Prepub Alert
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 1/15/2006
Fiction | Nonfiction
Anderson, Scott. Moonlight Hotel. Doubleday. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-385-51556-1. $24.95. There's trouble in the hills near Laradan, capital of a tiny, inconsequential Middle Eastern country named Kutar, and when America decides to intervene, the rebels rapidly gain the upper hand. Set in the 1980s but definitely au courant; from top war correspondent Anderson.Bilston, Sarah. Bed Rest. HarperCollins. May 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-06-088993-4 [ISBN 978-0-06-088993-7]. $23.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-112068-5. CD: HarperAudio. Having accomplished everything by age 30, Quinn, a young British lawyer living in New York, finds it difficult to accomplish exactly nothing during the last three months of her pregnancy except lying in bed. A highly touted debut.
Brown, Dale. Edge of Battle. Morrow. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-06-075300-5 [ISBN 978-0-06-075300-9]. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-112069-3. CD: HarperAudio. Never mind that the U.S. government tries to soothe things along the southern border by launching Operation Rampart. Border patrol agents are still being knocked off, and then the Mexican president demands a revolution to take back territory that had belonged to Mexico. Carey, Peter. Theft. Knopf. May 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-307-26371-1. $24. Once famous painter Michael lives in isolation on the estate of a major collector, devoting himself to the care of an emotionally fragile brother. So it's good news when fetching young Marlene traipses into their life, right? With a 75,000-copy first printing; four-city tour.
Child, Lee. The Hard Way. Delacorte. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-385-33669-1. $25; lrg. prnt. Random. ISBN 0-375-43339-2. $27. When a ransom request goes sour, it's Jack Reacher to the rescue.
Cornwell, Patricia. At Risk. Putnam. May 2006. 240p. ISBN 0-399-15362-4. $21.95. CD: Penguin Audio A Massachusetts district attorney running for governor wants to use some radical new DNA technology to solve a long-ago murder. The result? A new round of violence. For those who can't wait, the New York Times Magazine has begun serializing Cornwell's newest this month.
Dickey, Eric Jerome. Chasing Destiny. Dutton. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-525-94950-X. $24.95. Destiny is the daughter of Keith, who's married to Carmen and cheating with Billie. Now Billie's pregnant, Carmen wants Keith back, and Destiny has vanished. Can Billie and her trusty yellow motorcycle save the day?
Emerson, Earl. Firetrap. Ballantine. May 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-345-46292-0. $24.95. An African American social club is in cinders, and reporter/firefighter Trey Brown is asked to investigate. Too bad the trail of fire code violations leads straight to an old friend, now Brown's nemesis and mayor of Seattle. A new thriller from Shamus Award winner Emerson, creator of the Thomas Black series.
Finder, Joseph. Killer Instinct. St. Martin's. May 2006. 432p. ISBN 0-312-34747-2 [ISBN 978-0-312-34747-5]. $24.95. Sales exec Jason's career is just moseying along until he arranges for the company to hire Kurt, a former Special Forces agent who looks like a good prospect for the company softball team. Suddenly, everything's coming up roses for Jason, who's dangerously slow to catch on to the reason for his success. With a national tour.
Frank, Dorothea Benton. Full of Grace. Morrow. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-06-089235-8 [ISBN 978-0-06-089235-7]. $24.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-111999-7. CD: HarperAudio. Though Grace has managed to shed the name Maria Graziella, she's still a good Catholic girl puzzling over whether she can marry live-in boyfriend Michael, a scientist/doctor who just might be an atheist. The author tour will hit close to 20 cities.
Golden, Marita. After. Doubleday. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-385-51222-8. $23.95. A wealthy young black man is pulled over for speeding, reaches for his cell phone, and is shot to death by a jumpy police officer—who also is black. With a national tour.
