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
* CRACKING THE ACT, 2008 PRINCETON REVIEW EDITION
* UP YOUR SCORE, THE UNDERGROUND GUIDE TO THE ACT
