Prepub Exploded: November 2009, Pt. 2
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 7/1/2009 9:40:00 AM
In the last issue, Prepub Exploded covered big November fiction; here's the list of leading nonfiction titles for that month. Among the lead authors: Ken Auletta and Jame Bradley, Mary Karr and Augusten Burroughs...who could ask for anything more?
Auletta, Ken. Googled: The End of the World As We Know It. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-1-59420-235-3. $25.95.
“Annals of Communication” columnist for The New Yorker, Auletta goes behind the scenes at Google to discover how it was formed and what challenges the digital revolution as a whole now faces. Important stuff. Catch Auletta’s interview with Eric Schmidt, Google CEO.
Bin Laden, Najwa Ghenem & others. Growing Up bin Laden: His Wife and Son Reveal the Secret World of Osama bin Laden. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-312-56016-4. $25.99.
The authors reveal just how hard it has been to be the first wife (Najwa Ghenem bin Laden) and fourth son (Omar bin Laden) of Osama bin Laden. No doubt sobering and a little sensational. Coauthor Jean Sassoon wrote Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil.
Bradley, James. The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War. Little, Brown. Nov. 2009. 608p. ISBN 978-0-316-00895-2. lrg. prnt. $29.99. CD: Hachette Audio.
Why Teddy Roosevelt sent Secretary of War Taft to the Far East to negotiate secret agreements that helped shape war and revolution. Deeper territory than Flags of Our Fathers, but Bradley’s name will carry this. Look for a book video.
Burroughs, Augusten. You Better Not Cry. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2009. 224p. ISBN 978-0-312-34191-6. $21.99.
A new genre: the Christmas memoir. Burroughs (Running with Scissors) is again cutting-edge. With a one-day laydown on October 27 and a national tour.
Cooper, John Milton, Jr. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography. Knopf. Nov. 2009. 704p. ISBN 978-0-307-26541-8. $35.
While Wilson entries have appeared recently in the “Penguin Lives” and Times Books “Presidents” series, this appears to be (as billed) the first major Wilson biography for adults in 20 years. With a four-city tour to Chicago, Madison, New York, and Washington, DC. Cooper was recently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, giving him nice, scholarly cred for this book.
Ellis, Richard. On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear. Knopf. Nov. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-0-307-27059-7. $27.95.
Everything you ever wanted to know about our largest land predator, which may be vanishing from Earth (there are only 22,000 left). Ellis, the author of seaworthy books from The Book of Whales to Deep Atlantic, is just right for this book.
Essman, Susie. What Would Susie Say?: An Incomplete Guide to a No Bullshit Life.
S. & S. Nov. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-1-4391-5017-7. $25.
Sharp-tongued observations from Essman, just in time for the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. For fans; she’ll tour Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.
Foer, Jonathan Safran. Eating Animals. Little, Brown. Nov. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-316-06990-8. $25.99.
Why do we eat animals? Would we eat them if we knew how they got to our plates? Expect a nuanced report, not a rant, from the author of Everything Is Illuminated. Foer expands on his view at the Humane Kosher web site.
Gasparino, Charles. The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street’s Greed and Stupidity Destroyed America’s Dominance of the Global Financial System. HarperCollins. Nov. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-0-06-169716-6. $27.99.
CNBC’s Gasparino on Wall Street’s sins, a popular topic these days. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Hertzberg, Hendrik. ¡Obámanos!: The Birth of a New Political Era. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-1-59420-236-0. $25.95.
How Obama got the presidency; adapted from Hertzberg’s blog and his “Comments” for the The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.” For political junkies everywhere.
Johnson, Paul. Churchill. Viking. Nov. 2009. 192p. ISBN 978-0-670-02105-5. $24.95.
Leading historian Johnson competes with many authors, including Churchill himself, but surely he has what it takes to offer a fresh look at Britain’s wartime prime minister.
Karr, Mary. Lit. HarperCollins. Nov. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-059698-9. $25.99.
Having helped ignite the memoir craze with The Liar’s Club and kept it going with Cherry, Karr now explains how she dug herself out of hell and found religion. The memoir of the season; with a 100,000-copy first printing, reading group guide, and 11-city tour to Austin, Boston Los Angeles, New York, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Portland (OR), San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC, and a reading group guide.