Goodwin, Jason. The Janissary Tree. Farrar. May 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-374-17860-7 [ISBN 978-0-374-17860-4]. $25. A tough new investigator is on the scene, and he happens to be a eunuch. Yashim Togula serves the sultan, who's troubled by a series of murders rocking the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s. Are the Janissaries, elite soldiers–turned–outcast troublemakers, about to return in force?
Handler, Daniel. Adverbs. Ecco: HarperCollins. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-06-072441-2 [ISBN 978-0-06-072441-2]. $23.95. Is romance “A Series of Unfortunate Events”? Ask Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, who here returns to adult fiction with criss-crossing tales of star-crossed love. With a seven-city tour.
Harris, E. Lynn. I Say a Little Prayer. Doubleday. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-385-51272-4. $21.95. CD: Random Audio. On the brink, Chauncey returns to church and is inspired to resume his music career—which leads straight to thoughts of the man who inspired his old songs. Then he discovers that the forthcoming revival meeting is turning into an antigay rally. With a national tour.
Holland, Thomas. MIA: Operation Mockingbird. S. & S. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7432-7991-3. $24. Bored with his day job? Scientific director of the Department of Defense's Central Identification Laboratory, which recovers and identifies all U.S. dead, Holland crafts this tale of a lab director like himself involved in the recovery of a soldier lost 40 years ago in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the guy's DNA links him to a decades-old racial killing in Arkansas. With a seven-city tour.
Houellebecq, Michel. The Possibility of an Island. Knopf. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-307-26349-5. $24.95. Upended by a midlife crisis, Daniel enters a cult that aims to secure eternal happiness—through cloning. A 50,000-copy first printing and a nine-city tour; from the bad-boy French author and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Kaplan, Janice & Lynn Schnurnberger. The Men I Didn't Marry. Ballantine. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-345-49070-3. $23.95. Does Hallie look back when her husband decides to stray permanently? You bet, all the way to those college beaus she loved and left and now starts dating again. With an eight-city tour by request.
Khadra, Yasmina. The Attack. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. May 2006. 208p. ISBN 0-385-51748-3. $18.95. After another suicide bombing brings victims to his hospital, Tel Aviv surgeon Amin Jaafie, an Arab Israeli citizen, finds his wife among the dead. And it looks as if she was the bomber. From the pseudonymous Algerian army officer who wrote The Swallows of Kabul.
Lansens, Lori. The Girls. Little, Brown. May 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-316-06903-5. $23.95. Bookish Rose sets out to write her autobiography, which is complicated by her being conjoined to beautiful twin sister Ruby. By a best-selling Canadian author.
Lashner, William. Marked Man. Morrow. May 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-06-072155-3. [ISBN 978-0-06-072155-8]. $24.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-112070-7. CD: HarperAudio. Why does Victor Carl awaken, disoriented, with the name Chantal Adair tattooed within a heart on his chest? And what does she have to do with Victor's client, a wanted man with a stolen Rembrandt to unload?
Leimbach, Marti. Daniel Isn't Talking. Doubleday. May 2006. 240p. ISBN 0-385-51751-3. $22.95.
Daniel isn't talking because he is autistic, and mom Melanie—who's always been cheerful to a fault—finds herself coming undone. With a national tour; from the author of Dying Young.
Meyer, Deon. Dead Before Dying. Little, Brown. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-316-00013-2. $24.95. Somebody in Capetown is using an ancient German handgun to commit a series of murders, which Capt. Matt Joubert sees as a chance to resurrect his sagging career. From a rising international crime writer.
Parkhurst, Carolyn. Lost and Found. Little, Brown. May 2006. 272p. ISBN 0-316-15638-8. $23.95. Fresh from her success with The Dogs of Babel, Parkhurst here devises a global scavenger hunt as reality TV show, with seven competing pairs of contestants. Among them are a teenager with a secret and her mom, who just wants to be friends again.
