Library Journal

As I look back over 2011—and my office, piled high with books—I realize that there are so many titles I just can’t let go of, even if I couldn’t get them reviewed. And I also can’t let go of the idea of doing a Best Short Stories list, inspired by LJ book review queen Heather McCormack. Herewith, then, ten top story collections from 2011 (plus an honorable mention), five core poetry collections I didn’t want to miss, eight collections from younger poets you’ll be hearing from again, and 14 fiction-in-translation titles that should intrigue a wide range of readers. In addition, don’t miss Angelina Benedetti’s second Best YA crossover list, touting some great books in unusual categories.

Best Short Stories 2011
Barnes, Julian. Pulse. Knopf. ISBN 9780307595263. $25.
Before you grab Barnes’s Booker Prize–winning The Sense of an Ending, read his delicious collection of stories, which are ineffably witty yet never condescending to the characters, which come across as brave, aching, and real.

Beach, Lou. 420 Characters: Stories. Houghton Harcourt. ISBN 9780547617930. $22.
Originally posted on illustrator Beach’s Facebook page (which initially limited each entry to no more than 420 characters), these stories aren’t gimmicks but quirky and deeply felt views of the world.

Doctorow. E.L. All the Time in the World: New and Selected Short Stories. Random. ISBN 9781400069637. $26.
The Pulitzer Prize winner collects stories new and familiar and groups them not by character or setting but by their “similar mental light”—an approach that is an enjoyable as it is illuminating.

Hrbek, Greg. Destroy All Monsters: And Other Stories. Bison: Univ. of Nebraska. ISBN 9780803236448. pap. $14.95.
Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, Hrbek’s brutally forthright and forthrightly beautiful first collection (after the award-winning novel The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly) studies the monster in us all. 

Latiolais, Michelle. Widow: Stories. Bellevue Literary. ISBN 9781934137307. pap. $14.95.
Quietly, unflinchingly, Latiolais—an award-winning novelist and codirector of the Programs in Writing at the University of California at Irvine—explores the raw, aching terrain of the newly widowed.

Millhauser, Steven. We Others: New and Selected Stories. Knopf. ISBN 9780307595904. $27.95.
Encompassing three decades of work and ranging from ghosts to teenage boys to Thomas Edison in his laboratory, this collection from the Pulitzer Prize winner is, not unexpectedly, dark, magical, and wickedly beautiful. 

Pearlman, Edith. Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories. Lookout Books. ISBN 9780982338292 $18.95.
Winner of Pen/Malamud Award and the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and finalist for the National Book Award, Pearlman’s collection is this year’s stunner, bringing a writer we should all have known better to the fore. Every story is a surprise.

Shepard, Jim. You Think That’s Bad: Stories. Knopf. ISBN 9780307594822. $24.95.
Shepard takes chances, as do his characters, and here he ranges widely in fiercely beautiful prose, proving that his National Book Award nomination for Like You’d Understand, Anyway was no fluke.

Thon, Melanie Rae. In This Light: New and Selected Stories. Graywolf. ISBN 9781555975852. pap. $15.
Thon, named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists (check out this year’s amazing The Voice of the River), offers troubled characters in hard environments yet never abandons them to their fate.

Woodrell, Daniel. The Outlaw Album. Little, Brown. ISBN 9780316057561. $24.99.
Purveyor of such terrific novels as Winter’s Bone, Woodrell here offers a first collection that similarly explores folks on the edge in dark, bracing language.

Honorable mention: Don’t forget Bruce Machart’s astonishing Men in the Making (Houghton Harcourt. ISBN 978015603449. $24), tough-minded stories of working men and down-and-outers that are not for the faint of heart. It’s as absorbing as the author’s fiction debut, The Wake of Forgiveness, a little relentless but satisfying for everyone.

Five Core Poetry Collections I Nearly Missed
Cruz, Victor Hernández. In the Shadow of Al-Andalus. Coffee House, dist. by Consortium. ISBN 978156689277. pap. $16.
Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and winner of the Louis Reyes Rivera Lifetime Achievement Award, Cruz writes bright, vigorous poetry that dances lightly across the surface. Here, he brings his talents to bear on how the cultures of Spain, North Africa, and Puerto Rico have been influenced by Islamic culture. Sprinkled with the right words (“Coast to coast sailors wrapped in djellebas,” “Sahara is the thought of my word”), the poems create a vivid sense of visitation. Is that enough? Maybe; lots of readers will engage.

Mackey, Nathaniel. Nod House. New Directions, dist. by Norton. ISBN 9780811219464. pap. $15.95.
Mackey picks up right where Splay Anthem, his 2006 National Book Award winner left off, sending us on one long and exciting journey (“There we stood leaning forward, one/ hand gripping the balcony rail, the/ other an Asafo flag”). This is rich, jangly, and atmospheric, maybe too densely packed for modest readers (“Risen waft, anabatic/ whiff./ Buried our heads in/ Erzulie’s loin-musk”). But serious poetry readers and all those interested in African American verse will want.

Morgan, Robert. Terroir. Penguin Poets. ISBN 9780143120193. pap. $18.
A best-selling novelist (Gap Creek) as well as a noteworthy poet (with honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters). Morgan is a little too fiercely no-nonsense to be seen as a nature poet, notwithstanding the title. Here he gets right down there in the dirt (“Soft Mountains,” “Poison Oak”),  then goes back to brightness (“November light is like a dream”), and spars with death and great poets (“Was only when I watched my dad/ approach his end I understood/ how little Dylan Thomas knew/ of death and dying” ). Plain-spoken, well-crafted work with, dare one say, old-fashioned charm.

Stobb, William. Absentia. Penguin Poets. ISBN 9780143120186. $18.
Winner of the National Poetry Series for Nervous Systems, Stobb writes deft, sure poetry straddling the territory where the physical and imagination, nature and history meet (“What sound there is—whisper of wind/ across the land’s sand skin….//Stake the imaginary tent/ on imaginary lake bottom”). Accomplished. 

Wright, Franz. Kindertotenwald. Knopf. ISBN 9780307272805. $26.
Prose poems can be a poor excuse for fine writing (read: convoluted, flowery stuff that is supposed to create a mood…or something). But this Pulitzer Prize winner writes clear, muscular verse one can really bite into—and come away hungry for more. From the weather forecast to the forecaster, from a mauled trip home to Nietzsche, Messiaen, and two saints, these are wide-ranging and erudite yet utterly approachable poems. Don’t miss.

Eight Young Poets To Watch: Collections I Couldn’t Pass Up
Burwick, Kimberly. Horses in the Cathedral. Anhinga. ISBN 9781934695241. pap. $17.
“Each animal is the abstraction that goes through me”: so Burwick says of those horses. Burwick, who won the Robert Dana Prize for Poetry with this book, writes spare, lyric verse that does plumb abstraction—but only by working through pitch pine and yellowwood, “hands/ clayey with milk and magnolia.” A fresh new sense of the pastoral.

Chang, Tina. Of Gods & Strangers. Four Way Bks. ISBN 9781935536178. pap. $17.
Brooklyn’s poet laureate does not write gentle odes. Whether she’s revisiting the last empress of China (“Once the guards sprayed me down unclothed/ I left my veil in a pool of my own waking”), contemporary violence (Fever in the white stone garden:/ By 7 p.m., stray dogs have the run of Jaffna’s streets”), or more intimate darkness (“I dream I am whipping a donkey”), Chang is as bold as she is affecting. Pretty much a definite purchase.

Crews, James. The Book of What Stays. Bison: Univ. of Nebraska. ISBN 9780803236356. pap. $17.95.
Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, this is a forthright, engrossing collection of portraits, places, and events (a damaged palomino, a couple stranded in a deadly blizzard, a bridge covered with some arresting graffiti) that should attract readers who enjoy poetry grounded in the everyday and informed by a sure sense of narrative.

Griffiths, Rachel Eliza. Mule & Pear. New Issues: Western Michigan Univ. ISBN 9781936970018. pap. $15.
Bearing a title from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, this gutsy, bitterly lyric collection (“I’m honeysuckle./ A girl child crying/ holy seven sins”) takes in the entire African American experience in lines that just spin out over the page, leaving you breathless to catch up and keep reading. Wow; do get this one.

Legault, Paul. The Other Poems. Fence. ISBN 9781934200506. pap. $15.95.
Every once in a while one must go for wacky, acerbic wit, and Legault’s second collection (after The Madeleine Poems) fits the bill (“EVERYBODY: Everybody shut up./ MONDAY: It’s happening again.”). The point: get used to life’s absurdities. Fun for risk-taking readers.

