Prepub Alert
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 11/15/2006
Fiction | Nonfiction
Fiction Berlinski, Mischa. Fieldwork. Farrar. Mar. 2007. 336p. ISBN 0-374-29916-1 [ISBN 978-0-374-29916-3]. $24.A guy named Mischa Berlinski hangs out in Thailand, where his girlfriend is working, until the suicide of an American anthropologist imprisoned for murdering a young missionary sets his mind ablaze. Ferris, Joshua. Then We Came to the End. Little, Brown. Mar. 2007. 384p. ISBN 0-316-01638-1 [ISBN 978-0-316-01638-4]. $23.99.
In one of those highly anticipated debuts (foreign rights boomed), the American Dream comes to an end for a group of workers in a deeply downsized office. Harrison, Kim. For a Few Demons More. Eos: HarperCollins. Mar. 2007. 352p. ISBN 0-06-078838-0 [ISBN 978-0-06-078838-4]. $21.95.
In the next installment of the Hollows series, bounty-hunting witch Rachel Morgan faces down serial killers and a really trashy bridesmaid dress. Harrison hits hardcover with a one-day laydown and an 11-city tour. Hayder, Mo. Pig Island. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2007. 352p. ISBN 0-87113-952-9 [ISBN 978-0-87113-952-8]. $24.
When a journalist breaches the compound of a fanatic religious recluse on a Scottish island, intent on busting rumors about a supernatural creature, he must finally admit that he's seen real evil. Following The Devil of Nanking; reading group guide. Laurens, Stephanie. The Taste of Innocence. Morrow. Mar. 2007. 352p. ISBN 0-06-084086-2 [ISBN 978-0-06-084086-0]. $24.95. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
Laurens welcomes back Lord Charles Morwellan. With a five-city tour. Longfellow, Ki. The Secret Magdalene. Crown. Mar. 2007. 560p. ISBN 0-307-34666-8 [ISBN 978-0-307-34666-7]. $24.95.
The author of China Blues re­imagines Mary Magdalene as a young woman beset by visions who teaches the divinely inspired Yeshu'a everything she knows. Lutz, Lisa. The Spellman Files. S. & S. Mar. 2007. 336p. ISBN 1-4165-3239-0 [ISBN 978-1-4165-3239-2]. $25. CD: S. & S. Audio.
Big buzz at the London Book Fair, multiple foreign rights sales, and a film sale to Spider-Man's producer—what more could a first novelist want? Lutz's heroine works for her nutty family's detective business. With a three-city tour. McMurtry, Larry. When the Light Goes. S. & S. Mar. 2007. 304p. ISBN 1-4165-3426-1 [ISBN 978-1-4165-3426-6]. $26.
After touring Europe to counter grief over his wife's death, Duane Moore (back after Duane's Depressed) finds that the family oil business—and Texas itself—is not the same. Martinez, Michele. Cover-Up. Morrow. Mar. 2007. 352p. ISBN 0-06-089900-X [ISBN 978-0-06-089900-4]. $23.95. lrg. prnt.
Even as federal prosecutor Melanie Vargas tries to figure out who sliced up an acidulous TV reporter, someone is relentlessly stalking her. Mercurio, Jed. Ascent. S. & S. Mar. 2007. 288p. ISBN 0-7432-9822-5 [ISBN 978-0-7432-9822-3]. $22.
British author Mercurio follows up his highly regarded debut, Bodies, with the story of a Soviet pilot who aims to make his name as an astronaut. Min, Anchee. The Last Empress. Houghton. Mar. 2007. 352p. ISBN 0-618-53146-7 [ISBN 978-0-618-53146-2]. $25.
Min returns to finish the story she began in the best-selling Empress Orchid. With an eight-city tour. Morris, R.N. The Gentle Axe. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2007. 320p. ISBN 1-59420-112-9 [ISBN 978-1-59420-112-7]. $24.95.
The sales reps are turning in rave reports about this first novel, set in wintry 1867 St. Petersburg. Having finished up with a student named Raskolnikov, police investigator Porfiry Petrovich now confronts a nasty double murder. O'Dell, Tawni. Sister Mine. Shaye Areheart: Harmony: Crown. Mar. 2007. 416p. ISBN 0-307-35126-2 [ISBN 978-0-307-35126-5]. $23. CD: Random Audio.
Former police officer Shae-Lynn is content to drive a cab in her coal-mining hometown—until the sister she thought was dead reappears. With a ten-city tour. Parker, T. Jefferson. Storm Runners. Morrow. Mar. 2007. 384p. ISBN 0-06-085423-5 [ISBN 978-0-06-085423-2]. $25.95. lrg. prnt.
Having lost his family and nearly his life in an explosion aimed straight at him, Matt Stromsoe is just recovering when he agrees to serve as bodyguard for TV star Frankie Hatfield—which brings him right back where he started. With a one-day laydown. Sachs, Dana. If You Lived Here. Morrow. Mar. 2007. 304p. ISBN 0-06-113048-6 [ISBN 978-0-06-113048-9]. $24.95.