Patterson, James & Peter de Jonge. Beach Road. Little, Brown. May 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-316-15978-6. $27.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-316-16711-8. $29.95. Cassette/CD: Time Warner Audio. A struggling Montauk lawyer agrees to defend a local man accused of murdering several flashy Hamptons types and finds himself in the midst of another trial of the century.
Pearl, Matthew. The Poe Shadow. Random. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 1-4000-6103-2. $24.95. Trust the author of The Dante Club to turn in another stylish-sounding thriller, this one starring Poe fanatic Quentin Clark. Clark wants the real-life model for C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional master of detection, to look into the author's suspicious death. But then someone else claims to be the actual Dupin. With a 14-city tour.
Pickard, Nancy. The Virgin of Small Plains. Ballantine. May 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-345-47099-0. $23.95. Small Plains folk once buried an unknown girl found murdered in the snow, and her grave is said to be the source of miracles. But now Abby, whose boyfriend disappeared that night, starts asking uncomfortable questions. With a five-city tour.
Pierre, DBC. Ludmila's Broken English. Norton. May 2006. ISBN 0-393-06237-6. $24.95. Ludmila trudges out of the Caucasus in search of help for her starving family—and runs into Blair and Bunny, conjoined British twins who have just been separated. Only daring (and controversial) Booker Prize winner Pierre would risk a plot like this. With an 11-city tour.
Preston, Caroline. Gatsby's Girl. Houghton. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-618-53725-2 [ISBN 978-0-618-53725-9]. $24. If you have yet to hear of Ginevra King—she was F. Scott Fitzgerald's first love—you will certainly know her after reading Preston's recreation of their fabulous fling. With a six-city tour.
Quick, Amanda. Second Sight. Putnam. May 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-399-15352-7. $24.95. Venetia Miles earns big bucks photographing artifacts owned by the brooding Gabriel Jones, whom she also manages to seduce. Then she hears that reputedly he is dead, and the questions start.
Robinson, Patrick. Ghost Force. HarperCollins. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-06-074691-2 [ISBN 978-0-06-074691-9]. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-112073-1. What to do when oil is discovered on the Falkland Islands, Argentina invades (again), and Russian nuclear subs stand by ready to clobber the Brits when they come to fight? Send in the navy SEALs, of course.
Rosner, Elizabeth. Blue Nude. Ballantine. May 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-345-44222-9. $22.95. Washed-up German painter Danzig finds a new model who could just be the inspiration he needs. But the Israeli-born Merav, daughter of Holocaust survivors, is uneasy about their liaison. From the award-winning author of The Speed of Light.
Roth, Philip. Everyman. Houghton. May 2006. 160p. ISBN 0-618-73516-X [ISBN 978-0-618-73516-7]. $24.
His sons hostile, his marriages all failed, and his body slowing down, Roth's new protagonist finds as he stumbles into middle age that he doesn't much like the man he has become.
Sandford, John. Dead Watch. Putnam. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-399-15354-3. $26.95. Chief investigator at the White House, Jacob Winter knows things are bad when a senator's disappearance sends his wife on the run as well. With a ten-city tour.
Scottoline, Lisa. Dirty Blonde. HarperCollins. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-06-074290-9 [ISBN 978-0-06-074290-4]. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-111995-4. CD: HarperAudio. Cate Fante worries that at 39 she's too young to become a judge. But she's even more worried that a dark life she keeps secret will come out—which, of course, it does. With a one-day laydown; 12-city tour.
Shreve, Susan Richards. A Student of Living Things. Viking. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-670-03758-3. $24.95. After her brother is shot to death while standing next to her on the library steps, Claire hooks up with someone who claims to know his murderer. Then the fellow's thirst for vengeance starts getting really creepy.
Shteyngart, Gary. Absurdistan. Random. May 2006. 386p. ISBN 1-4000-6192-2. $24.95. Fat and spoiled Misha, son of Russia's 1,238th richest man, wants to flee to America. But he tries to go by way of a small, backward country recently christened Absurdistan, which lands him in a peck of hilarious trouble.
