Library Journal

Easterbrook, Gregg. The Leading Indicators. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250011732. $24.99; eISBN 9781250011749. POP FICTION
It’s the usual have-it-all situation: Margo and Tom Helot boast a gorgeous home, super-achieving kids, and satisfied goals. What upends them is not violence or a secret from the past, as in most fiction with that set-up, but the economy.  Tom’s company goes bankrupt, and as he flails about, landing repeatedly at companies going under, the family collapses into a financially unsettled heap. A prolific journalist and contributing editor (at the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Monthly, and the New Republic, no less), Easterbrook here writes a novel for the times.

Millet, Lydia. Magnificence. Norton. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780393081701. $25.95. LITERARY
Still mourning the death of her husband, Susan Findley is given a chance at reclamation when she inherits her grand-uncle’s rambly, enchanting Pasadena mansion. Symbolically, she immediately sets about to restore the mansion’s taxidermy collection to pristine perfection. Alas, a few less than pristine relations drop in to stay. More eerily incisive work from Pulitzer Prize finalist Millet.

Rain, David. The Heat of the Sun. Holt. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780805096705. $26; eISBN 9780805096712. HISTORICAL
Like Angela Davis-Gardner’s Butterfly’s Child, Australian-born, London-based author Rain imagines what happened to the child left behind when the heroine of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly kills herself after discovering Lt. Benjamin Pinkerton’s perfidy. Davis-Gardner’s Benji, passed off as an orphan, suffers intolerance; Rain’s Ben “Trouble” Pinkerton is a charismatic young man worshiped by his private-school classmates—especially narrator Woodley Sharpless, a crippled orphan—who eventually finds himself in the midst of world-defining events from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression to the bombing of Nagasaki. So, a dramatic rather than meditative work, billed as genre-bending and an in-house favorite.

Thúy, Kim. Ru. Bloomsbury USA dist. by Macmillan. Nov. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9781608198986. pap. $14. LITERARY
Thúy was ten in 1978 when her family fled lotus-scented Saigon for Quebec, trading a large house for flea-infested mattresses. She picked vegetables and sewed clothes to put herself through school, married, and worked variously as a lawyer, translator, and restaurateur. Then she got the urge to write. The result Is not a memoir, however, but this fictionalized account of Thúy’s immigrant experiences—and it won Canada’s Governor General Award. Good for discussion, especially as we are still not settled about the Vietnam War and its consequences; the early buzz campaign should draw in readers.

Trasandes, Monica. Broken Like This. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781250006837. $24.99; eISBN 978125001833. POP FICTION
The fiery and inspiring beloved of both Louis Reed and Angela Agnelli for 15 years, Kate Harrington now lies broken, comatose after a car accident in Ibiza. Her two paramours having flown in to be by her side, one might expect a story of seesawing tight and tender emotions, but it gets really dramatic when Kate’s dark-force stepfather arrives. Director of Spanish-Language Media for GLAAD, Uruguayan-born Transandes offers a first novel that’s getting some push.

Baldacci, David. The Forgotten. Grand Central. Nov. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780446573054. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Last year’s first John Puller thriller debuted in the top spot on the New York Times best sellers list and so far has sold an impressive 237,000 copies in ebooks alone. So fans will be waiting for this second in the series. Here, Puller doesn’t believe that his Aunt Betsy’s drowning death in her backyard pool was an accident—she sent a letter before she died saying that something was scaring her—and starts investigating. Basic thriller premise, Baldacci writing, buy multiples.

Connelly, Michael. The Black Box. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780316069434. $27.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
LAPD Det. Harry Bosch is back, smart enough to connect a current murder with the 1992 killing of a young female photographer during riots in Los Angeles. That killing, never solved by the Riot Crimes Task Force, now seems a whole lot more personal than anyone ever thought. Bosch must search for the “black box,” that one piece of information that will explain the link between the two deaths that’s just been proved by ballistics. Look for special promotions this year for Connelly, who’s releasing his 25th book in 20 years of publishing.

Haas, Derek. The Right Hand. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780316198462. $25.99; Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
In this latest from Haas, a Hollywood screenwriter (e.g., 3:10 to Yuma) and author of the Silver Bear thrillers, Austin Clay does down-and-dirty deep-secret jobs for the government that would be disavowed if ever he were caught. Here, he starts by hunting for a missing American operative held somewhere outside Moscow and soon teams with a woman who’s convinced that a mole sits somewhere in the top echelons of U.S. government. Let’s see where that goes. Meanwhile, note that Haas is editor of PopcornFiction.com, a site the publisher runs for him that presents short stories by top novelists and screenwriters.

Littell, Robert. Young Philby. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781250005168. $24.99; eISBN 9781250013651. CD: Macmillan Audio. THRILLER
The story of double agent Kim Philby is well known but little understood. What were his motivations and, finally, his ideals? Best-selling author and Gold Dagger winner Littell tries to answer those questions by reconstructing Philby’s early life, as told from the perspectives of 20 real-life characters. If truth is stranger than fiction, fictionalized truth can really shake you up. Look for excerpts at Scrib’d, Watpad, and Issuu.

Ochse, Weston. SEAL Team 666. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250007353. $24.99; eISBN 9781250013460. THRILLER
Cadet Jack Walker doesn’t know what he’s in for when he’s plucked from SEAL training and sent on a secret mission with four full-fledged SEALs and their dog (a Belgian Malinois?). SEAL Team 666’s members soon discovery that the enemy is literally out of this world, as they battle demons and possessed humans, animated by an ancient cult, who are intent on taking over not just the United States but the world. Since Ochse’s Scarecrow Gods won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel, you might take a chance on this paranormal thriller; his Pushcart Prize nomination is added confirmation of his writing skills.

Patterson, James & Michael Ledwidge. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780316210683. $19.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Wow, a Christmas thriller (and another Christmas book from Patterson after last year’s The Christmas Wedding, which is being reissued in November). On a cozy Christmas Eve, Alex Cross has just wrapped up a little case—someone robbing the church’s poor box—when he gets word of a hostage situation that could tie his holidays in knots. The last Alex Cross novel has sold over a million copies (so far).

