Prepub Alert

Bailey, Tom. The Grace That Keeps This World. Shaye Areheart: Crown. Oct. 2005. 288p. ISBN 0-307-23801-6. $24. Forester Gary Hazen leads what he considers the good life in the Adirondacks, but his sons aren't so sure—and the bad feelings come out on a fateful hunting trip. A first novel from a Pushcart Prize winner.

Baldacci, David. The Camel Club. Warner. Oct. 2005. 448p. ISBN 0-446-57738-3. $26.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-446-57880-0. $28.95. Cassette/CD: Time Warner Audio. As Secret Service agent Frank Churchill discovers, members of the Camel Club—no, they're not dromedary drivers but a bunch of high-up businessmen and politicos—aren't above murder to further their ends.

Burns, Charles. Black Hole. Pantheon. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-375-42380-X. $24.95. He's done New Yorker covers, sets for Mark Morris, and album design for Iggy Pop, so why not a graphic novel about a sinister plague attacking teenagers in 1970s Seattle? This one has been long awaited by GN fans. With a five-city tour.

Connelly, Michael. The Lincoln Lawyer. Little, Brown. Oct. 2005. 384p. ISBN 0-316-73493-4. $26.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-316-15474-1. $28.95. Cassette/CD: Time Warner Audio. Bottom-rung criminal defense lawyer Mickey Haller finally has a rich client—and he may even be innocent. Connelly's first legal thriller.

Despres, Loraine. The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell. Morrow. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-06-051524-4. $23.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-083965-1. $29.95. CD: HarperAudio. After The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc, the story of Sissy's grandmother, who shocked 1920s Gentry, LA. With a six-city tour.

Flynn, Vince. Consent To Kill. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2005. 416p. ISBN 0-7432-7036-3. $25.95. Cassette/CD: S. & S. Audio. CIA antiterrorist Mitch Rapp has killed so many bad guys that it's no surprise someone wants him dead. With a 12-city tour.

Gaitskill, Mary. Veronica. Pantheon. Oct. 2005. 240p. ISBN 0-375-42145-9. $23. Back after ten years, the author of Bad Behavior details the friendship between down-on-her-luck model Alison and an older woman named Veronica who's about to discover AIDS (it's 1980s New York/Paris). With a five-city tour.

Kotzwinkle, William. The Amphora Project. Grove. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-8021-1803-8. $23. Back to adult novels after achieving wild success with the children's series "Walter the Farting Dog," Kotzwinkle tells the story of Project Amphora, whereby the brilliant scientists of Planet Immortal aim to discover the key to immortality left by the Ancient Aliens. Unfortunately, citizens involved in the project are turning into crystal.

Lively, Penelope. Making It Up. Viking. Oct. 2005. 256p. ISBN 0-670-03447-9. $24.95. Lively writes a novel that reconfigures life for herself and her family after their World War II escape from Egypt.

Ludlum, Robert. Robert Ludlum's™ The Ambler Sequence. St. Martin's. Oct. 2005. 528p. ISBN 0-312-31671-2. [ISBN 978-0-312-31671-6]. $25.95. Escaping from a psychiatric facility where wacko intelligence agents are stashed, the perfectly sane Hal Ambler finds that there's no record he ever existed—and that the face he sees in the mirror isn't his.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Missing Mom. Ecco: HarperCollins. Oct. 2005. 384p. ISBN 0-06-081621-X. $25.95. Independent 31-year-old Nikki Eaton finds her mother's death surprisingly painful—and transformative.

Pratchett, Terry. Thud! HarperCollins. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-06-081522-1. $24.95. CD: HarperAudio. Thud is right. When Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch arrives at work, he confronts murder, incipient war, and a new recruit he knows just won't cut it. With an eight-city tour; simultaneous publication in Great Britain.

Rabe, David. A Primitive Heart. Grove. Oct. 2005. 304p. ISBN 0-8021-1807-0. $23. From a playwright who knows his fiction, too: uncompromising stories focused mainly on the hearts of men.