Sittenfeld, Curtis. The Man of My Dreams. Random. May 2006. 286p. ISBN 1-4000-6476-7. $22.95. Like Lee Fiora, the heroine of Sittenfeld's wildly successful first novel, Prep, Hannah Gaverner has some growing up to do. With a 12-city tour.
Tucker, Lisa. Once Upon a Day. Atria: S. & S. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7434-9277-3. $24. When Dorothea was a child, her father abandoned Hollywood for a remote corner of New Mexico. Two decades later, she's finally getting ready to leave—so she can hunt for a brother who has disappeared. With a ten-city tour.
Turtledove, Harry. Fort Pillow: A Novel of the Civil War. St. Martin's. May 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-312-35520-3 [ISBN 978-0-312-35520-3]. $24.95. Master of the alternative history novel, Turtledove sticks closer to the facts in this re-creation of the controversial Fort Pillow battle, in which 1500 Confederate troops overwhelmed a Union garrison and were subsequently accused of targeting the black troops there for massacre.
Tyler, Anne. Digging to America. Knopf. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-307-26394-0. $24.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-7393-2642-2. $26.95. CD/Cassette: Random Audio.
Maryam should be happy that her son and daughter-in-law celebrate yearly with the Donaldsons, whom they met while both couples were adopting an infant daughter from Korea. Instead, the Iranian-born Maryam now realizes how much she feels like an outsider in her adopted country. With a 300,000-copy first printing.
Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty & the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs. HarperCollins. May 2006. 240p. ISBN 0-06-089257-9 [ISBN 978-0-06-089257-9]. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-111997-0. CD: HaperAudio. Religion has become a powerful force in politics worldwide, argues the former secretary of state, and we must learn to harness it for better, not for worse. With a one-day laydown; eight-city tour.
Alter, Jonathan. The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. S. & S. May 2006. 420p. ISBN 0-7432-4600-4. $29.95. Roosevelt's transformation from aspiring politician to true statesman, delivered by a senior editor at Newsweek. With a seven-city tour.
Angell, Roger. Let Me Finish. Harcourt. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-15-101350-0 [ISBN 978-0-15-101350-0]. $25. Take a look at Prohibition-era New York with Angell, a fixture at The New Yorker as well as son of the magazine's founding editor, Katherine White, and stepson of E.B. White.
Barnett, Suzanne & others. Three Fat Chicks on a Diet: Because We're All in It Together. St. Martin's. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-312-34807-X [ISBN 978-0-312-34807-6]. $21.95. Barnett is joined by sisters Jennifer and Amy in a frank discussion of keeping off the pounds. With a seven-city tour.
Beinart, Peter. The Good Fight: Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again. HarperCollins. May 2006. 272p. ISBN 0-06-084161-3 [ISBN 978-0-06-084161-4]. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio. Editor of the New Republic, Beinart urges liberals to pick up the standard they dropped after the Vietnam War and again battle totalitarianism on all fronts. With a three-city tour.
Bowden, Mark. Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam. Atlantic Monthly. May 2006. 560p. ISBN 0-87113-925-1 [ISBN 978-0-87113-925-2]. $24. The author of Black Hawk Down took five years to reconstruct the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979–80. With a 200,000-copy first printing—and that 25-city tour says a lot.
Brennan, Christine. Best Seat in the House: A Father, a Daughter, a Journey Through Sports. Lisa Drew Bk: Scribner. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7432-5436-8. $26.
How tomboy Christine became USA TODAY journalist Brennan, the top female sports columnist in the country. With a four-city tour.
Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Morrow. May 2006. 272p. ISBN 0-06-112423-0 [ISBN 978-0-06-112423-5]. $25.95. Brinkley calls Hurricane Katrina the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, but he doesn't just complain. He's set up the Tulane University Task Force to document the aftermath. With a three-city tour.