Binelli, Mark. Detroit City Is the Place To Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis. Holt. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780805092295. $28; eISBN 9781429974615. SOCIAL SCIENCE
For most Americans, Detroit epitomizes contemporary urban blight. Here, native son and Rolling Stone contributing editor Binelli shows that while Detroit may be down it’s not out. In fact, current developments—organic farming on empty lots, a realignment plan to shift residents from desolate neighborhoods to a vibrant new center—suggest how not just Detroit but all troubled cities can rise again. Expect good writing on a freighted topic.

Coddington, Grace. Grace. Random. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780812993356. $30; eISBN 9780679645214. CD/Downloadable: Random House Audio. MEMOIR
Stunning British model. Then creative director of British Vogue. Then head of Calvin Klein’s operations in New York. Then creative director of American Vogue. And true star of the 2009 documentary The September Issue, in which she famously upstaged Anna Wintour. Here’s a memoir about Coddington’s 40 years in fashion, beautifully designed by the author herself. Go, fashionistas!

Fellowes, Jessica & Matthew Sturgis. The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era for Family, Friends, Lovers and Staff. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250027627. $29.99; eISBN 9781250027634. TELEVISION
Former deputy editor of Country Life and niece of lead Downton Abbey author Julian Fellowes, Fellowes has already written about the public television phenomenon in The World of Downton Abbey. Here she returns with critic/author Sturgis to give an official preview of Season 3, which launches on PBS in January 2013. Downtown Abbey fever does not appear to be abating (though not yet commissioned, Seasons 4 and 5 are in discussion), so this should be popular.

Fornatale, Peter & Bernard M. Corbett. 50 Licks: An Album’s Worth of Stories from the 50-Year History of the Rolling Stones. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781608199211. pap. $17. MUSIC
Fifty years, 50 cool stories (or “Licks”), each named for a different Rolling Stones song, and often drawn from previously unavailable material. FM rock pioneer Fortanale, who died on April 26, joined with Corbett—the radio voice of Harvard University football and a lifelong Rolling Stones nut—to deliver another celebratory piece on the Band That Played On…and On.

Greene, Robert. Mastery. Viking. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780670024964. $28.95; Downloadable: Penguin Audio. PSYCHOLOGY
Want to be the master of your universe? Greene shows you how by looking at the folks who have done it before you, from middling-student Charles Darwin to Temple Grandin, Henry Ford, and more. Since Greene’s books (e.g., The 48 Laws of Power) have sold more than a million copies, he must have something to say to folks out there. Be prepared.

Kelley, Kitty. Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780312643423. $29.99; eISBN 9781250018830. PHOTOGRAPHY
Assigned by United Press International to cover John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, Stanley Tretick became friendly enough with the candidate that he was given access to the White House once Kennedy was elected. He took many pictures readers will recognize immediately, often of JFK with his family. But of course never-before-seen shots are here, too. Best-selling author Kelley, a friend of Tretick, provides an upbeat text. Big publicity push.

Lil Wayne. Gone Till November. Grand Central. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781455515264. $25.99. MEMOIR
Rapper Lil Wayne has won four Grammies and sold millions of albums; he also did time in Rikers Island Penitentiary in 2010 for criminal possession of a weapon. Here are the journals he kept at the time, reportedly smart, detailed, and thoughtful. Since he has five million Twitter followers and 33.7 million Facebook fans (decidedly the biggest numbers I’ve keyed in for those venues), this book will have an audience.

Love, Courtney & Anthony Bozza. Untitled. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780062127952. $29.99. eISBN 9780062127990. MEMOIR
These rock memoirs just keep coming. Now the contrarian, controversial Love, loved and hated by the media (and the rest of us), widow of Kurt Cobain and a scalding musician in her own right, tells her own story. With a 250,000-copy first printing and author appearances in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle (but not Portland?).

Mount, Jane (illus.). & Thessaly La Force (ed). My Ideal Bookshelf. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780316200905. $24.99. LITERATURE
If you’re like me, you judge people by what’s on their bookshelves. Here’s a book that lets you see what folks like Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman, Patti Smith, and more have stashed on theirs. Each contributor weighs in on his or her favorites (“There’s no cumulative purpose—it’s just an excellent way to waste your life,” says Jonathan Lethem), and Mount provides whimsical drawings of side-by-side spines. Sweet.

Nelson, Willie & Kinky Friedman. The Troublemaker: A Story of Faith, Redemption, and Staying True to Your Deepest Beliefs. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9780062193643. $22.99; eISBN 9780062193650. lrg. prnt. MEMOIR
Nelson is such a famed singer/songwriter/activist that next year Austin will place an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of him on Willie Nelson Boulevard. Meanwhile, here’s a memoir cum inspirational tale—and just right for the holidays. With his career stuttering and his personal life in shreds, Nelson wasn’t facing the greatest Christmas in 1971. Even his house burned down. So he decided to change everything, shrugging off pressures to sound Nashville and heading in a new creative direction that landed him where he is today. With a 125,000-copy first printing; note the large print, not surprisingly since this hardy 78-year-old has some mature fans.

Scottoline, Lisa & Francesca Serritella. Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780312640088. $25.99; eISBN 9781250025074. CD: Macmillan Audio. RELATIONSHIPS
Scottoline is doing so well with her juicily acerbic essays collections, particularly those written with daughter Serritella, that one wonders whether they will start taking precedence over her best-selling fiction. Here, mother and daughter deal with separation anxiety of an adult sort, as Serritella moves to the big city, Scottoline looks about her suburban empty nest, and both think about shifting boundaries. Cozy.

Standiford, Les. Desperate Sons: The Secret Band of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780061899553. $27.99; eISBN 9780062218124. HISTORY
This chronicle of the Sons of Liberty in the American Revolution is billed as a political thriller, so expect excitement. Author of the best-selling Bringing Adam Home, Standiford goes behind the glossy surface of iconic events like the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere’s midnight gallop to explain how dangerous (and admittedly illegal) they really were. His aim: to show that we are more bound together by the chances these “desperate Sons” took than divided by the petty politics of today. Well, we can hope.

