I MENTIONED THIS FIRST TITLE IN LAST MONTH’S “New and Notable”…it is
worth mentioning again. The author has an exceptional debut novel and
lives in Colorado. Worth the price of a hardcover… a Hamlet-style tale!

THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski

A stately, wonderfully written debut novel that incorporates a few of the great archetypes: a disabled but resourceful young man, a potential Clytemnestra of a mom and a faithful dog.Writing to such formulas, with concomitant omniscience and world-weariness, has long been the stuff of writing workshops. Wroblewski is the product of one such place, but he seems to have forgotten much of what he learned there: He takes an intense interest in his characters; takes pains to invest emotion and rough understanding in them; and sets them in motion with graceful language (and, in eponymous young Edgar’s case, sign language). At the heart of the book is a pup from an extremely rare breed, thanks to a family interest in Mendelian genetics; so rare is Almondine, indeed, that she finds ways to communicate with Edgar that no other dog and human, at least in literature,
have yet worked out. Edgar may be voiceless, but he is capable of expressing sorrow and rage when his father suddenly dies, and Edgar decides that his father’s brother, who has been spending a great deal of time with Edgar’s mother, is responsible for the crime. That’s an appropriately tragic setup, and Edgar finds himself exiled to the bleak wintry woods-though not alone, for he is now the alpha of his own very special pack. The story takes Jungle Book-ish turns: “He blinked at the excess moonlight in
the clearing and clapped for the dogs. High in the crown of a charred tree, an owl covered its dished face, and one branch down, three small replicas followed. Baboo came at once. Tinder had begun pushing into the tall grass and he turned and trotted back.” It resolves, however, in ways that will satisfy grown-up readers. The novel succeeds admirably in telling its story
from a dog’s-eye view that finds the human world very strange indeed.An auspicious debut: a boon for dog lovers, and for fans of storytelling that eschews flash. Highly recommended. Kirkus Review

RIVER-HORSE, by William Least Heat-Moon

Published in 2001 but worth reading again. The acclaimed author of Blue Highways and PrairyEarth chronicles his journey across America’s waterways in his dory Nikawa (River Horse), encountering strange people, hostile cities, and hair-raising dangers.

WAITER RANT, by Waiter

A whimsical account of a waiter’s life at an upscale New York restaurant, based on the award-winning WaiterRant.net blog, describes his daily experiences with a series of outrageous customers and shares tips on such topics as getting good service and proper tipping etiquette. 35,000 first printing.

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATOE PEEL SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer

The German occupation of the Channel Islands, recalled in letters between a London reporter and an eccentric gaggle of Guernsey islanders.This debut by an “aunt-niece” authorial team presents itself as cozy fiction about comfortably quirky people in a bucolic setting, but it quickly evinces far more serious, and ambitious, intent. In 1946, Juliet, famous for her oxymoronic wartime humor column, is coping with life amid the rubble of London when she receives a letter from a reader, Dawsey, a Guernsey resident who asks her help in finding books by Charles Lamb. After she honors his request, a flurry of letters arrive from Guernsey islanders eager to share recollections of the German occupation of the islands. (Readers may be reminded of the PBS series, Island at War.) When the Germans catch some islanders exiting from a late-night pig roast, the group, as an excuse for violating curfew and food restrictions, invents a book club. The “Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” is born, affording Guernseyites an excuse to meet and share meager repasts. (The Germans have confiscated all the real food.) Juliet’s fractious correspondents, including reputed witch Isola, Booker, a Jewish valet who masquerades as a Lord, and many other L&PPPS members, reveal that the absent founder of their society, Elizabeth, loved Christian, a German captain. No one accuses Elizabeth of collaboration (except one crotchety islander, Adelaide) because Christian was genuinely nice. An act of bravery caused Elizabeth’s deportation to France, and her whereabouts remain unknown. The Society is raising four-year-old Kit, Elizabeth’s daughter by Christian. To the consternation of her editor and friend, Sidney, Juliet is entertaining the overtures, literary and romantic, of a dashing but domineering New York publisher, Markham. When Juliet goes to Guernsey, some hard truths emerge about Elizabeth’s fate and defiant courage. Elizabeth and Juliet are appealingly reminiscent of game but gutsy ’40s movie heroines.The engrossing subject matter and lively writing make this a sure winner.
Kirkus Review, 2008

THE GARGOYLE, by Andrew Davidson

Awakening in a burn ward after being horribly burned over much of his body after a terrible car accident, the cynical narrator is visited by a beautiful and enigmatic sculptress of gargoyles who tells him that they had once been lovers in medieval Germany and spins a tale of deathless love.
A first novel.

THE 19TH WIFE, by David Ebershoff

The complex history of polygamy in the Mormon Church intertwines the story of Ann Eliza Young, the nineteenth and final wife of Brigham Young, who in 1875 leaves her husband and embarks on crusade to end polygamy, and a modern-day murder mystery in which a polygamous man has been found dead and one of his wives is accused of the crime.
100,000 first printing.

BOOKS, by Larry McMurtry

In a prolific life of singular literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded in a variety of genres: in coming-of-age novels like The Last Picture Show; in collections of essays like In a Narrow Grave; and in the reinvention of the Western on a grand scale in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Now, in Books: A Memoir, McMurtry writes about his endless passion for books: as a boy growing up in a largely “bookless” world; as a young man devouring the vastness of literature with astonishing energy; as a fledgling writer and family man; and above all, as one of America’s most prominent bookmen. He takes us on his journey to becoming an astute, adventurous book scout and collector who would eventually open stores of rare and collectible editions in Georgetown, Houston, and finally, in his previously “bookless” hometown of Archer City, Texas–From
publisher description.The author recounts his lifelong love affair with books, from his largely “bookless” boyhood and discovery of literature as a young man, to the evolution of his writing career and his passion as a book collector who opens bookstores of rare and collectible volumes.

THE LINE UPON A WIND, by Noel Mostert

Traces the twenty-two-year conflict between France and Britain, profiling the war as one of history’s longest and most devastating while profiling the new naval tactics and weapons it brought into action, in a narrative account that covers a range of topics, from the contributions of Napoleon and Nelson to ship-construction strategies and related land battles

TEMPLES ON THE OTHER SIDE, by Sylvia Browne

Describes the temples and halls that exist in the spirit realm and provides
meditations designed to allow readers to access these edifaces and use
their wisdom to positively affect their lives on Earth.

THE LACE READER, by Brunonia Barry

Having left her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts, fifteen years ago under troubling circumstances, psychic Towner Whitney reluctantly returns after her eighty-five-year-old great-aunt Eva suddenly disappears and joins local cop John Rafferty in his investigation into the mystery.
250,000 first printing.

BLOOD TRAIL, by C.J. Box

In the wake of an elk hunter’s grisly murder, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is directed by the governor to investigate the relevance of a mysterious poker chip found at the crime scene.
By the author of Free Fire.

GOOD-BYE AND AMEN, by Beth Gutcheon

Determined to keep their inheritance from dividing them, close siblings Eleanor, Monica, and Jimmy Moss struggle with differences of opinion about how to share and maintain their late parents’ summer house, a situation that is further complicated by the members of their extended families.
75,000 first printing.

THE CONDITION, by Jennifer Haigh

Unaware of the long-standing grievances harbored by their divorced parents, three adult siblings embark on a tumultuous summer when the oldest, a successful Manhattan doctor, investigates his sister’s chromosomal disorder against his mother’s wishes. By the author of Mrs. Kimble.
100,000 firstprinting.

HIT AND RUN, by Lawrence Block

John Keller-the philosophical hit man who’s brightened the pages of many a short story and a quasi-novel cobbled together from stories (Hit Parade, 2006)-finally gets a proper novel of his own.The assignment, set up by a client named Al who paid cash in advance, seems routine: Fly to Des Moines, wait for the high sign to kill Gregory Dowling, go back to New York. But the days pass without Keller being turned loose. Not until after he’s finally given the go-ahead does a news broadcast tell him he’s been set up. Stranded in America’s heartland with no contacts, precious little money and a bogus identity that’s about to blow up in his face, and sought by every cop in the nation for a murder he didn’t commit, Keller can think of only one goal: getting back to his hometown. He’s almost made it, courtesy of an impressive variety of tricks he’s improvised along the way, when he realizes that Al has made New York just as dangerous as Iowa. Keller’s only chance is to say goodbye to his old life and rebuild himself from scratch. Block treats both his unlikely hero’s initial flight and his attempt to establish a new identity in such painstaking detail that they become riveting. Only his climactic search for revenge against Al feels ordinary.From the first, Keller assumes this hit will be his last case. Readers can only hope it isn’t so.
Copyright Kirkus 2008