Burroughs, Augusten. Possible Side Effects: True Stories. St. Martin's. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-312-31596-1 [ISBN 978-0-312-31596-2]. $23.95. More provocation from the author of Running with Scissors, with “true stories” ranging from doll collecting to using coffins as bookcases. With a national tour.
Carroll, James. House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. Houghton. May 2006. 704p. ISBN 0-618-18780-4 [ISBN 978-0-618-18780-4]. $30. Runaway nuclear buildup. A passion for finding enemies. Indifference to genocide worldwide. The award-winning author of An American Requiem lays a lot on the Pentagon, where in fact his father once worked.
Chomsky, Noam. Failed State: America. Metropolitan: Holt. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-8050-7912-2 [ISBN 978-0-8050-7912-8]. $25. CD: Audio Renaissance. A failed state, argues Chomsky, ignores international law and the need to protect its citizens. Guess what country fits the bill?
Connelly, Michael. Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops & Killers. Little, Brown. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-316-15377-X. $25.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-316-16710-X. $27.95. CD: Time Warner Audio. Before becoming a prize-winning author of crime fiction, Connelly was a prize-winning reporter of crime nonfiction. Here he recalls the many cases he covered.
Ebadi, Shirin with Azadeh Moaveni. Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope. Random. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 1-4000-6470-8. $24.95. From judge to courtroom clerk (after Iran's Islamic revolution) to human rights lawyer to Nobel Peace Prize winner, Ebadi has had a quite a ride.
Edelman, Hope. Motherless Mothers: How Mother Loss Shapes the Parents We Become. HarperCollins. May 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-06-053245-9 [ISBN 978-0-06-053245-1]. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio. From Motherless Daughters (Edelman's 1994 best seller) to the realities of those daughters all grown up and raising children on their own; with a six-city tour.
Ervin, Clark Kent. Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack. Palgrave Macmillan. May 2006. 240p. ISBN 1-4039-7288-5 [ISBN 978-1-4039-7288-0]. $24.95. Air travelers still aren't safe, mass transit remains unprotected, border and port security is feeble, and the Department of Homeland Security doesn't know what's up, argues the DHS's first inspector general, whose true assignment turned out to be positive spin; with a four-city tour.
Farley, Christopher John. Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley. Amistad: HarperCollins. May 2006. 144p. ISBN 0-06-053991-7 [ISBN 978-0-06-053991-7]. $21.95. The Jamaican-born Farley, a former senior editor at Time, celebrates reggae king Marley 25 years after his death.
Fessler, Ann. The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). May 2006. 352p. ISBN 1-59420-094-7. $24.95. CD: Penguin Audio. Adoptee Fessler won a Radcliffe Fellowship to complete this study of the American women before Roe v. Wade who snuck away to have their illegitimate children and then give them up. With a seven- to ten-city tour.
Firlik, Katrina. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside. Random. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 1-4000-6320-5. $24.95. A medical rarity—only five percent of this country's 4000 neurosurgeons are women—Firlik lets us in on the secrets of her job.
Frankel, Alison. Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World's Most Valuable Coin. Norton. May 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-393-05949-9. $25.95. The 1933 $20 Double Eagle disappeared from the U.S. Mint during the Depression and has had quite a journey since then, much of it through illegal channels. From a senior writer at American Lawyer.
Gerges, Fawaz A. Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy. Harcourt. May 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-15-101213-X [ISBN 978-0-15-101213-8]. $24.95. A familiar face to anyone who follows reporting on the Middle East (he's been seen on ABC, BBC, Oprah, and Al Jazeera), Sarah Lawrence professor Gerges was talking to jihadists nearly three decades before 9/11.
Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. Knopf. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 1-4000-4266-6. $24. CD: Random Audio. Harvard psychologist Gilbert considers why the future we envision rarely transpires and whether it really matters. With a 150,000-copy first printing; ten-city tour.