Oshiro, Janine. Pier. Alice James. ISBN 9781882295883. pap. $15.95.
This is a first collection by a poet who really is about to dive off that pier, exploring love, loss, and the way she manages as she locates herself gracefully (“I want outside./ In the wrist is a bone like a boat.// I have been a long time out of water.” Yet she doesn’t dwell tiringly on the self, the “I” that can overwhelm a poem. This is an open world mixing ghosts and violets. Try it.

Rosal, Patrick. Boneshepherds. Persea Bks, dist. by Norton. ISBN 9780892553860. pap. $15.
It’s not every poet who can move deftly from the Japanese occupation of his father’s homeland to cousins “shush[ing] the goats before they kill them” to “a sex shop and a Bible shop/ two doors down.” But Rosal, who has won honors from the Asian American Writer’s Workshop and the Association of Asian American Studies, can do it. “We have to sing/ just to figure out/ what we can’t say.” A keeper.

Shaheen, Glenn. Predatory. Univ. of Pittsburgh. ISBN 9780822961628. pap. $14.95.
This collection, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, is meditative but grounded in the tangible (“In the heat the glue has melted away and nothing will remain fastened.// Sometimes I wish it would all suddenly and gently end”). For the down-to-earth poetry reader.

Fourteen Fiction-in-Translation Titles from 2011 You Should Definitely Consider
Best European Fiction 2012. Dalkey Archive. ed. by Aleksandar Hemon. ISBN 9781564786807. pap. $15.95.
The third edition of this excellent series is the strongest yet, with the 34 stories from 26 countries organized by theme (e.g., “Love,” War,” Family”). Some of the best: Augustín Fernández Paz’s “This Strange Lucidity,” a dog’s-eye view of his master’s serial relationships; Gabriel Rosenstock’s “…everything emptying into white,” about a hapless folklorist’s introduction to the real world at a conference in Slovenia; Rui Zink’s disaffected traveler in “Travel Destination”; and the rebellious teenagers in Bjarte Breiteig’s “Down There They Don’t Mourn.” Wonderful for anyone interested in world fiction.

Can Xue. Vertical Motion: Stories. Open Letter. tr. from Chinese by Karen Gernant & Chen Zeping. ISBN 9781934824375. pap. $13.95.
The stories in this collection from a noted Chinese novelist (Five Spice Street) feel realist (“The thing I love watching most is the swirling cotton candy”) but go dreamy and slant, not exactly surreal but heightened (“I belong to the moonlight; the lion belongs to the darkness”). That the author has written on Borges, Shakespeare, and Dante and has chosen a pseudonym that means “dirty snow” (her real name is Deng Xiaohua) attests to her wit and protean taste, as reflected in her writing. Important for world collections.

Glissant, Édouard. The Overseer’s Cabin. Univ. of Nebraska. tr. from French by Betsy Wing. ISBN 9780803234796. $19.95.
Leading Caribbean author Glissant captures the history of 20th-century Martinique with this story of Mycea, born in 1928 and released from an asylum in 1978 at novel’s end. More quietly focused than similar works by Toni Morrison, Marlon James, and Isabel Allende, this work is just as harrowing and will appeal to readers of these authors.

Gonçalo, M. Tavares. Learning To Pray in the Age of Technique. Dalkey Archive. tr. from Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. ISBN 9781564786272. pap. $15.95.
A distant surgeon, who “considered himself an observer of the world,” is upended by a cancer diagnosis. The time and place aren’t specific, and the plot has universal appeal, though noted Portuguese author Gonçalo (winner of the Saramago Prize) won’t likely appeal to casual readers. For those interested in world fiction.

Le Clézio, J.M. G. Mondo & Other Stories. Univ. of Nebraska. tr. from French by Alison Anderson. ISBN 9780803230002. $19.95.
He’s a Nobel prize winner and French, so some readers probably suspect that Le Clézio is difficult. But in fact his quiet explorations of beauty and culture are freshly, conversationally written. A nice introduction if needed, as the stories range widely.

Le Tellier, Hervé. The Sextine Chapel. Dalkey Archive. tr. from French by Ian Monk. ISBN 9781564785756. pap. $14.95.
Associated with the cutting-edge writing group Oulipo, Le Tellier is a daring writer; in this first collection of linked short-short stories, he introduces telling and isolated moments in a series of relationships (“Anna and Ben.” “Ben and Chloe.” “Chloe and Dennis.”), each in a single page. Occasionally precious, often brilliant, more successful than you might think; for nervy readers.

Meddeb, Abdelwahab. Talismano. Dalkey Archive. tr. from French by Jane Kuntz. ISBN 9781564786296. pap. $14.95.
“Down stairs leading to the sloped street that ends in the school’s cul-de-sac, I find I’m fully medina-minded, medinating: shaded passages zigzag, footsteps oddly resonant. Vaulted portions of alleyways ringing with cymbal and echo.” This work by Tunis-born, Paris-based Meddeb is less story than meditation on memory, place, and the cross-currents of Arab and Western culture. Not for those who want traditional narrative but gorgeous and atmospheric; I kept returning with interest.

Rodoreda, Mercè. The Selected Stories of Mercè Rodoreda. Open Letter. tr. from Catalan by Martha Tennent. ISBN 9781934824313. pap. $15.95.
A leading Catalan writer of the 20th century who lived in exile in France and Switzerland during the Spanish Civil War, Rodoreda doesn’t have a lot of exposure in English translation. This collection of 30 stories, from the meditative “Happiness” to the moody, autumnal “Carnival,” reveal carefully observed moments in the characters’ lives and would serve as a good introduction for interested readers.

Rosero, Evelio. Good Offices. New Directions, dist. by Norton. tr. from Spanish by Anne McLean & Anna Milsom. ISBN 9780811219303. pap. $13.95.
Award-winning Colombian author Rosero gets his second chance in English (after The Armies) with this story of earnest hunchback Tancredo, who helps Father Almida serve the town’s charity lunches. When a new priest must substitute, he dangerously charms both Tancredo and his helpers. A direct hit on the Catholic Church and a good read for a wide range of readers.

Scliar, Moacyr. Kafka’s Leopards. Texas Tech Univ. (The Americas). tr. from Portuguese by Thomas O. Beebe. ISBN 9780896726963. $26.95.
Asked to deliver a message, Benjamin Kantarovitch fancies that he is under direct orders from Trotsky (the time is the Russian Revolution) and leaves the shtetl for Prague, where he loses the message but encounters Franz Kafka. What results is a witty, twisty, literate yet accessible tale of semi-intrigue that opens with a deadpan police report. Just deceased, prolific Brazilian author Scliar is noted for his fable-like work and triumphs here.

Sorokin, Vladimir. The Ice Trilogy. New York Review Books. tr. from Russian by Jamey Gambrell. ISBN 9781590173862. pap. $19.95.
Outstanding contemporary Russian author Sorokin is making a name for himself; his tart and daring Day of the Oprichnik was published here last year to good reviews. This trilogy, about a brotherhood intent on global destruction, should appeal to a wide range of readers; Ice, the second volume, originally appeared as a standalone in 2007 and described by LJ’s reviewer as “truly thrilling postmodern thriller.”

Toussaint, Jean-Philippe. The Truth About Marie. Dalkey Archive. tr. from French by Matthew B. Smith. ISBN 9781564783677. pap. $12.98.
Toussaint has been called a Camus for the 21st century, and that seems apt. He’s got a cool, acute way of describing human emotion. Here, having “realized that we made love at the same time, Marie and I, but not with each other,” the narrator chronicles their uncertain relationship, starting with the death of Marie’s paramour of the moment and moving back to the narrator’s intuition of that death, then forward again. A racehorse that figures in the plot (“aware of nothing but the certainty of being then and there”) signifies an urgent presence in the novel, something the narrator is reaching for, always. Francophiles and other interested readers will want.

Urban, Miloş. The Seven Churches: A Gothic Novel of Prague. tr. from Czech by Robert Russell. Trafalgar Sq. ISBN 9780720613117. pap. $13.95.
A Prague policeman fascinated with the Middle Ages is fascinated by a group trying to reconstruct the city’s golden era even as he chases a murderer drawing inspiration from the past. Billed as a literary thriller, a best seller in the Czech Republic and Spain, and sold to many more countries, this absorbing and readable work will appeal to anyone who like the works of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Iain Pears, medieval mystery writers, and the more upscale Scandinavian scare-folks.

