2013 Fall Preview

KIRKUS

REVIEWS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

Fall Preview 2013

INSIDE: Critics’ picks of the best new releases from legendary authors PLUS up-and-coming writers to watch

A sneak peek at the OurHOTTEST preview of theBOOKS hottest coming this books coming out out this fallfall

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

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Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Features Editor C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com

Index to Starred Reviews...................................................................................................................................... 3

Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH

REVIEWS........................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E

This fall’s legendary fiction writers.............................................................................................................4

Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com

Index to Starred Reviews.................................................................................................................................... 19 REVIEWS......................................................................................................................................................................... 19 This fall’s legendary nonfiction writers.................................................................................................. 20 This fall’s crop of talented new nonfiction writers............................................................................33

children’s Index to Starred Reviews.....................................................................................................................................35 REVIEWS..........................................................................................................................................................................35 The legends of this fall’s kid’s books........................................................................................................... 36 The new books by this fall’s trailblazing children’s writers......................................................... 47

The new books by this fall’s trailblazing teen writers......................................................................48 Index to Starred Reviews....................................................................................................................................49 REVIEWS.........................................................................................................................................................................49 The legends of this fall’s TEEN books........................................................................................................... 50

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

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This fall’s crop of talented new fiction writers................................................................................... 18

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Elfrieda Abbe • Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Amy Boaz • Gregory F. DeLaurier • Kathleen Devereaux • Bobbi Dumas • Daniel Dyer • Julie Foster • BJ Hollars • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Peter Lewis • Georgia Lowe • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • John Noffsinger • Mike Oppenheim • Jim Piechota • Gary Presley • Lloyd Sachs • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Carol White

fiction TRAVELING SPRINKLER

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Baker, Nicholson Blue Rider Press (304 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-399-16096-7

TRAVELING SPRINKLER by Nicholson Baker......................................3 THE APARTMENT by Greg Baxter....................................................... 4

Baker foregoes the kinky eroticism of Vox and House of Holes this time and gives readers a sweet and idiosyncratic novel about the protagonist of The Anthologist (2009), a poet and pop songwriter manqué.

Although Paul Chowder’s life is not exactly coming apart, it’s also not what it could be. His girlfriend, Roz, has taken up with someone else, he’s become less committed to writing poetry, and to make a little extra money, he shrink-wraps boats.

(You’ve seen them, with the tight, white plastic....) On the other hand, he enjoys going to Quaker meetings, and he’s really getting into music. We learn he used to be a serious student of the bassoon, but in college, he switched to the study of poetry and now has some regrets. What Chowder would like is a hit song, and he looks for inspiration everywhere. While driving, for example, he sees a truck with an “Oversize Load” banner and begins to improvise: “It was big / It was bad / It was round / It could explode // Yeah, he was driving down the road / with anoversize load.” He’s also recently taken up the guitar and hopes to impress his neighbors as well as Roz with his musical prowess.

Most of all, Chowder is an observer of things and people, and he still has a poet’s fascination with words, “garbanzo” being one of his new favorites. His musical erudition is impressive, and the attentive reader will receive quite an education, ranging from the reason for the bassoon solo at the beginning of The Rite of Spring to the brilliance of Victoria de los Angeles’ version of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 to the poignancy of Jonatha Brooke’s rendition of “In the Gloaming.”

In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he’s one of the masters of the contemporary novel.

NEVER GO BACK by Lee Child............................................................ 4 THE OCTOBER LIST by Jeffery Deaver................................................ 6 DIRTY LOVE by Andre Dubus III.........................................................7 THE LAST ANIMAL by Abby Geni.........................................................8 THE ELIXIR OF IMMORTALITY by Gabi Gleichmann; trans. by Michael Meigs..........................................................................8 TRANSCENDENTAL by James Gunn....................................................8 ENON by Paul Harding..........................................................................8 DOCTOR SLEEP by Stephen King..........................................................8 THE LOWLAND by Jhumpa Lahiri.....................................................10 THE SALINGER CONTRACT by Adam Langer..................................10 THE ROAD FROM GAP CREEK by Robert Morgan............................12 NINE INCHES by Tom Perrotta...........................................................12 QUIET DELL by Jayne Anne Phillips...................................................12 BLEEDING EDGE by Thomas Pynchon................................................ 13 THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL by Bob Shacochis...................14 DEATH OF THE BLACK-HAIRED GIRL by Robert Stone................... 15 THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt......................................................16 THE ASSEMBLER OF PARTS by Raoul Wientzen.............................. 17 Many of the reviews in this supplement have appeared in recent, previous issues of Kirkus Reviews. We repeat them here in order to gather in one supplement the reviews of noteworthy books being published this fall. If the first appearance of a review is in this supplement, we’ve marked it as such. |

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Legends of the Fall—FICTION Photo courtesy Bob Krasner

The fall is coming. The leaves change, football’s on TV, publishers trot out their big books. Some of the authors on this list of publishing’s leading writers are giving us more of what we love and expect from them (including a few exciting sequels to look forward to); some are branching out.

Here’s our guide to the new offerings from this fall’s legendary writers in both fiction and nonfiction; look for our forecasts of other buzzworthy fall titles in forthcoming issues of Kirkus Reviews.

He-e-e-e-r-e’s Danny! Dan Torrance, the alcoholic son of the very dangerously alcoholic father who came to no good in King’s famed 1977 novel The Shining, finds his rock bottom. Satisfying at every level, Doctor Sleep is out on September 24.

Photo courtesy Marco Delogu

Photo courtesy Glen Wexler

Atwood closes her post-apocalyptic trilogy— on sale September 3—with a study of a small camp of survivors, and she remains an expert thinker about human foibles and how they might play out on a grand scale.

A PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE FAMILY

This is Banks’ sixth story collection but his first since 2001; four of the 12 stories haven’t been published before, though the others have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire and other publications. Expect his usual empathetic, penetrating style. Look for it starting November 12.

Lethem, Jonathan 978-0-385-53493-2 This book was reviewed in the Jun. 1 issue.

A dysfunctional family embodies a dysfunctional epoch, as the novelist continues his ambitious journey through decades, generations and the boroughs of New York. In “a city gone berserk,” pretty much every character struggles with identity, destiny and family.

Not Lethem’s tightest novel, but a depth of conviction underlies its narrative sprawl. The book releases September 10.

Fielding, Helen 978-0-385-35187-4 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

In Fielding’s third installment of the Bridget Jones series, a whole new enticing phase of Bridget’s life unfolds as she attempts to maintain sex appeal as the years roll by and grapples with the nightmare of drunken texting, skinny jeans and other marks of a youthful life. Mad About the Boy publishes October 15.

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Lahiri, Jhumpa 978-0-307-26574-6 This book is reviewed on Page 10 of this supplement.

DISSIDENT GARDENS

MAD ABOUT THE BOY

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THE LOWLAND

The Lowland—released September 24— is the story of two brothers in India who are exceptionally close to each other and yet completely different. The narrative proceeds from the simplicity of a fairy tale into a complex novel of moral ambiguity and aftershocks, with revelations that continue through decades and generations until the very last page.

Banks, Russell 978-0-06-185765-2 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

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Grisham returns to Ford County in this sequel to his now-classic A Time to Kill.

Sycamore Row is on sale October 22.

King, Stephen 978-1-4767-2765-3 This book is reviewed on Page 9 of this supplement.

Atwood, Margaret 978-0-385-53842-8 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

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Grisham, John 978-0-385-53713-1 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

DOCTOR SLEEP

MADDADDAM

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SYCAMORE ROW

Continued.... |

“For the pure pleasure of uncomplicated, nonstop action, no one touches Reacher.” from never go back

THE APARTMENT

long way, looking for me, knowing all I would think before I thought it, and shot me out of the sky.”

A very smart novel that recognizes the limits of intelligence and the distortions of memory.

Baxter, Greg Twelve (208 pp.) $24.00 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-1-4555-7478-0

NEVER GO BACK

A formally and thematically ambitious debut novel that aims very high and rarely falls short.

In his well-received memoir (A Preparation for Death, 2010), the author writes of his frustrations with a series of previous novels that were never published. Maybe those were learning experiences, for this shows both a mastery of literary technique and a refusal to see such technique as an end in itself, as it engages the world on a number of levels—political, moral, aesthetic (its ruminations on art are where it goes a little over the top), as well as meditations on place, time and memory.

Though all these concerns make the novel sound overstuffed, the elliptical concision and narrative momentum keep the prose from ever becoming polemic. Following the lead of James Joyce, Don DeLillo and others, the novel takes place over the course of a single day in the life of its protagonist as he makes his way across an unnamed European city in search of the titular apartment. Christmas approaches, but the 41-year-old American seems immune to the holiday spirit and to much in the way of human warmth, as he obliquely recounts the life of dislocation that has brought him to this place that might serve as a final destination but never home. Not that he ever felt at home in his native country—“I was born to hate the place I come from”— and certainly not in his tours of Iraq, in the military and then as a civilian mercenary, selling intelligence for blood money. A woman he has recently met serves as his guide through her city and helps him find the apartment, though the depth of their relationship appears unclear to one or both of them. Not nearly as clear as the view as he stares into the abyss: “I experienced a sensation of falling into nothingness. It seemed not at all like a spontaneous sensation but like a truth that had come a very

Child, Lee Delacorte (416 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-385-34434-0

Jack Reacher pokes a head into his old D.C. office, and things promptly go ballistic.

Reacher wants to get a gander at Maj. Susan Turner, his successor as head of the 100th Military Police Special Unit. But she’s been sent to Afghanistan, he’s told, and he’ll have to deal with her temporary replacement, Lt. Col. Morgan. Morgan’s idea of dealing with Reacher is to accuse him of beating Juan Rodriguez to death 16 years ago and shortly afterward fathering Samantha, a 14-year-old whose mother, Candice Dayton, is now looking for child support. To make sure Reacher doesn’t run off, as he’s certainly wont to do (A Wanted Man, 2012, etc.), Morgan recalls him to active Army service and restricts him to a five-mile radius surrounding the building. Naturally, things promptly get worse. A pair of thugs offer to beat Reacher to a pulp if he doesn’t go AWOL. Maj. Turner turns out to be in jail, not Afghanistan. And when her lawyer, Col. Moorcroft, is beaten into a coma a few hours after one of Reacher’s own lawyers—Capt. Helen Sullivan, the one handling the Rodriguez charge—witnesses Reacher’s fraught meeting with Moorcroft, Reacher is escorted to an adjoining cell in the same building.

But Reacher, never one to let temporary reversals get him down, escapes from jail, taking Turner with him, and sets out to escape the District, rustle up some cash and some wheels, elude the two thugs (now four) who remain in hot pursuit, and hightail it

“Legends” Continued....

Photo courtesy Stephanie Rausser

WHO ASKED YOU?

BLEEDING EDGE

McMillan, Terry 978-0-670-78569-8 This book was reviewed in the Jun. 1 issue.

Pynchon, Thomas 978-1-59420-423-4 This book is reviewed on Page 13 of this supplement.

More than 20 years after the publication and success of her sophomore novel, Waiting to Exhale, best-seller McMillan will publish her eighth novel on September 17. The title is a response to the opinionated masses, “because people are always voicing their opinions when nobody asked for it,” McMillan says. “It’s millions of them out there.

And most of them are in your family,” she adds.

Pynchon makes a much-anticipated return, and it’s trademark stuff: a blend of existential angst, goofy humor and broad-sweeping bad vibes. There’s paranoia aplenty to be had in Pynchon’s novel, coming out September 17, served up in the dark era of the 9/11 attack, the dot-com meltdown and the Patriot Act. Continued.... |

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to L.A. to satisfy himself as to whether Samantha Dayton really is his daughter. Any questions?

For the pure pleasure of uncomplicated, nonstop action, no one touches Reacher, who accurately observes that “I trained myself...to turn fear into aggression.”

set of doors, and turning back each spring to where the new kids were waiting.” And while the children are all well-characterized, their parents are portrayed with enough delicious malice to flirt with satire. To ratchet up the personal drama, Crawford tosses in Martin, a vain but ambitious young actor whose boyfriend status seems like a fleeting afterthought, and a nasty upstairs neighbor who plots to unravel Anne’s perilous residency in her building. Crawford injects a palpable sense of pathos into this absurdly complex process, but non-parents and other parties immune to the cult of the Tiger Mother may find trolling through adolescent essays a bit laborious.

Much like The Nanny Diaries—sincere and readable.

EARLY DECISION Based on a True Frenzy

Crawford, Lacy Morrow/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-06-224061-3

THE OCTOBER LIST

A struggling young tutor tries to find her destiny among the children of privilege in this cutting peek at the vicious world of college applications.

Based largely on personal experience, Crawford’s debut novel explores the rarefied world of Anne, a bright but world-weary English major who has fallen into the unusual trade of “Application Whisperer,” helping affluent Chicago high school students tweak their personal essays and nail their college applications. Anne is also wrestling with her personal identity, unsure of her own talents, ambitions and security. The novel focuses on Anne’s students, all of whom are blandly unique in their own way. There’s a hunky young tennis player who only wants to run with the wild horses in Montana, the wealthy daughter of an Ivy League university trustee and a gay theater buff afraid to confront his aggressive father. The ringer in this exclusive club is Cristina, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant whose brilliance belies her origins. “She was helpless to reframe eighteen years of parenting and generations longer of expectations,” Crawford writes of Anne. “She was just a custodian of fate, as she pictured herself now, an orderly, shuffling alongside these kids. Perhaps offering them a bon mot. Sending them through the next

Deaver, Jeffery Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4555-7664-7 Remember Merrily We Roll Along, the Sondheim musical out of Kaufman and Hart that began with its climactic scene and worked backward to the beginning?

Deaver’s borrowed the same concept and juiced it with assorted felonies, nonstop suspense and his trademark braininess.

The opening scene seems both to begin and to end in medias res. Gabriela McKenzie, whose 6-year-old daughter Sarah has been kidnapped by Joseph Astor, waits with insurance executive Sam Easton for the return of his boss, Andrew Faraday, and venture capitalist Daniel Reardon. The two men have gone to deliver the item Joseph demanded: the October List, a document containing contact information for the secret clients of Gabriela’s boss, wealthy investment counselor Charles Prescott. But the scene ends with the threatening entrance

“Legends” Continued....

THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER: THE WOLF GIFT CHRONICLES

DEATH OF THE BLACK-HAIRED GIRL

Rice, Anne 978-0-385-34996-3 This book is reviewed on Page 13 of this supplement.

Stone, Robert 978-0-618-38623-9 This book is reviewed on Page 15 of this supplement.

This is the second in Rice’s series featuring a cultured pack of do-gooder werewolves.

Reuben, a newly minted Man Wolf, has moved into the Northern California mansion he inherited from the lovely, mysterious and now late Marchent. The mansion, situated in a vast woodland, is also home to several older (in some cases ancient) men who are, when the occasion requires, werewolves. Look for it starting October 15.

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The death of a star student—a privileged young woman enveloped by a cloud of danger and collapse—at an upper-crust university unsettles friends, faculty and family in a piercing novel from the veteran writer. An unusual but poised mix of noir and town-and-gown novel, bolstered by Stone’s well-honed observational skills, it will be out on November 12.

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of Joseph, not Andrew and Daniel. From that moment on, Deaver (The Kill Room, 2013, etc.) sucks you into a whirlwind reverse-chronology tour of Gabriela’s nightmare weekend: her tense interviews with a pair of New York cops, her ransacking of Prescott’s office to find the October List, the encounter in which Joseph tells her that he’s got Sarah, the news that Prescott has vanished with his firm’s money, her meet-cute with Daniel, all punctuated by the sudden, shocking crimes Gabriela and others commit in the pursuit of the elusive list.

The conceit of a tale unrolling backward in time initially seems daunting, but it’s not so different from the way lots of detective stories—or for that matter lots of Ibsen plays— unfold, and Deaver dispenses expository bits and cliffhangers with a mastery that’ll make you smile even more broadly after you realize how thoroughly you’ve been hoodwinked.

Perhaps the cleverest of all Deaver’s exceptionally clever thrillers. If you’ve ever wished you could take the film Memento to the beach, here’s your chance.

to rescue them. In the first narrative, we meet hapless Mark Welch, who’s recently found out his wife, Laura, is having an affair with a banker. Although occasionally picking up and hefting a piece of lead pipe, Mark ultimately finds himself powerless to change the circumstances of his life. In the second story, we follow Marla, a physically unprepossessing bank teller (yes, she works at the same bank as Laura’s lover) who feels her life slipping away from her. She begins a desultory affair with a 37-year-old engineer whose passions tend toward video games and keeping his house pathologically clean. The next story introduces us to Robert Doucette, bartender and poet manqué, who marries Althea, a sweet but reticent upholsterer. In the final months of Althea’s pregnancy, Robert has hot sex with Jackie, a waitress at the restaurant, and Althea finds this out and simultaneously goes into labor.

The final narrative focuses on Devon, an 18-year-old waitress at the tavern where Robert works. To get away from an abusive father, she lives with a considerate great uncle (who harbors his own secrets), but she has to deal with the unintended consequences of an untoward sexual act that was disseminated through social media.

First-rate fiction by a dazzling talent.

DIRTY LOVE

Dubus III, Andre Norton (320 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 7, 2013 978-0-393-06465-0

MONTANA

Florio, Gwen Permanent Press (208 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 15, 2013 978-1-57962-336-4

Dubus anatomizes personal—especially sexual—relationships brilliantly in these loosely concatenated novellas.

At the center of the characters’ world are the small, economically depressed towns in Massachusetts where waiters, waitresses, bartenders and bankers live and move and have their being. To Dubus’ credit, he doesn’t feel he has to solve their personal problems and the intricate twists of their relationships. Instead, he chronicles what’s going on with sympathy but without any sense that he needs

Journalist Florio’s story about a friend’s murder arrives crammed with atmosphere and intriguing characters.

Foreign correspondent Lola Wicks reluctantly returns from an assignment in Afghanistan, where she’s been holed up with a pool of reporters covering the conflict for so long that

Photo courtesy Rick Smolan A-AO Prod.

THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT

THE GOLDFINCH

Tan, Amy 978-0-06-210731-2 This book is reviewed on Page 15 of this supplement.

Tartt, Donna 978-0-316-05543-7 This book is reviewed on Page 16 of this supplement.

Tan, who made her name with The Joy Luck Club (1989), blends two favorite settings, Shanghai and San Francisco, in a tale that spans generations. The story of two women’s intertwined lives on a search for identity pubs November 5.

Tartt’s much-anticipated third novel— released October 22—tells the Dickensian story of a young man named Theodore Decker, who is forced to grapple with the world alone after his mother—brilliant, beautiful and a delight to be around—is felled in what would seem to be an accident.

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“Full of wit and mystery. Memorable and sure to be one of the big novels of the season.” from the elixir of immortality

the dust, danger and shadowy way of life have become second nature. So when Lola ends up back in Baltimore to meet with an upstart young editor, she’s already sporting an attitude. When the editor informs her the newspaper is shutting down its overseas bureaus to concentrate on local news, Lola doesn’t take it well. A rebel and a loner, she heads for a short, preplanned visit with her close friend, Mary Alice, also a former staffer at the paper. Mary Alice had taken an earlier buyout and moved to Montana, where she bought a cabin and went to work at the local paper. But when Lola arrives at the small airport, there’s no Mary Alice to greet her. Annoyed and in a hurry to return to Afghanistan, with or without the paper’s backing, Lola rents a car and drives up to her friend’s cabin deep in the woods near a tiny town called Magpie. But instead of a short reunion with Mary Alice, she finds her friend has been murdered, leaving behind her dog, a horse and a trail of clues that only someone like Lola, who knows her well, could follow. Lola plans to get out of town, but the sheriff has other ideas, and soon, she starts looking into her friend’s homicide, making friends and enemies along the way. Florio dips into her own background to make the protagonist competent and believable. Although it’s a bit difficult to buy Lola as a grizzled veteran at the tender age of 34, the author does a great job of writing a book that’s both evocative of the Montana countryside and a satisfying, hair-raising ride.

A promising debut.

an anonymous narrator—the protagonists are bunked together in a camp cabin the summer their counselor disappears. “The Last Animal” and “Silence” center on older characters looking for a kind of closure, and both have a quieter tension.

An entrancing collection, recommended even for those who generally shy away from short story. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

THE ELIXIR OF IMMORTALITY

Gleichmann, Gabi Translated by Meigs, Michael Other Press (800 pp.) $18.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-59051-589-1 A charged philosophical novel that ranges across centuries to examine where things went wrong (and sometimes right) in history for the Jews, from the heyday of Moorish Iberia to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

“Our family originated in a mystery and a miracle before almost any of the European nations were created, and we’ve played a significant role in history without feeling arrogant about the secret knowledge...that we bore with us through various ages and lands.”

Our narrator relates a millennium’s worth of tales surrounding that “secret knowledge,” namely the means to stay alive forever. Other alchemical talents include potions of various sorts, including one to fend off treason, another concoction that would find favor in the courts of Europe, where some member of the Spinoza family or another, Zelig-like, is always present. (The omnipresence of figures such as “the Cabalist” has a sharp point.) A best-seller in its birthplace of Norway, publisher and literary critic Gleichmann’s novel opens with a dying mother’s plaintive remembrance of a blameless young boy’s death at the hands of the Nazi occupiers of Oslo; it closes with an evocation of that sad young man, raised in the voice of our narrator, who is threatened with the very loss of that voice. He, like all in his lineage, has a gift of “embellishing the ugly and making the fleeting moment eternal.” But can that gift save them? Can they spin the gold of immortality for themselves as well? In a sprawling saga that embraces the likes of the storied kings of Castile and the philosopher Voltaire, Gleichmann has obvious good fun in exploring the implications, as well as the Big Questions, chief among them, “how God could allow such a thing.”

Full of wit and mystery. Memorable and sure to be one of the big novels of the season.

THE LAST ANIMAL

Geni, Abby Counterpoint (304 pp.) $24.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-61902-182-2

Human predicaments are complemented by the wild natural world in this excellent debut story collection from Chicago-based author Geni.

The characters and events here are unusual and far-reaching, but Geni’s careful craftsmanship renders them immediate and real. Each story is threaded with page-turning, deeply felt tension, yet each has also been planted with a seed of magic in varying stages of growth.

In the collection’s award-winning piece, “Captivity,” the narrator works at the Chicago Aquarium, specializing in octopuses, which she feeds in-tank, wetsuit-clad, while haunted by her missing brother. In “Terror Birds,” an ordinary family drama plays out with high stakes on an ostrich farm in the desert. “Isaiah on Sunday” and “In the Spirit Room” explore the loss of parents; “Landscaping” (the seed of magic here growing away from realism into striking lyricism) and “Fire Blight” show heartache from the parents’ sides. Broken families are a theme, and the people in these stories experience the fallout with unflinching awareness.

Likewise, Geni is not afraid to make readers sit with an uncomfortable situation or watch characters struggle with difficult decisions. “Dharma at the Gate” follows a teenage girl and her dog as she contemplates a relationship that’s holding her back; readers will ache for her freedom. “The Girls of Apache Bryn Mawr” has 8

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TRANSCENDENTAL

his wife and develops a slow-growing addiction to painkillers and alcohol that leads him to break-ins and other foolhardy decisions.

But Harding is less concerned with plot as with what’s swimming in Charlie’s head, and themes of nature and time abound. His narration shifts from past to present, from memories of his daughter to his nature walks in New England to his helping his father repair a clock in a home that has an orrery—a model of the solar system that symbolizes the symphonic breadth of nature and the universality of his struggle. Harding’s work owes much to his former teacher Marilynne Robinson, with whom he shares an affinity for precise, religious-tinged prose. The penultimate chapters of the book, however, display a unique hallucinatory style: As Charlie’s grief reaches its apex, he’s consumed by dark visions, and Harding’s skillful whipsawing of the reader from the surreal to the quotidian is the best writing he’s done. Though the final pages bend the story safely back to a familiar redemption arc, Charlie’s experience doesn’t feel commonplace. His trip to hell and back envisions a different kind of hell, and his status as “back,” just as in the real world, isn’t guaranteed.

Beautifully turned: Harding has defogged his style a bit and gained a stronger emotional impact from it.

Gunn, James Tor (304 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-7653-3501-2

First novel in quite a while (Gift from the Stars, 2005, etc.) from writer/anthologist Gunn.

A galactic civilization, weary of centuries of war—the latest caused by upstart humans intruding on space occupied by other alien races—tries to get on with business despite the stultifying bureaucracy that seems to run things. War veteran Riley, at loose ends following the conflict, accepts a job offer from powerful and mysterious employers—who implant in his head a know-it-all artificial intelligence which he cannot remove and which has the means to force him to obey instructions. He will join beings from many different worlds aboard a ship guided by an unknown prophet who can help them achieve transcendence. Riley’s orders, however, are to kill the prophet rather than permit aliens to transcend. Deadly violence flares among the travelers, however, before the ship even departs.

The captain, Hamilton Jones, with whom Riley served during the war, admits he doesn’t know their destination and periodically receives new coordinates from somebody aboard. Among Riley’s fellow travelers are Tordor, a massive, heavy-planet alien; the weasellike Xi; an intelligent plant known as 4107; and Asha, a human female who needs no sleep and has other strange capabilities. As the ship heads for the Great Gulf between the galaxy’s spiral arms, the travelers—like Riley, most, if not all, have hidden agendas—relate tales of themselves and their races. But violence is a constant threat; the tales may be simple truth, calculated disinformation or anything in between. And why are Riley’s employers so intent on stopping the prophet? Impeccably plotted, with absorbing human and alien characters and back stories, Gunn’s narrative expertly cranks up the tension and paranoia as, piece by piece, answers emerge.

Gunn’s best in years—quite possibly his best ever.

DOCTOR SLEEP

King, Stephen Scribner (544 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-4767-2765-3 He-e-e-e-r-e’s Danny!

Before an alcoholic can begin recovery, by some lights, he or she has to hit bottom. Dan Torrance, the alcoholic son of the very dangerously alcoholic father who came to no good in King’s famed 1977 novel The Shining, finds his rock bottom very near, if not exactly at, the scarifying image of an infant reaching for a baggie of blow.

The drugs, the booze, the one-night stands, the excruciating chain of failures: all trace back to the bad doings at the Overlook Hotel (don’t go into Room 217) and all those voices in poor Dan’s head, which speak to (and because of) a very special talent he has.

That “shining” is a matter of more than passing interest for a gang of RV-driving, torture-loving, soul-sucking folks who aren’t quite folks at all—the True Knot, about whom one particularly deadly recruiter comments, “They’re not my friends, they’re my family...

And what’s tied can never be untied.” When the knotty crew sets its sights on a young girl whose own powers include the ability to sense impending bad vibes, Dan, long adrift, begins to find new meaning in the world. Granted, he has good reason to have wanted to hide from it—he still has visions of that old Redrum scrawl, good reason to need the mental eraser of liquor—but there’s nothing like an apocalyptic struggle to bring out the best (or worst) in people. King clearly revels in his tale, and though it’s quite a bit more understated than his earlier, booze-soaked work, it shows all his old gifts, including the ability to produce sentences that read as if they’re tossed off but that could come only from someone who’s worked hard on them (“Danny, have you ever seen dead people? Regular dead people, I mean”). His

ENON

Harding, Paul Random House (256 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-4000-6943-9 The author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tinkers (2009) returns with another striking study of family, time and mortality.

