Prepub Alert

By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 11/15/2005

Fiction | Nonfiction

Abel, Jessica. La Perdida. Pantheon. Mar. 1006. 272p. ISBN 0-375-42365-6. $19.95. In this first graphic novel from upcoming comic artist Abel (check out her zine, Artbabe), Carla crashes in Mexico City with skeptical ex-boyfriend Harry—who’s promptly kidnapped.

Archer, Jeffrey. False Impression. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-312-35372-3 [ISBN 978-0-312-35372-8]. $27.95. Having barely escaped the burning Twin Towers, Anna Petrescu takes advantage of being presumed dead to tease out the connection between an old lady’s murder in England and the theft of a Van Gogh.

Barton, Emily. Brookland. Farrar. Mar. 2006. 512p. ISBN 0-374-11690-3 [ISBN 978-0-374-11690-3]. $25. A dream grows in 18th-century Brooklyn: Prudence Winship, who inherited her pop’s gin distillery, wants to build a bridge to New York. From the author of the Bard Fiction Prize winner The Testament of Yves Gundron.

Crais, Robert. The Two Minute Rule. S. & S. Mar. 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-7432-8161-6. $24.95. Mad Max: Just as he’s released from prison, the police officer son he’s desperate to reconcile with is killed, and Max doesn’t believe the gang leader blamed by the LAPD is responsible. With a 15-city tour.

Dean, Debra. The Madonnas of Leningrad. Morrow. Mar. 2006. 240p. ISBN 0-06-082530-8. $23.95. During the Siege of Leningrad, staff at the Hermitage removed the paintings for safekeeping but symbolically left up the frames, and the elderly Marina now recalls vividly reimagining the missing works. A much-touted debut; with a West Coast tour.

Dugoni, Robert. The Jury Master. Warner. Mar. 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-446-57869-X. $24.95. Debut novelist Dugoni already has good writing credentials: his nonfiction The Cyanide Canary was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Though a brilliant lawyer, David Sloane has no conscious recall of what must have been an awful childhood—until the suicide of a pal at the White House.

Evanovich, Janet. Motor Mouth: An Alexandra Barnaby Novel. HarperCollins. Mar. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-06-058403-3. $26.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-058404-1. Cassette/CD: HarperAudio. Metro Girl Alexandra “Barney” Barnaby returns for a second romp, this time with NASCAR roaring in the background.

Gibb, Camilla. Sweetness in the Belly. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2006. 352p. ISBN 1-59420-084-X. $23.95. Dumped at a Sufi shrine in Morocco by her hippie parents, who promptly get themselves killed, Lilly grows up studying the Qur’an. As an adult, she finds herself a despised foreigner on pilgrimage to Ethiopia but an outsider in London. Gibb here follows up fieldwork in Ethiopia for her Oxford Ph.D., plus a few award-­winning novels in Canada.

Hellenga, Robert. Philosophy Made Simple. Little, Brown. Mar. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-316-05826-2. $23.95. At loose ends, what’s widower Rudy Harrington to do? Move to a new house, read a book called Philosophy Made Simple, and hire a local elephant (that paints) for his daughter’s Hindu wedding. From the author of The Sixteen Pleasures; with a three-city tour.

Laurens, Stephanie. What Price Love?: A Cynster Novel. Morrow. Mar. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-06-084084-6. $22.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-085350-6. CD: HarperAudio. The very eligible Dillon Caxton (protégé of Demon Cynster) flees the clamoring young ladies for the racetrack, where gorgeous Lady Priscilla Dalloway is stalking her wayward brother. Do sparks fly? You bet.

Mullins, Meg. The Rug Merchant. Viking. Mar. 2006. 272p. ISBN 0-670-03481-9. $23.95. CD: Penguin Audio. How does a successful rug merchant from Iran, who longs to bring his wife to New York, end up romantically involved with a Barnard student from the Deep South? Find out in this debut novel, which has been sold to ten countries and optioned for film.

Nance, John. Orbit. S. & S. Mar. 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-7432-5052-4. $25. In 2009, Kip Dawson is aboard an American Space Adventure spacecraft when a micrometeorite wipes out the radio—and the pilot. The good-byes he’s writing on the craft’s laptop are avidly read by millions on the Internet. But will he be rescued? With a seven-city tour.

Noel, Katharine. Halfway House. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-87113-934-0. $23. Drug from the bottom of a pool, star high school senior Angie announces, “I don’t have to breathe.” Her spiral into mental illness tears apart her family. This debut author gets an eight-city tour.

Picoult, Jodi. The Tenth Circle. Atria: S. & S. Mar. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7434-9670-1. $26. Can her father protect teenaged Trixie from everything? Wait and see. With a 20-city tour.