Tapper, Jake. The Outpost: The Untold Story of American Valor. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 608p. ISBN 9780316185394. $28.99. CD/downloadable: Hachette Audio. CURRENT EVENTS
After Combat Outpost Keating was abandoned, the Pentagon determined that the camp, located in the desolate mountains of Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistan border, should never have been established. But first came the October 3, 2009, attack by nearly 400 Taliban fighters, which the 53 U.S. troops held off at considerable cost. A senior White House correspondent for ABC News, Tapper did hard investigate work to understand how this fiasco came about. Lots of buzz about Tapper as a rising media star.

Haghenbeck, F.G. The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781451632835. pap. $15; eISBN 9781451632842. LITERARY
Not long ago, a series of notebooks and sketchbooks were unearthed at Casa Azul, Frida Kahlo’s home in Coyoacán, Mexico, and although they were never confirmed as Kahlo’s property, award-winning Mexican author Haghenbeck imagines that, after the ever-ailing Kahlo nearly died, she was given one of them by her lover, Tina Modotti. Kahlo then poured her memories, ideas, and even recipes for The Day of the Dead feasts into its pages, so that we the readers of her book are swirled through her relationships (not only with faithless husband Diego Rivera but with Georgia O’Keeffe, for instance) and the development of her artistic gift. Meanwhile, folks from Trotsky to Hemingway, Dalí, and Henry Miller drop by. I’m betting on this because Kahlo is relentlessly fascinating, Haghenbeck comes well recommended, and the in-house support is strong.

Kristoff, Jay. Stormdancer. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9781250001405. $24.99; eISBN 9781250017918. FANTASY
Japanese steampunk? You bet. Since griffins no longer exist, Yukiko and her father are understandably distraught when the cruel and powerful Shogun of the Shima Isles demands that they procure one for him. Still, they obligingly hunt for one, and Yukiko eventually finds herself lost in the wilderness, alone except for a wounded griffin named Buruu. Together, despite betrayal and bloodshed, they challenge the forces on high. This first in the “Lotus Wars” series has five-star early reviews, and nearly 1000 folks have lined up on Goodreads to crack the covers. Get it.

Soli, Tatjana. The Forgetting Tree. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9781250001047. $25.99; eISBN 9781250019349. LITERARY
On her first time out, Soli made a firm impression with The Lotus Eaters, a New York Times best seller and James Tait Black Prize winner, so it’s good to welcome her back. Here, Claire throws over her high-class education to marry Forster, son of California citrus ranchers, though she knows it means grinding work and worry. Notwithstanding profound sorrows—among them the kidnapping and murder of her son—Claire loves the ranch, but now am implacable illness threatens to divide her from the land forever. Just as threatening: her mysterious and not always benevolent new caretaker, Mina. With a reading group guide and substantive promotion.

Welsh, Irvine. Skagboys. Norton. Sept. 2012. 560p. ISBN 9780393088731. $26.95. LITERARY
If you love Welsh’s enduringly edgy Trainspotting, you’ll be excited to hear that this book is billed as a prequel—and as an alternate. All the lads are here: Mark Renton, whose life soars up (he’s first in his family to go to university), then down (his aspirations are thwarted by Thatcher-era policies); Spud Murphy, facing unending joblessness; Tommy Lawrence, bravely resisting a life of crime; and of course Sick Boy. Here’s how they hoped, and here’s how they fell prey to heroin and despair. Not pretty, thank goodness.

Rushdie, Salman. Joseph Anton: A Memoir. Random. Sept. 2012. 656p. ISBN 9780812992786. $30; eISBN 9780679643883. CD: Random Audio. MEMOIR
Placed under a fatwa by the Ayatollah Khomeini in February 1989, distinguished author Rushdie was forced underground to save his life. He needed an alias for use by the armed police assigned to protect him and so chose Joseph Anton, which blended the first names of two writers he loved, Conrad and Chekhov. Here he recounts over nine years of moving from safe house to safe house, mastering despair, fighting back, bonding with his protectors, and enlisting the support of governments, journalists, and fellow writers worldwide. His memoir matters not simply because of startling personal detail but because his experience presaged a global battle over freedom of speech that continues today; With a six-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; the extensive publicity includes an NPR campaign.

Stahr, Walter. Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man. S. & S. Sept. 2012. 608p. ISBN 9781439121160. $32.50; eISBN 9781439127940. BIOGRAPHY
Progressive New York governor and U.S. senator, staunch abolitionist (“there is a higher law than the Constitution” he said of its legalizing slavery), secretary of state under Lincoln and his closest friend and adviser (he persuaded France and England not to recognize the Confederacy, which was important to the Union’s victory), target of Lincoln’s assassin, and facilitator of America’s acquisition of both Alaska and Hawaii, William Henry Seward was a significant figure in U.S. history. He was also, apparently, a grand fellow who enjoyed a good story and a cigar. Not a lot out there on Seward for the lay reader; here’s hoping the author of John Jay: Founding Father will do him justice.

Clark, Clare. Beautiful Lies. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780151014675. $26. HISTORICAL
In late Victorian London, presumed Chilean heiress Maribel Campbell Lowe enjoys a bohemian lifestyle, indulging her interest in poetry and photography even though she’s married to an MP, however dashing and daring. Then a newspaper editor starts sniffing around, and Maribel’s past returns to haunt her. The author of four respected novels, including Washington Post Best Book The Great Stink, Clark based her novel on the true story of the double life of an MP’s wife. With a reading group guide.

Cury, Augusto. The Dreamseller: The Revolution. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781439196052. $15; eISBN 9781439196076. POP FICTION
As we learned in Cury’s The Dreamseller: The Calling, the Christlike Dreamseller, shabbily dressed and beatifically philosophizing, helps those who have lost their hopes and aspirations. Here the Dreamseller shows us that there are many like him, unsung heroes from teachers who fight for their students to cancer patients who fight for their lives. With more than 12 million copies in print, Brazilian psychiatrist Cury’s inspirational fiction would seem to have broad appeal.

