Prepub Alert, September 15, 2010
Sep 15, 2010Fiction
Ahern, Cecelia. The Book of Tomorrow. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780061706301. $21.99. lrg. prnt.
Forced by her father's death to move with her mother to her aunt and uncle's home in a remote Irish village, 16-year-old Tamara feels out of place and bored until she finds a mysterious book with a lock she breaks. Inside, in her handwriting, is a description of what will happen tomorrow. When it all comes true, Tamara is off on a scary adventure. Best-selling author Ahern has an intriguing premise; with a 150,000-copy first printing and a reading group guide.
Boyd, Noah. Agent X. Morrow. Feb. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780061826986. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
An intelligence officer at the Russian Embassy tells the FBI that he has a list of Americans betraying secrets to the Russians and wants big bucks for every traitor apprehended. Then he's recalled to Moscow, and the FBI thinks that everyone on that list is in danger. Enter Steve Vail. Boyd's debut, The Bricklayer, made the New York Times extended list, with the 150,000-copy first printing here suggesting a breakout effort.
Boyle, T.C. When the Killing's Done. Viking. Feb. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780670022328. $26.95.
Boyle never makes it easy for us: his antagonists here are National Park Service biologist Alma Boyd Takesue, who wants to save species native to the Channel Islands by killing off invaders like rats and feral pigs, and animal rightists Dave LaJoy and his lover, folksinger Anise Reed, opposed to violence to any animal. Whose side are you on? With an eight-city tour and a reading group guide; sure to provoke debate.
Brockmeier, Kevin. The Illumination. Pantheon. Feb. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780375425318. $24.95.
Wounds: they spark, glow, glitter, incandesce, and otherwise get illuminated, and they belong to six hospital patients who share an affecting cache of love letters. From the author of The Brief History of the Dead—beautifully spooky and one of my favorite novels—that premise is not so surprising. For readers of upscale fantasy as well as literary fiction; anyone resisting should be reminded that Brockmeier made Granta's Best of Young American Novelists 2. With a six-city tour.
Childress, Mark. Georgia Bottoms. Little, Brown. Feb. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780316033046. $24.99.
How does Alabama belle Georgia Bottoms manage now that the family fortune has run out? She has six rich lovers—it's never on a Monday for her—with everything going smoothly until the Baptist preacher discloses their affair to the entire congregation. Childress's latest, One Mississippi, went through four printings, and both the 20-city mostly Southern tour and reading group guide bespeak great expectations.
Coonts, Stephen & William H. Keith. Deep Black: Death Wave. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780312671136. $25.99.
NSA senior officer Charlie Dean and new colleague Ilya Akulinin aim to intercept nuclear warheads being smuggled out of Tajikistan, but they disappear. Meanwhile, their associate Lia DeFrancesca heads to Berlin to corner a devious Chinese millionaire, even as Islamic terrorists and rogue Chinese officials gather in the Canary Islands. Coonts's usual multi-mix, but this series, always in mass market, is finally leaping into hardcover. That signals audience interest.
Crocker, Gareth. Finding Jack. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780312621728. $24.99.
Having lost his fledgling family in an accident, Fletcher Carson joins the war effort in Vietnam, where he rescues a yellow lab he calls Jack and slowly begins to heal. Then the U.S. government declares that it will withdraw and orders that all those loyal army dogs be left behind. This poignant-sounding debut novel looks to be getting some good publicity.
Dorsey, Tim. Electric Barracuda. Morrow. Feb. 2011. 368p. ISBN 9780061876899. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
The authorities are about to nail Serge Storms, but no such luck when he knows all the bayous and back roads of the Sunshine State. Dorsey is building; with his latest, Gator A-Go-Go, he broke onto the New York Times best sellers list. With a 75,000-copy first printing and a five-city tour.
Grimes, Martha. Fadeaway Girl. Viking. Feb. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780670022441. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Taking a break from her Richard Jury novels, Grimes brings back 12-year-old Emma Graham, fresh from the best-selling Belle Ruin. Here, Emma speeds up her efforts to discover what happened to the Slade baby, who disappeared from the Belle Ruin hotel over 20 years ago; she's concerned because the baby's dad is back in town. There's a four-city tour.