This time, though, Harding’s style is less knotty, almost Hemingway-esque, at least in its opening pages. That’s in part due to the fact that he has a clearer story to tell: This book covers a year in the life of Charlie Crosby (a descendant of the clan introduced in Tinkers) as he mourns the death of his 13-year-old daughter in an accident. After smashing his hand against a wall in a rage, he loses |

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“Marvelously intriguing.” from the salinger contract

JAPANTOWN

cast of characters is as memorable as any King has produced, too, from a fully rounded Danny to the tiny but efficiently lethal Abra Stone and the vengeful Andi, who’s right to be angry but takes things just a touch too far. And that’s not to mention Rose the Hatless and Crow Daddy.

Satisfying at every level. King even leaves room for a follow-up, should he choose to write one—and with luck, sooner than three decades hence. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

Lancet, Barry Simon & Schuster (416 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4516-9169-6

Following the shooting of a visiting Japanese family on the streets of San Francisco’s Japantown, Tokyo-raised antiques dealer Jim Brodie dons his other identity—inheritor of his father’s PI firm—to investigate the killing. He discovers it may be related to the murder of his wife, Mieko.

The rare kanji, or logographic Japanese character, left at the scene of the family’s execution convinces Brodie that powerful forces were behind the deaths. Hired by a shady Tokyo communications tycoon whose married daughter was among the victims, and also working with San Francisco police, Brodie brings to the case his deep knowledge of Japanese culture—and Japanese self-defense techniques. Tracing the killings back to Japan, he joins former associates of his father who now run the Tokyo office of Brodie Security to penetrate the ultrasecret, superpowerful Soga, a clan of assassins dating back centuries. They don’t fool around, coating gun handles and knife blades with a lethal poison and using sophisticated surveillance devices to follow their opponents’ every move. After they abduct Brodie’s 6-year-old daughter from an FBI safe house, the odds of him getting her back alive are slim. Ultimately, no one is safe, and no one can be trusted. Lancet, who has lived in Japan for more than 25 years, many of them as editor at a Japanese publishing house, draws upon his familiarity with the terrain, local history and Japanese culture to create an East-West adventure that informs as it thrills. A key plot point involving powerful new technology that is up for grabs is underdeveloped, and the novel isn’t without its “Now I’m going to kill you” moments. But the intricate plot is skillfully developed, the action never flags and the climax is gripping.

A fresh voice in crime fiction, Lancet successfully imports yakuza fiction to San Francisco while probing its origins in Japanese lore.

THE LOWLAND

Lahiri, Jhumpa Knopf (352 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-307-26574-6 A tale of two continents in an era of political tumult, rendered with devastating depth and clarity by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author.

The narrative proceeds from the simplicity of a fairy tale into a complex novel of moral ambiguity and aftershocks, with revelations that continue through decades and generations until the very last page. It is the story of two brothers in India who are exceptionally close to each other and yet completely different. Older by 15 months, Subhash is cautious and careful, not prone to taking any risks, unlike his impetuous brother Udayan, the younger but the leader in their various escapades.

Inseparable in their Calcutta boyhoods, they eventually take very different paths, with Subhash moving to America to pursue his education and an academic career in scientific research, while Udayan becomes increasingly and clandestinely involved in Indian radical militancy. “The chief task of the new party was to organize the peasantry,” writes the novelist (Unaccustomed Earth, 2008, etc.). “The tactic would be guerrilla warfare.

The enemy was the Indian state.” The book’s straightforward, declarative sentences will ultimately force the characters and the reader to find meaning in the space between them. While Udayan characteristically defies his parents by returning home with a wife he has impulsively courted rather than submitting to an arranged marriage, Subhash waits for his own life to unfold: “He wondered what woman his parents would choose for him. He wondered when it would be. Getting married would mean returning to Calcutta. In that sense he was in no hurry.” Yet crisis returns him to Calcutta, and when he resumes his life in America, he has a pregnant wife and, soon, a daughter. The rest of the novel spans more than four decades in the life of this family, shaped and shaken by the events that have brought them together and tear them apart—“a family of solitaries [that]...had collided and dispersed.”

Though Lahiri has previously earned greater renown for her short stories, this masterful novel deserves to attract an even wider readership. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

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THE SALINGER CONTRACT

Langer, Adam OpenRoad Integrated Media (280 pp.) $16.99 paper | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-4532-9794-0 Langer (Crossing California, 2004, etc.) skewers pretensions of writers and writing, editors and publishers—and perhaps audiences—in a literary thriller.

With his wife seeking tenure at Indiana University, the eponymous protagonist Adam Langer is a Bloomington house husband, shuffling between day care and shopping, saving a few moments to restart a stalled literary |

A footnote to the vast library surrounding the JFK assassination, but a good read nonetheless. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

career. Son of an absent father (he knows only the name, Sid J. Langer) and a single mother who wrote anagrams and word puzzles, Adam has written one novel, but most of his writing has involved author profiles for a New York magazine. That’s how he met Conner Joyce, writer of “honest-cop-stuck-in-acorrupt-system tales.” Conner is reading in Bloomington; Adam drops by for a visit. Later, after a reading in Chicago, Conner calls Adam with a fantastic story. Conner has been offered $2.5 million to write a novel for a mysterious fellow named Dex Dunford. The book will be read only by Dunford and his bodyguard, Pavel, who “looked as if he might once have worked on a security detail for Vladimir Putin.” More fascinating, Dunford also owns unpublished manuscripts by J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee and other famous writers. Needing money, Conner agrees to write the novel. And that’s when the fun begins. Along the way, there’s a jewel-encrusted zip drive, a bank heist and a revelation that fractures Adam’s perception of his heritage. The denouement is great.

Marvelously intriguing.

STARRY NIGHT

Macomber, Debbie Ballantine (256 pp.) $18.00 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-345-52889-6 Chicago society-page columnist Carrie Slayton wants to find and interview reclusive author Finn Dalton to prove her credibility as a real journalist; she doesn’t expect to fall in love with him, jeopardizing both her heart and her career.

Carrie Slayton yearns to write meatier stories, and her editor offers her a challenge: find and interview best-selling, reclusive author Finn Dalton, and she can have her pick of assignments. Determined, Carrie makes real progress, tracking down his birth certificate, then his mother, then the man himself. Basically drop-shipped by an Alaskan bush pilot to his cabin’s doorstep, she is met by an angry author and an Arctic blizzard. Finn may be crotchety, but he’s not inhumane, and he can hardly leave her outside in the snow. As the two get to know each other, they realize they may have more in common than either expected, and despite their icy beginnings, they warm up to each other. After two snowbound days, Carrie heads back to Chicago and her job, but neither Carrie nor Finn is ready to say goodbye, and the two begin a long-distance romance. Meanwhile, despite enough material to write a story, Carrie buries the piece, believing Finn’s trust in her is more valuable than any article. The two are stuck on each other, but the people around them are more worried about their differences than their similarities, and they’ll either have to figure out a way to be together or end it completely. Set in snowy Alaska, Chicago and Seattle during the Christmas season, Macomber fulfills fans’ expectations with this romantic holiday confection. As with many Macomber books, the pace is relaxed, the story soft and fuzzy.

Certain details miss the mark, and sometimes the story feels told more than shown, but the author will likely enthrall her usual audience with this quick, simple love story of two opposites attracting and struggling to make it work.

Typical Macomber holiday romantic fare: short and sweet and as much a part of the season for some readers as cookies and candy canes.

TOP DOWN A Novel of the Kennedy Assassination Lehrer, Jim Random House (208 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4000-6916-3

Who shot JFK? In longtime PBS stalwart Lehrer’s novel, the question better becomes: How shot JFK? In a blend of police procedural and peek behind the curtains at how journalists do their jobs, Lehrer (Super, 2010, etc.) posits an uncomfortable scenario, at least for a beat reporter: A story returns, years after the fact, with a new and unforeseen wrinkle. In this instance, Dallas Tribune writer Jack Gilmore is going out to lunch—well, speaking before a lunch, anyway—on a strange twist to the assassination tale, relating how a request came from the copy desk for him to find out, before JFK’s motorcade set out for Dealey Plaza, whether the top on his limousine would be up or down. Hmmm. It had been raining before, but now on this beautiful warm day—well, Gilmore asks, the agent in charge orders the top taken off, and the rest is history. Or is it? That agent has been a seething erosive mess of guilt ever since, and the Secret Service has done what it can to hide him in the hinterlands.

His protofeminist daughter—for this is 1968—is meanwhile looking to answer the burning question of whether “the bubble top, if it had been there, might have prevented the assassination—or at least the death—of Kennedy.” Well, weird things happen when a reporter’s obsession matches a source’s, and Lehrer expertly sails that particular sea. The writing sometimes seems a little tossed-off (“ ‘Food of the World’...seemed to mean Greek and Italian versions of scrambled eggs and toast”), but the way that Lehrer covers the ground (always skirting that “who” question) is fresh and convincing—and a couple of payoffs, including the longish denouement, come as a nice surprise. |

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THE ROAD FROM GAP CREEK

book. All of these stories are stereotypically suburban; in fact, all of them could take place in the same (unnamed) suburb, though maybe it comes with the territory that all suburbs are pretty much the same. The stories that go down easiest are never less than entertaining, while the pricklier ones have an ineffable sadness, an existential despair, that doesn’t necessarily fit the suburban stereotype but which doesn’t lie too far beneath the surface within this incisive, empathic and provocative fiction. Whether the protagonists are high school kids anticipating a richer adulthood or disillusioned adults (often widowed or divorced) who are struggling to find some reason to persevere, the stories illuminate flawed, very human characters without a trace of condescension. In the title story, a young teacher with a pregnant wife and difficult daughter finds temporary respite as chaperone at a middle school dance but returns home with a deeper sense of missed opportunity and loss. There’s another school dance in the concluding “The All-Night Party,” where a divorced woman and the cop who had once given her a ticket share an unlikely flirtation, and she hopes that those heading for college will discover that “the world was about to become much larger and more forgiving, at least for a little while.” Throughout the collection, there is estrangement between neighbors who were formerly friends, between husbands and wives who have suffered betrayals, between kids who don’t know any better and adults who haven’t learned any better.

As deeply satisfying and insidiously disturbing as the author’s longer fiction.

Morgan, Robert Algonquin (352 pp.) $25.95 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-61620-161-6

Morgan (Brave Enemies, 2003, etc.) returns to western North Carolina and the Richards family saga.

Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains, along the Green River, under Mt. Cicero, Hank and Julie Richards move their family from Gap Creek to a small, hardscrabble farm. There, they endure the Great Depression and World War II, stoically facing death and disease, hope and triumph. It’s Annie, their younger daughter, who narrates, harking back to the family’s trek from Gap Creek to Green River, road “froze as stiff as chalk,” and ending her story as a grown woman birthing a daughter, realizing “having your own baby makes you feel connected...taking part in the future and with the people that come before you.” Recreating the rural mountain South not yet 100 years past, Annie tells of Old Pat, a purebred German shepherd given to her brother, Troy, as payment for summer work. She offers stories of Muir and Moody Powell, twins from a nearby farm, one ambitious to preach, the other preferring to gamble and run moonshine.

She remembers tramps and hobos, Julie offering at least fresh milk and cornbread even if cupboards were bare. The novel begins in 1943 with Troy’s death, a casualty in a bomber crash in England. Julie’s shattered, and she “sealed up her thoughts and grief inside her and she wouldn’t let any of us touch it.” But even the dead live in the soulful narrative. Troy, gentle, artistic, is home on leave and must put down Old Pat after she’s horribly maimed by a firecracker. A tortured misfit stands in church to claim Troy’s death is God’s retribution, and the family sits silently. A troubled veteran, the new husband of Troy’s former fiancee, drags her away from Troy’s post-war burial at gunpoint.

Morgan pens an eloquent story of stoicism and pain, endurance and courage, ending, as all life will, with death and birth.

A moving, lyrical saga from a time so distant, yet so near.

QUIET DELL

Phillips, Jayne Anne Scribner (480 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4391-7253-7 Phillips (Lark and Termite, 2009) fuses the established facts surrounding the 1931 trial of serial killer Harry Powers with her imagined version of the victims’ inner lives and the fictional lives of a handful of characters connected by the crimes.

Financially strapped since her husband’s death, Asta Eicher lives with her three children in a large suburban Chicago house, where she takes in boarders. Devoted to her and the children, former boarder Charles O’Boyle, who has prospered in his business, proposes to Asta while celebrating a joyful Christmas with the family in 1930. Aware he is gay, she turns him down. Instead, she assumes she will solve her problems by marrying Cornelius Pierson, with whom she’s secretly begun corresponding through the American Friendship Society (think snail-mail Match.com).

In July 1931, Asta leaves her children with a babysitter while she travels with Cornelius to set up the family’s new home. A week later, Cornelius returns alone to fetch the kids. Phillips brings the Eichers to vivid life—Asta’s guilt, 14-year-old Grethe’s innocence, 12-year-old Hart’s protectiveness, 9-year-old Annabel’s spirit—and wisely eschews the grisly details of their deaths.

Months later, the police discover the Eichers’ remains in the

NINE INCHES Stories

Perrotta, Tom St. Martin’s (256 pp.) $25.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-250-03470-0 The acclaimed novelist displays perfect tonal pitch in this story collection, as nobody explores the darker sides of suburbia with a lighter touch.

Perrotta’s novels have become more thematically ambitious since his popular breakthrough (Little Children, 2004), so his return to short stories might initially seem like a career stopgap, a creative breather before the next big 12

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basement of a garage belonging to Harry Powers in Quiet Dell, W.V. Charged with the Eichers’ murders, Powers is indicted for the murder of Dorothy Lemke, whose body has also been discovered in the garage, because the circumstantial evidence in her case is stronger. The snippets of actual court testimony and reportage included are harrowing. While digging up dirt on Powers, (fictional) Chicago Tribune reporter Emily Thornhill falls deeply in love with Asta’s (real-life) banker. She also takes in an orphaned street urchin. So in the aftermath of one family’s destruction, Emily creates a new if unconventional “family” of people she loves.

Phillips’ prose is as haunting as the questions she raises about the natures of sin, evil and grace.

early-adoption addicts feel comfortable with”—will somehow be put to good use rather than, as Pynchon assures us, to the most evil applications.

Of a piece with Pynchon’s recent work—not quite a classic à la V. but in a class of its own—more tightly woven but no less madcap than Inherent Vice, and sure to the last that we live in a world of very odd shadows. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER

Rice, Anne Knopf (320 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-385-34996-3 Series: Wolf Gift Chronicles, 2

BLEEDING EDGE

Pynchon, Thomas Penguin Press (512 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-59420-423-4

Second in Rice’s series (The Wolf Gift, 2012) featuring a cultured pack of dogooder werewolves.

Reuben, a newly minted Man Wolf, has moved into the Northern California mansion he inherited from the lovely, mysterious and now late Marchent. The mansion, situated in a vast woodland, is also home to several older (in some cases ancient) men who are, when the occasion requires, werewolves. Among these “Distinguished Gentlemen” are Marchent’s uncle Felix, a giant named Sergei, the well-mannered Thibault, and the leader and conscience of the pack, Margon. The Gentleman are inducting the beginner werewolves, including Stuart, a young gay man, and Reuben’s latest ladylove, Laura, into new, immortal life. The group is preparing for a gala Christmas party they hope to make an annual tradition. The party will be followed by the midwinter rites, which the werewolves (known as Morphenkinder) have celebrated since time immemorial and which, in some packs, involves human sacrifice. Not Margon’s pack, however. His men (and women) wolves have a special instinct for sniffing out and mauling evildoers, particularly those who abuse and molest children. In fact, one night, after Reuben’s wolf persona emerges involuntarily, he rescues a kidnapped little girl, then devours most of her captor. The Gentlemen must put the public off the scent of their true identities, whence the party. But Reuben’s human entanglements pose complications. Marchent, who was murdered, is haunting Reuben, and Felix must enlist the aid of another supernatural group, the Forest Gentry, a kind of ethereal, chamois-clad tribe, to entice her troubled spirit away from the house. Reuben’s hated ex-girlfriend is about to give birth to his baby, and his father has decided to temporarily move into the mansion, where he will be the only resident who is not only mortal, but not privy to the werewolves’ secret. This complex fantasy world relies on an elaborate substructure of lore and history, and the action slows as points of exposition are repetitiously belabored.

Fans will welcome Rice’s return to the realm of eccentric immortal predators. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

Pynchon (Inherent Vice, 2009, etc.) makes a much-anticipated return, and it’s trademark stuff: a blend of existential angst, goofy humor and broad-sweeping bad vibes.

Paranoia, that operative word in Pynchon’s world ever since Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), is what one of his characters here calls “the garlic in life’s kitchen.” Well, there’s paranoia aplenty to be had in Pynchon’s sauté pan, served up in the dark era of the 9/11 attack, the dot-com meltdown and the Patriot Act. Maxine Tarnow is, on the face of it, just another working mom in the city, but in reality, after she’s packed her kids’ lunches and delivered them at school, she’s ferreting around with data cowboys and code monkeys, looking into various sorts of electronic fraud. Her estranged husband, apparently a decent enough sort, “to this day has enjoyed a nearly error-free history of knowing how certain commodities around the world will behave,” but Maxine has a keen sense of how data flows and from whom to whom. One track she follows leads to a genius billionaire and electronic concoctions that can scarcely be believed—but also, in a customarily loopy way, to organized crime, terrorism, big data and the U.S. government, with the implication, as Horst later will ponder, that all are bound up in the collapse of the Twin Towers. (“Remember the week before this happened, all those put options on United and American Airlines? Which turned out to be exactly the two airlines that got hijacked?”) If you were sitting in a plane next to someone muttering about such things, you might ask to change seats, but Pynchon has long managed to blend his particularly bleak view of latterday humankind with a tolerant ability to find true humor in our foibles. If he’s sometimes heavy-handed, he’s also attuned precisely to the zeitgeist, drawing in references to Pabst Blue Ribbon longnecks, Mamma Mia, the Diamondbacks/Yankees World Series, Office Space, and the touching belief of young Zuckerbergs in the age before Zuckerberg that their bleedingedge technology—“[n]o proven use, high risk, something only |

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“...thoroughly excellent...” from the woman who lost her soul

THANKLESS IN DEATH

and storm, for one. He is unsettled and lonely, even as his stateside wife is one of those blessedly ignorant Americans who “pray for the deafness that comes with a comfortable life”—a comfortable life that would be much more attainable were Tom someone who cared about money. He is not saintly, though. Into his orbit has come a fetching, utterly mysterious journalist whom Tom has met more than once along the trail of good deeds done by sometimes not so good people. Her murder sends him reeling into a long, arcing story of discovery that becomes ever more tangled as Shacochis spins it, taking it across decades and oceans. Among the players are a tough-asnails Delta Force combatant who surely knows that he’s being played as a pawn by the likes of an unlikable senior spook who lives for opera, cocktails and deception; even so, the soldier takes pride in his role in what he calls “Jihadi pest control,” just as the spy takes pride in what he did in all those dark corners during the Cold War. These characters are bound to one another, and to Jackie, by blood or elective affinities. Either way, Shacochis would seem to suggest, their real business is to hide themselves from the world, while the business of the world is to help them disguise their subterfuge. Everything in the landscape is secret and forbidden, potentially fatal, doomed to fail—and yet everyone persists, presses on, with what they believe their missions to be. Shacochis is a master of characterization; his story, though very long, moves like a fastflowing river, and it is memorably, smartly written: “ ‘Cleopatra spoke nine languages,’ Jackie informed him with a distinctly peevish rise to her voice for what she obviously considered a set series of infinitely tiresome challenges to the perception of her specialness, the unfair excesses of her drop-dead good looks or intellect or courage or God knows, her very birth, as if she had somehow stolen those laudable parts of herself from someone else, an imaginary deprived person.”

An often depressing, cautionary and thoroughly excellent tale of the excesses of empire, ambition and the too easily fragmented human soul.

Robb, J.D. Putnam (416 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-399-16442-2

Lt. Eve Dallas goes up against a spoiled kid who’s suddenly developed a taste for killing.

Lots of families get a little edgy as Thanksgiving approaches. But that’s no excuse for Jerald Reinhold to stab his mother 54 times when she nags him once too often, then to lie in wait so that he can take a baseball bat to his father. Some sons would feel pangs of remorse after murdering their parents, but Jerry just feels powerful and liberated—finally he’s become a man, the way his whiny mother always wanted him to be—and, financed by the money he’s stolen from his parents’ accounts, he considers whom to kill next. Since Jerry’s nursed a grudge against the whole world since childhood, there are many candidates, but he settles on Lori Nuccio, the girlfriend who got him two jobs he couldn’t keep but threw him out when he hit her.

Killing’s too good for Lori, Jerry decides, and he devotes several hours to torturing her first. Although the kid thinks he’s invulnerable, Eve, who’s been offered a Medal of Honor and a captain’s bars for her tireless work (Delusion in Death, 2012, etc.), is close behind him. The surveillance cameras outside his parents’ house instantly make him the leading suspect, and the trace evidence he cavalierly leaves at Lori’s apartment confirms his guilt. But his skill is growing with every murder, along with his bankroll. Which of the dozens of people who’ve crossed him over the years will become his next target, and how can Eve and her squad head him off?

Considering how few complications the chase offers, Robb does a fine job of keeping up the tension. Both the cops and the killer make use of more futuristic gadgets than usual. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

STELLA BAIN

THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL

Shreve, Anita Little, Brown (272 pp.) $28.00 | $14.99 e-book | $30.00 Lg. Prt. Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-316-09886-1 978-0-316-21544-2 e-book 978-0-316-09885-4 Lg. Prt.

Shacochis, Bob Atlantic Monthly (640 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-8021-1982-7 National Book Award–winning novelist Shacochis (The Immaculate Invasion, 1999, etc.) makes a long-awaited—indeed, much-anticipated—return to fiction with this stunning novel of love, innocence and

A wife risks every chance of domestic happiness by heading to the front long before America’s entry into the Great War. A woman awakens in a field hospital in Marne, France, in 1916. Fragments of memory surface: She recalls that she was serving near the front as a nurse’s aide and ambulance driver before suffering a shrapnel wound and shell shock and that her name is Stella Bain. Driven to seek answers about her identity from the Admiralty in London, she travels there and, ill, is taken in by August Bridge, a cranial surgeon, and his wife, Lily.

honor lost.

The wait was worth it, for Shacochis has delivered a work that in its discomfiting moral complexity and philosophical density belongs alongside Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene.

Tom Harrington is a humanitarian lawyer whose path takes him into difficult country: Haiti in the wake of dictatorship 14

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“A satisfyingly complete, expertly paced yarn.” from the valley of amazement

Experimenting with the new field of psychoanalysis, August strives to restore Stella’s memory: She draws a series of scenes that provide clues, not least to the fact that she is an accomplished artist. At the Admiralty, she is recognized by Samuel, an officer there, and her past floods back—she is Etna Van Tassel, not Stella Bain. A flashback reveals that Etna and Samuel were young lovers in New Hampshire and that she begged Samuel, in front of his brother Phillip, not to marry another, to no avail. She married a dour Dutch professor, until a baseless scandal he fomented involving their teenage daughter and Phillip drove Etna—and Phillip—to France as a volunteer.

Phillip and Etna’s affinity blossoms into affection as the duo, both ambulance drivers, steal moments together amid the carnage and horror of trench warfare. Although the novel’s structure is somewhat disjointed, and the preliminary amnesiac chapters seem gratuitous in light of the full revelations that follow, the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic. Many surprises are in store.

An exemplary addition to Shreve’s already impressive oeuvre.

[This is the first appearance of this review.]

academic, police—that doesn’t damn those institutions but reveals how they work to protect their own interests at the expense of those of others.

An unusual but poised mix of noir and town-and-gown novel, bolstered by Stone’s well-honed observational skills.

[This is the first appearance of this review.]

THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT

Tan, Amy Ecco/HarperCollins (608 pp.) $29.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-06-210731-2

Tan, who made her name with The Joy Luck Club (1989), blends two favorite settings, Shanghai and San Francisco, in a tale that spans generations.

Granted that courtesans and the places that sheltered them were (and in some places still are) culturally significant in East Asia, Tan takes what might seem an unnecessary risk by setting her latest novel in that too-familiar demimonde (Miss Saigon, Memoirs of a Geisha, etc.). Tan is a skilled storyteller, capable of working her way into and out of most fictional problems, but the reader will be forgiven a sinking feeling at the scenario with which she opens, featuring “the only white woman who owned a first-class courtesan house in Shanghai.” Where are the Boxers when you need them? Said white woman, Lulu Minturn, aka Lulu Mimi, is in Shanghai for a reason—and on that reason hinges a larger conceit, the one embodied by the book’s title. She has a daughter, and the daughter, naturally enough, has cause to wonder about her ancestry, if little time to worry overmuch about some of the details, since her mom leaves her to fend for herself, not entirely willingly. The chinoiserie and exoticism aside, Violet makes a tough and compelling character, a sort of female equivalent to Yul Brynner as played by Lucy Liu. The members of the “Cloud Beauties,” who give Violet her sentimental education, make an interesting lot themselves, but most of the attention is on Violet and the narrative track that finds her on a parallel journey, literally and figuratively, always haunted by “those damned paintings that had belonged to my mother” and that will eventually reveal their secrets. Tan’s story sometimes suffers from longueurs, but the occasional breathless, steamy scene evens the score: “He lifted my hips and my head soared and I lost all my senses except for the one that bound us and could not be pulled apart.”

A satisfyingly complete, expertly paced yarn.

DEATH OF THE BLACK-HAIRED GIRL

Stone, Robert Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (288 pp.) $25.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-618-38623-9 The death of a star student at an upper-crust university unsettles friends, faculty and family in a piercing novel from veteran novelist Stone (Fun with Problems, 2010, etc.).

Stone’s eighth novel introduces student Maud Stack as a privileged young woman enveloped by a cloud of danger and collapse. The manicured, Ivy-ish campus is rife with halfwayhouse residents, mentally ill homeless people and addicts—that last group a class that includes plenty of students, too. Maud has her own issues with drinking, but her biggest problems are the ongoing affair she’s pursued with Steven, a married professor, and a column she’s written for the campus paper mocking anti-abortion protesters at a nearby hospital. Just as Maud’s writing grabs attention and her relationship with Steven falls apart, she’s killed in a car accident. The novel isn’t halfway done by then, and what follows isn’t an easy morality play about abortion rhetoric or teacher-student relationships. Rather, Stone pursues a close study of how Maud’s death has undone many of the certainties of those around her. The incident drives her father back to drinking and pondering past corruptions. An adviser recalls her own history as a protester and reconsiders her faith. And Steven, who was arguing with a drunken Maud before her death, reckons with his own complicity. Stone gives this story the rough shape of a police procedural—Steven is the main person of interest—which gives the prose some snap and avoids sodden, moralizing lectures. What emerges from Stone’s crisp storytelling is a critique of tribalism of all sorts—religious, |

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THE GOLDFINCH

THE ISLE OF YOUTH

Tartt, Donna Little, Brown (784 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-316-05543-7

van den Berg, Laura Farrar, Straus and Giroux (256 pp.) $14.00 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-374-17723-2

A long-awaited, elegant meditation on love, memory and the haunting power of art.