Rendell, Ruth. 13 Steps Down. Crown. Oct. 2005. 336p. ISBN 1-4000-9842-4. $25. Michael "Mix" Cellini's sharp-eyed landlady senses that his obsession with a model he just spotted is taking a dark and dangerous turn.

Shreve, Anita. A Wedding in December. Little, Brown. Oct. 2005. 304p. ISBN 0-316-73899-9. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-316-15475-X. $27.95. Cassette/CD: Time Warner Audio. The recently widowed Nora owns an inn in the Berkshires where six other longtime friends gather to swap secrets and forgiveness.

Stewart, Leah. The Myth of You & Me. Shaye Areheart: Crown. Sept. 2005. 288p. ISBN 1-4000-9806-8. $22. Research assistant to ailing historian Oliver Doucet, Cameron has received a letter from the childhood best friend she lost years ago. Upon Doucet's death, Cameron discovers that he's left a final request: deliver a package to her friend.

Weiner, Jennifer. Goodnight, Nobody. Atria: S. & S. Sept. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-7434-7011-7. $26. Cassette/CD: S. & S. Audio. Stuck in the high-toned suburbs, Kate Klein doesn't fit in with the other moms in the neighborhood, but when one of them is murdered she buckles down to investigate—when her kids are in nursery.

Weisberger, Lauren. Everyone Worth Knowing. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 384p. ISBN 0-7432-6229-8. $23.95. Cassette/CD: S. & S. Audio. After recent grad Bette Robinson quits the perfect job—80 hours of slavery each week at an investment bank—she starts doing some glamorous PR. It gets her out there in the clubs each night, but it means that the personal and the professional are (dangerously) the same.

Beauclerk, Charles. Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King. Atlantic Monthly. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 0-87113-926-X. $29.95. Beauclerk has the right credentials to memorialize Nell Gwyn, mistress to King Charles II. He's not just a historian but a direct descendant of this notorious couple.

Berendt, John. The City of Falling Angels. Penguin Pr: Penguin Putnam. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 1-59420-058-0. $25.95. The man who made Savannah really famous visits fabled Venice, and though his starting point is the 1996 fire that consumed the Fenice opera house, his narrative concerns the crazed painters, partying Americans, glassblowers, hustlers, and others who ply the city's streets—er, canals.

Critser, Greg. From Generation Rx. Houghton. Oct. 2005. 288p. ISBN 0-618-39313-7. $24.95. Have we ever stopped to consider that all those pills we take might be really, really bad for our bodies in the long run? From a longtime observer of the pharmaceuticals industry; with a ten-city tour.

Crystal, Billy. 700 Sundays. Warner. Oct. 2005. 224p. ISBN 0-446-57867-3. $21.95. For all those who missed Crystal's highly celebrated Broadway show.

Dylan, Bob. The Bob Dylan Scrapbook, 1956–1966. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 64p. ISBN 0-7432-2828-6. $45 with CD. Interviews, photographs, and other juicy stuff drawn from Martin Scorsese's new documentary, an exhibit at the Experience Music project, Dylan's own archives, and more. Don't let this one blow in the wind.

Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich in Power: 1933–1939. Penguin Pr: Penguin Putnam. Oct. 2005. 640p. ISBN 1-59420-074-2. $34.95. Cambridge historian Evans relates how the Weimar Republic became the Third Reich.

Feinstein, John. Next Man Up: A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL. Little, Brown. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 0-316-00964-4. $25.95. The topnotch sports journalist hits the gridiron with this tale of the troubled but still, ahem, game Baltimore Ravens.

Fick, Nathaniel. One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer. Houghton. Oct. 2005. 288p. ISBN 0-618-55613-3. $25. How one Dartmouth grad joined the U.S. Marines, learned to endure torture and 72 hours without sleep, and made the special Reconnaissance Battalion in time to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq. With an 11-city tour.

