Prepub Alert, April 1, 2011
Apr 1, 2011PREPUB ALERT NOW ONLINE
Barbara Hoffert’s Prepub Alert is now online (blog.libraryjournal.com/prepubalert). The online edition, which posts every Monday, previews more titles one month earlier than the print edition. Going forward, book reviews that reference Prepub Alert will cite the online edition. Sign up for free weekly alerts to the online edition at bit.ly/g2UqaT.
FICTION
Adiga, Aravind. Last Man in Tower. Knopf. Sept 2011. 368p. ISBN 9780307594099. $26.95; eISBN 9780307700407. CD: Random Audio.
Real estate developer Dharmen Shah wants to tear down a decrepit apartment building in Mumbai and erect luxury towers. But a teacher named Masterji refuses to move, and his formerly friendly neighbors turn on him (they want their buyouts). Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for his last novel, 2008’s The White Tiger, and I found his subsequent story collection, Between the Assassinations, even more intriguing. With a reading group guide and lots of online promotion.
Brandman, Michael. Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues: A Jesse Stone Novel. Putnam. Sept. 2011. NAp. ISBN 9780399157844. $25.95.
With summer just weeks away, Chief of Police Jesse Stone is pretty tense—and not just because Paradise, MA, is gearing up for the tourists. Stone finds himself dealing with car thefts, then murder, then someone who’s come to town to remind him of his not-so-happy past as an L.A. cop. Fans mourning Parker’s death will be happy to see that Brandman, who has written and produced numerous TV movies based on Parker’s novels, has picked up where the best-selling author left off.
Brooks, Terry. The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara. Del Rey: Ballantine. Sept. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780345484208. $27; eISBN 9780345529213.
In Bearers of the Black Staff, which takes place 500 years after the “Genesis of Shannara” series, the magic that has kept survivors of the Great Wars safe in their remote mountain sanctuary has finally failed. In this second and concluding volume of the series, two fledgling magic-wielders had better prove their worth, or thousands will die. Foolproof for fantasy lovers.
Burke, James Lee. Feast Day of Fools. S. & S. Sept. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9781451643114. $26.99.
Burke visits southwest Texas with Sheriff Hackberry Holland, last seen in 2009’s Rain Gods. When alcoholic ex-boxer Danny Boy begs to be locked up in the drunk tank, though he’s clearly sober, Hack and his young deputy wring a confession from him: Danny Boy has witnessed a gruesome torture killing in the desert. Hack tracks the bad guys to the home of a (predictably) mysterious Chinese woman named Anton Ling, who’s either in danger—or dangerous. Burke always delivers; consider multiples.
Cohen, Leah Hager. The Grief of Others. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9781594488054. $26.95.
The death of a newborn shatters family members, then teaches them to share one another’s burdens. Cohen excels at family drama—as with her recent House Lights, called “gorgeous” (Los Angeles Times) and “a hit” (LJ)—so this should be good. And perhaps win Cohen a few more fans.
Cussler, Clive & Justin Scott. The Race: An Isaac Bell Adventure. Putnam. Sept. 2011. NAp. ISBN 9780399157813. $27.95.
Det. Isaac Bell is back, doing his Pinkerton-ish best to fight crime in early 1900s America. More than that I cannot tell you, but, as LJ observes, because this series deals with historical fact, it “cannot go over the top like so many of Cussler’s futuristic novels.” Bell would seem to be a terrific new hero from Cussler.
Farah, Nuruddin. Crossbones. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2011. NAp. ISBN 9781594488160. $27.95.
Winner of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Farah writes enthrallingly about his native Somalia. Here, a journalist returns home to search for a missing stepson and encounters a country blighted by civil war, piracy, and religious intolerance. But don’t expect an utterly grim book; as Farah said in an interview (LJ 2/15/07), appropriately titled “Fiction as Hope,” “When you can’t go down any farther, there is nothing to do but sink or dream of going up.” Expect sharp insight into both human nature and sectarian strife, told in illuminating language free of cant.
