Prepub Alert
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 5/1/2006
Fiction | Nonfiction
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Half of a Yellow Sun. Knopf. Sept. 2006. 416p. ISBN 1-4000-4416-2. $24.95.
Having come out of the gate fast with the prize-winning Purple Hibiscus, Adichie returns with a second novel set during Biafra's struggle for independence. With an East Coast tour. Atwood, Margaret. Moral Disorder and Other Stories. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Sept. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-385-50384-9. $24.95. CD: Random Audio.
A bunch of stories that read like a novel? Or a novel made up of stories? Either way, this new work moves decade by decade through the 20th century. Brooks, Terry. Armageddon's Children. Del Rey: Ballantine. Sept. 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-345-48408-8. $26.95.
Things are looking bad, so Logan Tom is given the directive to guard a bunch of street kids, one of whom has a secret that may save the world. The first in a trilogy; with a 15-city tour. Dahlquist, Gordon. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. Bantam. Sept. 2006. 768p. ISBN 0-385-34035-4. $26.
After her fiancé terminates their engagement—by letter, no less—Celeste dons a disguise and follows him to murky Harschmort Manor, where big surprises await. This Victorian thriller, playwright Dahlquist's fiction debut, has been sold to 26 countries. Faulks, Sebastian. Human Traces. Random. Sept. 2006. 576p. ISBN 0-375-50226-2. $25.95.
Jacques Rebière and Thomas Midwinter have one thing in common: in the late 1800s, when little is known about the workings of the mind, they want to discover the cause—and possible treatment—of madness. A No. 1 best seller in England. Gerritsen, Tess. The Mephisto Club. Ballantine. Sept. 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-345-47699-9. $24.95.
A Christmas Eve murder leads Boston Medical Examiner Maura Isles and Detective Jane Rizzoli to the Mephisto Club, whose pastime—analyzing the nature of evil—is suddenly not so theoretical. Joss, Morag. Puccini's Ghosts. Delacorte. Sept. 2006. 384p. ISBN 0-385-33978-X. $22.
When teenaged Lila takes refuge from her parents' crazed marriage by participating in her uncle's amateur production of Puccini's Turandot, what's real and what's art become dangerously blurred. From a Silver Dagger winner. McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. Knopf. Sept. 2006. 288p. ISBN 0-307-26543-9. $24.
New territory for McCarthy: a postapocalyptic landscape where readers meet a man who recalls a better world and a boy who doesn't. Mathews, Francine. The Alibi Club. Bantam. Sept. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-553-80331-X. $24.
Four women try to rescue a brilliant scientist from the Nazis—with explosive results. From the former CIA analyst who doubles as mystery writer Stephanie Barron. Messud, Claire. The Emperor's Children. Knopf. Aug. 2006. 448p. ISBN 0-307-26419-X. $25.
Marina Thwaite, a celeb even before her first book is published, and college friends Danielle and Julius find their lives upended when Marina's cousin Bootie drops into town with ideas of his own. With a four-city tour.
Morton, Brian. Breakable You. Harcourt. Sept. 2006. 368p. ISBN 0-15-101192-3 [ISBN 978-0-15-101192-6]. $25.
A so-so, middle-aged novelist dotes on a much younger beauty, as his former wife languishes and his daughter retaliates by launching a wild affair. From the author of the award-winning Starting Out in the Evening. Mullen, Thomas. The Last Town on Earth. Random. Sept. 2006. 400p. ISBN 1-4000-6520-8. $23.95.
In this hot debut, already optioned by DreamWorks, a Pacific Northwest town named Commonwealth votes to quarantine as the Spanish flu sweeps the country. And then a tired young soldier comes knocking. Trigiani, Adriana. Return to Big Stone Gap. Random. Sept. 2006. 384p. ISBN 1-4000-6008-7. $24.95.
Is there ever trouble for Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney, heroine of Trigiani's beloved Big Stone Gap novels, starting with her married daughter's move to Italy and leading right up to a stranger's disturbing appearance in town. With a ten-city tour. Walters, Minette. The Devil's Feather. Knopf. Aug. 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-307-26462-9. $24.
Bad news for Connie Burns, who's tracking a British mercenary she suspects of killing women in Sierra Leone. Herself abducted, she manages to escape but then must sit around waiting for the next axe to fall.
Callahan, David. The Moral Center: How To Reclaim Values from the Right. Harcourt. Sept. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-15-101151-6 [ISBN 978-0-15-101151-3]. $26.
What's really bothering Americans (despite what the politicians think)? Our selfish, consumerist society, argues the author of The Cheating Culture. Canton, James. The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World for the Next 5, 10, and 20 Years. Dutton. Sept. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-525-94938-0. $24.95.