Ford, Richard. Canada. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780061692048  $26.99; eISBN 9780062096807. lrg. prnt. LITERARY
Fifteen-year-old Dell Parsons feels pretty much abandoned; not only are his parents jailed for robbing a bank but his twin sister is humiliated enough to have run away. He’s rescued by a family friend, who sends him across the border from Montana to Canada, where he’s taken in by a charismatic fellow American who turns out to have a dark and dangerous side. In the short run, however, Dell takes advantage of Saskatchewan’s wide open spaces to remake himself. Switching publishers, the ever beautifully apt Ford gets a 200,000-copy first printing and a grand tour that includes Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Oxford/Jackson (MS), Portland (ME), Portland (OR), Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

Joinson, Suzanne. A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Jun. 2012. 9781608198115. $26. LITERARY
Kashgar: an ancient city along the Silk Road, now in western China, and the destiny of missionaries Evangeline (Eva) and sister Lizzie in 1923. Lizzie is imbued, while Eva simply wants to get away from home and has cleverly contracted to write about her experiences. Meanwhile, in contemporary London, a young woman named Frieda contends with a Yemeni refuge she’s found sleeping outside her door and news that she’s inherited the contents of a flat whose occupant she doesn’t know. So far, this looks charming and dusky and imbued with a wonderful sense of history and place. Aside from first novelist, Joinson has two amazing-sounding jobs: she works in the literature department of the British Council, specializing in the Middle East, North Africa, and China, and she is writer in residence at the UK’s Shoreham Airport. That alone makes this book sound promising, but let us not forget that Bloomsbury is the publisher that brought you this year’s National Book Award winner, Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones. 

Pratchett, Terry & Stephen Baxter. The Long Earth. Harper: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780062067753. $25.99; eISBN 9780062067760. SF
Big news: Discworld master Pratchett is here creating a new world for the first time in three decades, a series of parallel earths called the Long Earth. World-class misanthrope Larry Lynsey has relocated to the Long Earth’s farthest reaches; he’s the only person around for ten planets. Unfortunately, he’s got visitors—two lost souls who took a wrong turn a few stars back—and Larry is going to have to get rid of them. Pratchett keeps going strong—last October’s Snuff debuted at No. 3 on the New York Times best sellers list, his highest spot there ever—and there’s a 75,000-copy first printing. Essential wherever sf is read.

Brinkley, Douglas. Cronkite. Harper: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 752p. ISBN 9780061374265. $34.99; eISBN 9780062196637. lrg. prnt. BIOGRAPHY
We all think we know Walter Cronkite, consummate journalist and “the most trusted man in America,” as he was often called. But, having dug into the just opened Cronkite Archive at the University of Texas at Austin and interviewed over 200 people, from Morley Safer to Katie Couric, Brinkley should tell us much more. This one’s big; with a one-day laydown on 5/29, a 250,000-copy first printing, and a seven-city tour to Austin, Boston, Dallas, Houston, New York, Philadelphia ,and Washington, DC.

Maraniss, David. Barack Obama: The Story. S. & S. Jun. 2012. 608p. ISBN 9781439160404. $32.50. BIOGRAPHY
So we’ve read a lot about President Obama lately—David Remnick’s The Bridge came out just last year. But Maraniss, the Pulitzer Prize–winning associate editor of the Washington Post and author of books on subjects ranging from Bill Clinton to the 1960 Rome Olympics, is a force to be reckoned with. Maraniss examines not simply what Obama has accomplished but the forces that have shaped him, going back generations. Lots of interviews, including with the President himself. Expect a big boom.

Bakopoulos, Natalie. The Green Shore. S. & S. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781451633924. $25. LITERARY
I’ve already mentioned this first novel in conjunction with my hunt for books on the crisis in Greece and, more broadly, the E.U., but it bears further discussion. Bakopoulos opens the narrative with the Greek military’s 1967 coup d’état, then shows the consequences for four characters: Sophie, a student of French literature sucked into the resistance; her widowed mother, Eleni, who has lost heart in the face of yet another upheaval; Sophie’s uncle Mihalis, a famous poet who’s stepped out of the limelight for personal reasons; and Sophie’s sister Anna. A personal look at the political, then, and ripe for discussion as a means of understanding why Greece is where it is now.

Coake, Christopher. You Came Back. Grand Central. Jun. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9781455506705. $24.99. POP FICTION
Many parents who lose a child divorce, as the pain is too palpably in the way of the relationship. Such is the case for thirtyish Mark Fife, who at least seems to have coped successfully with his grief over son Brendan’s accidental death and is about to remarry. Then the woman who owns his old house contacts him to say that she thinks it is haunted by Brendan’s ghost. Mark is skeptical, but former wife Chloe is not. Not so much a tale of the supernatural as of enduring parental love and hope.

Farris, Peter. Last Call for the Living. Forge: Tor. May 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780765330079. $24.99. THRILLER
Taken hostage by an ex-con who’s just double-crossed his buddies in the Aryan Brotherhood, bank teller Charlie Colquitt finds himself somewhere in the hills of northern Georgia, with both Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Sallie Crews and two Aryan soldiers in hot pursuit. Obviously a bank-heist thriller, this also aims to be a more reflective tale of a young man learning something important about himself under suddenly stressful circumstances. Personal note: debut novelist Farris is son of legendary New York Times best-selling novelist John Farris.

Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. Crown. Jun. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780307588364. $25. LITERARY SUSPENSE
On Nick and Amy’s fifth anniversary, Amy disappears. Nick has not been a model husband, and Amy’s diaries reveal turmoil in the marriage, but did he really kill her? Even as Nick protests his innocence, it becomes evident that if Amy is dead, that’s the least of it. Flynn’s novels glitter scarily, and her last one, Dark Objects, was a New York Times best seller, but this one is expected to break her out.

Frank, Dorothea Benton. Porch Lights. Morrow. Jun. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780061961298. $25.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Harper Audio. POP FICTION
Sloping dunes, salty breezes: it must be the South Carolina Lowcountry, the real star of Frank’s best-selling novels. Here, a grandmother, mother, and son clarify the meaning of love and the importance of family while recalling tales of pirates and Edgar Allen Poe. Frank keeps building (she had her best New York Times debut ever with last June’s Folly Beach), and the one-day laydown on 6/12 and 250,000-copy first printing suggest strong support. Get multiples.

Hanauer, Cathi. Gone. Atria: S. & S. Jun. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9781451626414. $28.99. POP FICTION
Hanauer’s best-selling essay collection, The Bitch in the House, forthrightly addressed the frustrations of committing to motherhood while trying to remain true to one’s own ambitions. Reflecting those concerns, her new novel (after Sweet Ruin) features fortyish Eve, who’s been working part-time and raising the children while her sculptor husband’s career rises and then starts to fall. Suddenly, he’s gone, having disappeared after dropping off the babysitter, and Eve gets to balance everything on her own. Try it.

Henkin, Joshua. The World Without You. Pantheon. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780375424366. $25.95; eISBN 9780307907561. LITERARY
In Henkin’s debut novel, Swimming Across the Hudson, a man receives a letter from a woman claiming to be his birth mother; in Matrimony, WASPy Julian affair’s with Jewish Mia is launched in the college laundry room. Both won Notable Book status at various publications, and Matrimony was a book club favorite. Like those titles, Henkin’s newest work deals with family, and despite their obvious success this one sounds like a step forward. It features the Frankels, who have gathered at their summer home in the Berkshires for the memorial service of youngest son Leo, a journalist killed on assignment in Iraq. With a reading-group guide and an eight-city tour to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Northampton (MA), San Francisco, and Seattle, this is being set up as a big read.

Kallentoft, Mons. Midwinter Blood. Emily Bestler: Atria. Jun. 2012.  320p. ISBN 9781451642476. $25.99. THRILLER
Yes, another Swedish thriller, this one the first in a series of four books starring Supt. Malin Fors, a thirtysomething divorced mother serving on the police force in a remote town. She’s reputedly an edgy and obsessed character whose first outing takes her on a manhunt for someone ghastly. Watch for all your thriller fans.

Lowell, Elizabeth. Beautiful Sacrifice. Morrow. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780061629860. $25.99; eISBN 9780062101228. lrg. prnt. ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
When significant Mayan artifacts go missing and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Hunter Johnson is asked by a friend to recover them, he turns to archaeologist and Mayan expert Lina Taylor for help. After all, with Mayan legend proclaiming that the world will end a year from this Wednesday, December 21, someone might be planning mischief. Hunter’s a loner, Lina’s ready to dig up his gentler side, and so we have a typical glowy Lowell novel. With a one-day laydown on 5/25 and a 150,000-copy first printing; consider multiples where Lowell is popular, especially as this is her first novel in two years.