Tartt (The Little Friend, 2002, etc.) takes a long time, a decade or more, between novels. This one, her third, tells the story of a young man named Theodore Decker who is forced to grapple with the world alone after his mother— brilliant, beautiful and a delight to be around—is felled in what would seem to be an accident, if an explosion inside a museum can be accidental. The terrible wreckage of the building, a talismanic painting half buried in plaster and dust, “the stink of burned clothes, and an occasional soft something pressing in on me that I didn’t want to think about”—young Theo will carry these things forever. Tartt’s narrative is in essence an extended footnote to that horror, with his mother becoming ever more alive in memory even as the time recedes: not sainted, just alive, the kind of person Theo misses because he can’t tell her goofy things (his father taking his mistress to a Bon Jovi concert in Las Vegas, for instance: “It seemed terrible that she would never know this hilarious fact”) as much as for any other reason. The symbolic echoes Tartt employs are occasionally heavy-handed, and it’s a little too neat that Theo discovers the work of the sublime Dutch master Carel Fabritius, killed in a powder blast, just before the fateful event that will carry his mother away. Yet it all works. “All the rest of it is lost—everything he ever did,” his mother quietly laments of the little-known artist, and it is Theo’s mission as he moves through life to see that nothing in his own goes missing. Bookending Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, this is an altogether lovely addition to what might be called the literature of disaster and redemption. The novel is slow to build but eloquent and assured, with memorable characters, not least a Russian cracker-barrel philosopher who delivers a reading of God that Mordecai Richler might applaud.

A standout—and well worth the wait. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

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A gifted American fiction writer tackles little slivers of crime from the points of view of young women on the verge of self-discovery.

Had these hardhearted stories of trespassers, exiles and beautiful losers come from one of the regular blokes, readers would label them noir and call it a day. But in the hands of superlative writer van den Berg (What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, 2009), these stories seem to dig a little deeper and resonate a little longer. In the opening story, “I Looked For You, I Called Your Name,” a woman on her honeymoon realizes a series of natural disasters is merely a precursor to the looming tragedy of her own marriage. “Opa-Locka” is a traditional private-eye story about two sisters playing detective, waiting to see how the story ends. Two fantastic and very different stories are the collection’s highlights. “Lessons” captures a moment in the risky lives of a gang of rural youngsters who have reimagined themselves as stickup artists. “Why didn’t they go to school and get regular jobs and get married and live in houses?” it asks. “The short answer: they are a group of people committed to making life as hard as possible.” Meanwhile, in “Acrobat,” a woman whose husband abandons her in Paris falls in with a band of street performers who adopts her as one of their own. In “Antarctica,” a rather uncommon housewife travels a vast distance to a remote scientific base at the South Pole to discover how her brother died. “The Greatest Escape” finds a young woman wrestling with the long-ago disappearance of her father. Finally, the title story successfully integrates all of van den Berg’s gifts for stories of mistaken identity, unresolved menace and uncomfortable insight. With prose as crisp and cool as that of Richard Lange or Patricia Highsmith, van den Berg is someone to keep track of.

A mesmerizing collection of stories about the secrets that keep us.

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“Boasting a fearlessly self-possessed child narrator, this is one of those books you stop what you’re doing to finish, take a breath to ponder its profundities, and start again.” from the assembler of parts

THE ASSEMBLER OF PARTS

Wientzen, Raoul Arcade (320 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-61145-891-6

In this astonishing first novel, 7-yearold, physically disabled Jess reviews her brief, tumultuous life from heaven via films provided by The Assembler, a supreme being who, for mysterious reasons, declined to give her thumbs, several bones, a whole heart and the gift of hearing.

For all her defects, hers is a miraculous childhood. With the loving support of her Catholic family, and following several surgeries, she is able to become a vital, expressive, delightful girl. But for all the care she receives from her mother, Kate, and father, Ford—and all of the doting of Joe Cassidy, Ford’s big-hearted post office co-worker, who was driven to drink by the loss of his wife and young son in an accident—she is darkly shadowed by fate. The events leading to her death are told with an exquisite attention to detail, emotional and physical. The subsequent narrative, which turns on a wrongful death suit filed by her parents against a cardiologist who failed to spot the vascular anomaly that caused Jess to stop breathing, unfolds with the tension of good detective fiction. Callously investigated for parental neglect, Ford and his pregnant wife are forced to attend parenting sessions along with child abusers and drug addicts who ridicule and assault them. They sign on with a personal injury firm in pursuit of justice, only to have the profitminded lawyers violate Jess’ memory by building a case that portrays her as helpless and pathetic. The Assembler, who has a sardonic streak, keeps Jess in the dark about where these posthumous events are leading, but she isn’t afraid to call his number.

The low-key conclusion is a bit of a letdown after all that has gone before, but Virginia-based author Wientzen, a pediatrician, imparts so much about the preciousness of life and the power of forgiveness that this is a minor shortcoming.

Boasting a fearlessly self-possessed child narrator, this is one of those books you stop what you’re doing to finish, take a breath to ponder its profundities, and start again.

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The Crop of Up-and-Coming Fall Writers

ASUNDER

A self-effacing life devoted to obsessive minutiae is cracked open in this oblique, disturbing, yet oddly compelling tale on sale September 17. Surreal and haunting, Aridjis’ understated second novel, set in London, traces a decisive phase in the life of Marie, a 33-year-old museum guard who has worked at the National Gallery for nearly 10 years.

Photo courtesy Ian Skelton

THE HOUSE OF JOURNALISTS

Photo courtesy Chris Jenkins

RIVERS

Smith, Michael Farris 978-1-4516-9942-5 This book is reviewed on Page 24 of the Aug. 15 issue.

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ADÉ: A LOVE STORY

Walker, Rebecca 978-0-544-14922-9 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

A seemingly perfect story of two lovers living on a tropical island off the coast of Kenya is brought to the tests of disease, war and the harsh realities of life. This book releases October 29.

Wientzen, Raoul 978-1-61145-891-6 This book was reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

In this astonishing first novel, 7-year-old, physically disabled Jess reviews her brief, tumultuous life from heaven via films provided by The Assembler, a supreme being who, for mysterious reasons, declined to give her thumbs, several bones, a whole heart and the gift of hearing.

Boasting a fearlessly self-possessed child narrator, this is one of those books you stop what you’re doing to finish, take a breath to ponder its profundities, and start again. The Assembler of Parts is out on September 3.

When a series of ever more intense storms causes widespread devastation along the Gulf Coast, the U.S. government creates the Line. North of the Line, there is safety, security and the rule of law. South of the Line is a lawless, storm-lashed no-man’s land where supplies are short, life is cheap, and might makes right. A man attempts to put his 18

van den Berg, Laura 978-0-374-17723-2 This book is reviewed on Page 16 of this supplement and was also reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

THE ASSEMBLER OF PARTS

Finch, Tim 978-0-374-17318-0 This book was reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

This remarkable first novel imagines a center for journalists, all refugees who were forced to emigrate, its irrepressible leader, Julian Snowman, and his oppressive regime of liberal piety, and the stories of his damaged but legendary clients. It is satiric, tough, very funny and released on September 3.

THE ISLE OF YOUTH

A gifted American fiction writer tackles little slivers of crime from the points of view of young women on the verge of self-discovery. Had these hardhearted stories of trespassers, exiles and beautiful losers come from one of the regular blokes, readers would label them noir and call it a day. But in the hands of superlative writer van den Berg, these stories seem to dig a little deeper and resonate a little longer. Look for it starting November 5.

Photo courtesy David Fenton

Aridjis, Chloe 978-0-544-00346-0 This book is reviewed on Page 6 of the Aug. 15 issue.

past behind him and start a new life in the lawless society left behind in a storm-wracked, post-societal Gulf Coast. Rivers will be out on September 10.

Photo courtesy Peter Yoon

There are people who like to talk about how hard it is to get a book deal with a traditional publisher in the current economy. From the perspective of Kirkus’ editor, however, there’s a bounty of talented new writers in fiction who deserve a wider readership. Here’s our selection of this fall’s up-and-coming fiction writers; our crop of trailblazing new nonfiction writers is on page 33.

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nonfiction WHITE GIRLS

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Als, Hilton McSweeney’s (300 pp.) $24.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-936365-81-4

WHITE GIRLS by Hilton Als................................................................19 LEVELS OF LIFE by Julian Barnes......................................................21 FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL by Sheri Fink...........................................23 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE by David Finkel.........................23 1941 by Slavko Goldstein.................................................................... 24 ANYTHING THAT MOVES by Dana Goodyear.................................. 24 FALLING UPWARDS by Richard Holmes...........................................25 BOOK OF AGES by Jill Lepore............................................................27 A HOUSE IN THE SKY by Amanda Lindhout; Sara Corbett.............27 THE GREAT WAR by Joe Sacco........................................................... 29 COMMAND AND CONTROL by Eric Schlosser................................. 29 TURN AROUND BRIGHT EYES by Rob Sheffield...............................30 AMSTERDAM by Russell Shorto..........................................................30 HEADHUNTERS ON MY DOORSTEP by J. Maarten Troost.............. 31 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 2

by Mark Twain..................................................................................... 31 MEN WE REAPED by Jesmyn Ward.................................................... 31 COUNTDOWN by Alan Weisman........................................................32

Meditations, appraisals, fictions and personal inquiries about sex, race, art and more from the longtime New Yorker staff writer and cultural critic.

In the Kirkus review of Als’ (The Women, 1996, etc.) first book, we praised the author for his “ability to combine extreme honesty with sharp critical discourse, his willingness to explore the shadows of complex lives, including his own, that challenge clichés about race and gender without ever sacrificing intellectual rigor.” His follow-up collection is less cohesive but proves to be equally daring and nearly as experimental as his audacious debut. Gathering his diverse subjects under the umbrella term “white girls,” which he applies equally to Malcolm X, Truman Capote and Flannery O’Connor, Als assembles something of a greatest hits of his own strengths, which are considerable. His longer essays are the most personal; “Tristes Tropiques,” an elegant recollection of friends and lovers in the age of AIDS, opens the book. Naturally, observations on culture rise to the top as well. “White Noise,” about rap icon Eminem, and “Michael,” about the elusive pop star, offer pointed insights into American culture’s obsession with image. Readers who only know Als’ work from his insightful magazine essays may be startled by his diversions from form here. When Als summarized his feelings on Gone with the Wind in the New Yorker in 2011, he was delicate. The essay with the same title here comments on a photography exhibition, asking, “So what can I tell you about a bunch of unfortunate niggers stupid enough to get caught and hanged in America, or am I supposed to say lynched?” Leapfrogging from straightforward journalism to fiction written in other personas, the author demonstrates a practiced combination of cultural perception, keen self-awareness and principled self-assurance.

Als’ work is so much more than simply writing about being black or gay or smart. It’s about being human.

Many of the reviews in this supplement have appeared in recent, previous issues of Kirkus Reviews. We repeat them here in order to gather in one supplement the reviews of noteworthy books being published this fall. If the first appearance of a review is in this supplement, we’ve marked it as such. |

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Legends of the Fall—nonfiction LEVELS OF LIFE

THE BULLY PULPIT: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism

Barnes, Julian 978-0-385-35077-8 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

A book about the death of a spouse that is unlike any other—book or spouse—and thus illuminates the singularity as well as the commonality of grieving. Barnes’ book will release September 24.

Goodwin recounts the progressive reforms under Theodore Roosevelt, the falling out between the president and his successor, William Howard Taft, and the muckraking journalists who led the charge of change—on sale November 5.

Crouch, Stanley 978-0-06-200559-5 This book is reviewed on Page 46 of the Aug. 15 issue.

The veteran cultural critic and jazz historian tells the simultaneous stories of the rise of jazz and the emergence of one of its brightest comets, Charlie Parker (1920–1955). Kansas City Lightning, a story rich in musical history and poignant with dramatic irony, publishes on September 24.

AN APPETITE FOR WONDER: The Making of a Scientist

Photo courtesy Jeffery MacMillan

Photo courtesy Zack Zook

KANSAS CITY LIGHTNING: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker

Goodwin, Doris Kearns 978-1-4165-4786-0 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

Photo courtesy Brooke Williams

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DARLING:A Spiritual Autobiography

Rodriguez, Richard 978-0-670-02530-5 This book will be reviewed in the Sept. 1 issue.

Rodriguez’s new memoir moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. The first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist—a meditation on religion, sexuality and place—is set to release October 3.

DAVID AND GOLIATH: Underdogs, Misfits, and the art of Battling Giants

THE MEN WHO UNITED THE STATES : America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

Gladwell, Malcolm 978-0-316-20436-1 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

Drawing upon psychology, history, science, business and politics, Gladwell’s new book unearths insights others have missed—in this case, regarding underdogs, cancer researchers, war, and successful versus unsuccessful classrooms, among other topics. Look for it starting on October 1.

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Greenspan, Alan 978-1-59420-481-4 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

The former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board—whose book is out October 22—offers his take on the 2008 financial crisis and outlines a map for better predictions of economic trends.

Dawkins, Richard 978-0-06-231580-9 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

This is Dawkins’ first memoir (despite the fact that his fans feel as if they know much about him due to his avowed atheism). In An Appetite for Wonder, Dawkins reveals, among other things, the thinking that led him to write The Selfish Gene, his landmark book that changed the way we think of evolution. Look for it starting September 24.

THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting

Winchester, Simon 978-0-06-207960-2 This book is reviewed on Page 32 of this supplement and was also reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

Using a nifty structure around the five classic elements of wood, earth, water, fire and metal, Winchester celebrates the brains and brawn that forged America. The history of Manifest Destiny and the men who made it happen releases October 15.

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“Barnes’ reticence is as eloquent as it is soul-shuddering.” from levels of life

REPORT FROM THE INTERIOR

Auster, Paul Henry Holt (272 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 19, 2013 978-0-8050-9857-0

The interplay of memory, identity and the creative imagination informs this portrait of the artist as a young man, a memoir that the novelist’s avid readership will find particularly compelling.

Even by the standards of the distinctive literary stylist and his formal ingenuity, this is an unusual book. Auster introduces it as something of a companion piece to his previous Winter Journal (2012), as he compares the two: “It was one thing to write about your body, to catalogue the manifold knocks and pleasures experienced by your physical self, but exploring your mind as you remember it from childhood will no doubt be a more difficult task—perhaps an impossible one. Still, you feel compelled to give it a try.” While writing throughout in the second person, inviting readers inside his head, Auster has divided the book into four distinct and very different parts. The first is a childhood psychobiography, to the age of 12, recognizing the distortions and holes in memory while discovering the magic of literature, “the mystifying process by which a person can leap into a mind that is not his own.” The second consists of exhaustively detailed synopses of two movies that he saw in his midteens, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), noteworthy for the way such a formative experience “burns itself into your heart forever.” The third compiles college letters to his future (and now former) wife, the author/translator Lydia Davis, unearthed when she was compiling her archives— “you have lost contact with that person [he writes of his younger self], and as you listen to him speak on the page, you scarcely recognize him anymore.” The fourth is a scrapbook, not of the author and his family, but of images from the era that remain emblazoned on his consciousness.

Auster has long rendered life as something of a puzzle; here are some significant, illuminating pieces.

LEVELS OF LIFE

Barnes, Julian Knopf (144 pp.) $22.95 | Sep. 26, 2013 978-0-385-35077-8 A book about the death of a spouse that is unlike any other—book or spouse— and thus illuminates the singularity as well as the commonality of grieving.

Having provocatively addressed the matter of mortality (Nothing to Be Frightened Of, 2008), the award-winning British novelist brings a different perspective to the death of his wife. There is actually little about his long marriage to literary agent Pat Kavanagh, who was successful, respected and private. “Grief, like death, is banal and unique,” he writes, with the sort of matter-of-fact precision that |

gives this book its power. In the two early sections, on ballooning, photography and love, Barnes employs an almost mannered, incantatory tone that seems more like a repression of emotion than an expression of it, making readers wonder how these meditations on perspective might ultimately cohere. “You put together two people who have not been put together before; and sometimes the world is changed, sometimes not,” he writes about a doomed love affair between a famous actress and balloon adventurer. “They may crash and burn, or burn and crash. But sometimes, something new is made, and then the world is changed. Together, in that first exaltation, that first roaring sense of uplift, they are greater than their two separate selves.” Just as it took five years for Barnes to address his wife’s death in print, it takes two sections of establishing tone and perspective before he writes of his mourning directly, though of course, he has been writing about it from the start of the book. “I mourn her uncomplicatedly, and absolutely,” he writes.

Ultimately, he finds some resonance in opera, which had never interested him before, as he discovers that “song was a more primal means of communication than the spoken word—both higher and deeper.” The perspectives of height and depth tie the first two sections to the third, where love and death can’t ever be resolved but rather, somehow survived.

Barnes’ reticence is as eloquent as it is soul-shuddering.

(First printing of 75,000)

WHEN WILL THE HEAVEN BEGIN? This Is Ben Breedlove’s Story Breedlove, Ally with Abraham, Ken NAL/Berkley (320 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-451-23964-8

Breedlove pays tribute to her irrepressible, fun-loving younger brother, Ben Breedlove, who died from a heart condition when he was only 18 years old.

Just days before his death, he posted video a video online, “This Is My Story,” which reached millions of viewers around the world with his message of faith.

Ben had only been in the world three months when his parents learned he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that causes dangerous arrhythmias. Eager to do whatever was needed to help Ben, the parents were told, “You can’t fix it.”

So they lived with it and did everything they could to give their son a normal life. Though health problems often kept him out of school, Ben readily made friends with his easy smile, sense of humor and caring nature. His greatest pleasure was making videos with his friends, eventually launching an online advice program for teenagers. In writing about her brother, Ally uses a third-person perspective at odds with the personal nature of the story, but she wins readers over with the genuine, heartfelt tone. Ally and Ben’s parents, determined to allow their son to live life as fully as possible, remained vigilant without being overprotective. By the time he was a teenager, Ben’s heart problems had grown increasingly worse. Then, one day at school, he

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passed out. While the emergency team worked to bring him back from the brink, he experienced a dream or vision. He didn’t know what to call it, but what he saw put him at peace with death. After this traumatic event, he described his experience in his video and posed the question: “Do you believe in angels or God?” He answered, “I do.” These words comforted his family and inspired people of many nationalities and faiths.

Both heartbreaking and uplifting, the book resonates on basic human and spiritual levels. [This is the first appearance of this review.]

GEORGE WASHINGTON Gentleman Warrior

Brumwell, Stephen Quercus (512 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-62365-100-8 978-1-62365-101-5 e-book

America’s “pugnacious fighting man,” as dashingly portrayed by English historian Brumwell (Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe, 2008, etc.).

The author concentrates on Washington’s martial experience during the 1750s alongside Gen. Edward Braddock and other British fighting the French. During this time, he honed his noble reputation as a patriot leader. Denied a gentleman’s education by the untimely death of his Virginia planter father in 1743, young George applied his mathematical talents to learning the trade of land surveying for a lucrative career, as well as a chance to apply his fascination with the wilds of the North American interior. With the French encroaching into Virginia territory in the 1750s, Washington volunteered his services as emissary in the “escalating imperial rivalry,” publishing a journal of his arduous journey into Ohio Country in 1754, bringing him fame at age 22. From colonel of the Virginia Regiment to aidede-camp for Braddock, Washington cut his military teeth on the British military hierarchy, adopting an exemplary code of order and discipline that he would later apply to his ragged American recruits. Enduring French and Indian “terror tactics” and debilitating dysentery, he made a name as an intrepid and adaptive leader (for example, he clothed his men “after the Indian fashion” for one campaign), while revealing already by 1757 in his letters a sense of resentment against what he perceived as “a deliberate policy of discrimination against colonials.” The hard reality of fighting in frontier warfare dispelled notions of old-world gallantry and created the hardened soldier Washington became rather more characteristically than the gentleman farmer he fashioned himself (and was often portrayed) later on.

Brumwell’s subsequent tracking of Washington through the battles of the Revolutionary War seem almost anticlimactic in comparison to the dynamic early annals of this heroic man.

The First Father waves from his high horse with this felicitous new assessment of his derring-do. (8 full-color plates)

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STILL FOOLIN’ ’EM Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?

Crystal, Billy Henry Holt (288 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-0-8050-9820-4

A humorous take on mortality by famed comedian and actor Crystal (700 Sundays, 2005, etc.).

In his latest book, the always-affable author proves yet again his ability to translate his comedic chops from the screen to the page. On the morning of his 65th birthday, Crystal peered into the mirror to find he was no longer the “hip, cool baby boomer” he thought he was, but now resembled “a Diane Arbus photograph.” Horrified by the transformation, Crystal dedicates the rest of the book to finding his old self in his new saggy skin— a self-deprecating shtick that proves as endearing as it is silly.

Melding the personal with the professional, the author recounts his rise from unknown comic to acclaimed entertainer, a journey that has included run-ins with everyone from Mickey Mantle to Muhammad Ali. Yet through it all, Crystal makes clear that his brushes with greatness—and, in fact, his own greatness—were often the result of luck, timing and hard work in equal proportions. Though he revels in his self-portrayal as a key-losing, liverspotted old man, in truth, Crystal’s wit and writing remain sharp, as do his reflections on the more disappointing moments of his career. Of the mild success of his directorial debut, Mr. Saturday, Crystal chalks up the film’s struggles to audiences’ inability to leave his past characters behind and embrace the one he portrayed in the film. “I’d had a great run playing a certain kind of guy,” he writes. “Audiences liked that guy; they didn’t want to see that guy get old.” By book’s end, it’s evident that Crystal himself has grown old, but rather than make a secret of his age, he turns it into a punch line. In the final chapter, he confronts his impending death in perfect Crystal fashion. “I do see a silver lining,” he admits; “it’s the satin in my coffin.”

A charming, warm, welcome read for Crystal’s legions of fans. (29 b/w photos)

SISTER MOTHER HUSBAND DOG Etc.

Ephron, Delia Blue Rider Press (272 pp.) $25.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-399-16655-6 When Ephron’s humorous essay “How To Eat Like a Child” appeared in the New York Times Magazine, her first “big success,” she knew she had found her calling. In this new collection of essays, she displays that sharply funny and compassionate voice.

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“With apparent effortlessness, Fink tells the Memorial story with cogency and atmosphere.” from five days at memorial

The author, who co-wrote the screenplay You’ve Got Mail and the play Love, Loss, and What I Wore with her sister Nora, has written novels for adults and teenagers (The Lion Is In, 2012) and essay collections (Funny Sauce, 1986). Here, her keen observations about family, friends, work and life’s small indignities and deep sorrows leave readers laughing out loud one moment and tearing up the next. In her loving essay “Losing Nora,” she grapples with grief, the complexities of sisterly love and sibling rivalry while paying tribute to her brilliant, fun-loving, tough-minded sister, who died in 2012. “Am I Jewish Enough?” describes the Ephron “sect of writers.” Her parents were Hollywood screenwriters, and all three of her sisters became authors. In their religion, “Laughter was the point, not prayer, and the blessing, ‘That’s a great line, write it down.’ ” In “Why I Can’t Write About My Mother,” Ephron reveals her madcap family’s dark side. Her parents took to alcohol like Nick and Nora Charles, and nights were often filled with “drunken brawls and raging fights.” In this alcoholic haze, her emotionally distant mother became even more elusive. Ephron knows a few things about her—e.g., she abhorred conformity and insisted her daughters would have careers—but she can never break through the surface of this accomplished woman who wore oneliners like armor.

A witty and often profound look at human behavior and all its absurdities, contradictions, obsessions and phobias.

FIVE DAYS AT MEMORIAL Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

Fink, Sheri Crown (448 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-0-307-71896-9

Pulitzer Prize–winning medical journalist/investigator Fink (War Hospital, 2003) submits a sophisticated, detailed recounting of what happened at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Under calamitous, lethal circumstances, the staff at Memorial did a remarkable job of saving many lives in the wake of Hurricane Katrina—though others would point out they didn’t have the street smarts of the staff at Charity Hospital, whose creativeness resulted in far fewer deaths. Fink draws those few days in the hospital’s life with a fine, lively pen, providing stunningly framed vignettes of activities in the hospital and sharp pocket profiles of many of the characters. She gives measured consideration to such explosive issues as class and race discrimination in medicine, end-of-life care, medical rationing and euthanasia, and she presents the injection of some patients with a cocktail of drugs to reduce their breathing in such a manner that readers will be able to fully fashion their own opinions. The book is an artful blend of drama and philosophy: When do normal standards no longer apply? what if doing something seems right but doesn’t feel right? In the ensuing investigation of one |

doctor, who is clearly the fall guy (or woman, as it were), Fink circles all the players, successfully giving much-needed perspective to their views. The obvious villains are the usual suspects: nature, for sending Katrina forth; big business, in the guise of Memorial owner Tenet Healthcare, for its failure to act and subsequent guilty posturing; and government, feds to local, for the bungling incompetence that led to dozens of deaths. The street thugs and looters didn’t help much, either.

With apparent effortlessness, Fink tells the Memorial story with cogency and atmosphere.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE

Finkel, David Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) $27.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-374-18066-9

Washington Post writer Finkel delivers one of the most morally responsible works of journalism to emerge from the post-9/11 era.

To call this moving rendering of the costs of war a continuation of the author’s first book, The Good Soldiers (2009), would be misleading. While Finkel does focus on the men of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion following their actions in Iraq, the breadth and depth of his portraits of the men and women scarred by the 21st century’s conflicts are startling. In a series of interconnected stories, Finkel follows a handful of soldiers and their spouses through the painful, sometimes-fatal process of reintegration into American society. The author gives a cleareyed, frightening portrayal of precisely what it is like to suffer with posttraumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury and what it is like to have the specter of suicide whispering into your ear every day. Finkel’s emotional touchstone is Sgt. Adam Schumann, a genuine American hero who returned from Iraq without a physical scratch on him—but whose three tours of duty may have broken him for good. Schumann’s condition, compounded by financial stress, drove a deep wedge between the wounded soldier and his wife, who has struggled to understand why her husband returned a changed man. Finkel also follows the widow of a soldier Schumann tried to save, an American Samoan vet whose TBI threatens to derail his life, and a suicidal comrade unable to overcome his condition, among others. Fighting on the front lines of this conflict are a compassionate case worker, a U.S. Army general who makes it his last mission to halt the waves of suicides, and the director of a transition center whose war should have ended long ago. The truly astonishing aspect of Finkel’s work is that he remains completely absent from his reportage; he is still embedded.

A real war story with a jarring but critical message for the American people. (17 b/w illustrations)

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1941 The Year that Keeps Returning

Goldstein, Slavko Translated by Gable, Michael New York Review Books (640 pp.) $32.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-59017-673-3 978-1-59017-700-6 e-book

A chilling personal account of the deep-seated terror and ethnic violence underpinning the puppet state of Croatia during World War II. In a memoir that came to light thanks to the attention of Belgrade-born poet Charles Simic, who offers an elucidating introduction here, Croatian editor and historian Goldstein, born in 1928, not only recounts his intimate grief resulting from the murder of his father by the fascist Ustasha thugs that came to power with Croatia’s “independence” in 1941, but he encapsulates the ongoing anguish of the multiethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia that are still convulsed by sectarian hatred. With the encouragement of Hitler—who suggested to the Ustasha chief that in order for Croatia to become a stable state, “it would have to carry out a policy of ethnic intolerance for fifty years”—the Ustasha regime was bent on “cleansing” the Croatian state of Serbs as well as Jews and Gypsies. Goldstein’s father, a prosperous Jewish bookseller, had communist and intellectual connections, and thus several strikes against him in the views of the fascists, who first imprisoned him in the Danica concentration camp, then the formidable Jadovno death camp, before he was systematically executed.