LOST SPY, by Andrew Meier

Time magazine’s former Moscow correspondent profiles an American who traveled the world gathering intelligence for the Soviet Union, until he was swept up in Stalin’s purges. Meier (Black Earth: a Journey Through Russia After the Fall, 2003, etc.) unravels an amazing story. The son of a prosperous Russian immigrant, Cy Oggins entered Columbia University in 1917. A brilliant scholar, he was swept up in student opposition to World War I and shared his left-wing peers’ fascination with Russia’s communist revolution. Thanks to J. Edgar Hoover’s obsession with subversion, undercover FBI surveillance, wiretaps and mail intercepts preserve a detailed account of American communism’s turbulent birth, in which Oggins and his wife Nerma played a modest role. Meier reminds us that Lenin’s USSR was equally obsessed with subversion, quickly organizing an elaborate, worldwide system of spies, moles, couriers and assassins. Recruited to this network in 1926, Oggins never spied against the United States. Soviet intelligence assigned him the cover role of a prosperous American scholar studying abroad; his residence served as a safe house for its spies. Oggins later traveled to China and Manchuria to work on various espionage schemes. But faithful service did not save him from Stalin’s paranoia about anyone who had contact with foreigners, which devastated the Soviet intelligence service in the late ’30s. Thousands of loyal agents were summoned to Moscow and executed or dispatched to the Gulag. Arrested in 1939 and sent to an arctic slave-labor camp, Oggins had a damaged leg that saved him from the most grueling jobs; he survived until 1947. Meier tells the painful story of his final years and Nerma’s desperate efforts to secure his
release.Gripping tale of a 1920s American radical who ultimately paid a terrible price for his idealism. Copyright Kirkus 2008

HOUSE AND HOME, by Kathleen Mccleary

Devastated by the loss of her beloved home in the wake of a painful divorce, coffee shop owner and mom Ellen Flanagan finds herself in an unexpected relationship with the husband of a shrewish woman who has bought the house.
A first novel. 50,000 first printing.

VETS UNDER SIEGE, by Martin Schram

A syndicated columnist offers a provocative exposé of the shameful treatment of American military personnel by the U.S. government at every stage from recruitment through deployment and recovery, revealing the deceptive practices used by military recruiters to meet quotas, the bureaucratic indifference and neglect suffered by veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other examples of neglect.

FLEECED, by Dick Morris

The co-authors of Outrage present a critical analysis of additional power abuses by the American government, wealthy corporations, and high-profile celebrities, in an account that addresses topics ranging from sub-prime mortgages and the secret purchases of Dubai to corporate salaries and the 2008 election.
150,000 first printing.

THE FAITH OF BARACK OBAMA, by Stephen Mansfield

Explores the religious background of Barack Obama, examines his relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and discusses how his beliefs shape his personal and political life.

MAN OF THE PEOPLE, by Paul Alexander

Recounts the rise of John McCain, the former POW and Vietnam War hero who became a Republican senator and the nation’s most passionate spokesperson for campaign finance reform.

THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA, by Pete Souza

A remarkable collection of exclusive photographs by an award-winning presidential photojournalist captures Barak Obama’s rise to political stardom beginning with Obama’s first day in the U.S. Senate.

THE GO-GIVER, by Bob Burg

This modern-day business parable, a quick read in the spirit of The Greatest Salesman in the World and The One Minute Manager, should do well with eager corporate-ladder climbers, who may at first be confused by its focus: on putting the other guy first-be it a colleague, competitor, customer, friend or family member. Told through the fictitious story of an ambitious young salesman named Joe, Burg and Mann communicate their points through the advice of an enigmatic (and highly likeable) mentor character known as Pindar. Rather than help Joe snag a fast sale, the consultant introduces him to series of “go-givers” who personify the “Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.” Over the course of five days, a restaurateur, a CEO, a financial advisor, a real-estate broker and the mysterious “Connector” teach Joe about the laws of value, compensation, influence, authenticity and receptivity-concepts that make more immediate sense in this fictional context than they would in a formal business book. Burg (Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts Into Sales) and Mann (You Call the Shots) write with a simple, informal style that offers a working-person’s interpretation of the old adage “give, and you shall receive.” (Jan.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

ORIGIN, by Diana Abu-Jabar

New York-based fingerprint expert Lena investigates a series of crib deaths that may actually be the work of a serial killer, a case that reminds Lena of the mystery surrounding her own childhood, marked by her orphaned status and her intuitive talents. Reprint.

IN THE WOODS, by Tana French

Twenty years after witnessing the violent disappearances of two companions from their small Dublin suburb, detective Rob Ryan investigates a chillingly similar murder that takes place in the same wooded area, a case that forces him to piece together his traumatic memories.

OUT STEALING HORSES, by Per Pettersen

Petterson, who hails from Norway, offers a moving tale about the power of memory and the bonds of family. Struggling to recover from the death of his wife, 67-year-old Trond Sander moves into a lonely cabin in southeastern Norway, a region that’s rich with his own personal history. It’s the place where Trond last saw his father before he walked out on the family. The
year was 1948, the season was summer, and Trond, then 15 years old, was working as a logger. Not long after returning to the area, Trond crosses paths with a neighbor, who happens to be the brother of his childhood friend, Jon, and all sorts of memories start to surface. Looking back on the summer of 1948, Trond recalls the afternoon he and Jon decided to take some horses from a neighbor’s farm. That day, Jon accidentally killed one of his own twin brothers-a tragedy that caused him to run away. Trond’s
father, as it turns out, was in love with Jon’s mother, and their relationship is part of what tore their family apart. Decades later, Trond is still working to make sense of the formative events of his adolescence. His first-person narration-forthright, simple and tinged with melancholy-makes for rewarding reading. Told partially through flashbacks, this is a poignant, beautifully realized narrative that should earn the acclaimed Petterson new fans.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, by Evelyn Waugh

Captain Charles Ryder, stationed at Brideshead, recalls his boyhood associations with the odd but charming members of an English noble family.

APPLES FOR JAM, by Tessa Kiros

Cannot be described, really! Filled with beautiful pictures, recipes, colors and memories. This is a one-of-a-kind cookbook/gift book. Not many available…what a perfect gift for the cookbook collector! Charming!!

JUNK BEAUTIFUL, by Sue Shitney

Using a recycle and reuse approach to home decorating, a richly illustrated manual explains how to transform trash and junk into one-of-a-kind furnishings and accessories for every room in the house, with tips on searching and shopping for recycled materials, design and construction, adding personal touches, and more. Original.

THE JOY OF VEGAN BAKING, by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Explaining how to create delectable baked goods without using any animal products, an introduction to vegan baking furnishes dozens of recipes for all kinds of baked goods, including cakes, pies, cookies, breads, biscuits, and muffins.

KNITTING SOCK SENSATIONS, by Louise Butt

Forget shoes - readers can take their sock addiction to new lengths with an inspiring mix of cozy, quirky and chic sock designs in Knitting Socks Appeal. Included are projects such as pedicure socks, chic retro leg warmers, tiny tiger feet and even unique stripy socks for dad. Variation designs will tempt readers with a colorful range of irresistible sock yarns and stylish embellishments such as pompoms, beads and ribbons complete each pair. With clear patterns, stylish photography and easy-to-follow technique instructions, even novice knitters will be able to treat their feet. Amaz. Review

CREATIVE PLAY FOR YOUR TODDLER, by Christopher Clouder

Steiner Expertise and Toy Projects for 2-4s

THE CREATIVE FAMILY, by Amanda Soule

How to Encourage Imagination & Nurture Family Connections

Popularity: 21%

PEACE LIKE A RIVER, by Leif Enger

This is an upbeat story, seen through the eyes of Reuben Land, an eleven year old asthmatic boy. Reuben’s brother kills two juveniles who are bent on malicious mischief. When his brother escapes from jail, the family, father, philosophical younger sister and Reuben, begin a drive through the unforgiving Black Hills to find him. Help comes in unlikely places along their journey. It’s a remarkable journey marked by humor, loyalty and, in the end, redemption. A wonderfully accomplished first novel.

Peace Like A River was Enger’s debut as an author. A few years ago it was chosen as the “All Denver” read.

New by Leif Enger is:
SO BRAVE, YOUNG, AND HANDSOME, published in April, 2008.

Kirkus Reviews 2008 February #2

A belated follow-up to a popular debut finds the Midwestern novelist in fine storytelling form, as he spins a picaresque tale of redemption and renewal amid the fading glories of the Old West.Some readers will undoubtedly find autobiographical implications in the protagonist conjured by Enger (Peace Like a River, 2001). In his second novel, a Minnesota writer who has enjoyed his own out-of-the-blue success with a popular novel struggles in vain to produce a suitable successor. In the opening pages of this first-person narrative, Monte Becket introduces himself as a nothing-special Everyman, a former postman who quit his job after his novel Martin Bligh reached a readership beyond the wildest expectations of both the part-time author and his publisher. Yet Becket has since suffered a crisis of confidence, starting and abandoning seven different manuscripts over a four-year period until he fears that his success was just a fluke. This story has its start in 1915, just as Becket abandons his final manuscript, when a mysterious geezer in a rowboat passes his Minnesota riverfront home (with a nod toward Enger’s earlier novel, rivers run through this one) and ultimately entices Becket to join him on an adventure that will change both of their lives. The mysterious man’s name may or may not be Glendon Hale; he may or may not be an outlaw on the run; and he most certainly is a boat-building alcoholic. With the encouragement of his painter wife, Becket leaves behind a comfortable home and a loving family to accompany Hale on a pilgrimage, one that will find Becket learning more about his companion’s identity while assuming an alias of his own. As they head south toward Mexico and then west to California, they find their travels enlivened by a young accomplice who joins them and a pursuer who trails them, a former Pinkerton detective who has also enjoyed some literary success. Revelations abound, for both Becket and the reader.Though Becket laments that he “can’t write a(nother) book that anyone will want to read,” Enger has.