Lustbader, Eric Van. Robert Ludlum’s™ The Bourne Imperative. Grand Central. Jun. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780446564472. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Jason Bourne is back, practically looking in the mirror. The man he’s pulled out of an icy lake, bleeding from a gunshot wound and nearly drowned, has no memory of who he is or why he was shot—sort of like Jason himself, way back when. Ludlum originated this series, writing three Bourne thrillers, but Lustbader is up to his seventh and seems to have made Bourne his own. Get plenty wherever Bourne is popular.

McCall Smith, Alexander. A Conspiracy of Friends: A Corduroy Mansions Novel. Pantheon. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 97803079007233. $24.95; eISBN 9780307907240. POP FICTION
McCall Smith’s “Corduroy Mansions” series is not as big as some of his others but is just getting started; this is the third installment. It’s mostly British eccentric—Berthea Snark is still writing that scornful biography of her politician son, Oedipus, for instance—but there is a mystery here: William’s famed terrier, Freddy de la Hay, has disappeared. Fun for the right readers.

McLaughlin, Emma & Nicola Kraus. Between You and Me. Atria: S. & S. Jun. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781439188187. $25. POP FICTION
The coauthors of stratospheric best sellers like The Nanny Diaries again visit that place where fame, fortune, and poshness meet. Having fled an unhappy childhood for New York, Logan Wade is all ears when celebrity cousin Kelsey Wade calls, in need of a new assistant. Unfortunately, heartless paparazzi and control-freak parents are pushing Kelsey to a very real breakdown. For all those who love glitter.

McMillan, Claire. Gilded Age. S. & S. Jun. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451640472. $25. POP FICTION
This novel intrigues me because it is billed as an update of Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, taking place on that rocky ground where old money spars uneasily with new money. After a high-profile marriage and an equally high-profile divorce, Ellie Hart did time in rehab out West, then returned home to Cleveland (so how hot can she be?). Alas, she blows her chance to make good and faces a desperate decision. A first novel with some push behind it; watch.

Meacham, Leila, Tumbleweeds. Grand Central. Jun. 2012. 480p. ISBN 9781455509249. $25.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
Texas author Meacham may have moved from Roses to Tumbleweeds, but she maintains the same bittersweet tone and sprawly size of her first novel, though this book is not quite as long. In a little town in the Texas panhandle where Friday night football rules, three friends grow up, their lives forever linked by a fateful event. For all those readers of old-fashioned, juicy works.

Pettersson, Vicki. The Taken: Celestial Blues: Book One. HarperVoyaguer. Jun. 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780062064646. pap. $13.99; eISBN 9780062064110. FANTASY
Griffin Shaw is a Centurion, that is, an angel charged with helping other murdered souls make their way to the afterlife. (Angels seem to be replacing vampires as the hot new fantasy item.) When he sees a nasty attack on journalist Kit Craig, he joins forces with her to track a killer through the darkest stretches of Las Vegas—and the immortal netherworld. Author of the New York Times best-selling series “Signs of the Zodiac,” Pettersson launches a new series that promises spice and atmosphere: as a showgirl for ten years at the Tropicana’s Folies Bergeres, she knows Vegas. A sign of her success: Zodiac was a mass-market series, while this new book is appearing as a trade paperback original.

Roy-Bhattacharya, Joydeep. The Watch. Hogarth: Crown. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780307955890. $25. LITERARY
In this modern retelling of the story of Antigone by Roy-Bhattacharya (The Story of Marrakesh), fighting around a beleaguered American base in Kandahar has left many dead, and a woman comes to demand that she be given the body of her brother to bury according to local Afghan rites. The American soldiers don’t know whether she’s a spy or a lunatic, but they do know that she’s trouble. Written in direct, colloquial language, this novel is among the inaugural titles from Hogarth Press—named, of course, for the enterprise run by Virginia and Leonard Woolf and launched jointly by Crown and by Chatto & Windus in London with the intent of issuing character-driven works told in distinctive voices.

Scalzi, John. Redshirts. Tor. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780765316998. $24.99. SF
Something I just learned: Redshirt, a term that originated with fans of Star Trek, in which the crimson-shirted Starfleet security officers generally met quick ends, refers to a stock character that dies shortly after being introduced. In this spoof, Ensign Andrew Dahl is delighted to be assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since 2456—until he notices that Away Missions always cost at least one low-ranked crew member his life. Then he discovers the Intrepid’s real raison d’être, and he and his colleagues join forces to save their skins. Word has it that a horde of crazed Scalzi fanatics are out there, demanding this book. Don’t skimp.

Toyne, Simon. The Key. Morrow. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780062038333. $25.99; eISBN 9780062038357. lrg. prnt. THRILLER
In Toyne’s best-selling debut, Sanctus, the threat from the Sancti, a dangerous religious order dwelling in the high-perched Citadel, seems to have been pretty much defused. But a remnant is regrouping, determined to grab back power, which sends American reporter Liv Adamsen and the warrior Gabriel to the very spot where humankind originated so that they can undercover the key to its survival. Whoa, pretty speculative. True believers won’t enjoy, but others will be interested; note the 100,000-copy first printing.

Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins. Harper: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780061928123. $25.99; eISBN 9780062098085. POP FICTION
In 1962, a young Italian innkeeper meets an American starlet in trouble—in fact, she’s sailing toward him across the Ligurian Sea, the drama of their meeting evidently engineered by her conniving publicist. Fifty years later the innkeeper follows his heart to Hollywood to find her. Walter’s The Financial Lives of the Poets won awards and sold especially well in paperback; there’s even a film in the offing, starring Jack Black. All of which suggests that Walter is on the upswing, and this does sound romantic. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Several years ago, while wondering how to get more people to read poetry, I came up with an idea. Why not pair poetry collections with popular fiction titles in a read-all-around experience that would show folks how richly exciting and tapped in and accessible poetry really is? I’ve never gotten around to actually trying it until this year, when I took a look at LJ’s Best Books list and got some ideas. Here are my suggestions for books to read along with LJ’s Top Ten in poetry, focused on current or forthcoming titles, mostly but not exclusively fiction ,and drawing on other LJ Best Books when possible. Let me know if this works!

al-Jubouri, Amal. Hagar Before the Occupation/Hagar After the Occupation. Alice James. ISBN 9781882295890. pap. $17.50.
This lyric and heartrending account of Iraq’s current turmoil might add perspective for readers of thrillers like Michael Robotham’s eviscerating The Wreckage. More literary titles include Benjamin Bucholz’s One Hundred and One Nights, a novel just out this month about an Iraqi who has returned home from America, and Stephen Dau’s forthcoming The Book of Jonas. My favorite fiction on the complexity of war in the Middle East remains Nadeem Aslam’s The Wasted Vigil.

Flynn, Nick. The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands. Graywolf. ISBN 9781555975746. $22.
I’ve racked by brains to come up with a current fiction title that equals the intensity of Flynn’s forthright look at human violence, but nothing works for me like Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s 2008 The Painter of Battles. In a striking parallel, Flynn focuses partly on Abu Grahib and its awful photographs, while Pérez-Reverte’s hero is a disillusioned war photographer. In addition, Flynn’s collection might add an interesting counterbalance to Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, an LJ Best Book.

Foulds, Adam. The Broken Word: An Epic Poem of British Empire in Kenya, and the Mau Mau Uprising Against It. Penguin. ISBN 9780143118091. pap. $16.
This Costa Award winner uses the personal—a young man’s return to the family farm in 1950s Kenya—to tell the significant story of rebellion against colonial rule. I cannot imagine a more illuminating poetry book to read along with Alexandra Fuller’s classic Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight and her recent Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, both memoirs of her family in an Africa just slipping its chains.

Kageyama-Ramakrishnan, Claire. Bear, Diamonds and Crane. Four Way Bks. ISBN 9781935536130. pap. $15.95.
When I first started thinking about this book, writers from Chang-rae Lee to Jhumpa Lahiri came to mind as possible parallel reads. But the best match for this exploration of family, love, and loss, particularly among several generations of Japanese Americans, is Julie Otsuka’s National Book Award nominee and LJ Best Book, The Buddha in the Attic. Don’t forget her earlier title, When the Emperor Was Divine. Both authors write with delicacy and distinctiveness.

Kakischke, Laura. Space, in Chains. Copper Canyon. ISBN 9781556593338. pap. $16.
Kakischke here writes breathtakingly about the luminous everyday, with poems ranging from “Your Headache” to “Rain.” She’s so wide-ranging that a good match was evading me until I thought of Colm Tóibín’s The Empty Family: Stories, an LJ Best Book that vivifies the breadth of human experience in the author’s own fluid tones.