Hayder, Mo. Gone. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780802119643. $23.
Jack Caffery realizes that the carjacker he's pursuing was actually going for the 11-year-old in the back seat. Hayder, who's reaped lots of attention, including finalist status for a Barry Award and the Crime Writers' Association's Dagger Award, has always struck me as pretty riveting. For all thriller readers.
Hoffman, Alice. The Red Garden. Crown. Feb. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780307393876. $25. CD: Random Audio.
Unusually, Hoffman goes historical here, presenting 300 years in the life of Blackwell, MA, a town founded by a brave young woman from England. At the town's center is a beautiful and eerie garden where only red plants grow (this is Hoffman, after all). She's loved; buy accordingly. With a ten- to 12-city tour and reading group guide.
Jensen, Carsten. We, the Drowned. Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2011. 688p. ISBN 9780151013777. $28.
This debut novel profiles the port town of Marstal, Denmark, from the mid-19th century to post–World War II, but it will take you to Somoa, Newfoundland, and even the bottom of the ocean. A best seller throughout Scandinavia and in Germany, also published in other European countries, a major award winner, and voted the best Danish novel of the last 25 years by readers of a leading newspaper, this book would seem to have sea legs. Critic/journalist Jensen grew up in Marstal and sailed on his father's 220-ton freighter. He's even coming here for a prepub tour, though he'll probably fly.
Jones, Darynda. First Grave on the Right. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780312662752. $21.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Part-time investigator Charley Davidson sees dead people and aims to persuade them to "go into the light." But when they've been murdered, they usually want her to help catch the killer. The St. Martin's folks are raving about this debut, which launches a new series, and will give it a huge push—along with a 150,000-copy first printing. Reminds me of F.J. Lennon's recently previewed Soul Trapper (Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10) and Artist Arthur's YA title, Manifest.
Katchor, Ben. The Cardboard Valise. Pantheon. Feb. 2011. 128p. ISBN 9780375421143. $22.
In his first book in more than a decade, Katchor—creator of Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer, and the first cartoonist to win a MacArthur—takes us to Outer Canthus. There we meet Emile Delilah, who so adores travel that the government pays him to explore the country's outer reaches, and two denizens of his tenement building: a nutty supranationalist and Outer Canthus's former king. Graphic novel lovers will clamor; with a three-city tour.
Kelly, Erin. The Poison Tree. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Jan. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780670022403. $26.95.
In 1990s London, smart college student Karen gets involved with reckless Biba and her older brother Rex, but their alcohol- and sex-fueled summer ends in blood. Ten years later, Karen worries about her past intruding on her present (doesn't it always?) as she picks up Rex from prison. This debut from a London journalist is receiving some special treatment; with a five-city tour and a reading group guide.
Lee, Cavanaugh. Save as Draft. S. & S. Feb. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9781439190692. $23.
Updating the epistolary novel, this debut relates the life and loves of actress-turned-lawyer Isabell Chin via emails, Facebook, and Match.com profiles. In particular, Isabell finds herself in a triangle involving cautious coworker Peter and Match.com find Marty. The publisher sees real commercial potential.
Levithan, David. The Lover's Dictionary. Farrar. Feb. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9780374193683. $23.
Ah, the language of love; that's the concern of Levithan, the author of numerous YA novels (e.g., Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist) and editorial director at Scholastic. His nameless narrator is so obsessed with pinpointing his feelings that he constructs a dictionary of love. Beyond Nick & Nora; intriguing for sophisticated readers.
O'Connor, Joseph. Ghost Light. Farrar. Feb. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780374161873. $24.
Author of the international best seller Star of the Sea, O'Connor here relates the life of poor, wild, ambitious Molly Allgood, who has an affair with playwright John Synge and goes on to a celebrated stage career. We learn all from the perspective of an elderly Molly, very nearly a bag lady in 1950s London. With a national tour and reading group guide; consider wherever historical fiction is popular.