Fisher, Roger & Daniel Shapiro. Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. Viking. Oct. 2005. 256p. ISBN 0-670-03450-9. $25.95. Fisher, whose Getting to Yes has sold three million copies, is joined by the associate director of the Harvard Negotiation Project in this account of how to use one's emotions to get to yes.

Flood, Charles Bracelen. Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War. Farrar. Oct. 2005. 480p. ISBN 0-374-16600-5. [ISBN 978-0-374-16600-7]. $26. How Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman survived lackluster beginnings, got together, forged a powerful friendship, and won a war. From an American Revolution Roundtable Award winner.

"44." The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 384p. ISBN 0-7432-7713-9. $25. Cassette/CD: S. & S. Audio. A well-known TV journalist with lots of books to his name, "44" also belonged to the high-rolling, highly successful, and perfectly legal sports betting ring he profiles here. With a three-city tour, including Las Vegas, of course.

Freeh, Louis J. My FBI: Bringing Down the Mafia, Investigating Bill Clinton, and Waging War on Terror. St. Martin's. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-312-32189-9. [ISBN 978-0-312-32189-5]. $25.95. Cassette/CD: Audio Renaissance. Freeh tells his story, from Catholic school to law school to U.S. district attorney to head of the FBI, where he battles his boss, Bill Clinton, and tries to make everyone wake up to the threat of terrorism.

Garen, Micah & Marie-Helene Carlton. An American Hostage. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 256p. ISBN 0-7432-7660-4. $25. Kidnapped by militants in southern Iraq, where he and fiancée Carlton were making a film on the looting of important archaeological sites, Garen was threatened with death as the world watched and Carlton fought for his release. Here's their story; with a seven-city tour.

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Master Among Men: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 528p. ISBN 0-684-82490-6. $35. Cassette/CD: S. & S. Audio. In a multiple portrait that includes William Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates, Lincoln's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Goodwin limns the political genius that brought Lincoln to the Presidency. With at 16-city tour.

Guralnick, Peter. Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke. Little, Brown. Oct. 2005. 736p. ISBN 0-316-37794-5. $27.95. After Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love, Guralnick revisits the man who gave gospel a secular spin and ended up revolutionizing popular music in the 1950s–60s.

Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. S. & S. Oct. 2005. 608p. ISBN 0-7432-5631-X. $30. From a former historian for NASA, the life of Neil Armstrong before and after he walked on the moon. With a ten-city author tour.

Hilts, Philip J. Rx for Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health Challenge. Penguin Pr: Penguin Putnam. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 1-59420-070-X. $25.95. Winner of the 2004 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology, Hilts risks a trip to various hot spots so that he can chronicle the efforts to defeat surging disease—which, he argues, can be done. Companion to a PBS series.

Jacobs, Alan. The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis. HarperSanFrancisco: HarperCollins. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 0-06-076690-5. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio. Just in time for the December release of Disney/Walden Media's The Chronicles of Narnia, a biography that reminds us of Lewis's other contributions to literature.

Jillette, Penn & Mickey D. Lynn. How To Cheat Your Friends at Poker: The Wisdom of Dickie Richard. St. Martin's. Oct. 2005. 224p. ISBN 0-312-34905-X. [ISBN 978-0-312-34905-9]. $19.95. Playing poker to win, with tips that best-selling author Jillette picked up from pseudonymous cardsharp Richard.

Jordan, Michael with Tinker Hatfield. Driven from Within. Atria: S. & S. Oct. 2005. 208p. ISBN 0-7432-8400-3. $35. Sports icon Jordan, joined by Nike VP Hatfield, gives thanks to his mentors in words and pictures.

Judt, Tony. A Postwar History of Europe Since 1945. Penguin Pr: Penguin Putnam. Oct. 2005. 832p. ISBN 1-59420-065-3. $37.95. A professor and journalist familiar to anyone who reads the New York Review of Books, Judt traverses 34 countries over 60 years, explaining how these disparate entities became the Europe we know today.

