Prepub Exploded, Oct. 2010, Pt. 2
Featuring John le Carre, Mark Bittman & Portia de Rossi
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 04/15/2010
| Head back to BookSmack! for more stories |
In this expanded version of Prepub Alert, you’ll find hot fall fiction (e.g., Cunningham, le Carré), a big nonfiction list from Aczel to Zailckas, plus news of the latest Tom Clancy.
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Fiction | Nonfiction | Coming Attractions | My Picks | This Just In | Editor's Perspective
Barclay, Robert J. If Wishes Were Horses. Morrow. Oct. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-196688-0. $21.99. lrg. prnt.
His wife and son having been killed by a drunk driver, Wyatt Blaine assuages his grief by working hard to restart the equine therapy program his wife used to run. Then the widow of the man who caused the fatal accident shows up with her troubled son, and three damaged people must learn to heal together. This obviously inspirational work is said to be in the spirit of Nicholas Sparks, and it must be good at what it does—a 100,000-copy first printing for a debut is not so common. The editor’s explanation? It’s a book with big emotions.
Burns, Charles. X’ed Out. Pantheon. Oct. 2010. 56p. ISBN 978-0-307-37913-9. $19.95.
One night, Doug hears a strange noise and looks up to find his adored cat Inky beckoning from an unexplained hole in the wall. But Inky’s been dead for years. Burns, an Eisner, Ignatz, and Harvey Award winner for Black Hole, launches the first volume of a graphic epic that doubtless belongs in every GN collection. With a five-city tour to New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Santa Cruz/San Francisco, and Seattle.
Cunningham, Michael. By Nightfall. Farrar. Oct. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-374-29908-8. $25. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Peter is an art dealer leading a happily accomplished life in New York, with his editor wife, Rebecca; smart college-age daughter; and bright-as-a-penny SoHo loft. Then Rebecca’s wayward younger brother arrives and forces Peter to rethink everything. Here’s the novel I’m really waiting for; with a national tour.
Del Toro, Guillermo & Chuck Hogan. The Strain Trilogy: Bk. 2: The Fall. Morrow. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-06-155822-1. $26.99.
A vampiric virus is upon us, ready to turn us all into not-so-sexy examples of the undead. But you know that already if you’ve read The Strain, the best-selling first book in this trilogy, sold to 28 countries. Here, Old World and New World vampires bare fangs, each seeking dominion, even as the Centers for Disease Control’s Eph Goodweather seeks to protect his son from his new-born vampire wife. Expect the wrap-up in 2011, about when the first of director Del Toro’s two-part The Hobbit hits the screen. A no-strain purchase; with a one-day laydown on September 21 and a 250,000-copy first printing.
Evans, Richard Paul. Promise Me. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-1-4391-5003-0. $19.99. CD: S. & S. Audio.
Yes, another Christmas novel from the author who might be credited with starting the current Christmas fiction mania. No word on the plot, but you know you’ll need to buy multiples; all 14 Evans novels have been New York Times best sellers.
Flynn, Vince. Untitled: A Mitch Rapp Thriller. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2010. 448p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9518-2. $27.99. CD: S. & S. Audio.
Here, Flynn goes back in time to check out how Mitch Rapp, his top CIA operative, was recruited. Deeply angered by the loss of 35 friends aboard Pam Am flight 103, the Syracuse University student joins eagerly, but his successful assassination of his first target—a Turkish arms dealer who sold the explosives that downed the Pan Am flight—is just the beginning of his education. A big thriller; with a seven-city tour to Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Portland, and Seattle.
Harvell, Richard. The Bells. Shaye Areheart: Harmony. Sept. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-307-59052-7. $24.
The bastard son of a deaf-mute woman locked away in a Swiss belfry, Moses Froben eventually finds a home in the choir of the Abbey of St. Gall. It’s the 1700s, and the beauty of his voice leads to his castration. Told in a letter to his son—now how did that happen?—the story of his life could have been tragic but instead appears to be charming, funny, and sensuous. The publisher grabbed the world rights, and ten countries have since anted up for the book. Could be exciting; watch.
Karon, Jan. In the Company of Others. Viking. Oct. 2010. 368p. ISBN 978-0-670-02212-0. $27.95. lrg. prnt. CD: Penguin Audio.