Popularity: 56%

BACKCAST, by Lou Ureneck

Fatherhood, fly-fishing, and a river journey through the heart of Alaska. An unflinching meditation on the Alaskan interior and parenthood traces the author’s struggles to reclaim the trust of his teenage son during a Bering Sea fishing trip during which they encountered formidable wildlife and natural elements that helped strengthen their relationship. 25,000 first printing.

SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY’S, by James Patterson

Years after spending a lonely childhood at the side of a make-believe best friend named Michael, theater maven’s daughter Jane encounters a loving flesh-and-blood Michael who is exactly like the figure of her childhood imagination.

 

MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, by Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D.

“Fascinating…burst with hope for everyone who is brain injured (not just stroke patients) and gives medical practitioners clear, no-nonsense information about the shortcomings of conventional treatment and attitudes toward the brain injured. But to my mind, what makes MY STROKE OF INSIGHT not just valuable but invaluable – a gift to every spiritual seeker and peace activist – is what I would describe as Taylor’s fearless mapping of the physiology of compassion, the physiology or nirvana. This book is about the wonder of being human.” Robert Koehler

QUANTUM WELLNESS, by Kathy Freston

Argues that mental, physical, and spiritual health are intertwined; presents eight pillars of wellness, including meditation, fun activities, and conscious eating; and describes how to use these pillars to achieve total wellness.

 

CHASING HARRY WINSTON, by Lauren Weisberger

Making a pact that they will change the things that most challenge them within a year’s time, Manhattan friends Emmy, Leigh, and Adriana shed their downtrodden identities in order to pursue the high life. By the author of The Devil Wears Prada. 300,000 first printing.

 

LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH, by Emily Giffin

Believing her marriage to Andy to be perfect in every way, Ellen runs into former flame Leo and wonders why she has been unable to forget him even though they brought out the worst in each other. By the author of Baby Proof. 450,000 first printing.

 

ANOTHER MAN’S MOCCASINS, by Craig Johnson

Unsettled by similarities between a recent murder case and his first investigation as a marine in Vietnam, Sheriff Walt Longmire is unwilling to believe that a too-obvious suspect is actually responsible and wonders about a strangely familiar photograph found in the recent victim’s purse. 15,000 first printing.

EASY COMPANY SOLDIER, by Sgt. Don Malarkey with Bob Welch

A “Band of Brothers” soldier and elite paratrooper describes his role in providing defense during 1943’s Operation Overlord, his receipt of a Bronze Star and numerous other honors, and the loss of his best friend during the engagement at Bastogne. 100,000 first printing.

THE LEGEND OF COLTON H. BRYANT, by Alexandra Fuller

A lyrical paean to an unsung…well, not exactly hero, but one of life’s unsung people.If this book were a country song, it would be by Merle Haggard. Whether British-born Fuller (Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier, 2004, etc.) knows from Haggard is a matter of speculation, but what is clear is that she has an unfailing eye for common people caught up in uncommon events. This story of a young Wyomingite named Colton H. Bryant is also that of the oil and gas boom wrought by deregulation in these rapacious years of Bush, “a tragedy before it even starts because there was never a way for anyone to win against all the odds out here.” Alternately bullied and ignored—”Retard” is a slur-cum-nickname that figures often in these pages—Colton did most of the things a young man in the heavily Mormon southwestern corner of the state is supposed to do: ride and rope, fish and hunt, cruise around in pickup trucks. Moreover, like young men in Evanston, Colton “was born with horses and oil in his blood like his father before him and his grandfather before that and maybe his grandfather’s father before that.” Having endured adolescence thanks to a good friend named Jake and a slightly misquoted creed borrowed from television (”Mind over matter”), Colton followed the second birthright to the oil patch, where he quickly found work as a roughneck, an unforgiving job. “They have to keep drilling hour after hour–storm, heat, sleet, ice, sun–no matter what,” writes Fuller. “They’ll slap another beating heart on the rig to take your place if you’re so much as five minutes late.” Diligent and aware of the dangers, but needing to support a wife and baby, he fell into the well, as so many others have, just one of 35 Wyomingites to die on the rigs between 2000 and 2006. The petroleum company, in the meanwhile, boasted record profits—while Colton’s family “received no compensation for his loss.”A latter-day Silkwood, quiet and understated, beautifully written, speaking volumes about the priorities of the age. Copyright Kirkus 2008

SNUFF, by Chuck Palahniuk

Narrated from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600 as they await their turn on camera, a provocative new novel about the role of pornography in contemporary life follows the sexual exploits of porn queen Cassie Wright, who plans to break the world record for serial fornication with six hundred men on camera. 200,000 first printing.

THE GARDEN OF LAST DAYS, by Andre Dubus III

Reluctantly bringing her daughter to her men’s club office when her babysitter falls ill, stripper April endeavors to keep her child safe while servicing a wealthy foreign client, while a drunken regular angrily retaliates for being thrown out of the club. By the author of House of Sand and Fog.

 

THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, by Garth Stein

Evaluating his life on the eve of his death, atypical canine Enzo considers the sacrifices his master, Denny Swift, has made in his pursuit of becoming a professional race car driver; the painful custody battle between Denny and his in-laws, and the dog’s own efforts to preserve the Swift family. 200,000 first printing.

A RARE BREED OF LOVE, by Jana Kohl

An account written to benefit the Humane Society of the U.S. shares the uplifting story of a three-legged poodle whose rescue from a puppy mill sparked the author’s cross-country rallies to raise awareness and call for reforms to animal protection laws, in a volume complemented by photos of celebrities and their animal companions. 100,000 first printing.

OLIVE KITTERIDGE, BY Elizabeth Strout

The larger-than-life world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher and unofficial town crier in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in a series of luminous stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, a young man grieving over his lost mother, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son. 50,000 first printing.

FROM A DISTANCE, by Tamera Alexander

“We all have been waiting, and her is the new title, by our wonderful Greeley/Tennessee author and friend, Tamera Alexander.” When one of Elizabeth Westbrook’s photographs becomes key evidence in a murder charge, her life is in peril, and when her interests clash with those of a former Confederate sharpshooter, she begins to question her own motivation. Original. Look for her next book in the TIMBER RIDGE REGLECTIONS series in spring 2009.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TROUBLE, by Deeanne Gist

This sequel to Courting Trouble returns to Corsicana, TX, where unlikely heroine Essie Spreckelmeyer has just won the Best Bicycle Costume Award of 1898. Essie is still outspoken and stirring up trouble wherever she goes. When Tony Morgan, the disinherited son of an oil baron, takes a job with Essie’s family oil business, sparks fly. Essie’s independent nature and refusal to take a backseat in a man’s world have long kept her single, but Tony may be just her match. Christy Award winner Gist’s historical romances have increasingly gained popularity, combining witty dialog, well-balanced plots, and fully developed characters who seem almost real.

CHRIST THE LORD, THE ROAD TO CANA, by Anne Rice

A second volume in the author’s series of novels chronicling the life of Christ begins prior to his baptism in the Jordan River and concludes with the miracle at Cana, as he leaves his everyday life in Nazareth to confront his destiny, the Devil’s temptations, and the call to be Israel’s liberator from Roman occupation. 500,000 first printing.

THE SOUL OF MONEY, by Lynne Twist

Examines the link between our attitudes toward money–earning it, spending it, and giving it away–and our feelings of fulfillment, sufficiency, and purpose in our lives. Reprint.

 

HIGH ALTITUDE WESTERN GARDENING, by Marilyn Quinn

This guide to gardening in the high altitude of the Rocky Mountain region reveals what plants to choose and when to plant them, and offers valuable information on how to care for plants at high altitudes. Original.

STRAWBALE HOME PLANS, by Wayne J. Bingham and Colleen F. Smith

Two experts in the area of strawbale construction introduce thirty innovative plans to build a strawbale home, ranging in style from small retreats and rural off-the-grid houses to urban homes and commercial structures, accompanied by full-color photographs of projects from around the world and a look at the health and energy-saving benefits of such construction. Original.

GREEN FROM THE GROUND UP, by David Johnston

According to Johnston (a leader in the green building movement) and Gibson (contributing editor to Fine Homebuilding magazine), 40% of the world’s resources go into buildings and 66% of the electricity generated is for heating, cooling, and lighting them. After making a strong case for sustainable building, they provide practical advice for the process from the layout and foundation to interior finishes and landscaping in this well- illustrated guide.