Keyes, Marian. Cracks in My Foundation: Bags, Trips, Make-Up Tips, Charity, Glory, and the Darker Side of the Story. Avon: Morrow. Oct. 2005. 224p. ISBN 0-06-078703-1. pap. $12.95. Best loved for novels like Watermelon, Keyes comes up with this second essay collection (after Under the Duvet) and throws in some never-before-seen stories as well.

Lawford, Christopher Kennedy. Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption. Morrow. Oct. 2005. 320p. ISBN 0-06-073248-2. $24.95. CD: HarperAudio. The son of actor Peter Lawford and John F. Kennedy's sister Patricia, Lawford was raised in limelit surroundings that evidently drove him to alcohol and drug addiction. Now he's an actor himself (he appears in The World's Fastest Indian, premiering this fall) and offers a tell-all memoir that can't be too nasty; the publicity vigorously asserts that he maintains warm ties with the Kennedy bunch. With a five-city tour.

Marquardt, Elizabeth. Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce. Crown. Sept. 2005. 288p. ISBN 0-307-23710-9. $24.95. A scholar affiliated with the nonpartisan Institute for American Values and herself the child of divorce, Marquardt argues that even when parents split amicably, children have trouble because they are forced to travel between two worlds. With a seven-city tour.

Mezrich, Ben. Busting Vega$: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought Casinos to Their Knees. Morrow. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-06-057511-5. $24.95. CD: HarperAudio. Ugly Americans author Mezrich profiles a 21-year-old computer/mathematics genius who figured out a way to win a lot of money in Vegas. Look for Mezrich's Playboyfeature on this topic in the fall.

Packer, George. The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq. Farrar. Oct. 2005. 352p. ISBN 0-374-29963-3. [ISBN 978-0-374-29963-7]. $25. Having gone to Iraq to report for The New Yorker, Packer explains how we got to the Assassin's Gate, entryway to Baghdad's American zone, and what the impact is on our culture.

Rowley, Hazel. Tête-à-Tête: Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. HarperCollins. Oct. 2005. 432p. ISBN 0-06-052059-0. $26.95. Two intellects, one intense relationship: a portrait by the biographer of Christina Stead and Richard Wright. With a three-city tour; foreign rights sold in seven countries.

Sobel, Dava. The Planets. Viking. Oct. 2005. 256p. ISBN 0-670-03446-0. $24.95. Famed for her best-selling Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Sobel sails clear up to the heavens in her latest, a study that takes in not just science but art, culture, and even astrology. With a ten-city tour.

Wallace, Mike with Gary Paul Gates. Between You and Me. Hyperion. Oct. 2005. 288p. ISBN 1-4013-0029-4. $25.95 with DVD. Cassette/CD: Hyperion Audiobooks. After 60 years of reporting, Wallace finally shares illuminating off-camera anecdotes, such as his exchanges with the anguished Secret Service agent riding with JFK in Dallas.

Wilson, A.N. After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World. Farrar. Oct. 2005. 752p. ISBN 0-374-10198-1. [ISBN 978-0-374-10198-5]. $35. A noted historian tracks Britain's crash-and-burn in the 20th century, as World War II bankrupts the imperial nation both spiritually and financially and America takes over.

Winchester, Simon. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. HarperCollins. Oct. 2005. 384p. ISBN 0-06-057199-3. $26.95; lrg prnt. ISBN 0-06-082615-0. CD: HarperAudio. After Krakatoa, Winchester takes on another disaster: the huge San Francisco earthquake of 1906. With a ten-city tour.

Zabor, Rafi. I, Wabenzi: A Souvenir. Farrar. Oct. 2005. 512p. ISBN 0-86547-583-0. [ISBN 978-0-86547-583-0]. $26. Zabor has seen lots of buzz building about his quirky little memoir, which manages to stuff in his father's escape from the Nazis, his travels to Turkey, his passion for John Coltrane and 13th-century mystic Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, and the year he spent whirling with Sufis. Ostensibly, though, it's the story of how he set out in a battered Mercedes—Wabenzi is Swahili for the Mercedes-owning class—to buy his friend a tombstone.