underdrawn, but it bolsters Gaffney’s thesis that America’s midcentury patriotism covered up plenty of emotional wreckage. None of it would work, though, without the strong central figure of Wally, an inquisitive child who becomes a world-wise spitfire.

A smart coming-of-age tale that upends a raft of Greatest Generation clichés. (Agent: Leigh Feldman)

THE BOOK OF LIFE

Harkness, Deborah Viking (592 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-0-670-02559-6

The witch Diana’s and the vampire Matthew’s quests to discover their origins and confront the threats to their star-crossed union tie up as neatly as one of Diana’s magical weaver’s knots.

In the resolution of the All Souls trilogy, Diana’s impossible pregnancy with Matthew’s twins advances as various forces seek the couple’s separation, their destruction or both, mainly due to the covenant against liaisons across supernatural species lines. While Matthew searches for genetic answers to how he and Diana could be cross-fertile and what that will mean for their children, Diana seeks magical revelations from the missing Ashmole 782 manuscript, the fabled Book of Life. Figures from their pasts also resurface, injecting additional danger and urgency into their search. The novel lacks the sweep of the previous book (Shadow of Night, 2012), which offered a vivid immersion into the daily life and court intrigue of late 16th-century London and Prague. But, as in the previous two installments, there are healthy doses of action, colorful magic, angst-y romance and emotional epiphany, plus mansionhopping across the globe, historical tidbits and name-dropping of famous artworks and manuscripts.

There are few surprises, but it’s still satisfying to travel with these characters toward their more-than-well-earned happy ending.

checks, he has to sort out the life of a very nearly feral child, bound up in the even more complex life of a survivalist, paranoid and anti-statist, who may or may not be a Unabomber in the making. That brings the feds into the picture, and if Pete resorts to fisticuffs reluctantly, the FBI thinks nothing of beating their way around a countryside that looks ever more apocalyptic with each passing page. Henderson, a native Montanan, finds ample room for deep-turning plot twists in the superficially simple matter of a man looking for meaning in his own life while trying to help others too proud and mistrustful to receive that assistance. The story goes on a bit long, but the details are just right: It’s expertly written and without a false note, if often quite bleak.

Of a piece with Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road in imagining a rural West that’s seen better days—and perhaps better people, too. (Author tour to Billings, Montana, Denver, Los Angeles, Missoula, Montana, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle)

FOURTH OF JULY CREEK

Henderson, Smith Ecco/HarperCollins (480 pp.) $26.99 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-06-228644-4

Of wide open spaces and lives narrowly, desperately lived at the bitter ends of dirt and gravel roads.

The spur of the Rockies at the northwestern corner of Montana is as hard and remote a stretch of country as any in the Lower 48, good reason why a person might want to disappear into it. Social worker Pete Snow, delivered to us in medias res, is well-used to what happens to people with too little money and too much booze or meth in tow. But he’s not quite prepared for how years of being used to such things can wear a person down—and what will touch him off to the point that he’s willing to smack a client. Says Pete to his target, trying to explain the rightness of his act, “[t]hose punches sure as shit come through me but they were not mine. As meant for you as they were, they were not mine.” He’s willing to cop to most responsibilities, but that doesn’t stop his own life from dissolving. Meanwhile, he’s caught up in a curious knot: In a land of snarling dogs and WIC |

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THE HOUR OF LEAD

Holbert, Bruce Counterpoint (400 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-61902-292-8

Holbert’s (Lonesome Animals, 2012) second novel is a tale of the American West as faithful to the legends as McCarthy’s Border Trilogy.

Holbert’s work rings out with the hard, clean truths of love and loyalty, family and friendship, all flowering from thickets of poetic language, some simple (“work was praying the same prayer everyday”), some gut-wrenching (“When he finally took the baby from her and held her bloody stillness in his hands, he wept”). Matt and Luke Lawson are twins, born to the rich land and open skies of eastern Washington. In 1918, as they journey home from school one day, they’re trapped in an epic blizzard; their father leaves the farmhouse to search for them. Of the

three, only Matt survives. Everything else that unfolds is set in motion by that tragedy. Matt’s mother turns inward. Still a young teen, Matt runs the farm while obsessively searching for his father’s body; he’s accompanied by Wendy, a storekeeper’s daughter, to whom he feels devotion. But Matt’s also angry, frustrated and simmering with violence. He’s the quintessential Western hero—taciturn and strong as iron with an unbreachable moral center. Rejected by Wendy, he abandons his mother and the farm; guilt-ridden Wendy moves to the farm to help. In this superb allegorical tale, Matt wanders through bar fights and ranch work and then settles in with Roland Jarms, a dissolute but good-hearted gambler. There, adrift in his great odyssey, Matt stays, and during his exile, he re-forms himself—“I believe I’m safe for people now”—before returning to Wendy bearing a motherless child he’s named Angel. From the great flat land where “[w]ind gusted from the north and geese sliced ahead of it through the sky,” Holbert’s powerful work echoes the romance of America’s Western experience.

A masterpiece. (This review was first published in the BEA/ ALA 2014 issue.)

THE KILLS Sutler, The Massive, The Kill, and The Hit

House, Richard Picador (1024 pp.) $35.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-250-05243-8

A sprawling, subterranean, sometimessurreal novel of the new world order, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, in which Bolaño and Pynchon wave in passing as we dodge between IEDs and sinister plots.

House (Uninvited, 2001, etc.) has scarcely introduced us to civilian contractor John Jacob Ford before Ford is told to disappear: An op has been blown and it’s best for him to skedaddle.

What’s he been doing? All kinds of shady work in Iraq for a company named HOSCO; one mission involves the transport of millions and billions of dollars in cash (easily skimmable) in “backpacks, suitcases, briefcases, even brown-paper bags.” Ford, duly renamed Sutler, now finds himself in the thick of an elaborate project to construct a secret city in the desert of southern Iraq—to what purpose remains murky, but clearly it’s all for the fiscal benefit of the company and the various First World flags under which it flies. (It’s a nicely symbolic touch that the illusory city is to be founded atop a flaming garbage dump that doesn’t officially exist.) As the story progresses, Ford/Sutler’s attachment to the real world becomes increasingly tenuous: He’s a shadow in a world of spooks, a cipher barely moored to the planet the rest of us inhabit. As he travels through the desert and beyond, moving from book to book (there are three more-or-less closely related tales here and a fourth that, at least in a fashion, rules them all), the stories told about him and all the weird goings-on in the Mesopotamian sands become ever more hushed, ever more fraught. That a tumultuous place such 20

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“Summer reading doesn’t get better than this.” from those who wish me dead

as Iraq invites Rashomon-like treatment is a commonplace, but House’s tale, ingenious and well-written as it is, goes on much too long. And though he does a good job controlling details and making economical use of his secondary characters, the story is too clever by half, with threads too easy to lose.

Ambitious and often brilliant. But, as one character says, “It’s confusing.” And so it is. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

FLYING SHOES

Howorth, Lisa Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-62040-301-3 An unvarnished picture of Southern life by debut author Howorth, co-owner of the storied Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi.

After many years, Mary Byrd Thornton receives news that her then-9year-old stepbrother’s unsolved murder is being reopened. In response, she breaks a plate—a Corelle plate, not her Spode china, because she has a “maddening way of second-thinking her impulses.” As the loose plot follows Mary Byrd from the deep South to her hometown in Virginia to meet the cold-case detective, her impulses and second guesses set the tone. Most of the story takes the form of Mary Byrd’s internal monologue, which can indeed be maddening. She’s dedicated to her life as wife and mother in a small college town in Mississippi but unconvinced of her value or efficacy in those roles. She’s antsy, too, alert for opportunities to escape into her small stash of prescription pills or dabble in infidelity as she has before. The result is a character who vibrates between self-castigation and stubborn defiance, like a teenager. She makes phone calls in a closet to avoid scrutiny by her family’s longtime African-American housekeeper, Evagreen, sensing that she doesn’t have the right breeding or attitude to earn Evagreen’s respect. This and other moments where Mary Byrd recognizes her white privilege are awkward. She embodies a soup of self-awareness, liberal guilt and helplessness surely familiar—and uncomfortably accurate—to many white people. It’s intriguing that Howorth’s omniscient narration veers into Evagreen’s thoughts at times and later spends a night in the mind of a homeless black man named Teever, a fixture in town. Both are dealing with their own tragedies but exhibit a grounded, confident quality that Mary Byrd lacks. How conscious a judgment this is on the author’s part is hard to say.

Howorth’s dedication to capturing the messy, fraught and politically incorrect pieces of Mississippi life ultimately makes for a compelling read.

THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD

Koryta, Michael Little, Brown (400 pp.) $26.00 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-316-12255-9 978-0-316-27996-3 e-book Hiding a teenage murder witness among a bunch of delinquent kids in a survival-training program in Montana seemed like a good idea. But when two coldblooded killers track him there from Indiana, everyone’s life is at grave risk.

The program is run by Air Force veteran Ethan Serbin, who lives with his wife, Allison, in a mountain cabin. She distrusts Jamie Bennett, a federal marshal and former trainee of Ethan’s who shows up in the middle of the night, having recklessly driven into a blizzard, to plead for their help. Jamie says the boy, Jace Wilson, is too hot for even a witness protection

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program. When Jace arrives, it’s anonymously, under the name Connor Reynolds. He’s badly lacking in confidence but proves adept in handling himself outdoors. Just as he’s settling in, though, the killers—two brothers with a creepy way of conversing with each other even as they’re about to commit an atrocity—infiltrate the mountain community. Knowing what they’re capable of, Jace/Connor drifts away from the pack, teams up with a female fire ranger who feels responsible for her boyfriend’s accidental death and fervently hopes an escape route he devised as part of his training will lead them to safety. Having joined the ranks of the very best thriller writers with his small-town masterpiece, The Prophet (2012), Koryta matches that effort with a book of sometimes-unbearable tension. With the exception of one plot turn you’ll likely see coming from a mountain pass away, this novel is brilliantly orchestrated. Also crucial to its success is Koryta’s mastery of the beautiful but threatening setting, including a mountain fire’s ability to electrify the ground, radiate a lethal force field—and create otherworldly light shows.

Summer reading doesn’t get better than this.

THE SEA GARDEN

Lawrenson, Deborah Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $26.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-227966-8 In three loosely connected novellas, Lawrenson (The Lantern, 2011) has created a tale of love and mystery with shifting characters, eras, locations and tones.

Award-winning landscape designer Ellie Brooke is on a ferry to Porquerolles, a French Mediterranean island, when a young man goes overboard in an apparent suicide. That event sets the tone for her brief 2013 visit. Ellie has been asked to restore a memorial garden, but she’s gripped with foreboding as a mysterious man appears and disappears and nightmares invade her sleep.

Forced to stay the night at her host’s estate, she meets the garden’s owner, a crazy old woman; decides to reject the job; then unwisely returns the next day to retrieve a lost item. Years earlier, during the closing months of World War II, 20-ish blind woman Marthe Lincel lives with the Musset family and works in their perfume and soap refinery. The Nazis have occupied Provence, but the Musset family is allowed to continue production. Although many consider them Nazi sympathizers, they actually serve in the Resistance. Putting her Braille expertise to use, Marthe joins the movement, and when a key member fails to return from a mission, Marthe volunteers to replace her. Her courageous actions—and a chance meeting with an American soldier the Musset family is trying to move out of the country—change her future. Also participating in the war effort, Iris Nightingale is a junior intelligence officer in London who finds herself in close contact with operatives flying into and out of France. She becomes romantically involved with Frenchman Xavier Descours, who then goes on a mission and never returns.

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Obsessed with uncovering information about his life and fate, Iris searches for answers and, years later, discovers the truth.

Readers who wade through the slowly paced narrative may appreciate its rich historical detail and lavish descriptions of the French coastline, but the revelations that weave the three stories together are anticlimactic and disappointing.

HOUSE RECKONING

Lawson, Mike Atlantic Monthly (320 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2253-7

Now that he’s tangled with every kind of Beltway lowlife imaginable (House Odds, 2013, etc.), fixer Joe DeMarco reaches over the miles and years to go after the man who killed his father.

Prefiguring his son’s complicated relationship to moral and legal ideals, Gino DeMarco was a good guy who kept drawing lines and then crossing them.

When he lost his job as a longshoreman and his childhood friend Jerry Kennedy got him work as a bagman for Carmine Taliaferro, he told himself he wouldn’t kill anyone, then killed plenty of people, though all of them were criminals. Eventually, his determination to avenge Kennedy’s murder made him dispensable, and Carmine had him killed by Brian Quinn, a rising rookie cop also on his books. By the time dying underboss Tony Benedetto sees fit to tell Joe what happened to his old man many years ago, Joe’s settled into his job as a bottom feeder at the trough of House Minority Leader John Mahoney, and Quinn, the NYPD commissioner, is about to be nominated director of the FBI. Furious that Mahoney won’t back up his attempts to lean on Quinn, Joe threatens his boss with blackmail and promptly gets fired for his pains, leaving him basically alone and unfunded as he confronts an enemy who’s wealthy, powerful and surrounded by cops and civilians only too eager to do his bidding. Joe contemplates killing Quinn, torpedoing his nomination and ruining his reputation. When his moment of vengeance finally presents itself, though, it arrives in an utterly unexpected form, with bittersweet results that perfectly balance the demands of the revenge formula with the need to keep Joe afloat for further adventures.

Fast, assured and as refreshingly unsentimental as Joe himself. (Agent: David Gernert)

“Sweet and intense, with delightful magical accents, a delectable romance—and yummy recipes.” from the glass kitchen

THE GLASS KITCHEN

Lee, Linda Francis St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-312-38227-8 978-1-4668-5061-3 e-book Broke, divorced and disheartened, Portia Cuthcart leaves Texas for Manhattan, determined to sort out her life and finally embrace her magical way with food.

Portia has inherited a magical gift from a long line of Texas women who offered advice and, inexplicably, the perfect healing dish, but a tragic event caused her to turn her back on this “knowing” and live a normal life. Years later, betrayed by her Texas politician husband, she flees to New York City, where her two sisters live and where she owns the garden apartment in a brownstone. Her sisters have sold their portions of the house to Gabriel Kane, a renowned financier who expects her to sign over her share as well but is stymied when she moves

in instead. When Kane’s younger daughter, Ariel, stumbles into a fabulous meal Portia makes for her sisters, she convinces her father to offer her a job as their cook. At first resistant, Portia accepts when she realizes her ex-husband is reneging on her divorce settlement, then sets about trying to open a cafe styled after The Glass Kitchen, a restaurant her family owned for generations in Texas. But as her sisters’ lives unravel, and she becomes more entwined in the Kanes’ well-being, Portia realizes how little she knows about the gift and how unprepared she is to handle the grief and confusion of the family upstairs. Lee takes a new magical direction after the success of Emily and Einstein (2011) and brings a light yet emotional touch as she combines food fiction with magical realism in a satisfying effort only slightly marred

by Portia’s continually fluctuating feelings about her gift. However, Kane’s tight-lipped Yankee demeanor paired with Portia’s conflicted feelings make for powerful—and sexy—conflict, and Ariel’s attempts to fix her fractured family are affecting and pave the way for true connection with their magical neighbor.

Sweet and intense, with delightful magical accents, a delectable romance—and yummy recipes.

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RIDE AROUND SHINING

Leslie-Hynan, Chris Harper/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-06-228507-2 A young man’s job chauffeuring an NBA star turns out to involve carrying more baggage than he expected—racial, romantic and otherwise.

Jess, the narrator of Leslie-Hynan’s debut, has stumbled into an inner sanctum of sports celebrity: Through some unlikely coincidences, he’s become the personal driver for Calyph, a player for the Portland Trail Blazers. The bling-y external trappings of the job are shallow, if not actively problematic: In the first chapter, Jess knocks over an ice sculpture at Calyph’s rented mansion that injures his boss’s knee. But Jess dwells more on the internal dynamics, which offer rich territory for a novelist. Jess is a white man in a black milieu, and Leslie-Hynan has an ear for baller slang and an eye for the subtle power plays that come with a wealthy man and the servant who knows the household’s secrets.

Further complicating matters is Calyph’s white wife, Antonia, who begins a romantic push and pull with Jess. There are unmistakable echoes of Othello here, as well as The Great Gatsby, down to a climactic car wreck in the closing pages. But those familiar antecedents make this novel feel more like a thought experiment than the provocative look into a subculture that it’s meant to be. Jess’ banter with Calyph and his entourage has energy and humor, and intermittent moments capture Calyph’s heavy-hangs-the-crown temperament, his recognition that he’s famous and talented but not forever. Those moments of close observation never cohere, though, into a strong story that also wants to pack in plenty of romantic parrying and musings on race. Leslie-Hynan’s unmistakable talents as a stylist are undermined by a protagonist who’s drably passive (“a clumsy man of inaction”) for much of the novel.

To extend the basketball metaphor, Leslie-Hynan is generally strong in the paint but hasn’t yet developed the stamina for four quarters.

THE INVENTION OF EXILE

Manko, Vanessa Penguin Press (304 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 18, 2014 978-1-59420-588-0 A man separated from his family for years reckons with his isolation in Manko’s debut, a superb study of statelessness.

In 1920, Austin (born Ustin) Voronkov was a Russian immigrant working as an engineer in Connecticut, married to an American woman and preparing to raise a family. But the Russian Revolution prompted a wave of red-menace paranoia in the United States, and Austin is 24

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deported after he’s bullied into saying he’s an anarchist. By 1948, when much of this novel is set, he’s living alone in Mexico City and scraping out a living doing odd-job repairs for the locals.

His wife and three children, whom he hasn’t seen in 14 years, are back in the States, while Austin is all but drowning in the paperwork he believes will secure him passage out of Mexico: letters to ambassadors and legislators and patent applications for inventions he’s only dimly aware are outdated. A story framed around so much waiting and bureaucratic listlessness ought to feel drab and slow, but Manko brings plenty of energy to this tale. That’s partly due to the fact that she cannily shifts back and forth in time, recalling the fleeting moments of joy and togetherness Austin had, particularly a brief stint in Mazatlan running a lighthouse. (A bit metaphorically unsubtle, perhaps, but Manko uses light and glass metaphors in rich and complicated ways throughout the book.) Just as important, Manko is a tremendous stylist, using clipped, simple sentences to capture Austin’s mindset as his confidence in escape erodes but never entirely fades; Manko’s shift in perspective toward the end of the book reveals just how much the years of exile have weathered him. She deeply explores two complicated questions: What is the impact of years of lacking a country? And how much does this lack reside in our imaginations?

A top-notch debut, at once sober and lively and provocative.

OWEN’S DAUGHTER

Mapson, Jo-Ann Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-62040-973-2 Characters from three previous novels—Solomon’s Oak, Finding Casey and Blue Rodeo—merge in Mapson’s latest, featuring a young mother and an older woman who must cope with unforeseen challenges.

Skye Elliot was once an excellent student who dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, but a rodeo circuit rider named Rocky, an unplanned pregnancy and a substance abuse problem derailed her ambitions. Fresh from a long stint in rehab, all Skye now wants is to reclaim her daughter and get a job, but she’s taken off guard when her ex-husband doesn’t pick her up as expected. Instead, her long-absent father—who’s rechristened himself Owen Garret—collects her from the clinic in the New Mexico desert with her beloved horse in tow, and Skye has no choice but to join him. As they embark upon a journey underscored by Skye’s anger toward her parents and her frantic search for her daughter, Gracie, Owen offers a straightforward explanation for his extended silence: He was in prison. Skye’s resentment begins to dissipate as she views Owen, and eventually others, from a different perspective, but her search for her child hits several obstacles: namely, a broken-down car and a lack of money.

Pausing briefly to retrieve Owen’s old dog, they finally land in Santa Fe, where, unbeknownst to Owen, his lost love now lives.

Painter Margaret Yearwood has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and worried as she is about her ability to cope

with the future, she’s even more concerned about her adult son.

Peter has been deaf since 15 and has recently gotten a cochlear implant, but he suffers from other demons, including a broken marriage and a drinking problem. Mapson connects each character via a ghost’s intervention, intuitive animals and a couple’s new venture, but the narrative loses clarity and stalls with the introduction of multiple back stories.

Despite many positive components, including vivid descriptions of New Mexico’s rich culture; endearing dogs and horses; and an inspirational message about surmounting shortcomings, the novel’s lumbering pace outweighs all.

US CONDUCTORS

Michaels, Sean Tin House (456 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-935639-81-7 A Canadian music critic shows exceptional poise and command in his debut novel, a first-person tale narrated by the Russian inventor of the theremin.

Lev Sergeyvich Termen is a real historical figure, a Russian scientist and inventor, but his voice here is all the author’s in a novel that somehow manages to feel both classically Russian (with echoes of Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn) and very contemporary. It has an epic scope that spans decades and countries but retains a tight focus through the writing of Termen, who’s confined to a ship. While he’s supposed to be keeping a log, he recounts a life that extends from the high society of pre-Depression America to imprisonment under Stalin. “Sometimes I am writing you a letter, Clara, and other times I am just writing, pushing type into paper, making something of my years,” he explains. Clara is the narrator’s lifelong love, though not one of the two women he married. He met her after traveling to America to promote his invention, “a musical instrument, an instrument of the air,” its pitch controlled by the movement of the hands and their proximity to the antennae. “I was the Communist magician, the conductor of the ether, sent out by the state to show off my great discoveries,” he says. His invention offered him the possibility of great riches, as American corporations had visions of mass production and “a theremin in every home.” But it also offered an opportunity for Termen to serve his homeland as an ambivalent spy, with Russian handlers conducting his business affairs and monitoring his moves. The Depression brought an end to the dreams of riches, and the rise of Stalin returned the inventor who had prospered under Lenin to his homeland as a traitor and “a pauper in a land where I thought poverty had been abolished.”

Both the voice and the stories it tells transcend the dusty contrivances of much historical fiction, resulting in a novel that feels both fresh and timeless.

ONE PLUS ONE

Moyes, Jojo Pamela Dorman/Viking (384 pp.) $27.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-525-42658-5 Popular British author Moyes (The Girl You Left Behind, 2013, etc.) offers another warmhearted, off-kilter romance, this one between a financially strapped single mother and a geeky tech millionaire.

Ten years ago, Jess Thomas got pregnant and dropped out of high school to marry Marty.

Two years ago, hapless Marty temporarily moved out of their home on the southern coast of England to sort out his life. He never returned. Cleaning houses by day and working in a pub at night, Jess barely earns enough to support her 10-year-old daughter, Tanzie, and her 16-year-old stepson, Nicky, whom she’s been raising since he was 8. Jess worries constantly about sensitive Nicky, a moody goth regularly beaten up by the local

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“Ng’s emotionally complex debut novel sucks you in like a strong current and holds you fast until its final secrets surface.” from everything i never told you

bully. Math genius Tanzie presents a different crisis: She’s been offered a generous scholarship to a private school her current teachers say she needs, and Jess can’t come up with the balance.

The only hope is winning prize money at a math tournament in Scotland, but how to get there? Meanwhile, one of Jess’ cleaning clients, computer whiz Ed Nicholls, has come to stay in his seaside vacation home to avoid publicity surrounding insider trading charges. He and Jess share an instant mutual dislike, but when he ends up drunk at the pub, Jess makes sure he gets home safely. Partly out of gratitude, but largely to escape pressure from lawyers, his ex-wife and his sister—who’s nagging him to attend his father’s birthday party—Ed offers to drive Jess, her kids and their large dog to Scotland. A road-trip-from-hell romantic comedy ensues, complete with carsickness, bad meals and missed signals. Unsurprisingly, hostility evolves into mutual attraction. But Moyes throws in a few wrenches, like Tanzie’s failure at the competition, Ed’s father’s cancer and the cash Jess has secretly kept since it fell out of Ed’s pocket at the pub that first night.

Moyes has mastered the art of likable, not terribly memorable, but far from simple-minded storytelling.

EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU

Ng, Celeste Penguin (304 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-1-59420-571-2

Ng’s nuanced debut novel begins with the death of a teenage girl and then uses the mysterious circumstances of her drowning as a springboard to dive into the troubled waters beneath the calm surface of her Chinese-American family.

When 16-year-old Lydia Lee fails to show up at breakfast one spring morning in 1977, and her body is later dragged from the lake in the Ohio college town where she and her biracial family don’t quite fit in, her parents—blonde homemaker Marilyn and Chinese-American history professor James—older brother and younger sister get swept into the churning emotional conflicts and currents they’ve long sought to evade. What, or who, compelled Lydia—a promising student who could often be heard chatting happily on the phone; was doted on by her parents; and enjoyed an especially close relationship with her Harvard-bound brother, Nath—to slip away from home and venture out in a rowboat late at night when she had always been deathly afraid of water, refusing to learn to swim? The surprising answers lie deep beneath the surface, and Ng, whose stories have won awards including the Pushcart Prize, keeps an admirable grip on the narrative’s many strands as she expertly explores and exposes the Lee family’s secrets: the dreams that have given way to disappointment; the unspoken insecurities, betrayals and yearnings; the myriad ways the Lees have failed to understand one another and, perhaps, themselves. These longhidden, quietly explosive truths, weighted by issues of race and 26

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gender, slowly bubble to the surface of Ng’s sensitive, absorbing novel and reverberate long after its final page.

Ng’s emotionally complex debut novel sucks you in like a strong current and holds you fast until its final secrets surface.

WAITING FOR THE ELECTRICITY

Nichol, Christina Overlook (336 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-1-4683-0686-6

A wise, funny debut novel that finds endless entertainment in cultural differences and clashing personality types.

Part Candide, part Zorba, Slims Achmed Makashvili is a maritime lawyer in the mountainous nation of Georgia, where, as Nichol’s picaresque yarn opens, it is the last day of summer, when “everyone was trying to blacken their bodies before the weather changed.”

Makashvili, though, has other things than beachgoing and the impending winter on his mind. Tired of living in a country where electrical power can’t be taken for granted, but still proud of living in a town that “looks like chipped paint,” he’s gotten wind of a U.S. State Department grant program designed to teach third-world types about the virtues of capitalism. He sends off a carefully written letter to Hillary Clinton, exulting, “As You can see, Batumi offers You and Your country great business opportunity!” In return, he wins a slot in an internship program in San Francisco, where he puts his avid mind to work concocting wild schemes to enliven his country’s livestock industry; writing to excuse himself from work one day, for instance, he avers that he’s never sick at home because “we always drink the milk of the sheep,” though, in an aside to readers, he allows that it was really the milk of the goat: “But, as I learned, it is okay to lie in a commercial.” Makashvili is well-meaning and honest, but he can’t help but get into Borat-like mischief, and his stay in the golden land of America—which, he has discerned, isn’t quite so golden after all—doesn’t end well. Nichol writes with sharp, knowing exactitude of both Georgia (where she once taught English) and her native Bay Area, and though Makashvili is a figure of jape and jest, he’s by no means a caricature.

Indeed, he’s one of the most fully realized characters in recent memory, and readers will take much pleasure in going along on his adventures—and misadventures.

COUNTERFEIT LIES

BARCELONA SHADOWS

North, Oliver; Hamer, Bob Threshold Editions/Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-4767-1435-6 With the conspiracy meter cranked to the max, North and Hamer (American Heroes, 2013, etc.) embroil Jake Kruse, Marine-turned–FBI agent, in the investigation of an unholy alliance between North Korea and Iran.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—the paranoid Kim dynasty—earns $1 billion a year by smuggling knockoff Rolexes, counterfeit name-brand cigarettes and fake trademarked pharmaceuticals into the United States. After establishing his bona fides in Los Angeles’ Korean gangland, Jake works undercover to stop the deluge of illicit merchandise, an enterprise uneasily controlled by rivals Mssrs. Yeong and Park, both assumed to be North Korean agents. While he’s gathering evidence, Jake is offered a fee to whack Park’s daughter, half the money paid in advance. The bills turn out to be “Supernotes,” counterfeit bills so perfect as to be nearly undetectable. Now Jake’s involved in strategic-level spy games, with the North Koreans intending to flood the U.S. with Supernotes to help finance a nuclear weapons project contracted by Iran’s ayatollahs. The fast-moving plot will come off as realistic to anyone following geopolitics; however, Jake’s an action hero taken straight from Column A of the hero menu: a tough guy barely constrained by bureaucratic technicalities, always ready to pull the trigger in spite of a supervisor’s qualms. The remainder of the cast—Koreans, good and bad; other wannabe gangsters; and a sleeper cell of Islamic terrorists—are plugged in when the narrative needs a boost.

The writing ranges from the prosaic toward the occasionally bombastic—“the ever-defiant undercover agent, showing no fear.” Hoary clichés abound, but the authors bring realism to all things martial, including well-choreographed fight scenes.

While there are occasional allusions to “political indigestion” and recent Obama missteps like “Fast and Furious, the IRS Enemies List, and Benghazi,” this effort is less Fox-filtered than North’s previous novels.

Lifting a white paper right off a think-tank desk, the authors have applied a bit of imagination and come up with an acceptable action-adventure.

Pastor, Marc Translated by Lethem, Mara Faye Pushkin Press (272 pp.) $18.95 paper | Oct. 9, 2014 978-1-78227-022-5

A child killer roams the streets of early-20th-century Barcelona in Spaniard Pastor’s jumbled, lurid English language debut.

It’s 1911, and the city teems with immigrants and prostitutes as the crime rate skyrockets. Inspector Moisès Corvo—a man who alternates between his impressive intellect and his well-worn fists to get the job done—is called to a crime scene where the victim is drained of blood, with a bite wound to the neck. This sparks a panic that a vampire is on the loose, a rumor seemingly substantiated for the reader using awkwardly alternating first-person scenes from the point of view of a killer, who’s of questionable supernatural origin and refers to himself as the Shadow. During the course of his investigation, Corvo discovers that, unbeknownst to the police, children are disappearing off the streets.

Since they’re the offspring of Barcelona’s less desirable residents, no one raises the alert, and it’s difficult for Corvo to pique his superiors’ interest. It’s soon clear to the reader, if not to Corvo, that the children aren’t merely being stolen—often for sex—but are also being slaughtered by a prostitute-turned-killer known as Enriqueta Martí (a real-life figure who was arguably Spain’s most prolific murderer). Corvo and his partner are always, infuriatingly, one step behind Martí and her teenage accomplice, Blackmouth, as they snatch children in broad daylight.

Even those with strong stomachs may balk at the callous violence against children, which seems excessive rather than essential to what could have been a compelling historical plot.

EDEN IN WINTER

Patterson, Richard North Quercus (620 pp.) $26.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-62365-147-3 Patterson (Loss of Innocence, 2013, etc.) concludes his Blaine family trilogy with Adam home on Martha’s Vineyard coping with the fallout from the death of his estranged father, Benjamin, a worldfamous novelist.

Opening with Ben dead, this novel chronologically follows the first in the series, Fall from Grace (2012). The state is determining Ben’s cause of death—an accidental fall or murder, with Ben pushed from a steep promontory. Adam knows it was murder, and he knows the killer. Nevertheless, given a multigenerational web of betrayals, infidelity and abuse, Adam decides to protect the murderer. And he can: He’s proficient in tradecraft learned as a CIA |

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special operator in Afghanistan. Complications compound after it’s learned Ben has left almost his entire estate to Carla Pacelli, a gifted young actress recuperating on the island after a stint in rehab. Carla’s pregnant with Ben’s child. Given the bad blood between Adam and his father, the narrative moves past Freud into Oedipal complexity when Adam and Carla become attracted to one another. Patterson’s a pro—the narrative flows easily, set mostly on the island, with a quick, sand-and-bullets Afghanistan action sequence. Patterson also uses the romance to allow Adam and Carla to blossom into more sympathetic protagonists. Patterson does yeoman work turning this tale of an unhappy family into a believable psychological drama by having Adam consult a local therapist. What transpires there makes the unusual love story seem a natural turn of events and, in fact, offers multiple perspectives to more than a handful of shrink-worthy dramatic elements— betrayals that damaged multiple generations; infidelities that leave one man raising another man’s child; class resentment; destructive, overweening ambition—all of which lend depth to the novel as Patterson carries the trilogy toward the happy-ever-after country where he concludes the Blaine family’s Thorn Birds–like saga.

An intriguing psychological examination of a damaged family.

THE RED ROOM

Pearson, Ridley Putnam (416 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-399-16374-6 A third adventure takes globe-trotting independent contractor John Knox and forensic accountant Grace Chu to Istanbul—and all around, over and beneath this crossroads city as well.

According to David Dulwich, the only thing Rutherford Risk needs is for Knox and Grace to finagle five minutes alone with Mashe Okle, a medical-equipment designer and financier whose restaurateur brother Akram is incurably addicted to antiquities. The enticement will be a bust of Harmodius presumed lost for many years, now duly authenticated and offered to Akram for a small fraction of its estimated $10 million value. As usual (Choke Point, 2013, etc.), Knox thinks the project sounds dubious, and Dulwich’s mantra in response to his questions—“NTK,” for Need to Know—isn’t reassuring. But the medications Knox’s brother and partner back in Michigan needs are so pricey that Knox has little choice. So he signs on and heads for Istanbul, a fascinating, inscrutable city where the one thing that’s clear is that every player in this particular game—Akram, Mashe, gallery owner Victoria Momani, art evaluator Dr. Hassan Adjani and, of course, Dulwich himself—is also playing one of a number of deeper games. Grace is kidnapped; Knox is shot at; and the closer they get to their target, the more elusive he seems. That’s not just because the characters are opaque; it’s because brainy Pearson’s plotting and writing are designed to impress and befuddle the gentle reader, who may feel as overwhelmed as the sorely tried principals.

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Filled with bromides about tradecraft—“We don’t know who we’re working for. We don’t know who we’re working against”; “[t]he easy answer is never the right one”; “too many unknowns”—that are all too appropriate to this Rubik’s cube of a thriller.

THE LAST KINGS OF SARK

Rankin-Gee, Rosa St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-250-04535-5 978-1-4668-4400-1 e-book The past and present join together in a tale of a summer love that weaves its tendrils around three young hearts and still grows there decades later.

It’s the summer before 16-year-old Pip goes to university, and his father has hired two girls to spend July and August at their home on Sark—a British Channel island off the coast of Normandy. Twenty-one-year-old Jude arrives to tutor Pip; Sofi, 19, becomes the family’s cook. Pip’s ailing mother seldom ventures downstairs, so when Pip’s father is away on business, the three free themselves from responsibilities and explore the island and grow close. Summer drifts by and ends in a confused tangle—“a hot, melted knot”—the day before Jude flies home. Thus ends the first 29 chapters, originally written as a novella for which Rankin-Gee received the Shakespeare and Co. prize (2011); they reveal her ability to create vital characters and paint wonderfully with words. The three young people are well-drawn, and the dialogue is fresh and vibrant, but the story lacks a strong plot; it’s a cerebral tale made up of Jude’s thoughts and sharp observations but one that lacks forward momentum.

Later, Rankin-Gee added additional chapters, giving readers a peek into the subsequent lives of Jude, Sofi and Pip, each still affected by their long-ago summer on Sark. Alternating chapters narrated by each of the three characters serve to address the unasked question at the end of the first half of the novel: “So who loved whom, exactly?” But there’s an odd sense of disjointedness: Answers are hinted at, alluded to, leaving the reader to make leaps; and though the final chapters provide some closure, they raise as many questions as they answer…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Readers who enjoy a slower-paced novel will find this character-driven tale interesting and thought-provoking.

“The variegated colors, tastes and textures of Ray’s narrative... lend a powerful sense of context to both the most trivial and the most tragic of human circumstances.” from no country

NO COUNTRY

LA GRANDE

Ray, Kalyan Simon & Schuster (544 pp.) $27.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-4516-3599-7 This sprawling novel gives new, multilayered meaning to that old cliché, “It’s a small world.”

Ray’s American debut is all about connections—and disconnections. As the title suggests, the concept of geographical displacement is a major motif. In 1989, shortly after Thanksgiving, an Indian-American couple, the Mitras, are found dead in their upstate New York home, murdered by an intruder. So far, the only suspect is their adult daughter, Devika. From there, the novel’s passage across time and space begins, landing first in 1840s Ireland. In the seaside village of Mullaghmore, budding Irish rebel Padraig; his mother, Maire; his best friend, Brendan; his true love, Brigid; and his teacher Mr. O’Flaherty pursue their passions, never dreaming their world is about to be upended. Padraig, through a set of circumstances which in less adept authorial hands would be nothing short of nonsensical, finds himself aboard an East India Company trading ship. While Padraig prospers in India, Maire and Brigid perish in the potato famine; Maeve, Padraig’s and Brigid’s small daughter, is taken by Brendan aboard a famine ship, which is shipwrecked off the coast of Canada. Thanks to a friendly hog, survivors Maeve and Brendan secure a home on a Vermont farm. Later, Maeve’s daughter, Bibi, is killed in the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, and her toddler son, lost in the confusion following the fire, will be raised as an orphan, never knowing his family of origin. Meanwhile, in India, Padraig’s Irish-Indian grandson, Robert Aherne, and descendants of the Mitra family, Padraig’s saviors and mentors in India, tell their intersecting tales. The scene shifts back to the United States, where drug dealer Billy, whose abusive father is Bibi’s lost son, encounters Devika. The variegated colors, tastes and textures of Ray’s narrative, as it moves through multiple points of view, lend a powerful sense of context to both the most trivial and the most tragic of human circumstances.

Ray treads the fine line between coincidence and contrivance with bravado and finesse. (Agent: Elizabeth Sheinkman)

Saer, Juan José Translated by Dolph, Steve Open Letter (501 pp.) $16.95 paper | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-934824-21-4 This final novel by the renowned Argentine writer (1937-2005) is a daring, idiosyncratic work that examines the idea of an individual person navigating the whirl of random events that helps shape everyone’s lives.

Nula, 29, is a wine salesman, philosopher and philanderer, a combination which makes him a perfect subject for Saer’s scrutiny. He’s working on a book about becoming, which, viewed as a lifelong project, is one of the novel’s animating concepts. As for wine and sex, both are portals to a heightened awareness of the self. While the novel ostensibly keeps to a linear narrative, stretching over six days, Saer subverts the form by placing the most important moments in the past. Five years earlier, on the street, Nula bumped into a beautiful girl in red, contingency (another key concept) at work. He became romantically obsessed by this Lucía, who was married to a doctor, but he couldn’t handle participating in their lovemaking when she invited him to. Soon after, he met and married the equally beautiful Diana, only to cheat on her with regularity. Sex is at the heart of the novel, not just the sweaty coupling but its prospect and, later, its memory, how they flood the consciousness.

Memory is a third key concept. The past is ever present for Nula’s witty, erudite, sexually permissive and loose-knit group of friends. Even at the end of the 20th century, the memory of Argentina’s nightmarish Dirty War still throbs; Nula’s father, a left-wing activist, was murdered during that war. Saer has challenged himself to reproduce life’s flux while arresting it, since “any object in the world can be of interest to a true philosopher.”

This explains why a woman threading a needle merits the same absorbed attention as a hot date.

Dolph’s fine translation eases us through the dense paragraphs of this major addition to Saer’s oeuvre.

DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Schumacher, Julie Doubleday (208 pp.) $24.00 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-385-53813-8

A disgruntled English professor pours out his hopes, affections and frustrations in an interconnected series of recommendation letters.

In “The Gristmill of Praise,” a recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Schumacher (Creative Writing/University of Minnesota; The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls, 2012, etc.) revealed that in a single year, she receives more than 1,600 letters |

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of recommendation and writes 50 to 100 of her own. This onslaught of praise inspired her to write a very funny epistolary novel composed of recommendation letters written by a caustic, frustrated and cautiously hopeful English professor named Jason Fitger. He’s a former literary wunderkind who parodied his own writing teacher in a successful first novel called Stain 20 years ago and has since parlayed three unsuccessful follow-ups into a tenured position at a small liberal arts college. Over the course of 100 letters, we learn that waste water is leaking into Fitger’s office from the construction of a glorious new economics center above the English department; that he’s engaged in a losing battle of office politics with the administration; that he has a cordial but cold relationship with his ex-wife over in the law school; and that he’s generally kind to most of his students, even the ones who are moving on from college to the local liquor store. His writing, meanwhile, is tremendously florid and mostly cynical: “Mr. Duffy Napp has just transmitted a nine-word email asking that I immediately send a letter of reference to your firm on his behalf; his request has summoned from the basement of my heart a star-spangled constellation of joy, so eager am I to see Mr. Napp well established at Maladin IT.” Most of all, we learn that the failed novelist still has hope for the future—if not for himself, then for one of his students, Darren Browles, whom he’s mentoring through a difficult first novel. It’s an unusual form for comedy, but it works.

Truth is stranger than fiction in this acid satire of the academic doldrums.

FORTY ACRES

Smith, Dwayne Alexander Atria (384 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4767-3053-0 Screenwriter Smith tackles the brutality of slavery in this debut novel.

Up-and-coming attorney Martin Grey is involved in the trial of his career, a racial discrimination case that pits the young lawyer against another black attorney, Damon Darrell, a Johnnie Cochran–type with a reputation for winning. Much to everyone’s surprise, Martin manages to snatch victory in court, instantly catapulting himself into the limelight and into a new and prestigious circle of friends, which includes Damon. Those friends are rich and powerful AfricanAmerican men with beautiful wives, prestige, lots of money, and a deep, dark secret that they share. When Martin is invited to tag along for a weekend of whitewater rafting, his wife, Anna, begs him not to go. She thinks it’s dangerous and isn’t comfortable with his newfound buddies. But Martin goes anyway, assuring Anna he’ll be fine. Anna doesn’t buy it, though, and after digging around on the Internet, she finds that a famous novelist died on one of the group’s trips. Her fears are well-seated. When Martin steps off the private jet that whisked them to the private stronghold where these men spend their vacations, he discovers they’re harboring a secret that could bring down their whole 30

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world: The compound, called Forty Acres, is much more than a retreat; it’s a prison camp for dozens of whites held against their wills and forced to work for their black overlords, as a way for African-Americans to exact revenge for slavery. Smith’s screenwriting roots are evident from the first paragraph—he writes for actors, not for readers. Action-oriented but short on character development, the tale Smith spins is earnest but contrived and laced with clumsy sex as well as murky philosophical meanderings.

While inventive, Smith’s writing lacks the polish and depth this plot needs to succeed.

SPARTANS AT THE GATES

Smith, Noble Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-250-02558-6 Series: Warrior Trilogy, 2

In the second volume of his Warrior Trilogy (Sons of Zeus, 2013), Smith’s young warrior, Nikias, makes a perilous journey to seek aid from Athens to help defend the city-state of Plataea from the Spartans.

Nikias carries gold, treasure he purloined from a traitor when Thebes besieged Plataea. Now he’s set off to hire mercenaries, a journey he’s making without the approval of his powerful grandfather, Menesarkus, the Arkon of Plataea. As Nikias rides across the Oxland countryside, he’s attacked by Dog Raiders, anarchic rogues with the habit of skinning the faces of their victims. Whatever else is to be had from this Greek swashbuckling adventure, there’s plenty of gore—swords lopping limbs and skin peeled by “sticking fire.” Much of the story covers Nikias’ adventures along the way to Athens; the schemes and perils he faces in the city; and then his journey home via oar-powered galley. Characters are archetypes—hero on a quest, back-stabbing blackguard—but Smith employs excellent research skills to populate the narrative with entertaining historical factoids about food, sex, dress—some of the best centering on Spartan life and ethos—not to mention the assorted duplicities and fragile political alliances among the city-states. While not quite herculean, Nikias is a hero extraordinaire, adept at hand-tohand combat and able to pluck out an eye with a long, braided leather whip. Nikias loves Kallisto, a traitor’s daughter whose father’s perfidy stands in the way of their marriage, but he’s also easily seduced by Helena, a hetaera, or courtesan. While this second of the trilogy is a formulaic action story overlaid on an era more recognized for art, philosophy and science, it’s easy to follow for readers unfamiliar with the previous volume.

Something different for historical fiction fans.

“A sharp, observant novel about the hard realities of challenging the status quo.” from friendswood

FRIENDSWOOD

Steinke, René Riverhead (368 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 14, 2014 978-1-59463-251-8 A hurricane uncovers widespread pollution in a small Texas town, and a lot of human toxicity as well.

The third novel by Steinke (The Fires, 1999; Holy Skirts, 2005) alternates perspectives among a host of residents of Friendswood, where high school football, property values and Jesus Christ compete for the locals’ esteem. Steinke zooms in on two in particular, though. Lee is a middle-aged woman who’s been investigating carcinogen levels at a former refinery site since her teenage daughter died of cancer; Lee’s discovery after the storm of a new batch of dumped chemicals has riled the town, particularly the local magnate who wants a housing development at the location. Meanwhile, Willa is a high school girl whose eagerness to get to know a boy leads to a drugged drink and gang rape by members of the football team. Steinke emphasizes the parallels in these two plotlines: Both exemplify the horrid consequences of a go-along-to-get-along culture where women are expected not to protest, and religion is deployed as an excuse to avoid asking difficult questions. A few of the characters symbolizing that ethos are a bit cardboard, particularly the parents oblivious to Willa’s emotional despair and the condescending men telling Lee she’s going too far. But the novel gets its spark from Lee genuinely going too far; Steinke expertly weaves in the stresses of Lee’s past and present as she warms to the idea of committing acts of eco-terrorism. Steinke’s message that the truth will out gives her novel the comfort of a commercial page-turner, but she hasn’t simplified her lead characters to sell the notion. Willa in particular suffers from horrifying visions of creatures stalking her, and though she may learn to keep them at bay, it’s clear some damage sticks around for a long time.

A sharp, observant novel about the hard realities of challenging the status quo.

THAT NIGHT

Stevens, Chevy St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-250-03460-1 978-1-250-03461-8 e-book Stevens (Always Watching, 2013, etc.) draws a dark crime drama from the beautiful blue-green of Canada’s Vancouver Island.

In the town of Campbell River, Toni has a rough home life; she can’t wait for high school graduation to escape her mother’s angry disapproval.

Ryan’s home is worse, his father an alcoholic abuser. Together, however, Toni and Ryan make the broken pieces fit. In school, Toni runs afoul of mean girls Shauna, Rachel, Kim and Cathy,

who harass her and spread ugly rumors. Toni has an escape planned—a post-graduation apartment with Ryan—but then her younger sister, Nicole, her mother’s favorite, joins Shauna’s clique and starts dabbling in booze and boys and harassing Toni.

It seems like kid stuff, until Nicole is bludgeoned to death. Toni and Ryan immediately become suspects; they’re convicted of murder and sent to prison. Stevens’ masterful plot spins into evil with “teen girls turning on each other, the viciousness and pack mentality that can arise.” She writes from Toni’s point of view, shifting easily between past and present while delving into family tensions before the murder, then prison life, then back to Campbell River after Toni’s parole. Entirely believable, Toni evolves from a misunderstood, resentful and frightened teenager into an intelligent yet closed-off woman tempered by 15 years in prison. The writing is crisp and the dialogue realistic as Toni speculates about possible suspects and motives, knowing all the while that finding the killer may reveal one of Campbell River’s ugliest secrets. Tension cranks to the breaking point when Cathy, now a drug-addled misfit, is murdered. Ryan and Toni become suspects again, but they realize it’s a sign that the conspiracy that jailed them has fractured. Still vulnerable yet clinging to optimism, the outcasts decide they must find Nicole’s murderer. Stevens has woven a warped psychological drama, a melancholy tale that comes to an existential and yet hopeful conclusion.

Think James Lee Burke and Sue Grafton: Stevens’ dark psychological thriller shares their damaged people and distinctive senses of place.

NANTUCKET SISTERS

Thayer, Nancy Ballantine (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-345-54548-0

Thayer (Island Girls, 2013, etc.) returns to the sunny shores of Nantucket, where two friends from different backgrounds share childhood memories and the same man.

Thayer describes the idyllic shores of Nantucket with cheerful prose: “the sun, fat and buttery as one a child would draw in school,” shines on a sea that “winks blue and turquoise” on the beaches where Emily and Maggie meet every summer to play. Their love for the island may be all the two girls have in common. Emily’s mother, a wealthy New Yorker, wants nothing to do with the islanders—including Maggie, whose mother is a poor seamstress. Though Emily’s mother disappears too often to cause any real friction between the girls, Emily and Maggie realistically grow apart as they go to college, start careers and meet boys. Emily’s romance with Maggie’s brother, Ben, seems doomed when he asks her to downgrade her lifestyle to match his just as rich Cameron Chadwick asks her out on a date. When Emily finds out she’s pregnant, she’s not sure if the baby belongs to Cameron or Ben, but she rolls the dice and tells Cameron it’s his after Ben refuses to answer |

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his phone. It’s debatable whether Emily is acting in the best interest of her child or avoiding responsibility, but her internal struggle is compelling as she tries to keep her unhappy marriage together. Emily might have made a different choice had she known that Cameron impregnated Maggie after a one-night stand. In a maddening twist, Maggie decides not to tell Emily that Cameron fathered her child. We’ll never know if Emily would be enraged or pleased that her daughter and Maggie’s might be half sisters. Still, their reunion is sweet when an unexpected tragedy brings Emily back to the island.

Money corrupts, but love prevails, making it easy to overlook the flaws in this friendship.

BUTCHER’S ROAD

Thomas, Lee Lethe Press (318 pp.) $18.00 paper | May 15, 2014 978-1-59021-470-1 The life of an ex-wrestler–turned– Prohibition-era hooligan gets confusing when he’s sent on the run with a stolen mystical artifact.

Thomas (Like Light For Flies, 2013, etc.) has gained a well-deserved reputation for his keenly composed horror novels underscored with provocative masculine eroticism, and he delivers much the same here. In a blend of genres, his newest combines gritty Prohibition-era gangster violence with a paranormal conspiracy about a collection of powerful mythic objects. The book’s nominal hero is Butch Cardinal, an aging former carny wrestler who has stooped to serving as mob muscle in Chicago, despite having a strong personal code of honor. On a milk-run assignment to pick up a package from lowlife Lonnie Musante, the meet is ambushed, and Butch finds himself on the run with a strange tin crown known as the Galanus Rose. Making his way to New Orleans, he lays low with Hollis Rossington, a club owner and fellow former wrestler with whom Cardinal shares an uncharacteristic but not wholly unexpected physical attraction. Back on the street, Butch learns about the Alchemi, a secret society sworn to protect and secure objects like the Rose, which has curative powers. He tangles with two cunning agents of the Alchemi, a police detective from Chicago and an aging hit man who hopes to cure his ailing wife with the talisman. Thomas gleefully captures the hard-boiled setting in a propulsive story that reads like Frank Miller’s Sin City with a little slap and tickle here and there. “Laws were bent, broken and ignored because these men had power, because they had money. Humanity meant nothing,” Thomas writes. “Logic and honor and compassion were cheap commodities, easily traded for petty comforts and distractions. The only things that mattered were guns and knives, silver and gold. A human being didn’t stand a chance in a world that worshipped metals.”

A well-crafted noir story that reads like The Untouchables by way of Stephen King.

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THE ILLUSIONISTS

Thomas, Rosie Overlook (480 pp.) $27.95 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-1-4683-0990-4

Illusionists in Victorian England take center stage in Thomas’ latest romance (Constance, 2013, etc.).

Devil Wix is more ambitious than his fellow entertainers and wants to do more than eke out a hand-to-mouth existence. The captivating showman dreams of managing his own theatrical company and is willing to go to almost any lengths to achieve his goal. Following a chance encounter, Devil teams up with resourceful dwarf Carlo Bonomi, and the act thrives when the partners present a gory illusion each evening at the run-down Palmyra Theater in London’s East End. Soon, the pair ally themselves with Heinrich, a strange Swiss inventor obsessed with automata; Jasper, a wax sculptor and childhood friend who’s privy to Devil’s darkest memory; and art student/ life model Eliza, an aspiring actress whose kindness and steely determination bind the diverse and often contentious group together. Eliza falls in love with Devil, much to Jasper’s disappointment, but Devil’s not used to dealing with a woman who demands respect. Outwitting his opponent in a card game, Devil gains ownership of the Palmyra and directs his efforts toward making the venue the foremost entertainment hub in the East End. As he discovers the formidable costs of refurbishing the theater and attracting a fickle public, Devil borrows money for renovations and publicity, auditions new acts to keep the show fresh and pays scant attention to the dangerous mental state of one member of the troupe. Thomas enthusiastically explores a unique subject and skillfully creates the sights, atmosphere and sensations of British theater during this era; but with each melodramatic event, the plot becomes wispier and wispier until it finally vanishes into thin air. Predictably, relationships, attitudes and the courses of lives change before the story takes one final gasp, but by then, even die-hard fans may find themselves struggling to get through the drawn-out tale.

An excellent premise, but the story lacks magic.

“Essential for students of the Old English poem—and the ideal gift for devotees of the One Ring.” from beowulf

BEOWULF A Translation and Commentary

Tolkien, J.R.R. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (448 pp.) $28.00 | May 22, 2014 978-0-544-44278-8

Hwaet! A sparkling revisitation of Danish meadhalls and boggy monsters’ lairs by Hobbitmeister Tolkien.

Before he became world-renowned for his tales of the Shire, Tolkien (The Children of Húrin, 2007, etc.) taught Old English, Old Norse and medieval literature at Oxford. At the core of his teaching lay Beowulf, that great, exceedingly strange eighth-century poem of the eponymous, illfated hero and his nemesis, the unfortunate monster Grendel.

His prose translation of the poem into modern English dates to 1926, and it’s a marvel of vigor and economy that doesn’t suffer from not having been set in verse. The text against which to compare it is Seamus Heaney’s 2000 verse translation, and the answer to the question of which version is essential is: Both.

Here are Heaney’s closing lines, the paean to the departed hero: “They said that of all the kings upon earth / he was the man most gracious and fair-minded, / kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.” Tolkien’s are: “Thus bemourned the Geatish folk... crying that he was ever of the kings of earth of men most generous and to men most gracious, to his people most tender and for praise most eager.” Which is the more poetic rendering is a matter of taste, but Tolkien’s has the virtue of being accompanied by more than 300 pages of commentary on the poem, Anglo-Saxon society and Old English literature generally, with a bonus effort at a reconstruction of the Ur folk tale that underlies the poem. The commentary is thoroughly illuminating, touching as it does on such matters as the author’s critical attitude toward “the aristocratic class, its values and assumptions” and “the whole business of the Heathobards and their feud with the house of Healfdene.” The careful reader will also find hints between the lines of Tolkien working out bits and pieces of his own story, not least when he turns to a certain dragon, “on fire now with wrath,” and the fabulous hoard it guards while awake and asleep.

Essential for students of the Old English poem—and the ideal gift for devotees of the One Ring.

ECHO LAKE

Trent, Letitia Dark Horse Press (280 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-940430-03-4 Trent, a poet, turns her pen to literary horror in this story centering on a community with a very dark soul.

Emily has nothing. Her family is dead and gone, her boyfriend is a cheating nonachiever, and her job is taking her nowhere. So when a longlost great aunt dies and leaves Emily the home she owned in Heartshorne, Oklahoma, she doesn’t think twice. Emily dumps the boyfriend, then packs up and leaves for her late mother’s birthplace. When she arrives, she finds that the small house stands near Echo Lake, a man-made body of water that holds more than one terrible secret. She also discovers that her Aunt Fran didn’t pass away peacefully in her bed. Instead, Fran had her throat slit in the living room of the home she left to Emily.

Although disturbed by the news, Emily feels out of options. She doesn’t have enough money to leave, so she stays and tries to fit into the community. First she meets the pastor of a local church and finds out that there have been several unexplained murders in the area, as well as the recent disappearance of a set of twins.

But things don’t start looking up until she meets Jonathan, who runs a head shop in nearby Keno. Together, the two of them dig into the past that Emily’s mother, Connie, tried so hard to obliterate when she left the town behind. Trent’s years as a poet serve her well in this heavily atmospheric novel, which deftly conjures up both evil and the small town’s complicit reluctance to face its past. But in her role as a novelist, Trent’s first effort stands flawed; in addition to the needless stylistic quirk of omitting quotation marks that indicate dialogue, she fails to keep her story straight, changing important details from one page to the next.

Beautiful language doesn’t make up for the inconsistencies that permeate this first novel.

LENA FINKLE’S MAGIC BARREL

Ulinich, Anya Penguin (368 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-14-312524-2 Ulinich (Petropolis, 2007) follows her debut with a graphic novel chronicling a young immigrant writer’s adventures through family, friendship and sex.

It’s fitting that Ulinich’s protagonist shares a first name with the creator of Girls. Besides a self-aware comparison to Lena Dunham’s film Tiny Furniture within the text, the book also shares terrain with the Dunham verse, being the story of a creative young woman’s emotional fallout from sexual exploits in neobohemia. Having emigrated from Russia with her family |

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as a teenager, married young in Arizona (to gain a green card) and lost her virginity behind an arcade game, then settled in Park Slope, Brooklyn, as a 20-something, twice-married mother of two, our narrator is unable to grasp the touchstones of any single culture. She lays herself bare as she works through a reconnection with the possible soul mate she left behind in St. Petersburg (she sleeps with him during a cultural ambassadorship to the motherland as a successful novelist), a safari through the wilds of online dating (beware the vampire of Bensonhurst), and an explosive affair with a sensitive, damaged, miserly trustfund artist known simply as the Orphan. While Lena’s confessions occasionally clog this supposedly graphic novel with pages of nearly solid text, in other spots, it’s engagingly expressed as short, comic strip–like vignettes that juxtapose a simplistic, juvenile visual style against mature subject matter, bringing to mind the work of David Heatley. Ulinich tells the bulk of the tale in black-and-white chiaroscuro drawings that generally land somewhere between Michael Kupperman and an art school sketchbook. The inconsistency in the illustrations is maddening, with full-page, richly detailed close-ups of characters radiating pathos, while other panels are flat, stiff, workmanlike affairs that simply carry along the accompanying humorous observations. Yet for all the extended introspection, an ultimate reveal about the Orphan is elided, the omission waved off in the interest of a vague personal truth.

An entertaining intellect wrapped in ill-fitting clothes.

DRIFTING

Ulysse, Katia D. Akashic (224 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-61775-240-7 A novel in stories that explores the culture clash for immigrants coming to America.

Ulysse re-creates the sometimesmagical, sometimes-brutal world of her homeland, Haiti, in a series of interwoven vignettes that follow friends and relatives from a town called Puits Bain through several generations. The book begins with a story that subtly builds to the horror of the 2010 earthquake as the seemingly safe space of a clinic for children is buried, lost within its own rubble. This is the launching point for people waiting to join relatives in the wonderland that is New York. Stories about Yseult and Flora showcase the trials of old home and new home. Inseparable schoolgirl friends in Haiti, they can’t find each other in the vastness of the city after they immigrate with their families at separate times. The loss of familiarity is devastating, a loss of culture. Enide opens a Haitian restaurant in Brooklyn only to discover she can make more money serving hamburgers and fries and becomes the embodiment of the American dream. She torments her son and granddaughter Yseult for interrupting her success. America it seems is just as predatory as the home fields of Puits Bain. Language and place are important here, as is the central factor of family, 34

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whether loving or biting and bitter. But for every fine story, another is flat, and the rhythm of the whole is never established.

Ulysse does succeed in breathing life into a Haiti we know mostly through news reports of disaster. Humanity is lost and found in these stories.

Ulysse has created a fascinating world of class and cultural distinctions; her stories are engaging though uneven in quality.

THE GREAT GLASS SEA

Weil, Josh Grove (480 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2215-5

In a Russian city of the near future, twin brothers struggle with tradition, technology and the growing distance between them in this impressive debut novel.

As boys, Yarik and Dima learn fishing from their father. After he drowns and their mother has a breakdown, they spend time on their uncle’s farm. Shared pain and rustic pleasures remain with the twins as the story jumps about 20 years and they work on building a huge greenhouse that girds their once-depressed industrial city of Petroplavilsk. It’s a project of a consortium in the new capitalist Russia that has also filled the sky with space mirrors to reflect the sun when it sets and provide perpetual daylight for crops grown under the “mammoth solarium.” Weil (The New Valley, 2009) has fairy-tale elements and a Pushkin romance weaving through a moderately futuristic setting. The different narrative types suit a conflict that pits high-pressure urban toil and avid consumerism against a “Past Life” of agrarian labor, customs and leisure. The prose also shifts markedly from harshly realistic to lyrical and sometimes poetic, as in this description of a winter’s fishing hole: “[a] lapping blackness in the lamplit ice.” The brothers’ gradual estrangement embodies the larger conflicts.

Dima the dreamer, “listening to a woods whispering at the edge of a hayfield,” retreats from work, hoping to recover the uncle’s lost farm and becoming briefly a folk hero as he recites publicly from the Pushkin epic and appears in a video made by a group of anarchists who harvest psilocybin mushrooms. Yarik, with a family and ambition, gains promotions as he’s favored by the billionaire leading the consortium, eventually turning into an icon himself of the good life. The ending errs wisely on the side of realism, addressing the key conflicts without closing all the gaps or healing all the wounds.

As broad as its themes are—touching on political, philosophical and historical divisions—Weil’s first novel is rooted in family and fine storytelling; it’s an engaging, highly satisfying tale blessed by sensitivity and a gifted imagination.