GEORGIA COOKING IN AN OKLAHOMA KITCHEN, by Trisha Yearwood

Grammy Award–winning country singer Trisha Yearwood throws her hat into the celebrity cookbook ring with this cheerful if uninspired collection of home-style Southern recipes. Among family and friends, Yearwood is known for her cooking, she writes, and a foreword by her husband and fellow singer, Garth Brooks, explains that Yearwood’s secret is that she cooks with love, a technique not fully explored in this book. Aimed at the kitchen beginner, the book presents a list of necessary equipment and hints on substitutions, like making confectioner’s sugar from granulated sugar, and is sprinkled throughout with helpful notes from Yearwood and her mother and sister—both of whom are co-writers. International stardom clearly hasn’t dampened Yearwood’s enthusiasm for down-home treats like Pimento Cheese Spread, Hashbrown Casserole, and Cranberry Salad with Cool Whip, Cream Cheese and Gelatin. Her family members make frequent appearances in the many color photographs and in the form of favorite dishes like Jack’s Brunswick Stew and Gwen’s Fried Chicken with Milk Gravy. Yearwood is an advocate for no-fuss, simple cooking with plenty of supermarket shortcuts, and this volume will most appeal to fans who want to get a little closer to Yearwood and Brooks (like a chance to recreate the celebs’ wedding cake at home).

COOKIES, by Martha Stewart

A luscious array of favorite cookie recipes presents 175 different cookies that range from perennial crowd-pleasers to innovative new treats, all organized according to such textures as Soft and Chewy, Crisp and Crunchy, and Light and Delicate, including Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Lemon-Apricot Sandwiches, and Brown-Butter Toffee Blondies. Original. 150,000 first printing.

VEGETARIAN COOKING FOR EVERYONE, by Deborah Madison

The founding chef of San Francisco’s Greens restaurant and award-winning author of The Greens Cookbook presents a lavishly illustrated cookbook of more than 1,400 innovative vegetarian and vegan recipes and comprehensive information on a myriad of vegetables dishes, in a tenth anniversary edition of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook. 12,500 first printing.

FOOD 2.0, by Charlie Ayers

In a groundbreaking cookbook based on the concept of brainfood, Google’s famed founding chef outlines a bold new approach to eating that emphasizes how the right foods at the right time of day can transform one’s body and mind and includes more than ninety easy-to-prepare recipes that range from breakfast to dessert. 50,000 first printing.

THE GIRL WITH NO SHADOW, by Joanne Harris

In Harris’s sequel to Chocolat (1999), the paranormally gifted chocolate-maker Vianne Rocher has moved from rural France to Paris, where she tries to create a life of anonymity.After an unfortunate “accident”—a child’s magical impulse gone astray—Vianne has forsworn her paranormal power to ensure her family’s stability. Using an assumed name, she lives above her chocolate shop in Montmarte with 11-year-old Anouk (now called Annie by schoolmates) and four-year old Rosette, who does not speak but possesses special gifts for drawing, signing and creating her own “accidents” despite her mother’s attempts to avoid them. Vianne herself no longer makes her own “special” candies. Her middle-aged, well-meaning but conventional landlord, Thierry, has become her suitor, and she has exchanged her red dress for basic black. Enter Zozie de l’Alba, flamboyant, charming and soulless, a woman who lives by stealing identities, whether by literal theft of credit cards or by more supernatural means. Zozie is attracted to the energy of the chocolatier and particularly to Anouk, who is struggling with heightened preteen anxieties and resentments, a desire both to fit in and remain different. Iago-like Zozie insinuates herself into Vianne’s family. She draws much-needed new customers by redecorating the shop and charming patrons while encouraging Vianne to make her own delicious, if no longer magical, candies. She becomes Vianne’s friend and a confidante to Anouk as the girl sorts out social problems at school. But Zozie lets readers know early on that her plans are sinister. She wants Vianne’s identity and carefully drives a wedge between mother and daughter. Then Vianne’s old lover, and Rosette’s secret father, Roux, shows up. Zozie senses a kindred amoral spirit. The psychology of these characters is as complicated and spellbinding as their purported magic.A contemporary, razor-edged fairy tale—very dark chocolate but likely to be gobbled up.Agent: Michael Carlisle/InkWell Management Copyright Kirkus 2008

THE HOUSE ON FORTUNE STREET, by Margot Livesey

Love proves a destructive force in the lives of four Brits who have divergent perspectives on their interrelated dilemmas in another probing, satisfying novel from Livesey (Banishing Verona, 2004, etc.).In its first section, the story seems to be about a selfish, heartless actress, Abigail, who breaks up poor graduate student Sean’s marriage, then sleeps with his university chum Valentine. Abigail’s so busy and preoccupied she doesn’t notice that her best friend, Dara, is in suicidal despair over a lying lover—but then again, neither does Sean until he comes across Dara’s body in the downstairs flat of the house they all share on Fortune Street in London. The book’s second section concerns Dara’s childhood, seen through the eyes of her father Cameron, who has an unconsummated but unwholesome interest in prepubescent girls. His wife throws him out when she realizes his fondness for Dara’s best friend is more than fatherly, and we see in the third section that his daughter has never recovered from Cameron’s abrupt disappearance when she was ten. We also see that Dara is partly responsible for her disappointments in love, because she makes her boyfriends the obsessive center of her life. She’s rather shocked by Abigail’s casual attitude toward sex; even though the two women have been close since they met at university, their totally different personalities often chafe. Abigail, whose feckless parents let her work her way through both high school and university, is tough-minded and something of a user. She loves Dara, but can’t understand her friend’s neurotic vulnerability. In the moving final pages, Cameron confesses to Abigail what he could never tell Dara, and both confront their failures. “There was no question of them forgiving each other,” Abigail bleakly concludes. Yet the novel is filled with sorrowful wisdom about the fallible human heart and our myopic view of ourselves and those we love.Moving, gruffly tender and piercingly truthful. Livesey has plenty of critical respect already, but her talents merit a broad popular audience as well.Agent: Amanda Urban/ICM Copyright Kirkus 2008

Popularity: 69%

Audition, by Barbara Walters

In a riveting and candid memoir, the acclaimed television journalist chronicles the people, events, and forces that have shaped her life and career, from childhood to the present day, discussing her relationships with men, family, friends, coworkers, and rivals; her struggle to make it in a man’s world; and the interviews she has conducted during her forty-year-career. 750,000 first printing.

Passion on the Vine, by Sergio Esposito

An evocative celebration of food, wine, and family by a leading authority on Italian wine journeys into the heart of his native land to visit the great wineries and culinary wonders of Italy, introducing an endearing, eccentric cast of characters that range from the author’s own parents to a ballroom-dancing winemaker whose farming methods are based on the cycles of the moon. 30,000 first printing.

Moyers on Democracy, by Bill Moyers

In a collection of eloquent speeches, the renowned broadcaster shares his thoughts on the state of America, the betrayal of the nation’s democratic ideals by the Bush administration, and the need to reconnect with our constitutional principles and history of reform, speaking out on such issues as religion in public life, the environment, and the Iraq war. 60,000 first printing.

Peace, by Richard Bausch

The experiences of battle fatigue and constant exposure to mortal danger are depicted with raw immediacy and terse power in this short novel from veteran Bausch (Thanksgiving Night, 2006, etc.).The book describes the ordeal of a “recon squad” lost in a mountainous area of Italy in the waning war year of 1944. The squad loses several of its men and things unravel further when a hard-bitten sergeant shoots to death both a German soldier and the woman hiding with him in a Nazi tank. Three soldiers struggle on alone: Boston Jew Saul Asch, embittered redneck Benny Joyner and their leader, Corporal Robert Marson, an ingenuous young husband and father, a once promising baseball player and a virtually prototypical “good American.” This sounds like a generic war-movie scenario, and there are echoes of Stephen Crane, James Jones and particularly William Styron’s The Long March. But Bausch sustains a gripping atmosphere of wintry dread, and he keeps the reader hooked with subtly accreting little surprises, as Marson and his small crew appropriate the services of an aging Italian farmer, Angelo, to guide them up and down the treacherous mountainside. Is Angelo a “fascisti”? In bits of broken English the old man vigorously denies accusations hurled at him by the distrustful Joyner—as Marson, tortured by a painful foot injury and burdened with authority he wields only reluctantly, labors to keep them all together. Then, the body of a presumably “executed” German soldier is discovered, repeated rifle shots that can only mean one horrific thing are heard and Marson’s survival skills and resolve are put to ultimate physical and moral tests.Bausch admirably turns a familiar story into something genuinely new.Agent: Henry Dunow/Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. First Printing of 35,000 Copyright Kirkus 2008 Kirkus/BPI Communications.

Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos

While Cornelia gains unexpected insight into her troubled marriage, Piper finds her carefully controlled life unraveling in the wake of a friend’s crisis, and Lake tells a complex series of lies to gain her son’s entry into a school for gifted students. 150,000 first printing.

So Brave, Young and Handsome, by Leif Enger

In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket, a novelist who has lost his sense of purpose, joins Glendon Hale, an outlaw intent on reconciling with his family, which he had abandoned more than two decades earlier, on his journey to California, but he is forced to leave his own family and is pursued by Charles Siringo, a relentless former Pinkerton agent. By the author of Peace Like a River.

The Soloist, by Steve Lopez

An intimate portrait of gifted violinist Nathaniel Ayers traces his promising education at Juilliard, his struggles with schizophrenia, and the factors that led to his homelessness in Los Angeles, circumstances that prompted their friendship and the author’s efforts to improve the musician’s life in spite of numerous setbacks.

The Girl With No Shadow, by Joanne Harris

A long-anticipated sequel to the best-selling Chocolat finds Vianne assuming a low-profile new identity in Paris, where she opens a chocolaterie and hopes to escape the ghosts of her past before a devious new friend threatens everything she has worked for. 100,000 first printing.

Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

Rising Soviet state security force officer Leo Demidov encounters the test of his career when a serial killer challenges his beliefs about the paradise of the working world, resulting in his demotion and threats against the lives of his family members. A first novel.

Girls in Trucks, by Katie Crouch

Wry, rueful tales of a Southern debutante’s mostly disappointing love life.The unifying motif of Crouch’s debut is the Charleston Cotillion Training School, where South Carolina girls and boys of a certain class are taught ballroom dance in preparation for the girls’ coming out parties. Prominent among the debutantes are the Camellias, a sorority of women whose mission is to “prepare their daughters for marriage to a decent man.” For Sarah Walters and her friends Bitsy, Charlotte and Annie, Camellia membership will mark their most permanent attachment; it seems that for latter-day debutantes there’s a shortage of decent men. The novel is comprised of linked short stories, some veering off into the equally problematic amours of peripheral characters including Sarah’s brilliant older sister Eloise and their mother. After college, Sarah moves to New York City seeking a writer’s life. While working lowly editorial positions, she rooms with Charlotte, a fledgling fashion designer who’s in and out of rehab. Sarah’s man-that-got-away is blue-blooded Max, who “made money with money.” His casual cruelty is not tempered by any redeeming appeal, and Sarah’s intractable obsession with him beggars belief. She attempts, vainly, to settle for guys from home, or guys she thought of as just friends but was holding in reserve as fallback lovers. Annie, who never leaves Charleston, survives a relationship with a feckless artist to find love and financial stability. Bitsy marries money, which is scant consolation for her husband’s callousness—his infidelities persist as she dies of cancer. Charlotte chooses first drugs, then entrepreneurial success, over relationships. Sarah, finding at 31 that she’s “missed [her] window” of opportunity with the fallback guys, has a child by an extremely casual acquaintance. By age 35 she’s accepted the fact that neither she nor the men in her life will ever measure up to debutante standards .Gentle humor and sharp observation couched in straightforward prose with none of the preening preciosity so often seen in Southern fiction. (Kirkus Review)

50 Best Girlfriends Getaways in North America, by National Geographic

An engaging handbook offers a series of fun-filled travel ideas for women that range from big city trips or small-town weekends to pampering spa retreats and wilderness adventures, in a volume that includes practical suggestions on roommate etiquette, safety, what to pack, budgeting, and more. Original. 25,000 first printing.

Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner

A sequel to Good in Bed takes place thirteen years later and finds a no-longer-famous Cannie writing science fiction under a pen name, raising her teenage daughter, and considering her husband Peter’s request to have Cannie’s flamboyant sister provide surrogate services so that they can have a second child. 450,000 first printing.

Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die, by Chris Santella

Sailing Experts Share the World’s Greatest Destinations.
          
          
          

The Biggest Loser Success Secrets, by Maggie Greenwood-Robinson

Presents the diet and exercise secrets of successful contestants on the show “The Biggest Loser”, discussing finding the time to work out, overcoming food cravings, and maintaining weight after reaching a weight-loss goal.

Playing with the Enemy, by Gary Moore

Describes how the sports career of the author’s father, a baseball phenom, was cut short by the onset of World War II and by his chance assignment to a secret mission for the U.S. Navy–to guard a select group of German POWs, the crew of the submarine U-205. Reprint.

Ladies of Liberty, by Cokie Roberts

A sequel to Founding Mothers shares the stories of remarkable women who shaped American history between 1796 and 1828, including Dolley Madison, Theodosia Burr, and Sacajawea. By the author of We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters. 400,000 first printing.

The Romanov Bride, by Robert Alexander

A final installment of a trilogy that began with Rasputin’s Daughter and The Kitchen Boy finds vengeance-seeking villager Pavel joining an underground group that assassinates the grand duke of Russia, irrevocably affecting the life purpose of his widow, Elisavyeta.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley

A debut compilation of literary essays offers a revealing and humorous look at human fallibility and the vagaries of modern urban life as the author details the despoiling of an exhibit at the Natural History Museum, the provocation of her first boss, siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, and other offbeat situations. Original.

The Grandmother Book: A Book About You for Your Grandchild, by Andy Hilford

Andy and Susan Hilford present the perfect way for grandmothers of all ages to pass along a grandmother’s story. The story is one that recounts coming-of-age moments, life-changing events, a look back at what was, family anecdotes and historical insight. With thoughtful, surprising, at times unexpected, and provocative questions, this book is directed to the new generation of baby boomer grandmothers. From early memories of her childhood, to the time she began her own family, to the present as she watches her family continue to grow, this valuable, prompted keepsake ensures that the thoughts, moments, events, images, and ideas that shaped her life are collected in her voice and in her hand for a precious audience.

The Moses Code, by James Twyman

Is it possible that nearly 3,500 years ago, Moses was given the secret for attracting everything you’ve ever desired? The Moses Code was first used to create some of the greatest miracles in the history of the world, but then it was hidden away, and only the highest initiates were allowed to practice it. In this book, James F. Twyman reveals the Code for the first time, showing how it can be used to create miracles in your life . . . and in the world. By practicing the principles presented within these pages, you’ll discover how you can integrate the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world into your own life. (Editorial Review)

The Shack, by Willliam Young

Four years after his daughter is abducted and evidence of her murder is found in an abandoned shack, Mackenzie Allen Philips returns to the shack in response to a note claiming to be from God, and has a life-changing experience.

Enlightenment for Idiots, by Anne Cuchman

Hoping to write the ultimate book on meditation, Amanda, an aspiring yoga instructor, is stuck earning a living as a hack writer of travel guides and is thrilled when her commitment-phobic photographer boyfriend offers her the opportunity to travel with him to the spiritual sites of India, but her trip and an unwelcome revelation force her to make tough choices about love, life, and spiritual practice. 30,000 first printing.

The Convenient Groom, by Denise Hunter

Carpenter Lucas stands in for the groom when celebrated author and marriage counselor Dr. Kate Lawrence is left at the altar hours before her wedding, but after the big day, Kate discovers that she has a lot to learn about love. Thomas Nelson Publisher.

The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton

Living out her final days in a nursing home, ninety-eight-year-old Grace remembers the secrets surrounding the 1924 suicide of a young poet during a glittering society party hosted by Grace’s English aristocrat employers, a family that is shattered by war. 75,000 first printing.

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer

A member of a species that takes over the minds of human bodies, Wanderer is unable to disregard his host’s love for a man in hiding, a situation that forces both possessor and host to become unwilling allies. A first adult novel by the author of Eclipse.

Comfort, by Ann Hood

The author of The Knitting Circle documents her family’s journey of grief after the sudden death of her five-year-old daughter after a virulent illness, a process during which she learned how to knit and experienced comfort in unexpected ways.

Bonk, by Mary Roach

A whimsical assessment of the science of sexual physiology considers the lighter side of such topics as the arousal of cadavers, mythologies about a woman’s ability to experience orgasm, and the ineffectiveness of Viagra on female pandas. By the author of Stiff and Spook.

Ten Days in the Hills, by Jane Smiley

In the wake of the 2003 Academy Awards, a group of friends and family gathers in the Hollywood hills for ten transformative days of love, memories, gossip, movies, and more, including Max, an Oscar-winning writer/director whose career is waning; his lover Elena; his ex-wife, film star Zoe Cunningham; their daughter Isabel; and others. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.

Ghosts Among Us, by James Van Praagh

A co-executive producer of The Ghost Whisperer and world-famous medium shares true encounter tales from the author’s own life, reveals lesser-known details about how ghosts participate in everyday life, and discusses how to enable a more fulfilling life by being open to the spirit world. 100,000 first printing.

Comfort Food, by Kate Jacobs

Tiring of playing the hostess as her fiftieth birthday approaches, celebrity chef Augusta Simpson endeavors to distance herself from her overly dependent loved ones and receives assistance from handsome fellow chef Oliver in her efforts to launch an on-air cooking class. By the author of The Friday Night Knitting Club.

The Downhill Lie, by Carl Hiaasen

A hilarious golf memoir recounts the author’s return to the fairways after quitting the game in college and waiting more than thirty years and into middle age before returning to the sport, describing how he purchased a set of clubs, joined a country club, practiced for eighteen long months, and agreed to compete in a tournament against much more talented players. 200,000 first printing.

Swine Not? by Jimmy Buffett

Moving their beloved pet pig from their Tennessee hometown to their new home in a posh no-pets-allowed New York City hotel, southern belle Ellie McBride and her twin children struggle to hide the swine from the hotel staff, including an ultra-carnivorous hotel chef. 600,000 first printing.

I Still Have It… by Rita Rudner

The comedienne-author of Naked Beneath My Clothes offers a hilarious look at the inevitable realities of growing older as she recounts the whimsical adventures and misadventures of a woman of a certain age navigating the issues of style, technology, and body image. 40,000 first printing.

Knut the Baby Polar Bear, by Juliana Hatkoff

Presents the true story of Knut, a polar bear born at the Berlin Zoo, whose mother was unable to raise him and who was cared for by the bear keeper of the zoo.