Hensher, Philip. King of the Badgers. Faber & Faber. Sept. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780865478633. $26.
British author Hensher isn’t a household name in America, but he ought to be. In 2003, Granta put him on its list of Best of Young British Novelists, while in 2008 the trenchant yet fluidly written The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Here, an eight-year-old girl’s disappearance occasions our visit to quiet little Hanmouth, where individuals isolated by class and lifestyle eventually open up. Promising indeed, especially for Anglophiles.
Howard, Linda. Prey. Ballantine. Sept. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780345506917. $26; eISBN 9780345526298. CD: Random Audio.
A camping guide who can’t compete with the new guy in town, sinfully handsome Dare Callahan, Angie Powell is taking a final trip with some clients when she finds herself held at gunpoint. With Dare somewhere in the woods, tracking a wounded grizzly, is there a chance she’ll survive? Remember: it’s not for nothing that Howard is called the Queen of Romantic Suspense.
Johnson, Denis. Train Dreams. Farrar. Sept. 2011. 128p. ISBN 9780374281144. $18. CD: Macmillan Audio.
National Book Award winner Johnson is back, and, though brief, his book is sure to pack a punch (just think about Tree of Smoke). Robert Grainer, a day laborer in the early 20th-century American West, suffers all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune even as the country is radically transformed into something bigger and brighter. With a reading group guide; grab it.
King, Laurie R. Pirate King. Bantam. Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780553807981. $25; eISBN 9780553907544.
Sherlock Holmes joins wife Mary Russell as she watches over the young actresses cast in Fflytte Films’s latest extravaganza, The Pirates of Penzance, being made on location in Lisbon and Morocco. Suddenly, the prop knives turn real and so do the pirates. The latest in a fun, durable series with two million copies in print, no less. Don’t miss.
Mitchard, Jacquelyn. Second Nature. Random. Sept. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9781400067756. $26. CD: Random Audio.
Sicily was badly disfigured by the flames that devoured her school and took her firefighter father’s life; then her mother died as well. But she’s managed to lead a normal life and even has a fiancé—until a dreadful secret is revealed, and Sicily contemplates something pretty cutting edge: a total face transplant. Classic Mitchard; buy multiples wherever she is popular.
Quinn, Spencer. The Dog Who Knew Too Much: A Chet and Bernie Mystery. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9781439157091. $25; eISBN 9781439163078.
One wonders whether this dog knew how popular Quinn’s series would be when it launched with Dog on It. In any case, cool canine Chet and his beloved Bernie have been hired to find a boy possibly snatched by his divorced dad, but Chet noses out new clues that make things look more desperate. Meanwhile, both Bernie’s girlfriend’s old boyfriend and a stray pup suspiciously resembling Chet appear on the scene. Great, cozy fun even if you’re not nuts for dogs; with a four-city tour and a reading group guide.
Schappell, Elissa. Blueprints for Building Better Girls. S. & S. Sept. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9780743276702. $24.
The high school bad girl. The anorexic daughter. The hesitant mother. They’re all here and all connected, in the latest stories cum novel by Vanity Fair contributing editor Schappell. (Her debut novel, Use Me, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year, was also a set of linked stories.) Schappell gets compared to Lorrie Moore and Amy Bloom, though I think she’s less aggressively witty than the former; perhaps Allegra Goodman fans might like her, too. With a reading group guide.
Sem-Sandberg, Steve. The Emperor of Lies. Farrar. Sept. 2011. 672p. ISBN 9780374139643. $30.
Power monger or savior? Put in charge of the Lodz ghetto by the Nazis, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski turned it into an indispensable industrial complex. To write this August Prize winner, to be published in more than 25 languages, Swedish author Sem-Sandberg looked carefully at the record before reimagining Rumkowski’s rule. Important for smart readers, and one book that really intrigues me; with a national tour (cool for a foreign author) and reading group guide.
Wallace, Nicolle. It’s Classified. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9781451610963. $25; eISBN 9781451610987.