In the second in the new Karon series begun with Home to Holly Springs, Cynthia joins Father Tim on a sojourn to Ireland, where he’s investigating his ancestry. After a valuable painting is lifted from the lodge where they are staying, they discover that a tragedy has splintered the family owning the lodge. Karon says that this is her favorite Mitford novel and also calls it a “dark-haired child,” suggesting that it’s not as sunny as its predecessors. With a six-city tour.
Krauss, Nicole. Great House. Norton. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-393-07998-2. $24.95.
In America, a novelist uses a desk inherited from a poet who disappeared during Pinochet’s regime, only to have it reclaimed by his daughter. In London, a man uncovers something shocking about his wife, while in Jerusalem an antiques dealer carefully reconstructs his father's study, ransacked by the Nazis. Of course, these stories connect. The multitudinous fans of Krauss’s The History of Love don’t so much love as worship it, and they’ll be waiting for this. With a reading-group guide and 12-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Denver, and Philadelphia.
Kring, Tim & Dale Peck. Gate of Orpheus Trilogy: Pt. 1: Shift. Crown. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-45345-7. $26. CD: Random Audio.
It’s the Sixties, and Chandler Forrestal has just been dumped without his knowledge into a CIA mind-control experiment and given a huge dose of LSD. Now he’s got amazing mental powers, and what does he see? A plot to assassinate Kennedy. This book has a lot to live up to; the first work by the creator of the hot TV program Heroes, it’s billed as a new type of thriller blending the historical, sf, and espionage genres, and it’s being launched with a special interactive campaign. Plus, it kicks off a trilogy. Gulp.
le Carré, John. Our Kind of Traitor. Viking. Oct. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-670-02224-3. $27.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
When Perry and Gail headed to Antigua for a tennis holiday, they didn’t expect that a top Russian money launderer named Dima would be asking them for help. Now they’re stuck between the criminals Dima is prepared to rat on and the byzantine British Secret Service. Barvo, Le Carré, who does not keep grinding them out; his thrillers are ever au courant.
Leonard, Elmore. Djibouti. Morrow. 304p. Oct. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-173517-2. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Dara Barr has done just about everything, but her trip to Djibouti to chronicle modern-day pirates just might do her in. Leonard recently won PEN’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and his latest, Road Dogs, spent six weeks (not more?) on the New York Times best sellers list. The 200,000-copy first printing and seven-city tour (Atlanta, Ann Arbor, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami) bespeak publisher confidence.
Machart, Bruce. The Wake of Forgiveness. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-15-101443-9. $26.
One dark night in 1895 Texas, Karel Skala must ride his family’s best horse in a race against the daughter of a wealthy and powerful Spanish horse breeder. Losing will jeopardize his father’s fortune and his and his brothers’ futures. This highly touted debut, which at first glance seems uncompromising in language and moral suasion, should serve a range of readers, from those interested in historicals and the American Southwest to those who like works that ask the big questions. Jump on this, and watch for the author in New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and all over Texas.
Meyer, Deon. Thirteen Hours. Atlantic Monthly. Sept. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1958-2. $24.
An American woman has been hunted and killed like an animal, and a former pop star’s philandering husband has been shot to death. Now all Detective Inspector Bennie Griessel has to do is solve the murders and save another victim from certain death. More evidence that the South African thriller is coming out on top.
Roth, Philip. Nemesis. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-547-31835-6. $26.
A polio epidemic is sweeping 1944 Newark, devastating the young charges of playground director Bucky Cantor, and Bucky finds himself dealing with the surrounding fear, panic, and wreckage even as he struggles with personal problems. I love Roth in historical mode, and there’s current resonance here, too.
Schlink, Bernhard. The Weekend. Pantheon. Oct. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-0-307-37815-6. $24.95.
Convicted Baader-Meinhof terrorist Jörg is being released from prison, and friends gather to greet him at an isolated country house, hustled together by his devoted sister, Christiane. Among the guests is a passionate young man ready to carry on Jörg’s cause. Good for Schlink; he doesn’t rest on his Reader laurels but keeps moving on to new territory while retaining that sense of political urgency. Don’t miss.
Straight, Susan. Take One Candle, Light a Room. Pantheon. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-307-37914-6. $25.