Bonjour Butterfly, with Fancy Nancy, by Jane O’Connor

When she is told that she won’t be able to attend her best friend’s glamorous Butterfly Birthday Bash because it coincides with her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary celebration, Nancy is heartbroken, but with her family’s support and her own stylish flare, Nancy is able to add a touch of drama to the mix and make the day a true success for all.

Fancy Nancy’s Favorite Words, by Jane O”Connor

Fancy Nancy provides one or more of her favorite fancy words for each letter of the alphabet, defines them, and uses some in sentences that show what they mean to her, such as that she yearns–wants really badly–to visit Paris someday. 200,000 first printing.

Sword Quest, by Nancy Yi Fan

As two rivals, archaeopteryx Maldeor and archae-dove Wind-Voice, race to find the Great Spirit’s sword, the destiny of birdworld hangs in the balance, in an exciting fantasy prequel to Swordbird.

Popularity: 84%

Fiction and Nonfiction

HUMAN SMOKE, by Nicholson Baker
A persuasive argument for peace and pacifism, this critical study of the decades leading up to World War II offers insightful profiles of the world leaders, politicians, business people, bankers, and others whose personal politics, ideologies, and agendas provided an inevitable barrier to the peace process and whose actions led to the outbreak of war. 125,000 first printing.

SUPERCLASS, by David Rothkopf
An informative study of global power brokers examines the world of the privileged elite; their role in government, business, international finance, world religion, the media, and criminal and terrorist organizations; their influence on our everyday lives; and the connections among these global communities of leaders. By the author of Running the World.

THE MATCH, by Mark Frost
A chronicle of a lesser-known 1956 golf match documents how car salesmen Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi competed against the period’s leading players as a result of a bet between sponsors Eddie Lowery and George Coleman, in a competition that helped promote golf into a professional sport.

JUST WHO WILL YOU BE? by Maria Shriver
This slender inspirational book is a candid self-portrait of a woman in transition. A longtime NBC anchorwoman, Shriver was thrown into a tailspin when asked to resign after her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was elected governor of California; she writes, “My career was gone, and with it went the person I’d been for twenty-five years.” With a combination of self-deprecation and chutzpah, Shriver describes herself as the consummate overachiever, a “people-pleasing, legacy-carrying, perfection-seeking Good Girl,” now realizing that “asking ourselves not just what we want to be but who we want to be is important at every stage in our lives, not just when we’re starting out in the world. That’s because, in a way, we’re starting out fresh in the world every single day.” Reprinted in full in this book is the speech Shriver made at her nephew’s high school graduation—a humorous meditation on fame, achievement and self-worth—that inspired the writing of this book. Shriver’s earnest self-inquiry and her humility and readiness to regard herself as a 50-year-old work-in-progress make for a charming and genuinely inspiring read.

THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS, by Richard Low
Presents a study showing how a child’s lack of involvement with nature can increase the chances of obesity, distraction, and depression and how a nature-child reunion can enhance problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

WOLF TOTEM, by Jiang Rong
A best-selling work in China is set in the 1960s on the eve of the Cultural Revolution and follows the spiritual journey of Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen into the world of the nomadic Mongols, a dying culture that honors the endangered Mongolian wolf and follows a philosophy about maintaining a balance with nature. 25,000 first printing.

KILLER YEAR, edited by Lee Child
Some of the rising stars in the crime, suspense, and mystery genres reveal their talents in a spinetingling anthology of short stories, each of which is introduced by such mentors as Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, and Lee Child, accompanied by additional tales and essays by Laura Lippman, MJ Rose, Allison Brennan, Ken Bruen, and Duane Swierczynski. 25,000 first printing

WALLACE STEGNER AND THE AMERICAN WEST, by Philip Fradkin
An illuminating portrait of Wallace Stegner examines the life and career of the twentieth-century literary luminary in terms of his roles as a premier chronicler of the American West, influential teacher, and visionary conservationist, from the perspective of the country that shaped his fiction and nonfiction works and his lasting influence on American literature. 30,000 first printing.

SO BRAVE, YOUNG AND HANDSOME, by Leif Enger
In 1915 Minnesota, Monte Becket, a novelist who has lost his sense of purpose, joins Glendon Hale, an outlaw intent on reconciling with his family, which he had abandoned more than two decades earlier, on his journey to California, but he is forced to leave his own family and is pursued by Charles Siringo, a relentless former Pinkerton agent. By the author of Peace Like a River.

HIGH CRIMES, by Michael Kodas
Documents a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist’s effort to climb Mount Everest in the aftermath of the tragic 1996 storm that ended the lives of eight climbers, an effort that tested the moral codes of the author’s team members and revealed the existence of mountain-based crime organizations preying on aspiring climbers. 125,000 first printing.

EARTH, THE SEQUEL, by Fred Krupp
An Environmental Defense Fund president presents a call-to-arms that reveals how the world can harness the capabilities of capitalist nations in order to address key environmental and economic challenges, in a report that discusses how specific actions have a potential to launch profitable new industries and jobs.

FIVE YEARS OF MY LIFE, AN INNOCENT MAN IN GUANTANAMO, by Murat Kurnaz
A former prisoner at Guantanamo describes how, in October 2001, he was arrested by police during a visit to Pakistan, sold to U.S. forces, and imprisoned in Afghanistan and in Guantanamo, where he endured more than 1,600 days of torture, interrogation, and solitary confinement before being released with acknowledgement of his innocence. 30,000 first printing.

THE MEANING OF NIGHT, by Michael Cox
Convinced that he is destined for great wealth, power, and influence, Edward Glyver–booklover, scholar, and murderer–will to anything to reclaim a prize that is rightfully his, following a trail from the underworld depths of Victorian London, to the posh estate of Evenwood and all-consuming love for the enigmatic Emily Carteret, to an ultimate showdown with his rival, poet-criminal Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. 100,000 first printing.

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE, by Laura Esquivel
Despite the fact that she has fallen in love with a young man, Tita, the youngest of three daughters born to a tyrannical rancher, must obey tradition and remain single and at home to care for her mother. A combination fairy tale, melodrama, romance, Mexican cookbook, and home remedy handbook, the long-awaited trade paperback edition of the hugely popular best-seller includes the artwork from the hardcover version. Reprint.

THE KNITTING CIRCLE, by Ann Hood
Grieving over the sudden loss of her only child, Mary Baxter joins a knitting circle in Providence, Rhode Island, whose members not only teach her a variety of knitting techniques but also valuable lessons about friendship, love, and redemption.

THE INTELLECTUAL DEVOTIONAL, by David Kidder
This daily digest of intellectual challenge and learning will arouse curiosity, refresh knowledge, expand horizons, and keep the mind sharp. Millions of Americans keep bedside books of prayer and meditative reflection–collections of daily passages to stimulate spiritual thought and advancement. This is a secular version of the same–a collection of 365 short lessons that will inspire and invigorate the reader every day of the year. Each daily digest of wisdom is drawn from one of seven fields of knowledge: history, literature, philosophy, mathematics and science, religion, fine arts, and music. The goal is to refresh knowledge we’ve forgotten, make new discoveries, and exercise modes of thinking that are ordinarily neglected once our school days are behind us.–From publisher description. A year’s worth of daily readings from the secular arena provides subject matter for intellectual growth and advancement, in a volume that includes coverage of such topics as opera terms, basic physics principles, musical genres, and the inner workings of batteries.

Popularity: 81%

A new email will be arriving in two weeks with new titles for the spring as well as a list of our store’s best sellers.

Look for this new, informative addition in the middle of each month!

Popularity: 83%

With spring… new thoughts and intents fill our corners of free time. So, instead of our usual list of “just published” for the current month (to return in April), we would like to direct you to some favorite children’s books from 2007 as well as spring fiction debuts.

The 2007 Cuffies
(Publisher’s Weekly Magazine’s list of bookseller’s favorites.)

Favorite Picture Book of the Year

Toy Boat, by Randall de Seve, illustrated by Loren Long.
When the wind blows a little boy’s beloved toy boat out into the wide lake, the little boat, missing his friend, must brave fierce waves, a surly ferry, a sassy schooner, and a growling speed boat in order to find his way home. “A beautiful and timeless new classic.”

Favorite Middle Grade Novel

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker’s classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns muchof value about the world he lives in.During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker’s classroom where they read the plays of William Shakespeare and Holling learns much of value about the world he lives in. “It will make you laugh, make you cry, and begs to be read outloud.”

Favorite YA Novel

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Leaving the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, Junior struggles to find his place in his new surroundings in order to escape his destiny back on the reservation. 75,000 first printing.

Most Unusual Picture Book of the Year

The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
Although saddened at having to leave the family he loves, the immigrant is certain that moving to the new land is the right thing to do and so ventures off to a strange land to begin a life that will hopefully reap the rewards he seeks through his sacrifice, hard work, and determination. “A wordless, graphic novel that is very sophisticated, by almost entirely visual.”

Best Book Title (3 Winners!)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
Greg records his sixth-grade experiences in a middle school where he and his best friend, Rowley, undersized weaklings amid boys who need to shave twice daily, hope just to survive, but when Rowley grows more popular, Greg must take drastic measures to save their friendship.

I’d Really Like to Eat a Child, by Slyvianne Donnio
One morning Achilles, a young crocodile, insists that he will eat a child that day and refuses all other food, but when he actually finds a little girl, she puts him in his place.