The author was barely 13 years old at the time, but he was shocked into adulthood quickly, especially as he witnessed the betrayal of former friends and colleagues. With his mother imprisoned and the author moved among different homes, Goldstein and the remaining family eventually joined the Croatian partisan fighters camped out in the forests. In this riveting narrative, the author often refers to the recent Croat-Serb ethnic violence in an attempt to explain how “modern Croatia has not been freed from this disease, and it is only in the last few years that it has begun to be treated for it.”

A stunning work that looks frankly at the “roots of evil.”

ANYTHING THAT MOVES Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture

Goodyear, Dana Riverhead (336 pp.) $27.95 | Nov. 14, 2013 978-1-59448-837-5

Venturing deep into the underground foodie culture, New Yorker contributor Goodyear (The Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard: Poems, 2013, etc.) plunges into the world of dedicated individuals who routinely skirt the boundaries imposed by common culinary practices and tastes.

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The author is no stranger to ingesting foods many would forego. During a stint in China, she ate chicken feet and consumed a seven-course meal of dog meat. When Goodyear began hanging out with extreme foodies, the type of characters who consider insects, frog fallopian tubes and horsemeat as fair game for dinner, her food boundaries expanded. A dish composed of “slippery jellyfish in sesame-oil vinaigrette, and a raw oyster, poached quail egg, and crab guts, meant to be slurped together in one viscous spoonful” provided the author with an example of the “quiver on quiver on quiver” characterizing the “convergence of the disgusting and the sublime typical of so much foodie food.” Goodyear skillfully stitches together the philosophical, psychological and legal underpinnings of this emerging movement with the stories of those consumers who seek out the sometimes-bizarre foods.

She explores bits of culinary history, how culture plays a role in what’s acceptable to eat and the ethical lines some individuals won’t cross when it comes to exotic eating. The author visited underground pop-up restaurants, which combine “the raucous dinner with random tablemates, and the self-conscious staging of an elevated social interaction,” and she spent time with the chefs who routinely traverse the outer limits of America’s new food landscape. One chef, irate at the amount of waste in the meat industry, believes meat eating mustn’t be easy but should force people to confront their food choices. Chris Cosentino, a wellknown chef among adventurous eaters, “started serving the parts Americans no longer wanted to eat: spleens and blood and sperm; lungs, lips and livers.”

Goodyear’s exploration of this engrossing and morally complex topic provides a solid footing for hearty conversations.

FURIOUS COOL Richard Pryor and the World that Made Him

Henry, David ; Henry, Joe Algonquin (320 pp.) $25.95 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-61620-078-7

Biography of the comedic genius, anticipating the authors’ in-the-works film script on Pryor’s work and hard times.

Pryor was a careful autobiographer, as witness the revelations in his popular concert films from the early 1980s. He was also a brilliant improviser and actor who would singlehandedly “populate his stages with upward of eight or ten characters who he permitted to flirt with, mock, con, love, hate, enchant, and begat each other.” The Henry brothers, one a screenwriter, the other a music producer, do not add materially to what Pryor has told us about himself, except to note that his frequent protestations that he had quit drugs were lies. Indeed, on many matters, they rely too heavily on the memoirs of Pryor’s ever-patient friend Paul Mooney.

What adds value to this book is the authors’ expert sociological constructions, some of which they do not follow as closely as they might have. For instance, it is a noteworthy observation (though not original to the Henrys) that Pryor, more than any other single

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“Meticulous history illuminated and animated by personal passion, carried aloft by volant prose.” from falling upwards

source, may have brought the “N-word” into common usage in popular culture; they could have explored it more. Along the way, they venture useful notes on the influence of Dick Gregory, the frequent betrayals (including Pryor’s assumption that Mel Brooks was going to cast him as the sheriff in Blazing Saddles, a good bit of which Pryor wrote), and of course, Pryor’s incessant drinking, drug use and sad demise. The book is a touch slapdash at times—the spelling is Sandy Koufax, not “Kofax”; someone from Wales is Welsh, not “Welch”; Moms Mabley never worked a room clean if she could help it—but it’s mostly insightful and often entertaining all the same.

A mixed bag but worth reading. Those who do will be inspired to give Pryor’s concert films fresh screenings.

FALLING UPWARDS How We Took to the Air

Holmes, Richard Pantheon (416 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-307-37966-5

The biographer of two great Romantics (Shelley and Coleridge) relates yet another romantic tale—the story of the human passion to fly up, up and away in a beautiful balloon.

Holmes (The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science, 2009, etc.) begins with a memory—a flying dream from childhood—mentions Daedalus and Icarus, some balloons in literature, films and popular culture, and then lifts off into another of his delightfully soaring histories. He notes that the French were the first to use balloons for military purposes (reconnaissance), then tells us about some of the most notable balloon pioneers, including André-Jacques Garnerin, who also pioneered parachutes. Holmes focuses on the accomplishments (and failures) of a number of other principals, including Charles Green (many of his flights lifted off from Vauxhall Gardens), Henry Mayhew, Eugène Godard, John Wise, James Glaisher, Camille Flammarion, Gaston Tissandier and Salomon Andrée, whose attempt to reach the North Pole in 1897 ended in death for all aboard his vessel. Holmes reminds us of ballooning in the fictions of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Mark Twain (whose Tom Sawyer Abroad reunited the Huck-Jim-Tom trio for a flight across the Atlantic) and others. He tells, as well, about spectacular failures—crashes, fatal and otherwise. His two most gripping segments are the airlift from Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)—dozens of flights took mail and other dispatches out of the city during the siege—and the assault on the North Pole. One great irony regarding the latter: The aeronauts, on the ground after the balloon could no longer fly, shot and ate polar bears; later, the bears ate them.

Meticulous history illuminated and animated by personal passion, carried aloft by volant prose. (24 pages of color illustrations; b/w illustrations throughout)

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JIM HENSON The Biography

Jones, Brian Jay Ballantine (592 pp.) $35.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-345-52611-3

Biographer Jones (Washington Irving: An American Original, 2007) relies on strict chronology to tell the life of Muppets creator Jim Henson (1936–1990).

With the cooperation of the Henson family, the author portrays his subject as not only innovative, but also mostly upbeat and pleasant to work with. Since the Muppets are mostly feel-good creations and Henson was mostly a feel-good guy, the biographical narrative sometimes lacks tension. That is a minor shortcoming, however. Jones is masterful at explaining how Henson grew up to become a daring puppeteer and scriptwriter, how he managed to attract so much remarkable talent to his side, and how his stressful business relationship with the Disney Company might have aggravated the bacterial infection that weakened the normally healthy Henson, who died at age 53 while trying to negotiate the planned Disney purchase of the franchise. (Note: While there was speculation at the time of his death that the Disney negotiations had a detrimental effect on Henson’s health, there is no medical proof that this was the case.) Jones does not ignore Henson’s separation from his wife/creative partner, nor his extramarital affair with a much younger woman, but the downside of Henson’s personality is not Jones’ primary focus. In an era of pathography, this biography stands out as positive. The writing is clear throughout, and the chronological approach allows Jones to clearly demonstrate cause and effect. Forced to become a businessman to manage what became an unexpectedly large empire, Henson often struggled with the portion of his days that felt noncreative. Jones continually shows that Henson left the world a better place, which serves as the book’s theme. The author ably shows many reasons why Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and many other Henson creations are recognizable more than two decades after his death.

A solid biography that can be enjoyed by readers of more than one generation.

THEN THEY STARTED SHOOTING Children of the Bosnian War and the Adults They Become

Jones, Lynne Bellevue Literary Press (352 pp.) $19.95 paper | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-934137-66-6 978-1-934137-67-3 e-book

A British psychiatrist returning to the once-beleaguered Drina Valley within Bosnia and Herzegovina finds young war victims surprisingly adaptive and thriving.

In her multicase study of traumatized children then and now,

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Jones makes some startling and potentially controversial conclusions about children of war. The author worked in humanitarian aid and child psychiatry in the Balkans from 1991 to 1995, through four years of war and siege in Bosnia, and returned intermittently over the subsequent years to the towns of Foca and Gorazde to re-interview her charges and record updates. The two towns were made up of various percentages of Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

As the war spread, the citizens were terrorized by paramilitary groups bent on “ethnic cleansing,” forcibly expelling people, displacing families, and torturing and killing suspected rivals. The Dayton Agreement of December 1995 arranged an uneasy truce, stipulating the safe return of people to their homes despite the ethnic mishmash and suspicion and indicting some of the war criminals. Jones concentrates on eight children, between 8 and adolescence, she first met in 1998 and records their experiences of displacement, violence and terror during the war years. Curiously, few had any feelings of animosity toward the other ethnic groups before the war, living closely among them in communities, but they were often indoctrinated by adults and the ongoing strife to hate the other side and justify their ill treatment of displaced neighbors. Jones tracks the children’s progress, finding that the ones who didn’t ask too many questions were the ones who thrived. Avoidance and distancing allowed the children to protect themselves emotionally.

Jones’ careful, sensitive study offers a deeply intimate look into the emotional makeup of children of war. (4 maps; 1 chart)

THE FAMILY Three Journeys into the Heart of the Twentieth Century

Laskin, David Viking (400 pp.) $32.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-670-02547-3

A Jewish writer explores his heritage in a speculative family history that mirrors the triumphs and tragedies of the

20th century.

Laskin (The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War, 2010, etc.) stays firmly within his characteristic style of anecdotal guesswork in chronicling the fates of three branches of his family tree. While his journalistic consistency may be a bit dubious, the author knows how to zero in on a good story.

Starting with a rumor that Joseph Stalin’s enforcer Lazar Kaganovich might be a distant relation, Laskin dives deeply into the lives and times of his relatives, dating back to the late 19th century in Volozhin, Russia. It’s after the family’s move to Belarus that the narrative gets really interesting. One branch, largely led by Maidenform Bra founder Ida Rosenthal, landed in New York and Americanized everything about themselves, abandoning names, homes and traditions. “Others step off the boat, fill their lungs with the raw unfamiliar air, and get to work. They never look back because they never have a moment to spare or an urge to regret,” writes 26

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the author. Another couple, Chaim and Sonia, became hard-core Zionist pioneers in the wilds of Palestine. Another entire branch was lost to the Holocaust, a richly imagined tragedy but one that Laskin has largely plucked from history books. Were this fiction, it would read much like the novels of Leon Uris and other spinners of historical sagas, as Laskin ties his relatives to events ranging from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to Black Friday to the establishment of Israel. The telling of the tales and the recollection of history eventually breaks the author’s assumptions that his family was all about business. “Now I see how wrong I was,” Laskin writes.

“History made and broke my family in the 20th century.”

An ambitious, experimental look at exodus, acclimatization and culture with a cast as diverse as any family photo album.

NORMAN MAILER A Double Life

Lennon, J. Michael Simon & Schuster (928 pp.) $40.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4391-5019-1

Appropriately sprawling biography of the larger-than-life writer, brawler, provocateur and bon vivant.

Norman Mailer (1923–2007), writes archivist and authorized biographer Lennon, grew up in a reasonably happy family, with a strong mother and dapper father, who, as Mailer wrote, “had the gift of speaking to each woman as if she was the most important woman he’d ever spoken to.” Mailer himself was fairly obsessed with women, though his quest was often thwarted—as he recalled, particularly at Harvard, where he served something of an apprenticeship. Mailer came into adulthood with a noticeable chip on his shoulder and some well-aired grievances, and he kept the pattern up throughout a long and productive life. As Advertisements for Myself (1959) proclaimed, for instance, he maintained running feuds and rivalries with all manner of writers—and, as Lennon reveals, even took Ernest Hemingway by the horns, occasioning an apology from Papa some years later. He also battled editors and critics from the start, though Hemingway helpfully instructed on the matter of reviews, “Try for Christ sake not to worry about it so much. All that is poison.” Lennon ably reveals the always-contentious Mailer but also a man who could be generous and very smart. Lennon is also a shrewd literary critic, commenting on the origins and fortunes of Mailer’s works, notably his study of Marilyn Monroe, which laid bare “his narcissism, born of early spectacular success.” Mailer possessed an outsized ego well before then, of course, but the point remains: Though he seems to be little read now, Mailer was of central importance in postwar American writing, as he would have been glad to tell you.

Detailed and anecdotal without being gossipy (a yarn concerning a nicotine-addicted cat notwithstanding) and a must-read for students and admirers of Mailer’s work.

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“New Yorker writer Lepore masterfully formulates the story of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister.” from book of ages

BOOK OF AGES The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin Lepore, Jill Knopf (464 pp.) $27.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-307-95834-1

New Yorker writer Lepore (History/ Harvard Univ.; The Story of America, 2012) masterfully formulates the story of Benjamin Franklin’s youngest sister, who will be virtually unknown to many readers, using only a few of her letters and a small archive of births and deaths.

Jane Franklin Mecom (1712–1794) did not come into her own until she was widowed in 1765; at the time, widows possessed greater rights than married women. The first existing letter in her own hand was written when she was 45 years old. Of course, it helps that her letters were to her brother, one of the most significant figures of the time period. “He became a printer, a philosopher, and a statesman,” writes the author. “She became a wife, a mother, and a widow…[who] strained to form the letters of her name.” Benjamin’s references to her missives helped Lepore gain at least a partial picture of a little-educated woman who nonetheless showed a great mind capable of deep opinions. She was also very lucky in that her brother looked after her needs, eventually giving her a house of her own and providing her with books. Women were taught to read but not to write, so spelling and punctuation are random. Since the letters quoted in this book are unedited, the narrative pace occasionally slows, but the author’s reasons become clear once she shows the result of some dastardly editing by Jared Sparks, who was famed for amassing some of the most important documents of the period relating to Franklin and George Washington.

An appendix shows how Sparks’ heavy-handed pencil drastically changed the meanings of many of the letters.

Jane Franklin was an amazing woman who raised her children and grandchildren while still having the time to read and think for herself. We can only see into her mind because her correspondent was famous and because a vastly talented biographer reassembled her for us. (29 illustrations)

attempt to jump-start her fledgling career, she planned to spend 10 days in Mogadishu, a “chaotic, anarchic, staggeringly violent city.” She hoped to look beyond the “terror and strife [that] hogged the international headlines” and find “something more hopeful and humane running alongside it.” Although a novice journalist, she was an experienced, self-reliant backpacker who had traveled in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She hired a company to provide security for her and her companion, the Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, but they proved unequal to the task. Their car was waylaid by a gunman, and the group was taken captive and held for ransom. Her abductors demanded $2 million, a sum neither family could raise privately or from their governments. Negotiations played out over 15 months before an agreement for a much smaller sum was reached. The first months of their captivity, until they attempted an escape, were difficult but bearable. Subsequently, they were separated, chained, starved and beaten, and Lindhout was repeatedly raped. Survival was a minute-by-minute struggle not to succumb to despair and attempt suicide. A decision to dedicate her life to humanitarian work should she survive gave meaning to her suffering. As she learned about the lives of her abusers, she struggled to understand their brutality in the context of their ignorance and the violence they had experienced in their short lives. Her guards were young Muslim extremists, but their motive was financial. Theirs was a get-rich scheme that backfired. “Hostage taking is a business, a speculative one,” Lindhout writes, “fed by people like me—the wandering targets, the fish found out of water, the comparatively rich moving against a backdrop of poor.”

A vivid, gut-wrenching, beautifully written, memorable book.

OIL AND HONEY The Education of an Unlikely Activist McKibben, Bill Times/Henry Holt (272 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-8050-9284-4

From the founder of the environmental organization 350.org, a chatty, warm memoir of his double life as globe-trotting activist and part-time

A HOUSE IN THE SKY A Memoir

Lindhout, Amanda; Corbett, Sara Scribner (384 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-4516-4560-6 With the assistance of New York Times Magazine writer Corbett, Lindhout, who was held hostage in Somalia for more than a year, chronicles her harrowing ordeal and how she found the moral

strength to survive.

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novice beekeeper.

For the past couple of years, McKibben (Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, 2010, etc.) has juggled two careers: organizing campaigns to halt the degradation of the planet and working with Kirk Webster, a beekeeper whose farm in the Champlain Valley of Vermont the author helped finance.

Fighting the Keystone XL pipeline has been a top priority, and the author writes with humor of the three days he spent in jail in Washington, D.C., as the leader of a major demonstration against it. He also writes from the heart about the disastrous recent floods that struck his beloved Vermont and New York City, giving the country a look at the increasing devastation

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of climate change. McKibben, who asserts that the fossil fuel industry is poisoning the planet and that its donations have turned one of our political parties into climate deniers and the other into cowards, advocates that what has been a political fight must now take a new economic direction: divestment in these companies. In the latter part of the book, the author focuses on his efforts to take this message to colleges across the country, whose portfolios have large investments in the fossil fuel industry. McKibben intersperses his accounts of his intense and wide-ranging efforts as an environmental activist with his sometimes-humbling experiences as a novice beekeeper, learning from Webster the art and science of raising bees and making honey. The author’s clear message: Hard work is required on both the local level and the larger scale if the fight to protect our planet is not to be lost.

A personal, enjoyably rancor-free account, filled with praise for his colleagues and some pokes at opponents but void of harangues.

RED FORTRESS History and Illusion in the Kremlin

Merridale, Catherine Metropolitan/Henry Holt (528 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-8050-8680-5

Comprehensive study of Moscow’s walled city, for centuries a byword for power, secrecy and cruelty.

“The Kremlin’s history is a tale of survival, and it is certainly an epic, but there is nothing inevitable about any of it.” So writes Merridale (Contemporary History/Queen Mary Univ. of London), author of the excellent Ivan’s War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945 (2006), casting subtle doubt on the claims of the Putin government and its assertions of imperial destiny. Glorifying the past, of course, is a way to take eyes off the present, though the stratagem can sometimes backfire. What is of central importance to the history of the Kremlin and, by extension, that of Russia, is the capacity of its builders to return time and again to scenes of utter destruction and start from scratch. Or not quite from scratch, since, as Merridale notes at the close of her book, Russians were recently delighted to learn that the workmen who had been ordered to destroy the Kremlin’s Orthodox religious icons in the 1930s had defied Stalin’s orders and instead painted them over; and so skillfully that the paint can (comparatively, anyway) easily be removed and the icons restored.

Stalin naturally figures heavily in these pages, a ruler whose apparatus was extremely effective in delivering cruelty. What is just as interesting, and perhaps surprising to most readers, is the role of non-Russians in making the Kremlin over the centuries, from a Venetian master builder to German craftsmen fleeing the religious wars of their homeland—to say nothing of the Byzantine hierarchy to whom Russian religious leaders used to answer.

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Visitors of Russia and social historians alike will benefit from Merridale’s thoroughgoing research and lively writing.

DALLAS 1963

Minutaglio, Bill; Davis, Stephen L. Twelve (336 pp.) $28.00 | $14.99 e-book | Oct. 8, 2013 978-1-4555-2209-5 978-1-4555-2211-8 e-book In a chronological, episodic narrative that grows somewhat tedious yet chilling, Minutaglio (City on Fire: The Explosion that Devastated a Texas Town and Ignited a Historic Legal Battle, 2004, etc.) and Davis (J. Frank Dobie, 2009, etc.) unearth the various fringe elements rampant in Dallas in the three years (from January 1960 to November 1963) preceding John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

These anti-communist and racist groups were essentially sanctioned by officials and created a dangerous climate for the president and first lady during their visit on November 22, 1963. Indeed, Kennedy had been warned not to come, especially after the violent reception of U.N. ambassador Adlai Stevenson by Dallas crowds several weeks before.

“Super-patriots” like Gen. Edwin A. Walker, formerly enlisted

by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in helping integrate Little Rock Central High School, had made an about-face and grown stridently pro-segregationist, distributing Wanted for Treason posters at the time of JFK’s visit; billionaire oilman H.L. Hunt was bankrolling right-wing groups; Frank McGehee was organizing a National Indignation Convention; and publisher Ted Dealey, whose paper the Dallas Morning News routinely attacked the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, ran an incendiary full-page advertisement from Bernard Weissman’s American Fact-Finding Mission on the day Kennedy arrived in Dallas. In this xenophobic, anti-liberal, anti–East Coast atmosphere, Lee Harvey Oswald purchased a mailorder rifle, which he tried out first by shooting at Gen. Walker through a window of his home. Minutaglio and Davis alternate their doomsday scenario with chronicles of the upbeat attempts at integrating and liberalizing Dallas—e.g., international marketing efforts by showman Stanley Marcus (of Neiman Marcus) and New Hope Baptist Church pastor H. Rhett James’ engineering of Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to the city.

Despite the calendar slog, the authors make a compelling, tacit parallel to today’s running threats by extremist groups.

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“Unique, devastating, indelible.” from the great war

THE WITNESS WORE RED The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders to Justice Musser, Rebecca with Cook, M. Bridget Grand Central Publishing (352 pp.) $27.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4555-2785-4

With the assistance of Cook (Shattered Silence: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’s Daughter, 2009, etc.), Musser describes her transition from obedient daughter and wife in the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints to a key witness in court cases against church leaders, including the “Prophet” Warren Jeffs.

The author was born into the religion, where multiple marriages were the norm, girls were taught to be subservient to their fathers and husbands, and marriage was the path to salvation. At 19, she was forced to become the 19th wife of the 85-year-old FLDS leader, Rulon Jeffs, who had more than 60 wives when he died.

When Rulon’s son, Warren, followed him as leader, the abuses became rampant. More and more girls, some underage, were forced into “spiritual marriages” under the guise of God’s will, as handed down by Jeffs. On the other hand, teenage boys were routinely expelled from FLDS to fend for themselves, leaving more girls for church leaders. After her 14-year-old sister was forced into marriage and knowing that being a widow didn’t protect her from a second marriage, Musser fled. A motivational speaker, she views what happened at FLDS as nothing short of “human trafficking— both for labor as well as sex.” Though compelling, Musser’s story is buried in a detail-laden, chronological narrative. The energy picks up when she describes her role in investigations of FLDS activities.

She testified 20 times, always dressed in red, a color FLDS women were forbidden to wear. Courageous as she was, her role in seeking justice took a heavy toll on Musser, who lost all contact with family members still in FLDS. She felt the heavy weight of testifying against her “own people,” guilt for “deserting” her siblings and conflicting emotions about church teachings.

A decent addition to a growing body of work about polygamy, the book speaks to the ways isolation, fear and secrecy can shelter insidious abuses until someone has the courage to step forward as a witness.

THE GREAT WAR July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme Sacco, Joe Illus. by Sacco, Joe Norton (54 pp.) $35.00 | Oct. 28, 2013 978-0-393-08880-9

An illumination of a crucial battle within “the war to end all wars” redefines the power and possibilities of graphic narratives. |

Sacco (Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, 2012, etc.) has long focused his artistry on conflict, but this is a radical formalistic departure. First, it is wordless—no dialogue, no narrative. Second, it is pageless—a 24-foot-long panorama, which opens like an accordion. Third, it is chronological, to be viewed (read?) from left to right, as the optimistic illusions of the British soldiers advancing on Germans turns into a tragic, bloody massacre. On this first day of the Battle of the Somme—July 1, 1916—almost half the 120,000 British troops who had somehow expected an easy victory were dead or wounded by nightfall. It was, writes historian Hochschild (To End All Wars, 2011) in the booklet that accompanies the art, “the day of greatest bloodshed in the history of their country’s military, before or since.” The booklet also includes an author’s note, in which Sacco explains his decision to focus on this one day and the inspiration of both the accordion panorama and the medieval tapestry. He also writes of a challenge that ultimately adds to the richness of the art: “Making this illustration wordless made it impossible to provide context or add explanations. I had no means of indicting the high command or lauding the sacrifice of the soldiers. It was a relief not to do these things.

All I could do was show what happened between the general and the grave, and hope that even after a hundred years the bad taste has not been washed from our mouths.” The work comprises 24 plates, with three on each of the yard-long panels of the accordion foldout, as the faceless soldiers fall to their bloody, anonymous deaths.

Unique, devastating, indelible.

COMMAND AND CONTROL Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Schlosser, Eric Penguin Press (640 pp.) $36.00 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-59420-227-8

The chilling, concise history of America’s precarious nuclear arsenal.

Investigative journalist Schlosser’s (Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market, 2003, etc.) vivid and unsettling treatise spreads across a 70-year span of the development and control of nuclear weaponry. At the core of the author’s scrutiny is the suspensefully narrated back story of the Arkansas-based Titan II military missile silo. A disastrous mishap in 1980 involving an accidentally punctured fuel tank caused a near-detonation and collapse of the missile, killing a young repairman and sparking an investigation into the hazardous nature of all military nuclear armaments. Schlosser frames this incident around four decades of the Cold War, the Eisenhower and Truman administrations, the Cuban missile crisis, the bravery of servicemen like Gen. Curtis LeMay, and the eerily accurate predictions and statistical determinations of nuclear strategist Fred Iklé. Testimony from a massive list

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of scientists and engineers further elucidates what Schlosser considers to be the nation’s perpetual military defense conundrum: “the need for a nuclear weapon to be safe and the need for it to be reliable.” Throughout, he chillingly extrapolates the long-standing history of nuclear near-misses with the engagement of a fiction writer. He also examines the heavily endorsed anti-nuclear foreign policies proselytized by politicians and probes the operational processes of nuclear missiles and warheads, though the specter of decimation at the hands of a weapon of mass destruction looms over each chapter. With this cautionary text, Schlosser, who pinged processed food and the underground economy onto America’s cultural radar, succeeds in increasing awareness for more stringent precautions and less of the casual mismanagement of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, he respectfully memorializes those Cold War heroes (and countless others, like nuclear weapon safety lobbyist Bob Peurifoy) who’ve prevented nuclear holocausts from being written into the annals of American history.

An exhaustive, unnerving examination of the illusory safety of atomic arms.

TURN AROUND BRIGHT EYES The Rituals of Love and Karaoke

Sheffield, Rob It Books/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-06-220762-3

Rolling Stone contributing editor Sheffield (Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut, 2010, etc.) muses on love, loss, life, Rod Stewart, female Rush fans and much more in an homage to the art and attitude of karaoke.

Moving to New York City in 2000 as a young widower—his wife died at age 31—Sheffield spent most of his time “in a catatonic stupor on my couch, caked in despair and Cheetos dust.”

Then he discovered karaoke and met Ally, the astronomer and fellow “rock-geek” he would later marry. Coming from a long line of Irishmen with bad voices, Sheffield found that in karaoke, perfection didn’t matter, effort did: “It’s a place where notalents and low talents and too-low-for-zero-talents tolerate each other, even enjoy each other, as we commit brutal crimes of love against music.” If perfection is missing, a shared community of momentary rock stardom and mutual support is not.

So it was with Ally, his partner in karaoke obsession, but they were, and are, different people. In a long passage containing some solid marriage advice, Sheffield warns to “give up on the idea of perfection”—however, you must work at it. The author wanders far afield, from family memories to karaoke nights in a Florida senior living village to hilarious takes on music’s biggest names—e.g., David Bowie was “the only rock star who ever pretended to be from outer space in order to seem less weird.”

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ways music can bring people together, offering hope and renewal. Eschewing cynicism, the author writes with a seemingly effortless blend of evocative pathos and spot-on humor that moves and inspires.

It’s only rock ’n’ roll writing, but Sheffield nails it.

AMSTERDAM A History of the World’s Most Liberal City Shorto, Russell Doubleday (368 pp.) $28.95 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-385-53457-4

The dynamic historical account of a vibrantly complex European city and the legacy of social, political and economic liberalism it bequeathed to the

Western world.