Girzone, Joseph F. My Struggle with Faith. Doubleday. May 2006. 176p. ISBN 0-385-51712-2. $19.95. He's known for his inspirational novels, but former priest Girzone here reports how he's had to wrestle with God.
Greene, Bob. And You Know You Should Be Glad: A True Story of Friendship. Morrow. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-06-088193-3 [ISBN 978-0-06-088193-1]. $24.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-06-112685-3. CD: HarperAudio. Friends from kindergarten means friends forever, so when he discovers that his old buddy Jack is dying, Greene drops everything, rallies the rest of their gang, and sees him through to the end. With a four-city tour.
Hanson, Neil. Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War. Knopf. May 2006. 496p. ISBN 0-307-26370-3. $28.95. To commemorate the three million soldiers killed in World War I who were never identified, British author Hanson (The Great Fire of London) traces the story of three of them—English, German, and French—who vanished without a trace.
Harper, Hill. Letters to a Young Brother. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). May 2006. 96p. ISBN 1-59240-200-3. $15. Former Ivy Leaguer Harper, who is frequently seen on screens large and small (e.g., CSI: NY), shares the advice he offers to teens on his active speaking circuit.
Jentz, Terri. Strange Piece of Paradise. Farrar. May 2006. 560p. ISBN 0-374-13498-7 [ISBN 978-0-374-13498-3]. $27. In 1977, Jentz was peacefully sleeping in a tent she and her friend had pitched in central Oregon when a man ran over them in his truck and then went after them with an ax. Here she reconstructs the nightmare and returns to the scene of the crime, where locals tell her the culprit is still dwelling.
Jones, Judy & William Wilson. An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably Didn't. 3d ed. Ballantine. May 2006. 704p. ISBN 0-345-46890-2. $35. The update of a classic that has sold a half-million copies.
Juska, Jane. Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex, and Real Estate. Villard. May 2006. 272p. ISBN 1-4000-6319-1. $23.95. A Round-Heeled Woman is back, still looking for the perfect companion—and a ­really nice place to live. With a four-city tour.
Kann, Wendy. Casting with a Fragile Thread: A Story of Sisters and Africa. Holt. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-8050-7956-4 [ISBN 978-0-8050-7956-2]. $23. A dead father, an insane mother, an awful civil war—no wonder Kann left colonial Rhodesia. But she was compelled to return when her sister was murdered.
Kennedy, Sen. Edward M. America Back on Track. Viking. May 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-670-03764-8. $24.95. CD: Penguin Audio. How America has deserted its ideals—and what can be done about it.
Kohut, Andrew & Bruce Stokes. America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked. Times Bks: Holt. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-8050-7721-9 [ISBN 978-0-8050-7721-6]. $25. Bad news. Reaching out to 91,000 respondents in 50 nations, the Pew Research Center (directed by Kohut) determined that America is seen as a monster military power—70 percent said we need a superpower rival to get us under control. Kohut argues further that our stubborn individualism has pushed us away from the rest of the globe.
Leaming, Barbara. Jack Kennedy: The Education of a Statesman. Norton. May 2006. 448p. ISBN 0-393-05161-7. $26.95. Harvard student Kennedy got his first taste of statesmanship in England, where his father was ambassador, argues best-selling biographer Leaming. With a six-city tour.
McKeithen, Madge. Blue Peninsula: Essential Words for a Life of Loss and Change. Farrar. May 2006. 240p. ISBN 0-374-11502-8 [ISBN 978-0-374-11502-9]. $22. As her son literally falls apart over eight years from a mysterious illness no one can identify, McKeithen finds a special source of comfort: the beauty of language and, particularly, poetry.
McMillan, Terry. It's OK if You're Clueless: And 23 More Tips for Life After High School. Viking. May 2006. 64p. ISBN 0-670-03298-0. $12.95. Words of wisdom—e.g., see anything and everything, don't listen to your parents—delivered by popular novelist McMillan to her son's high school graduating class.