“Kezia keeps Tom’s spirits up with her letters describing the sumptuous meals she prepares for him in her imagination.” from the care and management of lies

THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS, EVEN

THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF LIES

Westbury, Chris F. Counterpoint (272 pp.) $25.00 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-61902-290-4

A cute romantic comedy featuring two male buddies who are obsessive-compulsive germophobes and the female Ph.D. student who helps ease at least one of them into a more conventionally normal life.

Imagine one of those road movies starring a younger Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, and then cross it with Rain Man, and you’ll have some idea of the tone of this debut novel by Westbury. His biography identifies him as “a cognitive neuropsychologist...[whose] work focuses on understanding the functional structure of language processing and the neurological underpinnings of psychotherapy.” Fear not: The doctor doesn’t let the science get in the way of an engaging story, though it will inspire many readers to rethink their conceptions of mental disorders.

Narrator Isaac is a former psych major who’s dealing with the death of his mother and the money he’s inherited. In group therapy, he develops a special affinity with Greg, who has a master’s degree in art history. Beyond the obligatory hand-washing that bonds them, Isaac’s routine includes visiting museums, and he becomes fixated on Marcel Duchamp, to whom Greg (whose major quirk is a thing for spoons) has introduced him. Though Isaac is inordinately careful not to touch anything or anyone on these museum visits, he becomes involved with the irresistibly attractive Kelly, a Japanese-Canadian Ph.D. student who’s writing her thesis on the Bible story of Abraham and Isaac (which serves as a recurring thematic motif). The Duchamp piece from which the novel takes its title incorporates a chocolate grinder, which Isaac obsesses over possessing for himself. The three friends rent a Winnebago, which Kelly alone can drive, and make their way from Boston to Philadelphia to fulfill Isaac’s quest, talking a lot and opening the two men to experiences beyond their comfort levels.

It’s a sweet story, and it builds inevitably to a happy ending.

Winspear, Jacqueline Harper/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $26.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-06-222050-9

Five kind and honorable people are caught up in the depredations of the Great War in this first stand-alone novel by the author of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series (Leaving Everything Most Loved, 2013, etc.).

In 1914, as war looms, newlyweds Tom and Kezia Brissenden are making a go of the farm Tom inherited from his father, a farm that would have been part of the estate of wealthy gentleman Edmund Hawkes had not his great-grandfather lost it to Tom’s great-grandfather in a darts game. Kezia, a vicar’s daughter, is earnestly striving to supplant her finishing school ways with those of a farm wife, consulting a housewifery guide, The Woman’s Book. Although Hawkes is attracted to Kezia, he keeps a respectful distance, just as he is cordial but not friendly toward Tom. This distance persists as Tom and Hawkes both enlist and are sent to the front line in France, where Tom, a private, serves under Capt. Hawkes. Kezia keeps Tom’s spirits up with her letters describing the sumptuous meals she prepares for him in her imagination, where wartime food shortages and government inroads on the farm’s production aren’t problems. The whole battalion soon looks forward to her letters and the occasional fruitcake. However, Tom is scapegoated by this novel’s closest thing to a villain, the cynical and embittered Sgt. Knowles, who resents the influx of so many green recruits. Meanwhile, Tom’s sister (and Kezia’s best friend), Thea, anguishes over whether she will be arrested for her activities as a suffragette and pacifist.

Ultimately, she decides that the only way to escape government oppression is to reaffirm her loyalty: She becomes an ambulance driver at the front, where Kezia’s father, Rev. Marchant, is ministering to troops in the trenches. Without questioning either the cause of the war or the dubious tactics employed, seemingly, to ensure maximum loss of life for minimal military advantage, these characters simply get on with it, reaffirming our faith in the possibility of everyday nobility.

A sad, beautifully written, contemplative testament.

(Author tour to Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and Seattle)

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THE ELUSIVE MOTH

Winterbach, Ingrid Translated by Winterbach, Ingrid; Gouws, Iris Open Letter (257 pp.) $14.95 paper | May 20, 2014 978-1-934824-77-1 Twenty years after this novel earned acclaim and prizes in Winterbach’s (The Book of Happenstance, 2011, etc.) native South Africa, it receives its first American publication, in translation from Afrikaans.

Beginning with the title, the novel steeps itself in metaphor and allegory. It isn’t about moths, but about a young woman who studies them (her sister, tellingly enough, studies stones), as her research brings her to an isolated South African community where she seems to attract the interest of every man in town (like moths to a flame?) and generates a variety of sexual tensions. There’s a backdrop of political repression and racial strife, but the focus remains on the woman and her struggle toward self-knowledge as she comes to terms with the secrets of her past. “Karolina was researching the survival strategies of this species of moth under these extreme circumstances,” the author writes, as the reader recognizes that survival strategies might prove more thematically significant than moths. When she introduces herself to the town’s leading lawyer by saying she “studied insects,” he replies ominously, “I shudder at the thought of all you may discover here.” And discover she does, learning about the power struggles among a bunch of men who all seem to want to have carnal relations with her (though one settles for dancing), as she chooses a self-styled Buddhist who explains that “[s]uffering and false perceptions are caused by an attachment to things....Everything one clings to unduly becomes an obstacle.” While she vacillates between wanting to start over and wishing she had never been born, she develops more of a feminist consciousness concerning her sexuality, issues of power and control, and her place among all these men, as the one who warned her against attachment becomes the sort of attachment he had advised avoiding: “Love tied her down and burdened her; it beset her in a new way, it invaded her, she was like a city under siege.”

Heavy-handed and belabored, the novel carries its own thematic burdens on its back.

EYRIE

Winton, Tim Farrar, Straus and Giroux (432 pp.) $27.00 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-0-374-15134-8 An odd troika stumbles through the decadence of a world on the verge of collapse in Winton’s (Breath, 2008, etc.) resonant, oddly cheerful yarn.

Tom Keely is a mess. A one-time environmental activist, he’s failed at that, and spectacularly.

He’s failed at marriage, at fatherhood. Now, living high up in a 36

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seedy apartment tower on the farthest edge of western Australia, he has recurrent fears of falling out the window and off the face of the Earth—small wonder, given his staggering chemical diet. Winton’s narrative opens with a king-hell hangover, Keely lying as still as he can in the growing heat of morning, contemplating a stain on the rug: “He had no idea what it was or how it got there. But the sight of it put the wind right up him.”

Things don’t promise to get much better for him in that hellish tower among the “stench of strangers” until, hitherto oblivious, he discovers that a neighbor is someone he vaguely knew in his younger days, way back when things were good and promised to get better. As with Tom, the years have not been kind to Gemma Buck, once quietly attractive, now guardian to her grandson, a spooky little kid given to apocalyptic visions and to saying things such as “The birds in the world will die....All of them, the birds. They die.” If young Kai’s dreams are haunted by extinction and doom, he’s got cause: Mom’s a jailbird, dad’s a thug, and they’re hitting Gemma up hard for money she doesn’t have. Dyspeptic in a way that would please a David Lodge or Malcolm Bradbury, Tom unsteadily tries to help, finally given a mission to fill his idle, meaningless days. But is he Kai’s rescuer, or is Kai his? Sometimes brooding, always superbly well-written, Winton’s story studies family—even a family that is as postmodern and anti-nuclear as our hapless trio—both as anchor to keep the ship from drifting away and anchor to keep whomever it’s tied to submerged.

Another exquisite portrait of troubled modern life from Winton, who solidifies his reputation as one of the best writers at work in Australia—and, indeed, in English—today.

TIME OF THE LOCUST

Yejidé, Morowa Atria (256 pp.) $25.00 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-4767-3135-3 978-1-4767-3137-7 e-book Sorrow is piled on tragedy in an earnest debut that looks beyond neural disorder, prison brutality, racism and more to reach a place of peace and acceptance.

Imaginative if at times excessive, Yejidé’s first novel offers a notably empathetic portrait of an autistic child alongside a near-unrelenting vision of bleakness.

Each of its three central characters is trapped in a different form of isolation: Horus Thompson, convicted of the murder of a retired police officer, is serving 25 years to life in a hellish Colorado prison. Horus’ ex-wife, Brenda, has sealed herself off from the loss of her husband and the problems of parenting her son, Sephiri, by gaining a dangerous amount of weight. And 7-year-old Sephiri, whose autism and lack of speech separate him from conventional interaction, escapes as often as he can from the torments of the “Land of Air” into his own “World of Water,” where animals and language offer him wonderful, soothing insights. Brenda believes that Horus knows nothing

of his son’s existence, but her husband glimpsed the positive pregnancy test just before his arrest. Now, seven years into his sentence and buried below ground in solitary confinement, Horus’ mental stress and physical deterioration seem to be connecting him to the boy he’s never met, who has started to produce brilliant, inexplicable drawings. At times almost mystical in its intensity, Yejidé’s prose brings lyricism to her dark subject matter and unhappy characters, eventually introducing a kind of magical restoration to her shattered fictional family.

An unusual, overemphatic but persuasively committed parable of time and transfiguration.

GREEN GIRL

Zambreno, Kate Perennial/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-232283-8 A spoiled, self-loathing American girl navigates the wilderness years during a self-imposed exile in London.

This second novel by Zambreno (O Fallen Angel, 2010, etc.) is an ambitious synthesis of millennial identity crisis, lyrical experimentation and emotional self-destruction that attempts to reinvent (or re-create?) the classical image of the flâneur by following the most awful protagonist in postGirls literature through crowded, dirty London. Ruth, the heroine of this dark portrait, really is appalling to be around; in an interview with Zambreno at the end of the book, Bookslut’s Jessa Crispin observes, “[y]ou want both to slap her and to feed her like a baby bird,” which is pretty accurate. She works at an expensive department store she calls only “Horrids,” plying wealthy shoppers with a rancid perfume called “Desire,” as in, “[h]ave you ever experienced Desire?” Much of the book makes it feel as if Ruth is the star of her own movie, while simultaneously pulling off the trick of staying squarely within her damaged skull. “What does she want to be?” Zambreno asks. “A green girl doesn’t like to consider this question. She already is.

She is waiting around to be discovered just for being herself.”

We slowly learn that Ruth has fled to this city she hates in the wake of a bad relationship, but we never really get to the roots of her emotional train wreck. We know she loathes others—her uptight supervisor, her gossipy co-workers, even the affable roommate who plies her with Ecstasy and three-ways.

She’s a sexual catastrophe, casually dispensing favors to strangers in back rooms and breaking up with good guys because they won’t abuse her the way she needs. Zambreno has the writing chops for this unconventional journey, and the book takes some intriguing stylistic detours, but Ruth remains a bitter little pill to swallow.

The flip side of the burgeoning drug-and-alcohol-fueled bad-boy lit movement: very busted girls.

m ys t e r y DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY

Bouman, Tom Norton (288 pp.) $24.95 | Jul. 7, 2014 978-0-393-24302-4

The worn-down mountains and fertile river valleys of northeastern Pennsylvania hide some dreadful secrets.

Officer Henry Farrell has returned, bereft and mentally damaged, from Wyoming to the land of his birth after his wife died from a number of health problems he suspects were related to fracking. In Henry’s quiet corner of Pennsylvania, hardscrabble dairy farms and small businesses struggle for survival. For years, there have been few jobs and plenty of poverty. But that’s all being changed by the influx of companies leasing land for gas drilling. When the body of a young man is found on the property of Aub Dunigan, and Danny Stiobhard appears at a local clinic to have buckshot picked out of his side after Aub “accidentally” shoots him, Henry realizes he’ll have to call in both the sheriff and the state police. Aub, who’s suffering from dementia, has little to say, and Danny takes off before the police can ask too many questions.

Life only gets more complicated when Henry’s deputy, George Ellis, is shot dead and Henry discovers a well-hidden old grave on Aub’s property. Henry went to school with many of his suspects and believes that, despite their casual thievery and poaching, most of them are incapable of murder. But the drilling has brought an influx of out-of-state workers, set neighbor against neighbor, and opened the door to dangerous meth cookers and heroin pushers who’ve set up business in remote locations. The key to solving Henry’s case may lie in a remarkably well-preserved body found in the hidden grave.

Bouman’s debut shows rural noir at its finest: a poetically written mystery about a man struggling with his inner demons and an area of great natural beauty few had heard of before the natural gas boom.

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ANGELICA’S SMILE

Camilleri, Andrea Translated by Sartarelli, Stephen Penguin (304 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-14-312376-7 The investigation of a string of burglaries becomes ticklishly complicated when the rumpled investigator finds himself entranced by one of the victims.

Closing in on 60 and jaded to the max, droll Sicilian Inspector Montalbano views nearly every crime as a nuisance, including a series of burglaries perpetrated on wealthy locals. Nevertheless, he and quirky subordinates Catarella and Fazio set about dutifully interviewing victims. The crime scenes and the list of articles taken, including luxury cars, mark the burglars as pros. So Montalbano compiles a list of known high-end thieves alongside the growing list of victims. Two developments amp up his interest in the case. First, he begins receiving taunting messages, presumably from the leader of the thieves, a “Mr. Z,” calling this a game and daring him to play. Not long after, he goes to interview the latest victim and falls in love as never before. Angelica Cosulich, head teller at a local bank, is appealingly attentive to him. She’s named after the heroine of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, passages of which Montalbano mentally repeats with her in mind. Nor does his infatuation pass unnoticed at the station house. Meanwhile, his tempestuous lady love Livia is particularly unpredictable, aloof one minute and intrusively devoted the next. Just when the case seems hopelessly blocked, a body in a ditch and a surprising suicide blow it wide open.

Montalbano’s 18th recorded case (Treasure Hunt, 2013, etc.) is slight but sublime, with droll dialogue, colorful characters and a sleek pace.

TERMINAL CITY

Fairstein, Linda Dutton (384 pp.) $27.95 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-525-95388-3

Why would a madman deposit a series of corpses in the neighborhood around Grand Central Station? To prepare New York City’s second most popular tourist attraction for the Fairstein treatment.

Whoever killed Red Cross worker Corinne Thatcher meant business—railroad business. Why else would he have stolen a trunk from the Yale Club in order to pack her up, bring her to a room on the 45th floor of the Waldorf Astoria, strip her, rape her, stab her to death and carve an elaborate series of railroad tracks into her body? Alexandra Cooper, who heads the Special Victims Unit of the District Attorney’s office, is on hand to shudder at the crime scene.

Even though she’d just as soon be prosecuting suspended cop Gerardo Dominguez for threatening to kill and eat his terrified 38

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wife, Alba, Coop is pulled off that case and plopped down in the middle of this one, with orders to wrap it up over the weekend before the president arrives at the Waldorf for an emergency meeting of the United Nations. The most promising suspect— Corinne’s violent boyfriend, Paco, who’s carried a grudge against the president ever since his brother lost both his legs to a bomber in Afghanistan—promptly hightails it back to the Dominican Republic, leaving Coop with nothing but the promise of more similarly disfigured victims killed in and around Grand Central and more conversations laden with background information about the terminal, the real estate it sits on and the network of tunnels beneath it.

From the violated landmark to the return of all the regulars to the acrobatic chase finale to the casual logic behind both crime and detection, the results are so formulaic you’d swear this installment consisted entirely of outtakes from Coop’s first 15 cases (Death Angel, 2013, etc.).

PHANTOM INSTINCT

Gardiner, Meg Dutton (368 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-0-525-95431-6

Two wounded warriors team up to take down the lowlifes who hurt them and would love to kill them.

Nobody believes Harper Flynn about what happened that night in Xenon, the Los Angeles club where she tended bar.

Everyone agrees that a pair of masked men suddenly appeared out of nowhere and opened fire into the crowd, killing Harper’s boyfriend, Drew Westerman, before they fled into the night.

But no one else saw the third gunman Harper insists fired the fatal shot—no one, that is, but Detective Aiden Garrison, who was in Xenon watching meth wholesaler Arliss Bale, the shooters’ presumed target, who escaped without a scratch. Like Harper, Aiden is certain there was a third gunman. But no one believes him either, because among the impressive injuries he racked up in the course of that night was Fregoli Syndrome, which not only makes it hard for him to identify certain faces, but sometimes makes him convinced that people around him aren’t really who they appear to be but enemies in disguise— enemies like that third gunman, who he insists he keeps spotting in the year after the incident. Once Aiden joins forces with Harper, who’s wounded only in her enduring shock and bereavement, it doesn’t take long for them to identify Eddie “Zero” Azerov as the third man. After spending the first half of this tale compellingly dramatizing how hard it is for Harper and Aiden to trust each other and their own perceptions, however, Gardiner (The Shadow Tracer, 2013, etc.) has the bad guys kidnap Drew’s kid sister and use her as a hostage to make Harper do their bidding.

The resulting action sequences, which fill the second half of the story, are never less than breathtaking but not nearly as interesting as the setup was.

“Without ever breaking a sweat, Greaves gives an object lesson in how to work the greatest number of permutations with the smallest number of players.” from the last heir

AFTER THE EXHIBITION

Gordon-Smith, Dolores Severn House (240 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7278-8376-6

An amateur sleuth falls for a murder suspect.

Accompanying his pal DCI Bill Rackham to a London showing of work by the firm Lythewell and Askern, Church Artists, Maj. Jack Haldean finds the dull exhibit enlivened by (1) Bill’s acquaintance with Colin Askern, whom he met in a World War I trench; (2) the presence of Betty Wingate, an attractive poor relation taken in by Daniel Lythewell; and (3) the sudden collapse of a charity flag seller on the steps of the exhibit hall. When Betty comes to Scotland Yard looking for help, Bill brings her to Jack with an unlikely story about a dead woman on the sofa of the cottage of Signora Bianchi, a femme fatale who seems to be involved with both Colin and his father. No body is found, and Betty is dismissed as an attention seeker. But Jack and Bill, visiting the cottage, find evidence that she may be telling the truth. Jack’s clever explanation of what might have happened to the signora is smashed when she turns up alive and well. A firestorm ensues when the signora reveals that she was, and legally still is, married to the senior Askern, and Colin is her son. The sleuthing duo remain involved while Jack investigates the secrets of a wildly overblown unconsecrated chantry that was built by Daniel Lythewell’s father as a monument to himself. The chantry’s floor contains a series of inset metal plates with cryptic hints of a missing treasure. When the flag seller and a church artist are murdered, Betty looks more and more like the prime suspect.

While not up to the gold standard set by the best of the classic mysteries, Gordon-Smith’s eighth return to the past (Blood From a Stone, 2013, etc.) provides plenty of betweenthe-wars atmosphere and a surfeit of red herrings.

THE LAST HEIR

Greaves, Chuck Minotaur (288 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-250-04556-0 978-1-4668-4432-2 e-book Who exactly is the last heir to Napa Valley’s Chateau Giroux?

Even though his son Phil survived an avalanche several months ago, Philippe Giroux is left with several problems. One is that his son Alain didn’t. A second is that the family winery, Chateau Giroux, is slated to pass from the hands of Philippe, as trustee, to that of his surviving male heirs when Phil turns 40 in a few months. Another is Philippe’s certainty that Phil, under the baneful influence of his wife, Lourdes, plans to sell the winery to developer Andy Clarkson for his Napa Springs Spa and Golf Resort. Still

another is a series of posthumous credit-card charges that indicate that Alain is still alive. Los Angeles attorney Jack MacTaggart (Green-Eyed Lady, 2013, etc.) doesn’t know much more about wills and estates than he does about fine wines. On the evidence of his recent TV performance, however, Philippe is convinced that Jack’s the man for him, and his daughter, Claudia, seals the deal by taking Jack to bed. The hearing to determine whether to declare Alain legally dead ends abruptly, sending Jack scurrying home. But it’s not long before he gets another barrage of calls from Claudia and Clarkson begging him to return. Phil has been found floating in a vat of pinot noir, and there’s no question at all that he’s dead. If you think a case with so few suspects will be simple, think again. Very few readers will be able to identify the last heir.

Without ever breaking a sweat, Greaves gives an object lesson in how to work the greatest number of permutations with the smallest number of players. Pray that the man never takes up three-card monte.

FACE VALUE

Kahn, Michael Poisoned Pen (250 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $6.99 e-book $22.95 Lg. Prt. | Jun. 3, 2014 978-1-4642-0278-0 978-1-4642-0280-3 paper 978-1-4642-0281-0 e-book 978-1-4642-0279-7 Lg. Prt. St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold (The Flinch Factor, 2013, etc.) and waves of lesser detectives go after the person who threw a promising junior lawyer from a high-rise parking garage to the unforgiving ground below.

There are so many good reasons to kill yourself when you’re a junior associate—the long hours, the high levels of stress, the professional tunnel vision—that the cops see no reason to doubt that Sari Bashir committed suicide as she left the law offices of Warner & Olsen for the last time. But Stanley Plotkin, of the Warner & Olsen mailroom, begs to differ. And since Stanley’s Asperger’s syndrome, which renders him unsuitable for cocktail parties, has given him the concentration necessary to read the most minute emotional tells in witnesses’ faces, he finds a ready audience when he explains to Rachel that Sari wouldn’t have killed herself. How to harness Stanley’s very specialized skills to an unofficial investigation? Rachel comes up with the idea of recording colleagues’ reminiscences of Sari for a memorial video that will incidentally give Stanley the chance to study footage of the leading suspects’ faces at his leisure. It’s a clever idea that produces some regrettably boring chapters.

The suspects are forgettable attorneys hiding not very interesting secrets that are flushed out with little ado by their reactions to some questions so leading they’d never be allowed in court.

Eventually Rachel, along with Stanley, her old friend professor Benny Goldberg, Detective Bertie Tomaso of the St. Louis PD and several supporting sleuths tie Sari’s death to a long-running criminal scheme, and that’s that. |

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The platoon of detectives muffles sprightly Rachel, and the mystery isn’t lively or original enough to provide much compensation. Wait till next year.

CRADLE TO GRAVE

Kuhns, Eleanor Minotaur (352 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-250-05000-7 978-1-4668-5119-1 e-book Revolutionary War veteran Will Rees’ third case takes him from his home in Maine to the Shaker community of Mount Unity, New York, where accusations of child neglect blossom into murder.

Hannah “Mouse” Moore, an old friend of Rees and his bride, Lydia, is in unexpected trouble in Mount Unity, whose elders have accused her of kidnapping. And with good reason, for when Rees and Lydia (Death of a Dyer, 2013, etc.) make the journey to Dover Springs, the little town near Albany where the community has put down roots, they find that Mouse freely admits carrying off Maggie Whitney’s four children and a foundling she’d taken in as well. It was for the children’s own good, she insists; Maggie was criminally neglecting Jerusha, 8; Simon, 7; Nancy, 5; Judah, 2; and tiny Joseph, the foundling. When Rees and Lydia visit Maggie, she’s obviously drunk; there’s nothing in the house to eat; and she’s apprenticed the precociously well-spoken Simon to neighboring farmer Tom Baker. In a community that’s a law unto itself, however, Mouse doesn’t have a leg to stand on legally, and the best Rees can do is to smooth the waters and ingratiate himself with the locals and selectmen before he and Lydia head back home. No sooner have they set forth on their return, however, than they’re recalled to Mount Unity by the news that Maggie has been found dead in an open grave, with Mouse the obvious suspect. It falls to Rees to pester her friends and neighbors with endless questions—one of them aptly compares him to “a biting flea”—until the truth about Maggie’s tangled history finally emerges.

An improbable opening gambit and the gathering revelations of even more improbable extramarital relations that abundantly justify Rees’ verdict—“These incestuous small towns!”—make this the weakest of his three period adventures to date.

SORROW BOUND

Mark, David Blue Rider Press (352 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 3, 2014 978-0-399-16820-8 An introspective detective’s involvement in a series of brutal crimes is both professional and personal.

DS Aector McAvoy is a shy but physically impressive Scot with a Romany wife.

Many of his colleagues are angry with him for bringing down a dishonest cop, and he’s been required to attend six sessions with a police-approved counselor. The sessions are not going well, but Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh, McAvoy’s boss at Serious and Organized Crime, still has complete faith in him. Half the unit is investigating the violent escalation in crime linked to a mysterious new group taking over the drug trade in and about Hull. McAvoy and Pharaoh, in the other half of the unit, are on the trail of a serial killer. They suspect the killings are revenge for what the killer considers a miscarriage of justice. Sebastien Hoyer-Wood, a well-connected young man, had committed a series of violent rapes he forced the victims’ families to watch. But when he was caught, his college friend, now a psychiatrist, managed to get him committed to a posh mental home rather than jail. Now a number of people who saved Hoyer-Wood’s life when he was severely beaten by a victim’s husband become targets of the killer. Using blackmail as a tool, the drug kingpin meanwhile catches several police officers in his web. McAvoy himself becomes a target when his wife, Roisin, beats up a dealer who is attacking a friend accidentally in possession of some drugs and takes the money the dealer initially offered as a bribe before he lost his temper. Even though he and his family are is serious danger from the enigmatic drug kingpin, McAvoy can’t let go of the complicated murder case.

Compelling characters and a knotty mystery make the third from Mark (Original Skin, 2013, etc.) stand out from other procedurals. (Agent: Oli Munson)

A POSSIBILITY OF VIOLENCE

Mishani, D.A. Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $26.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-06-219540-1 Inspector Avraham Avraham tries to fathom why—even in Israel—someone would plant a fake bomb outside a day care center.

Surprises await Avraham on his return from Brussels. While he was spending carefree hours with Marianka, the lovely Belgian police officer he met on what started as a routine training assignment (The Missing File, 2013), his unit welcomed a new commander. Benny Saban seems like a harmless bean counter, but he’s almost too cordial to Avraham. Ilana

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“Oswald’s detective gives John Rebus a run for his money in this noirish page-turner.” from the book of souls

Lis, his mentor, on the other hand, seems to be avoiding him.

When he reads her report on the Sharabi case, he can see why: It details his many mistakes, while acknowledging that he did find the solution. His current investigation, then, seems increasingly like a chance to redeem himself. The case itself is trivial, since no one was hurt by the device planted outside Chava Cohen’s child care center. But something in his interrogations makes Avraham uneasy. Amos Uzan seems like a run-of-the-mill thug with a minor rap sheet. Is it just the tiny mustache he’s grown since his last mug shot that bothers Avraham? And Chaim Sara seems like an honest schlub just trying to make a living selling sandwiches. What is there about his story about his Philippine wife’s visit home to see her sick father that doesn’t ring true? As Avraham closes in on the truth, he faces the terrifying feeling that, once again, he may just be too late.

Tense yet heartfelt, Mishani’s second Avraham entry is even more riveting than his debut.

THE BOOK OF SOULS

Oswald, James Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (442 pp.) $13.95 paper | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-544-31949-3 Not even the death of an infamous serial killer brings closure to the detective who brought him to justice.

A fellow prisoner has murdered the Edinburgh Christmas Killer. But for DI Tony McLean, this news only brings back memories of the horrendous death of his fiancee, who was the killer’s last victim.

Then the body of a young woman is found in a stream, naked, tortured, raped, her throat cut and her body washed clean—all hallmarks of the Christmas Killer’s work. McLean is given the case over the protestations of DCI Duguid, who wants every man working on a big drug operation. He’s also working on a series of arson fires that are destroying big, old buildings that are unused or being rehabbed for other uses. McLean is embarrassed when his own apartment building goes up in flames and he learns that one of the flats was occupied by drug dealers.

Meanwhile, another copycat death doubles the pressure on him.

Afraid he’ll crack, his boss orders him to attend counseling sessions that he considers a waste. When the original murderer, a bookseller, confessed to the crime, he blamed his actions on an ancient book with mystical powers that he claimed turned him into a serial killer. McLean can only hope that the disappearance of that book will provide the clue that cracks the case.

The violence and supernatural touches may put some readers off this sequel (Natural Causes, 2012, etc.), but Oswald’s detective gives John Rebus a run for his money in this noirish page-turner.

STRANGERS

Pronzini, Bill Forge (256 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7653-3567-8 978-1-4668-2522-2 e-book The Nameless Detective, whose name is Bill, leaves the Bay Area and drives to far-off Mineral Springs, Nevada, to go to bat for a troubled kid he’s never met.

Twenty years ago, Nameless’ love affair with Cheryl Rosmond was nipped in the bud when her brother Doug, whom Nameless had unmasked as a killer, committed suicide. Now the police are at Cheryl’s door again. Five months after losing his job at the Eastwell Mine, her son, Cody Hatcher, 19, has been arrested for three rapes. The strongest evidence against Cody is provided by hermit/scavenger Max Stendreyer, who stopped selling Cody marijuana long enough to identify him as the man he saw fleeing the scene of the third assault. Cheryl swears her son is innocent, but with the possible exception of his girlfriend, hair stylist Alana Farmer, no one else in Mineral Springs agrees. Bedrock County Sheriff Joe Felix is so convinced he’s got the right guy that he won’t even let Nameless in to speak to his prisoner; the three victims, all of them much older than Cody, don’t exactly welcome him with open arms either; and Alana’s ex-boyfriend Derek Zastroy, who Cody thinks set him up, brushes off the accusation with casual truculence. No matter. Nameless digs and digs, and soon he’s made enough progress to have attracted gunfire, made an enemy of the local district attorney and linked Cody to a quite different series of crimes, including homicide. Maybe these reunions with your lost loves aren’t such a great idea after all.

The detection is routine and the real killer forgettable, but Pronzini (Camouflage, 2011, etc.) keeps his biggest and saddest surprise in reserve for the final pages. Don’t quit reading just because you’ve found out whodunit. (Agent: Dominick Abel)

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science fiction and fantasy THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS

Anderson, Kevin J. Tor (672 pp.) $27.99 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-7653-3299-8

The beginning of a new doorstopper sequel series to Anderson’s fantasy space opera The Saga of the Seven Suns (The Ashes of Worlds, 2008, etc.).

In the future, royalty supposedly governs humanity’s galactic league of colonies, but in reality, the monarchs take their orders from a Chairman. Humans have gained a stardrive from the ancient alien Ildiran race. The innately conservative Ildirans are psychically linked through “thism” (a sort of weak telepathy) to their leader, the MageImperator. On the independent human planet Theroc live green priests, telepathically linked to each other through their world’s semi-sentient worldforest. Previously, humans and Ildirans fought a war with the hydrogues, gassy aliens who dwell on (or in) gas giant planets (there are fiery and watery aliens too) with the deadly Klikiss black robots. You won’t be surprised to hear the humans won. Now, 20 years later, engineer Garrison Reeves foresees disaster overtaking the unstable volcanic planet he’s working on; pursued by his vengeful wife, he flees into space with his son and discovers “bloaters”—which happen to be chock-full of a spaceship superfuel called “ekti.” An exploratory Ildiran ship commanded by Gale’nh, the half-human son of the Mage-Imperator, blunders into a mysterious sentient black cloud known to Ildiran history as Shana Rei and meets disaster.

A swarm of surviving Klikiss black robots forms an alliance with Shana Rei. Human traditionalist Roamer dissidents take up residence in an ancient abandoned space city only to fall victim to an incurable plague. Phobic industrialist Zoe Alakis sends her murderous servant Tom Rom to acquire samples for medical research even though she does nothing with the proceeds.

All this isn’t the half of it. With a cast of thousands, glossary notwithstanding, it’s hard to remember who anybody is or what they do. Narrating in his usual breezy style, and untroubled by scientific fact, Anderson just lays it on with a trowel—and the upshot’s a book that’s so busy communicating everything in general that it forgets to be about something in particular.

Avoid. Unless you’re an Anderson addict. (Agent: John Silbersack)

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THE QUEEN OF THE TEARLING

Johansen, Erika Harper/HarperCollins (448 pp.) $26.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-229036-6

Chick lit meets swords and sorcery in the perfect commodity for a hot demographic.

But is it art? Debut novelist Johansen turns in a fantasy novel that’s derivative of Tolkien, as so many books in the genre are—it’s got its merry band of warriors, its struggle for a throne that has a long and tangled history, its battle for good and evil. That this novel just happens to have commanded a huge advance and a movie deal, with Emma Watson attached at this writing to play the heroine, Kelsea, is incidental to the tale, which, schematized, would be pretty by-the-numbers. As a worldbuilding exercise, it has many deficiencies: While the story is set in the not-too-distant future, its trappings are medieval and not, as in A Canticle for Leibowitz, because of an intervening apocalypse; it’s a churchy and mystical sort of place, but the heroine has a command of Mendelian genetics (“Red hair was a recessive gene, and in the three centuries since the Crossing, it had bred slowly and steadily out of the population”). But, continuity errors and improbabilities aside—when hiding from a deadly enemy, for instance, a troop of royal guards isn’t really likely to get drunk, sing loud songs and keep the orcs awake all night—Johansen adds value to the tale with well-crafted sentences that sometimes build into exuberant paragraphs: “The queenship she’d inherited, problematic enough in the abstract, now appeared insurmountable. But of course, she had already known the road would be difficult. Carlin had told her so obliquely, through years spent studying the troubled nations and kingdoms of the past.” On the plus side, too, is Johansen’s wise choice to make the heroine a plain-ish Jane who learns on the go, discovering her inner resources as she emerges from adolescence into adulthood. And applause, too, for some nicely gory closing moments.

A middling Middle Earth-ian yarn, then, that seems destined to be the next big thing among the Game of Thrones set. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

ARTEMIS AWAKENING

the site of a secret World War II project to explore the industrial production of sound. Its narrator, an author and academic writing a collaborative novel and whose sister is autistic, may or may not be the Park who inspired the installation. The final part features a near-future U.S. depopulated by pandemics; gated communities; the old Park family house; and a virtual reality called Second Life. Its narrator, whose name is Park, creates metafiction in a ruined library by selecting random passages from books written by family members that he then combines into prophetic narratives. Characters from extant Park stories reappear. These unreliable narrators and viewpoints are woven into a recursive text with temporal inversions and references to other versions of events not directly in evidence. Of course, none of this may be true. This might or might not be a text. You might or might not be reading it.

Park’s metafictions have their devotees, but readers just looking for an enjoyable story will look elsewhere.

Lindskold, Jane Tor (288 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 e-book | May 27, 2014 978-0-7653-3710-8 978-1-4668-3049-3 e-book Lindskold (Five Odd Honors, 2010, etc.) opens a new series with a lost civilization, psychic powers and a truly despicable villain.

Once there was an incredibly advanced galactic empire that controlled vast technologies with a thought. Its rulers developed the planet Artemis as a vacation spot, creating a carefully cultivated “primitive” milieu and genetically engineering the humans and animals who served as staff. Hundreds of years later, historian Griffin Dane confirms he’s rediscovered Artemis by crash-landing onto the planet. Huntress Adara, her telepathically bonded puma, Sand Shadow, and her friends attempt to help Griffin return home by seeking advice from the Old One Who Is Young, a seemingly immortal man with his own scheme to recover Artemis’ lost technology. Lindskold does an excellent job of turning what could be stock characters (naïve city boy, wild huntress, etc.) into real men and women. It’s particularly refreshing that Adara and the other Artermisians are not, as Griffin initially assumes, “noble savages”—but intelligent, resourceful people with intellectual curiosity. The plot, if not especially complex or groundbreaking (and with a final twist too obviously lampshaded by the novel’s title), does offer enough puzzles to set up future volumes.

Worth sticking around to see what happens next.

THE LONG MARS

Pratchett, Terry; Baxter, Stephen Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $25.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-06-229729-7 Third in the series (The Long War, 2013, etc.) exploring the idea that alternate Earths exist and can be visited simply by “stepping” into them.

The discovery of the Long Earth by folks with a natural ability to step, and its subsequent opening up to everybody by means of a simple device, resulted in a diaspora. The original Earth, known as Datum, still has its troubles, and this time, the supervolcano beneath Yellowstone explodes to catastrophic effect, hastening the dispersal of Datum’s population. The building of airships equipped with rapid-step devices means various Earths thousands or millions of steps from Datum can be reached. U.S. Navy Cmdr. Maggie Kauffman receives a commission to explore beyond Earth 200 million and in the process discover what happened to a previous expedition that never returned. The inventor of the stepper device, Willis Linsay, invites his daughter Sally, a loner and a natural stepper, to join him on an expedition to explore the Long Mars—where, he deduces, somewhere among the alternate Marses there will be intelligent life. And Lobsang, the supersmart AI who generally keeps an eye on things, suspects the emergence of a superior species of human. These highly intelligent individuals call themselves the Next, refer to regular humans as dim bulbs, tend to antagonize everybody and seem to originate in a particular location on one of the distant Earths. Foreseeing an inevitable conflict, Lobsang asks natural stepper Joshua Valienté to investigate. For series fans, the technique is familiar enough: a sprawling, meandering narrative whose purpose is less to amaze and entertain than to inquire about humanity itself and how attitudes and approaches to existential questions might or might not change.

Panoramic and fascinating, if sometimes vexingly discursive.

ALL THOSE VANISHED ENGINES

Park, Paul Tor (272 pp.) $25.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7653-7540-7 978-1-4668-4716-3 e-book Science fiction-ish, fantasy-ish, alternate history–ish work in three ostensibly independent parts, from the author of The Hidden World (2008, etc.)

The first part is set in the years following the Civil War, in which the Queen of the North has negotiated a two-nation settlement. Paulina lives in Virginia near the site of the Battle of the Crater with the family of a cousin, Col. Adolphus Claiborne. She has no idea who her real parents are or were and occupies herself writing a fictitious history of the future and remembering things that didn’t happen. The Crater still exists. Perhaps the Yankees built a tunnel at the bottom to convey troops and munitions via steam engine to the heart of the battle. Maybe the engine blew up, or maybe a battle was fought. The second part shifts to northwestern Massachusetts, where, in an era resembling the present, a (real-life) installation by artist Stephen Vitiello inspired by a text

by Park (go ahead, look it up) imagines an abandoned building as |

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r om a n c e

FOR ALL TIME

Deveraux, Jude Ballantine (288 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-345-54182-6

THE ESCAPE

Balogh, Mary Dell (432 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-345-53606-8 Sir Benedict Harper is struggling to find his place in the world after his wounds force him out of the army; in helping his neighbor Samantha McKay escape her stifling in-laws, he expects to feel satisfaction but may find salvation.

After nursing her needy, difficult husband through a lingering illness to his death, Samantha hopes for a little peace but is thwarted by her sister-in-law’s oppressive visit, which demands rigid expectations during their mourning.

When a slight transgression finds her under the ever tightening screws of her husband’s family, Samantha decides to travel to Wales, where her mother grew up. Under duress, she means to discuss her plans with Lady Gramley, her nearest friendly neighbor, but winds up meeting the lady’s brother instead. Unwilling to let Samantha travel alone, Benedict agrees to help her escape her in-laws as long as she agrees to let him travel with her and see her safely to her destination. Along the way, Samantha realizes how dire the injuries to his legs were and recognizes the determination and fighting spirit that allowed him to heal enough to walk again, albeit with canes. And once they reach her mother’s village, Samantha learns that many of her beliefs regarding her family were false, at first to her outrage, then to her slowly building sense of hope and possibility. Meanwhile, as feelings grow on both sides, Samantha and Benedict are wary of expressing themselves for fear of unworthiness and unrequited affection. However, Samantha’s reunion with her family may offer new opportunities for Benedict, too, while giving the couple time to explore their ambitions and their emotions.

Regency romance star Balogh continues her poignant Survivor’s Club series with a quietly intense love story that speaks to open-heartedness, courage and faith in new beginnings.

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The second novel in the best-selling author’s Nantucket Brides trilogy doubles up on romance with twin brothers and reincarnated lovers.

Prince Graydon Montgomery is attending his cousin’s wedding on Nantucket when Toby Wyndam catches him impersonating his twin brother.

The fact that Toby is the only person who can distinguish the heir to the Lanconian throne from his self-indulgent sibling hearkens back to an old family legend saying that’s the way to recognize true love. Though Graydon is as gentle and humble as a modernday royal can be (he cooks, drives and wears T-shirts), his hand has already been promised to Lady Danna Hexonbath, whom his brother secretly loves. So Graydon contrives to stay with Toby on Nantucket while she organizes a decadent wedding for a bestselling author—and sends his brother to Lanconia in his place to give himself a little freedom before his engagement party. When Graydon’s sword-wielding entourage arrives to keep him in check, the delightfully stoic bodyguards also give Toby a crash course on Lanconian customs, from which kinds of cheese they prefer to their attitudes about social class. Deveraux’s fictitious country ingeniously keeps her prince out of the public eye while giving him a sense of duty that stops him from getting with the times and marrying a commoner. Toby, who’s still a virgin, also holds on to antiquated ideals to avoid getting her heart broken in a doomed relationship. Little do the lovers know that their future happiness depends on time traveling to Regency-era Nantucket to reunite a couple separated by similar circumstances. If only the paranormal element of the plot had been introduced sooner; Toby’s research into her town’s history gives her and Graydon a mystery to solve while they resist each other’s charms and inspires her plan for a beautiful Regency-themed wedding complete with empire-waist gowns and tailcoats.

This charming sequel should be read in sequence to clarify the circumstances that bring Graydon and Toby together, but the lovers from different worlds are soon caught in an engrossing period romance that transcends time. (Agent: Robin Rue)

LADY WINDERMERE’S LOVER

Neville, Miranda Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-224332-4

A year after marrying his wife—a commoner—to regain an estate he gambled away, Damian, Earl of Windermere, is surprised to find himself drawn to the accomplished beauty he married.

After Damian lost Beaulieu on his 21st birthday, he completely changed his life, giving up the wild ways he’d adopted at Oxford. He pursued a life in the diplomatic service, distancing himself from his college friends and becoming increasingly estranged from his former best friend, Julian, who had since inherited a dukedom as well as the town house next to his own in London. Then, six years later, he married Cynthia, whose uncle held the deed to Beaulieu and refused to sell, practically blackmailing Damian into the marriage in order to tie his family to a title. Returning to London after a yearlong posting in Persia he accepted immediately after his wedding, Damian is shocked to discover that the backward, dowdy wife he left in the country has blossomed into a fashionable London lady he’s proud to call his own.

Unfortunately, she also seems to have taken up with his old circle of friends, and rumor has it she’s involved with Julian. Lady Cynthia has a number of secrets, but she’s not involved with Julian beyond friendship, and while she and Damian seem to be growing closer, his insistence that she apologize for an affair she didn’t have is infuriating. Of course, his lack of trust in her makes it more difficult to divulge her other subterfuges, as well.

Then there’s the matter of Damian’s job, his ex-mistress, his sinister mentor and his inability to embrace aspects of his past that brought him joy. Is it possible that if Cynthia helps him face his past and become more aligned with his true nature, they might find lasting love?

A smart, witty and emotionally dense love story that explores friendship and trust along its passionate and compelling journey.

THEN CAME YOU

Shalvis, Jill Berkley (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-425-27017-2 Veterinary intern Emily Stevens has a plan, which does not include creating roots in small-town Idaho or falling for her very sexy supervisor, Wyatt.

Emily is stunned when she’s placed in tiny Sunshine, Idaho, to work off her veterinary internship obligations instead of the Beverly Hills clinic she wanted. But she shows up ready to give it her all—and is thrown for a loop when she realizes that

her supervisor, Wyatt, is the sexy stranger she had her first-ever one-night stand with at a recent conference. Now they have to work together, and she’s determined to put that experience behind them, despite their sizzling chemistry. However, after a few days with Wyatt, it’s clear she’s in trouble. Aside from being superhot, he’s an amazing, intuitive vet, and the way he treats patients, owners and his clinic partners makes it evident he’s one special man. Falling quickly into a secret affair, the two seem to be in perfect harmony at the clinic and in bed, but Emily isn’t convinced that Wyatt’s feelings for her extend beyond the sexual and professional. As far as Wyatt is concerned, Emily always seems to have one foot ready to travel back to California, even as she begins to make human and animal connections in Sunshine.

Burned by past relationships with people who weren’t willing to stay with him in the remote town he loves, Wyatt refuses to ask Emily to do just that. Shalvis’ popular Animal Magnetism series continues with sexy vet Wyatt’s story, setting his world-wise, small-town outlook against Emily’s rigidly set expectations for her life. The author creates exquisite sexual tension and romantic angst, along with a dash of suspense, so even while we don’t completely buy Emily’s and Wyatt’s inabilities to read each other’s unspoken true feelings, we’re still engaged in their story and invested in their happily-ever-after.

Even when she’s not quite perfect, Shalvis tells a sexy, satisfying small-town love story.

SOMETHING SWEETER

Terry, Candis Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $5.99 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-223726-2

Allison Lane swings into Sweet, Texas, when her father gets engaged to a woman he’s just met; she doesn’t expect to find a family who embraces her as their own or a man who might make her believe in love.

After finally extricating himself from a horrible marriage to her mother, Allison’s father is engaged again. As an event planner, Allison has seen too many couples fail after the wedding, and her parents’ long-lasting marriage was hellish enough to make her question the institution. So when she visits the small Texas town her father moved to, she expects to find another self-centered, money-hungry gold digger. Instead, she meets down-to-earth Jana Wilder and her sexy sons—including veterinarian Jesse, the brother with the wildest reputation. Jesse has paid lip service to swearing off relationships, but he knows he wants to settle down someday. And someday might be right around the corner if he can convince the luscious Allison to overcome her own distrust of love; that possibility seems ever closer when Allison decides to stay in Sweet to help his brother Reno plan his obstacle-plagued wedding. Allison grows closer to the Wilders, begins to fall for Jesse and has started to work through her own inhibitions when disaster strikes in the only relationship she ever had faith in. Well-written and sweetly |

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seductive, the romance is a fun and touching read. None of the conflict ever builds to truly believable tension, and though author Terry tries to persuade us that Allison’s resistance to relationships is justified, we aren’t completely convinced. Nor does Jesse’s big reveal justify his long-standing angst, though that back story is also moving.

Not as dramatic or heart-wrenching as it intends to be but still a warmhearted and romantic read.

FIVE WAYS TO FALL

Tucker, K.A. Atria (384 pp.) $15.00 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-4767-4051-5 At a tequila-soaked bar in Cancún, a womanizing lawyer meets a beautiful woman with a bruised heart. Steamy shenanigans and romance ensue.

Tucker (Four Seconds to Lose, 2014, etc.) returns with her fourth novel in the Ten Tiny Breaths series, which began with the Cleary sisters and quickly embraced all the quirky, unattached minor characters, developing their own love stories. This time, it’s Ben Morris’ turn—Ben is the bouncer from Penny’s Palace, a strip club.

He’s left the strippers behind and aced law school. Before he starts working at a Miami law firm, he’s taken a vacation in Cancún, where he meets purple-haired, gorgeous and very drunk Reese MacKay. She’s reeling from a shattered marriage. Finding her husband, Jared, in the shower with his high school sweetheart was certainly surprising. Discovering that the sweetheart had moved herself into their apartment (while moving Reese’s belongings into the hallway) prompted war. After Reese had finished vandalizing what was arguably still her own home, her stepfather, Jack, had no choice but to bail her out, pack her up, take her to Miami, enroll her in an online paralegal degree program and hire her at his own law firm. Her friends have taken her to Cancún to erase Jared from her memory. Ben and Reese’s one-night stand goes horribly wrong, and Reese is eager to forget the embarrassing details. Back home in Miami, however, she discovers that Ben’s new boss is her stepfather. Of course, they can’t resist the attraction they feel, and soon Reese is asking Ben to play her fake boyfriend in increasingly complex makeJared-jealous schemes, and Ben is asking Reese to play his fake girlfriend in repel-clingy-women schemes.

Tucker gives her leads just enough past damage to earn sympathy but wisely spends most of her time ratcheting up the sexual tension in this light romance.

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nonfiction THE TALIBAN REVIVAL Violence and Extremism on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier

These titles earned the Kirkus Star: THE FANTASTIC LABORATORY OF DR. WEIGL

by Arthur Allen.................................................................................... 48

Abbas, Hassan Yale Univ. (320 pp.) $30.00 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-300-17884-5

THE STORM AND THE TIDE by Lars Anderson................................ 48 UNRULY PLACES by Alastair Bonnett................................................50

As NATO troops leave Afghanistan, writes national security scholar Abbas (South and Central Asia Program/National Defense Univ.; Pakistan’s Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army and America’s War on Terror, 2005, etc.) in this provocative study, they leave the Taliban increasingly back in charge.

There was a time that the Taliban was not such a nefarious organization, providing a means of “stabilizing the wartorn land of Afghanistan.” Since it was built around the triad of “power, dogma, and money,” the Taliban draws on longrunning trends in the history and ethnic traditions of a region that was among the last in South Asia to convert to Islam but that has since embraced it with a peculiar zeal—even if theirs is an Islam that matches the most conservative elements of the religion with a mistrust of all things foreign. Yet, by the author’s account, there are differences between traditional Pashtunwali and the ideologies of today: The Taliban is bound up not just with al-Qaida, but also with criminal elements.

Where it was once said that the Taliban cleaned up the heroin trade in Afghanistan, in fact, the group has bound up the trade.

Enabling it all is Pakistan’s military establishment, which finds advantage in its neighbor’s instability. There are some ironies in all this. Abbas, for instance, notes that though drone strikes fuel anti-American hatred, they are also met with quiet support on the part of moderate Pashtuns, largely due to the fact that the drone program “accomplishes what they and the Pakistani security forces could not achieve.” Abandoning Afghanistan entirely, Abbas argues, will likely deliver power to the Taliban again; he urges that the United States instead abandon an interest in precisely who holds power and instead support good governance, while expanding educational aid programs to Pakistan to combat “ignorance and bigotry, the two fundamental planks of the Taliban ideology.”

Important reading for students of geopolitics and Central Asian affairs.

STARLIGHT DETECTIVES by Alan Hirshfeld.....................................70 WAR OF THE WHALES by Joshua Horwitz....................................... 71 DEAR LEADER by Jang Jin-sung ........................................................ 71 the other side by Lacy M. Johnson...............................................72 TWICE UPON A TIME by Hari Kunzru.............................................. 73 THE WRONG CARLOS by James S. Liebman.....................................74 A SPY AMONG FRIENDS by Ben Macintyre...................................... 75 WHAT WE SEE WHEN WE READ by Peter Mendelsund...................76 GLOBAL MUCKRAKING by Anya Schiffrin........................................81 VIRTUAL UNREALITY by Charle Seife............................................... 82 IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE by Hampton Sides....................................83 STANDARD DEVIATIONS by Gary Smith......................................... 84 THE UNPERSUADABLES by Will Storr.............................................85 TWICE UPON A TIME Listening to New York

Kunzru, Hari Atavist Books (96 pp.) $3.99 enhanced e-book $2.99 e-book | May 20, 2014 978-1-937894-34-4

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“Readers understandably weary of the redemption-through-sports theme should know that it works spectacularly well here.” from the storm and the tide

THE SOCCER DIARIES An American’s Thirty-Year Pursuit of the International Game

In a twist of irony not lost on Allen (Ripe: The Search for the Perfect Tomato, 2010, etc.), Nazis were deathly afraid of lice. The little insects were known to carry typhus, a dreadful contagious disease that ravaged communities forced to live in subhuman conditions, including soldiers on the war front as well as inmates in concentration camps and ghettos. It therefore became a wartime imperative to eradicate the disease. In Poland, scientist Rudolf Weigl (1883-1957) and his assistant, Ludwig Fleck (18961961)—who would later write the seminal text The Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact—were both enlisted to develop a typhus vaccine: Weigl in the service of the German army and Fleck under SS guard at Buchenwald. Their stories, beautifully told within the devastating tumult of Poland’s unfolding history, describe the war from a vivid perspective: that of the laboratory saboteur. Weigl secretly used his lab to smuggle vaccines to the Polish ghettos and recruited many intellectuals as lab workers, saving their lives. (Frequently, these respected thinkers would be hired as louse-feeders, letting the creatures feed on their own blood—a surreal scene.) Meanwhile, Fleck’s lab was also a center of conspiracy, and his sabotage was even more dangerous and cunning: He produced a fake typhus vaccine for German troops and Nazi experimenters while sneaking real doses to desperate inmates. Both scientists risked terrible deaths to defend the idea of moral good despite the corruption, bloodshed and evil surrounding them. Allen is unflinching in his retelling of this monstrous era, but he manages to avoid writing a depressing narrative. Instead, Weigl, Fleck and their vaccines illuminate the inherent social complexities of science and truth and reinforce the overriding good of man.

An unforgettable book. (35 illustrations)

Agovino, Michael J. Univ. of Nebraska (312 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 2, 2014 978-0-8032-4047-6

One man’s experience of American soccer’s years of bust and boom.

As a teenager, Agovino (The Bookmaker: A Memoir of Money, Luck, and Family from the Utopian Outskirts of New York City, 2008) fell in love with the beautiful game. Born and bred in the Bronx, where the typical American team sports of baseball, football, basketball and hockey reigned, the author nonetheless found himself captivated by a game that most Americans disdained when they acknowledged it at all. By 1982, when Agovino attended his first real soccer match, an all-star game at Giants Stadium featuring some of the world’s elite players, the luster of the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos was fading and the United States men’s national team had not made the World Cup since 1950 (and would not do so until 1990). Agovino played for his high school team, went on to New York University, where he covered the varsity team for the school paper, and upon graduation, found a series of jobs in journalism and as a freelance writer covering soccer as much as he was able.

Agovino’s passion rings clear throughout this well-written book, but it is difficult to discern his intended audience. His personal journey through the sport is idiosyncratic, and the book is neither a history nor a traditional memoir—though it is closer to the latter than the former. Newcomers to the sport may find themselves a bit lost, and while the author purports to hate a common breed of exclusive and elitist American soccer fans, he betrays his own version of off-putting elitism and condescension. Nonetheless, those readers who buy in will see the growth of soccer in the United States in a deeply felt, personal journey.

Soccer has taken its place in the American sporting constellation in no small part due to fans and writers like Agovino.

THE STORM AND THE TIDE Tragedy, Hope and Triumph in Tuscaloosa

Anderson, Lars Sports Illustrated Books (256 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-1-61893-097-2 A longtime journalist for Sports Illustrated looks back at the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the football team that helped the town heal.

On April 27, 2011, “one of the deadliest [tornadoes] in the history of the South” touched down in the state’s fifth-largest city, destroying more than 5,700 homes and businesses, taking 7,000 jobs, killing 53, injuring thousands and leaving almost no one unaffected. Anderson (The First Star: Red Grange and the Barnstorming Tour That Launched the NFL, 2009, etc.) spends the opening chapters setting the scene for that awful day, introducing most of the people whose stories unfold at greater length as he charts the next 12 months at the University of Alabama and in this tightknit town forever altered by the whirlwind. It’s a two-pronged tale: the cleanup and rebuilding of T-town, including the slow recovery of some who lost loved ones, and the help

THE FANTASTIC LABORATORY OF DR. WEIGL How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis

Allen, Arthur Norton (400 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 21, 2014 978-0-393-08101-5

The harrowing story of two brilliant immunologists, one Christian, one Jewish, who were separated during World War II yet found heroic ways to turn their typhus vaccine research against the Nazis.

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and inspiration supplied by the Crimson Tide football team that went on to win the national championship. Players and coaches spent the summer working with citizens on relief efforts, reassuring victims, raising funds and rallying National Guard troops.

In the process, they developed extraordinary team chemistry and the conviction that they were playing for something bigger than themselves. Readers understandably weary of the redemption-through-sports theme should know that it works spectacularly well here. First, in football-crazed Alabama, passion for the sport and respect for players and coaches run deep. Anderson supplies just enough explanatory material about the Tide’s history, its fabled coaches and honored traditions to demonstrate how Nick Saban and his players were perfectly poised to assume an important leadership role. Second, the author wisely touches only lightly on the games, focusing instead on the team’s bond with the community and the genuine solace offered in the face of inexplicable tragedy.

A deeply reported, sensitively rendered story that avoids cliché and persuades us that there might indeed be such a thing as “football therapy.”

including a good deal of information about astronaut training.

The author insists that Armstrong never regarded himself as special and never lobbied to be first on the moon; he saw himself merely as next in line to take what turned out to be “a ‘Lindbergh’ step in flight.”

A wholly admiring assessment of Armstrong the aviator and Armstrong the man.

NEIL ARMSTRONG A Life of Flight

Barbree, Jay Dunne/St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $27.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-250-04071-8

A longtime NBC News space correspondent looks back on the aviation career of the first man to set foot on the moon.

Given his starring role in one of history’s most magnificent achievements, shouldn’t Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) be a bigger deal? Following Apollo 11’s trailblazing 1969 flight, Armstrong worked a couple of years for NASA, then taught for a few more at the University of Cincinnati. Except for a brief, high-profile role investigating the causes of the Challenger disaster and an occasional speaking engagement, he assiduously avoided the spotlight, never cashing in on his fame. By the time of his death, he easily passed unrecognized in public. Barbree (“Live From Cape Canaveral”: Covering the Space Race, From Sputnik to Today, 2007, etc.), who covered every American manned space flight and became especially friendly with Armstrong, nevertheless barely pierces the habitual Armstrong reserve. Except for occasional tidbits of personal information—the astronaut’s friendship with John Glenn, the premature death of his daughter, the fire that razed his home—this account focuses primarily on Armstrong the pilot, particularly his coolness in tight spots: ejecting from a shot-up fighter plane in Korea, recovering from a “stuck thruster” in orbit aboard Gemini 8, ejecting from the lunar lander training module just before it crashed, and famously guiding the Eagle to touchdown in the Sea of Tranquility with fuel running dangerously low. These moments take up the bulk of Barbree’s amiable account. He supplies useful context by examining the origins and development of NASA’s manned flight program, |

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“A wonderful collection of a few dozen geographical enchantments, places that defy expectations and may disturb and disorient yet rekindle the romanticism of exploration and the meaning of place.” from unruly places

CRASH COURSE The Life Lessons My Students Taught Me

archetypal disaffected young white male just out of college putting himself through some masochistic Pilgrim’s Progress ordeal in order to make sense of his life. In the beginning, we find Benson in the Guatemalan jungle, where he soon grew tired of the backpacker’s life and decided he needed more than just rudderless experiences abroad to have a chance at spiritual fulfillment.

Consequently, he and his girlfriend, Rachel, traveled back to the United States to embark on a grueling bike journey from their native Wisconsin all the way to western Oregon. To make the trip even more difficult, they imposed a strict one-month deadline for the adventure. However, the best American road narratives are borne out of leisurely pacing, often allowing for more randomness and serendipity to take place along the road.

Benson and Rachel were so busy blazing toward their destination that they missed countless opportunities to connect with their surroundings or, more importantly, with each other. What we get instead is a lot of bellyaching about gnarly headwinds, sore legs, flat tires and sweaty armpits—and not much real drama otherwise. Furthermore, the author misses nearly every chance to find humor in their situation, instead dropping the F-bomb in every other sentence like some rogue Vice magazine correspondent (“Fuck the stupid Rockies. I didn’t need them”).

Ultimately, Benson moans his way through the entire experience, as though he couldn’t have foreseen the punishment he would absorb on this colossal but spiritually empty cycling journey.

Bearden, Kim Simon & Schuster (208 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-4516-8770-5

How a teacher learned to live a better life through interaction with her students.

Co-founder, executive director and language arts teacher for the Ron Clark Academy, Bearden shares the important life lessons she learned from teaching for three decades. Grouped into 17 categories— including tenacity, bonding, generosity, creativity and love, the author brings readers into her classroom and into the lives of the students she taught, using real-life examples to deliver the overarching message that adults often have as much to learn from their students as vice versa. Having designed the academy to emphasize “passion, creativity, and rigor in the classroom,” where “the halls are filled with the sounds of the students’ happiness—the music of laughing, singing, hands clapping, and drums beating in celebration,” Bearden’s stories are full of the magic and playfulness that can occur when a teacher strives to connect with each individual pupil. She transformed her classroom into a Chinese restaurant to teach students about gerunds, had her scholars become Grammar Police and hand out citations for comma splices, run-on sentences and faulty parallelism, and built an entire lesson centered on fishing, just so one particular student would be engaged. Humorous and sensitive, Bearden’s narratives bring to life the many issues inherent in public school teaching—e.g., how to engage and interact with students who come from broken homes, who feel invisible, who are shy or who believe that they are worthless. Thousands of superintendents, administrators and teachers have visited the academy to learn these techniques, and Bearden provides helpful “class notes,” which summarize each lesson, and “homework” so parents and teachers can use the lessons she learned in their own situations.

Thoughtful and entertaining tales of how students influenced and changed one teacher’s perspective on life.

UNRULY PLACES Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies

Bonnett, Alastair Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (288 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-544-10157-9 A wonderful collection of a few dozen geographical enchantments, places that defy expectations and may disturb and disorient yet rekindle the romanticism of exploration and the meaning of place.

“We are headed for uncharted territory, to places found on few maps and sometimes on none. They are both extraordinary and real. This is a book of floating islands, dead cities, and hidden kingdoms,” writes Bonnett (Social Geography/Newcastle Univ.; Left in the Past: Radicalism and the Politics of Nostalgia, 2010, etc.). The book is a whole lot more: a passionate defense of place and a swing at the “generic blandscapes” that have come to occupy much of the landscape, eating away at our sense of self, especially as a place-making species with an appreciation that our presence helps give the world its local color—that we create place as much as we inhabit it. Bonnett does not bring a zealot’s nuttiness to the cause, but his ability to get under the skin of a place—places that are often fierce, dark, demanding and strange—brings geography back into focus as integral to human identity. They are, by and large, outré: decoy villages set aflame

GOING SOMEWHERE A Bicycle Journey Across America Benson, Brian Plume (288 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-14-218064-8

The story of a naïve 20-something’s monthlong 2,000-mile bike trek, a journey designed to provide some direction to his life.