Fantine Antoine returns home to Southern California for the fifth anniversary of her friend Glorette’s murder and encounters Glorette’s 21-year-old son, to whom she is godmother. Soon he’s in trouble, and Fantine must search him out in Louisiana, a dark place her parents had fled. Straight has been exploring social unease and the racial divide since the eye-opening Aquaboogie, and she’s always good. A first glance suggests that this new work is deftly characterized and tough-minded but unsensational in its treatment of everyday life for the not so white and wealthy. And she sets up with a shocker. Consider for the right book clubs; with a six-city tour to Albuquerque, Austin, Los Angeles, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Tempe.
Vincenzi, Penny. Forbidden Places. Overlook, dist. by Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2010. 624p. ISBN 978-1-59020-356-9. $26.95.
The war in England has an enormous impact on three women, one a young widow, one who loves her increasingly dotty husband, and one who’s trapped in a deadly marriage. Vincenzi is beloved fluff; all the Amazon.co.uk consumer reviews for this work are four and five stars.
Aczel, Amir D. Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider. Harmony, dist. by Crown. Oct. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-307-59167-8. $25.99.
With the December 2009 launching of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, science entered a new era: now scientists can grasp exactly what happened directly after the Big Bang. Sounds intimidating, but the author of Fermat’s Last Theorem can explain it to us.
Bittman, Mark. The Food Matters Cookbook. S. & S. Sept. 2010. 608p. ISBN 978-1-4391-2023-1. $35.
What, 450 recipes that are good for your palate, your health, and the health of the planet? If Bittman’s New York Times best-selling Food Matters was a hit at your library, this should be, too. See LJ Tech Editor Josh Hadro's revealing interview with Bittman on Food Matters.
Carroll, Andrew. Here Is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History. Crown. Oct. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-46397-5. $25.99.
After discovering that a brother of John Wilkes Booth once rescued Lincoln’s son from an oncoming train, the man behind the Legacy Project (which collects letters written during wartime) and the American Poetry and Literary Project launched a National Geographic–backed campaign to inspire “citizen-historians” to celebrate forgotten sites where important moments in our history have occurred. Here’s a chronicle of his visit to all 50 states. Nice, homey appeal.
Carter, Bill. The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy. Viking. Sept. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-670-02208-3. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
You saw it on television and read about it in the news; now here’s an account of the Leno/O’Brien debacle by New York Times national media specialist Carter. All set to titillate everyone.
Charles, His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales with Tony Juniper & Ian Skelly. Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2010. 608p. ISBN 978-0-06-173131-0. $29.99.
According to the Prince of Wales, global warming and numerous current social ills result from the lack of harmony with nature forced on us by the Industrial Revolution. Here, he proposes holistic solutions, often rooted in more traditional practices, that stem from his study of farming, health care, transportation, and design. Hope this is good; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Chemerinsky, Erwin. The Conservative Assault on the Constitution. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4165-7468-2. $27.
Chemerinsky, founding dean of the University of California Irvine Law School, has argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. In this new book, recently slotted for fall publication (how prescient), he expresses concern about the current Court’s right-wing activist judges and their challenge to the recent expansion of civil liberties. Knew it! Clearly set to make some people mad.
Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2010. 800p. ISBN 978-1-59420-266-7. $40. CD: Penguin Audio.
So many Washington biographies, so what makes this one distinctive, aside from its being written by a National Book Award–winning biographer? Chernow aims to sweep aside our dusty image of the first President and reveal the dashing warrior and the depths of passion we didn’t know were there. This should be top-flight; an advance glance suggests that the writing makes it accessible to most eager readers. With a ten- to 12-city tour.
Chivers, C.J. The Gun: The AK-47 and the Evolution of War. S. & S. Oct. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7432-7076-2. $28.
Yes, the assault rifle has changed how wars are fought—and now has a starring role in uprisings, state repression, drug cartel conflict, and terrorism. Here’s a look at its development and impact, from a prize-winning New York Times journalist who also fought in the Gulf War. So he knows his stuff.
Coogan, Michael. God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says. Twelve: Hachette. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9. $24.99.
We all know what God has to say about sex, right? Wrong, actually; there’s a gap between the Old Testament treatment of the subject and our current understanding of that treatment. Coogan draws on his popular Harvard class to set us straight. Good for discussion, but this may not go down easy everywhere.
Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. Pantheon. Oct. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-307-37875-0. $28.95.
Who says there’s a mind-body problem? Damasio, director of the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute, presents the latest research showing that consciousness—the “self”—is a biological process cooked up by the brain. For your smart readers, just no Cartesians. With a five-city tour to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
de Rossi, Portia. Untitled Memoir. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-1-4391-7778-5. $25.99.
No, not her life as an actor; this is de Rossi’s life with anorexia—“weighing in at 80 pounds on a 300 calorie day, I was the best little dieter there ever was”—and the corresponding bulimia, plus the fearfulness of being in the closet. Then she met Ellen DeGeneres, now her wife. Folks will be curious.
Deffeyes, Kenneth S. When Oil Peaked. Hill & Wang. Oct. 2010. 176p. ISBN 978-0-8090-9471-4. $24.
Maybe some people don’t want to hear it, but as Deffeyes argued in Hubbert’s Peak (2001) and Beyond Oil (2005), the evidence suggests (and continues to suggest) that world oil production will a bell-shaped curve—and this decade is the peak. What next? From a former Shell researcher and emeritus professor of geology at Princeton whose books sell surprisingly well.
Foner, Eric. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Norton. Oct. 2010. 448p. ISBN 978-0-393-06618-0. $29.95.
One of our leading historians focuses on Lincoln’s relationship to slavery, just in time for the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s election. Essential for history collections; with a five-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Frazier, Ian. Travels in Siberia. Farrar. Oct. 2010. 560p. ISBN 978-0-374-27872-4. $28. CD: Macmillan Audio.
It’s more than just tundra and 40-below winters. Siberia has embraced Orthodox priests, scientists, prospectors, fur hunters, tea caravans, and, of course, prisoners, from the Decembrists to the cursed inhabitants of the Gulag. Its first travelog was written by 13th-century monks, and this latest should feature New Yorker contibutor Frazier’s ever sharp and distinctive writing, even if he’s far from the Great Plains and Rez.
Goldacre, Ben. Bad Science: How Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Deceive You. Faber & Faber. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-86547-918-0. pap. $15.
Guardian “Bad Science” columnist takes on the media for throwing facts at readers without context or careful evaluation, confusing us (and sometimes scaring us to death) just to sell more copies. And he tells us how to understand things like double-blind tests so that we can recognize bad science when we see it. A huge U.K. best seller, revised for the American market.
Greenspan, Dorie. Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2010. 544p. ISBN 978-0-618-87553-5. $40.
A multiple-award-winning cookbook author, Greenspan here offers her personal take on the best of French cooking, from a cheesy onion soup to roast chicken for lazy cooks. How big is this expected to be? There’s a 12-city tour to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio.
Halperin, Ian. The Governator: From Muscle Beach to His Quest for the White House, the Improbable Rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Morrow. Oct. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-06-199004-5. $25.99. lrg. prnt.
Winner of a Rolling Stone award for investigative journalism, Halperin went undercover to probe Schwarenegger’s Austrian upbringing and body-building days while also reputedly giving serious consideration to his accomplishments as governor. Will he make the leap from Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain, whom he has also profiled? With a one-day laydown on October 12 and a 100,000-copy first printing.
Hesser, Amanda. The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century. Norton. Oct. 2010. 1056p. ISBN 978-0-393-06103-1. $40.
Time to toss your old Craig Claibornes. New York Times food columnist Hesser combed through 150 years of Times recipes to find 1000 of the very best, all of which she has tested and updated.
Holt, Thomas C. Children of Fire: A History of African Americans. Hill & Wang: Farrar. Oct. 2010. 464p. ISBN 978-0-8090-6713-8. $27.
James Westfall Thompson Professor of American and African American History at the University of Chicago, Holt tells this story not through the traditional divides of history—the antebellum period, Civil War, Reconstruction, etc.—but through an accounting of individual lives lived across those divides. Consider for most libraries.
Kelly, Kevin. What Technology Wants. Viking. Oct. 2010. 432p. ISBN 978-0-670-02215-1. $27.95.
