Prepub Alert

By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 6/15/2007

Fiction  |  Nonfiction

Fiction

Campbell, Gordon. Missing Witness. Morrow. Oct. 2007. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-133751-2. $24.95.

A woman who has accosted her husband with a gun seems the obvious suspect in his subsequent shooting death. But big surprise: her father-in-law hires crack lawyer Dan Morgan to defend her. From a Salt Lake City trial lawyer who's no slouch himself. 

Charbonnier, Rita. Mozart's Sister. Crown. Oct. 2007. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-34678-0. $23.95.

Was Mozart's sister the superior musician? Read this debut novel by trained pianist/singer Charbonnier to find out. With a reading group guide.

Evanovich, Janet & Stephen J. Cannell. No Chance. Grand Central. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-446-58255-1. $26.99; lrg. prnt. $28.99. CD: Hachette Audio.

Former Special Forces guy Benjamin Cannon is sorting out his priorities aboard oil tycoon Quentin Gosling's yacht, much to the dismay of the yacht's captain, Sidney Picket. What's worse, Cannon soon involves her in a nasty case of international intrigue. First in a series from two old pros; with a five-city tour.

Evans, Richard Paul. The Gift. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 192p. ISBN 978-1-4165-5001-3. $19.95. CD: S. & S. Audio.

More inspiration from an author whose Christmas Box seems to have held a lot of presents.

Gallagher, Stephen. The Kingdom of Bones. Shaye Areheart Bks: Harmony: Crown. Oct. 2007. 368p. ISBN 978-0-307-38280-1. $24.95.

Poor children are being murdered in Victorian England, and Detective Inspector Sebastian Bach notes that boxing champ Tom Sawyer's touring schedule matches the where and the when of each murder. Poor Tom must prove his innocence—with the help of old friend Bram Stoker.

Harris, Robert. The Ghost. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 352p. ISBN 978-1-4165-5181-2. $26. CD: S. & S. Audio.

Retiring British prime minister Adam Lang is ready to start his autobiography, but his ghostwriter has dug up some secrets he wasn't intending to spill. And, interestingly, the whole thing takes place on Martha's Vineyard. 

Johansen, Iris. Pandora's Daughter. St. Martin's. Oct. 2007. 384p. ISBN 978-0-312-36804-3. $25.95.

Empathetic young physician Megan Blair doesn't realize that she's inherited her dead mother's psychic abilities, but she's about to find out. 

Karon, Jan. Home to Holly Springs: A Father Tim Novel. Viking. Oct. 2007. 368p. ISBN 978-0-670-01825-3. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.

Karon launches a new series by sending Father Tim back to his birthplace, propelled by a simple note he's received that says, “Come home.” With a four-city tour.

King, Rachael. The Sound of Butterflies. Morrow. Oct. 2007. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-135764-0. $24.95.

Amateur naturalist Thomas Edgar is thrilled to be invited on a scientific expedition to Brazil—far from 19th-century England, maybe he'll discover his dream butterfly. But when he returns home, he's an empty cocoon. What happened? An intriguing debut; with a reading group guide.

Mosley, Walter. Blonde Faith. Little, Brown. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-316-73459-2. $25.99. CD: Hachette Audio.

When Easy Rawlins finds the daughter of friend Christmas Black abandoned on his doorstep, he knows that Black must be in trouble. The effort to save his buddy leads straight to a dangerous (and endangered) blonde named Faith. Easy's on his tenth outing.

Perrotta, Tom. The Abstinence Teacher. St. Martin's. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-312-35833-4. 320p. $24.95.

Human sexuality instructor Ruth Ramsey and born-again soccer coach Tim Mason would seem to have nothing in common, and in fact Tim's church is after Ruth with a vengeance. But events on the soccer field bring them together in an illuminating friendship. Look for the film. With a national tour; reading group guide.

Pratchett, Terry. Making Money. HarperCollins. Oct. 2007. 384p. ISBN 978-0-06-116164-3. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio.