First-time memoirist and Portland, Oregon–based bike enthusiast Benson tells the all-too-familiar life story of the 50

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THE GLASS CLOSET Why Coming Out Is Good Business

to confuse nighttime aircraft bombers; trash islands; exclaves and breakaways; pirate towns; free territories established by runaway slaves; Potemkin villages and forbidden places (black sites). The author chronicles his exploration of St. Petersburg to witness the politics of place names and Mecca to experience Jane Jacobs’ worst nightmare. There are “urban exploration as a kind of geographical version of surrealist automatic writing” and landscapes “the British police designate as public sex environments.” And there are the disappeared: ancient sultanates, a blue-asbestos mining town, a closed city once dedicated to making nuclear weapons. Bonnett brings us to each place from an angle of surprise and wonder.

A scintillating poke to our geographical imaginations.

Browne, John Harper Business (224 pp.) $27.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-06-231697-4

An appeal to LGBT workers and corporations about the benefits of inclusion, from the former CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Riverstone Holdings partner Browne (Seven Elements that Changed the World, 2014, etc.) resigned from BP in 2007 following a scandal that exposed his longhidden sexuality. Living a double life destroyed his career, and he cautions others not to make his mistake. After a lengthy, needless primer on the history of homosexuality, the author focuses on the sphere of his fellow white-collar professionals; in 2012, there were no openly gay CEOs in the Fortune 500, and (presumably) straight white men held almost 75 percent

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of all boardroom seats. Brown also reports that an estimated 41 percent of LGBT employees in the United States are in the closet. He believes businesses should seek to employ “the best people, everywhere, on the single criterion of merit” and urges them to demonstrate to employees that coming out will not be “catastroph[ic]…regardless of their sector or the protections in place at their company.” The author glosses over the fact that this will be the case for rank-and-file employees in companies, and countries, hostile to gays. Browne effectively presents both leadership lessons and workers’ stories of how the closet has hurt their dignity and careers. An out senior banker at HSBC warns, “[a]t some point if you’re not truthful about certain elements of your personal life it becomes a huge liability….People won’t trust you and may even use it against you.” If this book fails to inspire risk-averse business leaders, it will reassure gay workers that “kowtowing to those who disapprove of your sexuality suggests their comfort is more important than your own. It is not.” Browne further urges them to take responsibility: “If a company opens the closet door, it is up to the employee to walk through it.”

Valuable encouragement to closeted workers who can afford to heed the author’s advice.

their energy into courting the conservative press and laying down a strategy for helping the GOP recoup losses in the midterm election of 1966. This strategy included reasserting law and order, endorsing Rockefeller (whom they loathed) for governor, and fashioning a new Republican Party of the South that rested on human rights and not bigotry. Buchanan was privy to all kinds of secret conversations and memos regarding Vietnam, LBJ, RFK and many unsung politicians and newspapermen who shaped the debate.

A mostly evenhanded (from this great distance) consideration of a president from one of his closest advisers.

INFIDEL KINGS AND UNHOLY WARRIORS Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad Catlos, Brian A. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (416 pp.) $27.00 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-8090-5837-2

A dramatic review of Mediterranean history in the Middle Ages.

Catlos (Religious Studies/Univ. of Colorado; The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050-1300, 2004, etc.) intentionally veers away from earlier treatments of the age of the Crusades by focusing on the entire Mediterranean region as a diverse and interconnected region. The author moves from west to east as he examines this complex world through the stories of various individuals. He begins in Spain with Abu Ibrahim Isma’il, a Jew who rose to the highest ranks of a Muslim-dominated empire. Catlos then profiles Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the legendary Christian soldier better known as El Cid. Moving to Italy, the author discusses King Roger II, whose kingdom was religiously and ethnically diverse. In Cairo, Catlos introduces Bahram Pahlavuni, an Armenian Christian who ruled an Islamic empire.

Finally, the author examines Reynaud de Châtillon as an archetypal Frankish crusader. These people, and a wide host of others, come alive in the author’s energetic prose. Rather than recounting dry history, Catlos tends to set his stage with imagined scenes of real people dealing with their landscapes, historic circumstances and even climates. A touch of dry humor pervades his writing as well. From beginning to end, readers are struck by the intensely violent nature of this time period, a characteristic that spanned all religions and regions. Though warfare was a given, violence was also deeply personal, and the higher one climbed in any power structure, the more likely they were to be executed or assassinated. “[A]s integrated and cosmopolitan as these societies may have appeared,” writes the author, “they were built on relationships of power in which the threat of violence was ever present.”

A vivid history of “the collaboration and integration of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian peoples of the Mediterranean that laid the foundation for the modern world.” (28 b/w illustrations; map)

THE GREATEST COMEBACK How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority

Buchanan, Patrick J. Crown Forum (368 pp.) $28.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-553-41863-7

The populist conservative and senior adviser to Richard Nixon tells how he helped turn the loser into a winner.

Against all odds, Nixon won the presidency in 1968, barely defeating Hubert Humphrey and reviving the moribund GOP in the process. As one of Nixon’s first young converts, then a St. Louis Globe-Democrat editorial writer fresh out of Columbia’s journalism school, Buchanan (Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?, 2011, etc.), a disappointed Goldwater supporter and one of the more hard-core young Republicans then emerging, talked his way into Nixon’s good graces as early as 1966, during the period of Nixon’s toiling in the “wilderness” of his Manhattan law firm after the crushing defeats of 1960 (against JFK for the presidency) and 1962 (for governor of California). The same sore loser who had made his unfortunate “You don’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” morningafter speech had two qualities that saved him, Buchanan writes: loyalty to his party and a fighting spirit. Indeed, restoring the party base was a key element to his ultimate success, since the GOP had lost both houses by 1954 and was fatally split by 1964 between the John Birch Society–Goldwater hard-liners and the more moderate Republicans represented by New York’s Nelson Rockefeller and Michigan Gov. George Romney. Nixon—as well as Buchanan and other important “advance men”—threw 52

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“This gripping memoir, enhanced by statistics and other stories of addiction, reveals the devastating human cost of failure to face the consequences of the epidemic spread of drug abuse.” from generation rx

GENERATION RX A Story of Dope, Death, and America’s Opiate Crisis

RIVETED The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One With the Universe

Daly, Erin Marie Counterpoint (368 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-61902-291-1

Davies, Jim Palgrave Macmillan (288 pp.) $27.00 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-137-27901-9

After her 20-year-old brother, Pat, died from a heroin overdose, Daly gave up her prestigious job as a legal reporter to spend five years looking for an answer to the epidemic spread of addiction among children and young adults.

Following Pat’s death, the author gained access to his journal and learned more about his path to destruction. Like many young addicts, his downfall began early with marijuana and alcohol. Then, he moved on to prescription pain medications and, eventually, heroin. “[I]n 2011, 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older reported using heroin at least once in their lives,” writes Daly, “and [like Pat], nearly half of the young IV heroin users reported that they abused prescription opioids first.” Pain medications are so freely prescribed that they are an easily available, cheap high for teenagers. A few pills per day rapidly escalates to 30 or more, at an unsustainable cost. Addiction follows, and the life of a junkie frequently ends in death within a few years. The rate of recidivism after release from rehabilitation programs is high; even near misses from overdosing and the deaths of friends are insufficient deterrents. As the author learned from her brother’s diary, he wasn’t having fun, “just partying, being a dumb kid, making bad choices. He was truly an addict.” Daly faces the painful realization that she had failed him by deluding herself that he was simply going through a phase. In 2009, the author launched a blog, Oxy Watchdog, which put her in touch with individuals whose lives had been touched by addiction: users and their families, law enforcement officers, social workers and politicians. The author also provides a timeline of “America’s Epidemic of Prescription Painkiller and Heroin Abuse,” beginning with Bayer’s release of heroin as cough suppressant in 1898.

This gripping memoir, enhanced by statistics and other stories of addiction, reveals the devastating human cost of failure to face the consequences of the epidemic spread of drug abuse.

A multidisciplinary exploration of how and why certain ideas and experiences resonate more than others.

The world around us contains a vast number of things we find compelling, from fine art to video games to scary stories.

Psychology Today blogger Davies (Institute of Cognitive Science/ Carleton Univ.) orients all of these categories of riveting phenomena around what he calls a “compellingness foundations theory.” Central to his framework is the idea that there are psychological and evolutionary commonalities among the reasons

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we find things interesting. For example, an innate instinct to be physically prepared for any potential physical conflict may explain why we enjoy watching sports; even on TV, a football game causes mirror neurons in our brains to fire, making us feel like we’re taking part in the action. Similarly, we’re hard-wired to be drawn to stories that instill fear or suggest conspiracy, since we might glean some information that will provide important lessons for survival. Backed by recent research across fields including psychology, anthropology and biology, the author suggests that our methods of discerning what we find compelling—and therefore more likely to remember and repeat—are largely subconscious and remarkably similar across different kinds of stimuli. Whether we delight in finding a pattern due to the fact that it reveals a regularity that might be exploited or connect with a religious narrative since it brings us hope or peace of mind, the brain is affected in similar ways. Laughter, too, is more primitive than we think, closely related to fear and relief—though a good joke, especially one with an incongruous punch line, is also powerfully compelling. Packed with cuttingedge research findings and written with clarity and brio, this book accomplishes its goal of delivering riveting content.

A fascinating analysis of what we find fascinating.

deny her revulsion at the German word Jude that, to her, meant “contemptible.” Day died in 2011; this memoir, here reissued in paperback, first appeared in 1980.

A raw, troubling inquiry into the deep roots of hatred and the physical and moral starvation that made war inevitable.

TRAVELS WITH CASEY

Denizet-Lewis, Benoit Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-4391-4693-4

Man and dog take to the road.

Hoping to “celebrate the breadth of human-dog relationships in contemporary life,” journalist Denizet-Lewis (Writing and Publishing/Emerson Coll.; American Voyeur: Dispatches from the Far Reaches of Modern Life, 2010, etc.) chronicles a four-month trip with his Labrador mix, Casey. In a small RV, the two traveled from Provincetown, Rhode Island, to Florida, across the South, through the Midwest to California and back. Along the way, Denizet-Lewis met show dogs and strays, police dogs and pampered pets, and he visited with dog rescuers, trainers, groomers, whisperers, masseurs, photographers and healers. He talked with people suffering from cynophobia (fear of dogs) and others who claimed they could communicate with dogs and translate their messages to humans. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the author visited with dog-loving writer Amy Hempel, who advocates for shelter dogs and pit bulls, which are rarely adopted.

Shelter workers tell him that black dogs, also, are hard to place.

“Many people subconsciously overlook them,” one shelter worker told Denizet-Lewis, a phenomenon she calls Black Dog Syndrome. The author’s saddest encounter with dogs occurred on a Navajo reservation, where strays abound, and teenagers run over dogs just for sport. From there, Denizet-Lewis left with a new companion, whom he named Rezzy. In North Carolina, he met Rob, an owner of wolfdogs, a combination of wolf and, in this case, Husky. Rob told him that wolves “are shy and misunderstood,” “independent” and “smart as hell,” although they are not affectionate. Unconditional love, though, is what most dog owners desire. The author discovered that whether dogs are capable of love is a subject of much controversy. Some neuroscientists argue that canines do feel love; others think dogs are interested more in treats than in human companionship.

With Americans owning more dogs than any other country in the world, this sprightly, entertaining travelogue should find a delighted readership. (8-page 4-color insert; b/w photos throughout)

GHOST WALTZ A Family Memoir

Day, Ingeborg Perennial/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $15.99 paper | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-231000-2

An Austrian-born woman confronts her family’s past.

Growing up in Austria in the 1950s, Day (writing as Elizabeth O’Neill: Nine and a Half Weeks, 1978) was given textbooks with blank labels glued on the cover, hiding swastikas.

No one talked about the war. As a high school exchange student in America, though, Day began to watch—and binge on—war movies, learning for the first time what the world thought about her countrymen. Her parents refused to answer her questions; she learned only that both had been members of the Nazi Party but not why they joined or what role her father, a policeman, played. Right after high school, Day married and moved to America, where she became obsessed with history. After World War I, Austria, she learned, was destitute: “The near-starvation of the last war years and the years after the collapse, the continuing scarcity of food, of coal, of living accommodations, of jobs, life savings melting in the inflation and no improvement in sight. One’s helplessness in the face of it all.” Germany recovered more quickly, to the envy of Austrians, and in both nations, vindictiveness grew. In addition, anti-Semitism was endemic.

Day recognized it in herself, a feeling so indelible that she could not imagine how it began. “The legacy of the Holocaust has tarnished me beyond all methods of cleansing,” she writes. “I felt: I hate the guts of every Jew alive.” With a job in publishing, Day knew and befriended many Jews, but she could not 54

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ROGUE ELEPHANT Harnessing the Power of India’s Unruly Democracy

these intractable issues in turn, offering at the same time a glimmer of hope that India’s “insanely complex democracy” might still be able to prevail. Accountability is the key, and the vast majority of Indians, while extremely poor, do vote. From their ranks, some crusading new leaders have emerged—e.g., activists spearheading the landmark Right to Information Act, which helped expose the corruption behind Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s administration, and the small farmers who took on the laws governing land rights. The shabby handling of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010 and Singh’s silence as his colleagues “filled their pockets” exposed India again to the kind of global censure and ridicule it had hoped to banish forever. Yet, promisingly, the scandals emboldened a public outcry, leading to the dogged exposure of Singh’s operations by Comptroller and Auditor Vinod Rai, the galvanizing of the India Against Corruption movement led by the Gandhian figure Anna Hazare, the huge popularity of Arnab Goswami’s hard-hitting TV journalism, the support of whistle-blowers within the bureaucracy and massive protests against government mishandling of rape cases. Denyer even

Denyer, Simon Bloomsbury (384 pp.) $30.00 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-62040-608-3

An examination of what may be salvaged from the recent squandering of India’s “golden era.”

Former Indian bureau chief for the Washington Post, now based in China, Denyer watched with dismay as the great promise of Indian economic growth unleashed in 1991 derailed due to entrenched obstacles that have continually hindered the country. Corruption, patriarchal values that tolerate the abuse of women, poverty and low education, feeble infrastructure and social services, dynastic politics, and a burgeoning population that will overtake China’s in 2025 and leave a dearth of jobs for young people: Denyer addresses

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MAN ON THE RUN Paul McCartney in the 1970s

takes on scion Rahul Gandhi and the “culture of sycophancy” that has surrounded him.

Forthright, fair and frank reporting.

Doyle, Tom Ballantine (320 pp.) $27.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-8041-7914-0 978-0-8041-7915-7 e-book

THE PRESIDENTS’ WAR Six American Presidents and the Civil War that Divided Them

A close-up study of Paul McCartney’s first post-Beatles decade.

It’s one measure of how messed-up the music business is and of how competitive the former band mates were that John Lennon lamented, in the 1970s, that McCartney had amassed a $25 million fortune, much more than Lennon had. Lennon’s pile would quickly grow, though he would not live long enough to enjoy it all, thanks in part to the battery of lawsuits that McCartney fired off to get out of bad deals that the Beatles had signed over the years. By Q magazine contributing editor Doyle’s (The Glamour Chase: Maverick Life of Billy MacKenzie, 1998) account, McCartney left the Beatles bruised and bleeding—and with a penchant not just for a little of the grass he wrote of in “Get Back,” but also for countless bottles of whiskey. His depression cleared and his spirits improved when, holed up on his Scottish farm, he hatched the band that would become Wings, complete with wife Linda as keyboardist and vocalist—even though, as observers were quick to note, she couldn’t quite sing or play. Finding plenty of good to write about Linda all the same, Doyle looks behind the chipper, thumbs-up McCartney to find the complex personality beneath the image: He was an extraordinary musician beset by self-doubt, a countercultural hippie who also had a gift for square-jawed business. (His net worth is estimated at more than $1 billion.) Doyle’s asides are puzzling at times—the McCartneys were famously vegetarian, but he has them enjoying “hot biscuits and country ham”—but he manages to say something new about a public figure about whom countless thousands of books and articles have been written, and he says it well.

McCartney emerges as more admirable than many readers might have imagined—and more human, too.

They’ll want to give his albums of the ’70s a fresh spin as well. (16-page photo insert)

DeRose, Chris Lyons Press (392 pp.) $28.95 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-7627-9664-9

A history of the Civil War as told through the six American presidents that experienced it firsthand.

Only once have five former presidents been alive to look upon their successor. When Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, these men were John Tyler, Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. DeRose (Law/ Arizona Summit Law School; Founding Rivals: Madison vs. Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation, 2011, etc.) carefully examines each president’s role in the buildup to the Civil War and their respective differences in their approaches to the problem of slavery and secession. Precipitated by the tariffs of 1828 and 1832, the nullification crisis of 1832 proved an early test of the Union’s resolve and willingness to assert its sovereignty. South Carolina declared both tariff bills null and void and would no longer remit federal duties.

President Andrew Jackson, hardly one to recoil from this type of brazen insubordination, demanded local allies collect the duty by any means necessary and issued a statement asserting the power of the Union over the right of a state to annul federal law or secede. Ultimately, the nullification crisis was resolved through political compromise, but the pivotal issue of secession proved to have roots far deeper than many could have foreseen. Foreshadowing the Civil War nearly 40 years later, this crisis would shape the way future presidents forged their opinions on slavery and states’ rights. While discussing Jackson and Lincoln, DeRose smartly focuses his attention on a few of the lesser-known, but not less valuable presidents.

The author’s narrative portraits of each president’s often precarious relationship to the Union reveals eye-opening facts that are otherwise overlooked—e.g., John Tyler was the only president to die an enemy of his country.

DeRose condenses half a century’s worth of political history into an informative compendium of the political struggles leading to the Civil War. (8-page photo insert)

THE SEARCH FOR ANNE PERRY The Hidden Life of a Bestselling Crime Writer

Drayton, Joanne Arcade (376 pp.) $25.95 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-62872-324-3

Literary biographer Drayton (Design/ Unitec Institute of Technology; Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime, 2008, etc.) turns her attention to novelist Anne Perry (b. 1938) and the past she couldn’t keep hidden.

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The author begins at a pivotal moment in Perry’s life: the phone call from a journalist to her agent offering the theory— about to be printed—that Perry was actually Juliet Hulme, perpetrator of a famous New Zealand murder. When that theory turned out to be fact, the lives of Perry and all those connected to her were turned upside down. Perry, her agents and her publicist have always argued that the murder is in the past, and Perry, who committed the crime as a teenager, and her family should be allowed to leave it there. While it is difficult not to feel for Perry, it is equally difficult to ignore the fact that the argument holds sway over this biography as well. Drayton creates a conundrum in which she has made Perry’s unveiling as Hulme the center of the book but also believes it deserves less attention than it’s been given. However, the author ably plumbs the Hulme story for how it has shaped Perry’s crime fiction and provides other insights into Perry’s writing style and process. The author includes detailed background on Perry’s unpublished attempts, as well as the origins and development of many of her best-selling books. Though they interrupt the narrative flow, descriptions of each of Perry’s novels will trigger interest for those unfamiliar with her work. Drayton tells a beguiling story of an author’s climb to the best-seller lists and how a secret she would rather keep hidden was publicly made known.

Occasionally uneven but a pleasure for Perry’s loyal fans and a book that is likely to win her some new ones as well.

fondness for gin. Another epiphany occurred during a trip to Israel, where she worked on a kibbutz and took a side trip to Jerusalem to see where the Last Supper had taken place. What she found was a cave, a sight that shocked her so profoundly that she immediately relinquished her Catholic faith. Working as a teacher, Binchy became a writer by accident when her father submitted her travel letters to the Irish Independent. Later, she was offered a job as women’s editor of the Irish Times, for which she wrote for 32 years. Fiction came later, with immediate acclaim.

“The secret of the universe is that we do have to take control of our own lives,” was, Dudgeon claims, Binchy’s lifelong mantra, and he captures her ebullience and drive in this anecdotal biography.

DOUBLE AGENT The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring Duffy, Peter Scribner (320 pp.) $28.00 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-4516-6795-0

A sympathetic portrait of a reluctant, little-known German-American double agent on the eve of World War II. There are several spy rings that overlap and converge in journalist Duffy’s (The Killing of Major Denis Mahon: A Mystery of Old Ireland, 2007, etc.) immensely readable account, all involving the German immigrant’s notion of “patriotism.” For many of the select machinists who worked at the Carl L. Norden production facility at 80 Lafayette St. in lower Manhattan, being a good German meant delivering blueprints of the top-secret “bombsight” mechanism to the Abwehr to improve the Luftwaffe’s bombing accuracy and thus “save millions and lots of time.” Many immigrant laborers were virulently anticommunist and members of the right-wing German American Bund, which paraded openly its support of National Socialism through the streets of the German neighborhood of Yorkville at a time before the FBI, and its emergent director J. Edgar Hoover, had declared the group an internal threat. Yet the other kind of patriotism involved loyalty to one’s adopted country, personified by William G. Sebold (1899-1970), who fled the political chaos of Germany in the 1920s and became a naturalized American citizen in 1936. By an extraordinarily unlucky turn of events, when he returned to Germany to visit his mother at the outbreak of war, he was roped into working for the Abwehr in order to get back to the United States.

Unbeknownst to the Nazis, he had also contacted the FBI; among the German immigrant community of Yorkville and the Brooklyn Sperry Gyroscope Company, they uncovered a whole nest of subversives offering defense secrets to the Nazis.

Sebold ultimately helped to convict 33 traitors in 1941 in what was known as the Duquesne Spy Ring—the first feather in

MAEVE BINCHY The Biography

Dudgeon, Piers Dunne/St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $27.99 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-250-04714-4 978-1-4668-4750-7 e-book

An upbeat biography of the prolific, much-loved Irish writer.

Binchy (1940-2012) wrote about what she knew: love, friendship and community in small Irish towns like Dalkey, where she grew up in a conservative Catholic family. Dudgeon (Neverland: J.M. Barrie, the du Mauriers, and the Dark Side of Peter Pan, 2009, etc.) follows his subject’s hard-won striving to “discover, enhance, and believe” in her own worth. As a child, Binchy suffered from “a crippling self-consciousness” due to her weight; she responded by developing “a self-deprecating brand of humour” that served her well as an adult. As Dudgeon tells it, Binchy’s life was marked by a series of epiphanies. After a student exchange trip to France— her first time out of Ireland—she realized that her worldview was provincial and vowed to travel. At University College Dublin, from which she graduated with only a pass (the lowest rank possible), she discovered burgeoning feminism, beatniks and existentialism. Sartre became her “mentor and life guide.”

On a train one day, she took her first drink of alcohol, which enhanced “her rapid-flow delivery of stories, anecdotes and observations on life.” She “rarely lost control” but developed a |

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“A must for everyone who still remembers when the White Sox wore shorts.” from stars and strikes

THE EMPEROR FAR AWAY Travels at the Edge of China

Hoover’s hat. While colorful personalities proliferate throughout the narrative, the understated character of Sebold gleams.

An entertaining work duly informed by Duffy’s knowledge of both the war and New York City. (8-page b/w photo insert)

Eimer, David Bloomsbury (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-62040-363-1

THE EXPLORERS A Story of Fearless Outcasts, Blundering Geniuses, and Impossible Success

A history/travelogue of the far-reaching Chinese frontiers that share more with the cultures of central Asia than with the Han majority.

Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, Dongbei: These are the border regions of China that contain its 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities (about 100 million people) yet are increasingly being populated and overruled by the Han. Sunday Telegraph Beijing correspondent Eimer synthesizes his trips into these nether regions since the 1980s, when he first ventured to Xinjiang, the region of the Muslim Uighurs in the far west, bordering Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, among other countries. The journey west across the ancient Silk Road still takes days on a train, but there are many more Han moving westward in what the author sees as a new “colonizing” fever. They have not been particularly welcome among the natives, who often don’t even speak Chinese and “regard the Han as interlopers.” Indeed, there continue to be spontaneous uprisings against them, and the Uighurs and other minorities largely keep a wary distance from the Han, and vice versa— unlike the more harmonious mixing of ethnic groups in nearby Kazakhstan. From Kashgar, Eimer moved south through the Silk Road stops of Yarkant and Hotan, where he sensed strongly the Chinese Communist Party’s strenuous efforts to suppress the Uighurs’ religious expression. Then he traveled into mountainous, exotic Tibet, where simply possessing a picture of the Dalai Lama can lead to arrest and Buddhists pilgrims continue to flock despite severe CCP repression. In the deep south of Yunnan Province, heart of the Golden Triangle, the author traveled along the porous, jungle borders of Myanmar and Laos.

Eimer also explored Dongbei, which makes up the northeast border near Mongolia, Russia and North Korea and contains many Koreans and Manchus of all stripes (even Christian).

A swift-moving, colorful account of the bewildering array of fiercely independent ethnic groups within an uneasy Chinese “home.”

Dugard, Martin Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-1-4516-7757-7

An account of the search for the source of the Nile River, mixed in with psychological and sociological lessons to be gleaned from the explorers’ story.

Dugard (To Be a Runner, 2011, etc.), who co-authored the Killing… books by Bill O’Reilly, gives gripping treatment to the mid-1800s Richard Francis Burton–John Hanning Speke African adventure, despite the intrusion of a warrantless theory of traits to explain the human urge to explore. It was a curious mingling—the outsized, egotistical personality of Burton with the introverted, disciplined Speke. But as Dugard presents in this enjoyable re-creation of their hellacious journey, they still made considerable discoveries in the wilds of Africa.

Then, their very public post-expedition argument provided another angle of melodrama to the already highly colored world of exploration. A number of other explorers get drawn into Dugard’s picture—e.g., Christopher Columbus, Edmund Hillary, Alexander von Humboldt—and the author has a talent for making even the smallest appearance another gratifying ingredient to illustrate our human desire to explore the unknown.

However, when Dugard tries to tie a bow around this company of misfits by advancing the notion that they all possess seven traits, the narrative gets forced into a straitjacket. There isn’t a single explorer, or even individual, who would not benefit from possessing curiosity, hope, passion, courage, independence, self-discipline and perseverance, and Dugard fails to make the case that “[t]ake away one—just one—and an expedition was doomed to failure.” Further, the author inflates his focus to include ambition, sacrifice, “ethics and morals,” creative intelligence and a host of other premium qualities—“Their trick was to be bold, even when they were cold, wet, tired, hungry, miserable, or sick”—while playing down or ignoring altogether the less savory grandiosity, simple commercialism or pure greed that certainly afflicted the explorers at various points throughout their journeys.

A fine adventure yarn nearly sapped by a gratuitous hook. (8-page b/w insert)

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STARS AND STRIKES Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76

Epstein, Dan Dunne/St. Martin’s (400 pp.) $27.99 | May 29, 2014 978-1-250-03438-0

A knuckleball ride through the wonderful and wacky year the nation celebrated its 200th birthday—and the national pastime changed forever. |

In 1976, it seemed that every old-guard skipper was on a vain crusade to trim back the mutton chops and Fu Manchus that had almost become de rigueur on the diamond. But no matter how successful they might have been reining in the free-flowing Afros and bushy beards that filled their clubhouses, they could not stop the evolution of the game. Although they gave their best efforts, baseball owners learned that they could not stop the development of free agency or keep their stadium doors padlocked. The game was moving forward. That strange year in the history of the game allowed some unforgettable characters—e.g., the fiery Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett and the late Detroit Tigers oddball hurler Mark “The Bird” Fidrych (1959-2004)—to soar straight into the hearts and minds of a nation desperate to escape darker days. At the same time, it also provided enduring mavericks like Bill Veeck (1914-1986) with a national stage to work their last bits of baseball enchantment. Epstein brings the entire sideshow to life with a narrative that has all the jump of a juiced-up home run ball smacked high over the center field wall. The author tracks the seminal season’s progress—both on and off the field—with

enough statistics and analysis to make even the most hard-core fans grin, and he makes the zany zeitgeist of the times irresistible. On the particularly inept Atlanta Braves, the author writes, “the chances of the Braves winning 81 games in 1976 looked about as likely as the Ramones selling a million copies of their debut album.”

A must for everyone who still remembers when the White Sox wore shorts. (8-page b/w photo insert)

ROBIN KORTH

When I take myself too seriously, life automatically stops being fun.

But I do provide untold free amusement for others.

“An original work that will amuse, inspire and motivate readers.”

—Kirkus Reviews

SOULONTHERUN.COM For film or publication rights, contact ContactUs@SoulOnTheRun.com ISBN: 978-1-4525-9098-1 (sc) • ISBN: 978-1-4525-9100-1 (e)

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THE VALENTINO AFFAIR The Jazz Age Murder Scandal that Shocked New York Society and Gripped the World

TUDOR ADVENTURES The Voyage of Discovery that Transformed England Evans, James Pegasus (400 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-60598-611-1

Evans, Colin Lyons Press (304 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-7627-9149-1

A history of Tudor exploration in the first half of the 16th century, “a time when inventions and discoveries not only rivaled those of the ancients but exceeded them.”

It’s difficult to imagine the victor over the Spanish Armada as a small, backward island with little maritime experience, but that’s just what England was at this time. In his debut work, which opens with the journeys of Sebastian Cabot (1474-1557), Evans shows the driving force that made England great. Cabot’s voyage with his father, John Cabot, to the New World proved to be the spark that fed his love of discovery. King Henry VII was a great supporter of exploration, seeking to tap the global markets. Alas, his son, Henry VIII, was much more interested in reclaiming England’s lands in France, and ocean exploration in England foundered. In the early 1500s, Cabot moved to Spain, where he learned the art of navigation and mapmaking. He also learned to rely only on firsthand knowledge gained by carefully recorded observation. Lured back to England during the reign of Edward VI, Cabot updated the world map, indicating a passage to “Cathay” traveling north of Scandinavia. Seeing this as England’s route to the great riches of the East, he partnered with Richard Chancellor, a brilliant scholar and the first Englishman to master oceangoing navigation. In 1553, Chancellor and Sir Hugh Willoughby led three ships on an expedition to find the Northeast Passage. In 1551, to fund the expedition, the three men formed a pioneering joint-stock business, the Muscovy Company, a precursor to the East India Company. Evans fully investigates the story of the Muscovy Company’s voyage and examines what happened to the men and their ships.

A wonderful adventure story, especially for those in awe of men who dared to breach the wilderness 500 years ago.

Prolific true-crime writer Evans (Slaughter on a Snowy Morn: A Tale of Murder, Corruption, and the Death Penalty Case that Shocked America, 2012, etc.) examines the murder trial of Chilean heiress Blanca de Saulles (“The Flower of the Andes”) in a narrative reminiscent of the background melodramas of The Great Gatsby or the musical Chicago.

“From an early age,” writes the author, “Blanca knew the power of her personal magnetism and her place in the world.”

Yet, she miscalculated by marrying Jack de Saulles, a Yale football hero (and Broadway rake)–turned–fortune hunter: “de Saulles ran through money like air.” The marriage quickly soured, and although they agreed to share custody of their young son upon divorcing, this proved the fatal flash point: Blanca shot Jack in August 1917 at his Long Island summer home. What seemed a sure murder conviction fell apart due to now-familiar complications: a chaotic media circus, a showboating, high-end defense attorney and a prim prosecutor outmatched by the wealthy defendant’s resources. Crucially, Evans argues that there existed an “unwritten rule” that certain female defendants could not be convicted of murder, as patriarchal juries seemed swayed by sheer femininity: “[O] nce again a wealthy female defendant had escaped the electric chair for killing her husband. Such homicides were now becoming a national epidemic.” Evans presents this sordid narrative in such brisk, entertaining fashion that readers may not notice his own bait-and-switch: Although the impetuous immigrant seducer later known as Rudolph Valentino did testify to de Saulles’ infidelity during the divorce trial and may have been set up for a vice charge in its aftermath, he does not actually appear during the more sensational murder trial.

A well-researched tale of a distant-seeming era and crime, echoing our own time’s obsession with celebrity transgression and capacity for justifying violence. (b/w photos and illustrations)

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SECRET LIVES OF THE TSARS Three Centuries of Autocracy, Debauchery, Betrayal, Murder, and Madness from Romanov Russia

From his first published work, Sketches by Boz (1836), set in pre-Victorian London, until his last, unfinished novel, Edwin Drood (1870), Dickens drew on the life and characters of his beloved city. In her prodigiously detailed work, British journalist Flanders (The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Reveled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime, 2013, etc.) reminds readers that “Dickensian” changed in meaning from the early part of the author’s career—when it meant “comic”—to a posthumous sense of “grim” and “dark.” Indeed, Dickens, the tireless walker of the London streets, author of nimble imagination who composed several works at once, covered all of the city as the early Victorian era of “earnestness and endeavor” gave way to the “moving age” involving increased population, paralyzing traffic, industry, building and slums. Where to begin in such a work? On the street, of course, from just getting around, as most people did by foot, arriving for 12-hour–plus working shifts in a dusty mess and assaulted by a roar of noise; to taking horse-drawn omnibuses, hackney coaches, mail coaches, cabs and so on, all susceptible to natural hazards like fog. The greatest change to

Farquhar, Michael Random House (368 pp.) $16.00 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-8129-7905-3 978-0-8129-8578-8 e-book

More tales from the nasty lives of global royalty.

Farquhar (Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treasury, and the Folly from Royal Britain, 2011, etc.) continues his chronicles of members of royal families and their strange, often reprehensible foibles, which demolished governments, lives and countries. This book, covering the horrors of Russia’s 300 years of Romanov rule, concentrates on the totalitarian autocrats and their beastly reigns, during which they rewarded their favorites with thousands of serfs. Even great accomplishments, such as Peter the Great’s navy and Westernization, are swept aside with stories of dictatorial actions such as his banning of beards and his personal torture of prisoners. Likewise, the author portrays Catherine the Great in light of her usurpation and the death of her husband, Peter III, as well as her long list of lovers. The book also tells the stories of the violence against the czars and their supporters, not least the multiple attempts on the life of Alexander II. It took a bomb to finally eliminate the man who actually freed the serfs. The czars who were not congenitally cruel and repressive, like Nicholas I, were certifiably mad or grossly ineffective. Farquhar devotes almost a third of the book to Nicholas and Alexandra, perhaps due to the fact there is so much material from which to choose. Nicholas was weak-willed, introverted and completely under the thumb of his despised wife.

Both were under the spell of Rasputin, who claimed to heal their son Alexei’s bouts with hemophilia. Alexandra’s shyness was construed as pride and haughtiness, but she controlled Nicholas and his government to their desperate ends.

An easy-reading, lightweight history lesson. Farquhar’s tales of totalitarianism make one wonder if the secrets behind so many centuries of cruelty could be in the DNA.

THE VICTORIAN CITY Everyday Life in Dickens’ London

Flanders, Judith Dunne/St. Martin’s (544 pp.) $27.99 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-250-04021-3 978-1-4668-3545-0 e-book

A well-stuffed compendium on the transformational era in the history of London that fed both Charles Dickens’ imagination and his well of outrage. |

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S U M M E R R EA DING

nonfiction Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story

Skyhorse’s Mexican-born father left the family when the author was 3. Beautiful but prone to exaggeration, his mother, Maria, promptly renamed herself Running Deer and told her son that his father was an incarcerated Native American activist named Paul Skyhorse. By turns funny and wrenching, the narrative is an unforgettable tour de force of memory, love and imagination.

By Jack Devine and Vernon Loeb 336 pp. | $27.00 Veteran CIA covert operative Devine, a blue-collar native of suburban Philadelphia who began to ascend the CIA ranks in the late 1960s, highlights his career foiling trouble from Chile to Afghanistan. Working thematically rather than chronologically, Devine explores his stints of glory, namely funneling guns with Charlie Wilson to Afghanistan’s mujahedeen in order to defeat the Soviets and sustaining important relationships with changing directors.

Devine’s attention to detail translates into a finely delineated memoir of his selective undercover tradecraft.

My Salinger Year

By Joanna Rakoff 272 pp. | $25.95

A sharply observed coming-ofage memoir about an aspiring writer’s entry-level job at a fading literary agency. The author establishes herself as something of an innocent, a master’s grad who wanted to write poetry but required a job to tide her over. She found one at an unnamed literary agency that continued to operate with typewriters and fax machines and where her boss’s main responsibility was the nonbusiness of J.D. Salinger. Many of the mysteries of the literary world remain mysteries to the author, but she provides good company as she explores them.

Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town

By Sarah Payne Stuart 320 pp. | $27.95

A writer’s wickedly droll account of how she came to terms with her WASP heritage and the impossible expectations of “mother” New England. With its “pristine town center, gleaming with historically correct colors,” Stuart’s hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, seemed the embodiment of perfection. But as Stuart well knew, high-flying moral pretensions, hypocrisy, and an insatiable hunger for social prestige and high-priced real estate bubbled just beneath the deceptively charming surface. Satire at its finest.

Will Not Attend: Lively Stories of Isolation and Detachment

By Adam Resnick 272 pp. | $25.95

Photo courtesy Eric van den Brulle

Emmy-winning screenwriter Resnick holds nothing back in this debut of shamelessly personal tales. Darting from one defining (or scarring) memory to another, Resnick honestly recounts early childhood mishaps, the confusion of adolescence and the truly confounding notion of fatherhood. Incidents—like the apartment porter’s pitching a screenplay while the elevator was delayed or when Resnick threw out his daughter’s piano while she was on vacation—could be pulled straight from lost scripts of Curb Your Enthusiasm. A neurotic, unapologetic, hilarious collection.

Take This Man: A Memoir

By Brando Skyhorse 256 pp. | $26.00

A Mexican-American novelist’s wickedly compelling account of a dysfunctional childhood growing up “a full blooded American Indian brave” with five different fathers.

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Photo courtesy Bret Stetka

Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch

By Lewis Dartnell 336 pp. | $27.95

By Amanda Petrusich 272 pp. | $25.00

A survival manual for the zombie apocalypse, the plague or whatever else will bring us down and require a reboot of civilization. Imagine what would happen if, say, an asteroid hit the Earth or someone unwisely set off a nuclear bomb that triggered others around the world. Who would make the glass? Who would film the real-world episodes of Survivor?

Enter young British scientist Dartnell, a U.K. Space Agency research fellow. Considering the scenarios here, you might not want to be a survivor. However, Dartnell does a good job of appreciating, while there’s still time, the world of “bountiful and varied food, spectacularly effective medicines, effortless and comfortable travel, and abundant energy.”

This new book by Pitchfork contributing writer Petrusich proves once again that it takes a rare person to hunt for rarities, especially when the obscure object of desire is a classic 78rpm blues record.

She joined professional blues travelers as they scoured the Earth for vinyl Stradivariuses. These people don’t just haunt record stores, yard sales, festivals and eBay; they go where no one else thinks to look, pursuing rare leads, taking out ads, spending sacks of money and weeks of time.

An engaging and deeply personal journey, for both the writer and her subjects, and an adroit disquisition on the nature of this distinctly American form of insatiable lust.

Photo courtesy Mark Peterson Photography

Let the Tornado Come: A Memoir

By Rita Zoey Chin 336 pp. | $25.00

Poet and essayist Chin was raised in an atmosphere of violence. Her depressed, angry mother rejected her, and her father savagely beat her. At the age of 11, she started running away from home; by the time she was 14, she was in jail. Although she could not escape her past, it need not dominate the present: “No matter how many stories you put on top of the first story, the first one is always there, visible.” Chin deftly creates the palimpsest of those stories, past and present, in this candid, graceful testimony to remarkable resilience.

The Psychopath Whisperer: The Science of Those Without Conscience

By Kent Kiehl 304 pp. | $26.00

Photo courtesy Tabitha Soren

A world-renowned researcher of psychopaths delves into the origins of their behavior, especially as they relate to the inner workings of the brain. By scanning and analyzing the brains of hundreds of people who met the psychological criteria for psychopathy, most of them prison inmates, the author discovered that a majority displayed a significant abnormality in the same exact region of the brain—a huge breakthrough.

Kiehl weaves several fascinating case studies throughout the technical discussion and navigates the issues with compassion and insight. Fast-paced and thrilling.

Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt

By Michael Lewis 288 pp. | $27.95

In trademark Lewis fashion, a data-rich but all-too-human tale of “heuristic data bullshit and other mumbo jumbo” in the service of gaming the financial system, courtesy of— yes, Goldman Sachs and company. If you’ve ever had the feeling that the system is out for itself at your expense, well, look no further. A riveting, maddening yarn that is causing quite a stir already, including calls for regulatory reform.

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THE ANGEL IN MY POCKET A Story of Love, Loss, and Life After Death

London was the arrival of the railroad in 1836, which sliced through old neighborhoods Dickens knew keenly, Moreover, the railways became for him “symbols of a time that was passing, or past.” Flanders writes with bubbling enthusiasm about the old markets, Covent Garden and Smithfield, with their accompanying din and smells, and the plethora of life we only know through Dickens’ eyes: the street vendors and artists, matchstick sellers, slum dwellers, prostitutes, habitués of gin palaces and prisoners.

A terrific companion while reading Boz himself.

Forbes, Sukey Viking (256 pp.) $27.95 | Jul. 7, 2014 978-0-670-02631-9

A Boston Brahmin who had it all chronicles her experiences dealing with the tragic death of her beloved young daughter.

The descendant of successful New England merchants and the distinguished essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, Forbes was heir to wealth and a tradition of spiritualism that included both transcendentalism and a belief in ghosts.

On the surface, her life seemed perfect. However, beneath the privilege was a family past that included alcoholism, divorce and repression that caused Forbes to distance herself from her emotions. An apparently happy marriage brought her the peace and stability she craved, but when her 6-year-old daughter, Charlotte, died from a rare genetic disorder, her world began to implode. Forbes immersed herself in the mementos of her daughter’s brief life and gradually began the process of mourning Charlotte’s death. In search of guidance for how to navigate “life…death and grieving,” Forbes turned to the wisdom of her ancestors and joined support groups. But it wasn’t until she took a friend’s advice to see a medium that she began to accept Charlotte’s passing as a form of spiritual transition and understand the depth of her connection to the Emersonian part of her heritage. As “the boundaries between the natural and supernatural, the living and the dead” became redefined, the author became increasingly aware that “there was still room for grief even while [she] was full of life.” At the same time, she realized that her husband, who had mourned Charlotte’s death with greater openness and ferocity, was holding her back from personal fulfillment. Middle-aged but spiritually renewed, she struck out on her own. Forbes’ book is at heart an exercise in articulating emotions scorned by her upbringing. Yet its elisions—most notably, those dealing with Forbes’ marriage and relationship to her husband—make for less-than-satisfying reading.

An occasionally interesting but otherwise unremarkable book about how even the privileged can truly experience heartbreaking trauma.

MONEY How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy—And What We Can Do About It

Forbes, Steve with Ames, Elizabeth McGraw-Hill (272 pp.) $28.00 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-007-182370-8

Multimillionaire Forbes and previous co-author Ames (Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn’t, 2012, etc.) argue that a monetary system based on a sound and stable currency is “our best hope of finally achieving a genuine recovery.”

Ever since the United States abandoned the gold standard more than 40 years ago, the value of the dollar has been at the mercy of the Federal Reserve and other central banks whose policies reflect the political whims of governments. The result—a weakened dollar—has slowly destroyed wealth, destabilized the global economy and caused a host of problems, from the subprime bubble to high food and fuel prices to declining mobility and higher unemployment. Yet many in the policy establishment who are “steeped in the superstitions of Keynesian/monetarist dogma” refuse to consider the idea of a return to the gold standard out of a misplaced fear that gold would mean a “rigidly fixed money supply.” In fact, the authors write, “gold is far more flexible than people generally acknowledge.” Aiming to demystify the subject of money to help spur debate and a return to the gold standard, they offer lucid discussions of the role of money (as a means of measurement, trust and communication), the critical need for a stable monetary value, and how any artificial manipulation of currency values can produce adverse social consequences. “When money becomes unstable, trust unravels,” they note, pointing to historical ties between inflation and higher rates of crime, corruption and unrest. A return to sound money will usher in long-term growth to the benefit of both the U.S. and the global economy.

A brief, straightforward, decent case for returning the dollar to the gold standard, sure to attract opposing arguments.

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“Fantastical, atmospherically moody and Poe-like in its laudanum-fueled dreaminess.” from preparing the ghost

PREPARING THE GHOST An Essay Concerning the Giant Squid and Its First Photographer

eyes on one. It was washed ashore, dead, but damn if he wasn’t going to commune with the creature up close and personal. He paid some men to carry the squid to his tub—“Nothing says domestication like a giant squid strung over a clawfoot bathtub”—before he said farewell and shipped it off to Yale for safekeeping. Surrounding the event is a great embroidery of story: “I am mythmaking, I suppose,” writes Frank, and he does it with transporting authority. Readers walk through the cold, pinsand-needles rain that falls forever in Newfoundland and perambulate the town as Frank walked it in modern times. The author concocts the background out of whole cloth, an imagined scenario. Though there are facts enough to keep it real, there are also moments in which there is a strong sense of the unconscious at work. “Somewhere, in the recesses of these recessive versions of our dominant truths,” writes Frank, “behind a daisy chain of lanterns and Darwin’s theories drunk and conga-lining, Rudolph Valentino was blond.” This track eventually wends its way back to myth and Newfoundland.

Fantastical, atmospherically moody and Poe-like in its laudanum-fueled dreaminess. (15 drawings)

Frank, Matthew Gavin Liveright/Norton (192 pp.) $22.95 | Jul. 7, 2014 978-0-87140-283-7

An investigation of our first encounters with the giant squid, a creature “more bizarre than anything appearing in Star Wars.”

Poet and creative writing teacher Frank (The Morrow Plants: Poems, 2013, etc.) moves like a wraith around the myth, superstition and spirit of the giant squid—and not as a single-subject exploration but through the conjured memory of Moses Harvey, a preacher in Newfoundland during the mid-1800s. Harvey had heard stories of the beast—a kraken, a devil-fish that lived up to its name—and one morning in 1874, he was able to lay

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OBAMA’S ENFORCER Eric Holder’s Justice Department

WHEN THE UNITED STATES SPOKE FRENCH Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation

Fund, John; von Spakovsky, Hans Broadside Books/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $27.99 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-0-06-232092-6

Furstenberg, François Penguin Press (400 pp.) $36.00 | Jul. 14, 2014 978-1-59420-441-8

Furstenberg (History/Johns Hopkins Univ.; In the Name of the Father: Washington’s Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation, 2007) expands the historical outlook of the 18th century’s great upheavals and shows the global effects of the Enlightenment.

The author studies five former members of the French Assemblée Constituante who became refugees in Philadelphia: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; Le Rochefoucauld, the duc de Liancourt; Louis-Marie Vicomte de Noailles; Moreau de Saint-Méry; and Constantin-François Chasseboeuf, Comte Volney. All of them helped rewrite the French constitution, a document with which the authors hoped to achieve the same results as the American Revolution. However, it was not to be, and the fallout from the French explosion was felt across the Atlantic. All five of the men were liberals, almost all aristocrats, and they were leaders with contacts in all the best houses and banks of Europe. Those connections helped save post-Revolutionary America, allowing the building of markets, forging of marriages and the funding of the Louisiana Purchase.

These Frenchmen attached themselves to the best minds in America, implemented land purchases and found investors abroad, providing desperately needed credit to the new nation.

In Saint Domingue, present-day Haiti, the world’s wealthiest colony and gateway to the Gulf of Mexico, the late-1800s slave revolts proved to be as world changing as events in France and the United States. The island was France’s steppingstone to reestablish a colony in the Mississippi Valley and control its vast natural resources. Furstenberg follows all five men throughout their time in the United States. Though they were here to escape and to advance their personal fortunes, along the way, they helped the young country survive. “[A]lthough the emigres did not make this new world,” writes the author, “their lives poke through the accumulated detritus that makes up the historical archive with greater clarity and sharpness than most.”

A bright, absorbing account of a short period in history that still resounds today.

Fund and von Spakovsky (Who’s Counting?: How Fraudsters and Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk, 2012) team up again for a no-holds-barred assault on Attorney General Eric Holder.

Both authors are well-known shapers of conservative opinion, and von Spakovsky, of George W. Bush’s Justice Department, so the authors include certain ongoing issues promoted by the right. These include, among others, the 2009-2011 “Operation Fast and Furious” gunwalking scandal, during which the Justice Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were investigated for distributing weapons in Mexico subsequently used with deadly effect against American border enforcement agents. As a result, Holder became the first attorney general in history to be held in contempt of Congress, but Democrats voted overwhelmingly in support of Holder. What Fund and von Spakovsky have put together in this account seems to merit thoughtful consideration rather than peremptory dismissal as yet another partisan assault. For example, they ask why Holder’s accounts of when he learned about the gunwalking scandal differed significantly in the versions he presented before the House and the Senate—and the differences have not been reconciled. The authors point to numerous Supreme Court decisions that question the legality and honesty of actions undertaken by Holder’s department, and they discuss a number of criminal and civil prosecutions that have been dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct, including lying and withholding exculpatory evidence. Fund and von Spakovsky also question his practice of unilaterally changing interpretations of laws—e.g., the 1961 Interstate Wire Act. The authors detail the chilling effects of censorship and raise some intriguing issues about the conduct of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

The book leans decidedly to the right, but Fund and von Spakovsky raise issues of partisan intrigue, dishonesty and criminality, with sufficient evidence to merit serious investigation and not just partisan dismissal.

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THE CULINARY IMAGINATION From Myth to Modernity

THE TODD GLASS SITUATION A Bunch of Lies About My Personal Life and a Bunch of True Stories About My 30-Year Career in Stand-Up Comedy

Gilbert, Sandra M. Norton (448 pp.) $29.95 | Jul. 28, 2014 978-0-393-06765-1

Glass, Todd with Grotenstein, Jonathan Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $25.00 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-1-4767-1441-7

A literary scholar investigates the cultural meaning of food.

In this exuberant, wide-ranging look at what, how and why we eat, Gilbert (Rereading Women: Thirty Years of Exploring Our Literary Traditions, 2011, etc.) turns to poets and novelists, movies and art, food critics and celebrity chefs, memoirists and historians to consider the myriad and surprising ways that food reflects culture. She quotes Bill Buford in an epigraph that aptly sums up the book: “One of the great charismas of food is that it’s about culture and grandmothers and death and art and self-expression and family and society— and at the same time, it’s just dinner.” Anyone who has ever written about food is likely to be found in these pages, including Proust, Woolf, Hemingway, Plath, Sartre, Homer and Shakespeare. Gilbert also looks at Wallace Stevens’ “Emperor of Ice-Cream,” William Carlos Williams’ stolen plums, Gertrude Stein’s many culinary references in Tender Buttons, and the Romantic poets, whose works frequently featured “magical or exotic foods” that heightened a sense of the fantastic.

Julia Child takes center stage when Gilbert considers the popularity of food shows and the transformation of mainstream American cuisine; she also examines the influence of food critics (Ruth Reichl and others) and food memoirists.

The genre called “foodoirs,” writes Gilbert, “proliferate[s] like cookies and cupcakes…on bookstore shelves that used to be crammed with romance novels.” These include celebrants, such as M.F.K. Fisher, and food avoiders, such as anorexic and bulimic women. Gilbert reveals her own rich food legacy from her Italian and Russian grandparents, making her early food experiences far different from that of her Jell-o–eating classmates. Although her mother prepared lamb chops and instant mashed potatoes, the author recalls a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with a Ligurian recipe of spinach, mushrooms, sausage, parmesan cheese and garlic.

Gilbert wears her scholarship lightly in this warm, lively inquiry into the social, political, ethical and aesthetic meanings of “food, glorious food!”

A stand-up comedian’s upfront account of the personal struggles with homosexuality that underlay his successful career as an entertainer.

From an early age, Philadelphia native Glass knew he was different. Suffering from undiagnosed cases of ADD and dyslexia, he was relegated to special education classes in second grade.

Glass survived his mislabeling as mentally handicapped and frequent family moves, cultivating a wicked sense of humor, which eventually made him popular with other students. Entering high

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school, however, he faced yet another challenge: being gay in a homophobic world. A successful open mike night performance at a local comedy club launched Glass into his career at age 16.

After years of being the odd man out, he writes, “I’d finally found a place where I belonged.” Glass continued to thrive on stage, but offstage, his early encounters with gay men were as furtive as they were unfulfilling. He found his first long-term partner only after he moved to Los Angeles and was nearing 30. But both Glass and his partner still felt pressure to hide their identities and resorted to elaborate ruses—which included living together with a straight female friend—to hide their relationship. In the meantime, Glass’ career took him into TV, where he did commercials and comedy performances on such shows as Last Comic Standing.

Yet fame could not make up for his inability to be honest about his homosexuality. Glass finally found his motivation to come out after the nationally publicized spate of gay teen suicides in 2010.

Two years later, he finally revealed his homosexuality at age 47 on the podcast of fellow comedian Marc Maron. The author clearly seeks to entertain with this comic picaresque, yet like his idol George Carlin, he also seeks to tell the truth, which he does with compassion and empathy throughout.

A humorous, lively and humane memoir.

illness need not exclude their social component. “In taking account of the role of the social world in mental illness,” write the authors, “it may be necessary to hang on to notions like threat, discrimination, exploitation and status, and there may be no way to understand these concepts other than by theories far removed from neurons….Reductionism in psychiatry constrains theory to operate within the skull or the skin. Our bet is that the outside world is going to matter as well.”

A provocative new perspective on the diagnosis, and therefore treatment, of mental illness.

THE INTERIOR CIRCUIT A Mexico City Chronicle Goldman, Francisco Grove (336 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2256-8

The death of the author’s wife hovers over this densely meandering, poignant look at the simmering violence in his beloved Mexico City.

American novelist and journalist Goldman (Say Her Name, 2011, etc.) writes affectingly about his adopted city, where he had lived on and off since the 1990s.

His short second marriage to essayist, graduate student and Mexico City native Aura Estrada ended with her tragic death from a bodysurfing accident while on vacation in 2007, a devastating loss Goldman wrote about eloquently in Say Her Name.

Here, the author continues to move through stages of grief— e.g., by relearning how to drive, which he had been unable to do since Aura’s death, as well as by relating with fellow residents’ attempts to come to terms with the senseless drug cartel violence that has permeated all levels of Mexican society, especially in politics. Driving around the Distrito Federal, or DF, as the city is known, with its chaotic streets and aggressive drivers, presenting Mexico City zone by zone, Goldman attempted to engage with the city, seek out its secrets and deepen his relationship to it by creating his own “interior circuit.” While he extols the vibrancy, endurance, youthful romance and tolerance of the city, he also confronts head-on its brutality and death wish. The legacy of President Felipe Calderón’s war on the drug cartels, waged from 2006 to 2012, resulted in an explosion of violence against and by the narcos, spilling over into the DF—which had been relatively spared the carnage—in the form of the kidnapping of 11 young people from an after-hours club in May 2013. Goldman followed the case closely, which seemed to implicate both the new DF mayor and president.

A gifted writer submerges his grief in his deep affection for his adopted city.

SUSPICIOUS MINDS How Culture Shapes Madness

Gold, Joel; Gold, Ian Free Press (288 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4391-8155-3

Brothers Joel Gold (Psychiatry/NYU School of Medicine) and Ian Gold (Philosophy and Psychiatry/McGill Univ.) suggest that to treat delusions simply as manifestations of psychosis, without regard to their cognitive function, is insufficient.

The authors examine the possibility that delusions are symptomatic of a malfunctioning cognitive system whose positive evolutionary function has been protection against social threats. This leads them to conclude that it is necessary to view delusions as a malfunctioning response to “social environment on its own terms and not as an illusion waiting to be reduced to biology.” Their content can be traced to a need to deal with environmental stresses and are, in part, a reflection of the culture. Turning to the field of evolutionary psychology, the Golds suggest the existence of a hypothesized brain system, the “Suspicion System,” whose purpose is to protect the individual from threats; this would have served a useful purpose in alerting our ancestors to danger. It is when these threats are misperceived without corrective cognitive input that delusion follows. Joel Gold cites case histories from his practice as an attending psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital Center; the cases show how such malfunctioning might occur when “[d]elusional thoughts and their linguistic expression are…cognitively isolated and not integrated with other thinking.” These delusions may be due to neurological malfunction, but biological theories of mental 68

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“A fascinating discussion of a multifaceted issue and a passionate call to action.” from american catch

AMERICAN CATCH The Fight for Our Local Seafood

DENALI’S HOWL The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak

Greenberg, Paul Penguin Press (320 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 30, 2014 978-1-59420-448-7

Hall, Andy Dutton (368 pp.) $27.95 | Jun. 12, 2014 978-0-525-95406-4

Blue Ocean Institute fellow Greenberg (Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, 2010, etc.) offers an optimistic perspective on the connection between preserving our salt marshes and restoring America’s offshore seafood production.

The author presents three illustrative case studies: the effort to bring oysters back to our Eastern shores, the threat to Alaska’s wild salmon industry from mining interests, and the effect of globalization on Gulf Coast shrimp. The importance of maintaining and extending our salt marshes is an accepted tenet of environmentalists, but the importance of seafood in maritime ecology is frequently overlooked—e.g., reducing pollution, creating buffers against flooding and more. Greenberg explains why fishing is not merely an extractive enterprise; it plays a critical role in maintaining the health of waterways and marshes, as well as furthering the establishment of “economically viable waterfront communities, and good, healthful food.”

The author suggests that one reason Americans do not prioritize protecting fish resources, such as Alaskan wild salmon, is that seafood no longer is a major component of the national diet, despite its known health value. Enlisting the consumer as an advocate for expanding the fishing industry on our home turf can make the difference between relative apathy and passionate advocacy. Greenberg describes the ongoing efforts of young volunteers to rejuvenate East Coast oyster production in New York and New Jersey. Not only is this an effort to recapture nature’s bounty at some future date; it is also an immediate resource for cleaning the polluted waters. He explains how oyster reproduction depends on the buildup of reefs made of discarded shells, and he chronicles current efforts to replicate these artificially.

He also shows how the shrimp industry in Louisiana operates in a global market and offers a historical perspective on the early role of Chinese immigrants in developing an Asian market for dried shrimp.

A fascinating discussion of a multifaceted issue and a passionate call to action.

A vivid revisitation of a historic Alaskan mountain climbing expedition.

In 1967, when Hall, former editor and publisher of Alaska magazine, was 5, his father, the superintendent at Mount McKinley National Park, took him along after being dispatched to the mountain (known to locals as “Denali”) to rescue climbers swept up in whiteout blizzard conditions at the summit. The author’s memory of that event proved enduring enough for him to spend seven years skillfully gathering documentation and verbatim testimonials of the event in which hypothermia claimed the lives of seven brave mountaineers. Brigham Young University student Joe Wilcox, a novice climber with prodigious ambitions, enlisted a group of adventurers of varying experience levels to accompany him on a whirlwind ascent of Mount McKinley.

Hall intricately describes their epic trek from its beginnings along the Alaska Highway through seven sequentially numbered campsites along the mountainside, where grievances were aired and dissolved as the group bonded while carefully acclimatizing themselves to avoid oxygen-deficiencyinducing hypoxia. With only a two-day weather forecast, a small, agreed-upon combination of both groups successfully reached Denali’s summit. However, an unprecedented combination of storm fronts in the wake of the second team’s ascent would strand them on the summit approach. Hall delivers this tragic event through his recounting of recorded radio conversations, journal entries and pages of grisly detail.

Amplifying the narrative is an opening section of statistical data on the extreme nature of Denali’s “remote and exotic” terrain, its frosty and unpredictable atmospheric conditions, and other expeditions that have attempted to scale its towering 20,320-foot peak.

A dramatic and respectful homage to 12 intrepid mountaineers who sought to master not only the tallest mountain in North America, but “arguably the biggest mountain on the planet.”

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JOE AND MARILYN Legends in Love

In this highly illuminating history, the author “explores the decades-long bridge of innovation that transformed Victorian-era visual astronomy into the scientific discipline that is observational astrophysics.” Although revolutionary when it appeared around 1600, the telescope is simply an amazing extension of the eye, not designed to function in dim lighting or make a permanent record. The daguerreotype dazzled the world in 1839, and an early photograph of the moon, unimpressive by modern standards, created a sensation in 1851, but stars and planets remained off limits until film sensitivity vastly increased with the dry plate in the 1870s. Equally essential to astronomers was the simultaneous maturing of the spectroscope. Splitting light into innumerable hues and lines, it allowed not only the discovery that stars were similar to the sun, but also the identification of their precise chemical makeup and movements. By the 1880s, “what had been a noisome, exasperating art had become a predictable mainstream technology that would eventually recast the telescope as an adjunct of the camera” and spectroscope. Until that decade, Hirshfeld emphasizes brilliant but now-unknown amateurs (Andrew Common, William Bond, William Huggins, Isaac Roberts) who fell in love with astronomy and had no objection to the clunky new technology. Afterward, they were replaced by academically trained but equally obsessive scientists who oversaw the creation of the massive 20th-century observatories (George Ellery Hale) and revealed an unimaginably immense, expanding universe (Edwin Hubble, Harlow Shapley).

A delightful, detailed chronicle of great men (and a rare woman) whose fascination with the night sky and the technology necessary to study it led to today’s dramatic discoveries. (101 illustrations)

Heymann, C. David Emily Bestler/Atria (448 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4391-9177-4

A posthumous work about the starcrossed lovers by the biographer of Kennedys and others.