Kelly, who was there at the creation of Wired, sees technology not as a bunch of wires but as a living, ever-changing organism with needs of its own. We must therefore listen to it, steer it right, and then get in synch with it ourselves. Not sure I’m ready for this, but technospeculation is a boom industry. With a seven-city tour.
Kerasote, Ted. Pukka: The Pup After Merle. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2010. 192p. ISBN 978-0-547-38608-9. $18.95.
Remember Kerasote’s Merle’s Door? Readers kept asking whether Kerasote had a new dog, and here he is: Pukka, one cute puppy, as evidenced by the 200-plus photos. Read with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving, previewed below. With a national tour including New York, Boston, Connecticut, Kansas City, Wyoming, Denver, Boulder, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Kotb, Hoda. Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-1-4391-8948-1. $25.
The audience for this memoir is clearly built in; Kotb is coanchor on the fourth hour of the Today show with Kathie Lee Gifford and is seen by millions daily. And it surely touches on numerous memoir hot spots, from Kotb’s immigrant childhood with her Egyptian parents to her survival of breast cancer.
Leaming, Barbara. Churchill Defiant: Fighting On: 1945–1955. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-133758-1. $26.99.
July 1945: Having saved his country from Hitler, Churchill is booted out of office. October 1951: that bulldog Churchill fights his way back to the prime minister’s post and works for world peace. Noted biographer Leaming, whose best-selling Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman pondered the British influence on our 35th President, here gives us Churchill’s last stand. So many books on Churchill, but relatively few focus on his final years; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Maier, Pauline. Citizen Founders: Americans Debate the Constitution, 1787–1788. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 544p. ISBN 978-0-6848-6854-7. $30.
We talk a lot about the Constitution these days, but do we remember for our history books exactly what happened during the two-year ratification debate? Here’s what promises to be an excellent refresher course from distinguished MIT history professor Maier, author of American Scripture.
Mandela, Nelson. Conversations with Myself. Farrar. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-374-12895-1. $28. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Journals from the antiapartheid period. Diaries and letters written in various South African prisons. Notebooks on the postapartheid transition. Private conversations. And speeches and correspondence from Mandela’s presidency. Mandela draws on this private cache of material, now archived at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, to offer an intimate look at a significant public life. A major document for a range of readers.
Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving: How Dogs Have Captured Our Hearts for Thousands of Years. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-0-06-177109-5. $25.99.
As anyone with a dog will tell you, the canine capacity for true devotion is downright humbling. Masson, whose 24 books include numerous titles on animals and their well-being, here argues that we humans have learned our ability to love and empathize from dogs. I’ll buy that. Bound to appeal to four in ten households in your community that have at least one dog; with a 60,000-copy first printing.
Millan, Cesar. Cesar’s Rules: The Natural Way to a Well-Behaved Dog. Harmony, dist. by Crown. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-71686-6. $25.99.
The Dog Whisperer’s tips for raising a well-behaved dog? Establish some house rules and keep up the discipline. Millan’s books are all best sellers; get it where he’s popular.
Morris, Ian. Why the West Rules—For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future. Farrar. Oct. 2010. 768p. ISBN 978-0-374-29002-3. $35.
Why has the West taken over the world stage for the past few centuries? Culture? Initiative? Actually, argues Stanford archaeologist and historian Morris, it’s geography and the way geography interacts with human inventiveness. And in this shrinking world, that is likely to change. For your smart readers.
Perricone, Nicholas, M.D. Forever Young: Dr. Perricone’s Revolutionary Secret to Glowing, Wrinkle-Free Skin and Radiant Health at Every Age. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-1-4391-7734-1. $26.
The author of New York Times No. 1 best-selling books like The Wrinkle Cure explains how to turn off those genes that cause aging and rejuvenate body, mind, and soul. Obviously people want this.
Putnam, Robert D. & David E. Campbell. American Grace. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 416p. ISBN 978-1-4165-6671-7. $28.
Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and author of the esteemed Bowling Alone, Putnam studies two major surveys, plus numerous individual congregations, to bring us this overview of religion in America. Findings that intrigued me: the truly politicized churches tend to be liberal, and faith matters less to most Americans than their communities of faith.
Rattner, Steven. Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-547-44321-8. $27.
A former New York Times financial reporter and an investment banker, Rattner was brought in by President Obama to restructure the auto industry. Here’s his take on the mess and how it got cleaned up. With a national tour to include New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and, of course, Detroit.