Montville Leigh. The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth. Doubleday. May 2006. 400p. ISBN 0-385-51437-9. $26.95; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-7393-2641-4. $28.95. CD: Random Audio. Montville does for Babe Ruth what he did for Ted Williams in his best seller of that name.
Nelson, Willie with Turk Pipkin. The Tao of Willie: A Guide to Happiness in Your Heart. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). May 2006. 160p. ISBN 1-59240-197-X. $20. The quintessential country singer draws on the Tao Te Ching to hint at how we might be happy, too, even if we haven't written 2500 songs and sold over 100 million records.
Nestle, Marion. What To Eat: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Savvy Food Choices and Good Eating. North Point: Farrar. May 2006. 624p. ISBN 0-86547-704-3 [ISBN 978-0-86547-704-9]. $30. How to eat well, even as agribusiness aims for profit instead of health and the media reverberate with talk of organic food and extreme diets.
Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Viking. May 2006. 480p. ISBN 0-670-03760-5. $29.95. CD: Penguin Audio. The award-winning author of In the Heart of the Sea doesn't dwell on the Mayflower's voyage but on the true story of what happened afterward.
Raines, Howell. The One That Got Away. Lisa Drew Bk: Scribner. May 2006. 352p. ISBN 0-7432-7278-1. $25. Having lost his job as executive editor of the New York Times, Raines went on to write a Times best seller, Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis. Here's the sequel.
Russo, Christopher with Allen St. John. The Mad Dog Hall of Fame: The Ultimate Top-Ten Rankings of the Best in Sports. Doubleday. May 2006. 256p. ISBN 0-385-51746-7. $23.95. The verdict of a highly trusted sports radio talk show host.
Sallah, Michael & Mitch Weiss. Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War. Little, Brown. May 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-316-15997-2. $25.95. CD: Time Warner Audio. Find out why the authors won a Pulitzer for blowing the lid on Tiger Force, an elite group meant to track the enemy in Vietnam who instead turned into murderers of the innocent.
Schama, Simon. Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution. Ecco: HaperCollins. May 2006. 480p. ISBN 0-06-053916-X [ISBN 978-0-06-053916-0]. $29.95. Promised freedom if they served King George, slaves fled Southern plantations en masse during the American Revolution. A new look at our country's beginnings from a celebrated historian.
Sheehy, Gail. Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life. Random. May 2006. 368p. ISBN 1-4000-6263-2. $25.95. New Passages for women over 50, who aren't ready to give up on sex. With a four-city tour.
Steele, Shelby. White Guilt: How Blacks & Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. HarperCollins. May 2006. 192p. ISBN 0-06-057862-9 [ISBN 978-0-06-057862-6]. $24.95. White guilt isn't any better for blacks than white supremacy, argues Steele, who instead advocates a culture of personal responsibility.
Stewart, Rory. The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq. Harcourt. May 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-15-101235-0 [ISBN 978-0-15-101235-0]. $25. In 2003, at the tender age of 30, Farsi-speaking British diplomat Stewart hailed a cab in Jordan and ended up in Iraq, where he spent a year as deputy governor of several marsh regions in the south.
Suskind, Ron. [Untitled]. S. & S. May 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-7432-7109-2. $26. CD: S. & S. Audio. How America is fighting the terrorists and how the terrorists adapt and fight back. An embargoed book from the author of The Price of Loyalty; with an eight-city tour.
Volpe, Joseph with Charles Michener. The Toughest Show on Earth. Knopf. May 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-307-26285-5. $25.95. Volpe's show is the Metropolitan Opera, where he is about to retire as general manager. Here he recalls his rise through the ranks, starting at the Old Met on 39th Street in Manhattan.
Wood, Gordon S. Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). May 2006. 304p. ISBN 1-59420-093-9. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio. Brown professor Wood gives us incisive character studies of some real characters—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, et al.