Once again, we enter the disturbing world of Marilyn Monroe: the childhood, adolescence, marriages, drugs, psychiatry, sex and abuse by just about everyone who entered the powerful gravitational field of this troubled human being. Although Heymann (Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, 2009, etc.) focuses on her relationship with Joe DiMaggio (before, during and after their brief marriage in 1954), he cannot help but be drawn close to the discomfiting fire of Monroe. The author gets close enough to everyone to photograph their imperfections: Monroe’s profound insecurity and addictions, DiMaggio’s initial cluelessness about what it means to love someone (he did learn, however), Arthur Miller’s passion for Monroe (it cooled considerably once her whirlpool drew him in and down), and the Kennedy brothers’ cruel pursuit of her sexual favors. Heymann tells us that she believed she would become the first lady—either with JFK in his second term or with RFK. We also see the profoundly unethical behavior of the medical and mental health professionals who dealt with her, issuing endless prescriptions for sedatives and sharing her private revelations with DiMaggio. However, Heymann dismisses conspiracy theories about the “murder” of Monroe, and the Everest of evidence he cites about her drug and alcohol use makes his case convincing.

It’s evident that the author, who died in 2012 before he finished the book, did not get to attend to it all. There are sections that have a cut-and-paste feel about them—long uninterrupted quotations from others, passages he surely would have summarized and integrated into his own prose.

A well-researched story of dark stars whose dingy lights continue to shine.

LOVE & FURY A Memoir

Hoffman, Richard Beacon (220 pp.) $24.95 | Jun. 3, 2014 978-0-8070-4471-1

A professor’s literary-minded meditations on fatherhood.

As a writer of poems, stories and a previous memoir (Half the House, 1996), and as someone who has “been teaching writers for nearly twenty years, focused especially on the memoir and the personal essay,” Emerson College senior writer in residence Hoffman knows how to recognize good material and how to frame and organize it, even as he dilutes the immediacy of emotion here with more abstract musings on pornography, feminism, and issues of race and class. In other words, his memoir is more powerful when it is showing us (his direct experience) rather than telling us (his ideas). This begins with the author and his brother talking with their father about his impending death, and it ends with the father’s funeral. “Sometimes I think I’ve had two fathers: the one who made me, and the one I’ve made of him,” he muses. This book is about both, as well as how the author’s own

STARLIGHT DETECTIVES How Astronomers, Inventors, and Eccentrics Discovered the Modern Universe

Hirshfeld, Alan Bellevue Literary Press (400 pp.) $19.95 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-934137-78-9 978-1-934137-79-6 e-book

Photography, not computers, ushered in modern astronomy. Here, its bumpy evolution is in the expert hands of Harvard College Observatory associate Hirshfeld (Physics/Univ. of Mass. Dartmouth; Eureka Man: The Life and Legacy of Archimedes, 2009, etc.).

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“An exciting escape closes this urgent, well-rendered attempt to penetrate North Korea’s cynical, criminal power strategy.” from dear leader

fatherhood has affected his feelings toward his father: “Being a new father, I was having a hard time with my dad—with him, with my memory of him, and with my idea of him.” The father and his family were blue-collar, not particularly reflective, and matter-of-fact in their racism. The author was sexually molested as a boy by his coach (whom his previous memoir helped send to prison), became an alcoholic, realized in recovery that his son had the same problem, and had to come to terms with his unwed daughter’s pregnancy, by a Jamaican man with a criminal history and an increasingly tangled relationship with both the author and his daughter. “I had feelings too complicated to fully understand,” writes the author of his impending grandfatherhood and the lessthan-ideal circumstances surrounding it.

Hoffman writes of his father that “he was more comfortable with his many contradictions than I am with mine,” in a book in which readers are also likely to find more contradictions than comfort.

within its rights, but it opened the door for the requirement of “comprehensive Environmental Impact Statements” in advance of any future naval maneuvers.

Based on years of interviews and research, Horwitz delivers a powerful, engrossing narrative that raises serious questions about the unchecked use of secrecy by the military to advance its institutional power.

DEAR LEADER Poet, Spy, Escapee—a Look Inside North Korea

Jang Jin-sung Translated by Lee, Shirley 37 Ink/Atria (304 pp.) $27.99 | May 13, 2014 978-1-4767-6655-3

WAR OF THE WHALES A True Story

A defector of Kim Jong-il’s rarefied inner circle reveals the desperate, despicable machinations of North Korea’s police state.

“North Korea’s opacity is its greatest strength,” writes New Focus International editor in chief Jin-sung in this powerful, heartrending tale of one young man’s ability to infiltrate the locus of power, then escape. At age 28, in 1999, upon the publication of his ingratiating epic poem “Spring Rests on the Gun Barrel of the Lord,” written for Kim Jong-il, Jin-sung earned a personal endorsement of the Great Leader and the privilege of immunity as one of the few “Admitted” in the upper cadre of the Organization and Guidance Department of the Workers’ Party, which wielded the real power behind the leader. As one of the revered “court poets” and an employee of the United Front Department, which comprised the party’s intelligence and propaganda hub, the author had access to all kinds of South Korean literature in his work of “localization,” which attempted to influence South Korea by imitating its “ways of thought.” His elevation also proved his downfall, however, as he began questioning the party line fed to him. A trip home to the provincial town of Sariwon, vastly changed in the 10 years since he had last been there and reeling from the collapse of the economy, opened his eyes. The people were dropping dead from famine, so poor that they were selling water to wash one’s face and cotton comforters made painstakingly from the filters of cigarette butts, while Jin-sung, the party elite, habitually received foreign rations when they had none. Against the rules, the author loaned a South Korean biography of Kim Jong-il to his trusted friend, the composer Hwang Young-min, but the book got lost, forcing the two to go on the lam to China.

An exciting escape closes this urgent, well-rendered attempt to penetrate North Korea’s cynical, criminal power strategy.

Horwitz, Joshua Simon & Schuster (448 pp.) $28.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4516-4501-9

Living Planet Books co-founder Horwitz chronicles an ongoing collision of epic proportions between the U.S. Navy, intent on protecting its submarine warfare program, and environmental activists, who fight to save whales from extinction.

The author begins in March 2000, when, over several days, “the largest multispecies whale stranding ever recorded” occurred across 150 miles of beach in the Bahamas. Rescue efforts led by Ken Balcomb, a researcher who was conducting a census of whales in the area, were mostly unsuccessful, but he was able to preserve their bodies for later forensic examination. Having served as a naval sonar expert, Balcomb surmised that training exercises involving a top-secret “Sound Surveillance System,” developed during the Cold War to monitor Soviet nuclear submarines, were likely responsible. The use of high-decibel, low-frequency sonar signals by the Navy would have overwhelmed the whales’ biosonar system and caused physiological damage as well. This was not the first such incident of whale strandings in the vicinity of naval exercises—nor, unfortunately, the last. The author reports on the battle led by Balcomb and Joel Reynolds—a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council—to force the release of the forensic evidence and the attempts by the Navy’s top brass to stonewall any serious investigation that could lead to curtailment of their activities. The battle led to a court ruling against the Navy for overriding environmental law. The Bush administration overturned the court decision by executive order on grounds of national security, and the NRDC countered legally, asking for a ruling on the administration’s action. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the administration was |

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A WOLF CALLED ROMEO

painful memories, released in a nonlinear fashion, cut like shards of glass. It was 13 years after her abduction before she could get herself to go through the police report of her case. She read that the owner of the building where the crime took place was a friend of “The Man She Used To Live With” (perhaps for anonymity and to get some emotional distance, Johnson uses titles instead of names throughout the book) and would not reveal to the police where he had gone. The author also discovered that her attacker paid a student $100 to help him build the soundproof cell in which she was held. Later, she learned that her predator escaped to Venezuela, where he has family.

Though she has lived in fear that he would contact her again, she writes, life went on. She got married, received a doctorate and had two children, and she has continued to fight depression, panic and emotional withdrawal. “I’m trapped on the other side of a wide, dark chasm,” she tells her husband. Writing the truth is her way to the other side. “This story tells me who I am. It gives me meaning,” she writes. “And I want to mean something so badly.”

Ferociously beautiful and courageous, Johnson’s intimate story sheds light on the perpetuation of violence against women.

Jans, Nick Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (256 pp.) $26.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-547-85819-7 The sweet and cautionary tale of a wolf that liked to play with dogs.

The story opens in the early winter of 2003, just north of Juneau, Alaska, near Mendenhall Glacier. Juneau-based journalist Jans was out skiing on the frozen lake by his house when his eye caught a track that wasn’t laid down by a dog. Two days later, he and his dogs ran across the creature: a good-sized, black-haired wolf, easily double his biggest dog, a barrel-chested Lab. The wolf was imposing, to be sure, but as personality or genetics or the alignment of the stars would have it, it was also crazy for dogs. Jans is a fairly cool customer, and he is concerned about issues surrounding habituation and the conflict it can spawn for wild animals, but when he was caught in the beams of the wolf ’s amber eyes, “a wild-edged thrill swelled in my chest.” So tolerant was Romeo—and yes, the author understands the cautions about naming a wild animal, but could this be a “friendship”?—that he became a local celebrity, with all the inevitable polarizing that caused. Wolves, Jans explains, just strike the wrong note with many humans, a reminder that we do not sit alone atop the food chain. In neat slices of natural history, the author explores what we know about the history of wolves, though he also wheels about freely, including elements of memoir here, profiles of his neighbors there. The meat of the story, however, surrounds Romeo: his trails, which he tends with loving care; his masterful ability to decode intentions; the joy and fearmongering his playfulness brings; and the bum raps and rumors that he has to shoulder for every wolf in the region.

An astute, deeply respectful encounter between man and wolf. (32 b/w photos; 1 map)

HIDDEN TUSCANY Discovering Art, Culture, and Memories in a Well-Known Region’s Unknown Places

Keahey, John Dunne/St. Martin’s (320 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-250-02431-2

Veteran journalist and author Keahey (Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey Through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean, 2011, etc.) chronicles his sojourns to lightly visited areas of Tuscany.

The author focuses on areas ignored by most travel guides “to avoid writing about the whole of Tuscany, concentrating on the coastal area, its islands, and a handful of inland villages— never straying far from the sea—which Americans seldom seem to visit.” A product of his trips to Tuscany during spring, summer and early fall of 2012, Keahey’s delightful sketches offer alternatives to the standard routes and methods of vacation travel.

Rather than a guidebook, Keahey explains his narrative should be the basis for inspired travel—“pick a direction, carry a map so you know how to get back to your resting place each evening, and set out each morning with no agenda.” The author does not list accommodations, restaurants or star attractions (except for a few favorites), encouraging the discovery of simple pleasures found in less-visited environments. In northwest Tuscany, Keahey profiles sculptors whose medium is the fine Carrera marble found in the surrounding area. He deftly recounts the effects of World War II on Italy, and he dusts off the fascinating history of the Etruscans in the south. Though venturing to the many islands off the coast during late summer makes travel a bit more

THE OTHER SIDE A Memoir

Johnson, Lacy M. Tin House (232 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-935639-83-1

In this riveting memoir, Johnson (Trespasses, 2012) writes of falling prey to an act of terrifying violence and its aftermath.

In 2000, the author’s former boyfriend kidnapped her and held her captive, raped her and threatened her with death. Though she eventually escaped, it took years to free herself from the emotional and psychological damage she suffered. “Even what the mind forgets, the body remembers,” she writes. Written in an urgent first-person, present-tense voice, the narrative takes readers through the fear and rage as the writer lived it. Her 72

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“An aural and visual immersion like no other, showing the dimensions that ‘books’ can explore onscreen that they can’t in print.” from twice upon a time

TWICE UPON A TIME Listening to New York

arduous, the rewards prove worthwhile. Writes Keahey: “One benefit of visiting Capraia in August is being able to lie back in a lounge chair and watch the star-filled sky during a Perseid meteor shower.” Of course, this is Italy, so food is a frequent subject. Among other highlights, the author recounts his visit to the town of Lari, “one of Italy’s pasta production centers.”

Keahey fully understands the art of taking the road less traveled—a solid addition to his body of work.

Kunzru, Hari Atavist Books (96 pp.) $3.99 | $2.99 e-book | May 20, 2014 978-1-937894-34-4 A visionary e-book exploring the medium’s multimedia possibilities while offering meditations on the sounds of New York and the life and work of the late street composer Moondog.

Though Kunzru has earned international acclaim for his novels (Gods Without Men, 2012, etc.), he has never written anything quite like this—and neither has anyone else. In fact, “written” might be the wrong word, for this melding of sense, sound and illustration might as well be described as having been constructed, designed or curated.

The content of the 6,200-word “immersive essay” can’t be separated from the way readers apprehend the words on the screen. Often, a page of text reveals itself in sections, with different typography, all the while accompanied by the sounds of the city and the percussion of Moondog. As a newcomer to the city transplanted from England, Kunzru chose Moondog as his guide, notwithstanding the fact that the musician was blind and had died in 1999. The author, whose brother is blind, thought that what some might see as a handicap could be a virtue: “The blind develop an appreciation for precision, repetition, knowability.” Though Moondog left New York in 1974 for Germany, his music, influence and legacy live on. As someone who once lived in the spare room of composer Philip Glass and performed with musicians as disparate as Charlie Parker, Peter Seeger and Tiny Tim, the composer and percussionist embodied something essential and ineffable about New York for the newcomer. Kunzru’s meditation reflects not only what remains of Moondog’s legacy, but what has changed so profoundly over the city’s subsequent decades.

This work reflects the experience of Kunzru’s first six months in the city, six years ago; he has now married and moved to Brooklyn.

An aural and visual immersion like no other, showing the dimensions that “books” can explore onscreen that they can’t in print.

A TIME TO ATTACK The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat Kroenig, Matthew Palgrave Macmillan (272 pp.) $28.00 | May 13, 2014 978-1-137-27953-8

Kroenig (Government/Georgetown Univ.; Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons, 2010, etc.) explains why we need to prepare to bomb Iran.

This is no neoconservative cheerleading for another Middle East war; Kroenig knows that nobody has the stomach for that.

As a former special adviser for Iranian affairs to the secretary of defense, however, he also fully understands the challenge that a militant Iran presents to American foreign policy goals worldwide, particularly the enforcement of the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty and, thus, the prevention of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. The author’s analysis is well-organized, thorough, and presented in clear, simple language. He explains why a nuclear-armed Iran would cause extensive problems for America and its allies and severely damage the credibility of American guarantees; three presidents have, after all, stated emphatically that they would not permit Iran to obtain the bomb. Kroenig would prefer to resolve the issue through diplomacy, but he doubts it can be done, contending that we have nothing to offer that could persuade Iran to give up joining the nuclear club. Meanwhile, the centrifuges are spinning; Iran may have enough fissionable material to start building nuclear bombs within 14 months, at which point they cannot be stopped.

Kroenig is not advocating regime change by invasion, only a surgical attack on the uranium and plutonium production sites. He discusses at length the difficulties involved in such operations, the likely blowback and the alternative of containing a nuclear Iran, but he concludes that if diplomacy fails, a bombing run is the “least bad” option. If one accepts his premises—and not all analysts do—the logic of Kroenig’s position is inexorable and the conclusion, as unavoidable as it is unwelcome.

Aggressive title aside, this is a carefully argued call for action on a problem that is only going to get worse.

ONE LAND, TWO STATES Israel and Palestine as Parallel States

LeVine, Mark; Mossberg, Mathias–Eds. Univ. of California (296 pp.) $29.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-520-27913-1 A coterie of bold, open-minded international academics offers a fresh paradigm for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.

The free movement of people and goods over one shared area, while governed by one Israeli state structure and one Palestinian, offering common economic and security policy, and equal (if separate or harmonized) political, legal and civil benefits for all? Proponents of the Parallel States |

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Project, organized by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Sweden’s Lund University, reached out to Israeli, American and Palestinian academics for some thoughtful ways of breaking out of the countless failed models for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence.

A two-state solution is considered dead in the water, according to Alvaro de Soto (former UN special envoy), while the apartheid structure of Israeli occupation is not feasible. Neither side is willing to give up its territory or sovereignty—but what is “sovereignty,” Jens Bartelson (Lund Univ.) asks in an excellent historical overview, but an outmoded notion of the modern nation-state that has eroded since the pressures of globalization? Indeed, many of the contributors look to the once-utopian structure of the European Union as an effective new way of “dovetailing the sovereignty claims of individual states within an institutional framework.” What would this parallel sovereignty with integrated resources look like? Peter Wallensteen (Uppsala Univ.) lays out a graduated concrete plan starting in 2017, delineating everything from the safeguarding of human rights to taxation and property rights. Crucial concerns of security are hashed out in two separate essays, one from the Israeli side (Nimrod Hurvitz and Dror Zeevi) and one from the Palestinian (Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi), though the general consensus seems to be that by mixing the populations, hostility and terrorism are eliminated, encouraging other Arab countries to ease their animus of Israel. Also important: empowering the Palestinian economy and allowing refugees right of return.

A visionary approach so daring that it could actually work.

that were instilled early on aided Lewis through the multiple obstacles he encountered in the magazine business. Bickering and infighting between various editors, a lack of respect among the founding partners, passive-aggressive tactics in the management, and the corruption of power and a possible takeover of the company threatened the future of the magazine.

All of this caused Lewis such aggravation that he broke out in hives; ultimately, however, the magazine prevailed. After 35 years, Lewis is considered a leading magazine publisher in the country; through his modest and sincere voice, readers will understand why.

A detailed chronology of the rise of a popular magazine.

THE WRONG CARLOS Anatomy of a Wrongful Execution Liebman, James S. Columbia Univ. (464 pp.) $27.95 paper | $26.99 e-book Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-231-16723-9 978-0-231-53668-4 e-book

A Columbia Law School professor and some of his students gather and present evidence establishing the innocence of Carlos DeLuna, executed for murder in Texas in 1989.

Legal scholar Liebman (co-author: Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure, 2001) begins (and ends) with Justice Antonin Scalia, who famously said in 2006 that there has not been a single case of wrongful execution. Perhaps this one will change his message? The author acquired the old transcripts, interviewed many of those involved, read the newspaper clippings and watched the TV news coverage—in general, he and his team behaved as the authorities in Corpus Christi should have but manifestly didn’t.

In 1983, DeLuna was accused of stabbing Wanda Lopez, a gas station clerk, and was apprehended less than an hour later. Intellectually damaged, DeLuna denied the crime from the beginning to the very moment of his execution. Liebman and the others discovered that there was another Carlos—Carlos Hernandez— who was patently guilty. He and DeLuna looked a lot alike, but the violent Hernandez, a career criminal who later died in prison, carried (and often used) a knife and later told more than one person that he had actually committed the murder. Liebman’s team went over the physical evidence thoroughly (there was none connecting DeLuna to the case) and tacitly and explicitly accuse the Corpus Christi authorities of a rush to judgment. The author offers numerous photographs, charts and other documents (some are from police reports and trial evidence), as well as a website that presents much more of it. The chapter about DeLuna’s execution is wrenching. Liebman concludes with thoughts about how something like this could happen—and what we need to do to prevent it from happening again.

Death penalty opponents now have a definitive example to cite; death penalty proponents have an agonizing case to consider.

THE MAN FROM ESSENCE Creating a Magazine for Black Women

Lewis, Edward with Edwards, Audrey Atria (336 pp.) $25.00 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-4767-0348-0 The story behind one of the founders of Essence magazine.

In 1968, after the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, with blacks rioting across America, the last thing most people were thinking of was launching a magazine geared toward black women. And yet, in 1969, that’s exactly what Lewis and three other men, none of who had any magazine experience, did. For the first five years, funding was a major issue, but then the magazine, which originally was going to be called Sapphire, “turned the corner, looking as if it might actually become a Thoroughbred and start running in the black.” Essence did become that thoroughbred, with a circulation of more than 1 million readers. The concept of success and empowerment became the focus, which, for black women at the time, was definitely a new idea. Lewis combines stories of his childhood in the 1940s and ’50s in Virginia—where he worked long hours in the field alongside his grandparents and lived without running water or electricity—with the rise of the magazine.

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“A tale of espionage, alcoholism, bad manners and the chivalrous code of spies—the real world of James Bond, that is, as played out by clerks and not superheroes.” from a spy among friends

A CHINAMAN’S CHANCE One Family’s Journey and the Chinese American Dream

A SPY AMONG FRIENDS Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Liu, Eric PublicAffairs (240 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-61039-194-8

Macintyre, Ben Crown (384 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-8041-3663-1

A noted journalist and educator’s reflections on his Chinese heritage and on “the chance America still has to be something greater than the sum of its

A tale of espionage, alcoholism, bad manners and the chivalrous code of spies—the real world of James Bond, that is, as played out by clerks and not superheroes.

Now pretty well forgotten, Kim Philby (1912-1988) was once a byname for the sort of man who would betray his country for a song. The British intelligence agent was not alone, of course; as practiced true-espionage writer Macintyre (Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies, 2012, etc.) notes, more than 200 American intelligence agents became Soviet agents during World War II—“Moscow had spies in the treasury, the State Department, the nuclear Manhattan Project, and the OSS”— and the Brits did their best to keep up on their end. Philby may have been an unlikely prospect, given his upper-crust leanings, but a couple of then-fatal flaws involving his sexual orientation and still-fatal addiction to alcohol, to say nothing of his political convictions, put him in Stalin’s camp. Macintyre begins near the end, with a boozy Philby being confronted by a friend in intelligence, fellow MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott, whom he had betrayed; but rather than take Philby to prison or put a bullet in him, by the old-fashioned code, he was essentially allowed to flee to Moscow. Writing in his afterword, John Le Carré recalls asking Elliott, with whom he worked in MI6, about Philby’s deceptions—“it quickly became clear that he wanted to draw me in, to make me marvel…to make me share his awe and frustration at the enormity of what had been done to him.” For all Philby’s charm (“that intoxicating, beguiling, and occasionally lethal English quality”), modern readers will still find it difficult to imagine a world of gentlemanly spy-versus-spy games all these hysterical years later.

Gripping and as well-crafted as an episode of Smiley’s People, full of cynical inevitability, secrets, lashings of whiskey and corpses. (This review was first published in the BEA/ ALA 2014 issue.)

many tinted parts.”

As a young man, Atlantic correspondent Liu (Guiding Lights: The People Who Lead Us Toward Our Purpose in Life, 2004, etc.) believed that his choices determined who he was. Life experience later led him to conclude that he was “less the calligrapher than the parchment, absorbing the ink and scripts of others,” including—and especially—his Chinese-born parents. In this vigorous, sharp book, the author examines his identity against the backdrop of both Chinese and American cultures. Steeped as he was in Western democratic values, Liu realized that his parents had also imbued him with a strong sense of the “rite, propriety, social context and obligation” that defined Chinese society. Even his home exposure to Chinese language, with its “implied meanings [and] freighted terseness,” had influenced his writing and his way of thinking/being. While Liu’s love for America was beyond question, he also recognized that it was shaped more by a Chinese-inflected desire to belong to a whole rather than by some abstract idea of America. His appearance made him subject to cultural classification that subsumed the specificity of his Chinese heritage into a homogenizing Asian one. Such categorization transformed him into the unseen “model minority,” a stereotype that emerged in part as a cultural response to such Sinophobic historical developments as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. For Liu, Chinese-American identity remains problematic. Yet in a world where the U.S. now competes with an aggressively modernizing China, America still retains the cultural edge. The key is not for the U.S. to become more like China, which Liu sees as unable to synthesize cultural differences. Rather, it is to become even more open to combining “new genes and memes” and in so doing, demonstrate its global indispensability.

An eloquent, thought-provoking and timely memoir.

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WHAT WE SEE WHEN WE READ

PAIN DON’T HURT Fighting Inside and Outside the Ring

Mendelsund, Peter Vintage (448 pp.) $16.95 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-8041-7163-2

Miller, Mark Anthony Bourdain/Ecco (224 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-0-06-222234-3 978-0-06-222236-7 e-book

An artist investigates how we make meaning from words on a page.

In this brilliant amalgam of philosophy, psychology, literary theory and visual art, Knopf associate art director and cover designer Mendelsund inquires about the complex process of reading. “Words are effective not because of what they carry in them,” writes the author, “but for their latent potential to unlock the accumulated experience of the reader.

Words ‘contain’ meanings, but, more important, words potentiate meaning….” Writers “tell us stories, and they also tell us how to read these stories,” he writes. “The author teaches me how to imagine, as well as when to imagine, and how much.” Copiously illustrated with maps, doodles, works of art, plates from illustrated books, cartoons, book jackets, facsimiles of texts, photographs, botanical drawings and a few publicity shots of movie stars, the book exemplifies the idea that reading is not a linear process. Even if readers follow consecutive words, they incorporate into reading memories, distractions, predispositions, desires and expectations. “Authors are curators of experience,” writes Mendelsund. “Yet no matter how pure the data set that authors provide to readers…readers’ brains will continue in their prescribed assignment: to analyze, screen, and sort.” In 19 brief, zesty chapters, the author considers such topics as the relationship of reading to time, skill, visual acuity, fantasy, synesthesia and belief. “The Part & The Whole” presents lucidly the basic concepts of metaphor, with succinct definitions of metonymy and synecdoche. Throughout the book, Mendelsund draws on various writers, from Wittgenstein to Woolf, Tolstoy to Twain, Melville to Calvino, to support his assertion that “Verisimilitude is not only a false idol, but also an unattainable goal. So we reduce. And it is not without reverence that we reduce. This is how we apprehend our world.”

Mendelsund amply attains his goal to produce a quirky, fresh and altogether delightful meditation on the miraculous act of reading.

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Rough-and-tumble, survival-of-thefittest memoir from world-class kickboxer Miller.

Miller takes a thoughtful but unsentimental look at his life as a professional fighter trying desperately to overcome a dangerous heart condition, diabetes and a failing marriage. Born in Pittsburgh, Miller’s family life was governed by fear of and loathing for his hyperviolent father, who had been a former NBA player in the league’s fledgling years. His mother played an ambivalent role in his life, and his brother, Colin, was a ne’er-do-well who got involved with drugs and crime and ended up dead of a heroin overdose years later. As an athlete, Miller first tried his luck at baseball in college, but arm injuries and a sense of general disillusionment eventually steered him away from the baseball diamond. To his father’s disapproval, he soon explored the more obscure world of kickboxing and martial arts, where he quickly found his calling. However, after compiling an impressive win-loss record, Miller received the diagnosis of an enlarged ventricle in his heart. He underwent major surgery, thus putting his promising fight career on indefinite hold. The author is terse and brutally direct in his descriptions of the seemingly impossible task of recovering from his open-heart surgery and re-entering the ring. His no-holds-barred descriptions of his crumbling marriage and his bouts with alcoholism and financial difficulties, not to mention the deaths of his parents and his brother (all in the same year), don’t always make for comfortable reading. But after all the suffering and hardship, his tale is ultimately inspiring and upbeat. Despite nature’s best efforts to discourage him, Miller eventually made a near-miracle recovery; by 2010, he found himself in Moscow at a major professional tournament, successfully competing in the ring again.

Miller’s tough-but-sensitive narrative voice is a force to be reckoned with.

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LIBERTY’S TORCH The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty

I LIKE YOU JUST THE WAY I AM Stories About Me and Some Other People

Mitchell, Elizabeth Atlantic Monthly (384 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 2, 2014 978-0-8021-2257-5

Mollen, Jenny St. Martin’s (272 pp.) $24.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-250-04168-5 978-1-4668-3858-1 e-book

Mitchell (Three Strides Before the Wire: The Dark and Beautiful World of Horse Racing, 2002, etc.) maintains a light touch in this examination of the life of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), the designer of the Statue of Liberty.

A proud Alsatian whose widowed mother moved him and his older brother to Paris to further their artistic careers, Bartholdi studied under painter Ary Scheffer and was influenced by the work of architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in his restoration of Notre-Dame. Having visited and drawn the monuments of the Nile Valley, Bartholdi fancied stone as his “mania” and initially proposed to the khedive of Egypt a colossal statue of a female slave holding a torch to stand at the mouth of the Suez Canal, a construction-in-progress marvel by engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps. Bartholdi maintained that his idea for a lighthouse in the form of “the angel Liberty” was in fact inspired by a poem by Victor Hugo. Spurred by the pro-American views of writer Édouard René de Laboulaye, whose bust Bartholdi was commissioned to make, and faced with revolution in Paris in 1871, he set sail for New York to try to sell his idea, especially as newly fashioned Central and Prospect parks needed statues— although nothing quite this large. Bedloe’s Island in the harbor, containing 14 acres and a crumbling fort, seemed a perfect site, but it would take until October 1886 for the enormous funds to be gathered and the statue actually dedicated. Bit by bit, Bartholdi drummed up support from Franco-American friends and the American wealthy, from President Ulysses S. Grant to architect Richard Morris Hunt, while relying on the engineering know-how of Viollet-le-Duc and ironworker Honoré Monduit, as well as invaluable advice from bridge builder Gustave Eiffel.

A low-key, mannered treatment of the realization of a great vision.

Actress Mollen delivers a collection of 15 raunchy essays.

A sampling of a few of the titles within this assemblage: “Behind Every Crazy Woman, There’s an Even More Batshit Mother”; “The Birthday Whore”; “Hand Jobs: The Fine Art of Getting a Mani-Pedi Next to Your Husband’s Ex (Who Hates You)”; “Chicks Before Dicks”; “Nobody Wants to be Your Fucking Bridesmaid”; and “You Were Molested.” Granted, Mollen warns readers regarding her blunt views: “There is zero reason to be ashamed of announcing and acting on your real feelings. Life is too short for bullshit. I’m thirty-three, and my tits drop about half an inch a year. In other words, it’s all downhill from here.” Called the funniest woman on Twitter by the Huffington Post, the author freely throws off her few inhibitions throughout these pieces. Wading into Mollen’s essays eventually creates reader fatigue akin to being cornered by a self-centered bore at a cocktail party. The author is unrelentingly candid. A passage from the essay titled “One Shade of Grey” explains Mollen’s attempt at spicing up her marriage (to fellow actor Jason Biggs) with a series of sex toys and enhancements. Here and elsewhere, the author demonstrates her penchant for humor in the vein of Sarah Silverman’s most X-rated material, but Mollen is simply not as clever. “Sometimes I’d contemplated writing a movie, then stop and buy something online instead,” she writes. “I never saw myself as a writer. I have horrible grammar and can’t spell to save my life. I never had an English teacher single me out or imply that I showed any promise beyond being a B+ student.”

Perhaps the author should stick to acting.

A simple exercise comprised of equal parts crass, snarky humor and narcissistic blather.

PRICE OF FAME The Honorable Clare Boothe Luce

Morris, Sylvia Jukes Random House (752 pp.) $35.00 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-679-45711-4 978-0-8041-7969-0 e-book

The second volume in the life of a significant American figure.

By the time she was 40, Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987) had been an actress, Broadway playwright, war correspondent, managing editor of Vanity Fair and Republican congresswoman from Connecticut. Married to the enormously wealthy publisher Henry Luce (Life, Time, Sports Illustrated et |

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“An intimate, gripping portrayal of a grievous miscarriage of justice.” from getting life

al.), she went on to become the first woman ambassador (to Italy, appointed by Eisenhower) and, after her conversion to Catholicism, author of several books on religion. Luce held political views passionately: A fierce anti-communist, she was equally outspoken in support of civil rights for African-Americans. Morris (Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Booth Luce, 1997, etc.) earned Luce’s trust and access to more than 460,000 items in the restricted Luce Collection at the Library of Congress.

Blonde, beautiful and glamorous (Morris includes details about Luce’s sumptuous wardrobe at every occasion), she took many lovers, with a special preference for men in uniform. Her “compulsion to charm” was, writes the author, “a drive more for devotion than sex. She wanted to conquer all comers, even though her interest in them could be short-lived.” And conquer she did: Both men and women succumbed, with the notable exceptions of Harry Truman, who refused to receive her at the White House, and Cyrus Sulzberger, chief foreign correspondent of the New York Times, who “was appalled” by her “arrogant conceit” and “ruthlessly hard-boiled self-assurance.” Luce’s frenzied need to engage in all-consuming work was fueled by a daily round of stimulants and sedatives; she fell into black depressions and paranoia, especially if she felt rejected or ignored.

Desperately, she needed to be the center of attention.

Luce once contracted to write her autobiography, which she planned to call The Dream of My Life. Morris perceptively reveals the nightmare in this evenhanded and intimate portrait. (photos throughout)

More than a month after the crime, he was arrested, convicted by jury trial and sentenced to serve a life sentence in prison. As unsettling as his jail time was, Morton’s chronicle of his time there is a vicarious penitentiary tour for inquisitive readers. The author kept a diary during this time and remained surprisingly free of anger and acrimony, one day sure he would exonerate himself. His plight for freedom was bolstered by DNA evidence presented by a pair of humanitarian attorneys, including one from the Innocence Project. The conviction of both a misguided prosecutor who suppressed evidence and the real murderer, Mark Alan Norwood, allowed Morton, now almost 60, the freedom to remarry and live as a liberated man.

An intimate, gripping portrayal of a grievous miscarriage of justice.

COWBOYS AND INDIES The Epic History of the Record Industry Murphy, Gareth Dunne/St. Martin’s (416 pp.) $27.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-1-250-04337-5

From race records to hip-hop and beyond: an exploration of the business of recorded music.

Irish music producer Murphy begins his survey in 1853, when the first practicable idea for a sound recording device entered history. Then, the author immediately jumps into the age of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, who took the idea to town. The recording industry began as an adjunct of the machine and not the other way around, though its early practitioners discovered that ditties such as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “Maple Leaf Rag” did very well in a marketplace curious for technological novelties.

Even though, as Murphy notes, “many established singers and entertainers were terrified of this peculiar science,” recordings became a big business, bringing great wealth to studio heads and music publishers—and even some to the artists. The author examines many familiar stories—for one, Sam Phillips’ fire-sale transfer of the rights in Elvis Presley’s recordings to RCA for $40,000, just in time for Elvis’ version of “Blue Suede Shoes” to sell 1 million copies—though he makes an extended case study of the less-well-known saga of Jac Holzman, the mastermind behind Elektra Records, which branched out from folk to rock at just the time Bob Dylan plugged in at Newport. Murphy can be entertainingly dishy, as when, speaking of Dylan, he recounts an ugly spat over the division of spoils between Dylan and budding mogul David Geffen, who sneered, “Bob Dylan is as interested in money as any person I’ve known in my life.” However, Murphy devotes too much space to stars (anyone for yet another Gene Simmons spotting?), with rather by-the-numbers recitations of their rises to fame. The author does not spend enough of the narrative on the behind-the-console and backoffice figures who make up any essential crew, the attention to Holzman notwithstanding.

GETTING LIFE An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace Morton, Michael Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $25.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4767-5682-0

A man falsely convicted of murdering his wife shares his story.

Already the subject of several articles, TV segments and a documentary, Morton chronicles his remarkable 25-year ordeal in a sweeping autobiography. The author’s family relocated from California to Texas when Morton was a teenager in the early 1980s, and while in college, he fell in love with and married Christine Kirkpatrick, a kindhearted, gregarious girl with whom he would conceive a son.

The day after his 32nd birthday in 1986, the author arrived home to discover his wife bludgeoned to death. Compounding his grief was an investigator who soon positioned Morton as a suspect, even though his brother-in-law found some “overlooked” bloodstained evidence and his son provided an eyewitness confession about seeing the real murderer. The author ably demonstrates the heinous result of a bungled investigation by police detectives desperate to collar a perpetrator and aggressively angling to tie Morton to his wife’s grisly murder. With few leads to go on, Morton became the lead suspect, and his personal depiction of the prosecution and ensuing laborious trial proceedings is riveting.

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TUDORS VERSUS STEWARTS The Fatal Inheritance of Mary, Queen of Scots

A serviceable, readable overview. There’s not much here that informed music fans—readers of Peter Guralnick and Greil Marcus, say—won’t have heard.

Porter, Linda St. Martin’s (544 pp.) $29.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-312-59074-1 978-1-4668-4272-4 e-book

NINE LIVES OF A BLACK PANTHER A Story of Survival

Pharr, Wayne Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review (304 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-61374-916-6

Porter (Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr, the Last Wife of Henry VIII, 2010) again draws from her exhaustive knowledge of 16th-century British history to explain the strong ties that eventually united Scotland and England.

The squabble between Mary Queen of Scots and Queen Elizabeth had deep roots and a long history. Beginning with the ascent of Henry VII in 1485 and the start of the Tudor dynasty, the author explains the many threats against his reign, including imposters, uprisings and constant border skirmishes. In the most important royal marriage of the century, Henry sent his daughter, Margaret, to marry the future James IV, the first step toward union. Margaret was second in line to the English throne, after her brother, Henry VIII, who also wished to impair the “Auld Alliance between France and Scotland.” Porter clearly shows the ways in which Scotland was used by the English and French against each other, always at the expense of the Scots. James died at Flodden in 1513 in a diversionary attack intended to draw the English away from their attack on France. By that time, Henry VIII reigned and was bent on recovering England’s territories in France. Regents ruled for James V until he wed Mary of Guise in 1538. That union produced Mary Queen of Scots, widowed Dauphine of France who, at age 24, was a deposed queen facing 19 years of imprisonment. Her son united Scotland and England in 1603.

A wonderfully thorough history of the Scots that thankfully avoids dwelling on stories that have been explored countless times before—especially fitting now as Scotland decides whether to withdraw from the union with England.

A story from inside the Black Panther party and its fight for black equality in the civil rights era.

An often uncomfortable but realistic picture of racial tension in the 1960s and ’70s, first time author Pharr’s memoir focuses on his experiences with the Black Panthers.

The author was an active member of the party in Los Angeles, moving up the ranks until he found himself opposed to Huey P. Newton’s style of leadership and quietly disengaged himself. While Pharr is most intent on giving an inside view of the militaristic side of the Black Panthers, including lots of detail about a shootout with police at headquarters, he also describes some of the community activism the Panthers engaged in. Free breakfast for children and conflict resolution without police involvement are highlights of that work for the community. More detail about these and other programs would have presented a rounder picture of Black Panther philosophy and provided the book with a wider audience. Due to the spotlight on self-defense, police brutality is central to the story. While ugly, its inclusion will help readers understand the Panthers’ focus on defense and their own violent contributions to the ongoing conflict. Unfortunately, the dialogue is uneven throughout; while many conversations are laid back and full of slang, others are overly formal and even stilted. Liberal use of ’70s slang is likely to make this an inaccessible read for younger generations. While probably realistic to the time it covers, this is a serious problem for a book attempting to educate those who didn’t live through that period. “I believe the Black Panthers and other militant organizations,” writes the author, “did more to ensure our human and civil rights than all the marching and praying of the last 100 years.” That’s debatable, to be sure, but Pharr’s central story is gripping.

A life and movement that deserve to be chronicled, but the book would have been improved by more judicious editing. (30 b/w photos)

FOUNDING MYTHS Stories that Hide Our Patriotic Past: Revised Edition

Raphael, Ray New Press (432 pp.) $17.95 paper | Jul. 4, 2014 978-1-59558-949-1 978-1-59558-974-3 e-book

A distinguished historian revisits the American legends he effectively debunked 10 years ago and discovers that they die hard.

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“Will be devoured by Yankees loyalists and happily sampled by all baseball fans.” from the closer

Thomas Jefferson, that Patrick Henry likely never said, “give me liberty or give me death,” or that Molly Pitcher never existed at all? Raphael (Senior Research Fellow/Humboldt State Univ.; Constitutional Myths: What We Get Wrong and How to Get It Right, 2013, etc.) takes on a number of myths and legends that have crept unquestioned into our textbooks and popular histories, and he explains their persistence and the damage done if they remain uncorrected. He also highlights some stories we have failed to tell. How is our understanding changed if we discover that the tale of the cruel winter and patient suffering at Valley Forge has an unacknowledged twin, two years later, at the Morristown encampment, where the weather was colder and the soldiers mutinied? What if we learn that the American struggle for independence, itself only a small part of a worldwide conflict, was also a war of conquest in the West and featured a brutal civil war in the South? By slapping tidy beginnings and endings on stories, we distort a deeper, more complex history. By fashioning them into stick figures, we turn the Founders into an assembly of demigods. Worst of all, Raphael argues, we understate the central theme of the American Revolution—popular sovereignty—and marginalize the contributions made by millions of common citizens. Overlooking this genuine heritage, he insists, takes the Revolution out of the hands of the people, without whom the entire enterprise would surely have failed.

A persuasive argument in favor of evidence-based history, even if it means surrendering some of our cherished fabrications.

of his respect for opponents like Edgar Martinez and Dustin Pedroia, but Rivera makes a place for less-glittering names as well: his mentor Chico Heron, his saintly wife, Clara, Yankee trainer Gene Monahan and minor league teammate Tim Cooper. Rivera mildly criticizes his high school math teacher, an anonymous Westchester County homeowner, Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano but otherwise saves any harsh remarks for himself, “an imperfect man on an imperfect journey.” The author’s preternatural calm clearly stems from a deep religious faith some nonbelievers will find disquieting, explaining his devastating cut fastball as a gift from God, his belief in miracles and his conviction that the Holy Spirit once spoke to him on the mound.

Will be devoured by Yankees loyalists and happily sampled by all baseball fans.

100 ESSAYS I DON’T HAVE TIME TO WRITE On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater

Ruhl, Sarah Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (240 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 2, 2014 978-0-86547-814-5

THE CLOSER

An acclaimed playwright reflects on her art and craft.

MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer nominee Ruhl (Drama/ Yale Univ.) is a busy mother of three whose work is often interrupted by her children’s needs—for food, say, or “a fake knife to cut…fake fruit.” Instead of writing “something totalizing, something grand,” she has collected some thoughts on theater: writing plays, acting, watching productions and dealing with “Other People: Directors, Designers, Dramaturgs, and Children.” Though she claims that she knows “next to nothing,” she notes that theater is not “about knowing, or putting forward a thesis,” but about “making knowledge” from the prismatic perspectives of a few characters. Ruhl’s essays, generally a page or two, sometimes are much briefer. In “An essay in praise of smallness,” she writes, simply, “I admire minimalism.” In an essay entitled “Is there an objective standard of taste?” she responds, “No.” Several essays consider the power of language. “In the world of imaginary things, speech acts are everywhere,” she writes. “One declares the imaginary world into being.” For Ruhl, theater depends on physicality rather than psychological analysis. Future playwrights, she maintains, would do well to study juggling rather than literary theory. “Words like ‘liminal’ and words like ‘unpack’ should go in essays about theater and get banished from rehearsal rooms,” she writes. “Actors used to be akin to prostitutes in the public mind. Now we are akin to professors.” The author laments the lack of freedom for a playwright to fail, caused in part by subscription audiences who may “feel that by subscribing, they have been inoculated against failure” and in part by the cost

Rivera, Mariano with Coffey, Wayne Little, Brown (288 pp.) $28.00 | May 6, 2014 978-0-316-40073-2 Baseball’s greatest relief pitcher reflects on his just-concluded surefire Hall of Fame career.

When a modern-day ballplayer insists he doesn’t play for money, that personal statistics don’t matter, or that he’s never cheated, heads will shake and eyes will likely roll. It’s a measure of the esteem in which he’s held that Rivera tends to be believed.

Over his 19-year career with the Yankees, Rivera became the alltime saves leader and won five World Series. Along the way, he conducted himself with such humility that he earned the love of his teammates, the deep respect of opponents and the admiration of fans. This memoir demonstrates why. With the help of Coffey (co-author, with R.A. Dickey: Wherever I Wind Up, 2012, etc.), Rivera recounts his childhood in Panama, his progress as “a bottom-of-the-barrel” prospect to and through the major leagues, and his inviolable game-day routine. He touches on his many, thrilling career highlights, but he spends as much time on those occasions where, as the most reliable closer in the game, he failed. It’s no surprise to read his admiring, affectionate assessments of teammates—Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams and especially Derek Jeter—and 80

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GLOBAL MUCKRAKING 100 Years of Investigative Journalism from Around the World

of mounting plays. She also laments the “whitewashed” stage: Casts are predominantly white, unless a playwright specifically calls for a nonwhite actor in a particular role.

Ruhl’s musings may remind readers of Lydia Davis’ aphoristic short stories: fresh, piquant and slyly irreverent.

Schiffrin, Anya–Ed. New Press (256 pp.) $19.95 paper | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-59558-973-6 978-1-59558-993-4 e-book

HAROLD AND JACK The Remarkable Friendship of Prime Minister Macmillan and President Kennedy

This is no mere collection of exposés.

It is a global look at the 20th-century writers who have dared to uncover stories of injustice and abuse.

Schiffrin (Media and Communications/Columbia Univ.; editor: Bad News: How America’s Business Press Missed the Story of the Century, 2011, etc.) literally dug through boxes of articles that disintegrated in her hands. Many of the included contributors suffered imprisonment or died at the hands of those they exposed. “This book is a collection of pieces that launched campaigns, exposed military atrocities, and called for justice for the downtrodden and the colonized,” writes the author. Each article includes an introduction and background information by carefully chosen journalists or activists well-informed and often deeply involved in the subject. The articles are especially noteworthy since the problems are indeed global, from the smallest villages in Africa to India, Colombia and New Zealand.

Over the decades, a host of different writers have covered the same situations again and again. Schiffrin shows writings that span the entire 20th century, examining such situations as labor abuse, which has been evident in dozens of different locales across the world. Among the other topics are anti-colonialism, corruption, oil and mining, food shortages and famine, and military and police. What factors are required for these exposés to be effective? The author suggests that local interest and elite support is vital, as well as social movements pushing for reform; most importantly, wide media coverage brings the situation to the attention of the world. The collection begins with a 1904 article by E.D. Morel (introduced by Adam Hochschild), and other important contributors include Robin Hyde, Ken SaroWiwa, Alma Guillermoprieto and Christian Parenti.

The incredible amount of work that Schiffrin put into the selection of the articles and those who explain them makes this a top-notch anthology of significant journalism.

Sandford, Christopher Prometheus Books (325 pp.) $25.95 | $11.99 e-book | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-61614-935-2 978-1-61614-936-9 e-book

Exploration of the deepening friendship between two contrasting Western leaders at a time of perilous Soviet brinkmanship.

A prolific British-American biographer who grew up in Washington, D.C., Sandford departs from his usual subjects from the world of arts and entertainment (Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, 2011, etc.), providing a comparative portrait of two consummate politicians who helped mend the “special relationship” that had soured during the Suez Crisis. Harold Macmillan (1894-1986), a middle-class publisher’s son with a doting American mother, had acceded as British prime minister in the wake of Anthony Eden’s resignation in 1956 and had already been trying to mend fences with the frank President Dwight Eisenhower. With his election in 1960, President John Kennedy, more than two decades Macmillan’s junior, was just the brash, charming and intellectual personality to foil and complement his more formal counterpart’s “mandarin inscrutability.” Sandford delights in contrasting the two characters, ancient and modern, rendering engaging reading through the alarming crises that erupted during the course of Kennedy’s administration. Over numerous visits and increasingly warm communications between the “dear friends,” the two leaders had to work together to manage Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev’s blustery threats in Berlin and Cuba, where the United States’ highly secretive Bay of Pigs debacle of April 1961 had already chastened the American administration. While Kennedy did not confer with Macmillan before the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, he was “extraordinarily receptive to British counsel,” despite British criticism of Macmillan as “passive” and “supine.” Sandford has an effective sense of character development as the leaders moved from one embroilment to the next.

Crisp personal portraits of two leaders (and their wives) shaping the new world order.

SUSAN SONTAG A Biography

Schreiber, Daniel Translated by Dollenmayer, David Northwestern Univ. (280 pp.) $35.00 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-0-8101-2583-4 A sensitive, cleareyed biography of an intellectual star, first published in Germany in 2007.

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Despite lack of access to Sontag’s letters and diaries, being edited by her son at the time, Berlin-based writer Schreiber has made excellent use of extensive interviews with Sontag’s friends and lovers, as well as her published interviews, to create a perceptive and revealing portrait of his restless, glamorous and egotistical subject. Intellectually precocious, Sontag (1933-2004) began college at 16; the following year, after a 10-day courtship, she married her sociology instructor, Philip Rieff. When Rieff took a position at Brandeis University, they moved to the Boston area, where, when she was 19, their son was born. At 24, she was ready to write a doctoral dissertation at Harvard when theologian Paul Tillich recommended her for a fellowship at Oxford. Leaving her husband and son, Sontag traveled abroad for the first time, discovered Paris and launched her startling career. Central to Sontag’s success was her relationship with Roger Straus, her publisher, mentor and unfailing champion.

At Straus’ legendary parties, she met such prominent figures as Edmund Wilson, Partisan Review editor Philip Rahv, George Balanchine and Richard Avedon. They introduced her to others, and soon she was a “dramatically beautiful presence” among the New York literati. Her breakthrough to intellectual stardom was an iconoclastic essay, “Notes on ‘Camp’ ” (1964), which skewered “the pantheon of high culture: truth, beauty, and seriousness.” Schreiber follows Sontag’s wide-ranging career after this auspicious start, which included fiction, several volumes of essays and monographs, films and plays. Most notable are Illness as Metaphor (1978), the essay collections Against Interpretation (1966) and Under the Sign of Saturn (1980); On Photography (1977), Regarding the Pain of Others (2002) and the novel In America (2000).

Schreiber’s intelligent reading of Sontag’s works and his fair and balanced handling of the impassioned controversies she generated admirably serve both his subject and his readers.

receiving scrutiny. Chapter titles include “The Married-Ex Milestone,” “Third Month’s the Charm,” “Rolling Without Homies” and “Call of Jury Duty.” Scottoline on gardening: “perennials are supposed to be automatic, in that they come back every summer. Like a yeast infection.” On nature: “Let’s just say that we’re frenemies. Because it turns out that Mother Nature is the ultimate mean girl.” Serritella on wish lists: “I love using wish lists, because then the [website] notifies me if the price of my chosen items gets discounted from totally-ridiculously-expensive to get-real-you-still-can’t-afford-it.” Throughout, the conversations are sarcastic and often snarky, and the short essays revel in the ridiculous and hit the heart of life in a boisterous Italian family.

For many singles, Valentine’s Day might mean moping, “depression, shame, and chocolate cake,” but for Scottoline, it was a day to receive a beautiful engagement ring from herself. A fascination with an electric toothbrush led to the purchase of an electronic face washer. The authors also discuss the pros and cons of twerking and dancing on tabletops.

Short and snappy, these comic essays are best read in small doses.

VIRTUAL UNREALITY Just Because the Internet Told You, How Do You Know It’s True?

Seife, Charles Viking (256 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 30, 2014 978-0-670-02608-1

An ingenious overview of a wildly unreliable Internet.

Seife (Journalism/New York Univ.; Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, 2010, etc.) recounts the story of a Scottish blogger who, frustrated when his opinions on the Middle East were ignored, reinvented himself as a lesbian Syrian activist in war-torn Damascus and became a media star. Constructing an alternative reality once required an entire totalitarian state. Now a single person can do it, as online information moves around the world with the speed of light. It can be stored in virtually no space, copied with perfect fidelity at little cost and altered just as easily. Photoshop has changed the face of fraud. In 1990, image manipulation made up 3 percent of scientific misconduct, but by 2008, it had risen to nearly 70 percent. Most of the trillion emails sent every few days are spam, and most of several hundred million blogs are unreadable. Experts wrote traditional encyclopedias, while Wikipedia is open to anyone regardless of expertise. It’s more comprehensive and easier to navigate but nagged by propaganda, vandalism and hoax articles that may persist for years since, in the relentlessly democratic ethos of the Internet, those who detect them have no more authority than the fakers. Intelligent thinking depends on our ability to tell good authorities from bad, writes the author, but the avalanche of free information at our fingertips is marginalizing gatekeepers of the truth (reporters, editors, scholars), who cost money and work slowly.

HAVE A NICE GUILT TRIP

Scottoline, Lisa; Serritella, Francesca St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $24.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-312-64009-5 978-1-4668-3456-9 e-book 978-1-4272-32939-9 Audiobook The Italian mother-daughter team is back with another series of amusing commentaries on life.

Readers familiar with the ScottolineSerritella (Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim, 2012, etc.) duo are in for another mostly entertaining ride. Ping-ponging back and forth, using mostly one-paragraph sentences, the two writers converse on such diverse topics as the therapeutic benefits of rearranging the furniture on a regular basis, what happens when one forgets to pay bills on time, and why it’s best to let your mother buy her own sheets, preferably white—on white sheets, she “can see the bugs better.” The authors cover nearly all subjects in 50 narratives, with nothing too personal or taboo 82

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“Another crackling tale of adventure from journalist/explorer Sides, this one focusing on a frigid disaster nearly 150 years ago.” from in the kingdom of ice

IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the U.S.S. Jeannette

Googling for expertise turns up too many opinionated sources that may not even be human. Seife seeks “not to rail against the Internet, but to act as a guide for the skeptic [with] a handbook for those who wish to understand how digital information is affecting us.”

Readers of this disturbing but entirely convincing account need to remind themselves that the Internet is pretty useful, but they will not deny that it teems with garbage.

Sides, Hampton Doubleday (480 pp.) $28.95 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-385-53537-3

OPERATION SHAKESPEARE The True Story of an Elite International Sting

Another crackling tale of adventure from journalist/explorer Sides (Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin, 2010, etc.), this one focusing on a frigid disaster nearly 150 years ago.

When the Jeannette, commanded by a dashing officer named George De Long, disappeared in the Arctic waters of Russia on a long expeditionary voyage that began in the summer of 1879, American newspapers thought it did not necessarily mean disaster: They preferred to see it as a sign that the ship had broken through the dreaded polar ice and was now sailing freely, if without communication, in the open polar sea. No such luck: As Sides documents, the Jeannette and its crew met a gruesome end; toward the end of his narrative, we tour their icy cemetery, here the Chinese cook gazing serenely into the sky, there De Long lying barehanded with arm upraised, as if he “had raised his left arm and flung his journal behind him in the snow, away from the embers of the fire.” When contemporaries took that tour and reports came out, the newspapers were full of speculation about even more gruesome possibilities, which Sides, on considering the evidence, dismisses. Given that a bad outcome is promised in the book’s subtitle, readers should not find such things too surprising. The better part of the narrative is not in the sad climax but in the events leading up to it, from De Long’s life and education at sea to the outfitting of the ship (complete with a storeroom full of “barrels of brandy, porter, ale, sherry, whiskey, rum, and cases of Budweiser beer”), personality clashes among members of the crew, and the long, tragic history of polar expedition.

A grand and grim narrative of thrilling exploration for fans of Into Thin Air, Mountains of the Moon and the like. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

Shiffman, John Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $28.00 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4516-5513-1

Well-handled, tricky research regarding the highly secretive work of Pentagon agents to keep American-made weapons out of Iranian and Chinese hands.

Reuters investigative reporter Shiffman (co-author, with Robert K. Wittman: Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures, 2010) ably conveys the complexity and suspense around the CIA’s Operation Shakespeare, one of a dozen overseas counterproliferation stings aimed at the blackmarket arms networks that have developed since 9/11. The author delves into stories behind the figures buying highly sensitive American technology and munitions and using it against American soldiers abroad—e.g., an IED in Iraq with a remote control trigger that can be traced back to a manufacturer in California. In 2003, under the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, the agencies of U.S. Customs merged with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to become Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and grew much more aggressive in targeting shadow networks in Iran, Pakistan, Russia and China, many of which purchase arms from U.S. defense contractors and high-tech manufacturers—despite rigorous export security laws and regular visits to these businesses by Homeland Security agents. Operation Shakespeare involved the opening of a storefront as a lure to foreigner customers, where agent Patrick J. Lechleitner began sniffing out the bad guys. One example was Cross International, “worldwide procurer of military and defense-related items and technology” in Yardley, Pennsylvania. In 2004, a certain “Alex Dave,” purportedly based in Dubai, began requesting jet parts and radioisotopes; Dave was actually Amir Ardebili, an Iranian broker working for the Iranian navy and other outfits who eagerly ordered parts from Cross, wiring payment through Swiss banks and arranging convoluted transports via Dubai. Shiffman dutifully follows agents to Dubai, Frankfurt, Wilmington, and Tbilisi, Georgia, among other places, as the operation took on increasing complexity until Ardebili was finally nabbed in 2007.

A well-organized, troubling exposé of the pervasiveness of this shadowy “technology transfer.”

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STANDARD DEVIATIONS Flawed Assumptions, Tortured Data, and Other Ways to Lie with Statistics

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING How Politics Crippled the Nation’s Doctor

Stobbe, Mike Univ. of California (386 pp.) $34.95 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-0-520-27229-3

Smith, Gary Overlook (304 pp.) $28.95 | Jul. 3, 2014 978-1-4683-0920-1

A richly detailed account of the rise and fall of the United States surgeon general.

In this debut, Associated Press national medical correspondent Stobbe offers a history of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, which, since the 1870s, has been the home base for the federal doctor in charge of America’s health.

As the head of the Health Service Commissioned Corps (comprising 6,500 health professionals on call for public health emergencies), the surgeon general has historically been in a position to speak more candidly than other health officials about controversial issues. Most memorably, C. Everett Koop used his post as a bully pulpit to educate the public on AIDS in the 1980s.

Most surgeons general have not been so outspoken, however, and many have succumbed to political interference. Today, with diminished powers, the surgeon general can no longer succeed in “increasingly partisan and embattled Washington.” Indeed, the position should probably be abolished. Stobbe tells the stories of 18 people who have held the post, from Hugh Cumming, a courtly Ivy Leaguer who reigned for 16 years (1920-1936) thanks to close ties to presidents, to the polarizing Joycelyn Elders, who served for 15 months (1993-1994) before resigning after speaking candidly about the teaching of masturbation.

Activist surgeons general made a difference: Thomas Parran became a celebrity in the 1930s and ’40s as he campaigned against venereal disease; Luther Terry issued a landmark 1964 report on smoking and health. In 1979, Julius Richmond’s Healthy People report changed the way Americans think about their health, focusing on unhealthy behaviors rather than infections and unsanitary conditions. Stobbe chronicles the office’s handling of such issues as pandemics, the polio vaccine, smoking, lead poisoning and obesity.

An important book for policymakers. Many readers will lament the declining state of a post that has contributed much to the country’s health. (14 b/w illustrations)

Another in the genre that began with the Darrell Huff ’s 1954 best-seller, How to Lie with Statistics. If history is any guide, it will likely be ignored by those who do the lying.

In his first book for nonacademic readers, Smith (Economics/ Pomona Coll.; Essential Statistics, Regression, and Econometrics, 2011, etc.) delivers an entertaining primer on his specialty, packed with figures, tables, graphs and ludicrous examples from people who know better (academics, scientists) and those who don’t (political candidates, advertisers). “We live in the age of Big Data….

Sometimes these omnipresent data and magnificent computers lead to some pretty outlandish discoveries,” writes the author.

We hear that children who play competitive sports are confident, so sports must build character. Selection bias makes nonsense of this if only confident children choose to play competitive sports.

Enthusiasts tell us how to live to the age of 100, run a profitable business or enjoy a lasting marriage. However, all examine those who have succeeded, ignoring the losers, so survivorship bias renders their advice worthless. Few can resist the fallacious law of averages. If a coin flip turns up 10 heads in a row, the 11th flip is not more likely to be tails. If you fly regularly, the odds that your plane will crash do not increase. Good and bad luck do not even out. Chance is just chance. The Texas sharpshooter peppers the side of a barn and then draws a bull’s eye around the densest clump of holes. In other words, even honest observers find patterns in random data and can’t resist explaining them.

We believe these stories if they seem reasonable and love them if they’re provocative—see Freakonomics, whose authors have admitted some mistakes.

“We are too easily seduced by explanations for the inexplicable,” writes the author in this amusing, informative account of how many arguments are backed by meaningless statistics. (50 graphs and 8 b/w illustrations)

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“A cerebral ride into the world of the unorthodox.” from the unpersuadables

THE UNPERSUADABLES Adventures with the Enemies of Science

In January 1967, Timberg (State of Grace: A Memoir of Twilight Time, 2004, etc.) was days away from the end of his tour in Vietnam when his combat vehicle struck a land mine. He survived, but flames scorched his face and arms, leaving him with third-degree burns. In less than two years, Timberg underwent 25 of the 35 reconstructive surgeries he would need to regain his health. Yet by the end, he still looked “like a monster.” Uncertain of his future and in need of a career to support his growing family, Timberg studied journalism at Stanford, where he realized that although writing was a solitary profession, he would still have to interact with others as a reporter and show the face that marked him as a participant in an unpopular war. It was only after he landed his first job as a reporter for the Evening Capital in Annapolis and began engaging with his work that he began his “transition from victim” to committed journalist. Timberg quickly moved from covering local news to reporting on the Naval Academy. Ambitious and yearning for greater challenges, the author transferred to the Baltimore Sun, where he covered local politics and, eventually, the White House. But increasing success came at a price, including the end of his first marriage.

Timberg also found that he could not leave his military past behind. In 1986, the Sun tapped him to cover the Iran-Contra scandal, which involved three Naval Academy graduates: Oliver North, Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter. The scandal, and the book that later emerged from it, became a kind of extended catharsis for Timberg. Both forced him to revisit his own brutal experiences and, in so doing, help a nation still tormented by Vietnam find the beginnings of its own peace.