Political commentator Wallace, White House communications director under George W. Bush and campaign adviser to John McCain and Sarah Palin, follows up last year’s Eighteen Acres. President Charlotte Kramer has been reelected with new vice president Tara Meyers, who’s no end of trouble. When Eighteen Acres appeared, everyone whispered that the brash and maladroit Meyers was based on Palin, though the author denies it. Political second-guessers should enjoy; with a four-city tour.
Woods, Stuart. Son of Stone: A Stone Barrington Novel. Putnam. Sept. 2011. NAp. ISBN 9780399157653. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Yup, looks as if Stone Barrington had a son—according to rich-rich former love Arrington Calder. She’s got other plans for him, too. Don’t know yet where the suspense comes in—though those plans are probably dangerous—but Woods is always popular.
NONFICTION
Abramson, Jill. The Puppy Diaries: Raising a Dog Named Scout. Times Bks: Holt. Sept. 2011. 288p.ISBN 9780805093421. $25.
Managing editor of the New York Times, Abramson launched a column on the paper’s website about her new golden retriever puppy, Scout, and hit pay dirt. Readers sent their own doggie pictures, which led to the creation of the site’s most visited photo album in 2009. Not just cutesy stuff; Abramson goes beyond her column to talk about important issues—e.g., the pack-leader approach or positive reinforcement—that should interest the seriously canine inclined.
Coelho, Paulo. Aleph. Knopf. Sept. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780307700186. $24.95; eISBN 9780307957016. CD: Random Audio.
Best-selling inspirational author Coelho was having a crisis of faith, so he did what we all do in that situation: he traveled through Europe, Africa, and Asia and met again with a woman he loved 500 years ago. His books having sold over 130 million copies in 160 countries in 72 languages, you know there’s an audience.
Cox, Lynne. South with the Sun: Roald Amundsen, His Polar Explorations, and the Quest for Discovery. Knopf. Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780307593405. $26; eISBN 9780307700490.
Legendary long-distance swimmer Cox reports that reading a biography of Roald Amundsen as a child fueled her dream of open-water swimming; in her best-selling Swimming to Antarctica, she saw herself following in his footsteps, so to speak. This biography is published to coincide with the centenary of Amundsen’s reaching the South Pole. Most books covering Amundsen focus on his race to the pole against Robert Scott, so this full-scale approach is refreshing and should be good. With a ten-city tour.
Deb, Siddhartha. The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of the New India. Faber & Faber. Sept. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9780865478626. $26.
Deb grew up in northeastern India, won a fellowship to Columbia, published two novels plus lots of reviews and other pieces (e.g., Boston Globe, n + 1), then returned to India to work underground for the Guardian at a call center in New Delhi. He turned his experiences into this account of the massive contradictions of India, where BMWs idle before gentle cows. India’s future matters, and as a novelist Deb should give his writing a narrative arc. Read with Patrick French’s India: A Portrait, out in June.
Di Giovanni, Janine. Ghosts by Daylight: Love, War, and Redemption. Knopf. Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780307265586; $27.95; eISBN 9780307701367.
For the last 20-plus years, Vanity Fair contributing editor Di Giovanni (Madness Visible) has been covering world hot spots from Sarajevo to Afghanistan and has won several journalism honors for her efforts. Along the way, she met and married a man named Bruno, who had been through hell and had the physical and emotional scars to prove it. Suddenly, Di Giovanni found herself caretaker to husband and newborn son—and terrified of the job she has always loved. Given where she’s been, what she’s done, and the quality of her previous writing, this memoir would seem promising.
Fonda, Jane. Prime Time: Creating a Great Third Act. Random. Sept. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9781400066971. $27. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
Now that we’re living so much longer, there aren’t just second acts but third acts in American life. To prepare us, mega-selling author/institution Fonda offers tips on food, exercise, love, and fulfilling ourselves emotionally and spiritually as we pass 60 and head for the final curtain. Wondering how this might differ from other advice books (including Fonda’s) and sort of missing radical Jane, but obviously this is for every help-yourself collection serving people of a certain age.