Legalized prostitution, lax drug laws and a generous social welfare system have given Amsterdam a reputation for being “the most liberal place on earth.” But as cultural historian Shorto (Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason, 2008, etc.) points out, it is ultimately incorrect to say that the concept of liberalism itself, which “involves a commitment to individual freedom and individual rights… for everyone,” was born there. It is instead more correct to say that the ideas that inspired those thinkers who gave form to what liberalism was—John Locke, Voltaire, Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson, among others—arose from the peculiar set of geographical and cultural circumstances that attended the birth of Amsterdam. Since the Netherlands is “one vast river delta,” Dutch cities like Amsterdam came into being thanks to the development of organizations that depended on cooperation to deal with the ever-present threat of flooding. More importantly, the water-protected communities the Dutch built allowed them the freedom to also flourish as individuals.

A spirit of tolerance pervaded all aspects of Dutch life. Medieval Amsterdam became home to religious dissidents. With the rise of mercantilism in the 16th century, it became headquarters of the United East India Company, “the world’s first multinational corporation.” Economic liberalism transformed Amsterdam into a rich cosmopolitan city, and wealth gave rise to a golden age in art, architecture and science. When the capitalistic excesses of the Industrial Revolution collided with socialist theory in the 19th and 20th centuries, a liberalism that honored the good of all, rather than just a privileged few, emerged. Shorto’s examination of Amsterdam’s colorful history offers important insights into the promise and possibility of enlightened liberalism.

Vigorous, erudite and eminently readable.

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“A modern rejoinder to Black Like Me, Beloved and other stories of struggle and redemption—beautifully written, if sometimes too sad to bear.” from men we reaped

HEADHUNTERS ON MY DOORSTEP A True Treasure Island Ghost Story Troost, J. Maarten Gotham Books (304 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-592-40789-7

Following a stint in rehab, travel writer Troost (Lost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man’s Attempt to Understand the World’s Most Mystifying Nation or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live Squid, 2008, etc.) chronicles his journey toward finding his new sober self while following in the tracks of Robert Louis Stevenson.

For years, Troost lived the good life: “For a long while, decades even, the sun had shone on me. Life had been an effortless glide.” Then, suddenly, it wasn’t, and his wife dropped him at a rehab center along with an ultimatum to sober up or else.

On the road to recovery, the author delved into the literature of the South Seas, particularly Stevenson’s Treasure Island. His curiosity reawakened following his newfound sobriety, Troost set out on his own adventure for some of the most remote islands on Earth, including the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, the Gilberts and Samoa. Whether detailing the boorish behavior of other travelers, the serenity/fright experienced when snorkeling with sharks, rising sea levels or his own inadequacies, Troost’s language rings true. The author candidly, humorously probes the nether regions of his addiction along with the temptations he encountered during his journey. “So now here I was,” he writes, “nearly twelve months sober, alone for the first time in a faraway place, on a boatful of booze.” Troost’s sly wit permeates the narrative, propelling his saga out of the ranks of many recovery memoirs. The author weaves together entertaining and illuminating pop-culture touchstones, history, and cultural, culinary and literary references with personal experiences while rambling across the South Seas.

A rambunctious, intimate trip well worth the armchair time.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, VOLUME 2 The Complete and Authoritative Edition

Twain, Mark Griffin, Benjamin and Smith, Elinor—Eds. Univ. of California (736 pp.) $45.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-520-27278-1

In which the great American author, aided by his scholarly editors, continues to spin out a great yarn covering his long life.

In the year of his birth, writes Twain, John Marshall, the noted jurist and chief justice of the Supreme Court, died. A |

collection was taken up among lawyers to erect a statue to him, but then “a prodigious new event of some kind or other suddenly absorbed the whole nation and drove the matter of the monument out of everybody’s mind.” The money sat in a bank account for half a century collecting interest, and suddenly, in 1883 or so, it was rediscovered and used to build the memorial that now stands in the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. The statue is a material fact, but it is Twain’s storytelling that makes it come alive. Having written despairingly of the human race, and especially of its more murderous representatives, such as Belgium’s King Leopold, he takes the rare fact of honest politicians and fiduciaries as a tonic: “It takes the bitter taste out of my mouth to recall that beautiful incident.” Twain emerges as an unflinching social critic with a long list of targets, including the robber barons of his day and imperialist militarists like Leonard Wood. Yet, in this most personal of works, Twain also reserves plenty of spite for miscreant publishers: “Webster kept back a book of mine, ‘A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur,’ as long as he could, and finally published it so surreptitiously that it took two or three years to find out that there was any such book.” Twain is, as ever, a sharply honed and contrarian wit, as quick to lampoon himself as anyone else. He is also capable of Whitmanesque flights: “I am,” he declares, “the entire human race compacted together”—for better and for worse.

Twain admirers will find this volume indispensable and will eagerly await the third volume. (b/w photos)

MEN WE REAPED A Memoir

Ward, Jesmyn Bloomsbury (256 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-60819-521-3

An assured yet scarifying memoir by young, supremely gifted novelist Ward (Salvage the Bones, 2011, etc.).

Like the author’s novels, this study of life on the margins—of society, of dry land against the bayou, of law—takes place in the stunning tropical heat of southern Mississippi. Her parents had tried to leave there and make new lives in the freedom, vast horizon and open sky of California: “There were no vistas in Mississippi, only dense thickets of trees all around.” But they had returned, and in the end, the homecoming broke them apart. Ward observes that the small town of her youth was no New Orleans; there was not much to do there, nor many ennobling prospects. So what do people do in such circumstances? They drink, take drugs, reckon with “the dashed dreams of being a pilot or a doctor,” they sink into despair, they die—all things of which Ward writes, achingly, painting portraits of characters such as a young daredevil of a man who proclaimed to anyone who would listen, “I ain’t long for this world,” and another who shrank into bony nothingness as crack cocaine whittled him away. With more gumption than many, Ward battled not only the indifferent

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“Some news is hopeful, and a few nations have taken action, so this is not a jeremiad but a realistic, vividly detailed exploration of the greatest problem facing our species.” from countdown

THE MEN WHO UNITED THE STATES America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible

odds of rural poverty, but also the endless racism of her classmates in the school she attended on scholarship, where the only other person of color, a Chinese girl, called blacks “scoobies”: “ ‘Like Scooby Doo?’ I said. ‘Like dogs?’ ” Yes, like dogs, and by Ward’s account, it’s a wonder that anyone should have escaped the swamp to make their way in that larger, more spacious world beyond it.

A modern rejoinder to Black Like Me, Beloved and other stories of struggle and redemption—beautifully written, if sometimes too sad to bear.

COUNTDOWN Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?

Weisman, Alan Little, Brown (528 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-316-23981-3

Following up The World Without Us (2007), which explored how the Earth might heal from our depredations if humans became extinct, journalist Weisman writes a more conventional but equally astute analysis of how humans might avoid extinction.

Overconsumption, not overpopulation, will destroy the planet, but no one except enthusiasts expects us to renounce our meat, cars, single-family houses and air conditioning anytime soon. After traveling the world, Weisman delivers a dozen often painful journalistic essays on efforts to answer four questions: How many people can the Earth hold at a tolerable standard of living? How much ecosystem do humans need; at what point do we eradicate an organism our existence depends upon? Today every nation depends on growth for prosperity.

How can we design an economy for a stable population? Is there an acceptable way to convince people of every religion, culture and political system that it’s in their interest to stop having so many children? Despite the maxim that poor people yearn for huge families, that turns out to be true only for poor men. Poor women mostly yearn for birth control, and Weisman offers heart-rending portrayals of nations already suffering demographic collapse (Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda and Niger are the worst) and admirable individuals and organizations struggling to help despite little support from national governments or American aid. “I don’t want to cull anyone alive today,” writes the author. “I wish every human now on the planet a long, healthy life. But either we take control ourselves, and humanely bring our numbers down by recruiting few new members of the human race to take our places, or nature’s going to hand out a pile of pink slips.”

Some news is hopeful, and a few nations have taken action, so this is not a jeremiad but a realistic, vividly detailed exploration of the greatest problem facing our species.

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Winchester, Simon Harper/HarperCollins (512 pp.) $29.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-06-207960-2

Using a nifty structure around the five classic elements of wood, earth, water, fire and metal, Winchester (Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, 2010, etc.) celebrates the brains and brawn that forged America’s Manifest Destiny.

The author tells the story of the tremendous movement East to West of pioneers, explorers, miners, mappers and inventors whose collective labors made the U.S. truly e pluribus unum. Men take most of the spotlight here. Lewis and Clark’s Native American guide Sacagawea is one of the only females singled out by the author, who writes that she was “the key that opened the gates of the West and allowed the white men through.” Nonetheless, Winchester can tell a good yarn with evident relish, enlisting the element in question to aid in delineating his big themes: Thomas Hutchins’ visionary survey system of 1785 became the model for parceling up the vast expanse of the American West, township by township; William Maclure made the first truly detailed geological map of the U.S. in 1809; the discovery of the “fall line” in many American rivers suddenly rendering them impassable prompted the brilliant use of the canal system as employed by Loammi Baldwin; the building of the interstate road system, beginning with the very first in Cumberland, Md., constructed

by John McAdam’s new crushed-rock method in 1812; and finally, the advent of the ubiquitous telegraph wires across the country by 1860, carrying information and spelling the beginning of the new age and the end of the old. In between these milestones are a myriad other stories of American ingenuity, which Winchester recounts with enormous gusto and verve.

Another winning book from a historian whose passion for his subjects saturates his works.

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Up-and-Coming Fall nonfiction Writers Photo courtesy Dmitry Gudkov

THE FAITHFUL SCRIBE: A Family Story of Islam, Pakistan, Family, and War

FINDING THE DRAGON LADY: The Mystery of Vietnam’s Madame Nhu

Mufti, Shahan 978-1-59051-505-1 This book was reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

The rich cultural and religious history of Pakistan dictated through a journalist’s personal stories. Born in America to Pakistani parents, Mufti (Journalism/Univ. of Richmond) spares readers “every torturous twist and turn in Pakistan’s modern history,” opting for a harmonic analysis of the sovereign country from both a frontline, journalistic approach and a familial, homeland perspective. An undeniable visionary, Mufti insightfully glances back at Pakistan’s past and nods hopefully toward its precarious future. The Faithful Scribe will be published on September 24.

Demery, Monique Brinson 978-1-61039-281-5 This book is reviewed on Page 46 of the Aug. 15 issue.

An independent scholar’s engagingly provocative account of her encounters with the once-reviled former first lady of South Vietnam, Madame Nhu. Smart and well-researched, Demery’s biography, published on September 24, offers insight into both an intriguing figure and the complicated historical moment with which she became eternally identified.

Photo courtesy Jonathan Newton

“WHY DO ONLY WHITE PEOPLE GET ABDUCTED BY ALIENS?”: Teaching Lessons from the Bronx Garon, Ilana 978-1-62636-113-3 This book was reviewed in the July 15 issue.

With honesty and refreshing straightforwardness, Garon places readers on the front lines with her pupils as they navigate rough moments and face difficult decisions in their lives. This gritty and candid exposé of innercity teaching is out on September 1.

RG3: The Promise

Sheinin, David 978-0-399-16545-0 This book was reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

This spellbinding biography published on August 6 traces Robert Griffin III’s meteoric rise to sport superstardom. In his debut book, Washington Post writer Sheinin crafts an engrossing portrait of Griffin, aka RG3, the 2011 Heisman Trophy winner and the current quarterback for the Washington Redskins. However, Sheinin’s work transcends RG3’s on-field heroics, focusing instead on the psychological portrait of a man whose personality and demeanor appear at odds with the typical franchise quarterback.

Photo courtesy Deborah Copaken Kogan

THE TENDER SOLDIER: A True Story of War and Sacrifice

Gezari, Vanessa M. 978-1-61039-281-5 This book was reviewed in the Jun. 1 issue.

Having discovered (again) that superior firepower does poorly against guerrillas, America’s military adopted its current counterinsurgency doctrine, an object of almost universal praise. Not all was deserved, writes journalist Gezari (Journalism/Columbia Univ.) in this insightful but disturbing account, published on August 13, of the Human Terrain System, a program designed to bring social science to the battlefield. Gezari delivers a gripping report on another of America’s painful, surprisingly difficult efforts to win hearts and minds.

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5 STAR READS The clock is ticking down on the release of some of the season’s most highly-anticipated books.

“A completely new twist on zombies.”

—USA Today

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

October 2013

November 2013

PRAISE FOR KATIE McGARRY'S PREVIOUS TITLES

The hot new series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout

978-0-373-21077-0

The launch of Aimée Carter’s highly anticipated new series

mmm

Publishers Weekly, starred review

mmm

Kirkus, starred review

978-0-373-21091-6

mmm

RT Book Reviews, starred review

December 2013 978-0-373-21055-8

December 2013 978-0-373-21099-2

Get all the details at www.HarlequinTEEN.com

January 2014 978-0-373-21110-4

children’s ZOMBIE BASEBALL BEATDOWN

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Bacigalupi, Paolo Little, Brown (304 pp.) $17.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-0-316-22078-1

YEAR OF THE JUNGLE by Suzanne Collins; illus. by James Proimos..........................................................................38 FLORA & ULYSSES by Kate DiCamillo; illus. by K.G. Campbell.....39 WORDS WITH WINGS by Nikki Grimes...........................................39 DON’T SAY A WORD, MAMÁ / NO DIGAS NADA, MAMÁ

by Joe Hayes; illus. by Esau Andrade Valencia.................................... 40 THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER by Kevin Henkes................................ 40 LITTLE RED WRITING by Joan Holub; illus. by Melissa Sweet........ 40 THE ABOMINABLES by Eva Ibbotson; illus. by Fiona Robinson.......41 THE ANIMAL BOOK by Steve Jenkins.................................................41 THE KING OF LITTLE THINGS by Bil Lepp; illus. by David T. Wenzel......................................................................41 THE BIG WET BALLOON by Liniers...................................................41 RIFKA TAKES A BOW by Betty Rosenberg Perlov; illus. by Cosei Kawa............................................................................. 42 PICTURE ME GONE by Meg Rosoff.....................................................43 ROOFTOPPERS by Katherine Rundell; illus. by Terry Fan............... 44 DEE DEE AND ME by Amy Schwartz................................................ 44 HELLO, MY NAME IS RUBY by Philip C. Stead................................ 44

Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle meets Left for Dead/The Walking Dead/Shaun of the Dead in a high-energy, high-humor look at the zombie apocalypse, complete with baseball (rather than cricket) bats.

The wholesome-seeming Iowa cornfields are a perfect setting for the emergence of ghastly anomalies: flesh-eating cows and baseball-coach zombies. The narrator hero, Rabi (for Rabindranath), and his youth baseball teammates and friends, Miguel and Joe, discover by chance that all is not well with their small town’s principal industry: the Milrow corporation’s giant feedlot and meat-production and -packing facility. The ponds of cow poo and crammed quarters for the animals are described in gaggingly smelly detail, and the bonebreaking, bloody, flesh-smashing encounters with the zombies have a high gross-out factor. The zombie cows and zombie humans who emerge from the muck are apparently a product of the food supply gone cuckoo in service of big-money profits with little concern for the end result. It’s up to Rabi and his pals to try to prove what’s going on—and to survive the corporation’s efforts to silence them. Much as Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker (2010) was a clarion call to action against climate change, here’s a signal alert to young teens to think about what they eat, while the considerable appeal of the characters and plot defies any preachiness.

Not for the faint of heart or stomach (or maybe of any parts) but sure to be appreciated by middle school zombie cognoscenti. (Fiction. 11-14)

THE DIGGERS ARE COMING! by Susan Steggall.............................. 44

MARISOL MCDONALD AND THE CLASH BASH/MARISOL MCDONALD Y LA FIESTA SIN IGUAL

THE MAN WITH THE VIOLIN by Kathy Stinson; illus. by Dušan Petricic.........................................................................45 MR. WUFFLES! by David Wiesner......................................................45

Many of the reviews in this supplement have appeared in recent, previous issues of Kirkus Reviews. We repeat them here in order to gather in one supplement the reviews of noteworthy books being published this fall. If the first appearance of a review is in this supplement, we’ve marked it as such. |

Brown, Monica Illus. by Palacios, Sara Translated by Domínguez, Adriana Lee & Low (40 pp.) $18.95 | Sep. 15, 2013 978-0-89239-273-5

The confident, exuberant, bicultural-and-proud Marisol McDonald is back in this follow-up to Brown’s introduction to the character, Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match/Marisol McDonald no combina (2011).

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New Books from Legendary Creators Legends: The kids’-book world is full of them. From multiple award winners to beloved favorites to some legends crossing over from other fields, we are pleased to offer a selection of some new books by familiar faces to look for this fall.

SASQUATCH IN THE PAINT

FRIENDS

Carle, Eric; illus. by Carle, Eric 978-0-399-16533-7 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

Friends, which releases on November 19, is the story of two best friends that move away from each other. On an adventure to find his missing companion, the main character scales mountains, wades through rivers and endures the wrath of Mother Nature. (Picture book. 3-5)

IF DOGS RUN FREE

Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem; Obstfeld, Raymond 978-1-4231-7870-5 This book was reviewed in the Jun. 15 issue.

A crisp tale of sports, smarts and what it means to be your own man or woman— or boy or girl, if you happen to be 13. This book, which publishes on September 23, is a work of someone intimate with sports and, by extension, how sports can serve as metaphor for a way of being in the world. (Fiction. 8-12)

Dylan, Bob; illus. by Campbell, Scott 978-1-4516-4879-9 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

The lyrics to a 1970 Dylan song serve as the text for this quirky ode to children and dogs running free, doing their own thing, which publishes on September 3. Through his appealing watercolor illustrations, Campbell has done a fine job creating an imaginative story of a little girl who leaves the house with her younger brother and their dog for a day of adventure. (Picture book. 3-6)

DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD OF OZ

THE ABOMINABLES

Baum, L. Frank; adapt. by Shanower, Eric; illus.

by Young, Skottie 978-0-7851-5554-6 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

Dorothy and her friends, both old and new, return to Oz in this whimsical graphicnovel adventure that releases on September 26. In this adaptation of Baum’s fourth novel in the Oz series, Dorothy, her kitten, her cousin and his horse find themselves in a cavernous world deep within the Earth after an earthquake.

(Graphic adaptation. 10 & up)

Ibbotson, Eva; illus. by Robinson, Fiona 978-1-4197-0789-6 This book is reviewed on page 41 of this supplement.

Two children shepherd a family of yetis from the Himalayas to England in this Candide-like odyssey, left unfinished at Ibbotson’s death in 2010 but buffed up by her son and editor. This satiric farewell from a favorite author was published on Aug. 1. (Fantasy. 10-13)

COME BACK, MOON

CAN’T SCARE ME!

Kherdian, David; illus. by Hogrogian, Nonny 978-1-4424-5887-1 This book will be reviewed in a forthcoming issue.

Bryan, Ashley; illus. by Bryan, Ashley 978-1-4424-7657-8 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

Despite his diminutive size, this young, brown-skinned protagonist boasts of fearing nothing, even when his grandmother tells him that the two-headed giant and his threeheaded brother catch and eat little boys who wander home after dark. The story of a boy who knows no fear will be published on September 1. (Picture book. 4-8)

After a sleepless night, a bear steals the bright moon that has kept him awake. The other animals set out on an adventure to get the moon back. Caldecott Medalist Hogrogian’s watercolor illustrations limn the action; this book publishes on October 15.

(Picture book. 4-8)

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“Bunting uses simple declarative sentences to capture the sorrow of the day and the message that King’s followers were intent upon proclaiming—his greatness came from humble beginnings.” from the cart that carried martin

Marisol struggles to pick a theme for her upcoming eighth birthday party. How can she choose among princesses and unicorns and soccer when she loves them all? As her mom gently reminds her, maybe she doesn’t have to! What Marisol really hopes for her birthday is to see her abuela, who lives in Peru and with whom she rarely visits. The story’s contemporary solution to this problem will resonate with many families who are living across great distances. The “unique, different and one-of-a-kind” Marisol McDonald continues to stand out as a character. She is self-assured and caring, without straying into didacticism. Her bicultural identity is a point of pride that imbues her personality. Pura Belpré Honor recipient Palacios’ mixed-media illustrations once again visually express Marisol’s originality. Bits of cut paper add unexpected texture, and the warm tones convey the closeness in Marisol’s family. Domínguez’s Spanish translation is also noteworthy; its emphasis on capturing the spirit of the language over literal words makes this book equally joyful in both English and Spanish.

A broadly appealing bilingual and bicultural celebration of being oneself and the love of family. (author’s note, bilingual glossary) (Picture book. 6-8)

journey completed, is now part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site. Bunting uses simple declarative sentences to capture the sorrow of the day and the message that King’s followers were intent upon proclaiming—his greatness came from humble beginnings. The mules, Belle and Ada, were a reminder that upon freedom, slaves were given forty acres and a mule. Tate’s pencil-and-gouache artwork plays up the details of the cart and the two mules while depicting the crowds of mourners less distinctly. Adults looking for a title to share with young readers will find this helpful in imparting the emotions raised by King’s assassination.

An affecting snapshot of a tragic day. (afterword) (Picture book. 4-7)

THE CART THAT CARRIED MARTIN Bunting, Eve Illus. by Tate, Don Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | Nov. 1, 2013 978-1-58089-387-9

An old, unwanted cart becomes part of Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral procession.

Two men borrow the cart from an antiques store and paint it green, the color of freshly watered grass. They take it to the Ebenezer Baptist Church and hitch two mules to it.

Outside the church, crowds gather, while inside, the pews are filled with a weeping congregation. Slowly, the mules pull the cart carrying Dr. King’s coffin through the streets of Atlanta to Morehouse College for a second service. The cart, its day’s

Two Adventurers Catch Gold Fever in This True, Never-Before-Told Story

“Legendary” Continued....

MRS. NOODLEKUGEL AND FOUR BLIND MICE

Pinkwater, Daniel; illus. by Stower, Adam 978-0-7636-5054-4 This book was reviewed in the Aug. 1 issue.

The archetypal babysitter introduced in Mrs. Noodlekugel (2012) takes a quartet of farsighted mice to the oculist for an exam in this equally offbeat second chapter. As Pinkwater fans know to expect, the plot zigzags from one wild twist to the next in a book that releases on September 24. (Fantasy. 8-10)

October 2013 978-1-59078-823-3 $16.95 Ages 9 and up Grades 4 and up

When men bearing astonishing quantities of gold arrive by ship in Seattle, thousands more rush to get to the Klondike goldfields— fast. Among them are Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond. This awe-inspiring and unforgettable account of their adventure follows the young prospectors on the arduous journey to Dawson City, Canada, where they meet another prospector: Jack London.

★ “A remarkable collection of documents paints a picture of the Klondike gold rush in vivid detail. . . . A memorable adventure, told with great immediacy.”

—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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“Proimos’ ink-and-digital art, in his signature cartoon style, adds needed humor to a frankly scary story that honors Suzy’s experience and respects those who share it.” from year of the jungle

THE CHILDREN WHO LOVED BOOKS

romps in the jungle with elephants and apes. Her father sends her postcards every so often with cheery scenes of the tropics.

Eventually, the postcards stop coming. She misses her dad, especially when her brother takes over some of her father’s duties, like reading the comics or Ogden Nash’s poems to her. One day, the wall of protection is broken by the television, with frightening visions of explosions, helicopters, guns and dead soldiers.

Her mother whisks her away, too late. Proimos’ ink-and-digital art, in his signature cartoon style, adds needed humor to a frankly scary story that honors Suzy’s experience and respects those who share it. Occasional full-page wordless spreads allow readers to see into Suzy’s mind, beginning with her flying through the jungle and leading up to her post-epiphany anxiety about tanks and helicopters and rifles.

With a notable lack of patriotic rhetoric or clichés about bravery and honor, Collins holds firm to her childhood memories, creating a universal story for any child whose life is disrupted by war. Important and necessary.

(Picture book. 4-10)

Carnavas, Peter Illus. by Carnavas, Peter Kane/Miller (32 pp.) $11.99 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-61067-145-4

The phrase “there’s no such thing as too many books” sums up this whimsical story.

Angus and Lucy don’t have a television set, a car or even a house (the illustrations show a trailer). What they do have is hundreds and hundreds of books. They are piled, propped and stacked everywhere, overwhelming their small home (a humorous cartoon double-page spread shows books pouring out of door and windows, burying the family). The books have to go, and Angus’ dad hauls them off with his bike, with considerable effort. But things aren’t the same without them; bowls slide off the table, and Angus can’t reach the window without piles of books to stand on. Not only is there now physical space inside, but also unwelcome space separating the family members. That is, until the day that Lucy brings home a book from the library, and Mom and Dad read it far into the night: They are all hooked—again. The playful art, set against white backgrounds, furnishes details not mentioned in the text (the trailer, household pets) and conveys the casual lifestyle of the family.

The catchy cover of this Australian import nicely sets up the warm and loving story within. (Picture book. 4-7)

EXTREME OPPOSITES Dalton, Max Illus. by Dalton, Max Godine (48 pp.) $9.95 | Oct. 1, 2012 978-1-56792-503-6

YEAR OF THE JUNGLE

A witty, sophisticated book of opposites.

“Too big”: A dismayed big-game hunter looks down at three colossal footprints while his porters chuckle at his discomfiture. “Too small”: A bearded castaway leans against a palm tree on an islet that’s just barely big enough.

“Too late”: A quartet of dinosaurs, bags packed, dolefully watches the ark disappearing over the horizon. “Too early”: A rooster crows, silhouetted in the window against a starry night sky, with an irate would-be sleeper glaring at him from bed. Not for children just learning opposites, these illustrations invite older kids to study visual irony—sometimes with guidance.

Collins, Suzanne Illus. by Proimos, James Scholastic (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-0-545-42516-2

First-grader Suzy’s father is in the jungles of Vietnam for a year.

Through a tightly controlled child’s point of view, readers live the year with little Suzy in the sheltered world her parents have built for her. She understands little at first, imagining “Legendary” Continued....

NORTHWEST PASSAGE

DUSK

Rogers, Stan; James, Matt; illus. by James, Matt 978-1-55498-153-3 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

Releasing September 10, this stunning portrayal of early efforts to explore Canada’s Northwest Passage presents Stan Rogers’ 1981 song in combination with glorious illustrations, historical commentary and a gallery of explorers. Rogers’ well-known lyrics describe Sir John Franklin’s disastrous expedition of the 1840s, comparing it with the singer’s own travels across the country. (Informational picture book. 8 & up) 38

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Shulevitz, Uri; illus. by Shulevitz, Uri 978-0-374-31903-8 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

A boy, his dog and grandfather stroll along the river, watching the sunset one December evening. As the sun drops below the horizon, the night sky fills with light from Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas displays in streets, homes and stores. This holiday picture book will be published on September 17. (Picture book. 4-8)

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While most kids will get “too heavy/too light” (a stork struggles to carry a baby elephant in a sling; a child is carried aloft by a just-bought balloon), other images may require some explanation. “Too noisy” depicts a couple of mimes, aghast, with a squalling baby; “too quiet” presents a scuba diver in the embrace of a giant octopus, trying in vain to signal another diver, who’s swimming away. The cartoons’ hip, limited palette and dry wit will appeal to adults, but the images never lose sight of the child audience, as is manifest in a couple of quite funny underwearrelated gags (“too loose/too tight”).