An empathetic and extremely candid memoir from a man who decided “to remember how I decided not to die… not let my future die.”

Storr, Will Overlook (416 pp.) $27.95 | Apr. 1, 2014 978-1-4683-0818-1

A cerebral ride into the world of the unorthodox.

Sallying forth to take on the benighted creationists, novelist and Esquire contributing editor Storr (The Hunger and the Howling of Killian Lone, 2014, etc.) takes pause and realizes that his way of thinking is not all that different from what is being presented from the pulpit of the church. Yes, his chosen approach is that of a rationalist, but how biased and compromised is it? What, really, does he know about the nitty-gritty of evolution, unmediated by the fine reasoning of a Darwin or a Dawkins? And where do our beliefs come from? It is unproductive and deluding to simply dismiss a belief as stupid; intelligence does not arbitrate against odd beliefs, for some clearly bright people hold some curious, complex, elusive notions. So Storr ventures with new eyes into their territory, to the outlandish and the heretical, all the while exploring theories of the brain and how it perceives the world. As he notes, each of us is a concoction of sensory pulses that fashions a unique vision: “Cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, the brain’s desire to have the outer, real world match its inner models—it takes us part of the way there,” he writes. “It tells us that a properly functioning brain cannot be trusted to think rationally….” The author presents superb stories of visiting with voice-hearers, smug skeptics, sufferers of the Morgellon itch, Holocaust deniers, recovered-memory confabulators, and he combines these stories with his often humorous personal tale—which included experiencing his own murder through the process of hypnosis.

Storr’s piercing narrative is piquant and full of surprises and reversals of circumstance, as well as plenty of undeniably valuable information.

“The mind remains, to a tantalizing degree, a realm of secrets and wonder,” writes the author, and so, too, does the world around us, which he entertainingly scours for the possibility of crucial anomalies.

THE FRENCH HOUSE An American Family, a Ruined Maison, and the Village That Restored Them All

Wallace, Don Sourcebooks (336 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jun. 3, 2014 978-1-4022-9331-3

A journalist and fiction writer’s account of how a crumbling house he bought on a French island became his family’s unexpected refuge and salvation.

Wallace (One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game, 2003, etc.) and his wife, Mindy, were two wayward surfer-writers with big dreams when they first saw Belle Ile. Their other island home, Manhattan, “was doing its best to shake [them] off, the way a dog does fleas.” A French professor friend named Gwened told them about a cottage that was for sale in the Belle Ile town of Kebordardoue. Broke but craving stability, the couple bought the house almost sight unseen. Only after they saw the cottage two years later did they realize how they had been lured into becoming property owners by the charmingly manipulative

BLUE-EYED BOY A Memoir

Timberg, Robert Penguin Press (384 pp.) $27.95 | Jul. 28, 2014 978-1-59420-566-8 A distinguished journalist and former Marine’s account of returning home from Vietnam and finding personal and professional success despite life-altering disfigurement. |

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Gwened to help spare Kebordardoue from becoming a seaside tourist attraction. The cottage was unlivable and needed costly repairs they could not afford, and it was also located in a village that did not easily accept new residents, especially foreign ones with the idea of becoming absentee landowners. Monetary and logistical challenges threatened to derail the Wallaces’ restoration plans, but with pluck, humor and help from the indomitable Gwened, they made the ruined cottage livable again. They also learned to navigate the tricky social waters that separated them from their colorful, often eccentric neighbors. Over time, Wallace and his wife went from being the laughingstocks of Kebordadoue to beloved community members who helped popularize surfing on Belle Ile. Family, career and financial crises inevitably intervened along the way. But the “maison saine,” or healthy house, that Gwened helped them rebuild to preserve a small island town became their own “sane” space of tranquility in the midst of life storms.

Warm, funny and full of heart. (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

by a sense of fondness for this affectionate bird, Windrow’s tale is unusual and endearing and takes the idea of an animal/human friendship to new heights.

Delightful and informative reminiscences of one man’s life with his pet owl.

INVISIBLES The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion Zweig, David Portfolio (256 pp.) $27.95 | Jun. 12, 2014 978-1-59184-634-5

An encouraging salute to the world behind the scenes, where the “Invisibles” allow the show to go on.

Journalist Zweig suggests, with considerable merit, that, in our culture of wanting it all, we have forgotten the hard work of getting there—that to be Tom Brady quarterbacking on Sunday, you must also be a game-film drudge and a gym rat. More to the point, that invisible work has its own beauty and meaning. The author points to people who take pride in elevating anything to an art, who lose and find themselves in projects that make a significant impact on our lives, leaving us happy while delivering the pleasure and self-respect from doing the job properly. Zweig profiles a handful of highly skilled individuals “whose roles are critical to whatever enterprise they are part of ”—e.g., the perfumer behind Sean Combs’ fragrance Unforgivable (Combs became “the first male celebrity with a prestige cologne”); the structural engineer who enables the architect’s vision of a skyscraper; and, perhaps most impressive, the U.N interpreter who “hears one language, interprets it into another language in her head, then speaks the new language while at the same time continuing to listen to and interpret the next lines of the original language, a practice known as simultaneous interpretation….As long as the speaker is talking, she is interpreting.” Zweig notes three traits that these unsung individuals possess: responsibility, meticulousness and ambivalence regarding recognition. These traits are fine, to be sure, but the author’s vignettes really drive the point home. Guitar tech, fact checker, piano tuner, cinematographer, ghostwriter et al.—it is workmanship, curiosity, demanding internal standards, deep immersion and cooperative instincts that bring a rewarding life.

In Zweig’s fascinating world, the limelight doesn’t hold a candle to the satisfaction of hard work well done.

THE OWL WHO LIKED SITTING ON CAESAR Living with a Tawny Owl

Windrow, Martin Illus. by Hook, Christa Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $26.00 | Jun. 10, 2014 978-0-374-22846-0

The life of a man and his feathered friend.

Though owls are not common pets, Osprey Publishing military editor Windrow (Our Friends Beneath the Sands, 2012, etc.) developed a 15-year friendship with a tawny owl that lived in his apartment. Needing a companion after a sky diving accident, the author first tried a little owl; however, this bird escaped, so he tried a tawny owl. Right from the start, Mumble, as Windrow called his female tawny, proved to be the perfect friend. Using notes and photographs from their time together, the author intertwines anecdotes of living in a small apartment with a bird the size of a loaf of bread with the evolution, zoology and social life of owls, providing readers with lots of information not normally found outside of bird identification books. One favorite experience Windrow remembers fondly is how Mumble loved to snuggle into his neck after his shower.

“Her head and neck smelt delicious—clean, warm, wooly, and sort of…biscuit,” he writes. “If I stopped nuzzling her for even a moment she squeaked insistently, shoving her face upwards.

She loved it when I rubbed the close triangle of short feathers immediately above her beak and between her eyes.” Due to his desire for this friendship, Windrow was willing to cover the apartment with plastic and newspapers for the inevitable “strongly acidic, foul-smelling brown-and-white sludge” and provide whole baby chicks for Mumble’s food, which she tore at with great pleasure—such eccentricities made the author’s friends question his sensibilities. Rich in minutiae enveloped 86

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children’s & teen WHAT IF YOU MET A COWBOY?

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Adkins, Jan Illus. by Adkins, Jan Roaring Brook (48 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 27, 2014 978-1-59643-149-2 Series: What If You Met…

SNIFFER DOGS by Nancy Castaldo................................................... 90 TINY CREATURES by Nicola Davies; illus. by Emily Sutton............ 94 THE FAMILY ROMANOV by Candace Fleming...................................97 ABSOLUTELY ALMOST by Lisa Graff................................................ 99 HERMELIN THE DETECTIVE MOUSE by Mini Grey........................ 99 COMICS SQUAD by Jennifer L. Holm; Matthew Holm; Jarrett J. Krosoczka............................................................................101 VIMINY CROWE’S COMIC BOOK by Marthe Jocelyn; Richard Scrimger; illus. by Claudia Dávila......................................102 INTO THE GREY by Celine Kiernan.................................................. 103 50 BODY QUESTIONS by Tanya Lloyd Kyi; illus. by Ross Kinnaird........................................................................ 103 THE MISADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FLETCHER

by Dana Alison Levy..........................................................................106 GREENGLASS HOUSE by Kate Milford; illus. by Jaime Zollars....108 THE TURTLE OF OMAN by Naomi Shihab Nye...............................109 FRIDA & DIEGO by Catherine Reef................................................... 111 SISTERS by Raina Telgemeier............................................................ 117 SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL by Duncan Tonatiuh........................ 118

Following other books in the What if You Met…(a Pirate, 2004; a Knight, 2006) series, this title somewhat less successfully tackles the subject of cowboys.

The image of the handsome cowboy idealized in movies, “on the lookout for pretty schoolteachers and Indians on the warpath,” is shattered by Jacob McHugh Peavey, the “real deal,” unwashed and unshaven. Only careful readers will determine that Jake’s heyday was around 1860-1885. He’s white, although Adkins notes that “[a]bout half of [cowboys] are African-American, Indian, or Hispanic.” Cowgirls are dismissed in a side note. Given this limited perspective, youngsters interested in diversity in the Wild West will want to look elsewhere. Those not familiar with the history of Native Americans may require a source to understand potentially confusing descriptions of Franciscan missionaries who introduced horses in the Southwest as “relatively gentle and patient” conquerors who received an assist from European diseases or the “hostile native” tribes or youth that may on occasion pose a threat to Jake. (Source notes—a list of titles consulted—are provided, but there are no specific citations.) However, children enamored of cowboy gear and cattle drives will find a plethora of information about and detailed illustrations of saddles, guns, brands, the chuck wagon and more, each topic covered in one or two pages.

As Wild Bill Hickok “says” in his blurb: “Factual as far as it goes.” (glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction.

8-10)

MY TEACHER IS A MONSTER! (NO, I AM NOT.)

by Peter Brown.................................................................................... 121

LITTLE GREEN PEAS A Big Book of Colors

Baker, Keith Illus. by Baker, Keith Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-4424-7660-8 978-1-4424-7661-5 e-book

PLANET KINDERGARTEN by Sue Ganz-Schmitt; illus. by Shane Prigmore.............................................................................................. 123 ON MY WAY TO SCHOOL by Sarah Maizes; illus. by Michael Paraskevas...........................................................................................124 THE ECHIDNA AND THE DRESS by BighART...............................126

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After tackling the alphabet and numbers in two previous excursions (LMNO Peas, 2013; 1-2-3 Peas, 2012), Baker’s winsome legumes return for a third ap-pea-rance, exploring nine colors.

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Seven hues—blue, red, yellow, orange, green, purple and silver—garner two double-page spreads each. The first spread establishes the color-redolent context; the second locates those inimitable peas within the color’s established landscape. “B-LU-E” towers in large, digitally rendered letters afloat on pale, stylized waves near a few sailboats. Sea stars cling to the “U,” while three peas display semaphore flags. A page turn reveals an ocean liner cruising past a sandy isle, where some 40 peas sunbathe, paint pictures, lift weights, hunt for treasure and more. One charming spread glows green: A stringed trellis supports “Green vines, / green leaves, / green sprouts, and… // baby green peas!” (Those babes in pods are adorable.) The “Silver” spreads contain large stacks of coins and a castle, complete with royal peas, distracted tower guards, a Rapunzel pea with long green locks, and even a gray, ghostly pea. The last color spread features both white and black—an appreciated twist in books about color concepts. While appealing, this doesn’t quite measure up to Baker’s earlier outings. The text is sparse and sometimes reads awkwardly. Too many of the spreads are underpea-pulated, resulting in low exuberance levels.

Sweet—but alas, not a three-pea-t. (Picture book. 3-7)

THROUGH TO YOU

Barnholdt, Lauren Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4424-3463-9 978-1-4424-3465-3 e-book On an impulse, the senior heartthrob drops a flirty note on a classmate’s desk, sparking a surprising romance.

“I like your sparkle,” reads the note from Penn Mattingly to Harper Fairbanks referring to the tinsel she has worn in her hair to celebrate school-spirit day. Penn’s the perennial love-’em-and-leave-’em bad boy—which is why the levelheaded Harper finds her attraction to him both surprising and deliciously dangerous. Likewise, Penn thinks Harper’s not good for him since she’s too good for him. Soon, they’re hanging out, and their playful banter grows serious as they draw closer. But Harper is increasingly stung, mystified and enraged by Penn’s hot-and-cold moods. When she asks him questions like why he doesn’t play baseball anymore and why he rages at his former best friend and teammate, he’s distant and cold—but other times, he melts her heart. The author lets readers in on what else Harper doesn’t know: that Penn is terrified that his promising baseball career is over and that his dispiriting home life includes an alcoholic father, potsmoking brother and emotionally debilitated mother. Chapters alternate between the two characters’ vantage points, providing an insightful and humorous look into the complex connections among feelings, actions and words and how easily they can be misconstrued.

An absorbing, skillfully written depiction of two teens caught in a vortex of doubt, insecurity and miscommunication. (Romance. 14-18) 88

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A LIBRARY BOOK FOR BEAR

Becker, Bonny Illus. by Denton, Kady MacDonald Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-7636-4924-1 Series: Bear and Mouse Adventures

In a series of scenes both silly and gently humorous, the ever persistent Mouse works hard to persuade gruff-but-lovable bear to become a library user.

“One morning, Bear heard a tap-tap-tapping on his door.”

Readers already familiar with the series will recognize this inviting opener, as well as the arrival of Mouse, always “small and gray and bright-eyed.” The use of this familiar introduction works well for beginning readers, who then learn that this time, Bear’s trademark conservatism makes him balk at the idea of visiting a library. After all, he is sure that “he had all the books he would ever need.” Children will love the arbitrary nature of his collection of seven titles: kings and queens, honeybees and “one about pickles.” When Bear has finally been persuaded to go to the library—holding Mouse in a basket as he races there strapped into red roller skates—he continues to be cantankerous in the stacks. The librarian—the solitary human among assorted critters—plays a part in Bear’s latest behavior modification. Although modern libraries are seldom anymore the silent sanctuaries seen within this stately edifice, excellent text and layout combine with friendly illustrations to set the newest generation of readers laughing at the well-worn joke of someone bellowing for quiet in the library.

Team Becker and Denton has again succeeded in creating a book that keeps the attention of young readers and makes them smile. (Picture book. 3-6)

PEANUT BUTTER & CUPCAKE

Border, Terry Illus. by Border, Terry Philomel (32 pp.) $17.99 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-399-16773-7

The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.

Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up

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“Over-the-top silliness in Emberley’s appealing illustrations contrasts with Bottner’s deadpan delivery to amplify the humor….” from miss brooks’ story nook

RETURN OF THE PADAWAN!

happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.

Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)

MISS BROOKS’ STORY NOOK (where tales are told and ogres are welcome!)

Bottner, Barbara Illus. by Emberley, Michael Random House (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-449-81328-7

Energetic, book-loving Miss Brooks is back, as is Missy, the grumpy, stumpy, hat-wearing reluctant reader-turned-bookworm who is her biggest fan (Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don’t), 2010).

This time around, though, there’s a new wrinkle: a boy named Billy who likes to torment Missy and steal her precious hats. Missy mostly manages to avoid him, but sometimes she can’t help but pass by his house, and that’s where the trouble always occurs. When a storm knocks out the lights at school one morning, Miss Brooks decides to take advantage of the atmosphere and have the kids tell stories instead of listening to her read aloud. Although her classmates suggest focusing on aliens, kittens or ghosts, Missy finds herself unexpectedly brainstorming a solution to her problem while concocting a semiscary story about a neighborhood ogre named Graciela and her very large boa constrictor. Over-the-top silliness in Emberley’s appealing illustrations contrasts with Bottner’s deadpan delivery to amplify the humor, while clever details in the pictures reward close examination. Characters come alive with distinct voices and appearances, and the twin plots flow smoothly, if purposively, to the requisite “happy ending.”

While sequels can sometimes be disappointing, readers and listeners who enjoyed Miss Brooks’ first appearance will likely be very happy to find out what happens next— and they just might be inspired to create some tall tales of their own. (Picture book. 4-8)

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Brown, Jeffrey Illus. by Brown, Jeffrey Scholastic (176 pp.) $12.99 | $12.99 e-book | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-545-62125-0 978-0-545-66643-5 e-book Series: Star Wars: Jedi Academy, 2 The line between humor and heartbreak is very thin in this new Star Wars graphic novel.

Readers who’ve seen a horror movie or two know that anyone who says, “I’ll be right back!” is doomed. The second Jedi Academy book follows the same sort of logic. Roan is training to be a Jedi pilot, so the moment he says, “…I’m going to beat all of their test scores by a whole bunch,” readers will know that the starpilot simulator is about to start smoking and shooting off sparks. The whole book is a series of disasters, which is to say that it’s a classic comedy. Before the end of the story, the class

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“Upbeat writing, excellent organization, and an overall design that includes high-quality color photos, sidebars, and alternating blue and yellow backgrounds all contribute to keep readers engaged.” from sniffer dogs

pet has disappeared, and Roan’s friends have stopped talking to him. The more horrors he faces, the funnier the comedy gets.

Brown’s doodles of teachers are hilarious, too. Most of them are takeoffs on Star Wars characters, like off-brand versions of the originals; the instructors include librarian Lackbar and Kitmum the Wookiee gym teacher. If you haven’t seen a Wookiee with a sweatband, you haven’t lived. Roan is a very sympathetic main character, and readers will feel his pain and laugh at his misfortune in equal measure. Roan’s hand-lettered journal entries alternate with short paneled sequences and “screenshots” of academy message boards and other ephemera.

Future installments—and further disasters—will be most welcome. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

LIFE ON MARS

Brown, Jennifer Walker (240 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-61963-252-3 In a tale built on well-worn tropes and characters, Brown twists together an impending cross-country move, a budding friendship with a crusty old neighbor and some basic astronomy.

As part of a family that looks to the stars for its names, seventh-grader Arcturus Betelgeuse Chambers—Arty—knows his constellations but also believes that he can contact Martians with a contraption cobbled together from mirrors and a flashlight. His settled world is knocked askew first by the arrival of a secretive new neighbor with a spooky habit of sneaking off into the woods at night and then by the revelation that his father’s new job will require that the family move far away. The neighbor turns out to be, excitingly, Cash Maddux, an embittered ex-astronaut who never flew but still goes out to gaze at the heavens. Their shared interest brings the two together. The author outfits Arty with a comically inept friend (who learns grace at ballet school), a mom who copes with stress by baking and two stereotypical sisters with equally typecast friends to ridicule.

It may be formulaic, but the comic byplay is often nicely gross, and the science talk dovetails with current pedagogical fads. (appendix of Mars facts) (Fiction. 10-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

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SNIFFER DOGS How Dogs (and Their Noses) Save the World

Castaldo, Nancy HMH Books (160 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-544-08893-1

A fizzy, fact-filled text about how dogs and their sniffing abilities help humans.

Dog-lover Castaldo takes a premise—dogs and their noses— and turns it into a whirlwind tour of all the ways dogs can help humans using their much more highly developed sense of smell.

From search-and-rescue dogs to fire-accelerant-detection dogs, “eco dogs,” diabetes-alert dogs and more, readers learn about the fascinating ways dogs use their noses in human endeavors.

Upbeat writing, excellent organization, and an overall design that includes high-quality color photos, sidebars, and alternating blue and yellow backgrounds all contribute to keep readers engaged. Castaldo presents an astonishing amount and range of information from the historical use of dogs by humans to the present—including poignant stories of the dogs who searched for survivors at the World Trade Center and after Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake—as well as broader topics such as how a dog’s nose works and how service dogs are trained. (Readers may be interested to learn that many of the best service dogs come from shelters.) A bibliography and other informational sources are included at the end of the book for readers who want to delve deeper.

An exemplary presentation of information in a lively, engaging way—readers will be left feeling awe for their canine companions and enthusiasm for their abilities. (resources, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 9-15)

A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS

Chen, Justina Little, Brown (336 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-316-10253-7 978-0-316-36438-6 e-book Sixteen-year-old photographer Shana, a secondary character from Chen’s previous novel, Return to Me (2013), takes center stage in this stand-alone companion romance.

Shana has decided to call it quits on love after the disastrous end of her last relationship. Then she meets Quattro, a mysterious boy with questionable fashion sense and a penchant for bacon-maple bars. But before she can investigate this new development further, her father discovers he has a genetic disease that will cause him to lose his sight in six months. Shana’s adventure-seeking parents push up some of their planned excursions to take advantage of this short window, taking Shana with them on a trip to Machu Picchu. Quattro and his father are coincidently on a parallel tour for sensitive reasons of their own. When a mudslide threatens to end their

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expedition almost before it’s begun, Shana finds her resolve to steer clear of romance tested when Quattro selflessly devotes himself to watching out for her and her family. Though the author doesn’t take full advantage of her exotic Machu Picchu setting, and the relentlessly positive homilies voiced by several of the characters occasionally carry this teen romance into self-help territory, fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Dessen will be willing to overlook these flaws as they swoon over Shana and Quattro’s will-they-won’t-they relationship.

A mostly satisfying ’round-the-world romance. (Romance.

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DREAM BOY

Crockett, Mary; Rosenberg, Madelyn Sourcebooks Fire (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4022-9583-6 The worlds of dreams and reality mix in chem class.

Sixteen-year-old Annabelle can’t believe it when the boy of her dreams—her actual dreams—walks into her chemistry class. Even better, he takes an immediate interest in her and admits he really has come from her dreams. However, the handsome Martin isn’t the only person Annabelle has met there; she also frequently sees a little girl in a white dress who frightens her. Meanwhile, she navigates the usual high school social scene, with her place on the ladder several rungs below the beautiful Stephanie. Annabelle plans to go with Martin to the homecoming dance, but as the nightmare girl becomes ever more threatening, she worries that since she

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S U M M E R R EA DING

middle - grade The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister

Class B.U.R.P.

By Stefan Bachmann, Claire Legrand, Katherine Catmull, Emma Trevayne; illustrated by Alexander Jansson 496 pp. | $16.99 Age Range: 10-13 Styling themselves “curators,” four of horror fantasy’s newer stars share tales and correspondence related to an imaginary museum of creepy creatures and artifacts. The stories, most of which were previously published on the eponymous website, are taken from eight thematic drawers ranging from “Love” and “Tricks” to “Cake.” A hefty sheaf of chillers—all short enough to share aloud and expertly cast to entice unwary middle graders a step or two into the shadows.

By Jenny Meyerhoff; illustrated by Jason Week 288 pp. | $13.99 Age Range: 7-11 Barftastic Life of Louie Burger, 2 Aspiring elementary school comedian Louie Burger is back, this time tackling popularity. Following The Barftastic Life of Louie Burger, Louie’s favorite comedian, Lou Lafferman, airs the video of Louie barfing at the school talent show. Louie’s brush with fame wins him public recognition from adults, but more importantly, it makes him interesting enough that the other kids talk to him instead of ignoring or bullying him—with the exception of cardboard bully Ryan Rakefield, of course. Funny and accessible.

Son Who Returns

How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous

By Gary Robinson 152 pp. | $9.95 Age Range: 10-13

Powwow drums call a modern teen to reconnect with his Native American roots. Discontented with a move to Dallas, 15-year-old Mark persuades his father and stepmother to let him spend the summer with his Chumash grandmother on a California reservation. Following the lead of a newly met half brother who is a committed powwow dancer, Mark is irresistibly drawn both by the spectacular ceremony at events he attends and also a strong inner calling to become a dancer himself. Free of crises and melodrama, a buoyant take on the theme of embracing one’s family heritage.

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By Georgia Bragg; illustrated by Kevin O’Malley 192 pp. | $17.99 Age Range: 10-14

Bragg’s follow-up to How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous reveals the failures of 14 notables from history.

Bragg’s cheeky humor is on display with chapter titles like “Till Beheading Do Us Part” for Anne Boleyn, “The Law’s in Town” for Isaac Newton, and “Stinker, Traitor, Soldier, Spy” for Benedict Arnold. Beneath Bragg’s flippant tone is an insightful, informative narrative explaining how these individuals earned a place in history. Readers will be entertained and fascinated by the flawed humanity depicted within.

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The Return of Zita the Spacegirl

Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood: A World War I Tale

By Ben Hatke 240 pp. | $12.99 Age Range: 8-13 Zita the Spacegirl, 3

After facing innumerable interstellar dangers, Zita finds herself locked in a dungeon. How will the plucky heroine escape now? Zita has seen myriad adventures throughout galaxies far, far away: planet-destroying Star Hearts, identity-stealing robot clones and the loss of her best friend, Joseph. In this third installment, she finds herself locked in a dungeon on a hidden planet. Fans of the series: Don’t miss this. Stellar.

By Nathan Hale 128 pp. | $12.95 Age Range: 11-13 Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales, 4

In the latest of his Hazardous Tales, Hale recaps World War I with an all-animal cast. In this volume, he covers the war’s prelude, precipitation, major campaigns and final winding down in small but reasonably easy-to-follow two-color panels. A neatly coherent account with tweaks that allow readers some emotional distance—but not enough to shrug off the war’s devastating cost and world-changing effects.

The Meaning of Maggie

Secret Agent Gadget Battle

By Megan Jean Sovern 224 pp. | $16.99 Age Range: 9-12 Based on the author’s family’s story, this novel mixes in equal thirds tears, wit and reassurance amid debilitating illness. The day her father “won’t stop beeping,” future president Maggie Mayfield begins a memoir of 1988, the year her “cool dude” dad’s multiple sclerosis takes a turn for the worse. Maggie vows to fix her father, but her hardest lesson may be that she can’t. More than an issue novel, Sovern’s debut will be a boon to kids coping with a parent’s illness or the unpredictability of growing up.

By Bob Pflugfelder, Steve Hockensmith; illustrated by Scott Garrett 256 pp. | $12.95 Age Range: 9-13 Nick and Tesla, 3 Determined to uncover the identity of the secret agent who seems to be right inside their uncle Newt’s house with them, 11-year-old twins Nick and Tesla construct a variety of spy-revealing gadgets in this third of an ongoing mysteryand-how-to series. Hot-glue–gun fans will barely need the story that surrounds this new set of do-it-yourself gadget projects, but the continuing mystery will keep readers wanting more.

Revolution

Loot

By Deborah Wiles 544 pp. | $19.99 Age Range: 11-15 Sixties Trilogy, 2

By Jude Watson 272 pp. | $16.99 Age Range: 10-14

Freedom Summer in 1964 Mississippi brings both peaceful protest and violence into the lives of two young people. Twelve-year-old Sunny, who’s white, cannot accept her new stepmother and stepsiblings. Raymond, “a colored boy,” is impatient for integration to open the town’s pool, movie theater and baseball field. Fifty years later, 1960s words and images still sound and resound in this triumphant middle volume of the author’s Sixties Trilogy.

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Feisty thieves-in-training Jules and March are faced with a daunting challenge after their father plunges to his death while committing a crime. The twins only gradually discover the full extent of the problem they face, but each new revelation fits perfectly into the often hair-raising narrative. Pitch-perfect characters, from scheming criminals to a twisted former cop to the twins’ father, move in and out of the narrative, but it’s the four young teens that drive the tale forward with enviable schemes and ingenious plans.

Taut, engrossing and unstoppable.

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“This experienced science communicator makes an immediate connection to her readers, using their prior knowledge of big whales and small ants to convey how tiny microbes can be.” from tiny creatures

somehow made Martin real, might the girl also make her way into the real world? Crockett and Rosenberg build tension as a confrontation looms between Annabelle and the nightmare girl.

The authors keep the story chick-lit friendly, with some common, high school social tension and a bit of girl-girl rivalry. Most intriguing for many readers, however, will be their treatment of the fading line between dreams and reality. Just who is real in the book, and who is a dream?

Hits the chick-lit and romance buttons, adding suspense and an intriguing idea as well for nicely rounded entertainment. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)

ALL FOUR STARS

Dairman, Tara Putnam (288 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 10, 2014 978-0-399-16252-7

A preteen restaurant critic is born.

After being banned from cooking because she accidentally set the kitchen curtains on fire with a blowtorch—her parents really should have given her the minitorch she wanted for her birthday—a misdirected letter gets Gladys Gatsby, a girl with a serious passion for food, a freelance assignment reviewing a restaurant for the New York Standard. They don’t know she’s only 11. Plum assignment in hand, Gladys, who is too young to travel into the city by herself, has to figure out a way to get there, get into the restaurant and sample all the food on the menu without alerting her clueless-in-the-kitchen parents.

Impossible? Maybe not, as Gladys turns out to be surprisingly canny and resourceful. The side effect of all this scheming is that it requires Gladys to find allies, a serendipitous event for this loner heroine, who by the end of the story has forged some real friendships. That aspect of the tale is warming, and Gladys’ psychological journey and personal transformation are solid and credible. Less so the plot machinations, which require a major suspension of belief, as do the portrayals of her oblivious parents and a clichéd queen bee.

This entertaining story about the joy of following one’s bliss is marred by some clunky plotting. (Fiction. 8-12)

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TINY CREATURES The World of Microbes Davies, Nicola Illus. by Sutton, Emily Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7636-7315-4

Invisible to the human eye, some of the tiniest creatures are known do some of the biggest jobs on Earth.

Davies, who surveyed Extreme Animals (illustrated by Neal Layton, 2006) and encouraged readers to look Outside Your Window (illustrated by Mark Hearld, 2012), here presents examples of microbial life and the work that microbes do.

This experienced science communicator makes an immediate connection to her readers, using their prior knowledge of big whales and small ants to convey how tiny microbes can be.

She gives examples of their sizes and numbers, their varied shapes, their habitats, appetites and how they eat. Microorganisms slowly change food into compost, milk into yogurt and rocks into soil. They reproduce by dividing, and they’re very good at it. Luckily, only a few can make us sick; most are busily engaged in other vital tasks. They are “the invisible transformers of our world.” Sutton’s watercolor illustrations support and enhance the text. Thoughtful book design adds to the appeal, with generous white space, illustrative vignettes as well as paintings that fill a page or a spread, and an unusually legible type. This will show well when read aloud and intrigue emergent readers.

Very little information is available for this age group about these microscopic creatures, making this an especially welcome introduction. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

SMALL BLUE AND THE DEEP DARK NIGHT

Davis, Jon Illus. by Davis, Jon HMH Books (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-544-16466-6

Small Blue (a little bunny) gets a bad case of the middle-ofthe-night willies, imagining what spooky creatures might lurk in the dark corners of her home.

“Big Brown, Big Brown!” she wails, in a shrill pitch familiar to all parents. Small Blue’s caregiver, a lumpy, burly bear, offers reassuringly ridiculous counterarguments to assuage the bunny’s fears. Big Brown wonders whether those “[g]remlins and goblins, with empty, rumbling bellies,” weren’t there at all, and instead there was “a delightful doggies’ Saturday-night unicycle convention” underway. It is dark, after all. Who can tell? Children will get the hang of Big Brown’s loopy logic quickly. The dark could harbor “giant hairy spiders and flappy bats” or, just as likely, host “a smiley spacemen’s zero-gravity birthday party.”

Jittery readers come to see it’s probably neither; the dark is just that, dark, and nothing more. Big Brown’s enveloping brawn

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and fantastically implausible nighttime scenarios turn quivering fears into giggles. Mildly cartoonish artwork, in purply-blues (lights off) and cozy yellows (lights on), offers thick linework and lots of rounded edges, eyes, noses and mouths, softening Blue’s scary fantasies and rendering Brown’s imaginings all the more comical.

Add this original, illuminating book to any stack of inthe-dark, nighty-night anxiety tales right next to the bed, alongside that last glass of water—but leave the door open a crack! (Picture book. 2-6)

DIARY OF A GIRL NEXT DOOR Betty

del Rio, Tania Illus. by Galvan, Bill Archie Comics (224 pp.) $13.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-936975-37-2 Series: Riverdale Diaries

STRANGE AND EVER AFTER

Dennard, Susan HarperTeen (400 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-06-208332-6 978-0-06-208334-0 e-book Series: Something Strange and Deadly, 3 Eleanor Fitt, the Spirit-Hunters, her demon and her newly arrived frenemy from Philadelphia take to the skies in an airship in pursuit of the evil necromancer Marcus.

They head first to Marseille, where they hope to learn the secret location of the fabled, wealth-and-immortality–granting monster known as the Black Pullet and to rescue their friend Jie, under a compulsion spell and in the clutches of Marcus. From there, they speed on to Egypt in hopes of beating Marcus to the Black Pullet and putting an end to him once and for all. Readers of the series will not be surprised to find that the doughty

Riverdale’s favorite good girl, Betty Cooper, is reimagined in a Dork Diaries knockoff.

Betty Cooper, a perky, blonde go-getter, is ready to tackle her freshman year at Riverdale High. Her on-again, off-again best frenemy, Veronica Lodge, has taken up with the Glossies, a clique of older mean girls determined to make Betty miserable at every opportunity. Veronica and Betty are both crushing on the cute and freckled nice-guy Archie: Whom will he choose? Her melodramatic social woes aside, Betty is forever trying new things: BMX bike riding, becoming a dog walker and joining school clubs. While she does attempt lots of new things to figure out what she likes, most times it’s really only to get Archie’s attention. For the most part, she’s blandly vanilla, though she occasionally comes into her own when she loses her temper (usually with Veronica) and shows a bit of dimensionality. With prose interspersed with cutesy drawings, del Rio and Galvan attempt to give Betty a modern feel, but at times these efforts fall flat; cellphones are not nearly as prominent at Riverdale High as they are in real life, for instance. Think of this as a watered-down Dork Diaries meeting the pleasant forgettability of Saved by the Bell.

High on pep, low on memorability. (Graphic/fiction hybrid.

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heroes are beset by the Dead at nearly every turn; the Egyptian setting, at the height of the 19th-century invasion of Western archaeologists, makes especially fertile ground. (All those mummies!) Less satisfying is Eleanor’s constant struggle between the allure of her magic and the disapproval of everyone around her, including inventor love interest Daniel and, remarkably, her own demon, Oliver. Dissolute Oliver has easily become the most intriguing character in the series, with unplumbed depths, a deliciously snarky sense of humor and a singular sense of morality. Almost despite herself (it gets quite complicated there toward the end), Dennard wraps it all up with a satisfyingly apocalyptic conclusion.

An emotionally honest, well-earned denouement brings this lively historical zombie trilogy to an honorable end.

(Paranormal historical fiction. 12 & up)

THE AMAZING WILMER DOOLEY A Mumpley Middle School Mystery

DeWitt, Fowler Illus. by Montalvo, Rodolfo Atheneum (352 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4424-9854-9 978-1-4424-9856-3 e-book DeWitt (aka Allan Woodrow, author of The Pet War, 2013) delivers a repetitious sequel to The Contagious Colors of Mumpley Middle School (2013).

Soon-to-be seventh-grader Wilmer Dooley and his friends head to a remote hotel for a science fair. On arrival, the attendees start behaving oddly; Wilmer is sure his returning nemesis, Claudius Dill, is responsible. He tries to investigate, but he’s hampered by his fellow students’ peculiar behavior as well as their jealousy—but mostly by the unwanted attentions of Harriet, who thinks Wilmer is amazing. Can he use his powers of observation to find out what is really going on? And will he be able to tell Roxie, girl reporter, how much he likes her? This second Mumpley Middle School tale again attempts humor focusing on food: Wilmer’s mother adds ludicrous ingredients to her cooking, pal Ernie is always hungry, his dad is known for his BUZZZ! goodies. To this, DeWitt adds frequent phone calls about fake punny diseases to Dr. Dill and more frequent nonsense spouted by mind-controlled kids…but it’s just not funny. For a genius, or even a smart kid, Wilmer is pretty dim.

His supporting cast is to-a-man annoying, especially Harriet, and all the adults are either boringly, bumblingly evil or daftly negligent. What real science facts there are can’t recommend the title, since they will be lost to the target audience amid the fake science facts.

Outlives what smiles it may induce by about 200 pages.

(Fiction. 7-10)

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THE SALVATION OF MISS LUCRETIA

Dunagan, Ted M. NewSouth (192 pp.) $21.95 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-58838-293-1

Set in rural Alabama in 1949, this is another episode in the adventures of two young boys, Ted and Poudlum, who have forged a friendship across the racial divide (Trouble on the Tombigbee, 2011, etc.).

The two set out on a camping trip to train Poudlum’s dog to hunt squirrels, and when the dogs go missing, Ted and Poudlum quickly decide that spooky Miss Lucretia, the voodoo queen living deep in the forest, must be to blame. The boys wind up chained up in her cabin, where they confirm that Miss Lucretia has in fact been well-trained in voodoo, which is presented here as part sham and part devilry. After just a little kindness and conversation, Miss Lucretia bursts out, cringe-inducingly: “Praise de Lawd for sending dese young angels to save my po’ soul.”

Once the boys have saved Miss Lucretia’s soul, they proceed to save the rest of her—delivering her from the clutches of an evil relative and helping her to recover some lost buried treasure. As in previous volumes, the boys’ friendship feels authentic, and their exploits are entertaining. Unfortunately, the narrative is unforgivably dismissive of Miss Lucretia, a mature, knowledgeable and obviously powerful African-American woman.

A preachy, condescending tone makes this one a disappointing episode in an otherwise successful series.

(Historical fiction. 9-12)

THE FLYING BEAVER BROTHERS AND THE HOT AIR BABOONS

Eaton III, Maxwell Illus. by Eaton III, Maxwell Knopf (96 pp.) $6.99 paper | $12.99 PLB | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-385-75466-8 978-0-385-75467-5 PLB Series: Flying Beaver Brothers, 5 The Flying Beaver Brothers comics are starting to resemble Mad Libs.

The plot summary for one of the Beaver Brothers books might look like this: Ace and Bub have to keep Beaver Island safe from a group of (plural name of an animal) with a giant (household appliance) that goes (sound effect). In this newest volume, for example, baboons are using an enormous hair dryer to melt all the snow on the island. They want to build a water park. The hair dryer goes “HAROO!” when it’s switched on. This book, like the previous four, is almost as funny as a great Mad Lib. But for returning readers, this may seem like a familiar, fill-in-the-blanks sort of plot. Maybe the next book will stray a bit from the animals-with-appliances formula. The

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“Award-winning author Fleming crafts an exciting narrative from [a] complicated history and its intriguing personalities.” from the family romanov

THE FAMILY ROMANOV Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia

artwork and sound effects are hilarious, as usual, but the simple line drawings don’t convey nuance very well, and the climactic action sequence is a little difficult to follow. It’s like a Michael Bay movie translated into emoji characters.

If the story is disappointing, it’s only because the earlier books in the series set such a high standard: All of the jokes work, but die-hard fans may feel a little exhausted, as though they’d just finished their 100th Mad Lib in a row.

(Graphic novel. 6-9)

OF METAL AND WISHES

Fine, Sarah McElderry (320 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-1-4424-8358-3 978-1-4424-8360-6 e-book

A reckless wish has tragic consequences in this homage to The Phantom of the Opera.

Sixteen-year-old Wen lives with her father at the medical clinic he runs in the Gochan One factory compound. Their family is far better off than the slaughterhouse’s workers, but they are no less prisoners to the debts they owe to the factory. After one of the Noor— foreign workers brought in to cut costs—shames Wen in the cafeteria, she angrily presents the Ghost rumored to haunt the slaughterhouse with an offering and a challenge: “Prove yourself to me. I want to be impressed.” She’s horrified when the boy who teased her is promptly injured in a violent accident; when she attempts to make amends by helping the Noor, she finds herself increasingly attracted to their charismatic leader, Melik. Fine effectively conveys the industrial and human horrors of Wen’s life, from the slaughterhouse’s gruesome work to automaton killer spiders to the underboss who preys sexually on young women. It’s unfortunate that the world beyond the factory remains largely unexplored and unexplained. Much of the novel’s action is driven by threats to Wen’s virtue, which quickly grows repetitive, but Wen and Melik’s star-crossed romance will likely satisfy many readers. The open ending leaves room for a sequel.

An imaginative but uneven retelling. (Steampunk. 12-18)

Fleming, Candace Schwartz & Wade/Random (304 pp.) $18.99 | $10.99 e-book | $21.99 PLB Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-375-86782-8 978-0-375-89864-8 e-book 978-0-375-96782-5 PLB Fleming examines the family at the center of two of the early 20th century’s defining events.

It’s an astounding and complex story, and Fleming lays it neatly out for readers unfamiliar with the context. Czar Nicholas II was ill-prepared in experience and temperament to step into his legendary father’s footsteps. Nicholas’ beloved wife (and granddaughter of Queen Victoria), Alexandra, was socially insecure, becoming increasingly so as she gave birth to four daughters in a country that required a male heir. When Alexei was born with hemophilia, the desperate monarchs hid his condition and turned to the disruptive, self-proclaimed holy man Rasputin. Excerpts from contemporary accounts make it clear how years of oppression and deprivation made the population ripe for revolutionary fervor, while a costly war took its toll on a poorly trained and ill-equipped military. The secretive deaths and burials of the Romanovs fed rumors and speculation for decades until modern technology and new information solved the mysteries. Award-winning author Fleming crafts an exciting narrative from this complicated history and its intriguing personalities. It is full of rich details about the Romanovs, insights into figures such as Vladimir Lenin and firsthand accounts from ordinary Russians affected by the tumultuous events. A variety of photographs adds a solid visual dimension, while the meticulous research supports but never upstages the tale.

A remarkable human story, told with clarity and confidence. (bibliography, Web resources, source notes, picture credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12 & up) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

THE CAT, THE DOG, LITTLE RED, THE EXPLODING EGGS, THE WOLF, AND GRANDMA

Fox, Diane; Fox, Christyan Illus. by Fox, Diane; Fox, Christyan Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-69481-0

A metafictive examination of “Little Red Riding Hood.”

The book opens and closes with a cartoon-style dog and cat—the main characters—discussing the endpapers on the endpapers. They also appear on the title page, the cat with dripping paintbrush in paw, apparently having just finished painting the title. The story begins in earnest as the cat reads “Little Red |

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“Although Benjamin is almost too good to be true—kindhearted, determined, smart, helpful and full of heart—it’s impossible not to like him and…root for him like crazy.” from death by toilet paper

Riding Hood” aloud to the dog, the text of the tale appearing as a printed sheet of paper, which appears along with the dog and cat against the white background. Believing Little Red to be a superhero, the dog asks what her special power is. The cat explains that Little Red has no superpowers, but the dog continues to drive the cat to distraction. Interestingly, while the grandmother hides in a closet and so avoids being eaten, Little Red’s father appears and cuts off the wolf ’s head before Little Red is swallowed—a strange deus ex machina salvation that is not quite as violent as the original story. (It’s violent enough for the dog to question the story’s appropriateness for children, however.) The use of minimal color and objects in the illustrations, coupled with the sometimes-advanced humor, suits the book to older readers with prior knowledge of both fairy tales and superheroes and maturing attention spans. Unfortunately, the book is more metafiction than story, making it feel more an exercise than, well, a book.

Too smart for its own good. (Picture book. 5-9)

BABY BEDTIME

Fox, Mem Illus. by Quay, Emma Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-1-4814-2097-6 A beautifully rendered, anthropomorphic elephant tenderly (sort of) puts a pachyderm child to bed.

The first four sets of pages feature large, bold, purple words on the verso and charmingly smudgy pastel-and-collage artwork on the recto. The initial phrase, “I could eat your little ears,” is set opposite a watercolor adult elephant wearing a patterned bathrobe and affectionately embracing a baby elephant.

The background is a tastefully decorated room, including a lacy chair holding a thumbed-through (or perhaps trunked-through) book. Established, the pattern follows with this banal-at-best and alarming-at-worst text: “I could nibble on your nose. / I could munch your tiny fingers. / I could gobble up your toes.”

The pastel purple and gold artwork mesmerizes, as the adult elephant tenderly hoists the baby and proceeds to carry it upstairs toward the bedroom. The text then mentions numerous other possible, now-gentle actions by the adult elephant, as in “I could sing you all the songs that my mother sang to me.”

Eventually, the rhyming text reaches the expected conclusion, with the adult elephant gently kissing the babe, laid in a bassinet, to sleep. Though it is eminently clear that this child is not about to become supper, the cannibalistic opening quatrain followed by a gushingly affectionate outpouring makes for a book that only a certain type of grandparent could read aloud to a very young grandchild.

Quay’s striking illustrations cannot rescue this one.

(Picture book. 1-3)

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DEATH BY TOILET PAPER

Gephart, Donna Delacorte (272 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-385-74399-0 978-0-375-99143-1 PLB After the death of his beloved father, a contest-loving seventh-grade boy and his hardworking waitress mother fight to stay financially afloat.

Benjamin Epstein is still reeling from his father’s death as his mother struggles to achieve her deceased husband’s “Grand Plan”—becoming a licensed CPA. The finish line is in sight, but tips have been terrible, and the landlord is about to evict. Benjamin, who has grit to spare and a gift for wordplay, works diligently on what he hopes will be the winning entry in a contest sponsored by a toilet-paper company, which would give them more than enough money to tide them over. Things become complicated when his increasingly addled grandfather unexpectedly moves in, and Benjamin tangles with a bully who is after his hard-earned candy money. Although Benjamin is almost too good to be true—kindhearted, determined, smart, helpful and full of heart—it’s impossible not to like him and, as the financial noose tightens, root for him like crazy. The subject matter is serious, as this family lives right on the financial edge, and the impending eviction adds suspense. Gephart’s generous view of humanity’s basic goodness shines through, and she leavens her characters’ difficult situation with plenty of humor. Boys in particular will enjoy the toilet-paper facts that begin each chapter.

Readers can’t help but enjoy this heartening book about hanging in there. (Fiction. 9-12)

TUCK-IN TIME

Gerber, Carole Illus. by Campbell Pearson, Tracey Margaret Ferguson/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (40 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 19, 2014 978-0-374-37860-8 Bedtime rituals comfort and reassure a mom and her little one.

Only the mother’s voice is heard, as she directs the action.

She plays a recognition game first, asking her toddler to tweak ears, push nose, flap arms, clap hands and more. Movement and exercise are added along with some tickling and stroking. A pet dog mimics the actions with a toy rabbit partner, playing along with the humans. Of course, it concludes with hugs and kisses all around. As they snuggle, it is apparent that the little one is worn out and ready to sleep. Gerber employs simple, sprightly language that bounces along with enthusiasm and joie de vivre.

It matters not that the lines don’t always scan, as the rhymes are totally child-friendly. Pearson’s light and bright illustrations provide a sense of softness and warmth. Polka-dot sheets, starred pajamas, tufted bedcovers, Mom’s printed dress and

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Bunny’s striped shirt all blend together beautifully. The focus is completely on the child, with mother shown only in partial view. The child’s body movements answer Mom’s directions, and facial expressions show joy and delight at the whole routine.

Even the endpapers add to the fun, as the startled bunny flies head over heels among the polka dots.

A charming bedtime read-aloud. (Picture book. 1-4)

ABSOLUTELY ALMOST

Graff, Lisa Philomel (304 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 12, 2014 978-0-399-16405-7

In a tale about not being good enough, Graff introduces readers to a young hero who struggles to measure up.

Graff, whose A Tangle of Knots was on the 2013 National Book Award longlist, here gracefully fuses heartache with a gentle humor and candor. Life is stressful for Albie. Mom and Dad struggle to understand him, and his grandpa Park creates tension with his withering appraisal. When he gets kicked out of his pricey Manhattan private school due to academic shortcomings, Albie must deal with his parents’ outbursts and his own dizzying emotions. This marks a turning point, though; with his move to P.S. 183, he gains an ally in a fellow outcast, the stuttering Betsy, and his new babysitter, free-wheeling art student Calista, listens to him in a way the other adults in his life do not. These relationships carry him through some improbable plot twists into understanding and self-acceptance. The prose is sparse, simple and conversational, capturing turmoil both internal and external perfectly: “Potential. Struggling. Achievement gap.

[These are words] that make my dad slam his fist on the table and call my teacher to shout…and my mom to go out and buy fruit. When Mom comes back with strawberries, her face is always crystal clear. Not an almost-crying face at all. I used to really like strawberries.”

Achingly superb, Albie’s story shines. (Fiction. 8-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

HERMELIN THE DETECTIVE MOUSE

Grey, Mini Illus. by Grey, Mini Knopf (32 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-385-75433-0 978-0-385-75434-7 PLB It’s a terrible thing for Hermelin to be so cruelly misjudged, especially when the mouse’s single aim is to help the hapless people of Offley Street.

Hermelin is a natural-born detective. So when he discovers the street’s notice board plastered with despairing |

announcements of lost this or possibly stolen that, he’s on the case. The mouse easily locates Mrs. Mattison’s handbag behind some lettuce in her fridge. He finds Bobo the teddy bear, too, dropped from an attic window into Capt. Potts’ cooling lemon-meringue pie. As he solves each mystery, he leaves an explanatory note signed “Hermelin.” But who is Hermelin?

The baffled villagers lure the mysterious hero with a thank-you party at Bosher’s sausage shop. When the little mouse shows up for his big moment, however, the terrified party-givers scream “MOUSE!” How could such a benevolent mouse-detective be perceived as a disease-spreading pest? Hermelin spirals into a full-blown identity crisis, brilliantly captured in nightmarish, comic-book–style panels. All ends well when a girl named Emily sees Hermelin for who he really is. Comical visual details abound, and each stamp-sized window of the Offley Street townhomes is a story in miniature, evoking all the wonder and delight of an advent calendar.

Grey brings her hilarious, cartoonish-yet-artful Traction Man sensibilities to this winsome story of the importance of transcending stereotypes, especially when it comes to mouse detectives. (Picture book. 5-8)

RESURRECTION

Hager, Mandy Pyr/Prometheus Books (368 pp.) $17.99 | $11.99 e-book | Aug. 12, 2014 978-1-61614-909-3 978-1-61614-910-9 e-book Series: Blood of the Lamb, 3 The Blood of the Lamb trilogy concludes.

After her near-fatal illness in Into the Wilderness (2014), Maryam prepares to leave the refugee camp and return to Onewēre. Though Onewēre and its white religious zealots are dangerous, she must return, armed as she is with a cure for the plague Te Matee Iai. Her dearest friend, Ruth—now pregnant following a rape—is determined to stay and teach her fellow refugees, leaving Maryam to tough out the return journey alone. Maryam’s shocked when her former enemy, Lazarus, follows her home, as she’s oblivious to his developing affections. The escape from the camp, sea journey and island survival adventure are well-enough-paced, but once Maryam and Lazarus arrive back home, momentum grinds to a halt. For more than half the novel, Maryam and Lazarus are caught in an endless, bleak cycle: distrustful arguments with each other, gushing bodily fluids of all sorts, shared capture, sexual violence, degradation by their enemies, brief hope. Lather, rinse, repeat. Without any further development, the trilogy’s every weakness is accentuated, not least the inexplicable primitive naïveté of Maryam’s people, as vulnerable to pseudo-Christian trickery as if their pre-apocalypse society had never been part of the industrial world.

In this conclusion, coarseness is used as a substitute for realism, despair as a substitute for character growth: skip.

(Post-apocalyptic romance. 15-17)

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MADDIE’S DREAM

of townsfolk involved widens, Morgan fears that she may be the next “accident” victim.

The teen’s likable, tenacious character and the story’s Hollywood-like ending keep this debut on the lighter side, making it just right for late-summer beach reading.

(Thriller. 13-18)

Hapka, Catherine Aladdin (208 pp.) $16.99 | $6.99 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4814-0337-5 978-1-4814-0336-8 paper Series: Ponies of Chincoteague, 1 Yet another horse series begins.

Though Maddie doesn’t own Cloudy, a Chincoteague pony she rides in weekly lessons, she feels as though she does.

She’s part of a small online group of girls who ride ponies originally born on Assateague Island—made famous by Marguerite Henry’s classic Misty of Chincoteague—and loves to exchange posts with them. But now Cloudy’s former owners, who didn’t know much about training horses, are thinking about buying her back from the stable that owns her. Maddie’s distraught.

She comes up with various plans to either scare off the former owners or buy Cloudy herself, even though it’s pretty clear her family can’t afford to board a pony. Her online friends offer encouragement but no solutions. That’s OK, though—the problem disappears by itself when the former owners discover new interests, and Maddie’s free to ride with a light heart. Most middle-graders like plots in their novels, as well as defined characters, but hey, these are special Chincoteague ponies—they’re exciting all on their own, for the length of one book at least. If the sequels fail to deliver the plot and characterization of the books this series is based on, though, they will likely drive readers back to Misty and her companions.

Fuel for horse-obsessed readers who have finished the Marguerite Henry originals. (Fiction. 8-12)

FORGET ME

Harrington, K.A. Putnam (288 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 7, 2014 978-0-399-16529-0 Her boyfriend was supposed to be dead.

It’s been three months since Morgan’s secretive, aloof boyfriend, Flynn, died in a hit-and-run accident. In her economically depressed central Massachusetts town, in which Stell Pharmaceuticals went under and brought down other businesses with it, everyone’s moved on—except Morgan. In an attempt at closure, the teen enters Flynn’s photo into “FriendShare,” a social media facial-recognition program. She finds only questions, though, when his photo brings up an identical look-alike named Evan in a neighboring town. Morgan can’t help but wonder if her exboyfriend was a liar—and even if he’s really dead. Her evenly paced, past-tense narration recounts her investigation to discover the real identities of both Flynn and Evan—or if they’re one and the same. In the process, she finds a clean romance and a dirty conspiracy involving Stell Pharmaceuticals. As the ring 100

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DEMON DERBY

Harris, Carrie Delacorte (304 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | $20.99 PLB Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-385-74217-7 978-0-307-97420-4 e-book 978-0-375-99045-8 PLB A resolutely tough cancer survivor winds up battling more than just the opposing team when she goes out for roller derby and comes face to face with supernatural enemies in this fast-paced, often funny offering about demon hunters.

In remission from leukemia, ninjutsu black belt Casey still struggles with the fear that she may not be able to rely on her body and with her family and friends’ sharpened concern for her health. When a strange figure whose eyes seem to burst into flame attacks her at a party, her panic that she is hallucinating spurs her to go out for the Apocalypsies, a roller derby team, to prove that she’s as strong as ever. There is plenty to keep readers engaged here, including creepy demons of all descriptions and Casey’s swoon-worthy love interest, Michael, who quickly brings her up to speed regarding the rules of demon hunting.

Casey herself is a likable narrator, able to catch her own mistakes and self-aware enough to know that feeling vulnerable makes her angry and that she channels that anger outward to cope with it. Both the descriptions of the derby tryouts and the details of demon hunting seem a bit overcomplicated at times, but they don’t diminish the overall appeal of the book.

A paranormal adventure with both style and heart (on wheels). (Paranormal romance. 12-18)

THE ISOBEL JOURNAL

Harrop, Isobel Switch/Capstone (208 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-63079-003-5

Glimpses of the life of the titular Isobel, who sees herself as “just a girl from where nothing really happens,” presented as a charmingly idiosyncratic scrapbook.

Divided into three sections—Me; Friends, Otters, College & Art; and Love—the journal is immediately immersive, placing readers directly into Isobel’s world. It assumes those readers are sympathetically thumbing through its pages, nodding and saying, “oh, me, too!” The narrative is very loosely structured

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“[T]his lively, upbeat and all-around-awesome offering is consistently convivial and laugh-out-loud funny from cover to cover.” from comics squad

around Harrop’s life-as-inner-monologue, filled with references to Beyonce, friends, British pop stars, thrift shopping and tea.

Readers meet family members (but only as a point of reference), and though Harrop sketches her friends, imbuing each miniportrait with real personality and a rather Sendak-ian verve, they don’t play roles in any anecdotes or stories. Indeed, the entire concept of story is beside the point here, as Harrop’s work reads like a Tumblr re-organized by hashtag rather than by date.

Although most illustrations are by hand and Harrop includes pages scanned in from her actual diary, the overall conceit is of an online commonplace book brought into print. Some readers may wonder about the point of such an exercise. These readers are not the intended audience, who will see themselves, their interests and their remix approach to life reflected in the many pages of impossibly cute animal drawings and Lauren Child– like collages of sketches and photographs.

A trifle—but a sustaining one. (Graphic memoir. 12-16)

THE PRINCESS AND THE PRESENTS

Hart, Caryl Illus. by Warburton, Sarah Nosy Crow/Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-7636-7398-7

Bright candy colors and rhyming text characterize this tale of an utterly self-centered princess and her gentle dad, the king.

Princess Ruby’s birthday is coming up, and she wants a zillion presents, and she wants the best party, and she has the palace staff and her father at a run. Even her frizzy hair looks demanding. When the big day finally comes, she opens the biggest present and demands more. Well, there are presents everywhere: on the stairs, in all the bedrooms and even piled in the bathrooms. Ruby is delighted until an ominous cracking and creaking reveal the palace is about to collapse under the weight of all the gifts. The king sends Ruby outside to safety, and she tells him he must rescue every single present! When the castle does indeed collapse, Ruby realizes that what is dearest to her is her dad, and with the help of firefighters and citizenry, the king is found safe, protected by the cardboard box that held her treehouse. Undergoing a complete change of heart, Ruby serves a little cake and tea to everyone, and she “live[s] happily ever after / with her daddy in the tree.” The predominant color for everything is an acid pink, although the last image fades to a prettier pastel palette.

Ruby is so repellent before her metamorphosis readers will be hard put to care for her when it comes. (Picture book.

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COMICS SQUAD Recess!

Holm, Jennifer L.; Holm, Matthew; Krosoczka, Jarrett J.–Eds. Random House (144 pp.) $7.99 | $7.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-385-37003-5 978-0-385-37005-9 e-book An all-star comics anthology tackles everyone’s favorite subject: recess.

Comics veterans and masters celebrate recess with favorite characters from Babymouse to Lunch Lady as well as stories from such acclaimed creators as Printz winner Gene Luen Yang and Eisner winner Raina Telgemeier. In Yang’s ebullient “The Super-Secret Ninja Club,” nerdy Daryl turns the tables on his friends when he immerses himself in the way of the ninja. In Eric Wight’s imaginative “Freeze Tag,” a lovable cupcake named Jiminy Sprinkles takes on the Mean Green Gang (consisting of a cucumber, broccoli, a green bean, a green pepper and their leader, a brussels sprout) for a game of freeze tag aided by some superpowers and a peppermint candy. Captain Underpants’ creator Dav Pilkey amuses with his “Book ’Em, Dog Man,” a story within a story about an evil cat determined to dumb down the world by destroying all books. Fans of Krosoczka’s Lunch Lady series will delight in seeing Betty as the star of her own story, in which she must take down a perilous pizza monster. Anthologies can sometimes suffer from unevenness, when some pieces seem to be more filler than substance; this lively, upbeat and allaround-awesome offering is consistently convivial and laughout-loud funny from cover to cover.

More fun than the playground at recess! (Graphic anthology. 7-12)

CONVERSION

Howe, Katherine Putnam (448 pp.) $18.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-399-16777-5 Fingers are pointed and chaos ensues when a group of high-achieving high school seniors begin exhibiting bizarre behaviors in an all-girls private school located in Danvers, Massachusetts—formerly known as Salem Village.

After queen bee Clara Rutherford falls into a seizure at St. Joan’s, and her best friends are similarly afflicted, fellow student Colleen Rowley receives anonymous texts that urge her to study Arthur Miller’s The Crucible for clues. More girls fall victim to the seizures, and reporters and environmental crusaders descend on Danvers. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health finally declares that the girls are suffering from “conversion disorder,” an illness in which the body “converts” stress into physical symptoms. But after seeing how one of her friends seemed to disperse her sadness over a doomed love affair into

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“This wholly imagined fantasy is well–fleshed-out and keeps the pages flying with its extremely clever story within a story.” from viminy crowe’s comic book

other people, Colleen wonders if supernatural powers may be at play. In parallel chapters, Ann Putnam, a primary figure in the actual Salem witch trials, confesses to her local minister that she and the other accusers were lying when they named people as witches. The richly drawn characters and period language of the familiar Salem story are far more compelling than the stereotypically rendered Danvers teens. After a deliberate buildup of escalating tension and suspense in the contemporary narrative, Howe hastily wraps up the story based on actual events that took place in La Roy, New York, in 2012 with a series of unsatisfactory solutions that are dropped on the reader with little or no ceremony.

Slow boil, flat finish. (author’s note) (Fiction. 13-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

DIGBY O’DAY IN THE FAST LANE

Hughes, Shirley Illus. by Vulliamy, Clara Candlewick (128 pp.) $12.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7369-7 Series: Digby O’Day, 1

Mother-daughter, author-illustrator team Hughes and Vulliamy collaborate for a low-key tale with an old-fashioned feel, decidedly British flavor and cheerful illustrations.

Digby O’Day and his best friend, Percy, are anthropomorphic dogs in natty suits. Digby’s neighbor (and nemesis) Lou Ella is a stylish young woman with a fondness for fast cars. Secondary characters range from human (the members of the “friendly family,” among others), to badger (entrepreneurial brothers Don and Ron Barrakan), to various other, unnamed animals.