Rice, Condoleezza. Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family. Crown. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-307-58787-9. $27.
The 66th U.S. secretary of state’s memoir focuses on the importance of her attentive parents, even as she beat out her peers in school and music performance and civil rights issues roiled her hometown, Birmingham, AL. Rice is among the top five of America’s most admired women since 2004; sure to be of interest.
Rose, Gideon. Victory and Its Substitutes. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9053-8. $27.
According to Foreign Affairs managing editor Rose, we aren’t that good at ending wars. Wilson blundered about after World War I, FDR left Truman unprepared regarding World War II, Truman stretched out the Korean War unnecessarily, and both Bushes blew military victories and never thought what overthrowing Hussein might mean. Food for thought, whatever your political stripe.
Sass, Erik & others. The Mental Floss History of the United States: The (Almost) Complete and (Entirely) Entertaining Story of America. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-192822-2. $24.99.
If you know the bimonthly magazine mental_floss—founded in 2001 by Duke University students Will Pearson and Mangesh Hattikudur, who are coauthors here with media journalist Sass—you know that this will not be your college history professor’s take on the United States. Instead, it ranges from potato chips to mobsters to Yuppies, with lists like the seven most corrupt Presidents. With a 75,000-copy first printing; you’ll know if this is for you.
Sandlin, Lee. Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild. Pantheon. Oct. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-37851-4. $26.95.
The Mississippi in the early 1800s, before it was dredged for shipping. River pirates vied with religious fanatics, the St. Louis harbor got crushed by ice, Mardi Gras had darker secrets then you could imagine, and the river rolled on. This just sounds so intriguing; with a five-city tour to Chicago, Minneapolis, Memphis, New Orleans, and St. Louis.
Sellers, Heather. You Don’t Look Like Anyone I Know. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-1-59448-773-6. $25.95.
Poet, essayist, and short story writer Sellers suffers from prosopagnosia, which means that she can’t always recognize people’s faces. But she suffers more from having had a mother who made her walk on her knees to spare the carpet and a father who went on benders and wore panty hose. And you thought your family was dysfunctional. Lots of inhouse enthusiasm for this work.
Silko, Leslie Marmon. The Turquoise Ledge. Viking. Oct. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-0-670-02211-3. $25.95.
In her first full-length work of nonfiction and her first work in over ten years, novelist Silko considers her family history while exploring the Sonoran desert near her home. Silko’s Ceremony has sold over a million copies since 1978, so she does have a following. With a seven-city tour.
Somers, Suzanne. Turn On. Crown. Oct. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-0-307-58851-7. $25.99.
Somers just keeps tossing out those New York Times best sellers on how to eat right to live better. Here’s another, with advice on flipping the environmental and genetic switches that work for us. So turn it on.
Wills, Gary. Outside Looking In: People Observed. Viking. Oct. 2010. 208p. ISBN 978-0-670-02214-4. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Wills sees himself as an outsider in academia, journalism, and religion, which gives him a certain perspective as he looks in on interesting people he’s known, from William F. Buckley Jr. to Beverly Sills. With a six-city tour.
Whitman Helfgot, Susan. The Match: Two Strangers, A Miracle Face Transplant, and Two Families Remade. S. & S. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4391-9548-2. $26.
When Auschwitz survivor and top movie researcher Joseph Helfgot died after a heart transplant last year, his widow donated his face to James Maki, a man of mixed Blackfoot and Japanese ancestry who had become a homeless drug addict after returning traumatized from Vietnam. Maki had suffered serious facial burns after falling on an electrified third rail at a Boston subway station. Remarkably, this book is by Helfgot’s widow. Medical miracles and inspiration.
Zailckas, Koren. Fury. Viking. Sept. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-670-02230-4. $25.95. Audio: Penguin Audio.
Writing Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood kept Zailckas sober. But a return home after a failed relationship got her in touch with her deep-seated anger. Here’s a report on her understanding of what denying anger can cost; good advice and, for some readers, the fascination of a train wreck. With an eight-city tour.
Clancy, Tom with Grant Blackwood. Dead or Alive. Putnam. Dec. 2010. NAp. ISBN 978-0-399-15723-3. $28.95.