A sort of Extreme Future Shock, this work talks about how such issues as climate change, terrorism, shifting populations, and the rise of China will affect all of us. Cox, Lynne. Grayson. Knopf. Aug. 2006. 160p. ISBN 0-307-26454-8. $18.95.
Practicing her strokes off the California coast, marathon swimmer Cox (see Swimming to Antarctica) encounters an 18' baby gray whale and tries to reunite it with its mom. With a national tour. Doctorow, E.L. Creationists: Selected Essays, 1993–2006. Random. Sept. 2006. 256p. ISBN 1-4000-6495-3. $24.95.
Doctorow on creativity, from Moby-Dick to the Marx Brothers. With a four-city tour. Ephron, Nora. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman. Knopf. Aug. 2006. 160p. ISBN 0-307-26455-6. $19.95.
Not going gently into that good night: funny essays on women resisting aging, baby-boomer style. With a nine-city tour. Flynn, Stephen. The Edge of Disaster: Surviving Terror and Catastrophes. Random. Sept. 2006. 224p. ISBN 1-4000-6551-8. $25.95.
Avian flu. Earthquake. Exploding chemical plants. Homeland security expert Flynn reports on a lot of bad things that could happen post-9/11. With a four-city tour. Goleman, Daniel. Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships. Bantam. Sept. 2006. 416p. ISBN 0-553-80352-2. $28; lrg. prnt. ISBN 0-7393-2679-1. $30.
Goleman expands the concepts found in his phenomenal best seller, Emotional Intelligence, to explain that we are all “wired to connect.” With a national tour. Hughes, Robert. Things I Didn't Know: A Memoir. Knopf. Sept. 2006. 416p. ISBN 1-4000-4444-8. $27.95.
Forever edgy art critic Hughes uses his near-fatal 1999 car accident to recount his leap from a Catholic boys' school in Australia to the confluence of art, sex, and politics in Sixties England. With a seven-city tour. Jennings, Ken. Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia. Villard. Sept. 2006. 256p. ISBN 1-4000-6445-7. $23.95.
A history of trivia from Jeopardy's longest-running contestant; with a 15-city tour. Kuczynski, Alex. Beauty Junkies. Doubleday. Sept. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-385-50853-0. $24.95.
An inside look at the $15 billion worth of nipping and tucking done annually in this country to look young forever; from a “Style” reporter at the New York Times. Kuusisto, Stephen. Eavesdropping: A Life by Ear. Norton. Sept. 2006. 224p. ISBN 0-393-05892-1. $23.95.
The author of the highly regarded Planet of the Blind instructs us in the fine art of listening. Leibovitz, Annie. A Photographer's Life: 1990–2005. Random. Oct. 2006. 480p. ISBN 0-375-50509-1. $75.
Personal images from someone who's so good at turning the lens the other way. Linker, Damon. The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege. Doubleday. Sept. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-385-51647-9. $26.
And the walls come a-tumblin' down: the walls, that is, between religion and governance in this country. A former editor of the conservative journal First Things objects. Madigan, Tim. I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred Rogers. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2006. 208p. ISBN 1-59240-227-5. $20.
Award-winning journalist Madigan profiled Fred Rogers (of children's TV fame), but in the end it was really Rogers who helped him. With a national tour. Robbins, John. Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World's Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples. Random. Sept. 2006. 384p. ISBN 1-4000-6521-6. $24.95.
A Baskin-Robbins heir who turned his back on ice cream to write Diet for a New America, Robbins here examines ancient cultures that don't suffer from our numerous chronic and killing diseases. With a ten-city tour. Rosenbaum, Ron. The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascos, and Palace Coups. Random. Sept. 2006. 672p. ISBN 0-375-50339-0. $29.95.
Not another biography of Shakespeare but a study of the different ways people (especially scholars and directors) look at him. With a five-city tour. Stiglitz, Joseph E. Making Globalization Work. Norton. Sept. 2006. 320p. ISBN 0-393-06122-1. $26.95.
Who better than a former senior vice president of the World Bank to give us an overview of how globalization will work. Weil, Andrew, M.D. Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. rev. ed. Knopf. Sept. 2006. 304p. ISBN 0-307-26492-0. $22.
Stayin' alive: Weil updates his 1997 classic. Wilson, Edward O. The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion. Norton. Sept. 2006. 160p. ISBN 0-393-06217-1. $21.95.
The Harvard professor who practically invented biodiversity enriches our universe by examining the confluence of science and religion. Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Knopf. Sept. 2006. 464p. ISBN 0-375-41486-X. $27.95.
New Yorker staff writer Wright profiles four men intimately involved with 9/11: al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, FBI counterterrorist chief John O'Neill, and Prince Turki al-Faisal, head of Saudi intelligence. With a three-city tour.