Levin, Dana. Sky Burial. Copper Canyon. ISBN 9781556593321. pap. $15.
Levin references everything from Tibetan Buddhist burial practices to Aztec sacrifice as she explores the meaning and impact of death in her singing, beautifully fractured lines. Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife, an LJ Best Book and National Book Award nominee, also explores death—her subject is turmoil in the Balkans—with the same quiet radiance.

Shockley, Evie. The new black. Wesleyan Univ. ISBN 9780819571403. $22.95.
Stylistically, Shockley’s in-your-face poetry differs from the hard-won lyricism of Jesmyn Ward’s National Book Award winner (and personal favorite) Salvage the Bones. Yet they share an urgent need to communicate what the African American experience is today. For a real stylistic match, go for Ishmael Reed’s Juice!

Smith, Bruce. Devotions. Phoenix: Univ. of Chicago. ISBN 9780226764351. pap. $18.
Pulitzer Prize finalist Smith’s devotions are rigorous, discursive contemplations ranging from the offbeat everyday (“Thirst Reduction”) to the profound (the child Tchaikovsky screaming “This music./ It’s here in my head. Save me from it”). Try reading them with illustrator Lou Beach’s debut story collection, 420 Characters, just out this month to considerable praise. The vignettes are each delivered in 420 characters, the limit Facebook set on status updates when Beach started posting his pieces there, and they are weird and wonderful little gems.

Smith, Tracy K. Life on Mars. Graywolf. ISBN 9781555975845. pap. $15.
Smith’s exploration of art, science, and religion is couched partly as an elegy for her father, a scientist who worked on the development of the Hubble Space Telescope. A couple of books come to mind as compatible reads. The Lieutenant, Kate Grenville’s 2009 follow-up to her Commonwealth Writers’ Prize–winning The Secret River, explores a young British soldier’s construction of an observatory in late 18th-century New South Wales. More broadly, Gin Phillips’s Come In and Cover Me, coming in January, explores art (pottery made by Natives of the American Southwest), science (the efforts of archaeologists to find and study them), and religion (protagonist Ren is a successful archaeologist because she can commune with ghosts of the past, including her brother). That might work.

Trinidad, David. Dear Prudence: New and Selected Poems. Turtle Point, dist. by Consortium. ISBN 9781933527475. pap. $19.
Whether he’s summing up Peyton Place in haiku or looking at Diane Arbus looking at blockbuster writer Jacqueline Susann, Trinidad can be so goofily caustic that his compendium would be a perfect read with nearly any novel about contemporary mores. I had an inspired thought, though, while attending a concert this afternoon: Lorrie Moore!

Bolton, Andrew & others (text) & Sølve Sundsbø (photogs.). Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. Metropolitan Museum of Art, dist. by Yale Univ. ISBN 9780300169782. $45.
Tragically, we will see no more of Alexander McQueen’s savage beauty, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute goes on. The institute, which launched the sellout exhibition for which this book served as catalog, will next host the exhibition “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.” Presented from May 10 to August 19, with a May 7 gala benefit with Jeff Bezos as honorary chair, the exhibit explores stylistic similarities between the two great Italian designers. As with Savage Beauty, the catalog will be written by curators Bolton and Harold Koda.

Horwitz, Tony. Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War. Holt. ISBN 9780805091533. $29.
Horwitz may have just said good-bye to two months of touring, but he’ll be back on the road come January. His tour schedule includes libraries and museums, his favorite gig being the Smithsonian Institution, where, he says, “I’ve been asked to talk about a 19th-century painting at the National Portrait Gallery that makes John Brown look like a demented cross between Boo Radley and Ted Kaczynski. …After that, I hope to put John Brown’s body to rest and disinter some other piece of history to write a book about.” Some looming projects: a magazine piece on the road to emancipation in the Civil War and a possible monthly column on American history. Everyone who wants to see this column, say aye.

Jones, Tayari. Silver Sparrow. Algonquin. ISBN 9781565129900. $19.95.
Jones has a paperback tour starting in May, but meanwhile she’s up at Harvard as a Radcliffe Fellow, researching a new novel called Dear History and pounding away on her 1919 Royal typewriter. In addition, an NEA grant guarantees her a bit more relief from her teaching responsibilities; look for her shortly at the Jersey City Public Library as she continues to write.

Murakami, Haruki. 1Q84. Knopf. ISBN 9780307593313. $30.50.
When I was in college, Seiji Ozawa was conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and I went every Saturday night. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to hear that the great Nobel contender is writing a new book, Absolutely on Music: The Conversaton with Seiji Ozawa. It will be out inJapan next October, but no word yet on a U.S, publication.

Obreht, Téa. The Tiger’s Wife. Random. ISBN 9780385343831. $29.
The publisher bought the rights for Obreht’s second novel last March, just as her National Book Award nominee was starting to show its glorious stripes. No publication date has been set, but meanwhile Obreht will be touring to promote the paperback edition in January and on February 7 will appear at St. Mark’s Bookshop in New York when Tiger launches the Huffington Post Book Club. Then on February 9, you can catch her at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Eat, Drink & Be Literary” series with The New Yorker’s Deborah Treisman. March means touring to promote the book’s German edition, then let’s hope she can get back to work on her novel.

Otsuka, Julie. The Buddha in the Attic. Knopf. ISBN 9780307700001. $22.
Otsuka, whose National Book Award nominee has done so much to help us understand the history of Japanese immigrants to this country, is now working on something completely different. It involves swimming and dementia (an intriguing combination) and could be set in contemporary New York City. Explains Otsuka, “My story ‘Diem Perdidi,’ which appears in the current issue of Granta (the horror issue) and deals with my mother’s memory loss, will probably be a part of the new book.”

Phillips, Arthur. The Tragedy of Arthur. Random. ISBN 9781400066476. $26.
As Phillips proves with each radically different novel, he’s a man of many talents. And just to prove it again, he recently wrote an episode of the television show Damages and sold a pilot to HBO. Rumor has it that he’s sold the film rights for a couple of his novels as well. None of which is keeping him from working on another surprising new work of fiction or prepping for the paperback release of The Tragedy of Arthur in February.

Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Viking. ISBN 9780670022953. $40.
Here’s a surprise. The Harvard professor who gave us this richly researched, densely detailed meditation on human violence will be writing a short book next. It’s a grammar for the 21st century, recalling Strunk and White’s immortal Elements of Style as it addresses changes in usage—particularly those wrought by technology.

Tillyard, Stella. Tides of War. Holt. ISBN 9780805094572. $27.
Tillyard is just digging in to write a new novel called The Border Guards, which is set in the Italian port city of Trieste between 1936 and 1990. Since she has lived in Italy and still has a house there, the narrative should flow like honey. Though Tillyard has switched time and place, “it’s no surprise,” she says, “that The Border Guards explores some of the same themes as my earlier work: the search for love and identity in a time of war, the experience of immigration. and the impact of empire. It’s a book about Europe too, and whatEurope was and still could be.” Heady themes, but of course there’s a love story, featuring  Bruno and Anna.

Tóibín, Colm. The Empty Family: Stories. Scribner. ISBN 9781439138328. $24.
The good news: Tóibín has just published a memoir called A Guest at the Feast as part of Penguin Shorts, a digital series of exclusive short works. The bad news: this appears to be only an across-the-Atlantic deal, but here’s the link to the British web site if you are interested. I’ll investigate further.

Ariely, Dan, M.D. The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves. Harper: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780062183590. $26.99; eISBN 9780062183620. PSYCHOLOGY
It’s not just Enron; we all cheat, from sneaking extra cookies to padding our résumés to buying imitation Coach bags. Behavioral economist Ariely, author of the best-selling The Upside of Irrationality, isn’t here to lecture us but to examine why we cheat, what the consequences are, and how we can become more honest. A book we’ll all have to sneak to read; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Bernd, Heinrich. Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death. Houghton Harcourt. Jun. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780547752662. $25; eISBN 9780547752693. NATURAL HISTORY
Humans face death with trepidation and elaborate rituals, but what about animals? Proffering lessons both spiritual and ecological, the author of the lovely The Mind of a Raven shows us the animal way of death, with examples ranging from carrion beetles burying field mice to wolves, large cats, eagles, and weasels working in tandem to get rid of killed prey. Not just for animal lovers.