Friedman, Thomas L. & Michael Mandelbaum. That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented—and How We Can Come Back. Farrar. Sept. 2011. 128p. ISBN 9780374288907. $18. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Globalization. Infotech shake-up. Out-of-control energy consumption. Lasting deficits. The four big problems we’re not grappling with, according to three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Friedman (The World Is Flat) and Mandelbaum, director of the American Foreign Policy program at Johns Hopkins. Here they analyze the problems and offer some solutions, including the revival of our core values (okay, vague) and establishment of a third party. Sure to grab attention, given Friedman’s rep, and get the debate going.
Gruber, Jonathan (text) & Dean Motter (illus.). Health Care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works. Hill & Wang: Farrar. Sept. 2011. 128p. ISBN 9780809094622. $30; pap. ISBN 9780809053971. $13.95.
Just who is Gruber to explain health-care reform? He’s an award-winning MIT economist, director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a key architect of the wide-ranging Massachusetts health-care plan, a member of the board now implementing that plan, and an adviser to Barack Obama whose work shaped the national reform plan passed in 2010. With the help of award-winning artist/illustrator Motter, Gruber takes a graphic approach to the topic that should help clarify the thorny issues involved. Let’s hope that everyone who should read this book does so.
Hendrickson, Paul. Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934–1961. Knopf. Sept. 2011. 560p. ISBN 9781400041626. $30; eISBN 9780307700537.
Fifty years after Ernest Hemingway’s death, Hendrickson profiles the great writer from the height of his career onward by focusing on his constant return for fun and solace to his beloved boat, Pilar. Sounds a bit offbeat, but Hendrickson has the credentials to pull it off; his Sons of Mississippi, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, made good history out of a single photograph of seven segregation-era sheriffs with a billy club. With a five-city tour.
Jennings, Ken. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. Scribner. Sept. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9781439167175. $25; eISBN 9781439167199.
I love maps, so this tale of geography nuts, from London map fair attendees to Google Earth programmers, appeals to me. But there are plenty of other mapheads out there, and Jennings already has a reputation as a record-making Jeopardy! contender, netting $2.52 million over 74 games. Plus, he’s author of the best-selling Brainiac.
Kluger, Jeffrey. The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9781594488313. $26.95.
In a July 6, 2006, story, “The New Science of Siblings,” Time senior writer Kluger noted that while scientists trying to figure out what really shapes us have hit successively on parents, genes, and peers, they felt that they were missing something. And “more and more, scientists are concluding that this unexplained force is our siblings.” Here he expands on his research to show what our longest-lasting relationship means to us. Since we’re always digging for personal insights, I’m betting this book will be very popular.
Lehrer, Jim. Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to McCain-Obama. Random. Sept. 2011. 224p. ISBN 9781400069170. $26. CD: Random Audio.
Former president George H.W. Bush once told PBS News anchor Lehrer that the presidential debates were “tension city,” though if Lehrer himself felt that way, it never showed. Dubbed the “dean of moderators” by CNN’s Bernard Shaw, he has held sway over 11 presidential debates with enviable aplomb. Here he recalls those debates, detailing how the candidates prepared and how they fared. This should be an eye-opener from someone who saw it all up close and personal.
Lindsay-Hogg, Michael. Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond. Knopf. Sept. 2010. 304p. ISBN 9780307594686. $26; eISBN 9780307701497.
Son of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald (e.g., Dark Victory), surrounded by Hollywood’s elite from an early age, and then introduced to theater when his mother worked on Broadway, famed director Lindsay-Hogg (Brideshead Revisited) should have a fascinating memoir to offer. At its heart is the sneaking suspicion, set off by an offhand comment about his mother’s affair with Orson Welles, that he is actually Welles’s son. For all your movie-mad (especially old-movie-mad) readers.
Mycoskie, Blake. Start Something That Matters. Random. Sept. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9781400069187. $25.