Kunhardt, Philip B., III & others. Lincoln, Life-Size. Knopf. Nov. 2009. 208p. ISBN 978-0-307-27081-8. $50.
A family of Lincoln scholars presents an album of Lincoln photos spanning nearly 20 years. More than a coffee-table book, but how much more? With a three-city tour to Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC.
Lazar, Zachary. Evening’s Empire: The Story of My Father’s Murder. Little, Brown. Nov. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-316-03768-6. $24.99.
Lazar recalls the gangland-style slaying of his father. I’m including partly because I’m intrigued by the author’s recent novel, Sway, which won some mixed reviews but was also a Fiction Finalist for the Discover Great New Writers Award, eventually placing third. A breakout?
Lewis, Michael. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. Norton. Nov. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-393-07223-5. $27.95.
If you have to get just one book explaining the current economic crisis, it should probably be this one. With a 16-city tour to New York, Washington (DC), Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Minneapolis, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
McManus, James. Cowboys Full: The Story of Poker. Farrar. Nov. 2009. 480p. ISBN 978-0-374-29924-8. $30. CD: Macmillan Audio.
How poker became the national craze by the 1860s and helped shape the nation. History for fun, which McManus is good at (see, e.g., Positively Fifth Street); with a national tour.
Mickelson, Phil. Secrets of the Short Game. HarperCollins. Nov. 2009. 224p. ISBN 978-0-06-186092-8. $29.99.
Golf is not my game, but this does have a 200,000-copy first printing. From a famed PGA champion; look for an instructional DVD of the same name.
The Moosewood Collective. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for Health. S. & S. Nov. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-1-4165-4886-7. $35.
Good veggie cooking that also takes Omega-3s and antioxidants into account. I still have my original Moosewood cookbook from 1973.
Penzler, Otto, ed. The Lineup: The World’s Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest Detectives. Little, Brown. Nov. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-316-03193-6. $25.99.
Michael Connelly, Jonathan Kellerman, Anne Perry, and more on the bloody deeds they imagine. Essential for mystery fans.
Plouffe, David. The Audacity To Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory. Viking. Nov. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-0-670-02133-8. $27.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
After all those emails, a book! A real insider’s story from Obama’s campaign manager. With a ten-city tour.
Priestland, David. The Red Flag: A History of Communism. Grove. Nov. 2009. 560p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1924-7. $27.50.
On the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s dismantling, Oxford professor Priestland looks at communism’s trajectory over 200 years. My history favorite of the month.
Ratnesar, Romesh. Tear Down This Wall. S. & S. Nov. 2009. 368p. ISBN 978-1-4165-5690-9. $27.
Ratnesar, Time deputy managing editor, considers the impact of Reagan’s June 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate admonishing Gorbachev to drop the wall. With a five-city tour that includes Los Angeles, News York, and Washington, DC.
Reisen, Harriet. Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. Holt. Nov. 2009. 368p. ISBN 978-0-8050-8299-9. $26.
There’s more to Alcott than Little Women. We know, we know, but it’s good to have Reisen remind us. Reisen has written both dramatic and historical documentary scripts for PBS and HBO.
Shawcross, William. The Queen Mother: The Official Biography. Knopf. Nov. 2009. 656p. ISBN 978-1-4000-4304-0. $35. CD: Random Audio.
For all you Anglophiles out there; with a five-city tour to Atlanta, Boston, Miami, New York, and Washington, DC.
Smith, Zadie. Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-1-59420-237-7. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
“Reading,” “Being,” “Seeing,” and “Feeling”: the four sections of this collection and everything you’d want from Smith (White Teeth). My top nonfiction pick.
Thompson, Hunter S. The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop, 1977–2005. S. & S. Nov. 2009. 752p. ISBN 978-0-684-87317-6. $35.
The last of three volumes of Thompson’s correspondence; sure to be a cult fave.
Wade, Nicholas. The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2009. 304p. ISBN 978-1-59420-228-5. $25.95.
Wade, a science reporter for the New York Times, on the evolutionary purpose of religion: to help society survive.