Blum, Andrew. Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780061994937. $26.99; eISBN 9780062096753. TECHNOLOGY
Cyberspace just seems so out there, but in fact the Internet really does happen in places—huge data centers and the fiber optic cables carrying all those little pulsing bits of information worldwide. Taking stock of these “concrete” manifestations, Wired correspondent Blum clarifies how the Internet developed and how it works. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Cameron, Bruce. A Dog’s Journey. Forge: Tor. May 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780765330536. $24.99. PETS
Another dog book? You bet. And since Cameron’s 2010 A Dog’s Purpose was on the best sellers lists for nearly five months in hardcover and remains on the best sellers lists in paperback, you can also bet that this book will be big. Cameron’s multi-hanky read talks about what we all know about our dogs: we don’t take care of them, they take care of us.

Crowley, Monica. What the (Bleep) Just Happened?: The Happy Warrior’s Guide to the Great American Comeback. Broadside: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780062131157. $26.99; eISBN 9780062131164. CURRENT EVENTS
A regular Fox contributor and guest host for shows like The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity, Crowley offers (as one might expect) a sharp-tongued critique of the Obama years. A 200,000-copy first printing—and you know if you’ll need it!

Forbes, Steve & Elizabeth Ames. Freedom Manifesto: Why Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn’t. Crown Business. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780307951571. $26; eISBN 9780307951595. BUSINESS
The chair, CEO, and editor in chief at Forbes Media carries a big stick when he argues for limited government, proclaiming that “money is the root of all good” and “markets enhance humanity.” This follow-up to How Capitalism Will Save Us has a build-in audience.

Hayes, Christopher L. Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy. Crown. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780307720450. $26; eISBN 9780307720474. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. CURRENT EVENTS
America is defined by the concept of meritocracy, and that concept is failing. As argued by Hayes, host of his own MSNBC show, crises from the Wall Street meltdown to Major League corruption to pedophile priests have destroyed our trust in basic institutions and driven a wedge between the top dogs and everyone else. The problem: policies are made by and for the elite, with little reference to the country’s need as a whole. Hayes identifies the problem; now we need to find the solution.

Jurek, Scott with Steve Friedman. Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness. Houghton Harcourt. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780547569659. $26; eISBN 9780547722078. SPORTS/LIFESTYLE
Listen up, meat eaters! You don’t need all that dead protein to be a great athlete. Jurek won the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run seven years in a row, all on a plant diet. Here he explains how he came to running and then to veganism as he began thinking about food specifically as fuel (not as holiday yummies). He’s obviously one enduring guy, and this book is motivational in the larger sense. With a ten-city tour to Boulder/Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Karp, Harvey. M. The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions for Kids from Birth to 5 Years. Morrow. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780062113313. $24.99; eISBN 9780062113337. PARENTING
The UCLA pediatrician who gave us The Happiest Baby on the Block goes for what’s really important: how to send that happy baby straight to the Land of Nod. Karp upends the big myths (e.g., that it’s best to let babies cry themselves to sleep) while offering two-step training to help sleep happen naturally. Since Karp been on all over television and has sold over one million copies of his two previous titles (plus over 1.6 million DVDs), this is a no-brainer purchase if there are families in your midst. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

Marcus, Norman B. End Back Pain Forever: Without Surgery or Drugs. Atria: S. & S. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781439167441. pap. $16; eISBN 9781439167458. HEALTH
Drugs are often mind-numbing, and back surgery works only half the time, so what can the eight in ten of us who will suffer back pain at some time in our adult lives do? Marcus focuses on muscles, not discs or nerves, as the main source of back pain, and his 21 exercises could do the trick. Lots of books on this subject, but consider Marcus’s credentials: he is director of muscle pain research at NYU School of Medicine and a former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Merry, Robert W. Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians. S. & S. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781451625400. $28. HISTORY
The author of a leading biography on James Polk (A Country of Vast Designs), National Interest editor Merry adds a twist to Rating the Presidents, a game historians love to play. In part, he makes his calls by turning to the voters, looking at whether Presidents were reelected and, if so, whether their parties held sway in the next election. Setting aside Lincoln, Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt as “Men of Destiny” who pulled the nation in a new direction, Merry comes up with the near-greats, the failures, and the presidents whose status keeps bobbing about. (I’ll let you guess on those.) This book is meant to cause arguments.

Patterson, Scott. Dark Pools: The Rise of Artificially Intelligent Trading Machines and the Looming Threat to Wall Street. Crown Business. Jun. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9780307887177. $27; eISBN 9780307887191. Downloadable: Random Audio. BUSINESSS
Wall Street loves computers because they can make stock transactions happen at lightning speed; one company recently shelled out $300 million to gain 3 millionths of a second. The problem, says former Wall Street Journal reporter Patterson, is that humans are starting to lose control. There’s even an idea out and about to create a program that could learn from various trades so that eventually supercomputers would be talking to one another and we puny mortals wouldn’t know what was happening. Scary but real; the author of the best-selling The Quants knows his stuff.

Powell, Colin L. & Tony Koltz. It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership. Harper: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780062135124. $27.99; eISBN 9780062135148. lrg. prnt. CD: Harper Audio. MEMOIR
Not a memoir, really—that job was handled by Powell’s two-million-copy best seller, My American Journey. This is a series of anecdotes used to illustrate leadership lessons or, as Powell calls them, his “13 Rules.” Those rules range from “Trust your people” to “Get mad, then get over it,” something I have yet to learn. With a 750,000-copy first printing; buy multiples.

Rosenstrach, Jenny. Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780062080905. $27.99. COOKING/LIFESTYLE
Like Rosenstrach and her husband, I cook dinner every night, but I wasn’t smart enough to launch a blog about it that ranks number four on the top 100 food mom blogs on Babble, averages 107,000 monthly visits, won Rosenstrach coverage in the New York Times and Martha Stewart’s Whole Living, and has even been optioned for film. Recipes, photos, illustrations, tips, and anecdotes—all in the interest of quality time with the kids over a good meal. With 150,000-copy first printing.

Royal, Barbara. The Royal Treatment: How To Keep Your Animals Wildly Healthy. Atria: S. & S. Jun. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9781451647693. $25. PETS
Anxious, chubby, arthritic, allergic? No, not you, your pet. Domesticated animals suffer the same ills as we domesticated humans, and to help them licensed veterinarian Royal would like first to remind us that our domesticated friends have not lost their wild needs. To address those needs, she offers a blend of Western and Eastern practices. She’s been on Oprah, so people will ask.

Sanger, David E. An Age of Reckoning: Obama’s Unorthodox Use of American Power. Crown. Jun. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780307718020. $28; eISBN 9780307718044. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. CURRENT EVENTS
In The Inheritance, Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for the New York Times, considered the issues President Obama faced when he first came to office. Here he considers how Obama has handled everything from the ongoing war in Afghanistan to troubles with Pakistan after the death of Osama Bin Laden. More crucially, he takes the long view, pondering how Obama’s approach to national security and foreign policy has differed from that of previous Presidents and whether it will make a difference. Not just for wonks.

Sullenberger, Chesley B. with Douglas Century. Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America’s Leaders. Morrow. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780061924705. $26.99; eISBN 9780062101365. lrg. prnt. MEMOIR
Sullenberger’s best-selling Highest Duty covered his 42-year career as a pilot, including his miraculous landing on the Hudson in 2009, saving all 155 people aboard his aircraft. Here he offers reflections on leadership—where do the best leaders come from and how do they inspire?—while highlighting top leaders like baseball manager Tony La Russa and Michelle Rhee, founder of the New Teacher Project. Obviously a great book to pair with Colin Powell’s It Worked for Me, previewed above; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Swarns, Rachel L. American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama. Amistad: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780061999864. $27.99. HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY
Taking off from a piece she cowrote for the New York Times, Swarms delineates the First Lady’s ancestry, including not only those who endured the horrors of slavery but a white great-great-great-grandfather revealed for the first time. (There’s information here even Michelle Obama didn’t know.) Since black, white, and multiracial strands crisscross in so many Americans and indeed inform our entire history, this story is ours, too, and should interest a wide range of readers. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Swofford. Anthony. Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails. Twelve: Hachette. Jun. 2012. 300p. ISBN 9781455506736. $26.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. MEMOIR
A New York Times best seller with currently 250,000 copies available, Jarhead recounted Swofford’s service as a marine sniper in the Gulf War. Here he illuminates his postwar experience as he tamped down painful memories with alcohol, drugs, fast cars, and bad sex, then pulled himself together by taking a series of road trips with his terminally ill father, a Vietnam vet. Jarhead was a hit, postwar memoirs are gaining momentum, and there’s a ten-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Iowa City, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, suggesting great expectations.

