Library Journal

Butler, Robert Olen. The Hot Country: A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller. Mysterious Pr: Grove Atlantic. Oct. 2012. ISBN 9780802120465. $25. THRILLER
Having ranged from fine-tuned accounts of the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the Pulitzer Prize–winning A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain to the wicked fun of Hell, Butler now tries something completely different: a thriller. Christopher Marlowe (“Kit”) Cobb, an early 20th-century American war correspondent reporting on Mexico’s civil war. He witnesses the attempted assassination of a priest and the arrival of strange ships bearing German officials—and that’s just the beginning of his troubles. Especially promising for your smart thriller readers; with a 12-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Birmingham, Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Houston, and Phoenix.

Dekker, Ted. The Sanctuary. Center Street: Hachette. Oct. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9781599953359. $24.99. CHRISTIAN FICTION/THRILLER
Serving time for the murder of two abusive men, vigilante priest Danny Hansen is determined to abide by the rules. But when the woman he loves receives threats (and a couple of bloody fingers), he needs to break out of jail. Unless I miss my guess, suspenseful but not ugly-bloody.

Doctorow, Cory. Pirate Cinema. Tor Teen. Oct. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780765329080. $19.99. THRILLER/YA
Boing Boing coeditor and New York Times best-selling Doctorow again offers cutting-edge fiction that helps us rethink our brave new cyberworld. In trouble for using pirated movie clips to craft his own film, Trent McCauley stumbles upon an underworld of activist artists battling a bill in Parliament that would expand restrictions on Internet creativity. The setting is a dystopian near future Britain, but it could be now. And though the book is meant for a YA audience (note the publisher), it’s too relevant—and Doctorow’s writing generally too good—for adult readers to pass up. With a seven-city tour.

Evans, Richard Paul. A Winter Dream. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 369p. ISBN 9781451628036. $19.99. POP FICTION
Shoved out of the family business by his green-with-envy siblings, Joe soon triumphs as chief adviser to the CEO of another company. Then the siblings need his help. Sound familiar? In fact, it’s based on the Old Testament story of Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors. More sparkly holiday hope from the author of the outrageously best-selling The Christmas Box, set for reissue this year in special 20th anniversary edition (ISBN 9781451696431. $14.99).

Flynn, Vince. Untitled. Emily Bestler: Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9781416595212. $27.99. THRILLER
Joe Rickman’s bodyguards are dead, and Rickman himself is missing. Bad news, because Rickman ran clandestine operations in Afghanistan for eight years, spending a quarter billion dollars in cash on who knows what. Mitch Rapp is told to find Rick or else, and here’s the snag: he doesn’t think the guy was kidnapped. Another No. 1 New York Times best seller from Flynn?

Kostigen, Thomas M. Golden Dawn. Forge. Oct. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780765329332. $24.99. THRILLER
I hear there’s big in-house excitement for this debut thriller from a guy who’s been around the block, as ethics columnist for Dow Jones MarketWatch, a former editor of Bloomberg News, and coauthor of the New York Times best-selling The Green Book. And the premise is certainly eye-catching. The Golden Dawn is an ancient sect of Zoroastrians said to keep a secret regarding the leader who will arise before the End Times. Now the president of Iraq is exploiting this knowledge for his own unpleasant purposes, and he’ll soon have nuclear weapons to back up his efforts.

Wouk, Herman. The Lawgiver. S. & S. Oct. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781451699388. $25.99. CD: S. & S. Audio. POP FICTION
The author of The Caine Mutiny has always wanted to write a book about Moses, and now, at age 96, he’s finally done it. It’s not a sword-and-sand spectacle, though, interestingly, it’s about a sword-and-sand spectacle. The conceit here is that when a very, very rich Australian proclaims that he’ll finance a film about Moses as long as the script looks good, ambitious young writer-director Margo Solovei throws herself into the fray. Meanwhile, a certain author named Herman Wouk is called in by the rich guy to approve the script. This should be fun.

Boianjiu, Shani. The People of Forever Are Not Afraid. Hogarth: Crown. Sept. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780307955951. $24. LITERARY
Having grown up together in a small village, three young women join the Israeli Defense Forces at 18 and learn to withstand the threat of war. Yael trains marksmen, Avishag stands guard as refugees clamor at a barbed-wire fence, and Lea imagines lives for the anonymous people who pass by her checkpoint. Boianjiu, born in Jerusalem of Iraqi-Romanian heritage, also served in the Israeli Defense Forces. She comes well recommended, having been chosen by Nicole Krauss as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award winners last fall.

Brown, Sandra. Low Pressure. Grand Central. Sept. 2012. 300p. ISBN 9781455501557. $26.95. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
On the day 12-year-old Bellamy’s sister was murdered, a tornado swept through town and destroyed the evidence—not to mention Bellamy’s memory of what really happened. Now that she’s 30, Bellamy has published a novel based on the incident—under a pseudonym. Of course, an unprincipled journalist has dug up her real name, and now there’s a killer after her. Brown is still a No. 1 New York Times best-selling author after all these years.

Doig, Ivan. A Bartender’s Tale. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2012. NAp. ISBN 9781594487910. $26.95. LITERARY
Doig follows up his well-received Work Song with another story set in the past, though here he’s moved the action up to the early 1960s, right before the Age of Aquarius dawned. It’s about two women make an enormous difference in the lives of a father and his son.

Edward, John. Fallen Masters. Tor. Sept. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780765332714. $25.99. POP FICTION
The author of numerous New York Times best sellers, internationally famed psychic Edward here turns to fiction, creating a work billed as metaphysical suspense as Good and Evil duke it out both on Earth and on the Other Side. More I cannot tell you, but you’ll know if you want this.

Freveletti, Jamie. Robert Ludlum’s The Janus Reprisal. Grand Central. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780446539845. $24.99. THRILLER
When terrorists attack a World Health Organization conference and make off with deadly viruses and bacteria, army microbiologist Lt. Jon Smith has a big  job on his hands: preventing worldwide biological warfare. A trial attorney and ultramarathon runner with a black belt in aikido, Freveletti (Running from the Devil) seems tough enough to take over the Ludlum franchise.

Ryan, Hank Phillippi. The Other Woman. Forge: Tor. Sept. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780765332578. $24.99. THRILLER
Ryan just won’t quit, even though as an investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate she’s won 27 Emmys and ten Edward R. Murrow awards. She’s also written four mysteries that have won Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity honors and is incoming president of Sisters in Crime. Here, disgraced reporter Jane Ryland can’t abide the lightweight stuff she’s expected to churn out, so she uses her spare time to track the mistress of a candidate running for the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, Det. Jake Brogan is tracking the serial killer of young women. Inevitably, our two protagonists find their cases connecting. The publisher’s lead title for the fall.

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.

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.