Erickson, Carolly. The Unfaithful Queen: A Novel of Henry VIII’s Fifth Wife. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780312596910. $24.99; eISBN 9781250011022. HISTORICAL
Having given us the New York Times best-selling The Last Wife of Henry VIII (along with lots of other historical fiction and nonfiction titles), Erickson steps back to Henry’s penultimate bride, the vivacious Catherine Howard, who didn’t bother to inform Henry that she’d had three lovers before him. And thus, with his disillusionment and her failure to produce a son, even as the succession was threatened by Prince Edward’s serious illness, Catherine met the fate of her cousin Anne Boleyn. Yummy for Anglophiles.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Dance with the Devil. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781250009135. $25.99; eISBN 9781429976183. PARANORMAL
No, not a new entry in the Dark-Hunter series—just last month, I reported that Time Untime will appear in August. This is a hardcover release of the third in the series, so stock up if your copies are worn to shreds.

Kincaid, Jamaica. See Now Then. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 176p. ISBN 9780374180560. $23. CD: Macmillan Audio. LITERARY
Fans of Lannan Literary Award winner Kincaid’s Lucy and Mr. Potter have waited ten years for this novel, ostensibly a study of a Mother and a Father living with their two children in small-town New England. In fact, as the characters follow their proscribed routines, their minds work overtime to make sense of past, present, and future. An interior novel, then, that reflective readers will want.

Nicholas, Douglas. Something Red. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 374p. ISBN 9781451660074. $25; eISBN 9781451660234. HISTORICAL/FANTASY
An award-winning poet (e.g., Roberts Award), Nicholas decided to write a short story as a Christmas gift to his wife. It bloomed into this packed and spooky-sounding book, set in 1200s England during a particularly frost-bitten winter. Leader of a troupe that includes her lover, her granddaughter, and her apprentice, tough-minded Irishwoman Molly aims to cross the mountains before the snows descend, but something scary is following them in the woods. In the end, the story blends shape-shifters, Templars, Saracens, battling monks, Irish battle queens, frightening mastiffs, and more in a heightened tale reportedly written in resoundingly lyrical prose—after all, Nicholas is a poet. Sounds so promising.

Palma, Felix J. The Map of the Sky. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 576p. ISBN 9781451660319. $26; eISBN 9781451660333. FANTASY
In Spanish author Palma’s dazzling The Map of Time, his first book published here and a New York Times best seller, H.G. Wells is plunged headlong into the possibility of time travel. Wells figures in this follow-up, as New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore—if he’ll stage the extraterrestrial invasion that appears in Wells’s War of the Worlds. A multilayered plot and more time travel (we even meet Edgar Allen Poe); crossed fingers that it’s as good as the first one.

Russinovich, Mark. Trojan Horse. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250010483. $24.99; eISBN 9781250010490. THRILLER
What made the author’s feted debut thriller, Zero Day, so scary was how plausible it was—a Microsoft Technical Fellow, responsible for the Sysinternals tools, Russinovich obviously knows his tech stuff. Here’s another scarily plausible work. The Stuxnet virus, jointly created by the CIA and Mossad to disable Iran’s nuclear program, is getting a new iteration, and the anxious Chinese are preparing to retaliate with a nasty new virus of their own called the Trojan Horse. International relations hang in the balance, and so does the fate of cybersecurity analysts Jeff Aiken and Daryl Haugen, who have stumbled upon the virus. Really, old-fashioned shootouts were easier.

Weller, Lance. Wilderness. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781608199372. $25. HISTORICAL
Living in a driftwood shack on Washington’s beautiful rough-and-tumble coast 30 years after he was badly injured in the Civil War, elderly Abel Truman determines that he must hike across the snow-covered Olympic Mountains to confront personal issues left unresolved since before the war. During his journey, he recalls war’s horrors while fighting off two thugs who want to steal his beloved dog. Weller won Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers, and the Civil War backdrop seems especially fitting for these sesquicentennial times; watch.

Wilson, Antoine. Panorama City. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780547875125. $24. LITERARY Thinking he’s on his deathbed, energetic and big-hearted Oppen Porter ricochets around town, from fast-food joints and storefront churches to his crotchety guardian-angel aunt, recording his determined effort to rise for the benefit of his unborn son. Wilson drew attention with his unsettling debut, The Interloper, and this follow-up is getting some buzz. Check out his tour to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.

Ashcroft, Frances. The Spark of Life: Electricity in the Human Body. Norton. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780393078039. $28.95. SCIENCE
From the first stirrings in the primordial muck to our brain’s elaborate pulsings when we read or watch Shakespeare, electricity is life, and much-honored Oxford physiologist Ashcroft—recently winner of the top honor in the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO for Women in Science Awards—explains how it drives the body. Historical perspective, too (the book harks back to the Greeks); insight from a master.

The Best Science Writing Online 2012. ed. by Jennifer Ouellette. Scientific American/Farrar. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9780374533342. pap. $16. SCIENCE
You have to love a science writer whose accomplishments include maintaining the Cocktail Party Physics blog. That’s Ouellette, who here guest edits the sixth edition of an anthology launched by Bora Zivkovic, editor of the blog network at Scientific American. With pieces ranging from fluids to fungi, written by rising stars, here’s online writing about science—how much more cutting edge can you get?

Brown, Lester R. Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity. Norton. Sept. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9780393088915. $27.95. SCIENCE/POLICY
As the subtitle suggests, Brown—president of the Earth Policy Institute, a MacArthur Fellow, and a prolific author to boot (e.g., World on the Edge)—has something potent to say about the human-made aspect of the famines that keep stalking this planet. Dedicated readers will appreciate.

Cantu, Robert, MD & Mark Hyman. Concussions and Our Kids: America’s Leading Expert on How To Protect Young Athletes and Keep Sports Safe. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780547773940. $27. SPORTS/HEALTH
Concussion has become a major issue in sports, plaguing professional athletes and youngsters alike. A clinical professor of neurosurgery and codirector of Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, as well as chair of the Department of Surgery at Emerson Hospital, Cantu has treated of thousands of patients with brain trauma. Here he both explains how to treat concussions and, more important, how to prevent them. There will be national TV coverage, so expect interest.