Mycoskie didn’t just create TOMS Shoes, which for every pair of shoes purchased gives a pair to a needy child. He also proposed the One on One business model, detailed here, which combines profit building with philanthropy and personal fulfillment. It’s part of a new movement called Conscious Capitalism. Mycoskie just won a 2011 Character Approved award, so expect to see more of him.
Nasar, Sylvia. Grand Pursuit: The History of Economic Genius. S. & S. Sept. 2011. 554p. ISBN 9780684872988. $32. CD: Random Audio.
Nasar moves from A Beautiful Mind—a best seller, a National Book Critics Circle award winner, and the basis of the Academy Award–winning film—to a “grand pursuit”: the invention of modern economics, essentially begun when Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew set out to detail the suffering of London’s multitudinous poor. Marx, Engels, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and others then took up the call to make humankind responsible for its own material fate. Should be engrossing even for those of us who can barely count; expect a wide audience.
Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam Twenty. S. & S. Sept. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9781439169216. $35.
Pearl Jam started back in 1991 with the album Ten, which sold 13 million copies; its latest, 2009’s self-released Backspacer, debuted in Billboard’s top slot. So, yeah, not just history. This book features memorabilia, photos, tour notes, and drawings, giving a sort of there-at-the-creation feel. Academy Award–winning director Cameron Crowe, who provides an introduction, is releasing a Pearl Jam film this fall—a coup, because this band would rather play than posture. Should be big.
Pinsky, Drew. Recovering Intimacy. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9781415605716. $26; eISBN 9781451605730.
What makes life worth living? Intimacy, says famed doctor, best-selling author, and television host Pinsky. If you want to mend the bonds to your nearest and dearest and think a book will help, pay this doctor a visit. Lots of promotion with the author??s crammed social media.
Trillin, Calvin. Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin. Random. Sept. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9781400069828. $26.
There’s no such thing as “quite enough” of Trillin, which this collection should prove by offering highlights of his best work. Worth considering even if you have all his other books.
White, Carrie. Upper Cut: A Memoir. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9781439199091. $26; eISBN 9781439199114.
This isn’t just a memoir of White’s days as hairdresser to the stars, though she does talk about working with Richard Avedon on Vogue shoots and doing Sharon Tate’s hair for her wedding. White also wants to examine how her alcoholic mother and sexually abusive stepfather damaged her life—she had five kids by three husbands before she was 28 and lost nearly everything to drink and drug addiction before sobering up definitively. A sad and familiar story, with Hollywood gilt that should interest many.
MY PICKS
Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus. Doubleday. Sept. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780385534635. $26.95. CD: Random Audio. FICTION
When Prospero the Enchanter discovers that he has a young daughter with extraordinary magical talents, he wastes no time in setting up a competition between her and the protégé of his longtime adversary. Celia and Marco train until young adulthood and eventually meet under the eerie black-and-white-striped tents of the Cirque des Rêves—the Circus of Dreams. What happens next has obviously intrigued a lot of people—rights for this debut have been sold to 22 countries, Summit Entertainment has made a film deal, and there’s a 175,000-copy first printing. Not over-the-top kaleidoscopic but keenly, lushly cool and inventive with a hint of danger and reckless love; remember, this circus “Opens at Nightfall/ Closes at Dawn.” Puts me in mind of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes lightened up by Harry Potter. This will be big.
Wright, Robin. Rock the Casbah: How Sheikhs, Comedians, Rappers, and Women Are Challenging Osama bin Laden. S. & S. Sept. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9781439103166. $26.99. NONFICTION
You’ve heard this complaint before: Why don’t Muslims challenge the violent extremists among them? Well, they do, explains Wright—and she should know. An Overseas Club and UN Correspondents Association Gold Medal winner for her coverage of foreign affairs, she’s reported from 140 countries, with a special focus on the Muslim world; her most recent book was Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East. Here she cites the clerics, comedians, and rappers who challenge al Qaeda violence; the women who are launching liberation movements; and the former jihadists who openly reject violence. These Muslims all want to build a better Islam—on their own, not Western, terms. Relevant and engrossing; I want this book now.