Tillman, Marie. The Letter. Grand Central. Jun. 2012. 200p. ISBN 9780446571456. $23.99; lrg. prnt. MEMOIR
After enlisting in the U.S. Army, NFL star Tillman wrote a letter to his wife, to be opened in case he was killed in action. As we know, Tillman died in Afghanistan in 2004, and his wife explains how that letter got her through the years of mourning. She also chronicles how she sought relief through career, travel, and, finally, her decision to head the Pat Tillman Foundation. Inspirational.

Wolf, Naomi. Vagina: A New Biography. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780061989162. $27.99; eISBN 9780062096968. SOCIAL SCIENCE
Like Wolf’s classic The Beauty Myth, this work explores the juncture of women’s bodies and women’s lives. Looking into the relationship between sex and creativity, Wolf discovered a wealth of evidence showing that the vagina is not just flesh but intimately bound to the female brain and hence female consciousness, which has made the historical control of the female body crippling in every sense. Wolf is always provocative and always a best seller. With a 60,000-copy first printing and an author tour including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, and upon request.

Haddon, Mark. The Red House. Doubleday. Jun. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780385535779. $25.95; eISBN 9780385535854. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. LITERARY
Newly remarried and stuck with a headstrong stepdaughter, wealthy doctor Richard tries to mend fences with sister Angela by inviting her and her family for a week’s stay at a vacation home in the English countryside. But Angela has a hopeless husband and three cranky kids of her own, and the week serves up secrets and misunderstandings, relentless grudges and dashed dreams. In lesser hands, this could be dreary, but I expect the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time to deliver an insightful, delicately tuned, bittersweet account of the contemporary family.

Quirk, Matthew. The 500. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Jun. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780316198622. $25.99; . prnt. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Having done time at the Atlantic, reporting on crime, private military contractors, international gangs, and other assorted evils, Quirk should be able to provide the right details for this debut thriller starring Harvard Law grad Mike Ford. Mike has joined an elite consulting firm in Washington, DC, where he associates with the 500—the powerful men and women who really run the government. Those folks are a world away from Mike’s shabby childhood among con men, and now the past has come to call. A ten-city tour to Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Chicago, and Kansas City, film rights sold to 20th Century Fox, foreign rights sold to 11 territories—here’s one debut that looks to be making it big. Focused but fluid writing, too, from what I have seen.

Walker, Karen Thompson. The Age of Miracles. Random. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780812992977. $26; eISBN 9780679644385. CD: Random Audio. POP FICTION
What if the earth’s rotation started to slow? The consequences, as explored in this carefully researched debut novel by a former Simon & Schuster editor, would be devastating on a large scale. Here they are seen to be devastating on a small scale as well, particularly for a girl named Julia. When this book first appeared on the horizon, it caused a frenzy, selling immediately to 25 countries; a Wall Street Journal story highlighted its YA crossover appeal. At first glance, it does have the wide-eyed charm of its young protagonist; can a book be lightly ominous? This book has been talked up to me, and I will be talking it up at the AAP’s ALA Midwinter breakfast. With a 100,000-copy first printing and a seven-city author tour to Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Portland (OR), San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego; don’t get caught without it.  

Finn, Adharanand. Running with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth. Ballantine. Jun. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780345528797. $26; eISBN 9780345533524. CD: Random Audio. SPORTS
Kenyans routinely win the world’s big races, and (like a lot of folks) Runner’s World contributor Finn wanted to know why. So he moved his family to Iten, Kenya, home to hundreds of world-class runners, and trained in their camps, finally running his first marathon past lions, giraffes, and wildebeests across Kenya’s plains. The book offers a serious study of running, starting with the Kenyans’ low-tech approach (becoming hot in the running world), and taking in the observation of various styles at the author’s first New York Marathon. It’s also an interesting way to visit Africa, for those of us who keep dreaming. And it hits right before the Summer Olympics get America’s 25 million runners all psyched. Sounds fascinating, and I don’t even run (any more). 

Natterson-Horowitz, Barbara & Kathryn Bowers. Zoobiquity. Knopf. Jun. 2012. 266p. ISBN 9780307593481. $25.95; eISBN 9780307958389. Downloadable: Random Audio. NATURAL HISTORY/HEALTH
Cardiology professor at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, Natterson-Horowitz was called in as consultant when a monkey at the Los Angeles Zoo had heart failure. Subsequently, she launched a study of what animals and humans have in common in sickness and healing. The result is a new interdisciplinary field the authors here dub zoobiquity. A groundbreaker written for the lay reader; given the interest in health care and animal-human bonding, it’s bound to attract attention.  

Parrish, John A., M.D. Autopsy of War: A Personal History. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780312654962. $25.99. MEMOIR
Distinguished Professor of Dermatology at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as CEO of the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, Parrish would seem to have it made. Yet at times over the last four decades he has abandoned his family and was virtually homeless because of devastating flashbacks about his service as a navy physician in Vietnam. Here he talks about his long-term battle with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This would seem to be intense and important reading, as relevant today as when Parrish first arrived home from Vietnam. Pair with Mike Scotti’s forthcoming The Blue Cascade, about his battles with PTSD after returning from Iraq.

Andrews, Mary Kay. Spring Fever. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780312642716. $25.99. POP FICTION
Happily engaged four years after her divorce from Mason Bayless, Annajane Hudgens is so comfortable with her new life that she feels she can safely attend Mason’s wedding to smart, gorgeous Celia. But when the wedding is called off just as the guests are settled in their seats, Annajane begins wondering whether it’s a sign that she and Mason are meant for each other after all. With a one-day laydown on June 5, which says it all.

Billingham, Mark. The Demands. Mulholland: LIttle, Brown. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780316126632. $24.99. THRILLER
Devastated by the death of his son in prison, Javed Akhtar takes hostage the customers in his convenience store, then demands that one of them—Det. Helen Weeks—bring him another detective named Tom Thorne. Akhtar wants Thorne to look into his son’s death, which he is convinced was no accident. Billingham, author most recently of Bloodline, has a solid following—and a six-part series based on his books on the UK’s Sky 1 entertinament channel. Thriller lovers, try this.

Brunt, Carol Rifka. Tell the Wolves I’m Home. Dial. Jun. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780679644194. $26; eISBN 9780812992922. LITERARY
Devastated by the death of her uncle, famed painter Finn Weiss, 14-year-old June Elbus is surprised to receive a package containing a beautiful teapot after his death. It was sent by Toby, a stranger June had noticed at the funeral, and they strike up a friendship based on how much they both miss Finn. A debut pitched for book clubs and YA crossover, not the hugest book on this list but a sweetly promising one that bears watching.

Child, Lincoln. The Third Gate. Doubleday. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780385531382. $25.95; eISBN 9780385531399. lrg. prnt. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
In Child’s latest, originally scheduled for December and previewed here 7/15/11, enterprising explorer Porter Stone believes that he has found the tomb of King Narmer, who united upper and lower Egypt in 3200 B.C.E. Then bad things start to happen, and Stone must call on Professor Jeremy Logan for help. Featuring a new protagonist, so fans will be especially curious.

Coes, Ben. The Last Refuge: A Dewey Andreas Novel. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9781250007155. $25.99. THRILLER
Hero of Coes’s Power Down and Coup d’Etat, Dewey Andreas is shocked when Israeli agent Kohl Meir shows him a photo of nuclear device neatly inscribed with the words “Goodbye Tel Aviv” in Farsi. Given what he owes to Kohl (his life), Andreas is ready to act. But the only person who can help him defuse this threat from Iran is locked up in an Iranian prison. Okay, the very thought of this is just too scary for me, but thriller fans will want Coes’s always appreciated work.

Duncan, Glen. Talulla Rising. Knopf. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780307596096. $25.95; eISBN 9780307958433. Downloadable: Random Audio. LITERARY THRILLER
Last summer, accomplished British novelist Duncan gave himself a boost with The Last Werewolf, a new take on the hoary legend that’s both demandingly literate and out-there edgy. (I loved it.) In this follow-up, Jake—not, as it turned out, the last werewolf, is alas gone and much mourned by Talulla, who at least has a son to take comfort in after brutal childbirth. All’s well until the new leader of WOCOP (World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena) goes psycho. For readers beyond the paranormal set; with a 100,000-copy first printing.

Evanovich, Janet. Wicked Business. A Lizzy and Diesel Novel. Bantam. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780345527776. $28; eISBN 9780345527721. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio. THRILLER
First featured in Evanovich’s Plum series and now on the second in her own series, Elizabeth Tucker bakes extraordinary cupcakes for Dazzle’s Bakery in Salem, MA, and has hooked up with Diesel, a man with a mission and the means to protect Lizzy from the evil Grimoire Gerwulf. Gerwulf is out to find the Seven Stones of Power, each connected with one of the seven deadly sins, and the second sin is lust. If this sounds a bit YAish, it’s intentional; the book is being touted as appropriate for younger crowds with its touch of magic and tamer language. The first in the series reached the top spot on the New York Times mass market best sellers list, the current title is taking over the traditional June publication date of the Plum series, and the promotion will be massive. Unless your thriller readers really resist the idea of magic, consider multiples.