Discworld continues with ex-swindler Moist von Lipwig in charge of printing Ankh-Morpork's first paper currency. Watch out!

Roth, Philip. Exit Ghost. Houghton. Oct. 2007. 304p. ISBN 978-0-618-91547-7. $26.

Nathan Zuckerman returns! And what's more, he returns to New York, swapping homes with a young couple eager to exit the city post-9/11 and thereby reconnecting with his first muse, his desire for intimacy, and literary hero E.I. Lonoff's biographer.

Sebold, Alice. The Almost Moon. Little, Brown. Oct. 2007. 352p. ISBN 978-0-316-67746-2. $24.99; lrg. prnt. $26.99. CD: Hachette Audio.

Helen, who has always sacrificed herself to others, finally takes a different approach—and kills her mother. With a five-city tour.

Trevor, William. Cheating at Canasta. Viking. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-0-670-01837-6. $24.95.

Don't cheat yourself out of this collection of 12 pieces from a master.

Vanliere, Donna. The Christmas Promise. St. Martin's. Oct. 2007. 224p. ISBN 978-0-312-36776-3. $14.95. CD: Audio Renaissance.

Chaz McConnell's life is threadbare. Generous Gloria helps everyone, including unappreciative neighbor Miriam. Maybe Chaz and Gloria can help each other. With a national tour.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Bad Girl. Farrar. Oct. 2007. 304p. ISBN 978-0-374-18243-4. $25.

In Lima, she's Lily, but she's not really from Chile. In Paris, she's Comrade Arlette. Later, she's the officious Madame Arnoux. Poor Ricardo is in love with a bad girl who forever changes guises.

Nonfiction

Adamson, Daniel de Faro & Joe Andrew. The Blue Way: How To Profit by Investing in a Better World. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4165-4734-1. $26.

According to the authors, cofounders of Blue Investment Management, progressive companies led by Democrats outperform conservative companies led by Republicans. Who knew? 

Austen, Jane & Charles Dickens. Two Histories of England. Ecco: HarperCollins. Oct. 2007. 160p. ISBN 978-0-06-135195-2. $16.95.

“History of England,” written when Austen was a young but still witty 16, is paired with Dickens's harshly ironic “A Child's History.” 

Baer, Richard. Switching Time: A Doctor's Harrowing Story of Treating a Woman with 17 Personalities. Crown. Oct. 2007. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-38266-5. $23.95.

Karen Overhill arrived in psychiatrist Baer's office in 1989 and slowly unfolded 17 different “alters” she switched to regularly to escape memories of childhood abuse. Reading group guide.

Black, Cathleen. Basic Black: Make Passion Your Strategy and Other Lessons for Work and Life. Crown Business. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-35110-4. $23.95. CD: Random Audio.

The former president and publisher of the newbie USA Today and now president of Hearst Magazines, where she talked Oprah into doing a magazine, Black explains how to balance the personal and the professional.

Colbert, Stephen. I Am America and So Can You. Grand Central. Oct. 2007. 250p. ISBN 978-0-446-58050-2. $25.99. CD: Hachette Audio.

If you've ever watched Colbert, you know this take on American culture won't be sweet. 

Cordery, Stacy A. Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker. Viking. Oct. 2007. 608p. ISBN 978-0-670-01833-8. $32.95.

Monmouth College history professor Cordery uses thousands of unpublished Roosevelt family letters to tell the story of Alice, who spat on convention (she even had a child with a lover) but also worked to sink the League of Nations and the New Deal. With a three-city tour.

Fox, Vicente & Rob Allyn. Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith and Dreams of a Mexican President. Viking. Oct. 2007. 352p. ISBN 978-0-670-01839-0. $25.95.

Ranch hand. Coca-Cola CEO. And, finally, President of Mexico, shattering 70 years of one-party rule. With a five city tour.