The slight plot focuses on an auto race from one small town to another; the message, meanwhile, has more to do with kindness and altruism versus thoughtlessness and selfishness. Spelling has been Americanized, but some vocabulary may momentarily stump readers on this side of the Atlantic. Red-and-pink–tinged illustrations, created with pencil, ink and digital collage, appear on every page, breaking up the text, adding humor and clearly depicting the events as described in the straightforward text.

A simple map allows readers to follow the racers along their routes. A two-page profile of Digby precedes the first chapter; car games, a quiz, drawing prompts, and brief bios of the author and illustrator as well as a preview of the next book follow the final one.

Digby and Percy are slated to return in additional adventures; whether they can win the contest to capture the interest of young readers and listeners remains to be seen. (Fiction. 6-8)

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VIMINY CROWE’S COMIC BOOK

Jocelyn, Marthe; Scrimger, Richard Illus. by Dávila, Claudia Tundra (336 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | May 13, 2014 978-1-770-49479-4 978-1-770-49480-0 e-book A harmonious blend of narrative and intertwined graphic sequences finds two preteens at a comics convention closer to the action than they ever imagined.

Wild-haired Addy Crowe, accompanied by her best friend, Catnip the rat, is helping her uncle, Viminy Crowe, at his booth at the International Comic Book Festival in Toronto. Viminy is the creator of Flynn Goster, the favorite comic of Wylder Wallace, a young attendee at the convention whose mother worries over him endlessly. A magical trip to a convention-hall bathroom sends the two young heroes (and Catnip) through a portal and into the pages of Viminy’s comic. As in real life, their presence in his comic begins to change the course of events. Can the kids change it back before Viminy’s publisher sees it—or before they get killed? The book’s creators clearly had a grand time, filling it with fantastic steampunk creations such as mechanizmos, robot goons with human skin who transform into vulturelike robot birds, and VaporLinks, a robot-assisted form of telegram, and cleverly named characters like the villainous Aldous Lickpenny. This wholly imagined fantasy is well-fleshed-out and keeps the pages flying with its extremely clever story within a story. As it embraces so many different genres and formats— comics, steampunk, adventure—expect this to resonate with a wide readership.

A thrilling and imaginative reminder that adventure and magic can be found anywhere, especially where one least expects it—and even if your mother texts you incessantly. (Fantasy/steampunk. 8-12) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

BREATHE, ANNIE, BREATHE

Kenneally, Miranda Sourcebooks Fire (304 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4022-8479-3

Running the marathon that her boyfriend can’t will change Annie’s life—and not just for 26 miles.

It’s been months since her boyfriend, Kyle, was killed in a car accident, right after he and Annie had reconciled from a fight about their futures. To deal with her grief, Annie resolves to run the Music City Marathon, the race Kyle was training for when he died. The training doesn’t come easily to her—she’s slow, her knees hurt, her stomach is sensitive, and there’s even some embarrassing chafing. But her coach, Matt, and her new

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running friends keep cheering her on, not to mention Matt’s brother, Jeremiah, a daredevil who makes Annie feel so many things: fear, guilt, lust…and maybe love? But to move on with Jere, Annie will have to make peace with the loss of Kyle, while adjusting to leaving home and starting college. If she keeps breathing, she might just make it. While experienced runners might question pitfalls that don’t seem to negatively affect Annie’s running times, most readers will be more frustrated with the stop-and-start progress of her relationship with Jere.

More importantly, though, Annie’s grieving and growth are realistic, and she makes it to the starting line in the best shape— physical and emotional—to tackle the challenges ahead.

Despite the racing theme, a pleasingly deliberate look at grief and healing. (Fiction. 14-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

INTO THE GREY

Kiernan, Celine Candlewick (304 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-0-7636-7061-0

Irish fantasist Kiernan (The Poison Throne, 2010, etc.) explores the dynamics of love and loss.

In 1974, 15-year-old identical twins Pat and Dom move with their family into a drab summer cottage after their senile grandmother inadvertently burns down their house. Nerves still raw from the disruption of their lives and the loss of their home, the twins start to have strange dreams. Then Pat hears Dom talking in the night and sees a goblin-boy peering down from the bunk above him. The harrowing series of events that follows convinces Pat that he’s losing his brother: Dom becomes possessed by a 10-year-old boy stuck in a gray fog that’s neither this world nor the next, endlessly searching for his twin, a soldier who died in the trenches of World War I. Pat’s narration is marked by vivid descriptions and consistently polished, wellpaced prose: “Yesterday morning, I’d had a brother. I’d had a best friend. He’d been fun. He’d been interesting: my slow-burn, articulate counterweight. Now I was lopsided, a boat with one paddle, rowing frantically and spinning in a slow, maddening circle around the space that should have been him.” The otherworldly goings-on are grounded in the family lives of the village their Nan grew up in, adding intriguing nuances to the psychological drama.

A gripping, highly original ghost story. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

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50 BODY QUESTIONS A Book That Spills Its Guts

Kyi, Tanya Lloyd Illus. by Kinnaird, Ross Annick Press (108 pp.) $22.95 | $14.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-55451-613-1 978-1-55451-612-4 paper Series: 50 Questions Anatomy and physiology presented in a readable, comprehensible and entertaining format.

One of the 50 Questions series, this effort presents a tour of the systems of the human body through the use of chapterheading questions. Most questions imbue a level of humor to the presentation: “Is [the heart] a pump or a love machine?” or “Is there snot in your stomach?” These might irritate the most serious students, but many more will be intrigued enough to read further. Detailed information is presented in a conversational style. Ample, accurate scientific details are broken into short sections that make the complexity of the human body more comprehensible and may inspire more in-depth research.

The inclusion of brief, illuminating historical anecdotes—for example, a fur trader who had a hole shot in his stomach in 1822 and lived to tell the tale—provides a context for our current understanding of the human body. Occasional references to recent technology, like an implanted microchip to control building electronics, are sure to awe readers. A smattering of experiments, including one to make synthetic mucus, offer yet another dimension. Kinnaird’s quirky, generally silly, cartoonlike illustrations pepper the pages, adding flavor and flair. End material, particularly the outstanding sources used for chapter notes, elevates this offering even further.

A tour (de force) through the human body that’s eminently understandable and entertaining and even often quite funny. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

THE HALF LIFE OF MOLLY PIERCE

Leno, Katrina HarperTeen (240 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-223117-8 978-0-06-223119-2 e-book In a fast-moving thriller, a depressed teen must piece together why she keeps blacking out and losing time and why everyone around her seems to know a secret.

Ever since her suicide attempt a year earlier, Molly explains to the reader in breathless and moody prose, “[t]here are long stretches where I don’t remember anything.” Coming back to consciousness one afternoon in her car, having apparently skipped school, she sees a boy on a motorcycle weave through traffic and collide violently with a truck. Thrown both by the

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Ruin and Rising

By Leigh Bardugo 448 pp. | $18.99 Age Range: 13 & Up Grisha Trilogy, 3

Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders

By Geoff Herbach 320 pp. | $16.99 Age Range: 13-17

When the dance team purloins the band’s funding, a fat boy fights back.

Gabe, so fat that even his friends and teachers call him Chunk, has two joys: playing in the school band, his sole source of self-worth, and soda from the vending machine that funds the band.

Both joys are stolen from him. Tired of being a joke and pushover, Gabe fights back, organizing a campaign to save band camp. The animosity between band geeks and jocks quickly escalates. A funny popcorn read with more fiber than empty calories.

The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim

By E.K. Johnston 312 pp. | $17.95 Age Range: 12-18

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Photo courtesy Gretchen Adams Photography

Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy comes to a thunderous conclusion. If opener Shadow and Bone was a magical coming-of-age story and middle-volume Siege and Storm was a political thriller, then this third book is an epic quest. Every time readers may think she’s written herself into a corner, Bardugo pulls off a twist that, while surprising, will keep them turning pages furiously. Triumphant.

had its own dragon slayer, but those days are long gone; now, slayers are drafted by governments or sponsored by corporations. Sixteen-year-old Owen Thorskard, scion of a renowned line, wants to help reverse that—starting with the rural Canadian town of Trondheim. It may “[take] a village to train a dragon slayer,” but it takes an exceptional dragon slayer to deserve a village—and a storyteller—like this one.

Complicit

By Stephanie Kuehn 256 pp. | $19.99 Age Range: 14-18

A bright, conflicted hero struggles to free himself from the past’s tightening bonds in this corkscrew of a thriller. After their troubled young mother’s death in an accidental shooting, Jamie and Cate were adopted by loving, affluent parents in Danville, California, themselves still grieving the loss of their two biological children in a car accident. Jamie becomes a high-performing student and talented pianist, while Cate, still passionately loyal to the mother Jamie barely remembers, grows into a wild, reckless teen. Smart, gripping genre fiction.

Say What You Will

By Cammie McGovern 352 pp. | $17.99 Age Range: 14-17

Crushes, missteps and genuine loyalty on the road to deep friendship. As she enters her senior year of high school, Amy—hemiplegic due to an aneurism following her premature birth and near the top of her class—uses her augmentative and assistive communication device to argue successfully that she needs peer helpers in school rather than adult aides. Her mother, Nicole, is dubious, but Amy knows which buttons to push. Ultimately, a deeply engaging and rewarding story.

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The Prince of Venice Beach

blue ink, Jillian Tamaki’s illustrations feature strong, fluid lines, and the detailed backgrounds and stunning twopage spreads throughout the work establish the mood and a compelling sense of place. Keenly observed and gorgeously illustrated—a triumph.

By Blake Nelson 240 pp. | $18.00 Age Range: 12-18

A teenage beach bum turns private eye in this unexpectedly sweet story about friendship and loss from the author of Paranoid Park. Robert “Cali” Callahan ran away from his Nebraska foster home when he was 14. Now 17, he lives in a kind hippie’s backyard treehouse in Venice Beach, California, roams the boardwalk on his skateboard, plays basketball and tries to avoid trouble. When he is asked by a frustrated private investigator to locate another runaway, Cali discovers a natural talent for finding people.

The ending hints at Cali’s willingness to take on fresh cases, and readers can only hope that a new teenage private detective series is in the works.

No Summit Out of Sight

By Jordan Romero and Linda LeBlanc 368 pp. | $17.99 Age Range: 12-16 The true story of a 10-year-old who climbed to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and subsequently summited the tallest mountains on the other six continents by the age of 15.

Now 17 (and with the assistance of LeBlanc), Jordan vividly chronicles his preparation for the climbs, his impressions of the countries he visited, the dangers and thrills of the ascents, and the physical and emotional endurance required to achieve his goals. Romero’s incredible, inspiring story may not inspire all readers to become recordsetting mountaineers, but it will motivate them to set sights on goals of their own to achieve.

This One Summer

By Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki; illustrated by Jillian Tamaki 320 pp. | $17.99 Age Range: 13 & up

Confessions of the Very ) First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of

By F.J.R. Titchenell 304 pp. | $14.99 Age Range: 12-16

The zombie apocalypse begins on a Venturer Scout camping trip in the hills outside of Los Angeles when Cassie’s would-be boyfriend, Mark, reanimates after an unfortunate paintball accident. It soon becomes appallingly clear that Mark is just the first in a sudden, worldwide phenomenon. In very short order, Cassie and five other camping-trip refugees find themselves in a van headed across the country in hopes of finding the twin sister of one of her companions alive in New York City. Heartbreak, humor, a very large number of crushed skulls and even romance ensue. Readers who don’t mind a little brain spatter on the windshield will be happy they took this particular trip.

On the Road to Find Out

By Rachel Toor 320 pp. | $17.99 Age Range: 12-18

In a light and gently humorous romance, self-centered Alice learns to run, to cope with disappointment and to consider other people’s feelings. Alice is heartsick after Yale rejects her Early Action application. However, as a family friend both wise and wisecracking points out in a heavyhanded but nonetheless insightful speech, her crushed feeling is less about Yale itself than about not having gotten her own way. Lessons—of the life-skills variety and the SAT-vocabulary variety—are many, but the vibrant characters and lively dialogue make them easy to digest.

Warm, funny and wise.

A summer of family drama, secrets and change in a small beach town. Rose’s family has always vacationed in Awago Beach. It’s “a place where beer grows on trees and everyone can sleep in until eleven,” but this year’s getaway is proving less idyllic than those of the past. Rose’s parents argue constantly, and she is painfully aware of her mother’s unhappiness. Printed in dark |

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“This book is notable for its matter-of-fact depiction of an atypical family, the same-sex couple and their ethnically diverse children— two white, one African-American, one adopted from India.” from the misadventures of the family fletcher

accident, which leads to the boy Lyle’s death, and by Lyle’s insistence that he knows her, Molly withdraws further. Her one comfort is Sayer, Lyle’s brother, with whom Molly feels an instant bond, though she quickly realizes Sayer knows more than he’s telling. The book has an almost noir tone. Molly’s confusion, fear and pervasive depression create a dark atmosphere, even as short paragraphs and sentence fragments establish a relentless pace. What readers learn as Molly’s memories start to come back answers most of the story’s questions, but a touch anticlimactically: No one really needed to die in a motorcycle accident for the truth to be revealed.

Enjoyably suspenseful, even if the stakes aren’t as high as they seem. (Suspense. 14-18)

THE MISADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FLETCHER

Levy, Dana Alison Delacorte (272 pp.) $15.99 | $10.99 e-book | $18.99 PLB Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-385-37652-5 978-0-385-37653-2 e-book 978-0-385-37654-9 PLB Four lively adopted boys, two dads and a grouchy new neighbor star in this modern family comedy.

Trying new things, dealing with difficult choices, and the joys and frustrations of life in a large family are all pieces of this humorous tale. Changing points of view in each chapter track each boy’s particular issues as the third-person narrative chronicles the school year. Readers who get past the slow beginning will end up fully engaged with these characters and wanting more. Soccer-playing sixth-grader Sam stars in the school musical. Fourth-grader Jax can’t find a way to connect with their unfriendly neighbor for an interview for a school report—and he’s losing his best friend. Eli has chosen to spend his fourthgrade year at a school for academically gifted children that supports his talents but offers few physical outlets or social rewards. And who can believe in the existence of 6-year-old Frog’s new friend when he’s accompanied to kindergarten by an invisible cheetah? This book is notable for its matter-of-fact depiction of an atypical family, the same-sex couple and their ethnically diverse children­—two white, one African-American, one adopted from India. The boys are very different from one another but closely tied with warm family bonds. Their banter is realistic, and the disorder of their everyday lives, convincing.

The Fletcher family rules! (Fiction. 8-12)

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HOT ROD HAMSTER AND THE WACKY WHATEVER RACE!

Lord, Cynthia Illus. by Paprocki, Greg Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | $3.99 paper | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-69442-1 978-0-545-62678-1 paper Series: Hod Rod Hamster

Hot Rod Hamster makes his earlyreader debut.

On his way to visit Dog in the junkyard, Hot Rod Hamster spies a sign in the auto-shop window advertising a Wacky Whatever Race. He likes the idea of fun and prizes, and he really loves to go superfast. He signs up and accepts the list of rules. Enlisting the help of the mice and Dog, Hot Rod Hamster makes a dragster out of a box. After choosing wheels and a paint job, he’s got his vehicle. Will it go fast enough? Can he win without letting his feet touch the ground? Of course he can, and finding out how will elicit giggles. Following in the recent footsteps of Pete the Cat and Fancy Nancy, among others, Lord’s Hot Rod Hamster makes the jump from picture book to early reader.

The tale is sufficiently different from his other adventures to give fans something new, but guarding against shock, it includes familiar characters and motivations as well as the signature line, “Which would you choose?” The rhythm of the rhyming portions is thrown a bit by speech bubbles, and the interior art by Paprocki is less detailed than the Derek Anderson originals on which it’s based. However, Hot Rod Hamster fans comfortable with the conventions of comics will doubtless enjoy.

A good addition to the shelves of familiar-character– based readers. (Early reader. 4-8)

COIN HEIST

Ludwig, Elisa Adaptive Studios (302 pp.) $7.99 e-book | Jun. 10, 2014 978-1-63295-016-1 After an embezzlement fiasco sends their school into bankruptcy, four teens with little in common unite to pull off a massive heist in order to save it.

This first offering from a publisher that repurposes abandoned intellectual property (apparently mostly movies ideas) brings together a slacker, a nerd, an athlete and a teacher’s pet. Given this origin story, readers should probably not be surprised to find that Ludwig has crafted a Breakfast Club for millennials—but not without some bumps. The heist elements are perfectly serviceable, but the strength of this novel version is in the characterwork. This band of rogues is infinitely more interesting than the con they’re trying to pull off, with revolving point-of-view chapters further fleshing them out as the novel carries on. The heist is certainly imaginative, but when the novel pulls away

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THE SECRET OF THE KEY

from Dakota’s perfection complex or Jason’s inferiority issues to look at security measures and hacker nonsense, it’s hard to avoid feeling let down. The two components—character and plot—can’t work together when one so clearly outshines the other, and the result is an uneven read. Underlining this issue is the finale, which feels rushed and cut short, as if the author doesn’t know what to do with these people once the titular event has taken place.

Frustratingly erratic. (Thriller. 12-16)

WILD

Mallory, Alex HarperTeen (448 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-06-221874-2 978-0-06-221876-6 e-book Overcoming a slow start and a cacophony of voices, this novel combines adventure and romance into an engaging read.

While their fellow seniors head to Orlando for spring break, Dara and her boyfriend, Josh, decide to camp in the Daniel Boone National Forest. The forest is home to trees, animals—and a teenager named Cade, who has lived there since his parents fled from society 15 years before.

When he sees Dara, Cade is entranced, and the feeling is mutual once they meet. A bear attack forces Dara and Josh to bring an injured Cade out of the forest and into society. Dubbed the Primitive Boy once the story breaks, Cade is left reeling by this strange new world. Only Dara can help him…and that’s what Dara wants, too. The connection between them is undeniable, but it’s a struggle to nurture a romance under such conditions. To be together, will they choose to live in the woods or in the world? The story doesn’t really start until the bear attack occurs. Mallory tells her story in multiple voices; the choice to go beyond Cade and Dara to include other characters’ perspectives facilitates the sharing of information with readers yet dilutes the emotional impact.

Nevertheless, that impact is still made, and Cade and Dara’s struggle to be together shines. (Adventure/romance.

14-18)

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Malone, Marianne Illus. by Call, Greg Random House (256 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-307-97721-2 978-0-307-97723-6 e-book 978-0-307-97722-9 PLB Series: Sixty-Eight Rooms, 4 In the concluding Sixty-Eight Rooms adventure, Ruthie and Jack finally recognize the enormous power and great danger that magic can bring.

In the past, shrinking down and exploring the miniature Thorne Rooms was thrilling. Who wouldn’t want to explore more? But Ruthie and Jack don’t know the full extent of the magic. A letter they find from Narcissa Thorne, the woman who created the Thorne Rooms, puts everything into perspective.

The warning of danger becomes all too real. Cycling through more time-travel excursions than ever before—some only a scant five pages long and some with no apparent purpose to the narrative—Ruthie and Jack find themselves in multiple cities of 18th-century England, in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion in China and, through a surprising portal, at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Along the way they learn more rules of time travel and realize that it is possible to get stuck in a time period with no way of return. Multiple adventures and seemingly tense moments should spark the pace, but the story plods along, never reaching its full potential. (By book’s end, the magic may need to be shut off, but the opportunity to reignite it still exists.

Malone is keeping options open.)

A disappointing (probable) end to a series that should have been better, given its promising concept. (Fantasy. 8-12)

REVOLUTIONARY

McGee, Krista Thomas Nelson (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-4016-8876-9 Series: Anomaly Trilogy, 3 The final installment in the evangelical-dystopian Anomaly trilogy keeps the tension cranked up to 11.

Thalli finds herself transported back to the State, still under control of the evil Scientist Dr. Loudin. Thalli will discover numerous, ever changing evil schemes that Loudin advances and abandons as she constantly seeks escape and alternates between despair at her abandonment by the Designer (her usual name for God) and heartfelt belief that the Designer will conquer all. She still loves longtime heartthrob Berk, but she also feels friendship and loyalty to Alex. Even as she struggles with these conflicting feelings, Thalli and her friends try to battle the cartoonishly evil Loudin. The representation of faith comes

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across as completely sincere and believable. However, McGee appears not to have planned out her plotline, leaving it with a moment-by-moment feel. Loudin needs Alex’s abilities, but later, it turns out that he really doesn’t. He wants to control all the surviving cities in the world but later decides to nuke them.

Thalli fights off “weak” Loudin “as easily as if he were a child,” but two pages later, Loudin overcomes a strong young man. The impression left is that the point is simply to pitch Thalli against Loudin in numerous different scenarios until it’s time to end the book.

The faith is fervent, but the story is just a mess. (Dystopian romance. 12-18)

BRINGING DOWN THE MOUSE

Mezrich, Ben Simon & Schuster (336 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4424-9626-2 978-1-4424-9632-3 e-book

Math, chemistry and a little physics look to defeat midway games at a Florida theme park.

Pleased to be asked to join a group of smart, interesting kids to work on a secret project, sixth-grader Charlie “Numbers” Lewis goes along with a plan to win a contest at Incredo Land. Thrillerwriter Mezrich brings themes he’s used in popular adult titles including Bringing Down the House (2002) to his first middlegrade foray. Charlie has a perfectly good group of long-time friends, known as the Geek Squad (or Dork Brigade, or Nerd Herd…), whom he nearly abandons in favor of the Carnival Killers, led by two supercool seventh graders and a beautiful teacher’s aide. He spends all his free time practicing midway gaming skills and thinking about defeating the Wheel of Wonder so that when he and best friend Jeremy go on the class trip, he can win the park’s annual contest. Oddly, his friends don’t mind; when Charlie needs them, they step up to make his final triumph possible. The author’s breathless writing leans heavily on telling rather than showing. The middle school bullies are overdrawn, and the quirkiness of Charlie’s friends is exaggerated. There’s more sensation than substance in this page-turner.

Fast-paced and full of behind-the-scenes detail, this will be an easy sell to readers not too picky about their prose. (Thriller. 10-14)

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GREENGLASS HOUSE

Milford, Kate Illus. by Zollars, Jaime HMH Books (384 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-544-05270-3 978-0-544-05555-1 e-book When his parents’ hotel fills up with a variety of unexpected guests just days before Christmas, Milo is caught up in mysterious goings-on.

The inn, hospitable to smugglers and named for its colored glass windows, sits on cliffs above the river Skidwrack. With the holiday interrupted by the demands of guests iced in by wintry weather, Milo finds both purpose and distraction in a role-playing game introduced by his new young friend, Meddy, and in a book of folklore given to him by a guest. A ghost story, a love story, a story of fabled relics and the tale of a legendary smuggler intertwine while Milo, in his game persona, finds longed-for skills and strengths. Each guest seeks a secret treasure in the old house, while Milo, out of loyalty to his adoptive parents, hardly dares name his own secret quest: to know more about his Chinese heritage. Milford’s storytelling is splendid. Stories within the story are rich and layered; clues are generously offered; even the badly behaved visitors seem fairly good-humored until the worst reveals true perfidy at the last; the many threads of the tale all tie up. Milo’s world seems comfortably contemporary; the current history of his parallel world is mostly background that’s revealed at the close.

An abundantly diverting mystery seasoned with mild fantasy and just a little steampunk. (Mystery/fantasy. 10-14)

PILLS AND STARSHIPS

Millet, Lydia Black Sheep/Akashic (256 pp.) $18.95 | $11.95 paper | Jun. 3, 2014 978-1-61775-275-9 978-1-61775-276-6 paper Millet imagines a dystopic near future in which the well-heeled make death a family affair.

Their parents have brought Nat, 16, and her brother, Sam, 14, to the island of Hawaii to witness their chosen death in a six-day, drug-drenched farewell ceremony, carefully scripted by its corporate sponsor.

Even for the well-off, long life in a world of anoxic oceans and animal extinctions no longer appeals. Like most other kids, Nat’s resigned to a future without parents; rebellious Sam is less accepting. When, from beneath the glossy surface, a disturbing reality begins to emerge, Nat’s emotionally flat narration makes it hard to care. Passive and without affect, she accepts her parents’ choices and later abandons her brother during a horrendous storm with elegiac regret. Despite exposition that’s rarely interrupted by dialogue, this world’s puzzlingly out of focus,

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“Spanning Aref ’s final week in Oman, this sensitive chronicle perceptively conveys the feelings and fears of a boy about to leave the known and face the unknown.” from the turtle of oman

real places carelessly portrayed. The novel’s narrative conceit has Nat explaining her story to a hypothetical distant reader.

Summarizing the action robs it of suspense and interest: Readers do not see the story unfold and watch characters act and interact, making it difficult for them to interpret their behavior for themselves.

Detail may be the lifeblood of fiction, but storytelling is its pumping heart; without it, this all-premise effort is DOA. (Science fiction. 12-16) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

THE WORST WITCH TO THE RESCUE

Murphy, Jill Illus. by Murphy, Jill Candlewick (176 pp.) $14.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-7636-6999-7

How can anyone resist a talking tortoise and a good-hearted young witch?

For the first time in many years, American readers can read more adventures of Mildred Hubble, the lovable, accident-prone young witch. Returning for her second term at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches, Mildred is uncharacteristically optimistic about a fresh start. Her big idea for creating a spell that makes animals talk (at least for a little while) is unique, creative and impressive. Her notes are in order, and she is excited to present her project to the demanding Miss Hardbloom. But innocent Mildred shares her idea with her enemy, the slippery and conniving Ethel Hallow, and things go bad quickly. Her optimism disappears with her notes when evil Ethel presents Mildred’s idea as her own. Readers will cheer for the bighearted Mildred when she takes huge risks to save Einstein, her tortoise friend, and he in turn saves her. An old-fashioned tone combines with Briticisms and sophisticated vocabulary to make this a fine step up from early chapter books. Distinctively detailed blackand-white illustrations grace each spread, adding humor and information to the narrative. Mildred’s innocent expressions juxtaposed with Miss Hardbloom’s harsh eyebrows will keep young readers engaged and amused.

Heartwarming magic with just the right touch of talking toads and tortoises. (Fantasy. 8-12)

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STARBREAK

North, Phoebe Simon & Schuster (432 pp.) $17.99 | $10.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-1-4424-5956-4 978-1-4424-5958-8 e-book A teen’s predestined true love is an alien plant-boy, and her refugee spaceship needs to land on his hostile planet.

Sixteen-year-old Terra grew up on a generation ship that’s traveled for 500 years to reach the planet Zehava and colonize it (Starglass, 2013).

But for months, Terra’s dreamed of a boy who lives there already, and her dreams are correct: Zehava has inhabitants. Stealing a shuttle and crash-landing on the planet, she learns Zehava’s perils: massive carnivores and two intelligent, humanoid species who consider humans to be beasts. As an insecure teen who grows into a leader, Terra’s a character with strength and agency.

Her romance, however, is all about destiny. Her bashert (true love) is Vadix, a bright blue, bipedal extraterrestrial who’s biologically a plant, and their love, which has nothing whatsoever to do with knowing each other, is portrayed as absolute. The purple, overwritten romance (“He said my name…two syllables so ripe they dripped juice down onto the metal ground below”) is pure wish-fulfillment: Although he’s a widower, Vadix tells Terra, post-sex, “I was fallow until tonight.” His body changes color due to her love. Psychic human/extraterrestrial communication tips the genre toward fantasy, but the outer-space setting and quandaries are science fiction.

While the refugee issues are deep and Terra’s solutions, inventive and wise, this is really for fans of destiny romance. (Science fiction/romance. 12-16)

THE TURTLE OF OMAN

Nye, Naomi Shihab Greenwillow/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-06-201972-1

An enthusiastic boy from Oman has serious misgivings about temporarily moving from his homeland to Michigan.

For Aref Al-Amri, “Oman was his only, number one, super-duper, authentic, absolutely personal place,” but in one week, he and his mother will be joining his father in Ann Arbor for three years. Aref hates saying goodbye to his friends and worries about being a new, foreign kid at an American public school. He hates leaving his house, his room and his rock collection. What about his cat, Mish-Mish? Mostly, Aref dreads leaving his beloved grandfather, Sidi. As he avoids packing his suitcase, Aref savors the familiar sights, sounds and scents of his hometown, Muscat, providing readers with a rich taste of life in contemporary Oman.

Only after spending several days in Sidi’s reassuring company,

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“Paulsen never skips an opportunity for a laugh, but the tale’s truth is evident, too....” from famiily ties

FAMILY TIES The Theory, Practice, and Destructive Properties of Relatives

exploring favorite desert and seaside haunts, is Aref finally able to “make a little space for bravery inside his fear.” Spanning Aref ’s final week in Oman, this sensitive chronicle perceptively conveys the feelings and fears of a boy about to leave the known and face the unknown.

A warm and humorous peek at the profound and mundane details of moving from one country to another—a perfect pick for kids on the move. (Fiction. 8-12)

Paulsen, Gary Wendy Lamb/Random (144 pp.) $12.99 | $9.99 e-book | $15.99 PLB Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-385-37380-7 978-0-385-37382-1 e-book 978-0-385-37381-4 PLB

SHIP OF DOLLS

Parenteau, Shirley Candlewick (272 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-7636-7003-0 An 11-year-old girl living in Portland, Oregon, in 1926 learns about love when she plans to leave her protective grandparents to join her unconventional mother.

Following her father’s death and her mother’s remarriage, Lexie was sent to live with her strict paternal grandparents, who don’t approve of her free-spirited, flapper mother. When her class participates in a project to buy a doll to send with thousands of other dolls from across America to Japan for the Hinamatsuri festival, Lexie’s determined to win a contest for the best letter to accompany the doll, as the winner will attend a send-off party in San Francisco, where her mother will be singing. In her frenzy to win, Lexie disappoints her teacher, grandmother and best friend, Jack, with her thoughtless acts, mishaps and halftruths. Learning from her mistakes, Lexie drafts the perfect letter—which a classmate surreptitiously steals and successfully passes off as her own. When her grandparents sacrifice to send her to San Francisco anyway, Lexie must choose between their steady love and her mother’s frivolous affection. Period details from the actual 1926 exchange of Friendship Dolls provide fascinating context for this old-fashioned heroine’s journey of personal growth.

Historically inclined readers will enjoy this heartwarming story and its feisty heroine. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kevin, 14 and no stranger to hyperbole, is back for a fifth humor-infused outing as he tries valiantly to deal with his often bizarre extended family (Vote, 2013, etc.).

Uncle Will shows up unexpectedly with a new bride and a young stepson who’s apparently infamous for starting fires, bringing along a huge, incontinent dog for good measure. The group settles in to stay when Kevin suggests they should have a better ceremony than their justice-of-the-peace wedding the following weekend—and he’ll manage the planning. Next to arrive is dour grandmother Lucille, a clean freak, followed by Papa, Kevin’s grandfather (and Lucille’s ex-husband), and his exshowgirl girlfriend. As the week progresses, a few more motley friends descend, guaranteeing chaos on the homefront as Kevin deals with the love of his young life, Tina, at school, along with a family-related project that consumes any remaining time and involves carrying around a fake baby (made of popcorn) named Dumpster Assassin. In a departure from his other misadventures, this time Kevin seems to truly have his heart in the right place as he tries to bring order to the disparate parts and restore some missing familial affection. Paulsen never skips an opportunity for a laugh, but the tale’s truth is evident, too, as readers will readily identify with the cast of strange characters.

Another funny episode in a well-meaning (sort of, anyway) kid’s life. (Fiction. 10-14)

THE KISS OF DECEPTION

Pearson, Mary E. Henry Holt (496 pp.) $17.99 | Jul. 15, 2014 978-0-8050-9923-2 Series: Remnant Chronicles, 1

There are two sides to every story— unless there are three.

Unwilling to marry a foreign prince she’s never seen to secure a treaty between nations, Lia bolts from her father’s castle on the wedding day. She’s the king’s First Daughter, but she won’t tolerate an arranged life, no matter how old the tradition. She settles in a fishing village and works, mostly incognito, at an inn. Lia narrates in the first person, but so do two others: the jilted Prince, intrigued by and resentful at her flight, and the Assassin, sent from a third land to kill her. The boys converge on the inn and enter posing as friends, neither 110

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knowing the other’s identity, each using the ruse to his own ends.

As the text shifts to labeling each boy’s chapters by name rather than noun, Pearson plants more red herrings than truthful hints about which boy is which; some readers may guess right, while others will have it wrong until the explicit reveal. Post-reveal, the novel shifts to classic fantasy fare: travels across rough terrain; death, danger, kidnapping; romanticized Romany-esque wanderers; epic love; a magical gift of “listening without ears [and] seeing without eyes.” A bold ending whets appetites for the next installment, in which, readers will hope, the assassin will become a less cryptic character.

Slightly uneven but rich and exciting throughout. (map) (Fantasy. 14-17)

MR. WAYNE’S MASTERPIECE

Polacco, Patricia Illus. by Polacco, Patricia Putnam (40 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 12, 2014 978-0-399-16095-0

The terrible fear of speaking in public in front of others—no words will come out, no terror like it—is given passionate form in Polacco’s latest, based, as her books often are, on an event from her own life.

The Patricia of the story is the author herself as a girl, who loves to read and write but is reduced to quivering silence when asked even to read aloud. Her beloved English teacher sends her to the drama teacher, Mr. Wayne, where she takes refuge in painting scenery and listening to every word of dialogue and stage direction. Soon she is acting as prompter, as she holds the entire play in her head. When the girl playing the lead suddenly moves away without a word to anyone at the school, everyone knows only Patricia has all the words. Mr. Wayne gives Patricia the tools she needs on stage: breathe, move, “let the play take you.” And she does! The last page tells how Polacco’s Mr. Wayne helped her overcome her deep shyness, allowing her now to speak to many with joy and energy. Her usual pencil-andmarker–patterned dots, flowers and stripes adorn the exuberantly dramatized figures of teachers, students and heroine.

Like Polacco’s Thank You, Mr. Falker (1998) and others, an inspiring tale made all the more so by its roots in life.

(Picture book. 7-10)

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FRIDA & DIEGO Art, Love, Life

Reef, Catherine Clarion (176 pp.) $18.99 | Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-547-82184-9

The intertwined creative and personal lives of two trailblazing artists whose lifestyles were as avant-garde as their work.

The creative and personal lives of Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera were dramatically linked from the time they met. They initially bonded over Frida’s budding attempts at painting, but they soon fell in love. Frida’s life was complicated by injuries she carried from a serious streetcar accident that doctors had not expected her to survive. Diego was a complex man, devoted to his art and communist politics while unwilling to remain faithful to Frida. Their tumultuous relationship and her broken body were both important influences on Kahlo’s deeply personal work, while Rivera’s extensive murals and other works reflected his politics and love of the Mexican people. Reef offers a balanced and cleareyed examination of this powerful relationship, contextualizing it against the backdrop of national politics in Mexico and international change ushered in by the Great Depression and World War II. The account also cogently reveals how these shifts affected the artistic world as well. The clear narrative deftly handles complex political and artistic ideas and sheds light on how the couple’s unusual connection enhanced and occasionally detracted from their work.

The many photographs and examples of the artists’ work neatly complement the text.

Compelling reading for art lovers. (timeline, source notes, bibliography; index, not seen) (Nonfiction. 12-16)

THE PROBLEM WITH NOT BEING SCARED OF MONSTERS

Richards, Dan Illus. by Neubecker, Robert Boyds Mills (32 pp.) $15.95 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-62091-024-5

If you’re not scared of monsters, there’s no problem…right?

A boy discovers that if you aren’t afraid of monsters, they’ll think you are one of them—and they will never leave you alone.

He finds it hard to get out of bed in the morning, as the monsters all sleep with him. At school, recess can get a little out of hand when a horde of monsters joins in the games. He learns that living with monsters means there is never any hot water, and his favorite pajamas are always dirty (since the monsters borrow them). When he’s had enough and he sends them away, though, something really scary comes to his room: his little brother, who’s scared of the monsters under his bed. The older boy introduces the monsters to his little brother so they can

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enjoy a new friend. Richards’ picture-book debut is a passable addition to the dealing-with-fear-of-monsters shelf, but these monsters act more like unwanted houseguests or good-natured stalkers than something from under the bed. Furthermore, passing the annoyance on to a younger sibling doesn’t seem the best solution. Neubecker’s bright, furry, horned and tentacled monsters are more adorable than menacing, which may help allay monster fears among very timid readers.

It’s probably best to stick with Mercer Mayer’s classics or Josh Schneider’s Bedtime Monsters (2013). (Picture book. 2-5)

INLAND

Rosenfield, Kat Dutton (304 pp.) $17.99 | Jun. 12, 2014 978-0525426486 A move from Wyoming to the Gulf Coast improves Callie’s debilitating asthma while also awakening a dark inner voice that lures her toward the open ocean, where her mother drowned years earlier.

Callie and her father spent years traversing the landlocked inner United States, where Callie led the lonely life of the perpetually sickly new girl. But the move to the Gulf Coast quickly improves her health. Soon Callie gains friends and a new gregarious boyfriend, Ben. But her short-lived happiness is destroyed by a dark family secret that many readers will have guessed from the very beginning. Callie’s slow acknowledgement of her unusual heritage, in spite of copious “mysterious” clues from her maternal aunt, may build patient readers’ anticipation for the big reveal, but many will be disappointed when Callie expresses little shock, disbelief or horror when she finally understands its enormity, easily accepting her destiny. Ultimately, many questions about the family’s lineage and Callie’s mental health remain frustratingly unanswered. The story is at its best in the sensory details that create its vaguely sinister atmosphere; the way the characters all feel trapped by their small town and yet also suffer a sort of terrifying lethargy that prevents them from escaping recalls the stellar Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone (2012).

Unfortunately, both haphazard plotting and inadequate articulation of Callie’s heritage make understanding the truth of her story difficult. (Fiction. 14-18) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

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CAMP UTOPIA and the Forgiveness Diet

Ruden, Jenny Koehler Books (300 pp.) $18.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-940192-31-4

After her last-ditch effort to avoid fat camp (by going on a fad diet that promises weight loss with each act of forgiveness) fails spectacularly, Bee—angry, assertive, irreverent—faces eight weeks’ forced exile among the weight-obsessed, far from TJ. Bee, 16, is almost sure that amateur magician TJ loves her.

Trying the Forgiveness Diet was his idea; if it works, she can skip fat camp and watch him audition for American Envy. The diet is everywhere—even her sister’s obnoxious boyfriend knows about it. Still smarting from the time her estranged father pretended not to recognize her, Bee’s not in a forgiving mood. And there’s plenty to hate about Camp Utopia: California’s foggy coastal climate; the cellphone confiscation policy; weekly, humiliatingly public weigh-ins; motivational speakers.

(Satirical targets range from mainstream to countercultural.)

Marking a new low, Bee gains weight in the camp’s weight-loss competition, jeopardizing her team’s chances of winning and infuriating the captain. It’s not all bad—her loyal and equally rebellious roommates, Liliana and Tabitha, support her. Though she’s outraged at camp conformity, the cultural obsession with physical appearance, the witless narcissism hiding behind the drive for self-improvement, Bee’s hardest on herself. That passionate anger brings her dad back into her life, a letter from the Forgiveness Diet’s originator and attention from Liliana’s attractive brother.

Anarchic slapstick laced with timely truths make this wry, occasionally raunchy debut a standout. (Fiction. 14 & up)

MARINA

Ruiz Zafón, Carlos Translated by Graves, Lucia Little, Brown (320 pp.) $19.00 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-316-04471-4 978-0-316-32017-7 e-book Like Paris in Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera, Ruiz Zafón’s Barcelona is a character in its own right, linchpin for this richly atmospheric, genuinely scary tale.

Oscar Drai, 15, leads a solitary existence at his boarding school, marking time until he can escape to wander Barcelona’s cold misty streets and decaying neighborhoods. While exploring the garden of a decaying mansion, he hears a beautiful voice singing and impulsively follows it indoors to its source, an old gramophone, next to which is a pocket watch. When the room’s furious occupant suddenly confronts him, Oscar flees back to school before realizing he still has the watch. Returning it, he

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“The story…never becomes a question of whether Sohane should wear her headscarf but ruminates on how young people cope with being siblings, second-generation immigrants, feminists and believers.” from i love i hate i miss my sister

meets Germán, its owner, and his beautiful daughter, Marina, who befriends him. Soon, Marina invites Oscar to accompany her to a lonely graveyard, where, hidden, they watch a veiled woman in black place a flower on a gravestone that’s carved with the image of a black butterfly then disappear into one of the abandoned buildings nearby. Curious, they follow her and discover a greenhouse in an overgrown garden and make a horrific discovery. What lies behind the ancient facades—and in the fetid darkness beneath the city streets—is a mystery as layered as the city’s history. It’s well-known which road is paved with good intentions—none are more lethal, Oscar learns, than love and pity.

High-quality gothic genre fiction with a classic Mary Shelley sensibility. (Horror. 12 & up)

I LOVE I HATE I MISS MY SISTER

Sarn, Amélie Translated by Maudet, Y. Delacorte (160 pp.) $15.99 | $10.99 e-book | $18.99 PLB Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-385-74376-1 978-0-385-37020-2 e-book 978-0-375-99128-8 PLB A teen grapples with both her own identity and the role identity played in her sister’s death in this French import.

It’s been one year since Muslim Sohane’s younger sister, Djelila, was burned alive by religious extremists in their apartment building in the projects. She recounts the incidents leading up to Djelila’s death, using present tense to place readers directly in the scenes and past tense as she recalls what happened from her current state of grief. Sohane and Djelila remain fierce allies, but Sohane questioningly (and sometimes jealously) notices that her sister has started to break away from their family’s Muslim traditions by sporting tight clothes and drinking alcohol. She, on the other hand, explores her religious and feminist beliefs (“Is it possible to be a woman and Muslim at the same time?”) by wearing the hijab. Both sisters’ actions are noticed immediately. Djelila becomes a source of contempt by a Taliban-like gang, while Sohane is expelled from high school for wearing a headscarf thanks to a French law that requires strict separation of church and state. The story, based on actual events, never becomes a question of whether Sohane should wear her headscarf but ruminates on how young people cope with being siblings, second-generation immigrants, feminists and believers. Rather than overwhelming the narration, these themes twine together powerfully.

Quiet yet thought-provoking. (glossary, author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)

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OLIVER AND HIS EGG

Schmid, Paul Illus. by Schmid, Paul Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $15.99 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4231-7573-5

Oliver, of first-day-of-school alligator fame, is back, imagining adventures and still struggling to find balance between introversion and extroversion.

“When Oliver found his egg…” on the playground, mintgreen backgrounds signifying Oliver’s flight into fancy slowly grow larger until they take up entire spreads; Oliver’s creature, white and dinosaurlike with orange polka dots, grows larger with them. Their adventures include sharing treats, sailing the seas and going into outer space. A classmate’s yell brings him back to reality, where readers see him sitting on top of a rock.

Even considering Schmid’s scribbly style, readers can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he ponders the girl and whether or not to give up his solitary play. “But when Oliver found his rock… // Oliver imagined many adventures // with all his friends!” This last is on a double gatefold that opens to show the children enjoying the creature’s slippery curves. A final wordless spread depicts all the children sitting on rocks, expressions gleeful, wondering, waiting, hopeful. The illustrations, done in pastel pencil and digital color, again make masterful use of white space and page turns, although this tale is not nearly as funny or tongue-in-cheek as Oliver and His Alligator (2013), nor is its message as clear and immediately accessible to children.

Still, this young boy’s imagination is a powerful force for helping him deal with life, something that should be true for all children but sadly isn’t. (Picture book. 3-5)

THE BRIDGE FROM ME TO YOU

Schroeder, Lisa Point/Scholastic (336 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Jul. 29, 2014 978-0-545-646017 978-0-545-64665-9 e-book

Colby, star of the Willow High School football team, and Lauren, the new girl with a dark secret, both yearn to be seen for who they really are.

Colby’s best friend, Benny, has always been his greatest supporter, both on and off the field, but when a tragic motorcycle accident changes Benny’s life, Colby needs someone he can rely on. Lauren, struggling with her own personal tragedy, is the only one who seems to understand. Colby is obsessed with bridges. He sees them as a way to escape. Lauren, with dreams of becoming an ornithologist, envies a bird’s ability to fly away and be free. But as their friendship grows, each of their obsessions begins to change. For Colby, bridges become ways to connect; Lauren begins to appreciate a bird’s ability to nest. The narrative unspools through chapters told in the alternating voices of the two main characters. Colby’s chapters focus

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“[T]he focus here on activism after suffering may be enough to show the women as people, not victims.” from breaking free

on a straightforward telling of the events, while Lauren’s chapters, a mix of poetry and prose, resonate with emotion. Familiar characters and a quiet plot are elevated by poetry that is as beautiful as it is varied.

Lovely in its details. (Fiction. 13-18)

FEEDING TIME AT THE ZOO

Shahan, Sherry Random House (32 pp.) $3.99 paper | $3.99 e-book | $12.99 PLB Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-385-37190-2 978-0-375-98177-7 e-book 978-0-375-97190-7 PLB What do zoo animals eat?

Clear, colorful photographs accompany a very simple text to answer this question. This title, originally published as a picture-book paperback in 2000, has been simplified for its transition to the Step into Reading series. Using a very basic vocabulary, simple sentences and repetition, the text touches on food preparation and feeding for elephants, zebras, giraffes, a panda, pigs, tortoises, porcupines, tigers, alligators, a sea lion, polar bears, a macaw, a cockatoo and flamingos. Children feed snacks to goats and eat ice pops themselves. Many of the pictures are the same as in the earlier edition, but some have been reworked. A few new images emphasize the feeding connection: The hand holds a meatball for the tiger behind the bars; another hand feeds a banana to a porcupine. The animal portraits will give struggling readers pleasure, but the narrative, full of exclamation points and questions, will not. Where previously the tiger “struts into her yard and relaxes under a shady tree,” here “he naps in the sun.” This new version may offer practice in associating letter combinations with sounds, but it won’t convey any of the enjoyment that reading can offer. Animal feeding is much more exciting in the DK reader Feeding Time, by Lee Davis(2001), which describes animals in the wild and even includes a picture index.

A lesser choice for beginning readers. (Early reader. 5-7)

BREAKING FREE True Stories of Girls Who Escaped Modern Slavery Sher, Abby Barron’s (240 pp.) $9.99 paper | Jun. 1, 2014 978-1-4380-0453-2

The harrowing real-life stories of three girls who turned their experiences as sex-trafficked children into a fight to destroy the practice.

This set of brief biographies opens with 9-year-old Somaly Mam in Cambodia around 1979. Sold to a brothel by her ostensible caretaker, Somaly experiences rape, beatings, starvation 114

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and punishment—she is covered in snakes and sewage. Her torments may seem alien to some readers, at least partly due to inadequate contextualization of Cambodia’s historical moment (the immediate aftermath of genocide). It’s therefore useful that the next story is Minh Dang’s in 1990s California; her parents force her into prostitution when she’s only 10. Her story seems otherwise so commonplace American (she plays soccer, gets A’s in school, and is expected to attend and graduate from college) that the overlap between her experiences and Somaly’s seems that much more horrific. The final biography is of Maria Suarez, a Mexican immigrant who’s kidnapped, forced into a sexual relationship with an older man, arrested after his death, imprisoned for two decades and nearly deported on her eventual release. The girls’ stories could be too devastating to read save for each tale’s conclusion, detailing the efforts these women have made to rescue girls and eliminate childhood slavery. Minh Dang is upset when people speak of her as an inhumanly brave heroine; the focus here on activism after suffering may be enough to show the women as people, not victims.

Harrowing, yes—and inspiring. (glossary, resources, afterword) (Nonfiction. 14-17) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

WAZDOT?

Slack, Michael Illus. by Slack, Michael Disney-Hyperion (48 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 29, 2014 978-1-4231-8347-1 Robot extraterrestrials encounter a farm on Earth.

A family of bots, each carrying a handy digital device called a Zot, head away from their mod-looking single-occupant space vehicles to explore the moon. All, that is, except Blip, who spies Earth and heads there instead. Staccato rhyming text covers Blip’s exploration, with his Zot warning him each time he’s about to encounter something new. “ ‘Blip, stop!’ / ‘Zot, wazzzzzdot?’ ” Broad visual cues, which at first only show parts of the whole, let kids in on the fun—they’ll know that muddy pig by its curly pink tail. Blip encounters boxes of fresh, crunchy vegetables, three aggressive chickens, a dairy cow and more.

Each new discovery reveals more of what is obviously a farm.

After Blip drives a tractor—with predictable results involving a tree stump—the mother bot arrives, looking quite displeased.

His Zot summarizes all that Blip has encountered (Slack shows the farm denizens in silhouette above their heads), and the bots happily explore. Mother collects her explorer for departure— but where is Blip? Driving Sunnyland Farm’s veggies to town, of course. Slack’s digital paintings couple stylized, sharp-edged images and a wild color palette of magenta, chartreuse, blue and orange to convey an ET’s-eye view of familiar toddler icons.

Good, silly fun wrapped in crisp graphics. (Picture book.

2-4)

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JUST CALL MY NAME

Sloan, Holly Goldberg Little, Brown (352 pp.) $18.00 | $9.99 e-book | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-316-12281-8 978-0-316-20313-5 e-book

Sam and Riddle are slowly adjusting to a newly stable environment, having found a home with the Bell family after narrowly escaping their murderous father’s intents (I’ll Be There, 2011).

Though the boys are now separated from their father, this sequel explores the ongoing impact of the years of abuse.

Twelve-year-old Riddle is largely illiterate, and 17-year-old Sam has had little formal schooling, leaving him uncertain about his future despite his intellect and musical talents. Fear of burdening their loved ones coupled with a strong desire to protect them makes the boys reluctant to share their concerns. Riddle hides his deep terror that his father will return, an event he believes is inevitable, while Sam conceals his anxieties about being labeled an academic failure. Consequently, miscommunications develop, most notably straining Sam’s genuinely deep romantic connection with Emily Bell. Witnessing the unraveling of the strong emotional ties that were forged in the previous book is difficult. But when Sloan take something away, she replaces it, and several secondary characters who begin the story with lessthan-admirable motivations are redeemed in the end, delivering an ultimately hopeful message about how friendships and families can form.

Sure to be savored by fans of the first installment. (Fiction. 12-18)

THE PRANK LIST

Staniszewski, Anna Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (224 pp.) $6.99 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-4022-8639-1

I’M MY OWN DOG

Stein, David Ezra Illus. by Stein, David Ezra Candlewick (32 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-7636-6139-7 An independent dog teaches his human a few tricks in this amusing role reversal.

Told from the dog’s self-assured point of view, the story makes it clear this canine bows to no one. He likes his life of fetching slippers (his own), playing catch by himself and licking the reflection in the mirror. But when his back has an itch that can’t be reached and he lets a human scratch it, life changes. The human follows him home, and what can the pooch do but adopt him?

Despite the hard work of training and cleaning up after a human, the canine secretly admits it’s all worth it, as the two become best friends. Appealing pen, ink and watercolor illustrations, done in a primary pastel palette, convey the dog’s sassy, ultimately warm personality. The artist’s use of marker is reminiscent of a Chinese brush painting—where each stroke skillfully conveys an energy or intention about the character or setting. Fresh and lively, Stein infuses each spread with spontaneity.

A charming person-as-pet story that will leave dog lovers chuckling. (Picture book. 2-4)

TRASH CAN NIGHTS The Saga Continues

Almost-a-ninth-grader Rachel sees herself as a future pastry chef, but when she takes a baking class, she just can’t get it right.

Even worse, Rachel’s mom has a new house-cleaning business that isn’t going well since Rachel was falsely accused of stealing, and now they’ve got competition.

If their business does not succeed, Rachel and her mom may have to sell their home and move away from Rachel’s friends.

Romance also hovers on the edge for Rachel. She isn’t sure if she’s Evan’s official girlfriend or not, as he’s never asked her.

However, Evan does appear to be jealous of Whit, a boy in Rachel’s cooking class, although Rachel keeps telling Evan that she doesn’t like Whit. Even with all those problems, Rachel determines to fight back against the rival Ladybug Cleaners, concocting pranks to drive them away, but everything she does seems to backfire. Staniszewski keeps the focus on comedy with |

the cooking-class scenes (Rachel is an overconfident baker), but she lets her story become a bit more serious with the pranks Rachel plays. Clearly, Rachel will learn a few life lessons as she stumbles through her summer, but they go down easy in this narrative peppered with such amusing catchphrases as “Oh my goldfish” and “What the Shrek?”

Gentle fun laced with equally gentle wisdom. (Fiction.

10-14)

Steinkellner, Teddy Hyperion (432 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 15, 2014 978-1-4231-6923-9 978-1-4231-9396-8 e-book Series: Trash Can Days, 2

Being a teenager—at least in this book—is a lot like having multiple personality disorder.

In the first chapter of the novel, Dorothy and Jake are typing the number 3407 into a calculator—it sort of spells “LOVE” upside down. By Chapter 20, Jake is TPing her house, and she’s stalking him with a pair of binoculars. Every major character goes through a personality change. Danny is selling drugs for the Raiders in one chapter and fighting the gang members in another. After a while, MPD starts to feel like a metaphor for the entire book. Steinkellner is capable of writing nearly

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flawless sentences (“Darrell snickered like a female weasel” is both funny and apt), but there are whole chapters of shockingly bad writing. Often, they’re bad on purpose. There are lengthy excerpts from songs and stories written by the students: “ ‘Never you mind that, my Handsome,’ Princess Dorothy said as she held Jacobim’s head against her ample bosom….” Unfortunately, they are not so bad they’re good. They’re just bad. The real problem is that reading the book feels exactly like being in junior high, complete with awful poetry.

Anyone who loved predecessor Trash Can Days (2013) will keep reading to find out what happens next, but other readers may find themselves looking for a story without quite so many mood swings. (Fiction. 12-18)

SINNER

Stiefvater, Maggie Scholastic (368 pp.) $18.99 | $18.99 e-book | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-545-65457-9 978-0-545-65458-6 e-book Series: Shiver, 4 After the Shiver trilogy, Cole and Isabel reunite in Los Angeles.

Cole St. Clair has returned to California and his music career. He’s teamed up with an Internet reality TV producer, Baby North, to star in a Web show ostensibly about the making of his new album.

Baby’s a life destroyer who specializes in train wrecks—everyone is hoping to watch the now-clean Cole relapse into drugs, debauchery and self-destruction. Antagonist Baby is willing to engineer things if that’s what it takes to create good television.

Meanwhile, ice queen Isabel is living with her mother, divorced aunt and awkward cousin while Isabel’s parents’ marriage enters the end stages of implosion. Her trust is fragile and her feelings toward Cole, complicated. Stiefvater is not overreliant on misunderstandings between the two narrators, as too many other romance writers are, instead opting for a believable, realistic portrayal of damaged people struggling to fit their quirks together in a relationship. The relationship between the richly drawn characters is the heart of the book—it is light on paranormal and wolf action. Cole and Isabel are both jerks, but they are jerks with hearts, and they keep up with each other’s witty banter. The ending wraps up a bit too neatly, but getting there is an absolute delight.

A spectacularly messy, emotionally oh-so-human romance.

(Paranormal romance. 14 & up)

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IDOLS

Stohl, Margaret Little, Brown (432 pp.) $19.00 | $9.99 e-book | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-316-20517-7 978-0-316-27978-9 e-book Series: Icon Children, 2 Following Icons (2013), the Icon Children run for their lives while the mysteries behind the alien invaders unravel.

With only the briefest of recaps, the narration drops the readers straight into action. Dol, the other three fleeing Icon Children, and their mysterious mercenary guide, Fortis, aren’t flying a Chopper; they’re crashing it. Evading the extraterrestrials so they can use their special powers to destroy the growing Icons—alien technology deadly to all but these teens and used to control the human population—the ragtag band on the run encounters cool locations such as an underground mountain bunker and Eastasia. They move with a specific purpose: Dol’s dreams are visited by a fifth Icon Child, and they wish to find her. That is, if there really is a fifth. The extraneous-but-apparently-necessary love triangle among Dol, Ro (childhood best friend) and Lucas (new hot guy) is shoehorned in, as the nonstop plot doesn’t leave much room for emotional arcs or character development. Continuing from Icons, nifty top-secret documents appearing between chapters flesh out the invasion—this time they’re frequently transcripts of communications between Earth and the invaders, pre-invasion. These documents explicitly reference science-fiction classics—a bonus for genre fans—and keep readers a step ahead of the characters. Last-minute twists create a cliffhanger.

A fast, fun read for fans of the first. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

WELCOME TO THE DARK HOUSE

Stolarz, Laurie Faria Hyperion (368 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-4231-8172-9 978-1-4231-9032-5 e-book Series: Dark House, 1 A group of disparate teens win a contest to meet their favorite horror-movie director and find themselves in a real

horror experience.

Of the teens, only 18-year-old Ivy has no interest in horror films or in the famous director, Justin Blake. She survived a real horror experience six years earlier, when her parents were murdered while she listened from her room across the hall. Now she wants to conquer her fear and thinks that learning why people enjoy horror movies might help. She and the others enter an Internet contest to describe their worst nightmares, winning a trip to rural Minnesota to meet Blake and arriving via chauffeured hearse to a replica of the Dark House. The next night,

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“…Telgemeier’s tale is laugh-out-loud funny (especially the story about the snake incident) and quietly serious all at once.” from sisters

the hearse transports them to an amusement park custom built to make them face their own personal nightmares. Rather than offering innocent thrills, however, the individually tailored nightmare rides seem to be quite real….Although Stolarz shines the spotlight mostly on Ivy, she gives multiple chapters to the other five participants, each with a distinctive personality, including Garth, a pierced and tattooed rebel who sees horror as cool, and Natalie, a disturbed girl who might have some insight into the reality of what the group faces. The suspense starts pounding when the teens enter the park and doesn’t stop until readers are ready for the sequel.

Stephen King would love it. (Horror. 12-18)

WORDLESS

Strickland, Adrianne Flux (336 pp.) $9.99 paper | Aug. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-3966-3 Series: Wordless, 1 An illiterate garbage man is also the 17-year-old hero who’ll save the Earth from megalomaniac overlords.

In an alternate near future, the kingmakers of the world are in Eden City, where the Words Made Flesh wield the powers of gods and the common people are “wordless,” forbidden to learn to read.

Tavin was a foundling, rescued and raised by a trash collector.

Though he’s more muscular and attractive than the rest of the city’s rabble, Tavin plays the role of a modern Everyman, rising from below to save the princess and the world. The princess, in this case, is Khaya, the Word of Life, a godlike being who manipulates Tavin into...rescuing her? As Khaya explains in their pell-mell flight from Eden City, the Words aren’t actually in charge. Instead, they’re a manipulated crew of immensely powerful, politically bred, multiethnic teenagers, mere tools for the superrich Godspeakers. Khaya’s uncovered a Godspeaker plot to rule the world through military power, and only Tavin—who, as a foundling, of course has his own secrets to discover—can help her do it. Tavin’s story follows the comfortable, familiar beats of so many narratives from Star Wars to Harry Potter, with just the right amount of pizzazz in the form of cinematic action and naked, sexy fun.

Sure, it’s the start of a trilogy about a foundling who is a destined savior with a prickly love interest from the other side of the tracks—but with a nonetheless intriguing, original science-fantasy setting sure to attract fans. (Science fiction. 14-17)

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WHERE SILENCE GATHERS

Sutton, Kelsey Flux (360 pp.) $9.99 paper | Jul. 8, 2014 978-0-7387-3947-2

In the follow-up companion to her daring debut (Some Quiet Place, 2013), Sutton offers readers the same formula: Teenage girl falls in love with a personified emotion she can see but never touch.

Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Tate, like Elizabeth Caldwell before her, can see emotions. Appearing human in form, these creatures “from the other plane” have cluttered her world for as long as she can remember. Yet one in particular, Revenge, has stood steadfastly by her side ever since she put a face to the man who killed her family in a drunken driving accident. And now that Nate Foster has finally been released from prison, Alex, emboldened by the intoxicating power of her otherworldly best friend, is on the brink of exacting her own brand of justice on the man who stole her family from her. So why can’t she pull the trigger? Unfortunately, what could have been an intense and intriguing love triangle among Alex and her ghostly suitors, Revenge and Forgiveness, is never allowed to blaze. Instead, it is watered down by distracting and unsatisfying secondary plotlines. The story tries to be too much at once, and it costs the novel its heart and soul.

The only emotion that will sit with readers this time around is Disappointment. (Paranormal romance. 14-17)

SISTERS

Telgemeier, Raina Illus. by Telgemeier, Raina Graphix/Scholastic (208 pp.) $24.99 | $10.99 paper | $10.99 e-book Aug. 26, 2014 978-0-545-54059-9 978-0-545-54060-5 paper 978-0-545-54066-7 e-book Two sisters who are constantly at odds take a family road trip that covers more ground—both literally and figuratively—than they expect.

After begging her parents for a sister, Raina gets more than she bargained for once Amara is born. From the moment she was brought home, Amara hasn’t been quite the cuddly playmate that Raina had hoped. As the years pass, the girls bicker constantly and apparently couldn’t be more unalike: Raina spends her time indoors underneath her headphones, and Amara loves animals and the outdoors. The girls, their mother and their little brother all pack up to drive to a family reunion, and it seems like the trip’s just going to be more of the same, with the girls incessantly picking on each other all the way from San Francisco to Colorado. However, when the trip doesn’t go quite as planned—for a number of reasons—the girls manage to find some common ground. Told in then-and-now narratives

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“Tonatiuh masterfully combines text and folk-inspired art to add an important piece to the mosaic of U.S. civil rights history.” from separate is never equal

that are easily discernable in the graphic format, Telgemeier’s tale is laugh-out-loud funny (especially the story about the snake incident) and quietly serious all at once. Her rounded, buoyant art coupled with a masterful capacity for facial expressions complements the writing perfectly. Fans of her previous books Smile (2010) and Drama (2012) shouldn’t miss this one; it’s a winner.