With whole stories unfurling in each image, the book has potential for classroom use as well as for solo enjoyment. (Picture book. 6-10) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

FLORA & ULYSSES The Illuminated Adventures DiCamillo, Kate Illus. by Campbell, K.G. Candlewick (240 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-7636-6040-6

When a cynical comic-book fanatic discovers her own superhero, life becomes wonderfully supercharged.

Despite the contract her mother made her sign to “turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics,” 10-year-old Flora avidly follows her favorite superhero’s adventures. Flora’s mother writes romance novels and seems more in love with her books than with her lonely ex-husband or equally lonely daughter.

When a neighbor accidentally vacuums a squirrel into a Ulysses 2000X vacuum cleaner, Flora resuscitates him into a “changed squirrel,” able to lift the 2000X with a single paw. Immediately assuming he’s a superhero, Flora names the squirrel “Ulysses” and believes together they will “[shed] light into the darkest corners of the universe.” Able to understand Flora, type, compose poetry and fly, the transformed Ulysses indeed exhibits superpowers,

but he confronts his “arch-nemesis” when Flora’s mother tries to terminate him, triggering a chain of events where Ulysses becomes a real superhero. The very witty text and droll, comicbook–style black-and-white illustrations perfectly relay the alltoo-hilarious adventures of Flora, Ulysses and a cast of eccentric characters who learn to believe in the impossible and have “capacious” hearts.

Original, touching and oh-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl. (Fantasy. 8-12)

WORDS WITH WINGS

Grimes, Nikki Wordsong/Boyds Mills (96 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-59078-985-8 In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child.

Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school.

Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class.

Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is

“Legendary” Continued....

THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS

MR. WUFFLES! Wiesner, David; illus. by Wiesner, David 978-0-618-75661-2 This book is reviewed on page 45 of this supplement.

Voigt, Cynthia; illus. by Bruno, Iacopo 978-0-307-97681-9 | 978-0-375-97123-5 PLB This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

In the first of a trilogy, Maximilian Starling, son of theatrical parents, is left at the dock when he misses a boat to India, where his parents supposedly have been invited by a maharajah to start a theater.

Did they intend to leave him? Are they in danger? The tale of a boy who finds lost things will be released on September 10.

(Adventure. 9-13) |

A house cat pooh-poohs most proffered toys and gets his comeuppance tangling with a tiny alien spacecraft and its penny-sized adventurers. Peppered with speech bubbles in English, alien- or insect-speak, Wiesner’s multi-paneled tour de force, publishing on October 1, treats the green ETs to maximum upheaval. (Picture book. 4-8)

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tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.

An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)

DON’T SAY A WORD, MAMÁ / NO DIGAS NADA, MAMÁ

Hayes, Joe Illus. by Andrade Valencia, Esau Cinco Puntos (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-935955-29-0 978-1-935955-45-0 paper 978-1-935955-30-6 e-book Mamá has always been proud of her loving daughters, even when they’ve grown.

Rosa, her husband and their three children live “in a little house just down the street from her mother.” Sister Blanca lives alone “in a little house just up the street from her mother.”

One year, each sister plants a garden, growing tomatoes, corn and “good hot chiles.” Each woman gives their mother some and tells her that she is going to give her sister half her yield— but: “Don’t say a word, Mamá!” In the night, each unknowingly passes the other with a basketful and leaves it in her sister’s empty kitchen. In the morning, each is astonished at the enormous pile of tomatoes and gives still more to her mother, who accepts them with a shrug: “you can never have too many tomatoes.” This is repeated with the luxuriant crop of corn, but Mamá at last spills the beans—or rather the peppers—as she can’t manage a similar surplus of chiles. Storyteller Hayes uses repetition, parallel structure and short sentences masterfully, unspooling a sweet family tale that never turns saccharine.

His own Spanish translation appears alongside the English text.

Andrade Valencia contributes highly saturated paintings that combine a folk aesthetic with magical realism, playfully depicting anthropomorphized vegetables marrying and having babies as the sisters marvel at the bounty.

This book overflows with affection—and you can never have too much of that. (Bilingual picture book. 4-7) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER

Henkes, Kevin Illus. by Henkes, Kevin Greenwillow/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-06-226812-9 Billy Miller’s second-grade year is quietly spectacular in a wonderfully ordinary way.

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Billy’s year begins with his worry over the lump on his head, a souvenir of a dramatic summer fall onto concrete: Will he be up to the challenges his new teacher promises in her letter to students? Quickly overshadowing that worry, however, is a diplomatic crisis over whether he has somehow offended Ms. Silver on the first day of school. Four sections—Teacher, Father, Sister and Mother—offer different and essential focal points for Billy’s life, allowing both him and readers to explore several varieties of creative endeavor, small adventures, and, especially, both challenges and successful problem-solving. The wonderfully self-possessed Sal, his 3-year-old sister, is to Billy much as Ramona is to Beezus, but without the same level of tension. Her pillowcase full of the plush yellow whales she calls the Drop Sisters (Raindrop, Gumdrop, etc.) is a memorable prop. Henkes offers what he so often does in these longer works for children: a sense that experiences don’t have to be extraordinary to be important and dramatic.

Billy’s slightly dreamy interior life isn’t filled with either angst or boisterous silliness—rather, the moments that appear in these stories are clarifying bits of the universal larger puzzle of growing up, changing and understanding the world. Small, precise blackand-white drawings punctuate and decorate the pages.

Sweetly low-key and totally accessible. (Fiction. 7-10)

LITTLE RED WRITING

Holub, Joan Illus. by Sweet, Melissa Chronicle (36 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-8118-7869-2

Exploding with puns, wordplay and the irrepressible desire to re-imagine “Little Red Riding Hood” one more time, Holub and Sweet bring forth some actual useful writing advice—that’s not just for beginners.

It’s Write On! Day at the Pencilvania School, and all the little pencils and their teacher, Ms. 2, are about to follow the story path.

Ms. 2 gives our heroine, Little Red, a basket of nouns and reminds her to stick to the path. She becomes entangled in descriptive adjectives, stuck in a sentence that just keeps going, and is rescued and then ambushed by adverbs and random nouns. Principal Granny seems to have a long electric tail and a growly voice when Little Red gets to her office. It’s not the principal but the Wolf 3000—a voracious pencil sharpener! But Little Red has one noun left, and she uses it judiciously. Watercolor, pencil and collage give the magnificent Sweet lots of material to play with: The little pencil-pupils each have an identifying eraser cap (a stegosaurus, a basketball, a map of Pencilvania). When Little Red looks for excitement in her story, she goes to the gym and is “quickly drawn into the action,” as all the pencils twist, jump and play catch on the page. The artwork—which integrates written text in a variety of lettering styles—fills the pages with a riot of color, shape, movement and design. Endpapers and title pages are all part of the tale. Little kids should love the illustrations and their multiplicity of meanings, and older children trying out their writing wings will find good, strong advice.

Every writers’ group should start with this story. (Picture book. 7 & up)

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“The tale moves briskly, with high drama and gentle humor, and allows readers to find the moral naturally.” from the king of little things

THE ABOMINABLES Ibbotson, Eva Illus. by Robinson, Fiona Amulet/Abrams (272 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4197-0789-6

Two children shepherd a family of yetis from the Himalayas to England in this Candide-like odyssey, left unfinished at Ibbotson’s death in 2010 but buffed up

by her son and editor.

Impelled by the threat of imminent exposure and the hope of refuge in a certain British stately home, five yetis reluctantly leave their idyllic hidden valley. Guided by Con and Ellen, two young staff members from a recently opened tourist hotel, they board a sympathetic driver’s refrigerated lorry for the long drive across the Middle East and Europe. Being thoroughly vegetarian and so gentle that they apologize to grass and fruit before they eat it, they’re in for a series of nasty shocks. Not least among these is the discovery that their safe haven has been taken over by a hunters’ club and thickly decorated with animal trophies. When the yetis are drugged by the hunters and shipped off to Antarctica for a private slaughter, it’s left up to Con and Ellen to effect a rescue. Sprinkling her descriptions with words like “vile” and “filthy,” Ibbotson really lets animal abusers and killers have it here—in sharp contrast to the yetis, who are outfitted with a winning mix of naïveté, noble-heartedness and amusing foibles such as backward-facing feet (which make them very hard to track). Robinson gives them the look of hairy, oversized Palmer Cox Brownies in the frequent illustrations.

A satiric farewell from a favorite author. (most illustrations not seen) (Fantasy. 10-13)

THE ANIMAL BOOK

Jenkins, Steve Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Houghton Mifflin (208 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-547-55799-1 Building on years of experience in selecting animal facts and creating arresting illustrations, Jenkins surpasses his previous work with an amazing album characterized by clear organization, realistic images and carefully chosen examples.

The thoughtful, appealing design will both attract browsers and support those looking for specifics, but this also provides a solid introduction to the vast animal kingdom. After a chapter of definition, information is presented in sections on animal families, senses, predators, defenses, extremes and the story of life. More facts appear in the final chapter, which serves both as index (with page numbers and thumbnails) and quick reference. Most spreads have an explanatory paragraph and then a number of examples, each with an animal image and a sentence or two of detail set on white background. These cut- and torn-paper illustrations have realistic color and features: eyes that look at readers, teeth that amaze, and |

tiny legs, whiskers or feelers. Some are actual size or show a close-up portion of the animal’s body. Sections end with a jaw-dropping twopage image; chapters end with charts. Jenkins fills out this appealing celebration with a description of his bookmaking process.

With facts sure to delight readers—who will be impatient to share their discoveries—this spectacular book is a must-purchase for animal-loving families and most libraries. (glossary, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 5 & up)

THE KING OF LITTLE THINGS

Lepp, Bil Illus. by Wenzel, David T. Peachtree (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-56145-708-3 Don’t underestimate the power and importance of small things.

Trouble is brewing: Insatiably greedy King Normous wants to be king of the whole world. His giant army ruthlessly conquers every other kingdom and empire. He is happy until he learns of the existence of his polar opposite, “His Miniscule Majesty…the King of Little Things.” Now he won’t rest until he has conquered that realm as well. The little king is content among his small things, such as insects, coins and buttons, and he is not as weak as Normous believes. He involves all his very loyal subjects, those little things, to help repel the invasion, and King Normous’ little things mutiny to join them. Naturally, there is a happy ending for everyone, except King Normous, of course, who is plagued by small things forever. Rich, image-filled language, including several rhythmic lists—“He raided realms. He squashed sovereignties. He eradicated empires”—emphasizes the two characters’ opposing life views and highlights their battles. The tale moves briskly, with high drama and gentle humor, and allows readers to find the moral naturally. Wenzel’s watercolor illustrations are in perfect harmony with the text, in both detail and tone. Endpapers depict an assortment of small things that can be found within the illustrations, encouraging further examination.

Adults and children who read this delightful and imaginative book together will find lots to talk about. (Picture book. 4-9)

THE BIG WET BALLOON Liniers Illus. by Liniers TOON/Candlewick (32 pp.) $12.95 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-935179-32-0

There are so many things to do when it rains!

Hooray! It’s Saturday. But wait— it’s raining. What are two sisters to do?

Older sibling Matilda is absolutely full of ideas and ready to lead younger Clemmie on a grand adventure.

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“No direct mention of the Sandy Hook shootings is made in this book dedicated to its victims; the emphasis is on life, not death.” from snowflakes fall

What will they do first? It all begins with rain boots and entails a very special red balloon, a wink to the classic book and film. Celebrated Argentine cartoonist Liniers offers a warm visual welcome to early readers in this graphic novel; lively watercolors in comic format provide plenty of memorable images and details to examine and savor. The gentle humor and mild suspense will quickly draw readers in, while brief sentences and appropriately challenging vocabulary, flawlessly interwoven with pictures that provide visual cues, leave room for readers to decipher, consider and comprehend. Natural repetition allows for practice. Overall, this satisfying tale captures the camaraderie of two sisters and shows how the oldest doesn’t always have the answers. Now, what will the girls do on Sunday? Achoo! Uh-oh….

An excellent example of how well comics can work for early readers, this warm and accessible story is sure to be a favorite. (Early reader. 4-7)

THE CONTEST

Long, Ethan Illus. by Long, Ethan Blue Apple (72 pp.) $10.99 | Sep. 13, 2013 978-1-60905-351-2 Series: Scribbles and Ink Scribbles and Ink fumble a contest entry, with amusing results.

Scribbles, a cat with scribble-style fur, and Ink, a mouse with clean edges that sometimes drip ink, aspire to win a competition—“Draw a Dino! Win a Prize!”—so they can go to Mudsplash Mountain, the muddiest place on Earth. Scribbles takes a big blue pencil and draws something with sharp teeth and a pointy tail, but, oh dear: “Behold its bony thighs and feathery body!” says Ink, naming it a “chick-asaurus.” Ink, gripping a paintbrush twice his height, approaches the task conceptually, painting an egg’s red outline. Suddenly, it cracks, and a roundish, vaguely dino-ish monster emerges, querying “Mommy?” of both artists (a cheerfully postmodern nod to P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother?). “Nope. Sorry, dude,” says Scribbles. The outsized baby monster finds its mother—whose identity is hilarious—and Scribbles and Ink get a surprising mud frolic without reaching Mudsplash Mountain. Three hue sets and visual styles work well together: the mobile, black bodies of Scribbles and Ink themselves, the casual blue and red lines of their simple artwork, and the gleamingly realistic detail of their pencil and paintbrush. The pages are slightly cramped, given all the motion, but then again, Long’s playing with cartoon conventions and frame breaks.

A giggle-inducing romp about making mud while the sun shines. (Picture book. 5-8)

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SNOWFLAKES FALL MacLachlan, Patricia Illus. by Kellogg, Steven Random House (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-385-37693-8

Falling snowflakes highlight the beauties and joys of winter in this celebration of the uniqueness of not only every snowflake, but every child.

MacLachlan’s lyrical free verse is set on the pages, sometimes drifting like the flakes in a storm, sometimes stacked up like so much snow on the ground. Her language is the same, at times gently flowing, at others, a staccato list, always matching the emotion: “Snowflakes / Fall / Drift / And swirl together / Like the voices of children.” Boot prints and sled tracks are not the only evidence of children in these pages, which are filled with the wonders and delights of childhood, wonderfully captured in Kellogg’s detailed and perfectly colored illustrations. They wake up to new snow, find animal tracks, catch snow on their tongues, snuggle in a cozy bed, revel in the companionship of pets, and make snowmen and snow forts and snow angels. Snowy wind at night can be scary, but in the morning, the world is new again. MacLachlan ends with a simple version of the water cycle, the snow melting and filling “the chattering streams” then “[s]ending drops of water up / To fall as rain.”

And where there once was snow, there will be flowers, reminiscent of the snowflakes. No direct mention of the Sandy Hook shootings is made in this book dedicated to its victims; the emphasis is on life, not death.

MacLachlan and Kellogg celebrate the small things, but the small things turn out to be the big things after all: the children, “No two the same— / All beautiful.” (Picture book. 4-7)

RIFKA TAKES A BOW

Perlov, Betty Rosenberg Illus. by Kawa, Cosei Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $6.95 e-book | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-7613-8127-3 978-1-4677-1648-2 e-book Rifka accidentally finds herself onstage in a Yiddish theater production and speaks her first lines as an actress: “Piff-Paff! Not to worry.”

The Yiddish theater was a vibrant part of immigrant life in New York in the first part of the 20th century. Rifka’s parents are actors who introduce her to the magical world of that theater. She is especially impressed with the way in which her parents can take on the personae of the characters they play, with just a bit of makeup, some props and costumes, and changes in body language. The surrounding elements of the city are also part of the fun. They travel on the subway with its noise and diversity. They eat at the Automat, putting in their nickels and taking out the food. Perlov makes it all come alive, employing a conversational syntax that speaks directly to readers. It is a

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memoir told with love and nostalgia, for it is her own story, told from a distance of nine decades. Kawa’s illustrations are as magical as any theater experience. She employs a variety of media to turn real places and events into fantasy landscapes from several perspectives, in dreamlike images that are somewhat reminiscent of Chagall. Look closely and there are tiny shapes and designs floating through the larger pictures.

Unusual and unabashedly charming. (afterword) (Picture book. 5-9)

THE THUNDERBOLT EXPRESS Porter, Matthew Illus. by Porter, Matthew Sasquatch (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-57061-877-2 Series: Monkey World

Monkeys who met previously in MonkeyWorld ABC (2012) get names as well and occupations on a thrill-a-minute train ride.

At the Station Master’s “All aboard!” passengers from Mayday the detective and Oscar the magician to Jango Jenkins and his Dixieland Band climb into the Thunderbolt Express, bound for Miggleswick station. They are all rendered as stylized, nattily attired monkeys in Porter’s cleanly drawn, brightly colored cartoon illustrations. Any expectations of a quiet journey are quickly dispelled as a mystery featuring a vanished pet is followed by a brake failure, a missing bridge, a wild flying leap over a crocodileinfested river and a full-speed trip right through a circus tent.

Whew! All agree, at the end, that the ride was well worth having to chuck out their luggage, instruments and, for some, clothes along the way. The adventure is narrated in a dry, matter-offact present tense that folds in some nifty vocabulary as well as conveying these monkeys’ personalities: “Jango Jenkins and his band are really swinging. Only Mono the inventor refuses to jive. / Meanwhile, back in the compartment, a mystery is unfurling.”

A hoot for younger children fond of monkeys (not to mention, in one scene, monkeys in underpants!). (Picture book. 4-6)

HEY, CHARLESTON! The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band Rockwell, Anne Illus. by Bootman, Colin Carolrhoda (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.95 e-book | Nov. 1, 2013 978-0-7613-5565-6 978-0-7613-8843-2 e-book

and others like them, all African-Americans. Jenkins led them in singing to drown out the noise from a prison next door. As money was scarce, he came up with the idea of teaching the children to play marching-band music using forgotten Civil War brass instruments. Many of the children, born into the Gullah or Geechee traditions of the islands off South Carolina, enjoyed playing “rag” music. They incorporated this rhythm into their performances and danced while playing. Success followed, with trips to New York, where enthusiastic crowds urged the band to play “Charleston.” They performed at Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration and for King George V of England, sailing home in dangerous waters after World War I erupted. Some of the young men grew up to play with Ellington and Basie. Rockwell relates her tale in a fast-paced narrative that will hopefully encourage readers to turn into listeners. Bootman’s emotive, full-bleed artwork provides a lively accompaniment.

A notable look at a little-known piece of jazz history. (author’s note, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 5-10) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

PICTURE ME GONE Rosoff, Meg Putnam (256 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 3, 2013 978-0-399-25765-0

Mila, 12, a keen observer of people and events, accompanies her translator father, Gil, on a journey from London to upstate New York in search of Gil’s lifelong friend, who’s disappeared.

Mila applies her puzzle-solving skills to the mystery of why Matthew would abandon his wife and baby, not to mention his dog. On a road trip to Matthew’s cabin in the woods, she mulls over the possibilities while Gil keeps his thoughts to himself. Mila, who finds strength in her multinational pedigree and her ability to read people, is the one who eventually puts the pieces of the story together. Rosoff respects her young character, portraying her as a complete person capable of recognizing that there are things she may not yet know but aware that life is a sometimes-painful sequence of clues to be put together, leading to adulthood. The author skillfully turns to a variety of literary devices to convey this transition: the absence of quotation marks blurs the line between thoughts spoken and unspoken; past, present, and future merge in Mila’s telling just as they do in the lives of the characters as truths come to light and Mila is able to translate Matthew’s darkest secrets.

A brilliant depiction of the complexity of human relationships in a story that’s at once contemplative and suspenseful. (Fiction. 11 & up)

A concerned pastor and a rich musical tradition come together to play an important role in the growth of jazz.

In the late 1800s, Rev. Jenkins, born a slave in South Carolina and later orphaned, came across a group of abandoned children.

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ROOFTOPPERS

contentment and peace one can find in independent play and the joy and creativity found in playing together.

Bright and captivating, this new take on sibling relations is a needed tale for all. (Picture book. 3- 7)

Rundell, Katherine Illus. by Fan, Terry Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-4424-9058-1 “Never ignore a possible.” Sophie takes her beloved guardian’s words to heart and never gives up on finding her long-lost mother.

One-year-old Sophie is found floating in a cello case in the English Channel by Charles Maxim, a fellow passenger on the freshly sunk Queen Mary: “He noticed that it was a girl, with hair the color of lightning, and the smile of a shy person.” He decides to keep her. The bookish pair lives a harmonious, gloriously unorthodox life together—she prefers trousers to skirts, knows the collective noun for toads and uses atlases as plates. The National Childcare Agency does not approve, so when a clue in Sophie’s cello case links her mother to Paris, Charles and Sophie decide to skip town after her 12th birthday. Once ensconced in her Parisian attic hideaway, Sophie gets a skylight visit from a teenage “rooftopper” named Matteo, who eats pigeons and never, ever descends to street level. Sophie—anxious to help Charles find her mother— secretly joins the boy atop Paris night after night, listening for her cello-playing. Vivid descriptions of fierce kids in survival mode and death-defying rooftop scrambles are breathlessly exciting, as is the bubbling suspense of Sophie’s impassioned search for the possible.

Brava! This witty, inventively poetic, fairy-tale–like adventure shimmers with love, magic and music. (Adventure. 9-12)

DEE DEE AND ME Schwartz, Amy Illus. by Schwartz, Amy Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2013 978-0-8234-2524-2

Schwartz examines sibling power dynamics in this humorous and ultimately empowering tale.

Hannah is an easy target for Dee Dee. She’s younger and shorter (Dee Dee says the brains are in the 5 1/2 inches of height Hannah’s missing), and she longs for her sister’s acceptance.

But after one too many manipulations, Hannah learns to assert herself—and now she’s sure her brains are growing! Reflecting a genuine, multifaceted sibling relationship, Dee Dee also shows compassion, mending her sister’s beloved bear. With ease, Schwartz shows readers how to become one’s own advocate, so that all can feel respected in play. The illustrations, done in pen and ink and colored with gouache, have an energy reminiscent of Madeline, and the charmingly detailed patterns and backgrounds feel timeless. The artwork equally highlights the 44

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HELLO, MY NAME IS RUBY

Stead, Philip C. Illus. by Stead, Philip C. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-59643-809-5 Stead’s flora-filled settings and freespirited style will feel happily familiar to readers of A Home for Bird (2012); the fresh storyline follows the range of reactions to an extroverted personality.

Ruby is a diminutive, yellow bird whose frequent introductions are a touch formal: “I am glad to meet you.” She fearlessly initiates conversation with much bigger birds and is the kind of friend who offers ideas and is willing to try the suggestions of others. In the process, much is gleaned about avian (and human) behavior. In a nod to Leo Lionni, a red warbler her size shows Ruby how not to feel small: The flock flies in an elephant formation, their collective shape larger than any pachyderm in the herd. Stead places the protagonist in a variety of situations, at one point allowing listeners to finish a sentence, at another permitting silence to heighten emotion, as when Ruby stands alone in a gray rainstorm, rebuffed. Wide, energetic crayon strokes color her expansive world in shades transitioning from sky blue to sunset coral. Thin circular lines suggest ponds and trees. Rendered in gouache, the expressive animals are the focus, whether on glaciers or in grasslands.

A final encounter helps the heroine and readers comprehend and value the concepts of name and identity—and the blessings that reaching out to a diverse community bestows. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE DIGGERS ARE COMING!

Steggall, Susan Illus. by Steggall, Susan Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-84780-288-0 All kinds of bruising vehicles have a part in creating a new housing development in this muscular import from the U.K. First comes the big red wrecker, its ball swinging to bash the old buildings to the ground. Then the planners come, to measure and mark, followed by the bulldozers, who “shave and shift and shove all day.” The type goes across the page in various directions and routes, sometimes bold and even bolder, from tiny to enormous. Diggers

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“Expertly imagined, composed, drawn and colored, this is Wiesner at his best.” from mr. wuffles!

and tippers (dump trucks) are next, to finish the job of preparing the ground, then cement mixers, to lay the concrete foundation.

Then sturdy trucks show up with cement blocks and other building materials. Busy builders go to work with hard hats and hammers and hods, and the buildings start to rise. Some materials need a crane. Steamrollers help smooth out all the bumpy bits. Before long, the trucks coming to the site are moving vans, full of furniture and the other belongings of all the families that will be moving into these immaculate new homes. Steggall’s use of color makes stars of her machines; the buildings and ground, with scant greenery, are in earth tones, while gleaming bright vehicles—in orange and bold yellow and blue—really pop in her textured collages. Her text has lots of phonic and onomatopoeic crunch as well.

Perfect for the very young truck fanatic. (Picture book. 4-7)

THE MAN WITH THE VIOLIN

Stinson, Kathy Illus. by Petricic, Dušan Annick Press (32 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 16, 2013 978-1-55451-565-3 A Stradivarius on the subway? This Canadian import tells the story of violinist Joshua Bell’s quirky experiment.

An imposing woman in a fur coat and matching hat pulls a little boy down the street behind her. “Dylan was someone who noticed things. His mom was someone who didn’t.” The colors in the street scene behind them are muted grays, except for a thick stripe running across the page to the back of Dylan’s head.

Brightly colored objects against a white background fill it. Mom has a stripe as well, of blank white. In the crowded train station, Dylan hears music; its swirls of color wend through the scene.

Dylan follows the sound to a man in a blue baseball cap, energetically playing the violin. Mom pulls him away, but the power of the music lingers in his mind. Later, at home, he’s amazed to hear the violinist on the radio. An announcer explains that famed violinist Joshua Bell played in the subway today, yet “few people listened for even a minute.” Dylan runs to show Mom how deeply the music has affected him. He soars around the room in curly colored waves, riding the music. Then they listen together, and they dance! Bell himself recalls the incident that inspired the book in a postscript.

Imaginatively illustrated and beautifully written, this offbeat ode to the power of music is a winner. (author’s note) (Picture book. 5-9)

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IS THIS PANAMA? A Migration Story

Thornhill, Jan Illus. by Kim, Soyeon Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $16.95 | $16.95 e-book | Sep. 15, 2013 978-1-926973-88-3 978-1-77147-038-4 e-book Sammy the young Wilson’s warbler’s freezing toes tell him it’s time to migrate, but how will he find his way from his home in the Arctic Circle to Panama when all the other birds have already left?

After several fruitless attempts to solve this problem by questioning other birds and animals, he sets off, hitching a ride on a sandhill crane and following the shoreline with a flock of darner dragonflies. Other warblers show him how to navigate by the stars, but the confusion of city lights leads to a painful encounter with a skyscraper window. Challenged by the ubermigrant Hudsonian godwit, Sammy sets out over the ocean, island hopping all the way to Mexico. The instincts of the tiny bird are true, and they lead him to his final destination. Thornhill’s authoritative yet friendly and accessible text, coupled with Kim’s decorative pen-and-wash collaged illustrations, make this an appealing book for children who appreciate realism and authentic detail in a picture book. The endpapers depict realistic sketches of a few of the vast variety of warblers, and a map of bird migration routes completes this charming and unusual nature storybook. A brief introduction to the other animals and birds mentioned in the story is also included. Possibilities for use in the classroom are endless.

An unusual and attractive take on a perennially absorbing topic. (Picture book. 6-10)

MR. WUFFLES!

Wiesner, David Illus. by Wiesner, David Clarion (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-618-75661-2 A house cat pooh-poohs most proffered toys and gets his comeuppance tangling with a tiny alien spacecraft and its penny-sized adventurers.