Friedman, Kinky. You Can Lead a Politician to Water, but You Can't Make Him Think: Ten Commandments for Texas Politics. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 288p. ISBN 978-1-4165-4760-0. $25.

Kinky tries for the Texas governorship in 2006 and has a lot to say about the campaign process. With a seven-city tour, mostly in Texas but also in New York and Washington. 

Gould, Jonathan. Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America. Harmony: Crown. Oct. 2007. 576p. ISBN 978-0-307-35337-5. $27.50.

Not another pretty picture book but a discussion of all the reasons, musical and cultural, that the Beatles were such a transatlantic phenomenon. 

Isay, Dave, ed. Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Lives from the StoryCorps Project. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59420-140-0. $24.95. CD: Penguin Audio.

Through two recording booths in New York (at Grand Central Station and Ground Zero) and two mobile booths touring the nation, StoryCorps collects the memories of everyday Americans in a momentous act of oral history. Here are some of the best stories, picked by StoryCorps founder Isay. With a seven-city tour.

Jacobs, A.J. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest To Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.S. & S. Oct. 2007. 368p. ISBN 978-0-7432-9147-7. $25. CD: S. & S. Audio.

Esquire editor-at-large Jacobs decided to spend one year following all the dictates of the Bible, from loving your neighbor to growing a beard. With a 13-city tour and a Today show segment. 

Kavanagh, Julie. Nureyev. Pantheon. Oct. 2007. 752p. ISBN 978-0-375-40513-6. $35.

Award-winning dance writer Kavanagh leaps on stage with this story of the man who both defined and redefined ballet in the last decades of the 20th century. 

Kennedy, David M., ed. The Library of Congress World War II Companion. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 944p. ISBN 978-0-7432-5219-5. $45.

A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian links up with the Library of Congress to provide all the essential facts about World War II, backed by primary documents.

Lerner, Richard M. The Good Teen: Rescuing Adolescence from the Myths of the Storm and Stress Years. Crown. Oct. 2007. 288p. ISBN 978-0-307-34757-2. $24.95.

No, teens aren't all sullen, rebellious, spaced-out wrecks. Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts, Lerner proves it by talking to 4000 teens and 2000 parents. 

McCullough, David. 1776: The Illustrated Edition. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-1-4165-4210-0. $65.

McCullough's 1776 was such a hit that the publisher is giving us a new edition illustrated with intriguing primary documents, like a ledger showing how much Washington paid his spies.

Macintyre, Ben. Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal. Harmony: Crown. Oct. 2007. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-35340-5. $25.95. CD: Random Audio.

Trained as a German spy, Eddie Chapman was dropped into wartime Britain by parachute and promptly became a double agent. Macintyre, a London Times associate editor, helps tell his story with nearly 2000 pages of recently declassified material.

Michaelis, David. Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. HarperCollins. Oct. 2007. 688p. ISBN 978-0-06-621393-4. $34.95. CD: HarperAudio.

How Charles Schulz created Peanuts, and how Peanuts exorcised his personal sorrows and the burdens of a generation. 

Millan, Cesar with Melissa Jo Peltier. Be the Pack Leader. Harmony: Crown. Oct. 2007. 288p. ISBN 978-0-307-38166-8. $24.95. CD: Random Audio.

Like Cesar's Way, this new book from the Dog Whisperer should be a howling success.

Norman, Marc. What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting. Harmony: Crown. Oct. 2007. 464p. ISBN 978-0-307-38339-6. $27.

More than just an insider's account—Norman cowrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love—this book traces the art of screenwriting from the era of the studio system and the blacklist through the rise of the writer/director. 

Oates, Joyce Carol. The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973–1982. Ecco: HarperCollins. Oct. 2007. 496p. ISBN 978-0-06-122798-1. $29.95.

As if she weren't a prolific enough writer, Oates has been keeping a journal since 1973. Here are entries from the first decade. 