Chafe, William H. Bill and Hillary: The Politics of the Personal. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780809094653. $28. BIOGRAPHY
That the personal is political is a well-worn adage, but it takes on new meaning when examining not one politician but two—specifically, Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose commitment to each other, as well as to key issues like race and gender equality, have shaped their careers. Duke history professor Chafe, whose numerous titles include The Rise and Fall of the American Century, considers their early years, “copresidency,” tempestuous relationship, and more.

Cotton, Dorothy. If Your Back’s Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780743296830. $25; eISBN 9781439187425. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This autobiography by Cotton, former director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Citizens Education Project and the only woman in Martin Luther King’s inner circle, was featured here as a pick in September 2011. The subtitle change since then (from “How the Civil Rights Movement Gained Victory”) suggests a shift in focus that makes the book more personal.

Dauch, Richard. American Drive: The Road to More Jobs, a Stronger Economy, and Renewed Industrial Dominance in America. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781250010827. $27.99; eISBN 9781250010834. ECONOMICS
In 1994, after 30 years in the automotive industry, Dauch decided to get behind the wheel and bought an ailing axle and supply company, which included five crumbling plants in the center of Detroit. After rebuilding the plants, renegotiating with unions, and instituting job training, he opened up for business—and made a $60 million profit in the first month. His account is being positioned as a blueprint for fixing our economic woes.

Eco, Umberto. Inventing the Enemy: Essays. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780547640976. $25. ESSAYS
Eco’s recent The Prague Cemetery proposed that countries needs enemies and invent them if none are to be found—an intriguingly relevant thought in today’s world and the basis of one of the essays in his new collection. Other topics: censorship, Wikileaks, James Joyce’s Ulysses, lost islands, and—not surprisingly from the author of the immortal The Name of the Rose—the medieval world. Bonbons for the literati and maybe others.

Elie, Paul. Soundabout: Reinventing Bach. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 496p. ISBN 9780374281076. $30. MUSIC
A senior fellow with Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs whose first book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, received the PEN/Martha Albrand Prize, Elie explains how Bach shaped music—not simply through his ineffable compositions but by perfecting the tuning scheme we use today, for instance—and how subsequently Bach has been shaped by musicians from Albert Schweitzer to Pablo Casals, Glenn Gould, and Yo-Yo Ma. Today, technology from smartphones to multimedia presentations is allowing us to hear Bach’s multiple voices in different ways. Such a cool idea if it works.

Gottman, John & Nan Silver. What Makes Love Last?: How To Build Trust and Avoid Betrayal. S. & S. Sept. 2012. 384p. ISBN 9781451608472. $26; eISBN 9781451608496. SELF-HELP
Gottman runs the Love Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle, which sounds hippy-dippy until you realize that his 35 years of research into marriage have earned him honors from the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Psychological Association, among other organizations. Here he talks about maintaining trust, rebuilding after betrayal, and watching out for what he calls sliding door moments—pivotal points when a couple can connect more deeply or start to spin apart. Bigger than your standard self-help stuff.

Makary, Marty. MD. Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781608198368. $28. HEALTH
The Johns Hopkins surgeon who developed the checklist that inspired Atul Gawande’s best-selling The Checklist Manifesto, Makary here challenges the lack of transparency in health care, which leaves patients ignorant and error rates uncomfortably high despite efforts to curb them. Here he argues for accountability, aiming to reward the good doctors and ditch the bad ones. Let’s hear it from the inside! With a five-city tour to Baltimore, Boston, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York.

Marshall, Penny. My Mother Was Nuts. New Harvest: Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780547892627. $26. MEMOIR
Marshall started out as Laverne in the beloved sitcom Laverne and Shirley but made her mark as the first woman to direct films that made more than $100 million, namely, Big and A League of Their Own. Your chance to spend some more time in Hollywood.

Min, Janice. How To Look Hot in a Minivan: A Real Woman’s Guide to Losing Weight, Looking Great, and Dressing Chic in the Age of the Celebrity Mom. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780312658977. $26.99; eISBN 9781429960588. FITNESS/GROOMING
The former editor of US Weekly and current editorial director of The Hollywood Reporter, Min knows how Hollywood types make motherhood look glam. Now she’s sharing these secrets with ordinary mortals. Too late for me, but the rest of you might be interested; check out the author tour and heavyweight promotion, which will include fashion, parenting, and mommy blogs.

Pinsky, Drew. Recovering Intimacy. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451605716. $26; eISBN 9781451605730. SELF-HELP
Despite our in-your-face interconnectedness via social media, achieving true intimacy is hard—some would say harder than ever. Doctor, best-selling author, and TV personality, Pinsky explains how to sense when a relationship is faltering and to build and maintain deep personal bonds, whether with friends, family, or partners. Pinsky has fans.

Roth, Marco. The Scientists: A Family Romance. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9780374210281. $23. MEMOIR
Dinnertime conversations about scientific advances and house concerts open to guests—that’s what it was like for Roth, who grew up in New York, the only child of a doctor and a concert pianist. Then his father started exhibiting the first signs of AIDS, which he had contracted in the 1980s, radically rearranging Roth’s world and leaving behind a legacy of silence. A cofounder of n + 1 and recipient of the 2011 Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism, Roth can be expected to offer an elegant examination of what we learn from our parents and what we have to learn for ourselves.

Self, Robert O. All in the Family: The Realignment of American Democracy Since the 1960s. Hill & Wang: Farrar. Sept. 2012. 512p. ISBN 9780809095025. $30. HISTORY
Here’s what family values have meant to the Left since the 1960s: first Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty, then the fight for racial and gender equality, then the fight for gay rights, health care reform, and welfare reform. Those multiplying interests have fractured Leftist ranks, allowing the Right to sweep in with its version of family values: a single-minded traditional take. So argues Brown history professor Self, a James A. Rawley Prize winner for American Babylon, who’s clarifying an idea many of us have sensed for some time. Intriguing to think of this as backdrop for the elections.