Palmer, Michael. A Heartbeat Away. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780312587529. $27.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Ready to give the State of the Union address, the President finds himself quarantined along with everyone else in the Capitol when terrorists carpet-bomb the building with a deadly virus. The director of Homeland Security, safe at home as the "Designated Survivor" in this instance, has to use his smarts as a scientist to save the day. With a one-day laydown on February 15.
Preston, Douglas & Lincoln Child. Gideon's Sword. Grand Central. Feb. 2011. 480p. ISBN 9780446564328. $26.99. lrg. print. CD: Hachette Audio.
Nope, not Pendergast. Preston and Child launch a new series starring Gideon Crew, who promises his dying mother that he will avenge his father's murder. Fast-forward to the present, where revenge has made Gideon a rogue operative with a remote boss. His first job is to steal a Chinese scientist's plans for a brand-new weapon of mass destruction. Buy bunches, given the authors' reps.
Robertson, Imogen. Instruments of Darkness. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Feb. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780670022427. $26.95.
In 1780, when Harriet Westerman finds a dead man on the grounds of her Sussex manor, she joins with local anatomist Gabriel Crowther to discover the murderer. That leads her to Thornleigh Hall, seat of the Earl of Sussex and now a dark and wrecked place with only remnants of the family still in residence. This debut is getting some play and should well serve lovers of historical suspense.
Nonfiction
Bishop, Elizabeth. Poems/Prose. 2 vols. Farrar. Feb. 2011. 928p. ISBN 9780374125585. $75.
My beloved Bishop, Pulitzer Prize and NBA and NBCC Award–winning poet and author of crystalline, tightly packed lines ("The art of losing isn't hard to master"), gets the full treatment here. This definitive collection of her verse is edited by Guggenheim Fellow Saskia Hamilton, a lovely poet herself; the prose collection is edited by poet and Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Lloyd Schwartz. This is a boxed hardcover set, with the two volumes also available individually in paperback (Poems, ISBN 9780374532369. $16; Prose, ISBN 9780374532734. $18).
Brabazon, James. My Friend the Mercenary. Grove. Feb. 2011. 480p. ISBN 9780802119759. $25.95.
A winner of numerous journalism awards (e.g., the IDFA Joris Ivens Competition Special Jury Award), with 30 current-events documentaries to his name, Brabazon hired former South African soldier and current mercenary Nick du Toit to protect him as he traveled through Liberia with guerrilla forces intent on over-throwing the government. Then he went along with Nick and friends to film their attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, which landed Nick in jail but left Brabazon free to write this over-the-top book.
Brady, Sally Ryder. A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780312654160. $23.99.
She was a debutante, he was a Harvard classics major eventually to become editor in chief of Atlantic Monthly Press, they met at the Boston Cotillion, and their marriage seemed like a storybook until the end. Then Brady found her husband turning nasty and discovered unsettling secrets after his death. A memoir of marriage's complexities that will appeal to the right readers; with a reading group guide.
Brown, Scott. Against All Odds: A Life from Hardship to Hope. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780062015549. $26.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
The hardship: a childhood spent moving obsessively from town to town and a brutal beating when he was only six years old by his drunken stepfather. The good part: being proclaimed "America's Sexiest Man" by Cosmopolitan, then settling down to raise a family and winning Ted Kennedy's old seat in the Senate in January 2010. Here's the whole story, which is getting a one-day laydown on February 2 and a 300,000-copy first printing. Look for author appearances from New England to the Washington, DC, area, to Los Angeles.
Dolnick, Edward. The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780061719516. $27.99.
In the 1600s, when disease was considered a punishment from God and astronomy was still allied with astrology, the men of the Royal Society—including Isaac Newton—conceived of the universe as running like clockwork according to precise laws and thus launched modern science. Having won an Edgar for best true crime (The Rescue Artist), Dolnick can be expected to create an engrossing read. And science histories (e.g., Richard Holmes's NBCC Award winner, The Age of Wonder) are so hot.
Drummond, Ree. The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels—A Love Story. Morrow. Feb. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780061997167. $25.99.
Sure she's popular. Drummond's award-winning blog, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, gets three million unique visitors and over 20 million page views a month, and The Pioneer Woman Cooks debuted in the top spot on the New York Times list and stayed in the top ten for 13 weeks. Here's her story of meeting a sexy cowboy and tossing those heels to live on an Oklahoma cattle ranch. With an 11-city tour; can't sneeze at the 200,000-copy first printing, either.