A wonderfully charming tale of family and sisters that anyone can bond with. (Graphic memoir. 7-13)

THE BURNOUTS

Thomas, Lex Egmont USA (272 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Jul. 22, 2014 978-1-60684-338-3 978-1-60684-339-0 e-book Series: Quarantine, 3 The final installment of Thomas’ gross-out Quarantine series.

Will has escaped the school and reunited with his brother, David. After a short, solitary quarantine, Will’s pronounced virus-free and brought into the parent-run operation that feeds and protects the school. Back inside the school, Lucy’s clique, the Sluts, blames her for the disastrous fight between the Sluts and Saints. They kick her out, and once again, the plot centers on the difficulties faced by a character who is clique-less, at the social ladder’s bottom rung. Lucy’s complication, however, is an unplanned pregnancy. When word about Lucy’s hardships comes to Will and David, Will sneaks back in to rescue her, equipped with a gas mask whose filter is nearly used up. David chases after to save him from the virus, and the love triangle is re-established. Their race against clogged filters keeps the plot moving quickly. Meanwhile, Lucy’s found a new clique, the Burnouts. Seeking a renewable drug source, Burnouts ferment their own waste to get high on the fumes and masturbate. So shocking it’s funny, poop’s refreshing for readers numbed by the edgy-for-the-sake-of-edgy previous violence and rampant prostitution. Meanwhile, David’s ex, Hilary (a cardboard evillunatic villain), finds a gun. The ending, of course, offers enough death to appease the fan base.

By far, the fastest and funniest of the series. (Science fiction. 16-18)

EVIL FAIRIES LOVE HAIR

Thompson, Mary G. Clarion (320 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 5, 2014 978-0-547-85903-3

Evil fairies sure do love hair. To eat.

Page 1 displays a contract in which Alison Butler promises to grow 100 fairies, pass on two flock-starters to another child and follow all the rules. In return, she’ll receive one wish. Ali’s hard at work growing those fairies in her backyard and raiding her house’s shower drain for hair to feed them, while coiffing herself in a hair-sprayed bun for safety. Sure, a couple of kids in town have disappeared due to breach of fairy contract, but Ali intends to follow the rules. Although many of Thompson’s ingredients are classic—the fairy contract; tricky rules that change along the way; kids knowing the truth while adults are oblivious—the unique details she mixes in make for a decidedly peculiar flavor.

These 2-inch-tall fairies not only gobble human locks insatiably, but they can’t stop murmuring the word “hair.” As Ali and other kids unearth the fairies’ identities and unsavory plan, magical rules shift and sway almost improvisationally. The text shows fairy speech printed in tiny font until Ali herself shrinks, at which point fairy speech is standard size while human speech enlarges. The uber-normalized small-town setting emphasizes families headed by both mom and dad, a hairdresser who’s styled these kids their whole lives, and an unfriendly (eventually partly upended) implication that kids held back a grade are bullies and smokers.

Possibly unpalatable for general magical-adventure fans but appealing to readers who relish all things icky.

(Fantasy. 8-12)

SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation

Tonatiuh, Duncan Illus. by Tonatiuh, Duncan Abrams (40 pp.) $18.95 | May 6, 2014 978-1-4197-1054-4

A little-known yet important story of the fight to end school discrimination against Mexican-American children is told with lively text and expressive art.

Most associate the fight for school integration with the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. However, seven years earlier, Mexican-American students in California saw an end to discrimination there. The little girl at the center of that case, Sylvia Mendez, was the daughter of parents who looked forward to sending her to the school near their newly leased farm. When her aunt attempted to register the family children, they were 118

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directed to the “Mexican school,” despite proficiency in English and citizenship. No one could explain to Mr. Mendez why his children were not allowed to attend the better-appointed school nearby. Despite the reluctance of many fellow MexicanAmericans to cause “problems,” he filed a suit, receiving the support of numerous civil rights organizations. Tonatiuh masterfully combines text and folk-inspired art to add an important piece to the mosaic of U.S. civil rights history. The universality of parents’ desires for better opportunities for their children is made plain. The extensive author’s note provides context, and readers can connect with the real people in the story through photographs of Sylvia, her parents and the schools in question.

Helpful backmatter includes a glossary, bibliography and index.

Even the sourcing of dialogue is explained.

A compelling story told with impeccable care. (Informational picture book. 6-9) (This review was first published in the BEA/ALA 2014 issue.)

GRADUATION GIRL!

Andrews, Julie; Hamilton, Emma Walton Illus. by Davenier, Christine Little, Brown (32 pp.) $18.00 | Apr. 8, 2014 978-0-316-21960-0 Series: Very Fairy Princess A little girl with a style and sparkle all her own worries about the end of the school year.

As Gerry narrates the last few days of the school year, she points out the attributes of a fairy princess (which she is) and frets about next year (as if missing the wonderful Miss Pym, who lets her wear her wings and crown in class, her classroom and their class pet aren’t enough, her new teacher is a man!). “To be honest, I’m having a hard time finding my sparkle about this.

(Change is HARD…even for a fairy princess.)” Siblings reading this to their younger sisters (and perhaps brothers) may be reminded of Junie B. Jones—Gerry’s voice is certainly filled with determination, and she is a girl who knows herself. But she lacks Junie’s attitude and childlike voice, channeling more of a Fancy Nancy; when her dad makes pancakes, she can hardly eat three: “(Even a fairy princess can lose her appetite when she’s stressed).” In the end, a tense moment during the graduation ceremony resolves itself in the best way possible and puts all of Gerry’s fears about first grade to rest. Davenier’s ink-and-colored-pencil illustrations neatly capture Gerry’s feelings, making them stand out against the rest of her class’ more joyful faces.

Though the cover is bedecked in sparkles, Gerry’s sparkle is just as internal as it is external—her essential selfconfidence shines. (Picture book. 3-6)

ELEANOR

Worthen, Johnny Jolly Fish Press (356 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jul. 1, 2014 978-1-939967-34-3 Series: Unseen, 1 A teenage wallflower turns smalltown Wyoming on its head as she grapples to hide the shocking truth of her identity in this paranormal romance.

Eleanor Anders attempts to hide in plain sight as a sophomore at Jamesford High. With senses far keener than ordinary humans and the ability to mimic animal cries, Eleanor’s survival instincts tell her it’s safer to blend in.

Only her terminally ill mother, Tabitha, pays her any mind until a childhood friend moves back to town. Suddenly, everyone at Jamesford High wants a piece of David Venn, but he only has eyes for Eleanor. Thrown into the cross hairs of bloodthirsty teenage bullies and gossiping townspeople alike, Eleanor’s strange talents emerge erratically and threaten to expose her for what she truly is: something bestial between gifted and cursed.

Worthen deftly sketches a flawed and enthralling character in Eleanor. She’s a complex mixture of vulnerable and dangerous that makes characters like David appear a bit bland by contrast.

Jamesford pulses with lonely and foreboding atmosphere, setting the stage for the unfolding of Eleanor’s ominous secrets.

Readers will clamor for more of the lore surrounding her past.

A riveting supernatural character study wrought with the pains of first love and the struggles of self-acceptance.

(Paranormal romance. 14-18)

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EDDA A Little Valkyrie’s First Day of School

Auerbach, Adam Illus. by Auerbach, Adam Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (40 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-8050-9703-0

Wagner’s operas inspired this Valkyrie-themed look at the first day of school.

Choosing to define Valkyrie as “an ancient Norse goddess who guides and protects heroes” (rather than the more common life-or-death decision-maker for warriors), Auerbach’s choice of protagonist is an unusual one that may simply go over the heads of young readers, though they will certainly empathize with her.

Off to school to meet kids her own age, Edda is not sure Earth compares favorably to her life back in Asgard. At home, Edda |

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can do as she pleases, whereas at school, she will get a timeout if she doesn’t follow the rules. No one wants to share or trade lunches with Edda, who has brought a flagon of…something and a huge hunk of meat still on the bone, and she misses the amazing wildlife of Asgard—Rex the classroom guinea pig is no substitute. But things begin to look up when Edda uses a difficult writing assignment to describe Asgard for her classmates, who suddenly want to know more about Edda and where she lives. Auerbach’s pen-and-ink illustrations were colored digitally, giving them a flat, matte aspect. The two worlds are just as incongruous as adult readers might imagine.

While this will introduce readers to aspects of Norse mythology, there’s not enough detail to satisfy; the questions this will raise far outweigh any comfort those new to school may gain from it. (Picture book. 4-8)

MONSTERS LOVE SCHOOL

Austin, Mike Illus. by Austin, Mike Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $15.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-228618-5

Austin’s scribbly, lovable monsters are back, this time going beyond an exploration of colors (Monsters Love Colors, 2013) to tackle the biggest adventure of all—Monster School.

Yellow, pink, green, blue, long-legged, many-legged, oneeyed, two-eyed, scaly and furry monsters’ summer fun has come to an end, and they must check their school-supply lists and head off. Not all are smiling, though, as they cross the street with Miss Wiggles’ help: “Wiggle, wiggle, cross the street. / Off to school, now move those feet!” Little Gray tries to alleviate Blue’s fears, but there are many of them, and he is convinced he already knows his “ABGs and 413s and XYDs,” so who needs school? But after a day filled with art, recess, Miss Spel’s spelling lessons, Chef Octi’s lunchtime gruel, history, library and Singing Club, Blue has changed his tune. Austin has masterfully folded some valuable information about the first day of school into his funny tale, but the monsters are the big draw. Not the least bit scary, their simple shapes and accessories and scrawled style will likely have kids reaching for their own “monster pencils, monster crayons, monster ink and brushes”—as Austin claims to have used in his media statement.

Though most readers would probably rather not face a Cyclops principal, hopefully they will have as good a first day as Blue and come to love school. (Picture book. 4-8)

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BEAR’S SCHOOL DAY

Blackstone, Stella Illus. by Harter, Debbie Barefoot (24 pp.) $6.99 paper | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-78285-085-4

Blackstone’s Bear and pals introduce children to a typical school day.

Adorable bears, all of different hues and accessorized for differentiation, wave goodbye to their grown-ups and start their day: “The school bell rings and the bears go inside. / They hang up their coats and their school bags with pride.” Music and math are the first subjects the bears tackle, then they have a snack: some sort of orange drink and a “bun”—what appear to be frosted doughnuts with cherries on top. Literacy and lunchtime are next, followed by naps and recess. A craft project and storytime round out the day before dismissal. Blackstone’s rhymes are sometimes rough—sums/bun, prepared/bears, rest/stretch, follow/tomorrow—which is a shame in a book that emphasizes emergent-literacy skills, but the scansion is spot-on. The final spread asks readers to show the “new bear” around on a map of the school drawn from above. The bears’ school unrealistically comprises five rooms: a single classroom, a hall for meals, a room for naps, and two rooms the bears don’t visit—a bathroom and an office. Harter’s paint, pen-and-ink, and crayon illustrations feature bright colors and solid backgrounds so readers can focus on what the bears are doing at school, though their facial expressions are rather one-note.

There are better offerings on the back-to-school shelf for easing those new to school into the routine; skip this one. (Picture book. 2-5)

BACK TO SCHOOL, PICKY LITTLE WITCH!

Brokamp, Elizabeth Illus. by Welling, Peter J. Pelican (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2014 978-1-4556-1887-3

A back-to-school shopping trip highlights the differences in style between a young witch and her more conservative mother.

Witches R Us, with its “Back to Ghoul Sale,” is the store to visit to get all the items on the Picky Little Witch’s schoolsupply list: cape, hat, boots, broom, cauldron, cat and several spell ingredients. But Mama’s tastes are way too plain or tight or splintery for the little witch who knows her likes and dislikes. Just when it seems as if the mother and daughter won’t agree on anything, a saleslady’s kitten intervention points the way toward compromise. Small details in the illustrations will keep readers engaged: Brooms occupy the parking spaces of the shopping plaza, whose stores include Ice Scream and Potions, and Harry Potter fans can’t help but think of Diagon Alley. But the overall package, while amusing, is amateurish in both text

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“In a marvelously illustrated, wordless spread, Brown shows how both Ms. Kirby and Bobby feel….” from my teacher is a monster! (no, i am not.)

LITTLE LUCY GOES TO SCHOOL

and artwork. A spiky typeface and small font make it difficult to read the text, which haphazardly (and distractingly) switches from snappy rhyming verses to plain text. Expressions and body language are both stiff, and though the palette relies heavily on witchy purples and greens, the illustrations otherwise have the appearance of early television cartoons.

School-supply battles like this one aren’t likely to occur among the picture-book set: skip. (Picture book. 5-8)

MY TEACHER IS A MONSTER! (NO, I AM NOT.)

Brown, Peter Illus. by Brown, Peter Little, Brown (40 pp.) $18.00 | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-316-07029-4

A behaviorally challenged little boy for whom paper airplanes are a particular weakness learns to see his teacher as a person when he meets her outside the classroom.

Bobby’s teacher stomps, roars and takes away recess (not without reason). The little boy’s one refuge is the park—but so is Ms. Kirby’s. In a marvelously illustrated, wordless spread, Brown shows how both Ms. Kirby and Bobby feel when their private moments are interrupted by the other. But in a show of maturity, Bobby understands that running away (no matter how much he may want to) will only make things worse. Some painful small talk and a hat rescued from the wind slowly lead the two to deeper interaction. And when Bobby takes her to his favorite high overlook, Ms. Kirby, who has slowly been losing her green skin, spiky teeth, hippolike nostrils and hulking bulk, silently hands him a piece of paper. The flight is epic. Afterward, Ms. Kirby still roars and stomps and frowns upon paper airplanes in class, though she retains her human features (if not her skin color, at least not all the time). The digitally composited and colored India ink, watercolor, gouache and pencil illustrations use a palette of green, shades of tan and brown, aqua and salmon that suits the text’s tongue-in-cheek humor and monster theme, the colors brightening as Ms. Kirby loses her monster-ness.

Here’s hoping readers who are similarly challenged in the behavior department will get both messages: Teachers are people, and they give back what they get. (Picture book.

4-8)

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Cooper, Ilene Illus. by Kanzler, John Random House (48 pp.) $3.99 paper | $3.99 e-book | $12.99 PLB Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-385-36994-7 978-0-375-98164-7 e-book 978-0-375-97179-2 PLB

A curious beagle who gets loose in school sees all sorts of new things in this early-reader tale that has faint echoes of “The Gingerbread Man.” When Bobby forgets his lunch in the hustle and bustle that is the family’s morning, his mom and Lucy deliver it to his school. But the little pup’s wriggles set her free to explore the school, allowing her to meet lots of familiar school faces: some students, the lunch lady, the custodian and, finally, her own boy— Bobby—in his classroom. Each person she meets yells for her to “Stop!” since “Dogs don’t belong in school! Lucy heard her, but she didn’t stop.” By the end, those in pursuit have formed a parade of sorts, though the setup is too long and the chase too short to completely mirror the familiar folk tale. Those who have been in a school will recognize much of what Lucy sees on her adventure, though many are seen from a dog’s (low) point of view. Blank space within the brightly colored pictures holds the medium-font text, which features short sentences in short paragraphs on each page. Full bleed single- and double-page-spread illustrations extend the story but don’t help much with decoding, properly befitting a Step into Reading Level 3 title.

Children will likely long to see a dog in their own schools as they decode their ways to reading success. (Early reader. 6-8)

THE LITTLE SCHOOL BUS

Cuyler, Margery Illus. by Kolar, Bob Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (32 pp.) $12.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-8050-9435-0 Rhyming verses stretch out the job of a school bus to 12 spreads.

Driving down the road, picking up kids and dropping them off, visiting the mechanic, operating the wheelchair platform and going around a bend are a few of the things the yellow vehicle does in the job it so obviously loves, as evidenced by its smiling bumper, cheerful eyes and pink cheeks—all vehicle parts. Each verse starts with “I’m a little school bus,” so readers (especially those reading aloud) will be hard-pressed not to try to force the rhymes into the tune for “I’m a Little Teapot.”

Some work better than others, both at fitting the tune and scanning well. “I’m a little school bus / waiting by the walk. / Boys and girls climb on, / sit and laugh and talk.” Kolar’s digital illustrations are cartoon-bright, the people are nicely diverse, and there’s not a grumpy face to be found. Oddly, the creators |

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“…while the people’s faces manage to convey emotion with just a tiny mouth and dot eyes, Norman’s droll expression never changes, adding to the farcical nature of the tale.” from dog days of school

choose not to focus on a single day; the illustrations go from skirt- and shorts-clad children to a snow day and back to T-shirts in just three spreads. There’s not much on bus safety (save lining up to get on and don’t put your hands out the windows), and the pictures never show the inside of the bus.

While it’s cute and will help to complete vehicle lovers’ collections, this package doesn’t do much to address school fears or preparedness in the preschool audience it appears to be aimed at. (Picture book. 3-5)

THE POUT-POUT FISH GOES TO SCHOOL

Diesen, Deborah Illus. by Hanna, Dan Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-374-36095-5 Series: Pout-Pout Fish

This look back at when Mr. Fish was young and starting school for the first time focuses on belonging.

Poor little Mr. Fish is not having a good first day of school.

It started off well enough with a smooch from his parents, but then he lost his way in the big building. He peeks in several doorways and attempts to do the work he sees the other little fish doing, but he just can’t, whether it’s writing his name, drawing a rhombus or doing long division. Each time, the frustrated fish plops down his pencil and counts his troubles: “Trouble One: I’m not smart! / Trouble Two: I’ll never get it! / Trouble Three: I don’t belong! / So Four: I should forget it!” Just as he is ready to leave the school, his new teacher finds him and turns his troubles on their heads with a rhyme sure to accompany children on their own first days. As in the Pout-Pout Fish’s other adventures, Hanna’s cartoonish ocean realm is full of details for both children and adults (don’t miss the posters and signs on the school walls), the various sea creatures using whatever appendages they have to complete their schoolwork.

Diesen tackles a worry not often found in back-toschool books; young Mr. Fish will ease children’s fears about what will be expected of them. (Picture book. 2-5)

FIRST DAY AT ZOO SCHOOL

Dillard, Sarah Illus. by Dillard, Sarah Sleeping Bear Press (40 pp.) $14.99 | Aug. 1, 2014 978-1-58536-890-7

Dillard explores friendship between two opposites.

It’s the first day of Zoo School. Amanda, a panda, is excited and ready. Alfred, an alligator, isn’t so sure: “Is this really necessary?” When the overbearing and bossy Amanda decides timid “Gator” will be her new best friend, does Alfred have any say?

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and plays tag, though readers can clearly see his patience wearing thin. It finally snaps when Amanda wants to walk home together: Alfred declares that he won’t walk home with her, she’s not his best friend, and his name is Alfred, not Gator. Instead of relief, though, Alfred feels awful. The next day, the two are not friends, and each misses the other until Alfred finally takes the first step toward reconciliation. While the friendship aspect of the story seems pretty weak and the resolution is unrealistic, Dillard’s illustrations, a mix of spots and comic panels, deftly express the characters’ thoughts and feelings; while Amanda’s speech bubble reads “I LOVE sitting in the FRONT!” Alfred has a thought bubble picturing himself, alone, in a spotlight, under the glare of the grouchy-looking Mrs. Wattles. Amanda’s exuberance cannot be contained, as her out-thrown arms attest.

Meanwhile, Alfred’s arms hide behind his back; would that he could hide there too. Eyebrows are especially expressive.

Can opposites be friends? Yes, but real friendship is not the one-way street depicted here. (Picture book. 5-7)

DOG DAYS OF SCHOOL

DiPucchio, Kelly Illus. by Biggs, Brian Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-0-7868-5493-6

“Be careful what you wish for” is just one of the messages in this humorous book about switching places.

Charlie is tired of school and all the letter practice and picture drawing. His dog, Norman, doesn’t have to go to school.

Charlie wishes on a star to be a dog, and the next morning, he and Norman have switched places. While the dog rushes off to school to enjoy writing, playing kickball and making clay sculptures, Charlie lies back, relishing the opportunity to get some extra sleep and watch the leaves fall. But as the week goes on, both Norman and Charlie begin to see the drawbacks of the new arrangement. Norman gets in trouble for his chewing habit and must listen to a story about cats. Charlie drinks out of the toilet and gets locked outside in the cold. One wish-upon-a-star later, Charlie couldn’t be happier to wake up in his own bed and be going back to school. Biggs’ illustrations, done in a bright palette of aqua, olive, purple, mustard, red and orange, are hysterical, as the two swap places but not bodies: The boy acts like a dog and vice versa. And while the people’s faces manage to convey emotion with just a tiny mouth and dot eyes, Norman’s droll expression never changes, adding to the farcical nature of the tale.

The conclusion kids might draw? Going to school isn’t nearly as bad as being a dog. (Picture book. 5-8)

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CHU’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

the perfect complement to the tongue-in-cheek text. Bold colors, sharp lines and a retro-space style play up the theme. The intrepid explorer’s crewmates are a motley assortment of “aliens”—among them are a kid in a hoodie with the laces pulled so tight that only a nose and mouth are visible; a plump kid with a bluish cast to his skin; and a pinkish girl with a toothpick-thin neck and huge bug eyes.

Sure to assuage the fears of all astronauts bound for similar missions. (Picture book. 3-7)

Gaiman, Neil Illus. by Rex, Adam Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $17.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-222397-5

Gaiman continues his sneeze pun in this look at a worried panda cub’s first

day of school.

Chu’s expressed school worries are limited to “What will happen?” “Will they be nice?” and “Will they like me?” though the new student’s concerns (and his posture and facial expressions) will be familiar to any child facing school for the first time. Chu’s new teacher has a “friendly face,” and his animal classmates—ranging from a rhino and a giraffe down to a crab, a snake and a snail—all seem nice. The first activity the class does is to sit in a circle and tell their new friends their names and what they love to do best; the teacher writes their names on the chalkboard. (Fans of Chu’s Day will see the punch line coming.) Their talents and things they love are wide-ranging— climbing trees, singing, reading books—but none is as unusual as Chu’s. After two wordless double-page spreads depicting both the post-sneeze surprise and destruction and subsequent recovery and delight, Chu drolly says, “That’s what I do.” Rex’s oil-and-mixed-media illustrations capture the complex feelings that accompany the first day of school, and Chu is believable when he tells his parents, “I’m not worried anymore.”

Overlooking (again) the association of Chinese names with a tired joke, this may put a few first-day fears to rest, and it will probably also cause some tension-relieving laughter. (Picture book. 4-7)

PLANET KINDERGARTEN

Ganz-Schmitt, Sue Illus. by Prigmore, Shane Chronicle (40 pp.) $16.99 | May 20, 2014 978-1-4521-1893-2 A genius way to ease kids into the new adventure that is kindergarten.

In an imaginative ruse that’s maintained through the whole book, a young astronaut prepares for his mission to Planet Kindergarten.

On liftoff day (a space shuttle-themed calendar counts down the days; a stopwatch, the minutes), the small family boards their rocket ship (depicted in the illustrations as the family car), and “the boosters fire.” They orbit base camp while looking for a docking place. “I am assigned to my commander, capsule, and crewmates.” Though he’s afraid, he stands tall and is brave (not just once, either—the escape hatch beckons, but NASA’s saying gets him through: “FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION”). Parents will certainly chuckle along with this one, but kindergarten teachers’ stomach muscles will ache: “[G]ravity works differently here. We have to try hard to stay in our seats. And our hands go up a lot.” Prigmore’s digital illustrations are |

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WHERE’S MY HOMEWORK?

Garland, Michael Illus. by Garland, Michael Cartwheel/Scholastic (32 pp.) $6.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-545-43655-7

It turns out the dog really did eat the homework.

Garland’s title page nicely sets the scene and establishes the young narrator’s veracity: He is dutifully sitting at his desk, lamp blazing, doing his homework. But the next morning, the papers are nowhere to be found. In an excellent portrayal of searches by real-life kids, who imagine that everyone would want and naturally steal what they are looking for, spread upon spread of full-bleed illustrations in rich colors show readers what the boy imagines happened to his homework: “Maybe Martians from outer space invaded my room and abducted my homework!” Plundered by pirates, taken by a slithery boa constrictor and run away to join the circus are just a few of the other possibilities. But just as his mother is calling that it’s getting late, he hears some suspicious slobbering from the living room. (The question of where the homework was between the boy’s desperate search for it, dog at his heels, and his hearing these noises is never addressed.) Of course, the boy simply must drag the dog to school to confront his teacher, and a lucky deus ex machina belies her suspicions. Garland’s trademark style combines fuzzily digital illustrations (especially of hair and fur) with collaged patterns and textures.

If only all students were as diligent and truthful as this one (and every homework search turned out as happily).

(Picture book. 5-7)

SUPER SILLY SCHOOL POEMS

Greenberg, David Illus. by Woodruff, Liza Orchard/Scholastic (32 pp.) $6.99 | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-545-47981-3

A collection of poems to start the school year off with a laugh.

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many suffer from scansion and meter issues. For instance, in “Better Than Baseball,” a young boy extols recess activities: “Yet none are nearly as cool for you / As lying in wet grass / Putting bugs and worms in your pockets / And bringing them back to class.” The worst issue with this collection, however, especially for beginning readers, is the dearth of punctuation. In the entire book, there are 13 end marks, not one of them a period, and just three commas. This makes them difficult to read, particularly aloud: “You’re going out of your mind / You’re terribly distressed / Then you walk in front of a mirror / You’ve forgotten to get dressed.” Woodruff ’s watercolor-and-colored-pencil illustrations are a nice mix of spot, single- and double-page spreads. While they are amusing and certainly play up the grossout and surprise factors, they also often give away the punch lines of the poems.

Stick with Prelutsky and Silverstein. (Picture book/poetry.

6-8)

DEAR PANDA

Latimer, Miriam Illus. by Latimer, Miriam Owlkids Books (32 pp.) $17.95 | Aug. 15, 2014 978-1-77147-078-0 The new girl in town worries about making friends at her new school, but a panda from the zoo next door eases her fears.

A letter from Florence’s new teacher asking her to stand up in front of the class and tell about herself has Florence writing a letter of her own—to the panda, who she hopes will be her new special friend. This clever strategy to gather material to talk about on the first day works like a charm. The two write back and forth before planning a play date and exploring all the things they like to do together: swimming, hiding and hulahooping. And when Flo finally confesses her first-day fears to Panda, he has just the solution. This in turn sparks Florence’s friendship with the panda-loving Bea, who also loves to swim, hide and hula-hoop. Latimer’s sweet illustrations depict roundheaded, pink-cheeked multiethnic children with spindly legs; Bea is differentiated from Flo by her panda button and her lower-fastened pigtails. The many letters stand out for their different typefaces; Panda’s is larger and slightly messier, as befits an animal with large paws and no opposable thumbs.

Latimer’s story flirts with fantasy, and while Flo’s solution won’t help children living in reality, maybe they can use her tale to recall something just as remarkable (though true) to share with their own classes. (Picture book. 4-7)

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B. BEAR AND LOLLY Off to School

Livingston, A.A. Illus. by Chou, Joey Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $15.99 | $16.89 PLB | Jun. 24, 2014 978-0-06-219788-7 978-0-06-219789-4 PLB Apparently, Goldilocks and the littlest bear (don’t you dare call him Baby) became best friends after the infamous porridge/ chair/bed encounter, and now, they face the first day of school together.

While Lolly is mainly looking forward to recess, B. Bear is enthusiastic about going to kindergarten to learn new things… until the actual first day of school, when he turns almost neurotic about meeting new people, having the right things in his backpack and getting to school on time (he pulls Lolly from the house, her porridge spoon still in hand). When B. Bear’s carefully chosen school supplies are carried away (literally), how will he manage? He needed those. Or did he? He’s got Lolly, and maybe that’s all he needs: a friend. In a nod to minimalism, the heavily laden B. Bear is juxtaposed against the pencil-wielding Lolly, who muses, “I may have packed too much.”

Chou’s brightly colored digital illustrations are a nifty exercise in character spotting, as he hides other fairy-tale characters and settings; Lolly’s shortcut passes by an infamous house of straw. And Livingston plays up the original “Goldilocks” fairy tale when the duo goes shopping for supplies—this outfit is too bright, that one too hot, etc.

While it’s a relatively appealing addition to the fractured-fairy-tale and back-to-school shelves, this may replace going-to-school worries with having-a-friend fears—not every child comes equipped with a pal like Lolly. (Picture book. 4-7)

ON MY WAY TO SCHOOL

Maizes, Sarah Illus. by Paraskevas, Michael Bloomsbury (40 pp.) $16.99 | $17.89 PLB | Jul. 1, 2014 978-0-8027-3700-7 978-0-8027-3708-3 PLB Livi, that master of imagination who finds ingenious ways to make transition times fun, must tackle getting ready for school in the morning.

As in other books about Livi’s dawdling (On My Way to Bed, 2013, etc.), her mother’s voice is a speech bubble originating off the page, this time prompting her step by step to get ready for school. Livi is a slow snail oozing out of bed. She is a pirate digging for pirate booty (or just something to cover her own booty).

She is a chef at breakfast, an elephant warning her sister away from the watering hole where she brushes her teeth, a Sherpa climbing Everest with a gigantic backpack, a kangaroo playing hopscotch. When the bus arrives, it’s a covered wagon, until

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“…Shea’s concept of ‘winning’ at school clearly has to do with self-confidence, determination and, sometimes, teamwork—a winning idea indeed.” from dinosaur vs. school

the page turn, when it’s back to a bus, and Livi is back to Livi… until she sees her best friend, and her imagination once again takes flight. Livi does finally make it to school, where, while she continues to fantasize, she is a proper pupil. Paraskevas’ digital artwork truly captures an inventive young girl whose spirit cannot be contained or squashed, and Livi’s tongue-in-cheek comments are sure to provoke a chuckle or two from parents and children alike.

Would that every kid had an imagination like Livi’s so that getting ready for school was always this much fun.

(Picture book. 4-7)

TINY GOES BACK TO SCHOOL

Meister, Cari Illus. by Davis, Rich Penguin Young Readers (32 pp.) $14.99 | Jun. 26, 2014 978-0-670-78607-7

When Tiny fails to do any of his tricks—sit, stay, shake—his owner decides it’s time for the anything-buttiny dog to go back to school.

The first spread sets readers up for some laughs: “Tiny is a good dog. He does what I say. / Watch.”

But when the boy says, “Sit, Tiny,” the enormous dog lies on his back and looks at his pal. “Oh no!” The boy’s requests that Tiny shake and stay yield similar results. So, it’s off to Happy Dog School, which Tiny is at first reluctant to approach, until he sees all the other dogs there. (They don’t even reach his belly.) In fact, Tiny is so excited by the other dogs that he misbehaves even more. The teacher’s dog treats get Tiny in line, and he turns out to be a wonderful role model for the others. This Level 1 reader has a limited vocabulary (fewer than 55 words), and most sentences are just two or three words long, located against white backgrounds at the bottoms of the pages. The pictures are bright and colorful, helping kids decode words without telling the entire story.

Never underestimate the power of a treat to motivate.

(Early reader. 4-6)

DINOSAUR VS. SCHOOL

Shea, Bob Illus. by Shea, Bob Disney-Hyperion (40 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 17, 2014 978-1-4231-6087-8 Series: Dinosaur vs…

Can a dinosaur come out on top when he tries to tackle all kinds of new

things at school?

Meeting new friends? Not a problem—just smile. Dressing up? He’s got that (and style too— sombrero, swim fins and a police uniform). Glitter, glue and googly eyes? He now sports 19 |

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eyes. He is equally adept at making both a snack and music. But what about when it’s time to clean up? The design of the book plays a large part in the action. Every other right-hand page segues the red dino from one victory to the next thing he tries. Still sporting three googly eyes, he marches off the right side of the page, “Dinosaur versus….” A turn of the page reveals “monkey snacks! // ROAR! / Roar, raisins! / Roar, apples!” Another page turn, and “DINOSAUR WINS!”; the tummy-rubbing dino saunters off to the next battle. But while Shea’s indomitable red T. Rex has experienced many victories (Dinosaur vs. Santa, 2012, etc.), he comes up a little short here. The book nicely introduces the types of activities those new to school will participate in, but the digital mixed-media illustrations are so jumbled and manic that readers won’t get a clear sense of them.

Still, Shea’s concept of “winning” at school clearly has to do with self-confidence, determination and, sometimes, teamwork—a winning idea indeed. (Picture book. 3-6)

TEACHERS AND WHAT THEY DO

Slegers, Liesbet Illus. by Slegers, Liesbet Clavis (32 pp.) $15.95 | May 13, 2014 978-1605371801

Other books have tackled the fact that teachers don’t live in their classrooms, but what do they actually do?

Well, this particular blonde, pink-skinned teacher “wears regular clothes,” teaches kids to use their hands and their heads, writes on the chalkboard, greets students at the school gates, reads to her class, shows her students how to do arts and crafts (an obsession, it seems), asks questions, sorts out arguments, comforts children, “gives the really naughty kids time outs,” leads field trips, and sometimes works after school grading papers and planning lessons. And at the end of the year? Well, “teachers deserve something nice.” A page turn reveals instructions for a (surprise!) paper crown craft. Unlike Slegers’ Chefs (2014), this book unfortunately divides itself between alleviating children’s fears by highlighting what school is like and showcasing the teacher’s job, doing really well at neither. Although the vocabulary is not geared to new readers, Slegers’ sentences are simplistic and choppy, perhaps due to the text’s translation from Dutch. This would also explain some odd choices: The chalkboard is wiped with a duster; the teacher also instructs the students in gymnastics and swimming; and it seems to be a mixed-age classroom, though the focus is clearly on the younger students’ school day.

Slegers’ adorable, round-headed, rosy-cheeked characters posed against solid-colored backgrounds aren’t enough to rescue this one. (Informational picture book. 3-6)

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“The cartoon artwork conveys a strong taste of the Outback…, and the story speaks of a difficult existence—but not a life without pleasure in the day to day” from the echidna and the dress

NINJA BOY GOES TO SCHOOL

Wilson, N.D. Illus. by Harrison, J.J. Random House (32 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Jul. 22, 2014 978-0-375-86584-8 978-0-375-96584-5 PLB

A young ninja shows off some skills for school.

Ninjas are good at silently rising before the sun. They are nimble and strong, with the balance of a flamingo “(but without looking silly)”—though the illustration belies this, as all the kids at the bus stop are laughing. They can be “one with their surroundings.” This last pictures the boy, in ninja black, plastered to the ceiling of the bus. Light on plot, but so far, so good. But then Wilson’s ninja takes a disturbing turn. “A ninja must be still and patient, like a deep-rooted tree….”

On the left, Harrison’s vibrantly colored illustration shows the ninja sitting primly in class. But on the right, the text reads, “…and strike with the VIPER’S speed when the time is right for disappearing.” The ninja is now sneaking out the classroom window while the teacher’s back is turned. The verso reveals “A ninja’s spirit is never caged.” Freedom is not long-lived, as the teacher catches up to the ninja on the playground, and the principal sends him home, with seriously angry looks all around. His parents put away his ninja things, but regardless, the boy knows he is a ninja, as his shadow proudly reflects. Other poor examples include the precarious stack he climbs to reach the “ninja stuf ” and the gray-haired granny bus driver sporting earbuds.

A book for those who see school as a prison to be escaped; this is about as strongly anti-school as a picture book gets. (Picture book. 5-7)

interactive e-books THE ECHIDNA AND THE DRESS

BighART BighART $0.00 | Apr. 8, 20141.0; Apr. 8, 2014

A finely honed, graphically transporting story about a slice of Aboriginal life in the Outback of Australia.

This effort from Aboriginal developer BighART encourages quiet reading and prompts a question or two. There is gentle movement on the screen but little interaction other than to move the story forward. This is accomplished with the usual finger flick to the left, but rather than clear panes of distinct action, the story scrolls along like a banner, stopping like a train at the station and giving a feeling of openness at the sides. To avoid strict linearity, sometimes the 126

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characters float in from the top of the screen or move from back to front; voiced dialogue supplements text that appears on the screen. The story pivots around the appearance of an echidna in the young narrator’s nanna’s house. An echidna is a spiny little anteater and an omen of momentous news, for better or worse.

Here, the creature portends both a birth and a death. The cartoon artwork conveys a strong taste of the Outback (the lay of the land, insects whirring, birds cheeping), and the story speaks of a difficult existence—but not a life without pleasure in the day to day.

This lovely app speaks of family, the things that make memories, and how folkways color our lives and testify to the world’s wonder. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-8)

THE ALICE APP

Carroll, Lewis; Paletz, Emmanuel Emmanuel Paletz Corp $4.99 | Apr. 15, 2014 1.1; May 3, 2014

A full version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, expressively read in a semiBritish accent and decorated with illustrations that echo the elegant surrealism, and often the composition, of Tenniel’s originals.

The text appears on screens that mimic double-page spreads with patterned headers and, frequently, pale floral vignettes in the margins. It is sandwiched between an introduction composed of lightly massaged passages cut from various Web sources and notes from the artist with links to images of the Renaissance paintings from which many of his figures and landscapes are copied. Along with such mild amusements as watching Alice change sizes in the Sistine Chapel and a lobster quadrille featuring fish-headed dancers with lissome Botticelli bodies, digital enhancements include pinball-style flamingo croquet, among other touch- and tilt-activated movements.

Also noteworthy are a disquieting Cheshire Cat with human teeth and hilariously literal Brueghel-style illustrations for “You Are Old, Father William.” On the other hand, Alice doesn’t visibly shrink when she drinks the potion, the “Eat Me” cake is inexplicably transformed to a wordless fortune cookie, and with a head that is clipped from a standard playing card, the Queen of Hearts looks staid rather than properly choleric.

Though Alice apps abound, this offers some audio and visual pleasures of its own. (Requires iOS 6.0 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 10-13)

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ODYSSEUS FOR KIDS

Crété, Patricia Illus. by Wennagel, Bruno; Ferret, Mathieu Quelle Histoire $1.99 | Apr. 9, 2014 1.0; Apr. 9, 2014 A young gamer’s version of the life and adventures of Odysseus, with digital character cards to collect by taking on “challenges” at each stop along the way.

The compressed narrative itself, which appears on undecorated pull-down panels, looks and reads like an afterthought: “The fighting lasts for ten years. The Greeks win the war. Everyone can go home. Odysseus sets sail with his companions. ‘Phew, we’re out of here.’ ” Each of the 15 single-screen “chapters” is a cartoon scene—mostly of Odysseus and (while they last) his men confronting a monster or other hazard—with small animated movements. Around the edges are icons that toggle the lively narration and dramatic background music on or off, lead to a map of the Mediterranean with modern photos of each (putative) location, return readers to the home screen to choose among 11 available languages and open up a series of easy-towork games. These last include concentration-style and spotthe-difference games, jigsaw puzzles, multiple-choice quizzes (“Where did Odysseus meet Penelope?”) and, for the sirens, an exercise in reproducing sequences of tones. Successful players earn “cards” that, when rubbed, reveal figures from the tale that can be tapped to make hidden descriptive captions appear.

It’s so cursory of plotline that even the fates of Penelope’s suitors go unmentioned, but it may be a good way to introduce or review the cast and the epic tale’s broad outlines. (Requires iOS 6.0 and above.) (iPad storybook/game app.

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MY FRIEND THE SPIDER

Francella, Gloria Illus. by Francella, Gloria Five5ifty $2.99 | Mar. 22, 2014 1.0; Mar. 22, 2014

Beautiful illustrations carry this so-so app about a bird’s friendship with a spider.

Building a successful storybook app requires a solid threepronged approach: make it visually interesting; tell a good story; and design it well. It might be said that this offering from Smallbytes Digital earns gold, silver and bronze medals in those categories, which adds up to a good app but not a great one. On the gold platform stands the visual component. Lush, bright colors against a canvas-textured backdrop are virtual eye candy, as the artist eschews traditional primary colors for a warmer, moreeclectic palette. The characters and their surroundings will appeal to young eyes, as they’re simple and easy to place into context. Design and functionality earn a silver medal, as the app |

is fairly easy to navigate, but transitions between pages are painfully slow. There are several games, including a Simon says–like sequence challenge, and taps summon various animations and endearing sound effects (especially from Rañolo the spider).

That leaves bronze for the storyline, which has decent definition and follow-through; it just reads as a bland afterthought to the illustrations and interactions. Text and narration are available in English and Italian, and sound effects remain active even when the narrator is silenced.

This app is definitely above average. With a faster response time and a more interesting storyline it could sweep the golds. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)

SMALL PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS FOR KIDS

Léglise, Rémy Illus. by Léglise, Rémy Rémy Léglise $1.99 | Apr. 9, 2014 1.0; Apr. 9, 2014

Twenty-five simple forays into tabletop science, each presented three ways: through step-by-step print directions, a “chalkboard” schematic and a live-action video clip.

Promising as the instructional model is, the demonstrations themselves are dogged with safety and other issues. Measurements are occasionally imprecise: For instance, a tin-can telephone requires “a fairly long piece of string” (specified in the later instructions as “5 metres” but seemingly not nearly that long in the video). Some items required for the various experiments include lighters, knives, cigarette paper, small (sharp) strips of copper and zinc for a lemon battery, a skewer and other problematic items. Furthermore, several entail setting something afire (in one video, squirting oil from an orange peel into a candle flame produces nifty sparks). Though most are well within the capabilities of younger experimenters and a cautionary notice on the title screen urges adult supervision for each, in the videos, all are performed by a single adult…who, sans any visible safety gear, slices and dices a pear, ignites a teabag and lifts a hard-boiled egg out of a pot with his bare hand. Several videos apparently omit steps or end before the procedures are done. A separate, multiple-choice quiz is evidently mechanically translated: “How moves warm air over cold air”; “What fruit can produce the greatest intensity electric.”

The tabletop isn’t all that will end up scarred by these ill-designed efforts. (Requires iOS 4.3 and above.) (iPad informational app. 7-10)

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FIVE LITTLE SOMETHINS

Storyola Storyola $1.99 | Feb. 26, 2014 1.1; Apr. 3, 2014

A create-a-story app that attempts to combine literature, math and gaming.

The app opens with an introduction to the Storybook Mom, an animated white woman who lives on the cover of a nondescript book.

As she narrates, her lips move as though talking, but she looks more like Samantha of Bewitched wiggling her nose or someone who has a facial tic. Nonetheless, the “story” begins with a lemon bobbing in the sky. Touch it and a group of children says, “Lemon.” Tap it a second, third and fourth time, and readers hear “Bumblebee?” Readers must then drag stripes, antennae and an eye to the lemon, which causes it to look like a bumblebee and fly away. On the next screen, five “Lemblebees” are counted off and hover until they’re drawn one by one to a rose—which, inexplicably, causes them to fall to the ground. Tapping the fallen fruit-insects temporarily resurrects them, but they are immobilized again almost immediately. Finally, readers are told to type in the name of someone who can help, and after a ceremonious formality, that person supposedly releases the remaining Lemblebees to their next adventure. Lather, rinse, repeat. Readers can save stories to continue them, but continuing means mostly doing the same things over and over again.

Not much honey in this comb. (iPad storybook app. 3-5)

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indie ALMA MATER Vol. 1: The Midwest

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Aidoo, Original Clyde Real Print for Real People (229 pp.) $0.99 e-book | Mar. 3, 2014

RIVER TALK by CB Anderson............................................................ 130 MURDER BY MISRULE by Anna Castle............................................ 133 THE LONGEST NIGHT by Helen Engelhardt.................................... 135 TESORO by Veronica Picone...............................................................141

MURDER BY MISRULE A Francis Bacon Mystery

Castle, Anna Capitol Crime Jun. 8, 2014

An unlikely but engaging poetic tour of Midwestern colleges and universities.

If your best years were the ones you spent at the University of Wisconsin, Ferris State or Purdue, you’ll love Aidoo’s love letter to college life in the middle of the United States, where campus activity fuels the civic scene in a way that it doesn’t on the coasts. In this collection, he devotes one poem to each of 100 institutions of higher learning from several different states. Some of them readers will know: Ohio State, Notre Dame; some they probably won’t, such as Emporia State University in Kansas, but each one gets a voice. Readers familiar with these stomping grounds will get more out of his frequent references to regional landmarks, such as Milwaukee’s Bradley Center; the “M” on the Diag in Ann Arbor, Michigan; or Shakespeare’s Pub in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The local color shows that the author has done his research, but this collection is adventurous not only in its content, but also in its style, as Aidoo experiments with a variety of delightfully unexpected poetic forms. His paean to Eastern Michigan University opens with the energy of a stadium cheer: “SWOOP DOWN! / SWOOP DOWN!” “Ball State” plays cleverly with the monosyllables in that university’s name: “We Party Hard— / This Ball State. / Ball Hard— / Party Late.” The Northwestern University poem features some playful appropriation of found verse, artfully taken from “the Rock,” on which students spray-paint slogans. Only occasionally does the poetry lapse into language that sounds like it’s cut and pasted from a university admissions pamphlet; for example, while singing the glories of the University of Illinois-Chicago, the author writes, “Our oncologists excel in cell research, / We nurse professionals in physics and pharmacy, / UIC leads Illinois in the health care birch, / A Medical Museum of the Science Industry.” Readers may not nominate Aidoo for a Pulitzer, but they may want to check out UIC’s microbiology program.

A thoroughly unique poetry project.

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“By rooting herself in objects and description, Anderson manages to navigate this interior landscape without veering too far into the sentimental.” from river talk

FAR AWAY, I LAND

RIVER TALK

Alles-Crouch, Viki Inkwater Press (359 pp.) $2.99 e-book | May 13, 2014 978-1-62901-025-0

Anderson, CB C&R Press (236 pp.) $16.00 paper | Mar. 26, 2014 978-1-936196-46-3

Individuals of Hungarian, Sri Lankan and English descents cross paths in AllesCrouch’s debut novel.

Beginning with a brief look in Sri Lanka at the lives of Englishman Robert Cross, his Hungarian wife, Erzsike, and their daughter, Beya, the book then quickly flashes back to World War II. In Hungary, young Erzsike, the daughter of affectionate parents, enjoys a life rich in tradition and compassion for others; her family even hides a Jewish professor from the Germans. Robert, born in London to a loving mother and a stern father with an iron fist, later moves with his family to Canada. World War II begins, and Robert goes to war at 18, displaying leadership qualities throughout his distinguished military service. Urged by friend and lover Rudi, Erzsike reluctantly flees her homeland and the barbarism of the Russians during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. In 1945 in Ceylon, Harriet Meedeniya is captivated when she first lays eyes on Cyril Alvis, private secretary to the inspector of police whom Robert met during the war. They marry and have children, including fairskinned Prema, an intelligent, resourceful boy eager to escape his ritualistically abusive father. Alles-Crouch’s novel is a timely reminder that revolution is not new, and it comes at a price. The tale is mostly well-told, with various plotlines neatly integrated, although an occasional passage seems out of place. The story spans decades without the feel of an epic sweep; despite war and revolution being factors, this isn’t historical fiction. The primary focus is on individuals of differing ethnic backgrounds, their reactions to circumstances beyond their control and their efforts to successfully adjust to a foreign culture. Robert admires Erzsike’s struggle to survive, yet after their marriage, she feels pressured to be more English, even changing her name to Elizabeth. The once-love-struck Harriet, inextricably linked to a wife-beating husband who nearly kills her, eventually finds life meaningless. Readers won’t be able to help but root for resilient Prema, who, unlike his mother, retains his humanity in the face of savagery, humiliation and neglect. Like smoke from a fire, he rises.

An engaging, if not absorbing, story of cultural adaptation, with sympathetic characters and ample historical detail.

An uncommonly clearsighted collection of short fiction.

Though journalist Anderson is a firsttime author, her sensitive and startlingly perceptive debut proves she’s on her way to being a master. With the grace of an adept eavesdropper, these 17 short stories slip quietly into the heartbreaks, disappointments and hopes of people living in Maine’s western valleys. Haunted by their choices and responsibilities, Anderson’s characters are working people—bartenders and welders, bakers and jewelry makers, hunters and taxidermists—all in search of meaning.

In plainspoken but richly detailed prose, she captures the claustrophobia of small-town life, and in each story, her protagonists seem caught in the moment just before epiphany, looking through windows into what else might be possible. By rooting herself in objects and description, Anderson manages to navigate this interior landscape without veering too far into the sentimental. Of a character visiting a former home where her ex-husband still lives with his new wife, Anderson writes: “When Jeanine sits the groan of the springs is familiar. On one of the pillows is a long brown hair, Diane’s. Jeanine picks the strand up and studies it—no split end—then drops it.” In these small moments, Anderson’s gifts of attention and emotional precision are on shining display. Though the stories here all share a particular world and mood, Anderson also reveals impressive range: Her characters—of different genders, ages and dispositions—each have a distinct voice, and she writes confidently in first-, secondand third-person points of view. Though a few of her flash fiction pieces, such as “Dance Recital for the Men of the American Legion in April,” stand out, some of the shortest stories in the collection can feel anemic, if evocative. Still, Anderson excels at first lines—“Until Nina met Luke, it never occurred to her that people would have sex on a painting”—and there’s not a single story readers will be tempted to skip.

A triumphant, probing debut that promises both literary and mass appeal.

“I’M GOING TO THE MEDIA AND GETTING A LAWYER!”

Arangio, Tony AuthorHouse (304 pp.) $28.99 | $19.95 paper | $8.95 e-book Feb. 4, 2014 978-1-4918-4736-7 The director of Parent Relations for an unspecified public school district in Texas writes about what it took to prevent disgruntled parents and hapless administrators from totally undermining the academic careers of the students in their care.

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For more than 17 years, Arangio enjoyed the unenviable job of diffusing major and minor dust-ups between frustrated moms and dads bent on raising hell and intransigent school staffers seemingly intent on sweeping everything under the rug.

Routinely getting it from both sides, Arangio nevertheless distinguished himself as a professional, fair, earnest arbiter who, more often than not, could be counted on to quell any unfortunate incident. Many times, this required seemingly herculean efforts that might only be begrudgingly appreciated later, if ever. Still, Arangio was compelled to go the extra mile. “Our job as educators is to listen with the ‘third ear’ not just use stereotypical judgments and surface logic,” he says. “The real trick is how to create an atmosphere of mutual trust vis-à-vis students’ families, school administrators, and teachers.” However, complex issues complicated by race, religion and socioeconomic status consistently made the author’s prime directive a tall order.

Arangio found classroom dynamics to be especially tense. In one case, damaging charges of racism erupted after the plight of one bright but disillusioned little girl was thoroughly misread by most of the adults in the room. Other thorny incidents involved botched cheerleading tryouts and obtuse security protocols, pushing the author’s umpiring skills to their limits. Through it all, Arangio’s guiding principle—to hold the children’s interests above whatever kerfuffle might have flared up—helped see him through. Conveyed with equal bits of wit and self-deprecation, Arangio’s account provides valuable insight into conflict resolution coupled with an impressive track record of success. As the author readily states, his philosophy may not be a panacea for what’s ailing the nation’s public school systems, but it’s hard to argue with an approach that has seemingly worked so well for so long.

A professional’s effective, apolitical memoir that looks at public school education from the inside out.

WATER STORIES Adventures Afloat

Aronsky, Jim StarWalk Kids Media (92 pp.) $12.99 paper | $8.99 e-book Jun. 21, 2013 978-1-62334-839-7 An illustrated chronicle of life afloat, including boats, cameras and denizens of the watery world.

Arnosky (Little Burro, 2013, etc.) is an experienced naturalist and the author and illustrator of many science-themed books for children. This slim volume offers a glimpse of how he finds the subjects and images for his books while cruising waterways from southern Florida to northern Maine by canoe, kayak and motorboat. Each chapter represents a different boating adventure with Arnosky in pursuit of some sort of elusive creature, and the book ends with a final heartgripping story of a stormy rescue on Vermont’s Lake Champlain. The author also tracks crocodiles, discovers wild ponies, has brushes with sharks, fishes the Gulf Stream and plays with

puffins, sometimes in one of his own boats and sometimes in that of a more (or less) experienced guide. His wife, Deanna, a photographer, is his constant companion. Arnosky’s illustrations are appealing and well-done, particularly the black-andwhite drawings documenting his boats and the details of his adventures. The drawing of his exploration boat, the Crayfish, for instance—with its long towline submerged beneath it—is witty, gestural and illustrative. The paintings convey both the professionalism of an experienced illustrator and the genuine passion of a nature lover. Arnosky’s text follows suit: wellwritten, gentle, not meant to challenge. There’s much here that boaters, naturalists and photographers will identify with and enjoy. Arnosky’s geographical scope is wide, too—the book’s nine chapters cover much of the Eastern Seaboard, including many of its beloved vacation spots, so it’s sure to find an audience with snowbirds and cottage-dwellers. Some will certainly raise an eyebrow at Arnosky’s nonironic claim to have seen “Champ,” Lake Champlain’s famous mythical sea monster, in the flesh, but he keeps this rather startling revelation confined to just one small corner of his own personal story.

Charmingly illustrated and filled with interesting facts about eastern waterways and the animals that inhabit them.

NOT TOO SHABBY Barrister Tales From Ed’s Breakfast Emporium Behar, Ken CreateSpace (478 pp.) $15.00 paper | Feb. 7, 2014 978-1-4923-1872-9

In this exquisitely stripped-down novel from Massachusetts attorney Behar (Hoops, 2002), a group of six over-the-hill lawyers swaps case stories over breakfast at the titular greasy spoon.

Every Sunday, Carpenter (the reader never learns his first name) meets fellow attorneys Delaney, Fish, Morton, Steinberg and Weiskoff for coffee, eggs and a sizable helping of good conversation at the same two tables pushed together near the front window of Ed’s Breakfast Emporium. Prickly proprietor Ed has dubbed the group of regulars the “Barristers,” while the men have affectionately adopted the name for their end-of-theweek ritual. Told through a series of vignettes, the novel limns a handful of these breakfasts over the course of five summers as the group discusses politics, the Red Sox and cases on which they have recently toiled—with names judiciously changed, of course. The cases discussed range from heartbreaking ones of broken families without happy endings to more unusual fare, including one involving two Wiccans, a love spell and a restraining order. While the cases may differ, the breakfasts play out with a careful repetitiveness that deliciously captures the routine of everyday life. Weiskoff is always good for an outof-the-blue comment. Delaney hardly ever fails at steering the conversation back on track. Ed can be relied upon to drop in on the middle of a story, orders in hand, and inject a stinging |

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dose of blue-collar criticism into the white-collar chitchat.

It’s not hard to imagine running into these aging, overweight and admittedly unextraordinary characters in real life, yet they remain completely absorbing. Between the witty zingers and moments of lightheartedness, the Barristers each struggle with bouts of dissatisfaction, uncertain about their present lots in life, and readers can’t help but relate.

A poignant, delightful take on morality, friendship, growing older and the legal profession.

EXODUS 2022

Bennett, Kenneth G. Booktrope Seattle (350 pp.) $3.99 e-book | May 20, 2014 Young priest Joe Stanton is hunted by a vicious military-industrial conspiracy when he becomes the latest man afflicted by mystic—and very likely fatal—visions of strange marine environments and parental loss.

Bennett’s (Battle for Cascadia, 2011, etc.) sure hand keeps this apocalyptic yarn from sinking in outsized action and borderline-cartoonish characterizations. Joe Stanton is a handsome, compassionate yet two-fisted Episcopal priest with a girlfriend, Ella, who everyone agrees is stunningly gorgeous.

Joe is suddenly seized by panicked visions of a deceased daughter he never had and overwhelming emotions of grief and loss.

When amateur video of Stanton’s public meltdown goes viral, the incident draws the attention of Erebus, a rogue international military-security contractor (think Blackwater). Two of their divers suffered identical symptoms and died with what appeared to be brain tumors. Sheldon Beck, psychopath scion of the alpha-predator family that runs Erebus, wants to know the connection. Beck and his sadistic mercenaries, amoral doctors and ex–Special Forces killers have Joe and Ella under surveillance on the Washington state coastline, as the couple realizes Joe is telepathically linked to an astounding event unfolding in Earth’s oceans. Sci-fi fans may sense parallels with the comedic plotlines of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) or Douglas Adams’ So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984); this time, though, it’s played straight. Yet Bennett, after a neat Dean Koontz–style curtain-raiser, keeps raising the stakes. And, like a clever magician, he diverts the reader’s attention while taking the ecological-end-times scenario to the next level. The tone is consistent with much Christian-oriented fantasy fiction—the title apparently refers not only to the year this takes place, but also to a biblical chapter and verse—and there are functional equivalents of a deity, the devil and a Christ-like sacrifice. But the emphasis is on environmentalism more so than evangelism.

Indeed, except for the ever virtuous hero and heroine, Homo sapiens don’t seem to be deemed a species worth saving.

Deft storytelling and a riptide of action propel this cataclysmic narrative along, regardless of its eco-religious ballast.

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PILLOWS FOR YOUR PRISON CELL Bullard, Mark D. Brainsquall (126 pp.) $22.95 | May 20, 2014 978-0-9911624-0-6

A fable of desire and of freeing oneself from its chains.

First-time author Bullard relates the tale of a young boy, Amir, in an unnamed land. Amir’s father dreams of lifting the family out of poverty and buying a farm in the country but dies in an accident, sinking the family into penury. One day at the local market, Amir and his younger brother, Mamluk, steal a chicken to feed the family. The authorities apprehend the brothers, and a judge sentences them to the Mill, a notorious labor camp from which no one returns. Prison guards separate the brothers. Subsisting on gruel, Amir spends his days in a bare cell physically powering a contraption running unseen machinery that grinds grain—a benefit to society and the route to his freedom, his captors tell him. Soon, the guards bring a pillow to Amir, calling it a gift. They follow with more: a blanket, a mat and a bowl of his mother’s lamb stew. Amir accepts these so-called gifts but eventually realizes that they come with price tags—literally, on obscure labels that add weeks and months to his sentence. The spirit of his dead father counsels him that “the desire for more is insatiable” and that to find true freedom, release and happiness, “You must grow your Self-Control…and kill Indulgences and Fantasies.” Eventually, young Amir musters the willpower to renounce the gifts, realizing that “the more stuff I get, the less of me there is” and that seeming luxuries are really “millstones” keeping him in the Mill. Written in a deceptively simple fashion, this fable will intrigue anyone spinning on an economic hamster wheel of work, debt, and questions about the spiritual and environmental dissolution of a modern world hellbent on a dead-end street of rampant consumerism. On the most basic level, it makes entertaining reading, but it works on a higher plane, and for those possessed by their possessions, it gives a path to the possibility of freedom.

A deftly told tale about breaking free from the yoke of voracious and unsustainable, media-driven consumerism.

“[T]he characters, major and minor, and the well-wrought historical details will make readers want to linger in the 16th century.” from murder by misrule

COLLISION The Battle for Darracia Book 2 Cash, Michael Phillip CreateSpace (296 pp.) $12.99 paper | $0.99 e-book Mar. 10, 2014 978-1-4952-7348-3

At breakneck speed, Cash’s (Schism, 2013, etc.) second installment in the Darracia saga blends elements of sci-fi and fantasy as it continues to chronicle the adventures of a small group of heroes desperately attempting to unite a wartorn planet.

Still reeling from his uncle’s brutal attempt to usurp his father’s throne, V’sair—now king of Darracia—is struggling to keep alive his dead father’s dreams of a united planet. But the tensions between the Darracians (muscular humanoids with tails who live in floating cities) and the Quyroos, who live in the forests far below, are rising. To make matters worse, V’sair’s treacherous uncle Staf Nuen, a Darracian, has escaped and is no doubt planning another attack. The novel is essentially two intertwining storylines: One follows V’sair and his love interest, Tulani, a Quyroo high priestess, as they try to reunite the two races while also uncovering a traitor in their ranks; the other follows V’sair’s brother Zayden and his mission to find—and kill—Nuen. While both storylines are well-constructed and compelling, Zayden’s is easily the more entertaining as he tracks Nuen from planet to planet, going from one hair-raising adventure to another. The sequences featuring Zayden and Denita— including his overly possessive and undeniably seductive savior (“I saved you and you belong to me”)—give the story’s serious tone some much-needed levity. In a minor setback, the narrative tends to lose focus on worldbuilding. The series’ first volume was filled with rich descriptions of the various locales on and around Darracia—the thick forest of the Desa, for example—while this novel concentrates much more on action than on setting.

Not exactly profound, but top-notch literary escapism with nonstop action, well-developed characters and jawdropping plot twists.

MURDER BY MISRULE A Francis Bacon Mystery Castle, Anna Capitol Crime Jun. 8, 2014

Lawyer, scientist and original Renaissance man Francis Bacon enlists four high-spirited law students to help solve a murder and secure his return to Queen Elizabeth’s favor.