Peppered with speech bubbles in English, alien- or insectspeak, Wiesner’s multipaneled tour de force treats the green ETs to maximum upheaval. Their initial celebration at landing turns to mayhem as their craft is buffeted by Mr. Wuffles.

The aliens assess a smoldering engine part and disembark for help. The ensuing comic interplay pits cat against aliens as the tiny ones flee beneath a radiator cover. A ladybug and several ants assist them, and the repair’s successfully made by harvesting cross sections of detritus: pencil eraser, M&M, marble and metal screw. The insects have decorated the wall of their lair with drawings à la Lascaux, the menacing Mr. Wuffles depicted prominently. After sketching a game plan, with insects playing

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transport and diversionary roles, the crew escapes back to the ship. Against oak floorboards and wallpaper prettily conveyed in ink and watercolor, the now-crazed Mr. Wuffles is riveted to the radiator, perplexing his human. Final panels show the cat gazing out the window, claws fruitlessly deployed; ants draw new scenes on their wall. Wiesner truly “gets” cats: An end-flap photo shows that the artist’s “model” for the beleaguered Mr. Wuffles is indeed a household denizen.

Expertly imagined, composed, drawn and colored, this is Wiesner at his best. (Picture book. 4-8)

WHO GOES THERE?

Wilson, Karma Illus. by Currey, Anna McElderry (40 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4169-8002-5 978-1-4424-4984-8 e-book There’s something scary out there, disturbing Lewis Mouse in his cozy home.

Lewis lives in a tiny hole at the bottom of a large tree. He has made it warm and comfortable, but he senses that something is missing. When he hears “SCRITCH SCRATCH TAP TAP TAP,” he imagines threats from a great horned owl, a sneaky cat or a big bear, and he puts forth his bravest, loudest voice, shouting, “Who goes there?” Though leading to expectations of a scary ending in the manner of the various incarnations of the “Tailypo” folk tale, the story takes a different, more comforting turn. Lewis finds that Joy, another mouse, has been making those sounds while preparing her home for the winter.

She, in turn, was frightened by his loud bellows. So, it is all a case of mistaken identity, and the two mice find companionship for the long winter ahead—and Lewis realizes that the missing “something” was a friend. Wilson makes good use of sound effects and repetition to build suspense and depicts Lewis as no scaredy-mouse, as he bravely faces his fears. Little readers will be reassured by the warm, fuzzy conclusion. Currey’s pen, ink and watercolor illustrations nicely contrast the dark night with the cozy interiors and are a bit Beatrix Potter–esque in their depictions of Lewis.

The start of a beautiful friendship. Lovely. (Picture book. 4-8)

GOBBLE YOU UP!

Wolf, Gita—Adapt.

Illus. by Sunita Tara Publishing (40 pp.) $29.95 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-81-923171-4-4 Readers familiar with a certain old lady who swallowed a fly will revel in this adaptation of a Rajasthani trickster tale.

Beautifully illustrated in a traditional finger-painting style called Mandna, practiced by the Meena tribe in Rajasthan, the black-and-white pictures on thick, tan paper are eye-catching in their graphic qualities. Ultimately, the art outshines the simple text, which is told in a cumulative rhyme that occasionally falters in its cadence. Despite this quibble, the picture book is a visual feast for readers as it depicts the gluttonous, lazy jackal who doesn’t want to hunt for his food and instead tricks a succession of animals into becoming his meal. When he is quite literally full-to-bursting, the picture depicts all of the animals he’s eaten within his “huge balloon” of a tummy. Mistakenly thinking that some water will help him, he drinks from a river—until “BLAMM! his poor tummy finally gave up…and BURST.” The animals tumble forth, alive and well, leaving jackal “as thin as a whip” and in search of a tailor bird to sew him up. Itself hand-sewn and bound (as well as -printed, as the ink smell wafting from the pages attests), this handsome volume is an art object in itself.

Though the story will feel familiar to Western readers, its fresh visual expression sets it far apart. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

This Issue’s Contributors # Alison Anholt-White • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Louise Brueggemann • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Dave DeChristopher • Elise DeGuiseppi • Carol Edwards • Brooke Faulkner • Judith Gire • Faye Grearson • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Betsy Judkins • Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem • Megan Dowd Lambert • Susan Dove Lempke • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • Shelly McNerney • Kathie Meizner • Lisa Moore • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Erika Rohrbach • Leslie L. Rounds • Katie Scherrer • Dean Schneider • Hillary Foote Schwartz • Karyn N. Silverman • Robin Smith • Karin Snelson • Deborah D. Taylor • Jessica Thomas • Gordon West • Monica Wyatt •

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Up-and-Coming creators for children and teens Our select list of writers and illustrators on the move to big, notable careers in children’s publishing consists of inventive picture-book creators and middle-grade and teen writers treading both the real and fantastical sides of the track. They’re all worth paying attention to this fall and, we think, into the future.

CHILDREN’S:

DON’T SAY A WORD, MAMÁ/NO DIGAS NADA, MAMÁ

Hayes, Joe; illus. by Andrade Valencia, Esau 978-1-935955-29-0 This book is reviewed on Page 40 of this supplement.

Storyteller Hayes uses repetition, parallel structure and short sentences masterfully, unspooling a sweet family tale that never turns saccharine. His own Spanish translation appears alongside the English text. Andrade Valencia contributes highly saturated paintings that combine a folk aesthetic with magical realism. This book, out on September 10, overflows with affection—and you can never have too much of that. (Bilingual picture book. 4-7)

THE SHADOWHAND COVENANT

ROOFTOPPERS

Farrey, Brian; illus. by Helquist, Brett 978-0-06-204931-5 This book is reviewed on Page 80 of the Aug. 15 issue.

Rundell, Katherine; illus. by Fan, Terry 978-1-4424-9058-1 This book is reviewed on Page 44 of this supplement.

Through mayhem and twists, Jaxter’s cheeky attitude keeps this second volume, out on October 22, flowing (The Vengekeep Prophecies, 2012). It opens with classic Grimjinx shenanigans: a craftily narrated sham funeral, arranged to empty the mourners’ houses for easy thieving. Highspirited fun, with complexity and surprises. (Fantasy. 8-12)

One-year-old Sophie is found floating in a cello case in the English Channel

by Charles Maxim, a fellow passenger on the freshly sunk Queen Mary. He decides to keep her. The bookish pair lives a harmonious, gloriously unorthodox life together. This witty, inventively poetic, fairytale–like adventure, out on September 24, shimmers with love, magic and music. (Adventure. 9-12)

HERMAN AND ROSIE

Gordon, Gus; illus. by Gordon, Gus 978-1-59643-856-9 This book is reviewed on Page 83 of the Aug. 15 issue.

In bustling New York, anthropomorphic croc Herman and Rosie (a goat?) inhabit parallel lives until they discover they’re soul mates. They live in tiny apartments in adjacent buildings. Herman plays oboe and sells “things” in a call center—until he’s canned for not selling enough of them.

Sweetly celebrates artistic bonding in the Big Apple; publishes on October 15. (Picture book. 5-8)

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Up-and-Coming creators for children and teens TEEN: Photo courtesy Lumos Studios

ANTIGODDESS

Blake, Kendare 978-0-7653-3443-5 This book was reviewed in the Jul. 15 issue.

This new series from one of the best upand-coming horror/suspense writers around (Girl of Nightmares, 2012, etc.) updates Greek mythology but offers far more than a Percy Jackson retread. This edgy first installment, out on September 10, maneuvers forces into position; readers will want to stay tuned. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

Pope, Paul; illus. by Pope, Paul 978-1-59643-805-7 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

Devine, Eric 978-0-7624-5015-2 This book is reviewed on Page 52 of this supplement.

A young boy with a divine pedigree may be Earth’s last chance to rid Arcopolis of its scourge of monsters. In Arcopolis, the streets aren’t safe to roam past curfew. Luckily for its denizens, the hero Haggard West helps battle the evil forces of Sadisto and his hooded ghouls.

A masterful nod to the genre, it’s released on October 8. (Graphic adventure. 12 & up)

Fully attuned to the adrenaline-fueled appeal of dares, Devine deftly conveys the dire consequences that can ensue once the first step is taken. Ben, a perfectly normal high school senior, and his buddies Ricky and John pull an amazing stunt, which they post anonymously on YouTube, hoping for “weblebrity.” Astute and riveting, Dare Me will be published on October 8. (Fiction. 12 & up)

SOMEBODY UP THERE HATES YOU

LIVING WITH JACKIE CHAN

Knowles, Jo 978-0-7636-6280-6 This book is reviewed on Page 92 of the Aug. 15 issue.

In this delightful and moving follow-up to Jumping Off Swings (2009), 17-year-old Josh moves away from his hometown and in with his ever-sanguine uncle to avoid confronting a crisis of his own making. Knowles’ knack for developing relationships and creating authentic and memorable characters is truly superior, and the story positively brims with intelligence, sensitivity and humor. It will be out on September 10. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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This story focuses on Saturday Woodcutter, whose sister Sunday from Enchanted is now queen. Whether Kontis tells the tales of other Woodcutter children or not, readers will await her next with joyful anticipation. Look for Hero starting on October 1. (Fantasy. 11-18)

BATTLING BOY

DARE ME

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HERO

Kontis, Alethea 978-0-544-05677-0 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

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Seamon, Hollis 978-1-61620-260-6 This book is reviewed on Page 57 of this supplement.

Death is all around 17-year-old Richie Casey.

Diagnosed with cancer, he’s spending his final days in hospice care in upstate New York. He’s weak. He can’t eat. He’s also a wiseass with a biting sense of humor.

A fresh, inspiring story, publishing on September 3, about death and determination. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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ALL THE TRUTH THAT’S IN ME

These titles earned the Kirkus Star:

Berry, Julie Viking (288 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 26, 2013 978-0-670-78615-2

ALL THE TRUTH THAT’S IN ME by Julie Berry................................ 49 THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black...................... 49 ELITE INFANTRY by Carl Bowen; illus. by Wilson Tortosa................ 51

Eighteen-year-old Judith Finch gradually reveals the horror of her two-year disappearance in a stunning historical murder mystery and romance.

One summer four years ago, Judith Finch and her friend Lottie Pratt disappeared. After two years, only Judith returned. Lottie’s naked body was found in the river, and Judith stumbled back on her own, her appearance shocking the town—not just because she had returned, but that her tongue had been cut out, and she can’t tell anyone what happened to her. Illiterate, maimed, cursed, doomed to be an outsider but always and forever in love with Lucas Whiting, Judith finds a way to tell her story, saying, “I don’t believe in miracles, but if the need is great, a girl might make her own miracle,” and as her story unfolds, all the truth that’s in her is revealed.

Set in what seems to be early-18th-century North America, the story is told through the voice inside Judith’s head—simple and poetic, full of hurt and yearning, and almost always directed toward Lucas in a haunting, mute second person. Every now and then, a novel comes along with such an original voice that readers slow down to savor the poetic prose. This is such a story.

A tale of uncommon elegance, power and originality.

(Historical thriller. 12 & up)

THIN SPACE by Jody Casella............................................................... 51 THE ENCHANTER HEIR by Cinda Williams Chima......................... 51 LITTLE RED LIES by Julie Johnston..................................................... 53 MARCH by John Lewis; Andrew Aydin; illus. by Nate Powell..........54 CROWN OF MIDNIGHT by Sarah J. Maas.........................................54 SEX & VIOLENCE by Carrie Mesrobian.............................................. 55 THE INFINITE MOMENT OF US by Lauren Myracle.........................55 FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell.............................................................56 THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE by Leila Sales...........................56 THE WAR WITHIN THESE WALLS by Aline Sax; illus. by Caryl Strzelecki; trans. by Laura Watkinson.........................56 SOMEBODY UP THERE HATES YOU by Hollis Seamon.................... 57 THE DREAM THIEVES by Maggie Stiefvater..................................... 57

THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN

ROSE UNDER FIRE by Elizabeth Wein...............................................58

Black, Holly Little, Brown (432 pp.) $18.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-316-21310-3 978-0-316-21311-0 e-book

BOXERS & SAINTS by Gene Luen Yang..............................................59 PALACE OF SPIES by Sarah Zettel.....................................................59

This eagerly anticipated novel (based on Black’s short story of the same name) bears little relation to the sparkleinfused vampire tales of the last decade.

Ten years ago, a vampire “started romanticizing himself ” and went on a rampage, turning people until new vampires were everywhere. As much as possible, they are contained in walled Coldtowns, along with humans who idolize them—or were trapped when the walls went up. Outside, people avoid

Many of the reviews in this supplement have appeared in recent, previous issues of Kirkus Reviews. We repeat them here in order to gather in one supplement the reviews of noteworthy books being published this fall. If the first appearance of a review is in this supplement, we’ve marked it as such. |

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New Books from Legendary Creators Three Margaret A. Edwards Award winners—one of them our National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature —a rock ’n’ roll star, a congressman and civil rights leader, and a multiple-Newbery and Printz honoree: It doesn’t get much more legendary than that.

Marcus, who is black, is with the Transportation Corps, the segregation of their Virginia hometown following them right into wartime. Their friendship frames the story, which will be released on September 24. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

BATTLE MAGIC Pierce, Tamora 978-0-439-84297-6 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

The tale takes plant mages Rosethorn and Briar and 12-year-old stone mage Evumeimei from small but mountainous Gyongxe to the rich palace of Emperor Weishu in Evvy’s adjacent homeland and then back for a series of battles and tests of both magic and character. This continuation of Pierce’s Circle of Magic series releases on October 1. (Fantasy.

10-14)

THE LORD OF OPIUM Farmer, Nancy 978-1-4424-8254-8 This book is reviewed on Page 52 of this supplement.

Photo courtesy Rob Wilkins

In the much-anticipated sequel to The House of the Scorpion (2002) releasing on September 13, 14-year-old Matteo Alacrán returns home as the new Lord of Opium.

Matt was a clone of El Patrón, drug lord of Opium, but with El Patrón dead, Matt is now considered by international law to be fully human and El Patrón’s rightful heir. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

MARCH: Book One

Eisner winner Powell’s dramatic blackand-white graphic art ratchets up the intensity in this autobiographical opener by a major figure in the civil rights movement. In this first of a projected trilogy, Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders and currently in his 13th term as a U.S. Representative, recalls his early years—from raising (and preaching to) chickens on an Alabama farm to meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and joining lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville in 1960. Just released on August 13, this powerful tale of courage and principle igniting sweeping social change is told by a strong-minded, uniquely qualified eyewitness. (Graphic memoir. 11-15)

LEGENDS, ICONS & REBELS Robertson, Robbie; Guerinot, Jim; Robertson, Sebastian; Levine, Jared 978-1-77049-571-5 This book is reviewed on Page 103 of the Aug. 15 issue.

Photo courtesy Constance Myers

Art, factoids and personal reflections introduce 27 carefully selected and thoughtfully presented musicians whose radical experimentation with sound and verse helped to shape the music of today. Who has been chosen and who has been excluded may spark debate among music buffs, but this work, to be released on October 8, is designed to pique the curiosity of young people who have not yet been exposed to these boundary-pushing innovators. (Nonfiction. 12 & up)

INVASION Myers, Walter Dean 978-0-545-38428-5 This book is reviewed on Page 55 of this supplement.

D-Day, June 6, 1944, is the setting for Myers’ powerful story of old friends Josiah “Woody” Wedgewood and Marcus Perry, who see each other in England prior to the invasion of Normandy. Woody is with the 29th Infantry, and |

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Pratchett, Terry 978-0-544-21247-3 This book will be reviewed in the Sep. 1 issue.

Deep in the Carpet, a small tribe finds itself drawn into a large story that publishes on November 5. It’s a world, if you’re microscopically small, and where there’s a world, there’s the possibility of adventure, magic and a bit of philosophizing. (Fantasy. 9 & up)

Lewis, John; Aydin, Andrew illus. by Powell, Nate 978-1-60309-300-2 This book is reviewed on Page 54 of this supplement.

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“The spare prose, wherein the bleak New England weather seems more real than the characters vaguely swirling across Marsh’s awareness, immerses readers in his ratcheting desperation.” from thin space

THIN SPACE

going out after dark, watch endless feeds from Coldtown parties and idolize vampire hunters. When nihilistic Tana, whose emptiness seems to stem from events surrounding her mother’s infection with vampirism, wakes up in a blood bath to find her ex-boyfriend infected and a terrifying but gorgeous vampire chained beside him, she is determined to make things right.

What follows is a journey that takes her into Coldtown and out of the grief that has plagued her for years, with plenty of sharply observed characters and situations that feel absurdly, horribly believable. There’s dry humor and even a relationship (to call it a romance would be too easy; this is something entirely more complex). Perhaps most unexpectedly, there is no happy ending, just a thread of hope in humanity.

You may be ready to put a stake in vampire lit, but read this first: It’s dark and dangerous, bloody and brilliant.

(Horror. 14 & up)

Casella, Jody Beyond Words/Simon Pulse/ Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 paper | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-58270-435-7 978-1-58270-392-3 paper A creepy supernatural chiller sets up a gut-punch of desolation and loss.

For three months, high school junior Marsh Windsor has been refusing to wear shoes, ignoring schoolwork and friends, and getting into fights. His parents and teachers—even his former girlfriend— tolerate his bizarre behavior as an inability to cope with the car wreck that seriously injured Marsh and killed his twin, Austin. Only the new girl, Maddie, knows that Marsh is seeking a “thin space,” a portal between the realms of the living and the dead; and Maddie has her own reasons for abetting his search.

Casella’s debut is a viscerally raw examination of grief, in which the universal question of adolescence—“who am I?”—becomes “who am I without you?” The spare prose, wherein the bleak New England weather seems more real than the characters vaguely swirling across Marsh’s awareness, immerses readers in his ratcheting desperation. His first-person voice throbs with agony, guilt and anger, all felt through a foggy numbness that fails to conceal that Marsh is hiding something crucial. This very unreliability propels a gripping narrative, even though little actually happens.

Those who manage to hang on through the devastating climax will immediately turn back to the beginning to catch the clues they missed. Brutal and brilliant. (Paranormal fantasy. 14 & up)

ELITE INFANTRY

Bowen, Carl Illus. by Tortosa, Wilson Capstone Young Readers (224 pp.) $8.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-6237-0032-4 Series: Shadow Squadron, 1 A taut collection of adventures about a superelite strike force.

This sharp group of five stories centers on an elite American fighting unit, the Shadow Squadron. With members drawn from such rarefied groups as the Navy SEALs and Army Rangers, they are tasked with contending with the most outlandish terrorist acts, doing so with a minimum of casualties all around. Bowen infuses their heroics with a soupçon of internal tension and rivalry within the special-operations unit, but for the most part, he keeps the members of the team wholly committed to one another and their routinely mind-boggling missions. Each operation, in a nutshell, is like a short course in foreign relations, introducing readers to Somali pirates and submarines piloted by drug runners, but then running into more complex issues, such as when a Cuban oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, operated by the Chinese, is overrun by American mercenaries. As the men ready for their missions, there is almost a superhero aspect to the proceedings, but one look at the newspaper will make readers realize that such acts are happening even now in the real world. It’s breathtaking to the word, and Bowen brings readers there without hysterics but with a clipped language and smoky pungency that allows them to taste the events.

Top-drawer renderings of secret military missions around the globe, without jingoistic ballyhoo. (Adventure.

9-13)

THE ENCHANTER HEIR Chima, Cinda Williams Hyperion (464 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4231-4434-2 Series: Heir Chronicles, 4

Chima returns to her best-selling contemporary fantasy series with an entry that is almost entirely setup—but such delicious setup.

Ten years ago, something terrible happened at the magical commune of Thorn Hill, a refuge from vicious Weir infighting. Thousands died, leaving only a few hundred young children, horribly damaged and with mutated gifts.

Jonah is one of those survivors, born a charismatic and empathetic enchanter but now cursed with a killing touch, which he reluctantly employs to hunt down the undead spawn of the massacre. Meanwhile, Emma scarcely remembers Thorn Hill and knows nothing of her sorcerous heritage, until her grandfather’s murder sends her fleeing into the epicenter of Weir intrigue, prejudice, accusations and assassination. There are so many |

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“Devine’s examination of the teenage boy’s need for adrenaline is admirably complex, and he frames it within an engaging and realistically foulmouthed narrative.” from dare me

THE CAPTIVE MAIDEN

complicated storylines introduced here—characters old and new, factions with shifting allegiances and agendas, plots and counterplots and secrets and lies—that the protagonists don’t even meet for over 100 pages, and the volume ends on a grisly cliffhanger. Yet the twisty narrative works, propelled by the deft characterizations of tortured, frustrated, desperate Jonah and fierce, feral, determined Emma and held together by the ubiquitous soundtrack of the blues, both literally and metaphorically.

Chima orchestrates a world gravid with smoke and grit and sudden death, throbbing with hopeless longings, messy affections, festering resentments, passionate hungers, inevitable betrayals, and miraculous flashes of beauty and grace.

A smoldering story soaked in tears, sweat and blood, constantly threatening to blaze into an inferno. Spellbinding. (Fantasy, 14 & up)

Dickerson, Melanie Zondervan (352 pp.) $9.99 paper | Oct. 13, 2013 978-0-310-72441-4

Weaving a heavy dose of romance into a familiar fairy tale, and revisiting the same family as in The Healer’s Apprentice (2010) and The Fairest Beauty (2013), Dickerson has concocted another lavish medieval idyll.

Abused by her stepsisters and her vicious stepmother (whose motivation is unclear), orphaned Gisela, whom they call “Cinders-ela,” has never lost her spirit. She has secretly admired rugged Valten, Lord Hamlin, for years. After he falls for her, she sneaks out to attend a jousting tournament, where he selects her as his lady. Valten duels the dastardly knight Ruexner, who’s driven to defeat him even if that requires cheating. Gisela’s conniving relatives maliciously conspire to have Ruexner kidnap her with the intent to force her into marrying him, but heroic Valten comes to her rescue, ultimately aided by Friar Daniel (an annoying character seemingly inserted merely to provide ample prayers and homilies). While Valten and Gisela are attractive characters, others lack the spark of life. Though it gets off to a fine start, it gradually loses its way—at least partly through heavy-handed references to other tales in the series—needlessly extending an otherwise pleasant if uninspired romance.

Nevertheless, meticulous period detail and the slightly steamy—though modestly chaste—evolving relationship between Gisela and Valten ultimately sustain this tale.

(Historical romance. 11-16)

DARE ME

Devine, Eric Running Press Teens (352 pp.) $9.95 paper | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-7624-5015-2 Fully attuned to the adrenalinefueled appeal of dares, Devine deftly conveys the dire consequences that can ensue once the first step is taken.

Ben, a perfectly normal high school senior, and his buddies Ricky and John pull an amazing stunt, which they post anonymously on YouTube, hoping for “weblebrity.” What comes their way is a contract promising them money if they continue to do evermore-dangerous dares. When not filming dares, narrator Ben works as a pizza-delivery guy and longs for popular co-worker Alexia, who’s attached to a bad boy. His reflections on physics, English class and math become more penetrating as the ante ups with each completed dare. Adding in cameraman Trevor changes the equation only a little. Trev is a nerd and a target for bullies, but he’s also exceptionally smart and a quick thinker.

As the stunts continue, Ben begins to have his doubts. Further complicating matters, Ben’s dad is out of work, and Ben’s sister wants to do a paper on their macho antics for her college psychology class. Devine’s examination of the teenage boy’s need for adrenaline is admirably complex, and he frames it within an engaging and realistically foulmouthed narrative. Ben reflects, “This is larger than us, and we’re already in motion and gaining speed. The natural course is to let this run take us where it’s going. There are no brakes in freefall.”

Astute and riveting. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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THE LORD OF OPIUM

Farmer, Nancy Richard Jackson/Atheneum (432 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 13, 2013 978-1-4424-8254-8 In the much-anticipated sequel to The House of the Scorpion (2002), 14-yearold Matteo Alacrán returns home as the new Lord of Opium.

Matt was a clone of El Patrón, drug lord of Opium, but with El Patrón dead, Matt is now considered by international law to be fully human and El Patrón’s rightful heir. But it’s a corrupt land, now part of a larger Dope Confederacy carved out of the southeastern United States and northern Mexico, ruled over by drug lords and worked by armies of Illegals turned into “eejits,” or zombies. Matt wants to bring reform: cure the eejits, disband the evil Farm Patrol, uproot the opium, shut down the drug distribution network, plant new crops and, if that’s not enough, heal the planet, since the outside world is in the midst of an ecological disaster. But how can an innocent 14-year-old do all of this and keep warring drug lords at bay? If this volume lacks the mystery and deft plotting of its predecessor |

(and sometimes feels like an extended epilogue to it), it has an imagined world that will keep readers marveling at the sheer weirdness of it all—the zombies and clones, drug lord Glass Eye Dabengwa, a ghost army, the Mushroom Master, biospheres and a space station.

A vividly imagined tale of a future world full of fascinating characters and moral themes—a tremendous backdrop for one young man’s search for identity. (cast of characters, map, chronology, appendix) (Science fiction. 12 & up)

Unfortunately, lies aren’t confined to the lipstick. James, deeply altered by the war, glosses over his disturbing experiences to his family, although letters he continues to write to Rachel—but has never sent—contain the truth of the brutality.

Tragically, once safely home, he develops leukemia, a lethal illness in 1947. Rachel lies to him to convince him to visit a faith healer, whom she then recognizes as a fraud. Then she lies to her parents (and herself) about the intentions of a handsome but predatory teacher who’s playing up to her as well as other girls. After her mom conceives an unplanned baby, it’s concealed from both Rachel and James. When they discover, embarrassingly late, the cause of her weight gain, James feels convinced the baby is intended as a replacement for him. The seeming surfeit of subplots is believably explained and sensitively written, succeeding largely due to Rachel’s spunky though almost pathetically naïve first-person voice, which rings fully true. At one point, the whole town believes James has the clap, largely because Rachel overheard then repeated a conversation she didn’t understand.

Filled with bumbling characters who achingly love each other, this coming-of-age tale rises above a crowded field to take readers on a moving journey of discovery. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

LOUD AWAKE AND LOST

Griffin, Adele Knopf (304 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Nov. 12, 2013 978-0-385-75272-5 978-0-385-75274-9 e-book 978-0-385-75273-2 PLB There’s not a lot that Ember is certain about except that she barely survived a horrific car accident, and her

passenger did not.

After emergency surgery followed by eight months in a hospital, 17-year-old Ember arrives home with many visible scars, but the most troubling are those that don’t show. Her memory is fragmented; some of her recollections of the crash and of her life before that fateful night are jumbled, while others are simply missing. She scans her bedroom for clues and finds a business card for a dance club called Areacode. In hopes it will shake loose a memory, Ember takes the subway to the club, where she meets Kai, a handsome, engaging artist to whom she is instantly drawn. Not wanting to worry her overprotective parents—or be hassled by them—Ember keeps their growing relationship under wraps. Something about the electrifying and elusive Kai allows Ember to be herself, to feel alive and ready to pursue her own dreams. Readers will feel right at home with the dialogue; sarcasm, glee and angst are spoken in pitch-perfect teenagese.

That the story’s emotional currents are weaker than the engaging narrative is no matter; Ember’s unraveling of the mystery is compelling enough to keep the pages turning quickly and steadily.