Dunn, Geoffrey. The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Rise to Power. St. Martin's. Feb. 2011. 320p. ISBN 09780312601867. $25.99.
Not for Tea Partiers, this biography by investigative reporter Dunn is described as "the story that Sarah Palin doesn't want the American people to know." Need I say more? Much postponed, this book will finally be landing in your court.
Dutton, Kevin. Split-Second Persuasion: The Ancient Art and New Science of Changing Mind. Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978015101279-4. $26.
Scientists say that we encounter efforts at persuasion 400 times a day on average. Cambridge psychologist Dutton is here to persuade us that we, too, can become good at this art; all it takes is a simple message, confidence, empathy, a pitch to perceived self-interest, and the recognition that there's a wee point after that pitch that the brain is open to anything. Are you persuaded to buy?
Gleick, James. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. Pantheon. Jan. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780375423727. $28.95.
From talking drums through Charles Babbage and Ada Byron to Claude Shannon, the originator of information theory, Genius author Gleick gives us a history of information and shows us how information defines the modern world. A quick look suggests that this is both accessible and engrossing. Essential for most libraries; with an 11-city tour.
Jacoby, Susan. Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age. Pantheon. Feb. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780307337944. $26.95.
Okay, baby boomers, we're going to be happy, healthy, and well fixed once we hit the golden years, right? Actually not: as Jacoby points out, Social Security is threatened, Alzheimer's is booming, and, whatever it says, Big Pharma can't cure all our disabilities. Then there's the moral issue of whether it's worth living so long if only to live badly. Important for your smart readers; with a nine-city tour.
Jericho, Chris. Undisputed: How To Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps. Grand Central. Feb. 2011. 432p. ISBN 9780446538159. $27.99.
Wrestling champ Jericho's The Lion's Tale covered his early years; this book covers his success in the World Wrestling Entertainment arena. I'm told that Jericho is one handsome hunk chased by men, women, and children. Buy for them.
Napoli, Lisa. Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in the Happiest Kingdom on Earth. Crown. Feb. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780307453020. $25.
Eat. Pray. Talk radio. Bummed out in midlife, Napoli went to Bhutan to volunteer at the country's first youth-oriented radio station (she had worked on public radio in Los Angeles). In this book she reveals the truths—and, yes, happiness—she found there. Perfect for everyone who loves finding-yourself-through-travel memoirs (a big crowd) and out around the time the Eat Pray DVD will likely be released. With a reading group guide—and this sounds like a great book club book.
Needham, Hal. Stuntman! My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life. Little, Brown. Feb. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780316078993. $25.99.
This was not initially on my list, but the publicist raved, calling it an unstoppable read; she even sent me a manuscript. An Academy Award–winning stuntman who has been in 310 films and 4500 TV episodes, Needham doesn't go for linear but recalls his life and stunts in a loose-limbed but high-octane read that starts with a stunt gone wrong—count a broken back, a punctured lung, and six smashed ribs—and ratchets up from there.
Orenstein, Peggy. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780061711527. $25.99.
A best-selling author (Waiting for Daisy) and NPR commentator, Orenstein takes on today's girlie-girl culture, which makes every little girl into a pink-tulle princess while sexualizing her at an early age. Drawn from a New York Times Magazine story that drew a huge response, this work is great for debate; why no reading group guide?
Rachman, Gideon. Zero-Sum World: Politics, Power, and Prosperity After the Crash. S. & S. Feb. 2011. 352p.ISBN 9781439176610. $27.
We expected so much from globalization, says Rachman, chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times. Now we're living in a zero-sum world where everyone is fighting to survive. Serious stuff.
Roach, Margaret. And I Shall Have Some Peace Here: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road. Grand Central. Feb. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9780446556095. $25.99.
Roach was a New York Times columnist, a successful gardening author, and editorial director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, but she wasn't happy. So she ditched it all to move to upstate New York, where she's found peace communing with her garden. Golly, I wish I could do that! Promising reading for the stressed out and a big pitch.