In this debut historical mystery set in 1586, a 25-year-old Bacon is horrified when he stumbles over the body of his former law tutor in a Westminster alleyway. But when his uncle, the powerful courtier Lord Burghley, asks him to investigate the murder, he sees an opportunity to regain the queen’s favor, lost after he dared to suggest the English legal code needed an overhaul. Hoping to restart his stalled career, the ambitious Bacon takes the assignment, but owing to delicate digestion and social awkwardness, he delegates much of the actual investigating to his four pupils: Tom Clarady, a good-hearted mischief-maker whose privateer father is determined to make him a gentleman; the miniature Allen Trumpington, owner of “a tragic wisp of a moustache of which he was perversely proud”; highborn, pompous Stephen Delabere; and the studious, intelligent Benjamin Whitt. At the murder scene, Clarady spies a golden-haired beauty gazing down from a window and falls immediately in love. The possibility that she might have witnessed the murder provides him an excuse to hunt for her, though identifying her does prompt certain concerns: “Had he fallen in love with a strumpet? Again?” Fortunately for Clarady, Clara Goossens only charges for the portraits she paints of noblewomen. Bacon suspects the enemy is close at hand: namely, another lawyer at Gray’s Inn allied with Catholic factions and intent on fomenting political unrest to unseat the queen. Castle’s characters brim with zest and real feeling, whether it’s Bacon dithering on a doorstep and wondering whether anyone has seen him do it or the prickly dynamic between Tom and Stephen, longtime pals from different social classes whose established symbiosis—“sharing Tom’s father’s money and Stephen’s father’s influence”—is starting to fray.

Though the plot keeps the pages turning, the characters, major and minor, and the well-wrought historical details will make readers want to linger in the 16th century.

A laugh-out-loud mystery that will delight fans of the genre.

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“The novel shines the most brightly...as the author explores what it means to be a monster. There’s one in everyone.” from monster city

FAITHFUL FRIENDS A Jew and a Catholic Discuss Religion in Modern Life Chapin, Rabbi Richard; Pitarresi, Jerome CreateSpace (138 pp.) $12.99 paper | $8.99 e-book Jan. 17, 2014 978-1-4909-9074-3

A theologically edifying dialogue between a committed Catholic and an observant Jew about the natures of their

faiths and beyond.

Particularly in a religiously divisive age, an unabashed display of theological cooperation between two discussants of different but often related beliefs is simply inspiring. This book is essentially the cataloging of a conversation between two spiritually driven men, Richard Chapin, a rabbi, and Jerome Pitarresi, a lifelong Catholic, who exchange letters covering the basic controversies confronting men of religious conviction. Some of their conversations are scholarly and doctrinally centered, ranging from topics such as faith, the grace of God and the nature of religious belief itself. In these sections, the two interlocutors deftly straddle the fence between deep scholarly erudition and accessibility, soberly discussing issues that could easily devolve into academic minutiae. Most of their discussions, however, center on topics of social controversy that are not irreducibly religious: marriage, tradition, failure, disappointment, anger, sex, forgiveness and elderly care. The reflections on the nature of spiritual life are typically profound and intelligibly presented: “As you suggest, the addition of other forms of so-called spiritual expression—be it yoga, meditation, or a dash of Buddhism here and there—have sufficed for many who choose to lead completely secular lives. I find this development sad and, at worst, tragic. There is nothing wrong with supplementing one’s religion with these so-called spiritual exercises. But one should be careful not to make those supplements to our religion the religion itself!” Underlying the entire dialogue is evidence of a life of friendship; even differences between the two men, sometimes enlivened by a gentle argument, never rise to the level of fiery debate. In fact, one minor failing of the book is that the significant theological differences between the two men and their religious traditions are sometimes lost amid the men’s congeniality. It’s heartening to see a committed Jew and a Catholic converse about such powerful topics without a hint of adversarial conflict; yet their worldviews are powerfully distinct, especially regarding the afterlife and the bonds of marriage.

A philosophically instructive, spiritually uplifting dialogue.

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MONSTER CITY A Hardboiled Horror Mystery Cowlin, John Amika Press (216 pp.) $15.95 paper | Dec. 20, 2013 978-1-937484-18-7

A jaded private detective in a monster-stricken city gets more than he bargained for when his client dies under suspicious circumstances.

From vampires to poltergeists to voodoo priests and zombies, the residents of San Monstruo— “THE CITY OF MONSTERS AND NIGHTMARES,” a highway sign reads—are anything but regular, and the regular people, or “regulars,” who live there are a strange bunch, too.

Seemingly everyone is chased by their own versions of something worse than monsters and nightmares. Most of the monsters, however, are—despite their monstrous appearances, unconventional lifestyles and unsavory dietary preferences— actually not so scary; they’re just trying to make a living and even be upstanding citizens like anyone else. The city even puts the zombies (protective mouth guards securely fastened) to work as street sweepers. Like any city, San Monstruo has its share of criminals and lowlifes, though the underbelly feels a bit more threatening than most, thanks to the fangs, claws and all sorts of magic. As a former police detective, Vic Brahm used to make it his business to protect the city from an unusually grotesque brand of criminals, but after leaving the force, his only business now is with anyone willing to pay him for his PI work.

When Mr. Chatha, a 4,000-year-old Egyptian, contracts Vic to investigate his wife Diane’s suspected infidelity, it seems like a pretty open-and-shut case—until Diane, after finding Vic’s card in Mr. Chatha’s desk, shows up at Vic’s office asking for his help investigating her husband’s alleged suicide. Meanwhile, Vic’s old partner from the force, a sasquatch named Jerry, is stuck trying to find the Riding Hood killer; he’d sure like Vic to help him out. In spite of being a fairly standard, sometimes-predictable detective novel in its character types and storylines, Cowlin’s debut still stands out as a worthwhile read. The well-built, horror-inspired world of San Monstruo offers just the right balance of humor and creepiness to keep readers on the edges of their seats without being quite terrified. The novel shines the most brightly, however, as the author explores what it means to be a monster. There’s one in everyone.

A fun read for PI aficionados and kitschy horror fans alike.

UNFINISHED STORIES OF GIRLS Dent, Catherine Zobal Fomite (247 pp.) $15.00 paper | May 1, 2014 978-1-937677-62-6

Dent’s (English/Susquehanna Univ.) debut story collection explores the lives of a handful of characters living along Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

Several of Dent’s characters are rudderless women navigating young adulthood. In “At the Mouth,” a young woman who had been living with her grandmother before she died is now haunted by the old woman’s religious mania as she explores her own burgeoning sexuality. In “Hold My Hand,” a teenage girl and her brother struggle through childhood with an inept father, only to wander together into the underworld of methamphetamine production. Dent has a penchant for evoking an ethereal world, but she keeps her narratives firmly planted in the everyday realities of her often marginalized characters while she explores the socioeconomic and racial barriers that keep them bound, as if by an evil spell. “Wheels” invites readers to experience the fallout of a drunken hit-and-run in a community that wants desperately to exonerate the privileged girl who committed the crime, despite the feelings of the heartbroken working-class family who lost its young child. “The Truth You Know” lays bare the culture of a slum apartment building as the lives of the careworn tenants collide. Dent’s capacity to cover epic sweeps of time in fairly short pieces is remarkable. “The Hole At Backyard Park” follows two twins from their childhood into their older years, as they prepare to reunite after several decades of estrangement. When the twins observe their mother, who had kept herself busy with voluntary service during WWII, after the war has ended, Dent writes in his typically minimalistic and powerful prose: “[S]he also grew smaller and less clear. First her mole disappeared. Then her smile left. Then she seemed to fade into her naps, and the sternness left her eyes.”

Keenly observed and lyrical, an evocative collection with emotional heft.

THE LADY OF THE HOUSE

Elberfeld, Katherine Daniel & Daniel Publishers (128 pp.) $14.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 11, 2013 978-1-56474-538-5 In Elberfeld’s debut novel, a newly widowed, 50-ish woman looks back at significant moments in her life, reflected through the prism of memory and dream.

As this pared-down novel begins, Annie, 52, has just returned from her husband Pearce’s funeral, facing an empty apartment and her memories. Disjointed thoughts of the past keep arising—not of

Pearce, but of Danny, the boy she first loved. If she can get these thoughts “to click into place, they would reveal their secret to her….Why, why had she left Danny behind?” Through reverie and dreams, Annie pieces together the significant moments of her childhood: first meeting Danny, her mean-spirited grandmother, her mother’s early death, Danny’s proposal and why she turned him down. Through this process, Annie finds the strength she needs within herself. In her debut, Elberfeld confers a sense of ominous significance to small events, as memories often turn to dreams or nightmares. A dutiful childhood visit to an old lady in her stuffy parlor, for example, slides into a bad dream: “And the door on the parakeet cage clanged shut and Annie was in the cage and the bird smell and the old-lady smell filled her nostrils like powder and her windpipe closed in.”

In evocative, poetic language, Elberfeld captures the evanescence of youth: “[P]ressed between Danny’s body and the body of his truck, Annie stood in the moonless night with the crickets zigzagging in her ears and heart and drank as if she stood at the fountain of life.” Annie’s story is, however, rather slight to bear all the weight of this significance. Her husband was dear and sweet; if he valued security over excitement, how could he live up to her memory of Danny, unchallenged by any of the real cares of adulthood? And while Annie remains convinced that the central issue was her lack of faith in Danny, it’s her inability to stand up for herself that’s most prominent.

A lyrical exploration of memory, grief and choice.

THE LONGEST NIGHT A Personal History of Pan Am 103

Engelhardt, Helen Midsummer Sound Company, LLC (262 pp.) $17.66 | $15.19 paper | Jun. 1, 2013 978-0-9851138-5-8 In her debut memoir, Engelhardt writes about losing her husband, Tony Hawkins, who was on Pan Am Flight 103 that was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in the 1988 terrorist attack.

Hawkins was returning home to Brooklyn after a short visit to his native England. He was 57 and left behind his wife, Helen, and their son, Alan, who just turned 6. They’d had 16 years together; Alan was the late-life—and very precocious—child that they doted on. The book recounts that first year after Lockerbie but also looks back and recalls both the good times and the hard times. Like all marriages, theirs was not without challenges, but their love was rock-solid. And such lacerating irony: Tony was supposed to fly home a day earlier but begged an extra day to tie up loose ends. So many had stories like that to tell; others were supposed to make that flight but were saved by their “bad luck.”

With other survivors, Engelhardt organized the Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 and began lobbying, marching, protesting, writing letters (and newsletters), badgering whatever powers they thought could and should do more. She became all too familiar |

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S U M M E R R EA DING

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An Adirondack Life

By Brian M. Freed 396 pp. | $21.79

A teenage love triangle is the catalyst for murder in this mystery set against the backdrop of the Adirondack wilderness. Freed makes his stunning debut with a novel that is grand in scope but intimate in its execution.

The story follows a trio of teenagers who meet in the tiny fictional community of Henoga Valley, deep within New York’s Adirondack Mountains. The two boys, John David and Jack, who have been friends since childhood, are both legendary local athletes. Their personalities, however, couldn’t be more different. A powerful, quintessentially American work from a debut writer whose skills extend far beyond his experience.

Coral Hare Atomic Agent

In Lee’s debut World War II thriller, a young agent infiltrates the Japanese atomic bomb program. Mina Sakamoto, code-named Coral Hare, is no ordinary teenage girl. Born and raised in Honolulu, she learns medicine from her father, a doctor, and also becomes proficient in several languages. Her life is changed forever on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and Mina’s beloved father is killed. As a skilled Japanese-American linguist, she’s uniquely suited to join the U.S. government’s Office of Strategic Services—first as a translator and later as a spy posing as a young nurse. A breakneck historical thriller.

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By Loren Schechter 446 pp. | $17.95

Four teens must cling to each other for survival when they find that their remote wilderness boarding school is actually a school for vampires, who are all too eager to feast on their new classmates. Schechter manages to explore complex questions about ethics, diversity and culture without proselytizing to readers or detracting from an absolutely riveting storyline that few teen authors beyond Neal Shusterman have pulled off. Beautifully refined, intelligent and profound.

Hench 2012 Edition

By Clive Lee 450 pp. | $15.99

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Ethics of the Undead Vampires Pose Questions on Love, Diversity and Religion in the Sawtooth Mountains

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By Adam Beechen; illustrated by Manny Bello and Ethen Beavers 134 pp. | $14.99 For once, the henchman gets to tell his origin story in this beautifully rendered graphic novel. In comic books, every costumed villain bent on elaborate schemes, whether a jewelry heist or world domination, needs a few henchmen. It’s these bit players who drive the getaway cars and provide the muscle.

Touches of humor and a well-informed understanding of the genre (several panels are hat tips to comic-book greats) help bolster the story. The artwork is strong, bold and dynamic while still providing fine details that help set the scene. Gets beneath the mask and tights to humanize the henching life.

Love and Mayhem on the Sunny Isle of Jamaica

By Hope Hamilton Tate 326 pp. | $12.99

In Tate’s debut romantic thriller, the way out for a woman being obsessively pursued by dangerous men may lie in uncovering her mother’s mysterious past. Now that Drulietta Van Hamilton has inherited her late father’s vast estate, she’s getting noticed by a number of men. That’s not a problem when the attention’s coming from Chad, a doctor just hired at the nearby hospital who falls for the young woman. A spirited, diverting thriller that’s marred only by some narrative repetition.

Not Too Shabby Barrister Tales From Ed’s Breakfast Emporium

The Black Phoenix

By Allan Kemp 316 pp. | $11.60

Kemp’s debut fantasy-thriller takes place in a world ruled by supernatural beings threatened by a looming horde of lost souls in the heart of Atlanta.

Seven years after the “supernaturals” took the world from the humans, Mutt, a half-breed—his mother’s a witch, his father’s a werewolf—seems to prefer solitude. But he finds himself party to an imminent war between the surviving humans, many hiding behind the walls of Fort Buckhead, and the vampires, led by the queen, who’s upset that Mutt refused an offer to join her clan. An exquisitely detailed, fantastic realm of wizards, witches, vampires and werecreatures that’s begging for a series.

The Shameless Full Moon Travels in Africa

By Ken Behar 478 pp. | $15.00

In this exquisitely stripped-down novel from Massachusetts attorney Behar, a group of six over-the-hill lawyers swaps case stories over breakfast at the titular greasy spoon. Every Sunday, Carpenter (the reader never learns his first name) meets fellow attorneys for coffee, eggs and a sizable helping of good conversation at the same two tables pushed together near the front window of Ed’s Breakfast Emporium. Between the witty zingers and moments of lightheartedness, the barristers each struggle with bouts of dissatisfaction, uncertain about their present lots in life, and readers can’t help but relate. A poignant, delightful take on morality, friendship, growing older and the legal profession.

By Carol Miller 246 pp. | $11.95

Miller, a Mexico-based American journalist, celebrates Africa in this compelling travel memoir. While awaiting her flight to Nairobi, Miller found herself in close proximity to an explosion at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Shaken but remaining levelheaded, she later boarded a plane to begin her African adventure. The tempo of the memoir is thereby set: fast-paced, occasionally bordering on the urgent, yet always coolly informative. A tender love letter to the plateau continent.

The View From Casa Chepitos A Journey Beyond the Border

River Talk

By CB Anderson 236 pp. | $16.00 An uncommonly clearsighted collection of short fiction. Though journalist Anderson is a first-time author, her sensitive and startlingly perceptive debut proves she’s on her way to being a master. With the grace of an adept eavesdropper, these 17 short stories slip quietly into the heartbreaks, disappointments and hopes of people living in Maine’s western valleys. Haunted by their choices and responsibilities, Anderson’s characters are working people—bartenders and welders, bakers and jewelry makers, hunters and taxidermists—all in search of meaning. A triumphant, probing debut that promises both literary and mass appeal.

By Judith L. Gille 310 pp. | $14.99

Gille grabs a second chance at life by buying a home in San Miguel de Allende. Gille had always fondly remembered San Miguel de Allende from a visit when she was 20. Fed up with her life in Seattle, where she had lost her retail business, she impulsively bought a second home in the idyllic Mexican hill town 28 years later, renewing a love affair with Mexico that she chronicles here with considerable literary flair. To her credit, she also delves beneath the surface of Mexican life, exploring the gentrification of San Miguel and the flight of young Mexicans to the U.S. in search of an economic future. A travelogue that comes alive with colorful detail. |

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with the media and no fan of it. Engelhardt knows how to work up drama, switching between accounts of the couple’s honeymoon in Europe and accounts of the crash 16 years later, oscillating in time between the two and thus accentuating the horror.

Engelhardt’s quietly moving poem to Tony and their love (“There Was So Much to Love”) provides the only imaginable coda to a memoir that begins with her prose poem titled “Incident at Altitude, 12/21/88,” which launches us into the nightmare. Thus is it bookended. The narrative of course brims with details both public and private. For the most part, Engelhardt writes clearly and with tight control, knowing that histrionics would cheapen her story. Such restraint makes the telling all the more powerful.

Engelhardt is an accomplished poet and writer, and there is not a single significant misstep in this moving and engrossing book.

RING AROUND THE ROSARY The Memoir of a Girl, a Nun, a Wife, and a Mother Grossman, Gretchen Gretchen Grossman (322 pp.) $12.95 paper | $3.99 e-book Mar. 4, 2014 978-0-615-95672-5

Grossman’s engaging debut memoir contrasts her years as a postulant nun with her later, secular life.

During her all-American upbringing in small-town Illinois, Grossman defined her life by her relationships to both the Catholic Church and the summer carnival, which serve as this well-structured memoir’s symbolic poles. As “a good girl, programmed into perfection mode,” she instinctively avoided the “sin and debauchery” that the carnival seemed to represent.

Instead, she found comfort in the discipline of the church of her “grandfatherly God.” However, she became troubled by this strict division between body and spirit when she entered adulthood. As a teenager, she wore tight skirts and tried to attract male attention. She took her failure at romance as proof that she actually had a religious vocation, although friends and family tried to dissuade her. Once inside the convent, she found that the regulations were stringent: One should never criticize or question nor pursue any sort of individuality. “Convent rules whittled away my personality,” Grossman writes. She endured five years as Sister Greta before a chance viewing of the 1965 movie The Sound of Music convinced her there was life outside the church. The day she left, June 23, 1966, marks both the beginning of her new life and her book’s midpoint. The memoir’s latter half may be less compelling than the hothouse atmosphere of her Catholic formation, but its lyrical descriptions and excellent re-created dialogue, based on contemporaneous journals, enliven the story. The author caught up on everything she missed, attending feminist discussion groups, seeing risqué films—and resuming dating. Before long, she was engaged to an Alabama journalist who bought them both luxurious clothes and an extended European honeymoon. “Self-indulgence was 138

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a novelty,” she admits, but their lavish lifestyle masked fundamental incompatibility. A Chicago teaching career and single parenthood might not have been what Grossman always envisioned, but she now gracefully accepts the course her life has taken: “We were not a storybook family, but a dear family nonetheless.”

An absorbing, unpredictable life story inside and outside the church.

THE COWBOY AND THE VAMPIRE Rough Trails and Shallow Graves

Hays, Clark; McFall, Kathleen Pumpjack Press (346 pp.) $14.95 paper | $3.99 e-book | May 5, 2014 978-0-9838200-4-8 In the third installment of their horror series, Hays and McFall (The Cowboy and the Vampire: Blood and Whiskey, 2014, etc.) return to LonePine, Wyoming, as human Tucker and vampire Lizzie discover that they have a whole new type of bloodsucker to worry about.

The world of vampires is dying out, as they’re unable to turn humans to replenish their ranks. But in LonePine, the nine vampire tribes have at last found a prophesied savior. Is it Lizzie, their new queen, who wields the power to save their kind, or is it her unborn child? Time will tell; for now, Tucker and Lizzie are just trying to enjoy a respite—and maybe even get married—now that a semblance of peace has been reached. But before they can say “I do,” a well-trained mercenary group kidnaps Lizzie. There’s no ransom and no demands; the man that hired them, fat-cat businessman Auscor Kingman, has other plans. With the help of Dr. Louisa Burkett, a scientist who will do anything to have one last shot at vindicating her theories, he intends to use Lizzie’s blood to synthesize a cure for human aging—and make a fortune selling it. As research begins, Burkett uncovers the existence of the Meta, the otherworldly plane where all vampires’ consciousnesses go during daylight hours— and where humans’ souls go when they die. While this discovery opens up new business opportunities, it also lets Elita, Lizzie’s friend and bodyguard, and Rurik, a Russian rival for the queen’s affections, know that Lizzie is still alive. Now it’s a race for the mixed-species rescuers (human, vampire and Tucker’s dog, Rex) to save Lizzie and her unborn child. This series is intended for audiences who like blood and bullets along with their romance, and the prose here is sharp and to the point, much like the majority of the characters. Although the plot this time around is fairly straightforward, its events result in dire consequences for the star-crossed lovers. With pulse-pounding action, ongoing intrigue over the fate of vampire-kind, and the tumultuous struggles of Tucker and Lizzie’s love story, Hays and McFall once again deliver a thoroughly entertaining novel for readers to sink their teeth into.

Another worthy entry in this love-and-fangs series.

“[T]he novel not only traces the trajectory of one girl’s coming-ofage, but also captures a time period fraught with tension and fear.” from anshu

BROKEN BRAIN Surviving a Traumatic Brain Injury

ANSHU Dark Sorrow

Kono, Juliet Bamboo Ridge Press (327 pp.) $18.00 paper | $9.95 e-book Sep. 22, 2010 978-0-910043-83-0

Huerta, Joseph Lulu (196 pp.) $14.75 paper | Jan. 15, 2014 978-1-304-40014-7

In this deeply felt memoir that’s more philosophical than medical, a personal injury lawyer’s resilience, natural tenacity, and support from a strong family and a few close friends spur his seemingly miraculous recovery from a traumatic brain injury that should have destroyed him.

Debut author Huerta compellingly and without self-pity recounts his long bounce back from a horrific 1998 skiing accident in Colorado in which he collided with a tree and fractured his skull in 23 places. Huerta, of Corpus Christi, Texas, then 31 years old and by his own account “living the fancy life at the end of the last millennium,” lay near death and in a coma for 12 days at a Denver hospital, his head grotesquely swollen. Doctors gave his family a grim prognosis: Even if he survived, he would be severely disabled and probably unable to walk or talk. But Huerta came out of the coma and ultimately regained his ability to walk, his voice, driver’s license, independence and much of his former existence. Never mind that the first several years following the accident were filled with black holes. He learned that life goes on even with whole volumes of memory lost. Though he credits doctors with saving his life initially, his recovery relied on a regime he more or less devised on his own, which involved regular exercise with weights at a local gym and strategic Botox injections. Did his father Albert’s promise to God to give $1 million to the church if his son were restored explain Huerta’s astounding rebound? Huerta doesn’t know, but he does believe that “in the end the brain seemingly heals in a mystical manner.” In a stunning metaphor, he describes the process as a gradual unfolding: “Imagine a piece of artwork like the Mona Lisa, folded up and stuffed in a duffel bag,” he writes. “Your mind unfolds itself.” This kind of highly original insight pervades the book. The writing style is informal, conversational and forthright, and the short chapters make for easy reading. Accounts from family members and a close friend augment this portrait of a determined man who fought his way back from the abyss. “I wanted to live,” he says, summarizing it all.

Authentic and genuinely inspirational.

Kono’s (Ho’olulu Park and the Pepsodent Smile and Other Stories, 2004, etc.) debut full-length novel is a bildungsroman based on historical events, which traces a brave teenager’s journey to Tokyo during

World War II. For Himiko Aoki, a teenager living in Hawaii, life is anything but simple. Her father dies suddenly from an infection, leaving Himiko with her strict and often harsh mother and her cloying sister, Miyo. Himiko finds solace in the arms of Akira, her secret boyfriend, and the two comfort each other as the war around them looms ever closer, calling for rationing and constant concern. But Himiko’s sorrows are far from over; she becomes pregnant and is sent away to spare her the shame and grief that her own neighborhood would heap upon her. She arrives at the home of her aunt and uncle in Tokyo, where she is quickly put to work and treated by all except for her uncle as more of a burden and a slave than a relative. Himiko suffers verbal abuse from her aunt and cousin and is subjected to a series of humiliations as she tries to navigate her new environment and struggles through the final stages of her pregnancy. Himiko learns quickly that she has only herself to count on and grows independent and fierce as she defends herself against her family and fights to survive the threat of war that has followed her.

But Himiko’s newfound strength proves a liability when the war brings devastation to nearby Hiroshima, endangering the very family she has resented for so long. Himiko soon learns that there is sacrifice in survival, and that time will never heal some scars. Lyrical and almost hypnotic in its telling, Himiko’s story is written with a sure hand and a keen eye for detail. Himiko’s growth as a character is deeply felt, and the vivid characters she encounters make for a colorful, evocative read. Enriched with the texture of historical fact, the novel not only traces the trajectory of one girl’s coming-of-age, but also captures a time period fraught with tension and fear.

A highly readable work of historical fiction that will appeal to teenagers as well as adults.

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FOLLOW THE MONEY How to Achieve Prosperity by Doing the Things the Rich Do Lamb, Thomas K CreateSpace (152 pp.) $12.00 paper | $3.99 e-book Mar. 11, 2014 978-1-4953-9265-8

A practical guide to building wealth and managing finances, aimed at beginning investors.

In this debut personal-finance guide, Lamb addresses a range of issues, from paying down credit-card debt to participating in the stock market. However, what sets this financial management book apart from others is the author’s own working-class history. He shares stories from his days as a truck driver and warehouse laborer and connects those experiences to his gradual financial education. He acknowledges the flaws of the current financial system, addressing such subjects as capitalgains taxes and the rise of income inequality. However, he drives home a message that even a person without economic advantages can create a financially secure future, through a combination of self-discipline, financial literacy and hard work. Much of the material here, such as a comparison of renting versus buying a house, will be familiar to many readers, but it’s primarily aimed at people who have scarcely begun to think about saving for retirement. As a result, the advice is tempered with a strong dose of practicality; for instance, the author explains that paying off credit card debt is the equivalent of earning guaranteed double-digit returns, but he also urges readers not to pay off debt at the expense of saving for retirement. He coherently explains the concept of emergency funds and the rationales for maintaining them (“So what if it takes a long time to reach your goal? As long as you are making forward progress…there is no set dollar figure you need to achieve in order to feel that you have ‘won’ the game”), as well as how to maximize employer contributions to a 401(k) and obtain necessary insurance. His story of how he learned about renter’s insurance will make many readers groan in sympathy and perhaps remember their own youthful mistakes. His advice on investing in stocks, bonds and mutual funds is clearly meant for readers who already have some financial security, and it seems out of place next to sections about tracking spending and creating a basic budget. That said, it does offer a reasonable analysis of the market’s relationship to the small investor.

A concise, coherent overview of financial basics.

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Coral Hare Atomic Agent

Lee, Clive Caleb Lee (450 pp.) $15.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Mar. 15, 2014 978-0-9914800-0-5 In Lee’s debut World War II thriller, a young agent infiltrates the Japanese atomic bomb program.

Mina Sakamoto, code-named Coral Hare, is no ordinary teenage girl. Born and raised in Honolulu, she learns medicine from her father, a doctor, and also becomes proficient in several languages. Her life is changed forever on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor and Mina’s beloved father is killed. As a skilled Japanese-American linguist, she’s uniquely suited to join the U.S. government’s Office of Strategic Services—first as a translator and later as a spy posing as a young nurse. After three years of fieldwork in Asia, Mina is already battle-hardened at the age of 17, but her greatest test is yet to come. Japan is making dangerous progress in its atomic bomb program, so Mina must travel behind enemy lines to Tokyo and mark an atomic facility for destruction. In the process, she encounters Col. Tetsuo Matsui of the Imperial Japanese Army, the man in charge of the program who’s also known as the Butcher of Bataan; she gains his eternal enmity by causing the firebombing of Tokyo. From Japan to northern Korea to Borneo, Mina witnesses horrifying violence and leaves a trail of bloody destruction as she races to stop Japan from building an A-bomb and dropping it on the United States. With her Japanese schoolgirl uniform, arsenal of weapons and exclamations such as “Aloha, bitches!,” Mina seems more suited to the graphic-novel or comic-book format; so do the secondary characters, as the good guys are all good, and the bad guys are all bad. However, even if this thriller seems a little too enamored of its own protagonist, it moves at a whirlwind pace. Every time it seems that Mina is about to catch a break and wrap up her adventures, another crisis sends her back out in the field, regardless of her life-threatening injuries. The story also delivers a submarine chase, a Tommy-gun–wielding priest and even a shark attack.

A breakneck historical thriller.

“[A]n impressive look at what can be accomplished with dogged determination and the right partners.” from searching for pekpek

SEARCHING FOR PEKPEK Cassowaries and Conservation in the New Guinea Rainforest

Mack, Andrew L. Cassowary Conservation & Publishing, LLC (254 pp.) $19.95 paper | $9.99 e-book Mar. 11, 2014 978-0-9893903-0-9 A scientist looks back at his fascinating career and offers a pointed critique of mainstream conservation organizations.

As a graduate student in tropical biology at the University of Miami, Mack decided to conduct research on cassowaries— flightless birds that live primarily in the isolated rain forests of New Guinea. He traveled to Papua New Guinea, a country with over 800 tribal groups, a massive expanse of unbroken rain forest and hardly any established research facilities. It was a good fit for someone who finds “a sure thing boring.” Mack’s memoir recounts the two decades he spent in this remote, captivating land, from his pilot study in 1987 to his abrupt exit in 2007.

Chapter by chapter, he inched up the ladder of his dreams by finding a study site teeming with pekpek (the Tok Pisin word for cassowary excrement) and eventually building a field research station with the Pawai’ia tribe. Later, he and Deb Wright, his wife at the time, teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Society and developed a program based in Goroka that trained Papua New Guinean students to become conservation professionals. He encountered hardship every step of the way—lifethreatening diseases, harrowing helicopter rides, testy tribal power struggles, flash floods and flesh-eating microbes, just to name a few. Readers looking for character development or suspense won’t find much here; there’s more insight into the plants and animals Mack observed than the people around him, and most of the major plot developments are plainly stated in the chapter’s titles. What emerges, however, is a hard-earned conservation manifesto: Mack believes the only sustainable conservation practices are those that focus on “capacity building,” the training of local citizens to manage their own country’s natural resources without long-term dependence on foreign expertise.

It’s a convincing outlook, but with a tone that mixes bitterness, humor and pride, Mack sullies his argument by portraying the leaders of “Big Conservation” as perpetually clueless and shortsighted. Nevertheless, the book affords readers an impressive look at what can be accomplished with dogged determination and the right partners.

A genuine adventure that often reads more like a report than a story.

DISCOVERY OF AN EAGLE Mattioli, Grace Lightning Source (322 pp.) $14.95 paper | $0.99 e-book May 1, 2014 978-0-615-92800-5

Mattioli’s novel is a sweet, road-trip tale about the fraught but ultimately tender relationship between siblings.

On the day Cosmo Greco loses his admittedly miserable office job, his free-spirited sister, Silvia, shows up with a plan to drive across the country to Portland, Oregon, where she has dreams of starting a new life. Though reluctant at first, Cosmo begins to warm to the idea when he realizes that his parents, his apartment and his employment status are weighing him down. Once on the road, Silvia and Cosmo bicker, bond and discover that their lives are only as limited as the stories they tell themselves about their family and circumstances. The characters the two siblings meet along the way—whether delightfully crazy or attractive or lost—serve as foils for a kind of personal growth particular to a road-trip scenario, and the landscape of the vast space between the East and West coasts acts as a catalyst for emotional and spiritual change.

Author Mattioli (Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, 2012) writes in an assured voice that carries the story through its potentially sentimental passages, and while some readers may begin to feel the drag of such a long journey, by the end, they may be surprised to find that they, too, have undergone an emotional odyssey. The scenes of Cosmo and his sister with their mother and father (who have long been divorced) are particularly poignant and well-drawn. For example, Cosmo’s father, a violent man in his youth, has deteriorated into a pathetic character who still produces conflicted feelings in his children, which Mattioli renders mostly through image: “The floor looked warped from moisture, as it was protruding in spots. The wood on the cabinets was chipped and worn. The door of the closet looked as if it could fall from its hinges at any second. One or more of the drawers didn’t close straight, but tilted, revealing an opening.”

The dialogue is also, for the most part, believably rendered, which is vital for a story that mostly unfolds in a car.

A light yet satisfying story of a transformative road trip.

TESORO The Treasured Life of a Discarded Daughter Picone, Veronica CreateSpace (440 pp.) $17.95 paper | $8.99 e-book Mar. 15, 2014 978-1-4923-0442-5

Picone describes how, decades after her abusive mother cast her out, she attempted to reunite with her estranged family—including her now-Alzheimer’s-stricken mother. |

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Quiet, sensitive Picone and her four siblings spent their New York City childhood being tormented by Eva, their Colombian-born mother. Yet Picone simultaneously longed for her mother’s love, especially after her father’s death. When a handsome older man asked 17-year-old Picone to marry him following an innocent courtship, Eva coldly cast her daughter out of the family. Picone remained shattered by Eva’s decision for decades, but after her stepfather’s funeral, she strived to reconnect with her family. Unfortunately, her siblings responded with varying degrees of hostility, having long believed Eva’s slanderous (and false) tales about their sister. Picone focused on rebuilding a relationship with her mother, but Alzheimer’s disease was ravaging her, leaving the matriarch increasingly confused and ill while forcing Picone and her combative older sister Julia to share caregiver responsibilities in Eva’s crumbling Queens house. Two additional narratives then unfold: poems describing Picone’s childhood, starting with her earliest memory and circling back to her heart-wrenching abandonment; and the histories of her mother, her Colombian and Italian grandmothers, and Picone’s charming but womanizing father, recounted

by Eva in rare moments of lucidity. In this exquisitely beautiful, haunting debut memoir, Picone weaves a personal story of familial alienation together with sharp, unforgettable portraits of Colombian social hierarchy, the American immigrant experience and post–World War II life. The complex dance of family dynamics rises to life, instantly ensnaring readers. Whether it’s Picone arguing with Julia over their mother’s prognosis or Eva’s painful transition from upper-class Colombian to divorced American immigrant, Picone approaches every character—even herself—with resolute compassion and unflinching honesty.

Occasionally, the story steers near self-pity in some distressing scenes, but it never fully falls into that trap. Between the story’s rich layers and Picone’s captivating writing style, this memoir and its nuanced characters will carve a place in readers’ minds.

A fascinating, magnificently epic family saga told by a gifted storyteller.

Cancer: What I Wish I Had Known When I Was First Diagnosed Tips and Advice From a Survivor Ryan, Michele CreateSpace (84 pp.) $12.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Feb. 20, 2014 978-1-4944-7231-3

A cancer survivor offers practical solutions for navigating a diagnosis of malignancy.

When she found a lump in her breast, Michele Ryan had just quit her stressful job in favor of staying home with her 3-yearold son. Four years after her cancer diagnosis, her husband was given his own cancer diagnosis, and he died within a year. Ryan’s story opens with a powerful account of her quick transition 142

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from career woman to cancer patient, and then it turns immediately to the book’s point: to help others traverse a new cancer diagnosis via humor, practicality and education. With a warm, reassuring tone, she begins with concrete advice—bring a friend, a pen and paper to every doctor’s visit; confirm statistics found on the Internet; enlist someone trustworthy to organize bills and handle insurance issues and appointments. She shares tips that only a cancer patient would know; for example, avoid scents, including pungent foods, if receiving chemotherapy.

Ryan’s compassion informs each suggestion, including how to handle asking for or even accepting help. Her solution? Email a list of needs—laundry, transportation, food, pet-care needs—to nearby friends and family, thus avoiding the need to ask directly.

Ryan addresses the body, mind and spirit. She offers strategies for managing depression and explaining the situation to children, and she helps prepare readers for the varied reactions and levels of support they might receive from family and friends.

She also says that shopping for a wig can be fun—no more bad-hair days. As a 10-year survivor, the author doesn’t leave much unsaid. Her book can be read quickly but is an invaluable resource for encouragement from a brave woman with a lighthearted approach.

A slim, worthwhile handbook to tackling a new cancer diagnosis.

ON GRACE

Schnall, Susie Orman Sparkpress (274 pp.) $15.00 paper | $9.99 e-book Apr. 8, 2014 978-1-940716-13-8 In Schnall’s debut novel, shocking news derails a woman’s plans for her 40th birthday and prompts a journey of self-discovery.

As she prepares to send her youngest child off to school, stay-at-home mom Grace May dreams of filling her free time writing for Westchester Weekly magazine and rekindling her relationship with her husband, Darren. Unfortunately, the magazine shuts down before she pens her first column, and Darren makes a tearful confession that he cheated on Grace with a cocktail waitress. At first, Grace’s situation doesn’t seem to justify her panic: She doesn’t need to work, and her appropriately sheepish husband seems willing to wine and dine his way back into her good graces. But this isn’t enough to stop Grace from feeling sorry for herself or from holding a grudge against Darren. The real source of her discomfort becomes clear as she explains her wavering emotions and self-critical thoughts in long stretches of dialogue with her best friend, Cameron, who’s having fertility problems, and her mother and sister, whose relationships with Grace can’t fill the void left by her other sister’s death. “I’m so conflicted about whether I’m supposed to have a job or whether I’m supposed to be home with the boys,” Grace laments. Her mother replies, “You’re concerned with what you’re supposed to do, instead of doing what

you want to do,” and she cites how Grace took ballet classes as a child because her teacher complimented her—not because she liked them. The author’s blend of girl talk and self-help wisdom reads like a conversation overheard at Starbucks: It’s written in a friendly, nonjudgmental voice that any woman would want to hear after a bad day. Just as Grace is ready to forgive Darren, a reunion with her high school crush threatens their marriage once again, and Cameron announces a shocking revelation of her own. Faced with real-world problems, Grace adjusts her priorities, confronts her fears, and in the process of being true to herself, learns the real meaning of the word “grace.”

A cozy, conversational read featuring a lovably neurotic heroine.

HIPPIE HOMESCHOOLING Smith, Carlton Blue West Books (366 pp.) $17.95 paper | May 1, 2013 978-0-9859495-2-5

In Smith’s debut novel, a reformed hippie hits the road one final time in a quest to find his runaway son, and along the way, he finds himself.

Jerry knew he’d hit rock bottom when he drove his Cadillac into San Francisco Bay 10 years before. A lifetime of booze and drugs had finally taken its toll. Although he’s now clean and helping others who have gone down some of life’s darker paths, Jerry is haunted by the fact that his son, Ethan, ran away. Ethan and his mom aren’t the only people Jerry has lost, however; in a very real sense, he’s also lost himself. Plagued by a selective amnesia after his plunge into the bay, he doesn’t even remember his own name, but he’s committed to righting his life’s wrongs. His first step is to track down Ethan, against the advice of his friend, sobriety mentor and dharmic guide Mahatma (“You no ready,” he says). Along the way, Jerry befriends uptight Talia and her daughter, Lily, a runaway like Ethan. Lily is committed to living on the road with her boyfriend, Max, a wannabe messianic figure who dreams of escaping the strictures of society (and the law) in the Canadian Rockies, but she begrudgingly allows her mother to follow their latter-day hippie caravan, so long as Talia travels with Jerry.

It’s an imperfect but beneficial arrangement: Talia can keep an eye on her daughter, while all three of them search for Ethan.

Although the novel’s stakes are high, this is a quiet read, deeply focused on the inner journey of its protagonist. Smith does a commendable job drawing on California’s quixotic beauty to limn the subtle shifts in Jerry’s struggle with sobriety and grief (“Jerry sat on the grassy knoll, watching the crab fishers stringing nets out on the pier. A thin sheet of clouds swept past the bridge, blurring the crisp lines of the cables”). Likewise, as Jerry’s fragmented memory begins to coalesce around one horrifying realization, Smith’s controlled prose keeps the tension tight.

It’s Talia that gets to sum up the novel’s thesis, though, when she confronts Jerry at his lowest point: “This trip,” she says, “if it’s about anything it’s about not running away.”

An engaging novel about one man’s road trip to the heart of darkness: himself.

THE OASIS OF FILTH The Complete Series

Soares, Keith Self (562 pp.) $19.99 paper | $5.99 e-book Mar. 21, 2014 978-0-9899483-7-1 In Soares’ apocalyptic-thriller trilogy (including his debut novel and two sequels), the survivors of a worldwide plague search for a rumored utopia and struggle to distribute what may be a cure.

The story starts in 2013, when many people diagnosed with leprosy are found to have rabies simultaneously—a lethal, contagious sickness designated RL2013, or simply “the disease.”

The afflicted become milky-eyed crazies that bite and infect anyone they can. Ten years later, major cities have built walls to keep the infected out, while strict laws ensure that everyone and everything inside the city is consistently sterilized. The narrator, a former doctor whose name is never provided, and his new lady friend, Rosalinda, escape the confinement of the walls of Washington, D.C., for the Oasis, a safe place supposedly free of government rule, which Rosa believes is in South Carolina. The couple eventually finds others who may have found a cure—one that Rosa, a microbiologist, might be able to cultivate. But this is an onerous task indeed in a world overrun by zombies. This collection isn’t as expansive or epic as readers may expect; it sensibly tells its tale from one perspective, that of the nameless narrator, in a cohesive story split into three novella-length parts, each with a straightforward goal: find Oasis; find hope; and find a way to save the world. There are very few characters overall, considering the story’s scope, so the ones that stick around, such as Rosa; Celia, a 20-year-old girl whom the narrator sees as a daughter; and the narrator’s canine sidekick, Addy, form meaningful emotional bonds with the protagonist. Soares can’t entirely avoid apocalyptic-story clichés, as the genre almost requires that characters scour abandoned cars for gasoline, stake claims on homes or properties and refuse others access, or regress into animalistic behavior. However, he does dish out plenty of genuine surprises throughout the novel, and even the most avid zombie fan won’t anticipate them all.

The first two novels end with cliffhangers, but the final installment offers a solid resolution.

Genre fans will find what they’re looking for, but the centralized plot and unwavering narrator may attract readers of all types.

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“Stephens briskly delivers Aishling’s teen years with ethereal, compact prose.” from siridean

SIRIDEAN Legend of the Faerie Cross Stephens, Joy Joy Stephens (526 pp.) $17.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Feb. 26, 2014 978-0-615-76863-2

In this romantic YA debut, princess Aishling Morrighan Delaney must survive her teenage years and a horde of evil faeries that want her family destroyed.

Everyone knows that Aishling, the daughter of an Irish parliament member, is the princess of Clan Delaney. What they don’t know is that she’s the Gael Siridean, a slayer of savage Alorcán faeries; she’s also secretly “unofficially betrothed” to her best friend, Patrick, prince of the Kavanaughs. Their marriage will unite Ireland’s two most powerful clans, keeping this world—and the parallel Otherworld—safe from brutal Alorcán rule. Helping Aishling through her formative years are Cearnaigh O’Brallaghan, friendly Maolán faerie and combat mentor, and Morrighan, a war faerie who bestows the teen with enchanted weaponry and armor such as a faerie cross pendant. But formidable forces work against them, including the demonic Satariel and the bestial Dullahan. There’s also Raphael, a rakish demon who’s thrown into this combustible mix to distract Aishling from her fate. During her trip to Spain with the Trinity College Orchestra, she and Raphael are entranced by one another. But will Aishling resist this dangerously inviting lover for the sake of her clan and country? Debut author Stephens

This Issue’s Contributors # Adult Elfrieda Abbe • Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Adam benShea • Rebekah Bergman • Amy Boaz • Jeffrey Burke • Lee E. Cart • Derek Charles Catsam • Perry Crowe • Dave DeChristopher • Kathleen Devereaux • Ruth Douillette • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott Jordan Foster • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Lauren Gilbert • Devon Glenn • Amy Goldschlager Michael Griffith • April Holder • Robert M. Knight • Christina M. Kratzner • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Angela Leroux-Lindsey • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Georgia Lowe • Joe Maniscalco Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parsons • Jim Piechota • William E. Pike • Gary Presley Amy Reiter • Andrea Sachs • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Michael Sandlin • Gene Seymour • David Shribman • William P. Shumaker • Rosanne Simeone • Linda Simon • Elaine Sioufi • Wendy Smith Margot E. Spangenberg • Pete Warzel • Carol White • Chris White Children’s & Teen Alison Anholt-White • Kim Becnel • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Elise DeGuiseppi Lisa Dennis • Brooke Faulkner • Laurie Flynn • Laurel Gardner • Judith Gire • Heather L. Hepler Megan Honig • Jennifer Hubert • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Joy Kim • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Joan Malewitz Jeanne McDermott • Shelly McNerney • Kathie Meizner • Daniel Meyer • Deb Paulson • John Edward Peters • Melissa Rabey • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds Leslie L. Rounds • Mindy Schanback • Hillary Foote Schwartz • Stephanie Seales • John W. Shannon Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Jennifer Sweeney • Deborah D. Taylor • Kimberly Whitmer S.D. Winston • Monica Wyatt Indie Rachel Abramowitz • Sarah Alender • Paul Allen • Beth Cranwell Aplin • Kent Armstrong • Stefan Barkow • Valerie Brooks • Claire Bushey • Charles Cassady • Stephanie Cerra • Steve Donoghue Lauren L. Finch • Jameson Fitzpatrick • Rebecca Foster • Devon Glenn • Justin Hickey • Ivan Kenneally • Daniel Lindley • Judith B. Long • Dan Lopez • Joe Maniscalco • Margueya Novick • Joshua T. Pederson • Jackson Radish • John T. Rather • Sarah Rettger • Sarah Rodriguez Pratt Jessica Skwire Routhier • Mark A. Salfi • Jerome Shea • Heather Varnadore

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weaves a dense skein of fantasy and romance in the first volume of her new series. The magic begins with transporting depictions of Ireland, where “[d]rops of sunray billowed down through the green canopy to spotlight the springy ferns covering the forest floor.”

Against this backdrop is faerie lore mixed with Buffy-style action.

Stephens briskly delivers Aishling’s teen years with ethereal, compact prose: “I felt like a painter’s canvas, soaking in the artist’s passion and inspiration; so tedious were his brush strokes, so masterful his details, I could feel every fine line he produced on my skin.”

Stephens also takes a direct approach, as when Raphael says that Aishling is “the most exquisite creation” he’s ever seen. Such a sure narrative hand, not to mention the epic finale, will assure readers the adventure has only begun.

A sumptuous, entrancing debut.

SELLING THE CITY OF ENOCH

Townsend, Johnny Booklocker.com, Inc. (214 pp.) $15.95 paper | $2.99 e-book | Mar. 1, 2014 978-1-62646-965-5 A collection of subversive short stories about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Townsend, the author of Dragons of the Book of Mormon (2013) and the instant 2010 cult-classic The Golem of Rabbi Loew, returns with a new collection of sharply intelligent tales revolving around disillusionment with the Mormon faith. Strongwilled 20-year-old Sister Covino of “A Mormon Motive for Murder” thinks to herself: “If the Book of Mormon wasn’t true, if Joseph Smith wasn’t a real prophet, if the Church itself wasn’t true…was any of it true?” The stories are full of such doubters, but there’s no vindictiveness in these pages; the characters continuously poke holes in Mormonism’s more extravagant absurdities, but they take very little pleasure in doing so. Their layers of disillusionment make the stories pleasingly complex, as in the disturbing “Renting Mom and Dad,” in which a parentless young woman of Seattle’s Native American Swinomish tribe finds Mormonism intriguing—not only due to the comforting family life it seems to represent, but also because she’s told that the faith’s Scripture was written by native peoples of America.

In the collection’s best piece, “The Homeless Bishop,” a Salt Lake City Mormon bishop disguises himself as a homeless person in order to test the charity of his congregation, and his final realizations are quietly shattering. Many of Townsend’s stories, which often feature apostate and/or gay characters, have a provocative edge to them, but this collection displays a great deal of insight as well. “You can never have peace with someone who thinks they’re better than everybody else,” says a disgruntled elder in the title story—a sentiment that seems aimed at the Mormon faith in general. It’s an angle familiar to anyone who laughed at the hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, and much of the same kind of satire animates these fine tales.

A playful, biting and surprisingly warm collection of perspectives on Mormonism.

THE WORLD’S OLDEST PROFESSIONS An Unabridged Dictionary of Work

ZENDOSCOPY A Somewhat Coherent Collection of Stories Wolf, J. Allan Inkwater Press (290 pp.) $16.95 paper | $4.99 e-book Jan. 22, 2014 978-1-62901-057-1

Voorhees, Richard Smashwords (354 pp.) $9.99 e-book | Oct. 27, 2013

A whimsical, alphabetical guide to occupations both obscure and familiar, some long-forgotten, others still being carried out by today’s workforce.

From abbess to zymologist, Voorhees (Shooting Genji, 2014) traces the origins of some of history’s earliest jobs. (Yes, Voorhees acknowledges that his book’s title is a euphemism for prostitution.) A few of the job titles will be familiar to contemporary readers; others, like agister (“an official in the royal forest who looks after cattle that are allowed to live and feed in the forest for a certain amount of time”) and kemp (“a big, strong, brave warrior or athlete”), are more archaic. Most entries are accompanied by at least one citation, some reaching back to the works of classic Roman writers. Essays, many of which have been previously published, on the more detailed histories of some of the terms are interspersed throughout the text. For instance, the miller entry leads to a précis on the labor movement in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. Perhaps no one ever posted a help-wanted notice for “cannon fodder,” but the drover—“someone who leads such animals as cattle or sheep to sometimes distant markets”—was once a significant aspect of the labor force. Readers who delight in obsolete slang will take note of “hackster” (aka a pimp) and “jack pudding,” a 17thcentury term for a clown. A large portion of the jobs included here come from the English-speaking world, but a considerable number are drawn from non-European countries such as China and India. The idiosyncratic selection of professions—for instance, there’s an entry for Latin master but not for masters in other areas—makes it difficult to conclude whether this book aims to be an encyclopedia or a collection of well-organized trivia. Regardless, it is without question engaging in its scope and approach. Some of the shorter entries may send readers on a search for further explanations or documentation, and despite the densely filled pages, readers are unlikely to be bored even by the longer entries.

A wide-reaching collection of tidbits about work of all sorts.

In this memoirlike novel, a selfdescribed nerd fond of ham radio and the accordion comes of age in the 1950s and ’60s.

This second book by Wolf (Spacebraid and Other Tales of a Dystopian Universe, 2004) is not exactly a memoir. These loosely connected anecdotes follow Wolf ’s narrator, Sherman Alt, through childhood and adolescence in Southern California before he attends medical school in New York City. Readers will easily identify with the trials and tribulations recounted here, from bullies and hideous acne to ballroom dance lessons, a momentous game of spin the bottle and fraternity high jinks.

Most notably, readers witness Sherman’s protracted quest to lose his virginity; when he finally achieves his goal, he gets more than he bargained for. While the themes presented here may seem ordinary, the details are vivid and memorable, with amusing descriptions of his romantic, social and medical misadventures. After a long night of white wine and cheese fondue during his travels abroad in Europe, Sherman notes that he proceeded to “barf until my testicles were left dangling from my nostrils.”

However, this book isn’t all fun and games, as a more pensive undercurrent runs through the collection. Sherman experiences the early loss of a childhood companion, a strained relationship K i r k us M e di a LL C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2014 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744.

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with his father and the feeling of alienation caused by his avowed atheism, components that are nicely tied together in the final chapter. The prologue and the epilogue, full of tongue-incheek wordplay and parenthetical asides and written explicitly in Wolf ’s voice, represent perhaps the least effective portions of the text. Wolf maybe felt the need to contextualize his tales by invoking the big picture and pondering theories of the universe’s origin; readers might appreciate the effort and the content but not necessarily the result or style.

A respectable batch of entertaining anecdotes, mostly bawdy and occasionally moving, mixed with moments of human connection and philosophical musing.

JUSTICE DENIED The United States vs. the People Woltz, Howell Woltz Media (276 pp.) $14.95 paper | $2.99 e-book Jul. 12, 2010 978-0-615-83599-0

The harrowing account of one man’s persecution by a justice system indifferent to law and morality.

Debut author Woltz begins this memoir of judicial tyranny somewhat benignly: His financial firm, fulfilling a legal obligation, filed a suspicious activity report with the Central Bank of the Bahamas regarding a trust account an American attorney had opened there. He all but forgot the incident until, two years later, he was contacted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI looking to discuss the matter. He quickly obliged but was taken into custody on his way to the scheduled meeting in Charlotte; his terrified wife was taken into custody, too. What ensued was a long train of prosecutorial misconduct that will rattle readers’ complacent confidence in the U.S. judicial system. Woltz describes a “bizarre Kafkaesque world” in which both he and his wife were systematically stripped of their legal rights. They were denied the power to choose their own attorney, and the one they were saddled with worked in collusion with the prosecutors. In violation of their Sixth Amendment rights, they were arraigned in one judicial district and sentenced in another. They were charged with a litany of trumped-up accusations so absurd that the Middle District Office of the U.S. attorney called it a “sham prosecution.” Woltz and his wife were also subject to degrading treatment, intimidation and outright physical abuse, all in order to compel them to provide false testimony against the federal government’s real quarry. Woltz deftly catalogs his disillusionment: “More or less everything I believed about our judicial system was being challenged through personal experience. I was locked in a filthy mad house, though innocent, unconvicted, and pleading not guilty to the charges.” Woltz served 87 months in federal prison; when released, he saw both his financial assets and marriage disappear. A foreword written by a former magistrate judge provides legal context helpful to understanding the full extent of Woltz’s travails.

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A stirring legal drama made more thrilling by sharp, journalistic prose.

MARKETING FOR PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS In The Second Decade Of The 21st Century Worsley, Peter K CreateSpace (114 pp.) $14.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Feb. 16, 2014 978-1-4935-2736-6

A debut guide to promoting and selling artwork online and off.

In this marketing handbook, Worsley guides his fellow artists through the fundamentals of a profitable art career. The book is short but comprehensive, covering “inbound” and “outbound” marketing methods and offering advice on working with physical and virtual galleries. He also shows readers the basics of email marketing, digitizing artwork and creating websites with e-commerce capabilities. The book’s detailed notes section makes it clear that Worsley is familiar with current marketing methods, but he doesn’t buy into the hype that often accompanies marketing fads. He’s also open about whether he finds methods of marketing useful or superfluous. Both beginners and experienced artists will find actionable information here, including how to maintain an offsite repository of digital images and how to refine monthly newsletters. Worsley addresses business issues, including pricing (“Usually the main concern from the buyer’s viewpoint is affordability”) and branding one’s artistic identity (“Some brand phrases are too generic and too vague to set you apart. You might call yourself the ‘best western artist in America,’ but so what?”). Readers committed to finding (or creating) the right market for their art will find this book encouraging and motivating, as it provides dozens of ways to reach potential customers, including using an online presence to bring work to a wider audience. However, purists can rest assured that while Worsley takes a highly practical approach to his subject, he never suggests that market demands should outweigh the pursuit of art itself.

An artist’s handbook for marketing and salesmanship that can help turn a passion into a career.

Appreciations: Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine Turns 30 B Y G RE G OR Y M C NAMEE

Photo courtesy Paul Emmel

We are fragile, poor people, and we break easily. Somehow, most of us manage to piece the fragile bits of shell together again, if only to be broken anew. In time, not even all the king’s men can make the myriad pieces fit, and we remain broken—the subject of psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg’s sobering February book on depression, The Depths. But until then, expecting to be shattered, we go on.

So it is in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, first published 30 years ago, in 1984, and revised and reissued twice since. It is no accident that a recurring image in Erdrich’s stories (which, pieced together, make a novel) is that of the shell. In the opening story, an Ojibwe (Chippewa) woman banters uneasily with an oil-field worker in a bar, correcting him when he refers to the turtleneck she is wearing: “She told him it was no turtleneck. You called these things shells.” He offers to peel it for her as he just has the pickled egg he offers her, and the story that unfolds speaks to all the tragedies of reservation life, where Indian people die of drink and frost and barely anyone notices.

Outside of the family, that is. People may be fragile, but family connections strengthen the shell—a little, at least, until someone snaps. Add beer to the mix, and someone always does, and then pandemonium ensues: in Erdrich’s opening story, a pandemonium that involves a wrecked kitchen, complete with demolished meringue, rhubarb-smeared linoleum, and smashed pies, with their “bits of jagged shells…stuck to the wall.”

June Morrissey’s passing, in a record snowstorm, brings family immediately into play.

A generation down the line, young Albertine Johnson, June’s niece, returns to the reservation, only to be thrown into the thick of family and of stories stretching decades back in time: of love affairs gone bad, failed marriages, too much drink, impossible dreams.

Yet it is through those travails that the family learns—and we learn, in the title story— that they have unusual powers of healing that also stretch far back into the past. Says June’s son, “I know the tricks of mind and body inside out without ever having trained for it, because I got the touch.”

The world of Turtle Mountain is hard, and it harbors many secrets (including, it’s said, the secret grave of Sitting Bull). It is also beautiful, and between those moments of damage and restoration, of destruction and mending, Erdrich writes with obvious affection of the play of light on the trees and the splendid profusion of early fall, when squash lies in garden plots, “the shells…dark green, tough as turtles.”

Erdrich, who turns 60 on June 7, has written many more books since Love Medicine, among them its successor, The Beet Queen, and most recently the novel The Round House. Taken together, her stories have given specific contours to Ojibwe country, a place little known even in the neighboring cities of Minnesota and North Dakota.

They have also brought specific detail to what the Argentinian poet Antonio Marimón has called “our capacity to resist within the walls of a shell,” and we look forward to many more books to come.

Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor at Kirkus Reviews. |

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RANDOM RECOMMENDS Staff Favorites from Elizabeth RECOMMENDS

Karin Slaughter Cop Town: A Novel Atlanta, 1974. The city is seething with racial and gender inequality. A brutal murderer is picking off cops.

And, Kate Murphy and Maggie Lawson are learning that the Atlanta PD does not take kindly to female recruits. As the women are sidelined from the citywide manhunt, they begin pursuing their own line of investigation, and suddenly find themselves at the heart of the action. The atmosphere of the city is vivid and alive. The opening scene will tear out your heart. And, the characters will keep you turning the pages.

This first stand-alone, from the acclaimed author of the Will Trent novels, will blow you away. If you haven’t yet read Karin Slaughter, now is definitely the time to start!

978-0-345-54749-1 | $27.00/$32.00C 200,000 | Delacorte Press | HC | June

E 978-0-345-54751-4

Jen

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Random House Library Marketing Kelly

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Rufi Thorpe The Girls from Corona del Mar: A Novel

Ben H. Winters World of Trouble:

Kathryn Harrison Joan of Arc:

Eliza Kennedy I Take You: A Novel

The Last Policeman Book III

A Life Transfigured

An engrossing debut novel about the friendships made in youth and how these bonds— challenged by loss, illness, parenthood, and distance— either break or sustain. Rufi Thorpe brings readers into the complicated relationship of life-long friends Mia and Lorrie Ann and exposes the dark side of friendships that we don’t often admit to or examine too closely. This coming-of-age novel will make you remember your best friend from high school, wherever he or she may be now. A staggeringly honest, deeply felt novel of family, motherhood, loyalty, and the myth of the perfect friendship. Great for Book Groups.

Dip into the end of the world this summer! The Edgar Award winning Last Policeman Trilogy will keep you up late into the night, especially with the final book in the series. How will Detective Hank Palace spend his very last week on earth before a meteor destroys the world as he knows it? Will he be alone? Will he find his beloved sister Nico before it is too late? A series that begs the question: how would you spend your last days on earth?

A look at true love and integrity in the face of hopelessness. Hank Palace will become a character you will never forget.

978-0-385-35196-6 | $24.95/$28.95C 75,000 | Knopf | HC | July

E 978-1-59474-686-4

Like Katherine Harrison, I have always been drawn to the story of Joan of Arc. Six hundred years after her birth, the world is still inspired by Joan as a martyr, saint, rebel, and military leader, who acting under divine guidance, led the French army to victory over the British during the Hundred Years’ War. Harrison is both a superb novelist and memoirist who gives us a Joan for our time—she beautifullly weaves historical fact, myth, folklore, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly interpretation into a compelling narrative. She restores Joan of Arc to her rightful position as one of the greatest heroines of all time. A must read for fans of Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra.

Junior attorney Lily Wilder is smart, sexy, self-assured, and shockingly promiscuous for a woman mere days away from her wedding. I Take You is a subversive contemporary take on the marriage plot. Readers of hip women’s fiction and old-school chick lit will all flock to Lily and her dark, funny, intimate escapades.

Unlike anything you’ve ever read before, this joyous and ribald debut introduces a fabulously confident protagonist whose choices usher in fresh messages about sexual politics.

Lily and Will’s romantic destiny may hang in the balance, but one thing’s for sure—readers will find true love with I Take You.

E 978-0-385-35197-3 ] AD: 978-0-8041-9141-8 ] CD: 978-0-8041-9140-1

978-1-59474-685-7 l $14.95/$14.95C 50,000 l Quirk Books l TR l July

978-0-385-53120-7 | $28.95/$34.00C 75,000 | HC | Doubleday | October

E 978-0-385-53122-1

] AD: 978-0-307-87661-4

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978-0-553-41782-1 | $24.00/$28.00C 100,000 | Crown | HC | February

E 978-0-553-41783-8

] AD 978-0-553-39953-0 ] CD 978-0-553-54548-7