Silber, William L. Volcker: Central Banker. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781608190706. $30. BIOGRAPHY
We owe a lot to Paul A. Volcker. As Federal Reserve chair, he helped curb booming inflation in the 1970s, while as chair of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board he grappled with 2008’s financial implosion; Obama dubbed the centerpiece of his Wall Street regulation the Volcker Rule. Silber is not just director of the Glucksman Institute for Research in Securities Markets at NYU’s Stern School of Business but an author as well—from trade titles to the standard textbook Money, Banking and Financial Markets—so should be able to explain Volcker’s accomplishments to the financially challenged.

Sullivan, Robert. My American Revolution. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780374217457. $26. HISTORY
Maybe the shot heard ’round the world was fired in Lexington, MA, but most of the fighting during the Revolutionary War took place in the Middle Colonies. This I know, having grown up in a family deeply invested in supporting Trenton’s Old Barracks and in visiting Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge. Sullivan wanted to experience the war where it actually happened, so he witnessed reenactments of the crossing of the Delaware, tramped through New Jersey backyards, built a Colonial-style signal beacon, and even evacuated illegally from Brooklyn to Manhattan in a handmade boat. History as lived, not just read—which sounds great.

Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Rethinking Character and Intelligence. Houghton Harcourt. Sept. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780547564654. $27. EDUCATION
Listen up, pushy parents; intelligence is not necessarily the attribute children need to develop most. Psychologists, neuroscientists, and even economists are now refocusing on qualities like perseverance, optimism, and curiosity as the true catalysts of success. So may we now throw out the SATs? This book served as the basis of a New York Times magazine cover story, and there’s a 12-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Denver, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Montreal, so expect demand.

Tyler, Patrick. Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country—And Why They Can’t Make Peace. Farrar. Sept. 2012. 560p. ISBN 9780374281045. $30. POLITICAL SCIENCE
A longtime reporter at the Washington Post and then the New York Times whose The Great Wall won the 2000 Lionel Gelber Prize, Tyler here argues that Israel is not the democracy it proclaims itself to be but a military society built with the Holocaust in mind and now committed to maintaining war. Look for the controversy over this one.

Badman, Keith. Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years. St. Martin’s. Jul. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780312607142. $25.99; eISBN 9781250012388. BIOGRAPHY
Having disposed of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Stones, Badman goes after another celebrity icon. Among his putative revelations: the identity of Marilyn Monroe’s biological father, what really happened with JFK, and her exploitation by mobsters at a hotel owned by Frank Sinatra. Another on the Monroe bandwagon.

Gemmell, Nikki. With My Body. HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 480p. ISBN 9780062122636. pap. $14.99; eISBN 9780062122643. POP FICTION
Gemmell follows up her sensationalist best seller, The Bride Stripped Bare, with another fictional exploration of female sexuality. Here, a woman who feels suffocated by marriage and children recalls the one love affair that really did something for her. With a 100,000-copy first printing and a reading group guide—for those, I guess, who don’t blush easily.

Joyce, Rachel. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Random. Jul. 2012. 286p. ISBN 9780812993295. $25. LITERARY FICTION
A leading actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company, then an award-winning author of plays for the BBC, Joyce is taking on another role: novelist. And a successful one at that, it seems, with rights for this debut sold to more than 25 countries. When cranky retiree Harold Fry gets a letter from an old friend he’s not seen in two decades, revealing that she’s in hospice, he decides to visit her. And he decides that to do so he’ll walk the 600 miles from Kingsbridge to Berwick upon Tweed. Refreshing premise; let’s all watch.

Lepore, Jill. The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death. Knopf. Jun. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780307592996. $27.95; eISBN 9780307958501. HISTORY
Okay, grand subtitle, but Lepore—Harvard historian, New Yorker staff writer, and author (e.g., New York Burning)—has something focused in mind and will likely pull it off. Here she explores how ideas about life and death have shaped American history and politics. For your thoughtful readers.

Locke, Kate. God Save the Queen.(Immortal Empire, Bk 1.). Orbit: Hachette. Jul. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9780316196123. $16.99. STEAMPUNK
It’s called the steampunk debut of the year, and it opens in 2012 with an undead Queen Victoria still ruling and the aristocracy made up mostly of vampires and werewolves. Elite Guard Xandra Vardan goes looking for her missing sister and starts doubting everything she once believed. Meanwhile, conspiracy brews. From best-selling YA author Kady Cross (like Kate Locke, a pseudonym); should be big.

Mantel, Hilary. Bring Up the Bodies: A Novel. Holt. May 2012. 432p. ISBN 9780805090031. $28. HISTORICAL FICTION
Deservedly a winner of both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Mantel’s best-selling Wolf Hall is audaciously good historical fiction portraying Thomas Cronwell’s rise to power as Henry VIII’s adviser. In this follow-up, Henry is ready to get rid of Anne Boleyn, a job that falls to Cromwell—which means that he must ally himself with his archenemies, the papist aristocracy. We’ll all been waiting for this one.

Mawer, Simon. Trapeze. Other Pr. May 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781590515273. pap. $15.95. HISTORICAL THRILLER
Only 19, native French speaker Marian Sutro is trained as an agent by the Special Operations Executive and parachuted into wartime France. Her mission, to join the WORDSMITH resistance network, has been hijacked by yet another secret organization, which wants her to persuade a research scientist in Paris to join the Allied effort. Mawer’s The Glass Room was both a New York Times best seller and a Man Booker Prize shortlisted title, so this looks promising indeed.

Sharpe, Katherine. Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are. Harper Perennial: HarperCollins. Jun. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780062059734. pap. $14.99. SOCIAL SCIENCE
In 2005, antidepressants surged past blood-pressure medication as the most frequently prescribed drug in America, with an astonishing ten percent of the population using them (and that was then). The former editor and community manager of Seed magazine’s ScienceBlogs.com, Sharpe has the background to understand this phenomenon, but she also has personal experience; she was prescribed Zoloft in college after a panic attack. Here she explores the consequences of antidepressant use by increasingly younger patients, whose self-understanding and coping skills are thus distorted. Important information to consider; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Solomon, John. DSK: The Scandal That Brought Down Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Jun. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781250012630. $25.99; eISBN 9781250013057. CURRENT EVENTS
Director of news and investigative reporting at The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company, Solomon aims to get to the heart of the case involving a New York hotel maid’s accusation that she was sexually assaulted by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund—a case that saw the media gunning first on the accused and then on the accuser.