After seven years, Clancy returns with a new thriller featuring many of his favorite characters, including Jack Ryan, Jack Ryan Jr., John Clark, Ding Chavez, and Mary Pat Foley. And who are they up against? The Emir, an especially nasty terrorist who’s all set to destroy the West. With a 1.75 million-copy first printing.
Naslund, Sena Jeter. Adam & Eve. Morrow. Oct. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-157927-1. $26.99. lrg. prnt.
After reading a single chapter of Naslund’s latest (before sending it off for review), I was so taken by the creamy language and, conversely, the ominous set-up—as the book opens, a grand piano crashes to the ground, killing a man with secrets to tell—that I asked for my own galley. The possibly murdered astrophysicist Thom Bergmann wisely entrusted wife Lucy with evidence he discovered of extraterrestrial life. Now, as she’s heading to the Middle East, where an artifact establishing the human authorship of Genesis has been discovered, a plane crash lands her in her own odd Eden. History, excitement, religious and philosophical conundrum—what more could you ask for? Grab for book clubs (there’s an online guide) and watch for author appearances in Atlanta, Birmingham, Louisville, Nashville, and St. Louis. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Ross, Alex. Listen to This. Farrar. Oct. 2010. 416p. ISBN 978-0-374-18774–3. $27. CD: Macmillan Audio.
More than a music critic, Ross is a cultural historian whose pieces for The New Yorker help us understand music as indelibly part of life, not as mere background or embellishment. His new collection is named after a 2004 essay that explores his discovery of popular music after years of contented classical listening. Now, with his writing encompassing both Brahms and indie rockers in Beijing, it’s fitting that one previously unpublished piece here sums up music history from the Renaissance to Led Zeppelin by referencing a few key bass lines. If this work is anything like Ross’s National Book Critics Circle award winner, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century–and I’m betting that it is—then we’re in for a wholly articulate and wholly accessible discussion meant to draw everyone in.
Hiaasen, Carl. Star Island. Knopf. Aug. 2010. 368p. ISBN 978-0-307-27258-4. $27.95. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
Originally scheduled for November, this laugh-out-louder has been pushed up to the summer because the industrious author finished it early. Pop star Cherry Pye is attempting yet another comeback after some relentless drinking and drugging, and Ann DeLusia goes on as her undercover double whenever she has a slip. Guess which one gets kidnapped when a fanatical paparazzo drops by? Buy multiples; a 500,000-copy first printing.
Swanson, James L. Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln’s Corpse. Morrow. Oct. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-123378-4. $26.99. CD: HarperAudio.
Originally previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/10, and scheduled for release on April 4, this book has been moved to the fall and will have a one-day laydown on September 28. Look for the PBS series.
Editor's Perspective: Adrienne Brodeur on Bruce Machart's The Wake of Foregiveness
At the heart of Bruce Machart’s debut, The Wake of Forgiveness (Houghton Harcourt, Oct.), is a pounding horse race. Publishing can be a horse race, too, with a lot thrown behind a contender that may or may not make the finish line. That’s particularly true when one is championing a first novel. So why did Houghton Harcourt editor Adrienne Brodeur take a chance on Machart’s tale of two families in early 1900s Texas?
“The Wake of Forgiveness is the best debut novel I’ve read since becoming a book editor,” proclaims Brodeur. “Not only does it add a wholly original vision of the rural Texas landscape to the literary map, [but] it brings to mind many great books and writers in the process.” Among those writers, of course, is Cormac McCarthy, with his “horses and finely hewn evocation of the American Southwest,” notes Brodeur. But, for her, the trenchant family relationships—one patriarch harnesses his sons to the plow at planting time—also recall Jim Harrison’s Legends of the Fall and Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It.Brodeur first encountered Machart when she was editor in chief of ZoeTrope: All Story and published one of his stories. He has since appeared in other journals and has been anthologized in Best Stories of the American West and Best American Short Stories. For Brodeur, these pieces—plus the collection and the second novel he’s already working on—demonstrate Machart’s “absurd talent.” For now, readers have the pleasure of anticipating Marchart's first big publication and assessing Brodeur’s conclusion: “It’s got the one-two punch of staggeringly beautiful writing and a story as rich and resonant as myth.”