Rankin, Ian. Blood Hunt. Little, Brown. Mar. 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-316-00911-3. $24.95. Rankin takes a break from his Inspector Rebus series to pen this standalone about a former British soldier convinced that his brother did not commit suicide. With a ten-city tour.

Sierra, Javier. The Secret Supper. Atria: S. & S. Mar. 2006. 336p. ISBN 0-7432-8764-9. $25.95. This international best seller limns the battle between Leonardo (of Da Vinci Code fame) and Fray Agustin Leyre, sent by the Pope to investigate rumors that The Last Supper is heretical. With a ten-city tour.

Unger, Lisa. Beautiful Lies. Shaye Areheart Bks: Crown. Mar. 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-307-33668-9. $24. For her efforts, Good Samaritan Ridley Jones receives a mystifying package that forces her to rethink her whole life—and then flee it. A big debut; lots of foreign rights have been sold, and there’s a ten-city tour.

Vine, Barbara. The Minotaur. Shaye Areheart Bks: Crown. Mar. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-307-23760-5. $25. Nurse Kirstin Kvist suspects that her new patient is not the schizophrenic his shady family claims him to be.

Carr, Cynthia. Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America. Crown. Mar. 2006. 512p. ISBN 0-517-70506-0. $25.95. Carr, who grew up in Marion, IN, site of a notorious 1930s lynching, here explores the incident while reflecting on America’s failure to face up to past violence.

Easterly, William. The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts To Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2006. 496p. ISBN 1-59420-037-8. $27.95. According to this former World Bank research economist, the $2.3 trillion in aid that the West has poured into the Third World over 50 years hasn’t helped because the approach is all wrong. The recipients have a better idea of what is needed than the planners.

Falsani, Cathleen. The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People. Sarah Crichton Bks: Farrar. Mar. 2006. 512p. ISBN 0-374-16381-2 [ISBN 978-0-374-16381-5]. $24. Talking religion with the likes of Bono, Anne Rice, Barack Obama, and Hugh Hefner (yes, Hugh Hefner). From a Chicago Sun-Times correspondent.

Flannery, Tim. The Weather Makers: The History and Future Impact of Climate Change. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-87113-935-9. $25. The polar caps are melting, hurricanes have never been worse, and global warming—something University of Adelaide professor Flannery did not at first believe in—is shown here to be dangerously real. With a 19-city tour.

Gordon, Michael R. & Gen. Bernard E. Trainor. Cobra 2: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. Pantheon. Mar. 2006. 480p. ISBN 0-375-42262-5. $27.95. Gordon, chief military corespondent for the New York Times, and NBC military analyst Trainor, retired from the Marine Corps, reportedly got special access for this behind-the-scenes account of preparing for war. With a 12-city tour.

Halevy, Efraim. Man in the Shadows. St. Martin’s. Mar. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-312-33771-X. $24.95. Halevy discusses Middle East politics from a unique perspective—he served as head of the Mossad, Israel’s secret police.

Johnson, Paul. Creators: From Chaucer and Dürer to Picasso and Disney. HarperCollins. Mar. 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-06-019143-0. $25.95. After his successful Intellectuals, Johnson is up to writing about Creators, from Dante to Disney.

Mortenson, Greg & David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission To Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time. Viking. Mar. 2006. 336p. ISBN 0-670-03482-7. $25.95. Rescued by Pakistani villagers after a failed attempt at climbing K2, Mortenson vowed to build them a school. Twelve years later, his Central Asia Institute has built 55 schools (some serving girls) despite fatwas and worse. With a six-city tour.

Phillips, Kevin. American Theocracy: The Perils and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century. Viking. Mar. 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-670-03486-X. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio. Why did Rome fall (and other empires since)? Global overambition, big debts, bigger resource problems, and militating religionists, argues the author of American Dynasty. Sound familiar? With a 15-city tour.

Smith, Janna Malamud. My Father Is a Book: A Memoir of Bernard Malamud. Houghton. Mar. 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-618-69166-9. $24. Malamud’s daughter commemorates the 20th anniversary of his death with a memoir drawing on unpublished letters and journals.

Wills, Garry. What Jesus Meant. Viking. Mar. 2006. 208p. ISBN 0-670-03496-7. $24.95. He’s a conservative defender of the faith. No, he’d march with the Left. Actually, argues Wills, Jesus’ message was more radical than any of this politicking suggests. With a four-city tour.

Wiseman, Rosalind with Elizabeth Rapoport. Queen Bee Moms & Kingpin Dads: Coping with the Parents, Teachers, Coaches, and Counselors Who Can Rule—or Ruin—Your Child’s Life. Crown. Mar. 2006. 320p. ISBN 1-4000-8300-1. $25. Look what happens to Wiseman’s Queen Bees and Wannabes when they grow up. With a 20-city tour.