Do Unto Otters, by Laurie Keller
Unsure of how to treat the family of otters that moved in next door, Mr. Rabbit turns to Mr. Owl and gets just the advice he needs to make his new neighbors feel right at home. 75,000 first printing.

Most Memorable Characters in a Lead Role

Kek in…Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate.
Kek, an African refugee, is confronted by many strange things at the Minneapolis home of his aunt and cousin, as well as in his fifth grade classroom, and longs for his missing mother, but finds comfort in the company of a cow and her owner. “He has such an unusual voice, and its cadence stays with you.”

Best Sequel

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (No Contest!!)
Burdened with the dark, dangerous, and seemingly impossible task of locating and destroying Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes, Harry, feeling alone and uncertain about his future, struggles to find the inner strength he needs to follow the path set out before him.At a time when the forces of evil seem to be gaining the upper hand, Harry comes of age in the wizarding world, and must take on and defeat Voldemort–or be killed himself.
The seventh and final book of the blockbuster Harry Potter series follows the wizard’s last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 12,000,000 first printing.

…honorable mentions:

Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems
When she arrives at school, excited to show off her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny, Trixie is quite upset when someone else has the exact same bunny, resulting in hilarious chaos. 175,000 first printing.

Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, by Jane O’Connor, Illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser
Nancy wants to adopt a special puppy so that she is no longer the only fancy member of her family, but after a day of puppysitting a papillon, she realizes that being fancy is not always the most important thing. 200,000 first printing.

The Titan’s Curse, by Rick Riordan
When the goddess Artemis disappears while hunting a rare, ancient monster, a group of her followers joins Percy and his friends in an attempt to find and rescue her before the winter solstice, when her influence is needed to sway the Olympian Council regarding the war with the Titans.When the goddess Artemis disappears while hunting a rare, ancient monster, a group of her followers joins Percy and his friends in an attempt to find and rescue her before the winter solstice, when her influence is needed to sway the Olympian Council regarding the war with the Titans.

Favorite Book Jacket

How To Paint the Portrait of a Bird, by Jacques Prevert, illus. by Mordicai Gerstein
Setting up his easel, prepping his palette, and picking up his brush, a young boy captures the beauty of the day as he paints the majesty of a tree, the warmth of the sun, and wonderment of a visiting bird.

Funniest Book (tie)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
“A good slice of middle school humor.”
          
          
          
          
          

The True Meaning of Smekday, by Adam Rex
Twelve-year-old Gratuity Tucci has a hard time writing an essay on “The True Meaning of Smekday” due to her complex life after Earth was overtaken by aliens and her mother was kidnapped and taken to Happy Mouse Kingdom in Florida. 50,000 first printing.

Most Promising New Author

Jeff Kinney and Linda Urban

Favorite Series

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan, and The Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer; and of course…Harry Potter.

Best Nonfiction Treatment of a Subject

The Wall, by Peter Sis
I was born at the beginning of it all, on the Red side - the Communist side - of the Iron Curtain. Through annotated illustrations, journals, maps, and dreamscapes, Peter Sis shows what life was like for a child who loved to draw, proudly wore the red scarf of a Young Pioneer, stood guard at the giant statue of Stalin, and believed whatever he was told to believe. But adolescence brought questions. Cracks began to appear in the Iron Curtain, and news from the West slowly filtered into the country. Si;s learned about beat poetry, rock ‘n’ roll, blue jeans, and Coca-Cola. He let his hair grow long, secretly read banned books, and joined a rock band. Then came the Prague Spring of 1968, and for a teenager who wanted to see the world and meet the Beatles, this was a magical time. It was short-lived, however, brought to a sudden and brutal end by the Soviet-led invasion. But this brief flowering had provided a glimpse of new possibilities - creativity could be discouraged but not easily killed.Annotated illustrations, maps, and dreamscapes explore how the artist-author’s life was shaped while growing up in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, in a powerful graphic memoir. 75,000 first printing.

Most Innovative/Unique Book (Tie)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick
Living in the walls of a busy Paris train station in 1931, clock keeper and orphan Hugo Cabret must constantly work to keep his secrets safe, but when an inquisitive girl and an old man who owns a toy store begin probing, he must do all he can to keep them at a safe distance. 150,000 first printing.

Gallop, by Rufus Butler Seder
Rhyming text asks if the reader can move like a variety of animals, in a book where striped acetate overlays on board pages give illustrations the illusion of movement.

Favorite Book to Handsell (it’s so great to convince both adults and kids to read them!)
Gallop (see above), and…

A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban
Upset when her dreams of becoming a grand pianist are squashed when her father returns from the store with an old organ, ten-year-old Zoe Elias tries to make the best of it and so practices hard in order to get her moment in the spotlight at the annual Perform-O-Rama organ contest. Jr Lib Guild. 20,000 first printing

Best Novel for Young Readers That Adults Would Love If They Knew About It (tie)
The Wednesday Wars (see above) and…

Spud, by John van de Ruit
In 1990, thirteen-year-old John “Spud” Milton, a prepubescent choirboy, keeps a diary of his first year at an elite, boys-only boarding school in South Africa, as he deals with bizarre housemates, wild crushes, embarrasingly dysfunctional parents, and much more.In 1990, thirteen-year-old John “Spud” Milton, a prepubescent choirboy, keeps a diary of his first year at an elite, boys-only boarding school in South Africa, as he deals with bizarre housemates, wild crushes, and embarrasing parents.

Spring ’08 Fiction Debuts

Blood Kin, by Ceridwen Dovey
Arrested and forced to serve their country under a new regime when their president is overthrown by a military coup, a barber, a chef, a portraitist, and the women they love find their intimacies exposed by the government’s new order. 20,000 first printing.

A Case of Exploding Mangoes, by Mohammed Hanif
Junior Officer Ali Shigri of the Pakistan Air Force, the son of Colonel Quli Shigri, who had been one of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq’s right-hand men prior to his suicide, struggles to unravel the secrets and motives that led to his father’s death and plots his revenge on the Pakistani dictator whom he blames for his father’s death. A first novel. 40,000 first printing.

Chld 44, by Tom Rob Smith
Rising Soviet state security force officer Leo Demidov encounters the test of his career when a serial killer challenges his beliefs about the paradise of the working world, resulting in his demotion and threats against the lives of his family members. A first novel.

How the Soldier Repairs the Gramophone, by Sasa Stanistic
Stanisic’s debut novel is the moving story of a young Bosnian refugee named Aleksandar Krsmanovic. Aleksandar is the apple of his family’s eye, but his sheltered childhood ends when ethnic wars brewing in the surrounding republics make their way to his hometown in the spring of 1992. As Serbian troops storm the village, Aleksandar’s family hides, but nowhere is safe. The violence forces the family to Germany, where they struggle to adjust to their new lives as refugees. In the depths of their despair, Aleksandar’s grandmother makes him promise to “remember when everything was all right and the time when nothing’s all right.” Aleksandar keeps his word, and the memories pour out of him like a river. The author organizes Aleksandar’s recollections as a stream of consciousness, operating on no distinct linear time line and often stopping one story and starting another in the same breath. It is difficult to keep up with this frantic pace, but it pays to be patient because a remarkable life’s journey unfolds. (June)

A Richer Dust, by Amy Boaz
An attempt to establish a new world Utopia in the American Southwest succumbs to a clash of genders and cultures in this subtly compelling historical novel, the author’s debut.Boaz takes inspiration from the life of D.H. Lawrence and the painter who accompanied him and his German wife to forge a new life free from the cultural contaminations of supposedly civilized England. Narrated by Doll (short for Dorothy, a character inspired by painter Dorothy Brett, who came to New Mexico with the Lawrences), the novel shifts its chronology among three different periods. Most of the story concerns the years immediately following the emigration of the artistic-minded trio in 1924, as Abe Bronstone (the Lawrence figure) expounds his theories on raising the human consciousness within a community of Indians mixed with a motley assortment of Caucasians. Doll also flashes back to her formative years in England, as a neglected daughter and a sexually abused child who finds refuge in the arts, and she flashes forward to 1963, when she spends her later years with a much younger Indian man, as naive to the ways of the world as she had been. The switching among these three different time periods initially feels a little arbitrary, but Boaz pulls the various strands together in the novel’s second half, which builds to a riveting climax, as the influence of Bronstone’s strong-willed wife on the other women sparks tension between the Anglo and Indian cultures. Throughout the novel, Boaz turns the landscape itself into a protagonist, richer in detail than many of the characters. Physically unattractive and hard of hearing, Doll takes a leap of faith in following Bronstone, whom she alternately seems to consider a mentor, friend, lover and father figure (though they are roughly the same age). The stormy marriage of the Bronstones provides much of the narrative momentum, as the more submissive Doll decides where she fits between such strong-willed people. Readers need know nothing about Lawrence and his circle to become engrossed in this evocative tale.