O'Reilly, Bill with Charles Flowers. Kids Are Americans Too. Morrow. Oct. 2007. 224p. ISBN 978-0-06-084676-3. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio.

Can you wear an antigay T-shirt on campus or criticize the principal in the school paper? O'Reilly considers questions like these as he talks to young people about constitutional rights and responsibilities. With a one-day laydown.

Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition. Little, Brown. Oct. 2007. 288p. ISBN 978-0-316-01842-5. $27.99. CD: Hachette Audio.

Lots of inaccurate statistics on an indeterminate number of countries, with features on things like most annoying handicrafts and a promise of 30 percent more Asia. Painfully funny.

Ross, Alex. The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century. Farrar. Oct. 2007. 624p. ISBN 978-0-374-24939-7. $30.

Modern music remains too modern for most people, but New Yorker critic Ross shows how influential it has actually been.

Samet, Elizabeth D. Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point. Farrar. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-0-374-18063-8. $23.

Samet thought she knew her literature, but she gets a whole new perspective when she arrives at West Point on September 11, 2001, to teach Homer, Wallace Stevens, and Virginia Woolf to cadets. With a national tour.

Shellenberger, Michael & Ted Nordhaus. The Death of Environmentalism, and the Politics of Possibility. Houghton. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-0-618-65825-1. $25.

Let's get over environmentalism, argued the authors in their controversial essay, “The Death of Environmentalism,” the springboard for this new book. It's an outmoded approach that can't deal with issues like global warming and necessary economic development in Third World countries. With a six-city tour.

Sloan, Bill. The Ultimate Battle: Okinawa, 1945—The Last Epic Struggle of World War II. S. & S. Oct. 2007. 400p. ISBN 978-0-7432-9246-7. $27.

With 100,000 combatants lost on both sides—not to mention 150,000 civilians—and the involvement of 1500 U.S. ships, Okinawa was indeed a big and bloody battle. Investigative reporter Sloan brings us there by talking to veterans. 

Thomas, Cal & Bob Beckel. Common Ground: How To Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America. Morrow. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-0-06-123634-1. $25.95. CD: HarperAudio.

Leaping forth from their popular USA Today column, the conservative Thomas and the liberal Beckel aim to heal the partisan divide. 

Thurman, Judith. Cleopatra's Nose. Farrar. Oct. 2007. 336p. ISBN 978-0-374-12651-3. $25.

National Book Award winner Thurman ranges from literature and performance art to platform shoes and tofu in a collection of sharp and witty essays.

Wenner, Jann & Corey Seymour. Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson. Little, Brown. Oct. 2007. 512p. ISBN 978-0-316-00527-2. $24.99.

Rolling Stone editor Wenner and Seymour, who once worked as Thompson's assistant, interviewed over 100 of Thompson's friends and family members to craft what they call an oral biography of one very colorful character. 

Wertheim, L. Jon. Running the Table: The Legend of Kid Delicious, the Last Great American Pool Hustler. Houghton. Oct. 2007. 256p. ISBN 978-0-618-66474-0. $24.

A senior writer for Sports Illustrated (notwithstanding his law degree), Wertheim tells the story of Danny Basavich, a misfit Jewish kid from New Jersey who becomes pool hustler extraordinaire Kid Delicious. There's a film in the offing.

Wills, Garry. Head and Heart: American Christianities. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Oct. 2007. 512p. ISBN 978-1-59420-146-2. $27.95.

The wholly unprecedented concept of church/state separation has allowed religion to flourish in America, says historian Wills, creating a relentless tug within Christianity between evangelical tendencies and Enlightenment ideals. With a seven-city tour.

Wood, Ron with Jeffrey Robinson. Ron Wood: My Life as a Rolling Stone. St. Martin's. Oct. 2007. 384p. ISBN 978-0-312-36652-0. $25.95. CD: Audio Renaissance.

Wood has lasted as a Rolling Stone through 25 albums and ten world tours, and his report on his experiences promises to be very, very candid.