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz. The Prisoner of Heaven. Harper: HarperCollins. 416p. Jun. 2012. ISBN 9780062206282. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio LITERARY THRILLER
As entertainingly twisted as Gaudi’s architecture, only darker, Zafón’s best-selling fiction (e.g., The Shadow of the Wind) inhabits a distinctive Barcelona. At Christmas in 1957, Daniel Sempere and his wife are enjoying their new son and the prospect of their friend Fermín’s marriage when a stranger arrives at their bookshop, prepared to reveal a dark secret harking back to Franco’s early days. With a 200,000-copy first printing and a seven-city tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Washington, DC; don’t miss.

Cohen, Joshua. Four New Messages. Graywolf. Aug. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9781555976187. pap. $14. STORIES
Not for everyone, but please let the cognoscenti know that the brilliant Cohen, author of the shape-shifting Witz, is back with four expectedly weird and imaginative stories. In one, a writing teacher won’t read his students’ stories but asks them to build replicas of the Flatiron Building; elsewhere, an aspiring journalist stumbles upon a village (in Russia?) inhabited by women who have starred in the Internet porn he’s watched.

Cumming, Charles. A Foreign Country. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 368p. ISBN 9780312591335. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio. THRILLER
Even as an elderly French couple is murdered in Egypt and a young French accountant is snatched from the streets of Paris, Amelie Levene—about to become the first female chief of M16—vanishes in the south of France. Former M16 officer Thomas Kell, now in bad odor with the service, appears to be the only person capable of finding Levene and figuring out what links the three events. One of the publisher’s biggest books of the month and a juicy-sounding follow-up to the best-selling The Trinity Six.

Dabbagh, Selma. Out of It. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781608198764. pap. $14. LITERARY
As bombs drop on Gaza, unemployed 27-year-old Rashid restlessly awaits word of a scholarship that will take him to London, his wheelchair-bound older brother writes a history of their country, and his twin sister becomes seriously involved in politics. A first novel from PEN and Pushcart prize nominee Dabbagh, likely an important new voice on Palestine (Dabbagh currently lives in London).

Hiller, Mischa. Shake Off. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780316204200. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Having escaped from the exploding Middle East, where his family was killed by extremists, Michel Khoury has become an intelligence operative with a desire for peace, a stash of passports and unmarked bills in the bathroom of his London apartment, and a new girlfriend who doesn’t know his true identity. Soon, the truth wills out and turns deadly, forcing the couple on the run from London to Berlin to the Scottish countryside. Hiller, who’s half-Palestinian and half-British, should give texture to his first thriller (and second novel after the award-winning Sabra Zoo). Great quotes from not just the UK but the Jordan Times and Israel’s Haaretz.

Hurwitz, Gregg. The Survivor. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780312625511. $25.99; eISBN 9781250009722. THRILLER
Some set-up: divorced, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, and dying of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, former soldier Nate Overbay stands 11 stories up on the ledge of a bank building, ready to end it all. But when robbers break into the bank and start shooting, Nate rushes down and handily saves the day, only to be kidnapped by the Russian mobster who masterminded the initial break-in. Nate is told that he must return to the bank and snatch what the mobster was after—or watch his ex-wife and daughter suffer the consequences. Great expectations: Hurwitz’s You’re Next was an LJ Best Thriller of 2011.

Jones, Howard Andrew. The Bones of the Old Ones. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780312646752. $25.99; eISBN 9781250015136. FANTASY
Emerging fantasy author Jones follows up The Desert of Souls, a sword-and-sorcery debut set in eighth-century Baghdad, with the continued adventures of scholar Dabir and soldier Assim. Here, the dazzling duo find themselves living comfortably in Mosul—until a young woman approaches them, insisting that she has escaped from a sorcerous cabal and that her memory has been altered by magic. The tools of the cabal? The Bones of the Old Ones. Looking up.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Time Untime. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 448p. ISBN 9780312546618. $25.99; eISBN 9781466801981. CD: Macmillan Audio. PARANORMAL
Bad news for the warrior Ren Waya, just back from the dead: to keep a prophecy from coming true and an ancient evil from reemerging to destroy the world, he must kill Kateri Avani, the one person he has always cherished. Meanwhile, Kateri has been plagued by visions of places she hasn’t visited and a man she hasn’t met and has headed to Las Vegas (Las Vegas?) to calm herself. Next in the Dark-Hunter series; note that Kenyon has been No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list an eye-opening 15 times in the last two years. Multiples, of course.

MacMahon, Kathleen. This Is How It Ends. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 356p. ISBN 9781455511310. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
You’ll have to read the book to find out how it ends, but it begins in fall 2008 when Bruno travels from America to Ireland in search of his roots and meets unemployed architect Addie, who’s nursing both a broken heart and her ailing dad. Lots of excitement at the London Book Fair for this debut by MacMahon, a journalist RTÉ News, Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster; rights have sold to 20 territories so far.

Read, Cornelia. Valley of Ashes. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780446511360. $24.99. lrg. prnt. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Read’s a rising author in the scary-reading realm; her debut, A Field of Darkness, was nominated for all the biggies—the Edgar, Barry, Anthony, Gumshoe, RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice, and Audie awards—and her subsequent titles have won stars, best books honors, and regional bestsellerdom. In her latest, Madeline Dare is bored with life as a stay-at-home mom in Boulder, CO, where the family has just moved, so she takes on a freelance newspaper assignment. Unfortunately, a serial arsonist is making her job a whole lot more trouble than she had imagined.

Rich, Simon. What in God’s Name. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780316133739. $23.99. POP FICTION
Founder and CEO of Heaven, Inc., a bored God is about to ditch Earth when Craig and Eliza, two starry-eyed angels from the Department of Miracles, intervene. If they can convince Earth’s two most socially maladjusted souls to fall in love, then the planet will be saved. Former president of the Harvard Lampoon, a four-time Emmy nominee for his writing on Saturday Night Live, and author of the novel Elliot Allagash (the film rights have just been sold), Rich has credentials in the Department of Laughs. Let’s see how this works.