The startling conclusion itself is worth the ride, and chances are that readers’ “aha” moment won’t come any sooner than Ember’s. (Mystery. 12 & up) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

THE DEEPEST BLUE

Justesen, Kim Williams Tanglewood Press (275 pp.) $15.99 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-933718-90-3 The only thing worse than having your father die unexpectedly is having your mother claim custody of you, or so it feels to Mike.

Michael, almost 16, lives happily with his divorced father in a coastal North Carolina town, running a successful charter fishing business and sharing an easy give-and-take as they work side by side. Mike is pleased when Dad announces his plan to marry longtime girlfriend Maggie. But on the way back from buying a ring, Dad is killed by a drunk driver, and suddenly, Mike finds himself dealing with profound grief, the agonizing steps of planning a funeral and the terrifying prospect that his long-estranged mother might try to take him away from Maggie. Justesen hits the emotional points perfectly, using first-person narration to reveal Mike’s impressive powers of observation and his puzzlement over his own unfamiliar behavior. The novel takes place over the course of about a week, from ring to accident to custody hearing, with solemn pacing and little action until the gripping courtroom scenes. (The cartoonish depictions of Mike’s mentally ill mother and her sweaty lawyer are the book’s weak spots.) A scene in which Mike gets naked (but doesn’t have sex) with his girlfriend is touching rather than spicy.

Teens with a little patience will be drawn into Mike’s struggle to keep going after death has changed everything.

(Fiction. 12-16)

LITTLE RED LIES

Johnston, Julie Tundra (272 pp.) $19.95 | $10.99 e-book | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-77049-313-1 978-1-77049-314-8 e-book Rachel, after donning an inappropriately bright lipstick called “Little Red Lies,” welcomes her beloved elder brother, James, back from World War II. |

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SHANGHAI ESCAPE

the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (which Lewis went on to chair), and its publication is scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, at which Lewis preceded Dr. King on the podium: “Of everyone who spoke at the march, I’m the only one who’s still around.”

A powerful tale of courage and principle igniting sweeping social change, told by a strong-minded, uniquely qualified eyewitness. (Graphic memoir. 11-15)

Kacer, Kathy Second Story Press (240 pp.) $14.95 paper | Oct. 14, 2013 978-1-927583-10-4 Series: Holocaust Remembrance The story of Jewish refugees in China during World War II is told through the eyes of an 11-year-old girl and her extended family.

When Lily Toufar and her family flee their home in Vienna in 1938, on the eve of Kristallnacht, they head for Shanghai, China.

This city, so far from their roots, is one of the few places that will allow Jews to escape the oppression they are experiencing. Life in the Shanghai ghetto is full of deprivation and struggle for Lily’s family. Despite the difficulties, they are together, a reality they have to work hard to maintain. The refugees build a community with school, worship and religious traditions. Those things are clouded by outside events as Lily’s parents try to stay abreast of what is happening in the war. It gets closer following Pearl Harbor with the fear that the strict Japanese presence in China might intensify and extend to the refugees. Lily’s story is compelling, and this highly readable narrative always maintains the perspective of a child coming of age in dangerous circumstances. The story would have been strengthened by some documentation. The moving dialogue is not sourced, leaving readers to wonder whether it’s real. There are few footnotes, and most of the photos, while helpful to the story, are not credited.

Readers will come away with a strong sense of the resiliency of a family and a community under unique stress, though they will need to look elsewhere for facts to back it up. (Nonfiction. 9-12)

CROWN OF MIDNIGHT Maas, Sarah J. Bloomsbury (336 pp.) $17.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-1-61963-062-8 Series: Throne of Glass, 2

After being named the King’s Champion in Throne of Glass (2012), Celaena Sardothien serves as the king of Adarlan’s personal assassin—at least, she pretends to—in a densely plotted sequel.

If the king catches Celaena disobeying his orders, he will execute her closest friends. However, she can’t stomach advancing his agenda, especially if it means murdering innocents in cold blood.

When the king uncovers traitors in the city, the first name on his hit list is Archer Finn, a popular courtesan and Celaena’s old friend.

Plotting Archer’s escape, Celaena takes the opportunity to make him her personal informant about the rebellion, which Celaena hopes will help her infer the king’s plans—plans she is thoroughly conflicted about challenging, for as much as she hates the king, she thinks opposing him would only get her killed. Secrets damage her nuanced relationships with Chaol and Nehemia. (The complex friendship between these two formidable women is a particular treasure.) Meanwhile, Celaena unravels the mystery of Adarlan’s sudden strength, a magical subplot that intersects with Dorian’s dangerous self-exploration. Vivid Celaena, loving and brutally violent in turn, is a fully realized heroine. The ending comes at the right time—at the close of one storyline and prologue of another— to leave readers impatient for the next installment.

An epic fantasy readers will immerse themselves in and never want to leave. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

MARCH Book One

Lewis, John; Aydin, Andrew Illus. by Powell, Nate Top Shelf Productions (128 pp.) $14.95 paper | Aug. 13, 2013 978-1-60309-300-2 Eisner winner Powell’s dramatic blackand-white graphic art ratchets up the intensity in this autobiographical opener by a major figure in the civil rights movement.

In this first of a projected trilogy, Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders and currently in his 13th term as a U.S. Representative, recalls his early years—from raising (and preaching to) chickens on an Alabama farm to meeting Martin Luther King Jr. and joining lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville in 1960. The account flashes back and forth between a conversation with two young visitors in Lewis’ congressional office just prior to Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and events five or more decades ago. His education in nonviolence forms the central theme, and both in his frank, self-effacing accounts of rising tides of protest being met with increasingly violent responses and in Powell’s dark, cinematically angled and sequenced panels, the heroism of those who sat and marched and bore the abuse comes through with vivid, inspiring clarity. The volume closes with 54

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NAMESAKE

MacLeod, Sue Pajama Press (232 pp.) $14.95 paper | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-927485-29-3 A modern-day Canadian girl named Jane Grey travels back in time to meet the Lady Jane Grey, imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1553.

Bookish Jane is doing research for a paper about her namesake Lady Jane Grey, the 15-year-old who was queen of England for nine days |

“The scenes of sexual intimacy are described with innocently erotic frankness, offering an ideal (if not idealized) model for readers on the cusp; this is Forever…for a new generation….” from the infinite moment of us

INVASION

and later executed by Queen Mary. Finding an old prayer book, she reads a prayer out loud and is transported to the Tower of London, where only Lady Jane, who calls her “Namesake,” can see her. Using the prayer book to time travel at will, she becomes friends with Lady Jane and tries to think of a way to save the brilliant and innocent teenager. Meanwhile, in the present, Jane tries to escape her alcoholic mother’s increasingly aggressive and bizarre behavior. When the two stories collide just before Lady Jane’s scheduled execution, Jane struggles to save herself and her friend. MacLeod writes the modern sections in a heightened style that almost feels more like poetry than prose.

She writes Lady Jane’s dialogue in Tudor English, modifying it only slightly for modern readers. Her vivid descriptions of the filthy turmoil of 1553 London, when even the nobility often had lice, should open some eyes. Most importantly, she strives to get the history right.

Suspenseful, emotional and powerful. (Time-travel fantasy/historical fiction. 12-16)

Myers, Walter Dean Scholastic (224 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-545-38428-5 978-0-545-57659-8 e-book D-Day, June 6, 1944, is the setting for Myers’ powerful prequel to Fallen Angels (1988) and Sunrise over Fallujah (2008).

Old friends Josiah “Woody” Wedgewood and Marcus Perry see each other in England prior to the invasion of Normandy. Woody is with the 29th Infantry, and Marcus, who’s black, is with the Transportation Corps, the segregation of their Virginia hometown following them right into wartime. Their friendship frames the story, as the two occasionally encounter each other in the horrific days ahead. Woody survives the slaughter on Omaha Beach to continue marching across fields, through forests and on to the town of St. Lo, though there is no town anymore: “We hadn’t liberated anything, or anyone. We had destroyed the city, killed or chased away most of the people in it, and were claiming a victory.” Woody’s first-person account focuses on action scenes, cinematically developed and graphic enough to reveal something of the brutality and frequent futility of war, while his friendship with Marcus, peripheral to the central narrative, reminds him of home. “June sixth changed us all,” says Woody, and he understands that, if he survives, he will never be able to convey what war really is to those who stayed on the homefront.

An author’s note goes into greater depth about integration in the U.S. Army in the 1940s.

An action-packed novel that will help young readers understand the brutality of war. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

SEX & VIOLENCE

Mesrobian, Carrie Carolrhoda Lab (304 pp.) $17.95 | $12.95 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4677-0597-4 978-1-4677-1619-2 e-book An intelligent, wry 17-year-old is brutally beaten in a communal shower by two classmates after he hooks up with one of their former girlfriends, setting the stage for a difficult recovery.

Evan knows he’s sort of a dick when it comes to girls, but being constantly uprooted to various boarding schools by his emotionally inept dad has caused him to eschew relationships and focus on honing his knack for identifying Girls Who Would Say Yes. After the assault that leaves Evan in the hospital, his father whisks him off to his own boyhood home in Minnesota, where he’s uneasily sucked into a tightknit group spending their last summer at home getting high and hanging out before going off to college. Evan’s intense, often-discomfiting first-person narration will deeply affect readers, and his darker side is troubling—in an aside about girls with eating disorders, he thinks, “I’d known some of those barf-it-up girls, and they were the worst. So crazy. So clingy. The first to get deleted from my phone.” Packed with realistically lewd dialogue that is often darkly funny, this is a pitch-perfect, daring novel about how sex and violence fracture a life and the painstakingly realistic process of picking up the pieces. Evan’s struggle is enormously sympathetic, even when he is not.

Utterly gripping. (Fiction. 16 & up)

THE INFINITE MOMENT OF US Myracle, Lauren Amulet/Abrams (336 pp.) $17.95 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-1-4197-0793-3

A sweet and sizzling love story from Myracle.

Wren and Charlie are just about to graduate from their Atlanta high school when their eyes lock and everything changes. Single-child Wren is beginning to take her first baby steps away from her loving but overprotective parents, eschewing freshman year at Emory for a gap year in Guatemala with a service organization. Foster-child Charlie is struggling to separate, too, but from a long-standing toxic relationship, not his supportive family; he’s got a scholarship to Georgia Tech. Alternating chapters that move between Wren’s and Charlie’s thirdperson perspectives describe their gorgeous summer romance, capturing each as they work to define themselves as individuals |

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“Sax gives voice to the fear and anger, hopelessness and terror through Misha, a fictional young teen who represents those who really lived and died [in the Warsaw ghetto].” from the war within these walls

THIS SONG WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE

and as part of a couple. Myracle applies a light touch even with heavy issues—Charlie’s life has not been an easy one—allowing readers to discover the characters even as they get to know each other. She wisely restrains herself from a potentially melodramatic foreshadowed meltdown, turning what could have been a narrative disaster into another opportunity for the characters to grow. The scenes of sexual intimacy are described with innocently erotic frankness, offering an ideal (if not idealized) model for readers on the cusp; this is Forever… for a new generation, offering character depth Cath and Michael never achieved.

Summer love has never been so good. (Fiction. 14 & up)

Sales, Leila Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-374-35138-0 Elise Dembowski is a chronic overachiever. Her project for sophomore year is to finally fit in. When this fails and Elise discovers that she is still the same as she’s always been, she makes a desperate decision—a suicide attempt—that ostracizes her even further.

After this incident, Elise takes to walking alone at night, which is how she stumbles across Start, an underground dance party. There, she meets a cast of characters who help her begin to see the light at the end of the crushingly dark and seemingly endless tunnel that is high school. Elise begins living a double life, returning each week to Start and learning to DJ. The alluring but elusive DJ Char takes her under his wing and helps her develop her talent. When a cyberbully dredges up Elise’s past and begins attacking her via a fraudulent online journal, Elise’s passion for DJ’ing becomes her refuge. Her secrets eventually become impossible to maintain, forcing her to come clean about who she is and who she wants to be. Elise is a remarkably self-aware character. Her journey toward acceptance—of others and of herself—is compelling. The supporting characters are equally well-developed, with the strengths and flaws of real people. Sales’ narrative, rich with diverse music references, reverberates with resilience.

Pulsates with hope for all the misfits. (Fiction. 14-18)

FANGIRL

Rowell, Rainbow St. Martin’s (416 pp.) $18.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-250-03095-5 With an unflinching voice, Cath navigates the lonely road of her freshman year at college, untethered from her gregarious twin sister’s orbit and unsure whether her wild popularity as an author of fan fiction makes her more—or less—

of a “real” writer.

The novel’s brilliance comes from Rowell’s reimagining of a coming-of-age story’s stock characters (the reclusive writer, the tough-talking friend, the sweet potential boyfriend) as dynamic and temperamental individuals—which adroitly parallels Cath’s own fan-fiction writing process. Rowell challenges readers to love characters who are loyal, vulnerable and funny— but also realistically flawed. Cath’s gruff exterior protects her easily wounded and quite self-conscious heart, but her anger is sometimes unreasonable. Roommate Reagan is a fiercely loyal friend but an unfaithful girlfriend; Cath’s crush, Levi, has a receding hairline rather than the artificial movie-star perfection bestowed upon the brows of so many romantic heroes.

The nuanced characters help the novel avoid didacticism as it explores the creative process and the concept of creative “ownership.” Though Cath’s Harry Potter–esque fan fiction (excerpts of which are deftly woven into the novel) has a devoted following of more than 35,000 readers, a professor deems the stories plagiarism and stealing because, “These characters, this whole world belongs to someone else.” Cath’s struggles to assess this conclusion’s validity give readers much to consider.

Absolutely captivating. (Fiction 14 & up)

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THE WAR WITHIN THESE WALLS

Sax, Aline Illus. by Strzelecki, Caryl Translated by Watkinson, Laura Eerdmans (176 pp.) $17.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-8028-5428-5 The sights, sounds and smells of the Warsaw ghetto assail readers’ senses in a raw, brutal telling of the unimaginable horror of that time and that place.

When the Nazis took Warsaw in 1939, they immediately initiated their separate war against the Jews in an ever-worsening web of destruction. Jews were prevented from using public transportation, doing business or attending schools. Then thousands were moved to the overcrowded ghetto, where they died of epidemics and starvation. Finally, relocations to the concentration camps emptied the ghetto. Sax gives voice to the fear and anger, hopelessness and terror through Misha, a fictional young teen who represents those who really lived and died there. In short staccato sentences, he bears witness to the madness, telling it all, from the struggle to stay alive to the corpses in the streets to the beatings and |

executions. Misha takes part in the doomed Warsaw Uprising and survives to tell the world of this last act of defiance. Strzelecki’s pen, ink and black-and-white pencil illustrations graphically depict pain and despair as they accompany text printed on stark white or black backgrounds. With the events of the Holocaust growing ever more remote with the passage of time, Sax gives modern readers an unrelenting, heart-rending insight into the hell that the Nazis created.

Gripping, powerful, shattering. (Historical fiction. 14 & up) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

(her mother and grandparents); still it’s not an easy life. No indoor plumbing means melting ice for bathwater, visiting the outhouse when it’s 60 below outside. The family sweathouse (sauna) and this world’s stark beauty offer compensation. Like Anne Frank, whose diary she reads for school, Denny confides her frustrations and sorrows to hers. Her mother’s hostile to Denny’s mushing; her father won’t acknowledge her. Only her grandfather, heartened by her interest in their history, offers encouragement and solace. Readers root for Denny as she places third in a local competition, then dreams bigger: entering the 1,100-mile Great Race. Denny, who’s in need of a lead dog, is intrigued by the wolf she encounters. Could he be trained?

Stereotypes are thankfully few: Denny’s shy, not impassive or stoic. Village teens, like their urban counterparts, are savvy tech users. The adult-focused language glossary, clumsy transitions, and puzzling inconsistencies in voice and tone occasionally jar but are ultimately eclipsed by narrative strengths.

Powerful, eloquent and fascinating, showcasing a vanishing way of life in rich detail. (glossaries of Indian words, mushing terms) (Fiction. 12-16) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

SOMEBODY UP THERE HATES YOU Seamon, Hollis Algonquin (256 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-61620-260-6

When you’re surrounded by death, anything can look like a good opportunity.

Death is all around 17-year-old Richie Casey. Diagnosed with cancer, he’s spending his final days in hospice care in upstate New York. He’s weak. He can’t eat. He’s also a wiseass with a biting sense of humor, and he’s persuasive enough to convince even the toughest nurse to let him do what he wants. Seamon’s debut for teens follows Richie over 10 days leading up to his 18th birthday. His ne’er-do-well uncle breaks him out for a wild, cathartic, drunken, lust-filled night on the town in a wheelchair to celebrate Cabbage Night (the night before Halloween). He pursues his girlfriend down the hall, Sylvie, who is also dying from cancer. Each character is vividly drawn, with a sharp, memorable voice that readers will love and remember. While there is plenty of death to go around, the novel’s tone shifts from dark to light when opportunity presents itself to narrator Richie. Both the characters and readers empathize with his urge to break out and experience life despite his constraints and the consequences that might befall him. His ups and downs are what power the plot, and readers come to learn that Ritchie isn’t full of joie de vivre. Instead, he’s full of fight, and that’s what makes him so admirable and memorable.

A fresh, inspiring story about death and determination.

(Fiction. 14 & up)

THE DREAM THIEVES

Stiefvater, Maggie Scholastic (448 pp.) $18.99 | $18.99 e-book | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-545-42494-3 978-0-545-57717-5 e-book Series: Raven Cycle, 2 The second installment of Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle is as mind-blowingly spectacular as the first.

Now that the ley line near Henrietta, Va., has been woken, strange currents race through the town.

There’s too much electricity—or none at all. The four Raven Boys—Gansey, Adam, long-dead Noah and Ronan—continue to search for the grave of the Welsh king Glendower, but now Ronan is starting to pull objects out of his dreams. Small ones, like the keys to Gansey’s Camaro, and larger, lethal nightmare creatures. But his greatest nightmare can’t be grasped—how do you hold onto home? Not-quite-psychic Blue Sargent realizes that Gansey might really be her true love—and if she kisses him, he’ll die—and meanwhile, her wholly psychic mother is dating the hit man come to steal Ronan. Stiefvater’s careful exploration of class and wealth and their limitations and opportunities astounds with its sensitivity and sophistication. The pace is electric, the prose marvelously sure-footed and strong, but it’s the complicated characters—particularly Ronan, violent, drunk, tender and tough—that meld magic and reality into an engrossing, believable whole. Remember this: Ronan never lies.

How long until Book 3? (Fantasy. 12 & up)

LONE WOLVES

Smelcer, John Leapfrog (190 pp.) $16.00 | $9.99 paper | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-935248-40-8 978-1-935248-55-2 paper Her grandfather’s wisdom and support guide an Alaska Native girl who dreams of racing sled dogs.

Other village teens drink and do drugs; for Denny, 16, mushing supplies all the exhilaration she needs. She loves her home and family |

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THE BURNING SKY

Prism, where dreamy guide Thatcher, stalled in his own quest to move on to the next level, explains her post-death haunting assignment: act as a silent, hidden grief counselor to the living.

But Callie (“my curiosity has always overwhelmed my caution”) is drawn to ghostly outliers Leo and Reena, who have their own plans. Rather than provide comfort and progress from the Prism to Solus (Solace? Soulless? Callie notices the ambiguity…), they are determined to rejoin the living, and Callie’s unique energy is crucial to their success. Callie’s present-tense narration emphasizes her limbo status.

An appealing and sometimes-poignant blend of savvy adolescents, young romance and paranormal evil suggests there’s no escaping teen drama—even in the afterlife. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

Thomas, Sherry Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 e-book | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-06-220729-6 978-0-06-220731-9 e-book Series: Elemental, 1 An award-winning adult romance author’s debut for teens bids fair to be the next big epic fantasy success.

Iolanthe Seabourne’s quiet life as an elemental mage of middling power explodes when she summons lightning from the sky. Suddenly the 16-year-old is on the run from villainous Inquisitors. That same lightning bolt galvanizes the carefully nurtured schemes of Titus, the teenage figurehead prince, to free his realm from domination by Atlantis.

The only problem is that the great mage whom seers foretold Titus will sacrifice his life to protect was supposed to be a boy….

Multiple tropes—of heroic quest, gaslamp fantasy, fractured fairy tale, school story and doomed romance—are gracefully braided into a hefty but ravishing narrative. In its two alternating viewpoints, three worlds and four distinct magical systems are all masterfully delineated through delicate prose and subtle characterization. Iolanthe may be excessively perfect—beautiful and powerful and brilliant—but her prickly independence and wry self-awareness give her depth; Titus’ status, talent and stunning magnificence is less compelling than his boyish vulnerability and tortured determination. Too often in fantasy, when prophecies are both accurate and specific, characters can seem mere puppets of fate. Here, the conflagrant climax is true to their choices, with a satisfying happy-for-now resolution that whets delicious anticipation for inevitable sequels.

It caters to very specific tastes, but teens and adults in the target audience will devour it. (Fantasy. 12 & up)

ROSE UNDER FIRE Wein, Elizabeth Hyperion (352 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-4231-8309-9

After a daring attempt to intercept a flying bomb, a young American pilot ferrying planes during World War II is captured by the Nazis in this companion to Printz Honor–winning Code Name Verity (2012).

After being brutally punished for her refusal to make fuses for flying bombs and having “more or less forgotten who [she] was,” Rose is befriended by Polish “Rabbits,” victims of horrific medical experimentation. She uses “counting-out rhymes” to preserve her sanity and as a way to memorize the names of the Rabbits. Rose’s poetry, a panacea that’s translated and passed through the camp, is at the heart of the story, revealing her growing understanding of what’s happening around her. As the book progresses, Wein masterfully sets up a stark contrast between the innocent American teen’s view of an untarnished world and the realities of the Holocaust, using slices of narrative from characters first encountered in the previous book. Recounting her six months in the Ravensbrück concentration camp through journal entries and poems, Rose honors her commitment to tell the world of the atrocities she witnessed. Readers who want more Code Name Verity should retool their expectations; although the story’s action follows the earlier book’s, it has its own, equally incandescent integrity.

Rich in detail, from the small kindnesses of fellow prisoners to harrowing scenes of escape and the Nazi Doctors’ Trial in Nuremburg, at the core of this novel is the resilience of human nature and the power of friendship and hope. (Historical fiction. 14 & up)

ASHES TO ASHES

Walker, Melissa Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (336 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 23, 2013 978-0-06-207734-9 Walker’s imaginative first installment of a two-part afterlife drama about what comes next.

Six when her mother died, teenage Callie lives with her dad and doesn’t believe in ghosts, other than “the ones that haunt the corners of my dad’s mind. The ones that keep him quiet, unable to give me a real hug….” Dad may have locked in his feelings, but Callie still knows how to get a rush: with her boyfriend, Nick, and with risky driving in the new convertible her dad has given her. Frequent allusions to Charleston’s storied ghost history and best friend Carson’s obsession with the spirit world all portend one outcome: tragedy. Post-death Callie has a soft landing into the 58

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ASHER’S FAULT

conversion to Catholicism. Beaten by her family for her beliefs, she finds refuge and friendship with foreign missionaries, making herself a target for the Boxers. Scrupulously researched, the narratives make a violent conflict rarely studied in U.S. schools feel immediate, as Yang balances historical detail with humor and magical realism. Ch’in Shih-huang, the first emperor of China, and Joan of Arc serve as Bao’s and Vibiana’s respective spiritual guides; the rich hues of the protagonists’ visions, provided by colorist Lark Pien, contrast effectively with the muted earth tones of their everyday lives. The restrained script often, and wisely, lets Yang’s clear, clean art speak for itself.

This tour de force fearlessly asks big questions about culture, faith, and identity and refuses to offer simple answers. (bibliography) (Graphic historical fiction. 12 & up)

Wheeler, Elizabeth Bold Strokes Books (264 pp.) $11.95 paper | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-60282-982-4 Guilt can prove more potent than adolescent hormones when, during your first kiss, the little brother you’re supposed to be watching drowns.

Fourteen-year-old Asher Price lives in small-town Florida with all the average American trimmings: divorced parents, one brother and a broken screen door. Asher’s father left the family and is absent save for his mother’s frequently voiced disdain. A reserved young man, Asher finds escape from his fractured family with a vintage Minolta. Then comes handsome, charismatic Garrett, who triggers stirrings Asher wants to explore. When Garrett and Asher sneak off to share a kiss at the public pool, Asher’s brother drowns. A consequent combination of guilt and religious reflex suppresses any urges Asher has to pursue his attraction to Garrett—or any guy—ever again. Neither as optimistic as David Levithan’s Boy Meets Boy (2003) nor as revelatory as emily m. danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2012), this novel finds itself in a realistically awkward place between. It’s a study of how sad and treacherous it can be for an LGBT teen—or any teen—to achieve self-acceptance. The rhythm of the text often falls into short phrasing, making it read the way photographers might digest their surroundings: in rapid-fire observations of the tiniest details.

A book of subtlety that won’t necessarily change the world but could make a world of difference to LGBT teens grappling with identity. (Fiction. 14 & up) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

PALACE OF SPIES Zettel, Sarah Harcourt (368 pp.) $16.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-544-07411-8 Series: Palace of Spies, 1

A rollicking spy caper in corsets.

In 1716 London, gimlet-eyed Peggy is 16 and orphaned, living off the charity of her beloved cousin’s family. When her grim, unsentimental uncle arranges a marriage of convenience to a brute, Peggy’s adventure begins. In desperation, she accepts the help of Mr. Tinderflint, a mysterious stranger who claims to have known her mother and offers her an outlandish escape. When she finds herself in the court of King George I, having assumed the identity of a maid of honor (now secretly and suspiciously deceased) in the Princess of Wales’ entourage, her own skepticism about the plausibility of the scheme is part of the fun. Ostensibly there to spy for her employer, she quickly learns that all is not as it seems, and she’s left to suss out the motivations of both her friends and enemies while staying one step ahead of them all. In less adept hands, this would be formulaic folderol, but Zettel arms her narrator with a rapier wit; Peggy is observant and winningly funny as she recounts the intrigues, flirtations and dangers she encounters at court. The tale is studded with rich period descriptions of the foods, fashions and foibles of royal protocols.

This witty romp will delight fans of historical fiction as well as mystery lovers. (Mystery/historical fiction. 12 & up) [This is the first appearance of this review.]

BOXERS & SAINTS

Yang, Gene Luen Illus. by Yang, Gene Luen First Second (512 pp.) $34.99 paper | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-59643-924-5 Printz Award winner Yang’s ambitious two-volume graphic novel follows the intertwined lives of two young people on opposite sides of the turn-ofthe-20th-century Boxer Rebellion.

Little Bao, whose story is told in Boxers, grows up fascinated by the opera’s colorful traditional tales and filled with reverence for the local deities. Appalled by the arrogant behavior of foreign soldiers, Christian missionaries and their Chinese supporters, he eventually becomes a leader of the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist, fighting under the slogan “Support the Ch’ing! Destroy the Foreigner!” The protagonist of Saints—an unlucky, unwanted, unnamed fourth daughter—is known only as Four-Girl until she’s christened Vibiana upon her |

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In t rodu c i n g

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An award-winning selection of distinctive and exciting chapter books, middle grade, and young adult titles Kirkus Reviews (starred)

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Rat takes and earns center stage by glibly charming the pants off every adult, showing a winning mix of quick wits and vulnerability.”

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Sammy Feral’s Diaries of Weird

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