Intent on adopting, whatever her husband thinks, Shelley ventures to Vietnam with longtime friend Mai, an émigré whose painful past reemerges. A highly touted debut. Scottoline, Lisa. Daddy's Girl. HarperCollins. Mar. 2007. 336p. ISBN 0-06-083314-9 [ISBN 978-0-06-083314-5]. $25.95. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
Everything is running smoothly for by-the-book law professor Natalie Greco until she catches the final words of a dying inmate during a prison riot and finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy. With an 11-city tour. Shriver, Lionel. The Post-Birthday World. HarperCollins. Mar. 2007. 416p. ISBN 0-06-118784-4 [ISBN 978-0-06-118784-1]. $25.95. lrg. prnt.
Will London-based American expatriate Irena remain with stalwart partner Lawrence or run off with their wild friend Ramsey, a celebrated snooker player? Shriver considers both alternatives. With a five-city tour; reading group guide. Nonfiction
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Sarah Crichton: Farrar. Mar. 2007. 240p. ISBN 0-374-10523-5 [ISBN 978-0-374-10523-5]. $22.
In this real-life Beasts of No Nation, Beah details his experience as a 13-year-old compelled by government forces in his native Sierra Leone to pick up an AK-47. Now he's a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Division Advisory Committee. Bissell, Tom. The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam. Pantheon. Mar. 2007. 448p. ISBN 0-375-42265-X [ISBN 978-0-375-42265-2]. $25.
A Rome Fellowship winner whose pieces have landed in Best American Essays five times, Bissell recounts his visit to Vietnam with his veteran father. With a six-city tour. Doty, Mark. Dog Years. HarperCollins. Mar. 2007. 192p. ISBN 0-06-117100-X [ISBN 978-0-06-117100-0]. $23.95. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
A National Book Award– winning poet captures life, companionship, and death with two beloved golden retrievers. With a four-city tour. Key, Joshua as told to Lawrence Hill. The Deserter's Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2007. 272p. ISBN 0-87113-954-5 [ISBN 978-0-87113-954-2]. $23.
A patriotic young conservative enlists in peacetime, finds himself in Iraq, and is so appalled by the behavior of U.S. troops that on leave he takes his family underground and eventually seeks asylum in Canada. Kuegler, Sabine. Child of the Jungle: The True Story of a Girl Caught Between Two Worlds. Warner. Mar. 2007. 240p. ISBN 0-446-57906-8 [ISBN 978-0-446-57906-3]. $24.99.
Raised in West Papua, Indonesia, by missionary/linguist parents, Kuegler went through Mean Girl–like culture shock when she was sent to boarding school in Switzerland. A best seller in Europe. Latus, Janine. If I Am Missing or Dead. S. & S. Mar. 2007. 320p. ISBN 0-7432-9653-2 [ISBN 978-0-7432-9653-3]. $25.
Drawing on a piece that won an Essay of the Year award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors, Latus chronicles the murder of her sister by an abusive lover and her own narrow escape from the same fate. McNamee, Thomas. Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2007. 336p. ISBN 1-59420-115-3 [ISBN 978-1-59420-115-8]. $27.95.
Tales of the California chef who helped change the world of food. Pagels, Elaine & Karen L. King. Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity. Viking. Mar. 2007. 224p. ISBN 0-670-03845-8 [ISBN 978-0-670-03845-9]. $24.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Who but Pagels (joined by Harvard Divinity professor King) to assess the Gospel of Judas? With a five-city tour. Rinpoche, Yongey Mingyur. The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness. Harmony: Crown. Mar. 2007. 288p. ISBN 0-307-34625-0 [ISBN 978-0-307-34625-4]. $24. CD: Random Audio.
He should know: studies on the brain of the Very Venerable 7th Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche show a mammoth increase in neural activity in the part associated with those good-time feelings. Sabbagh, Karl. Palestine: A Personal History. Grove. Mar. 2007. 384p. ISBN 0-8021-1842-9 [ISBN 978-0-8021-1842-4]. $24.
Son of a British mother and a Palestinian father, London-bred journalist Sabbagh investigates his Middle East family roots to help clarify violence. Tippett, Krista. Speaking of Faith: Listening for God. Viking. Mar. 2007. 240p. ISBN 0-670-03835-0 [ISBN 978-0-670-03835-0]. $23.95.
Faith had answers for Tippett that politics did not, explains the host of public radio's Speaking of Faith program—who once served as a diplomat in Berlin. With an eight-city tour. Townsend, Kathleen Kennedy. Failing America's Faithful: How Today's Churches Are Mixing God with Politics and Losing Their Way. Warner. Mar. 2007. 224p. ISBN 0-446-57715-4 [ISBN 978-0-446-57715-1]. $24.99.
Robert Kennedy's daughter, twice Maryland's lieutenant governor, argues that churches should stop fighting political battles and return to tending their flocks. Valenti, Jack. This Time, This Place: My Life in War, the White House, and Hollywood. Harmony: Crown. Mar. 2007. 416p. ISBN 0-307-34664-1 [ISBN 978-0-307-34664-3]. $25.95.
From LBJ's right-hand man to chair and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Vollmann, William T. Poor People. Ecco: HarperCollins. Mar. 2007. 304p. ISBN 0-06-087882-7 [ISBN 978-0-06-087882-5]. $25.95.
“Why are you poor?” asked National Book Award winner Vollmann. Thais blamed past lives, Mexicans blamed the rich, and Yemenis wouldn't blame anyone for fear of offending Allah.