Runkel, Hal Edward. ScreamFree Marriage. Broadway. Feb. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780767932776. $23.99. CD: Random Audio.
A licensed marriage and family therapist, Runkel here does for spouses in general what he did for parents in ScreamFree Parenting: he shows them how to stay cool, calm, and responsible in the face of inevitable conflict. You might have caught Runkel on the Today show. Pair this with Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson's just-previewed Spousonomics, and you'll have a counseling course of your own. Lots of publicity.
Sharfstein, Daniel J. The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9781594202827. $27.95.
A story of three families—the Gibsons in 1700s South Carolina, the Spencers in 1800s Appalachia, and the Walls in turn-of-the-20th-century Washington, DC—that crossed the color line, as told by Vanderbilt law professor Sharfstein. Pairs nicely with Carolyn Marie Wilkins's Damn Near White: An African American Family's Rise from Slavery to Bittersweet Success, coming from the University of Missouri Press this fall.
Wheeler, Sara. The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle. Farrar. Feb. 2011. 368p. ISBN 9780374200138. $26.
Having shown us Antarctica in Terra Incognita, Wheeler heads off to circle the North Pole, visiting Russian gulags, herding reindeer in Lapland, and traveling the trans-Alaska pipeline. For anyone who cares about travel or ecology.
This Just In
All previously previewed, Robert J.Barclay's If Wishes Were Horses (Morrow), Dambisa Moyo's How the West Was Lost: Facing Up to America's Economic Decline and the Threat of China and the Rising Rest (Farrar), and His Majesty King Abdullah II's Our Last Best Chance: The Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril (Viking) will now be published in February 2011.
My Picks
Grennan, Conor. Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal. Morrow. Feb. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780061930058. $25.99.
Looking for wider horizons, 30-year-old Grennan opted for a day trip around the world. His journey began at the Little Princes orphanage in Nepal, where he had planned to volunteer for three months before moving on to other adventures. Then he met the children—laughing, bright-eyed, and, he learned, often not orphans at all but victims of human traffickers. So Grennan changed his life in order to change theirs, risking everything to reunite children with their families. Promoted by HarperCollins senior vice president and publisher Liate Stehlik at LJ’s Day of Dialog, this is shocking, affecting, and, ultimately, a reminder that each of us can make a difference. Yes, Three Cups of Tea comes to mind, but Grennan has his own story and his own style. With a six-city tour and a 200,000-copy first printing; some of the proceeds will go to Next Generation Nepal.
Hale, Benjamin. The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore. Twelve: Hachette. Feb. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780446571579. $24.99. CD: Penguin Audio.
Bruno is in prison. Bruno murdered someone. Bruno had a deep and affecting relationship with his caregiver; well, okay, they had sex. And in his powerful complexity, Bruno has been compared to Augie March, Alexander Portnoy, Humbert Humbert, and Oskar Matzerath of Tin Drum fame. One thing: Bruno is a talking chimp. This novel, won in a fierce auction, with foreign rights sold to a half dozen countries, is reportedly big, loud, brassy, contrary, energetic, and just plain awesome. As for the sex, “It’s not bestiality,” said Cary Goldstein, the book’s editor at Twelve. “It’s love.” This will get a lot of attention and provoke a lot of conversations come the new year, so be prepared. What a way to make your debut. I can’t wait.
Lukas, Michael David. The Oracle of Stamboul. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780062012098. $24.99.
In 1877 Constanta, an Ottoman outpost recently overrun by the tsar’s troops, a flock of royal purple and white hoopoes descend upon the birth of Eleonora Cohen and remain her guardians for life. Her mother dead in childbirth, Eleonora is raised by her fond father and cranky stepmother and turns out to be a prodigy who learns to read overnight. When her father heads to Stamboul for business (he sells carpets), Eleonora stows away and enters the rich, overflowing world of the imperial capital, where she’s tutored by an American minister; doted on by her host, the mysterious Moncef Bey; and observes a grand and all-embracing empire heading toward its end. Written in the sweet, wide-eyed, magical tone of a children’s fairy tale, this debut is the publisher’s lead winter title and will have broad appeal. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
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