Sun Going Down, by Jack Todd
Three generations of the Paint family struggle through 70 years of hardship and heartache on the Western plains in Todd’s ambitious fiction debut. En route from Mississippi to the Dakota Territory at the height of the Civil War, Ebenezar Paint meets and marries twice-widowed Cora, a union that produces two strapping twin boys, Eli and Ezra. Ebenezer vainly chases riches; by 15, the boys are orphans and cowboys—and involved in a risky but profitable bit of horse stealing. Ezra remains a wanderer, while Eli settles down to become a wealthy rancher. The narrative eventually follows Eli’s favorite daughter of his six children: Velma, who is brutalized by two of her three husbands, but whose estrangement from Eli causes her the most pain, and takes the story into the Depression era. Vivid and colorful in its depiction of the West’s transformation from the frontier to the modern age, this is a hardscrabble tale of proud folks who refuse to forgive mistakes or forget faults.

Three Girls and Their Brother, by Theresa Rebeck
Transformed into the fashion world’s latest “It” girls, the three Heller sisters, the granddaughters of a late, famous literary critic, fall prey to the venal forces and temptations of show business, unleashing a bitter rivalry and competition that threatens the three girls and their quiet, neglected brother with a self-destructive disaster. A first novel. 60,000 first printing.

The Well and the Mine, by Gin Phillips
A tight-knit miner’s family struggles against poverty and racism in Phillips’s evocative first novel, set in Depression-era Alabama. Throughout, she moves skillfully between the points of view of miner father Albert, hard-working mother Leta, young daughter Tess and teenage daughter Virgie, and small son Jack. They see men who are frequently incapacitated or killed by accidents in the local mines; neighbors live off what they can grow on their patch of land; and blacks like Albert’s fellow miner and friend Jonah are segregated in another part of Carbon Hill—and often hauled off to jail arbitrarily. When Tess witnesses a woman throwing a baby into their well, no one believes her until the dead child is found, and few are shocked. Tess, hounded by nightmares, and Virgie, on the cusp of womanhood and resistant to the thought of an early marriage to the local boys who court her, begin making inquiries of their own, visiting wives who’ve recently had babies and learning way more than they imagined. With a wisp of suspense, Phillips fully enters the lives of her honorable characters and brings them vibrantly to the page. (Mar.)

Popularity: 100%

Hardcover – Fiction

The Ghost War, by Alex Berenson
Returning to Washington after a harrowing case in the Middle East, CIA agent and al-Qaeda infiltrator John Wells is selected to investigate a surge in Taliban activity with possible Asian ties. By the author of The Faithful Spy. 150,000 first printing.

7th Heaven, by James Patterson
Investigating the arson deaths of a wealthy couple, San Francisco detective Lindsay Boxer and Assistant DA Yuki Castellano find the case further complicated by the disappearance of a former governor’s son, internal pressure, and the media. 1,250,000 first printing.

Someday, by Karen Kingsbury
When Dayne and Katy Matthews take on separate movie projects, tabloid rumors talk of trouble and unfaithfulness between the two, but something drastic catches Dayne’s attention and makes him realize the destruction they’re playing with; meanwhile, the Flanigans recognize the deep loss of the Christian Kids Theater program, and they lead a final effort to keep the theater from being torn down. Original. 300,000 first printing. $200,000 ad/promo.

Song Yet Sung, by James McBride
A tale set against a backdrop of slave rights conflicts in the nineteenth-century Chesapeake Bay region finds young runaway Liz Spocott inadvertently inspiring a slave breakout from the attic prison of a notorious slave thief who vengefully calls slave catcher Denwood Long out of retirement. 100,000 first printing.

The Chocolate Lovers’ Club, by Carole Matthews
Together with her fellow addicts–Autumn, Nadia, and Chantal–Lucy Lombard forms a select group known as The Chocolate Lovers’ Club that gets together at their sanctuary, a caf‚ called Chocolate Heaven, whenever there is a crisis in one of the member’s lives, including a gambling husband, cheating boyfriend, flirtatious boss, and a loveless marriage. 25,000 first printing.

An Irish Country Village, by Patrick Taylor
Delighted to be offered a permanent position with crusty Dr. O’Reilly, Dr. Barry Lavery confronts a crisis when his reputation is threatened by the unexpected death of one of his patients, he and O’Reilly launch a campaign to save Ballybucklebo’s four-hundred-year-old pub, and his beloved Patricia tries to win a scholarship to Cambridge, in the sequel to An Irish Country Doctor. 75,000 first printing.

Stranger in Paradise, by Robert B. Parker
Ten years after hit man Crow Cromartie escapes with the spoils of a lucrative heist, Massachusetts police officer Jesse Stone is astonished when the fugitive enlists his cooperation with a job gone bad involving a young woman whose father wants her killed. By the author of High Profile. 275,000 first printing.

Dakota, by Marth Grimes
A sequel to Biting the Moon finds amnesiac drifter Andi Oliver moving between waitressing jobs throughout the country until a discovery at a livestock facility renders her a target of two men, including a hired gunman and a pursuer who would claim something from her forgotten past. By the author of Dust. 75,000 first printing.

Death of a Gentle Lady, by M.C. Beaton
Suspecting that an elderly matron is not quite the kindhearted favorite her neighbors believe her to be, fractious constable Hamish Macbeth investigates the local inspector’s suspicions when the lady dies under mysterious circumstances but harbors private opinions about what may have brought about her demise.

The Appeal, by John Grisham
The author of such best-selling legal thrillers as A Time to Kill, The Last Juror, and The Brethren presents his latest novel of courtroom and legal suspense as he offers a provocative look at the price of American justice. 2,800,000 first printing.

Life Class, by Pat Barker
Capturing the devastation and psychological trauma of the Great War on every level of British society, a new novel by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Ghost Road focuses on a group of young art students, including Paul Tarrant, a Red Cross volunteer, who soon discovers that life, love, and art will never be the same. 35,000 first printing.

The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
Returning in disgrace to her born-again Christian mother’s home after an affair with her professor, temperamental Willie arrives at the same time the remains of a prehistoric creature is discovered in the town’s lake, a finding that tests Willie’s archaeological skills and leads to painful revelations about her family. A first novel. 100,000 first printing.

The Killing Ground, by Jack Higgins
Entreated for help by an English-Bedouin man whose thirteen-year-old daughter has been kidnapped and forced to marry a terrorist, intelligence operative Sean Dillon finds his willing assistance sparking a deadly chain of events.

Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name, by Vendela Vida
Raised by her father after the disappearance of her mother, twenty-eight-year-old Clarissa discovers upon her father’s death that he had not been her father at all, a finding that drives her to leave and travel to the Arctic to discover the truth about her heritage. Reprint.

Hardcover – Nonfiction

The Greatest Gift, by Binka Le Breton
An inspirational portrait of an extraordinary nun describes how Sister Dorothy Stang came to Brazil as a missionary in 1966, her work in the Amazon to protect small farmers from powerful and ruthless logging and development interests, and her 2005 murder, and offers a provocative expos‚ of the collusion between government and commercial interests that contributed to the crime. 20,000 first printing.
**Binka as signed copies of her book for supporters of
An Open Book LLC…stop by for yours, quantity limited.**

Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary, Reflections by Women Writers, Edited by Susan Morrison
An evaluation of the presidential candidate by thirty women writers from diverse walks of life considers her political career and prospects from supportive and less favorable perspectives, in a volume that includes contributions by such names as Deborah Tannen, Susan Cheever, and Lorrie Moore. 35,000 first printing.

Sent Yourself Roses, by Kathleen Turner
An irreverent self-portrait by the Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning actress discusses such topics as the father she lost at a young age, her struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, and her relationships with such fellow celebrities as Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, and Francis Ford Coppola.

Marching Toward Hell, by Michael Scheuer
A veteran CIA counter-terrorism analyst provides a sobering analysis of the U.S. Iraqi War policy while making unsettling predictions about how American security will be affected by the conflict, in a report that reveals how America’s foreign policy is undermining key national goals and rendering the country vulnerable to terrorism. 200,000 first printing.

Daydream Believers, by Fred Kaplan
The author of the “War Stories” column in Slate argues that America’s foreign policy under the Bush administration has gone astray not only because of incompetence, but also because of misconceptions about world politics, the lessons of history, the nature of warfare, democracy, and other so-called “Daydreamer” beliefs.

Losing It, by Valerie Bertinelli
An inspirational memoir by the one-time star of the hit TV show One Day at a Time recalls the challenges of maintaining a healthy self-image while coping with the stress of celebrity, her twenty-year marriage to rock star Eddie Van Halen, her battle with depression and weight, motherhood, and her determination to take control of her own life. 250,000 first printing.

Fanon, by John Edgar Wideman
A fictional portrait based on the life of Frantz Fanon, a philosopher, psychiatrist, political activist, and author of The Wretched of the Earth, chronicles Fanon’s life, from his Martinique upbringing through the publication of his influential work and his legacy in a post-9/11 world, as seen through the eyes of the African-American novelist writing his biography.

The Food You Crave, by Ellie Krieger
The host of Food Network’s Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger shares her approach to a healthy and delicious diet with a selection of two hundred recipes for every meal and craving, with dishes that emphasize fresh, aromatic ingredients–herbs, spices, vegetables, grains, fruits, meats, and fish–accompanied by complete nutritional breakdowns.

Real Change, by Newt Gingrich
The former Speaker of the House of Representatives examines the need for change in health care, immigration, energy and environmental policy, transportation, and national security, and discusses the difficulties politicians from both parties have in implementing new agendas.