Schneider, Michel. Marilyn’s Last Sessions: A Novel. Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780316212991. $25.99. POP FICTION
Dropped into the schedule in time for the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe’s death, this translation from the French reimagines the star’s last visits with Dr Ralph Greenson, her psychoanalyst and at the time probably the most important person in her candle-in-the-wind life. In a revealing review when the translation appeared in the UK, John Banville calls this a fascinating if puzzling hybrid, even quoting the author’s observation that “like Marilyn’s hair, this novel is a phony of the bona-fide kind.” Take a look if Marilyn rage is hitting your community.

Tan, Sandi. The Black Isle. Grand Central. Aug. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780446563925. $24.99. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. HISTORICAL
Cassandra has fled Shanghai with her father and twin brother for the Black Isle, a steamy, teemy British colony in the Indonesian archipelago. It’s crammed not only with immigrants like herself but with ghosts, which only she can see and whose blandishments she studiously resists. Meanwhile, there’s trouble in the world of the living: even as Cassandra wrestles with impossible love and her increasingly important role in the booming colony, war is looming—the book opens in the 1920s and takes us through World War II. An intriguing-sounding debut from filmmaker Tan.

Tsukiyama, Gail. A Hundred Flowers. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780312274818. $24.99. CD: Macmillan Audio. HISTORICAL
In 1957, Mao may have proclaimed, “Let a hundred flowers bloom,” but not long thereafter the Cultural Revolution began. Tsukiyama here portrays the family of Kai Ying, whose teacher husband is sent to the countryside for reeducation after writing a letter critical of the regime and whose young son, desperate for a view of his father, climbs a tree and breaks his leg badly after falling. Winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and author of best sellers like Women of the Silk, Tsukiyama can be relied on to deliver a powerful sense of the political through the delicately polished lens of the domestic.

Auster, Paul. Winter Journal. Holt. Aug. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780805095531. $26. MEMOIR
This book is called a memoir, but as might be expected of the brilliantly offbeat award-winning author of The New York Trilogy, it’s not a standard retelling of life events. Instead, as he approaches his mid-Sixties, Auster considers bodily pain and pleasure, the passage of time, and the weight of memory, stirring in reflections on his mother’s life and death. High-minded readers will anticipate.

Banner, Lois. Revelations: The Passion and Paradox of Marilyn Monroe. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781608195312. $26. BIOGRAPHY
Yes, it’s the year of Marilyn; with the 50th anniversary of her death coming in August, she stars not only in nonfiction but in fiction (see J.I. Baker’s The Empty Glass, coming from Blue Rider in July, and Michel Schneider’s Marilyn’s Last Sessions: A Novel, previewed in fiction). This book is especially interesting for its author, not your standard celeb biographer but a founder of the field of women’s history, cofounder of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, and the first woman president of the American Studies Association. Obviously, she’s going to take Marilyn seriously.

Chaudhary, Arun. First Cameraman: The Improbable Story of How a Disheveled Film Professor Became the First Official White House Videographer, and What He Learned Inside. Times Bks: Holt. Aug. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780805095722. $28. MEMOIR/POLITICS
From 2009 to 2011, filmmaker and NYU film professor Chaudhary served as the White House’s first official videographer. He describes it best: “I [was] sort of like President Obama’s wedding videographer, if every day was a wedding with the same groom but a constantly rotating set of hysterical guests.” The insights range from observations of top political players to what it’s like being stuck in a White House bathroom as President Obama conducts a YouTube town hall on the other side of the door. Hmm, fun, and Chaudhary’s story has been featured in the media.

Cusk, Rachel. Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation. Farrar. Aug. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9780374102135. $23. SOCIAL SCIENCE
One of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003 and a Whitbread and Somerset Maugham award winner, Cusk often writes perceptively in her fiction about domestic entanglements and their larger consequences. Here she switches to nonfiction, using her own painful separation to ponder the effects of divorce on both individual and society. Love her writing; a book I’m excited to see.

Garrett-Davis, Josh. Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains. Little, Brown. Aug. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780316199841. $27.99. SOCIAL SCIENCE
Enough with the coasts; let’s get to the heart of things. We need more writing about the often overlooked Great Plains. Here,  Garrett-Davis, who was born in South Dakota and kept looking for a way out (he is now studying for a Ph.D. in American history at Princeton), returns to reflect on Native American ghost dancers, his homesteading great-great-grandparents, and the fate of the noble bison. Take a good look.

Kelly, John. The Graves Are Walking: The Great Famine and the Saga of the Irish People. Holt. Aug. 2012. 416p. ISBN 9780805091847. $30. HISTORY
Author of the praised and popular The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time, Kelly moves on to a major catastrophe of the 19th century, the Great Irish Potato Famine, which cost twice as many lives as the American Civil War. Kelly investigates both causes and consequences, as the British used the famine as a pretext for further oppressing Irish society and desperate Irish emigrants remade the countries where they settled, especially America. Good popular history.

Malone, Michael S. The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory. St. Martin’s. Aug. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780312620318. $25.99; eISBN 9781250014924. SCIENCE
A recurrent theme in fiction today is amnesia, depicting, I think, our recognition that we are utterly defined by memory, our fear of losing it, yet simultaneously how intrigued we are at the idea of wiping away the burdensome past. Malone, the ABCNew.com “Silicon Insider” columnist, here investigates how human civilization is rooted in memory and how our means of preserving it have evolved, from cave paintings to the Internet. Science ideas are so important, and it’s good to have them communicated by someone who talks regularly and felicitously to lay readers.  

Torregrosa, Luisita López. Before the Rain. Houghton Harcourt. Aug. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780547669205. $25; eISBN 9780547669236. MEMOIR
Former New York Times editor Torregrosa, author of The Noise of Infinite Longing, a memoir of her Puerto Rican family, here details how she fell in love with married reporter Elizabeth in the Eighties. Their love is played out in the Philippines, with the fall of Ferdinand Marcos as backdrop. Definitely different. Lots of reading group activity; investigate.

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.