Ferraris, Zoë. Kingdom of Strangers. Little, Brown. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780316074247. $25.99. LITERARY SUSPENSE
Ferraris had a hit with her debut, the Los Angeles Times Book Award winner Finding Nouf, and kept up the good work with City of Veils. In her third work, lead inspector Ibrahim Zahrani has a new case—the discovery of a desert grave containing the bodies of 19 women, suggesting that a serial killer is at work—and an unfortunate complication; his mistress has gone missing, something he can’t report because in Saudi Arabia adultery is punishable by death. Admirable writer; I’d get.

Frayn, Michael. Skios. Metropolitan Bks: Holt. Jun. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780805095494. $25. LITERARY
When Dr. Norman Wilfred delivers his keynote address at a famed foundation’s conference on the private Greek island of Skios, everyone is astonished to find him so charming and charismatic…and young. Rumor had it that this authority on the scientific organization of science was an arrogant, pompous old windbag. Meanwhile, somewhere on the island, an arrogant, pompous old windbag is inexplicably stuck at an isolated villa. As always, the Whitbread and Tony Award winner’s latest sounds like blistering fun, and it’s no surprise to see him sending up academics, social climbers, and misguided philanthropists. I do keep wondering, Has no one ever seen Norman before? I guess arrogant, pompous old windbags don’t maintain web sites.

Furst, Alan. Mission to Paris. Random. Jun. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9781400069484. $27; eISBN 9780679604228. THRILLER
It’s a thriller set on the eve of World War II, so the author must be Furst. Hollywood star Frederic Stahl, in Paris to make a film, finds himself contending with French fascists and the Nazi threat on the horizon even as the spy underground courts him assiduously. Furst’s last, Spies in the Balkans, was a New York Times best seller, and he’s always absorbing reading. With a 75,000-copy first printing and an eight-city tour to New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; guess his star keeps rising.

Gideon, Melanie. Wife 22. Ballantine. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780345527950. $26; eISBN 9780345527974. CD: Random Audio. POP FICTION
Bored with husband, job, and teenaged children and the same age her mother was when she died, Alice Buckle has an opportunity to reassess her life when she’s asked to complete a survey for the Netherfield Center for the Study of Marital Happiness. The survey is anonymous, and she’s Wife 22. This is Gideon’s first adult novel (she’s written two YA works), but she’s already proved herself for older readers with the best-selling memoir, The Slippery Year. Interest is sky high—rights have been sold to 19 countries, and the book has been optioned for film—and this seems like the kind of smart women’s fiction most libraries would want.

Hilderbrand, Elin. Summerland. Little, Brown. Jun. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780316099837. $26.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
A car crash after a graduation party leaves driver Penny Alistair dead, her twin brother in a coma, and Penny’s friend Demeter and boyfriend, Jake, emotionally scarred for life. Trust best-selling Silver Girl Hilderbrand to go right to the heart of these families’ throbbing sorrow. With a five-city tour to Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and Houston, plus lots of social media; Hilderbrand’s a pro.

Katzenbach, John. What Comes Next. Mysterious Pr: Grove Atlantic. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780802126115. $27; eISBN 9780802194473. CD: Highbridge Audio. THRILLER
A girl named Jennifer Riggins has been kidnapped by a depraved couple who broadcast her torture on a website called What Comes Next. Even more depraved, thousands tune in to the site. Since the police seem clueless, Jennifer’s only hope is a retired university professor, just diagnosed with a fatal disease, who witnessed the kidnapping. Katzenbach has a good track record—three of his books have been made into films—so while this sounds way too scary for me it will have fans.

Moning, Karen Marie. Into the Dreaming. Delacorte. Jun. 2012. 128p. ISBN 9780345535221. $20; eISBN 9780345535238. PARANORMAL ROMANCE
In 2002, Moning published this novella as part of a mass market collection that included works by Sherrilyn Kenyon and others. Since then, even as that book went out of print, Moning’s Fever and Highlander series have hit a rolling boil. Republished here in a snazzy hardcover with a “Dear Reader” note explaining how it links the two series, the novella features hopeful romance novelist Jane Sillee, who’s spirited to the past to meet the handsome Highlander invading her dreams. Alas, he’s under the sway of the dark fae. Expect big demand. 

Moriarty, Liane. The Hypnotist’s Love Story. Amy Einhorn Bks: Putnam. Jun. 2012. 426p. ISBN 9780399159107. $25.95. POP FICTION
Ellen O’Farrell’s new boyfriend is being stalked by his old girlfriend, but no problem! Ellen is a hypnotherapist who works to help people with their addictions and phobias, so she’d really like to meet Saskia. What she doesn’t know is that Saskia is already masquerading as one of her patients, and her motives aren’t good. Moriarty did well with last year’s What Alice Forgot, and this is being positioned as a great beach read, so watch.

Shaara, Jeff. A Blaze of Glory: A Novel of the Battle of Shiloh. Ballantine. Jun. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780345527356. $28; eISBN 9780345527370. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio. HISTORICAL
Having spent time visiting World War II, military fiction star Shaara returns to the Civil War territory that made him famous (he completed the trilogy begun with his father’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Killer Angels). Here, in time for the sesquicentennial, is a reimagining of the bloody Battle of Shiloh. It’s the start of a new trilogy, with each book publishing on Father’s Day. So you’re armed; get for Shaara fans.

Somerville, Patrick. This Bright River. Little, Brown. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780316129312. $24.99. LITERARY
Lauren’s career in medicine was short-circuited by violent events abroad, while Ben meandered his way to prison. They’re both home in Wisconsin now, trying to put things right, and they might be able to help each other. An inspirational boy-meets-girl tale? Maybe, but given Somerville’s credentials it’s sure to be something more. His debut novel, The Cradle, was a Barnes & Noble Discover pick and a nominee for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize; film rights have been sold, and the Chicago Public Library gave Somerville the 21st Century Award. Which is why I want to see this second book.

Stroud, Carsten. Niceville. Knopf. Jun. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780307700957. $26.95; eISBN 9780307959587. Downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
In the paradoxically ominous-sounding Niceville, somewhere in the Deep South, little Rainey Teague disappears in a flash—right in front of the security cameras. Det. Nick Kavanaugh and wife Kate, a family-practice lawyer, soon discover that there’s an ancient, evil power at work. Stroud has done well with fiction like Sniper’s Moon, and his true-crime Close Pursuit was a best seller 252 years ago, but this new work seems to be really booming. Rights have been sold to eight countries, and there’s a 100,000-copy first printing. Dark secrets in small towns seem the rage (see also Donna VanLiere’s The Good Dream, previewed below), bespeaking anxiety about our most precious, bedrock verities. A good bet.

VanLiere, Donna. The Good Dream. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780312367770. $24.99. POP FICTION
The author of numerous best-selling inspirational titles, including seven Christmas novels, VanLiere takes us to 1950 Tennessee, where thirtysomething Ivorie Walker soldiers on after the death of her parents, trying to laugh off being considered an old maid. Then she notices a wild, dirty boy stealing from her garden and begins to worry about his well-being. And that leads to her uncovering secrets that the town wants buried. Maybe less promotion that I would have expected but definitely worth buying wherever VanLiere is popular.

Willett, Marcia. The Summer House. St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781250003690. $25.99. POP FICTION
The mementos Matt’s mother has stashed away in an inlaid wooden box include photos of Matt wearing clothes and playing with toys he doesn’t remember. And there aren’t any pictures of his sister, Imogen. When Imogen buys the Summer House, a cottage on the grounds of an ancient estate owned by family friends, Matt starts uncovering uncomfortable secrets about his childhood. The author of A Week in Winter always does nice work; watch.

Wilson, Daniel H. Amped. Doubleday. Jun. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780385535151. $25.95; eISBN 9780385535168. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
They’re amps—or amplified human beings—implanted with technology that makes them capable of superhuman feats. But they scare ordinary folks, and soon a law is in place that radically restricts their opportunities and their rights. So newly created amp Owen Gray is on the run, determined to find a bunch of amps reputedly gathered in Oklahoma. Only they might be planning to overthrow the world. Robopocalypse author Wilson is set to triumph again; multiples probably a good idea.