Prepub Exploded: March 2010, Pt. 1
Featuring Sonya Chung, Chang-Rae Lee, Mark Spragg, and David Cruise
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 10/01/2009
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Books can take you places. In this edition’s fiction, Sonya Chung and Chang-Rae Lee travel to Korea, while Philip Kerr and Craig Nova visit 1930s Berlin. Also in fiction, Mark Spragg heads out West, as do nonfiction authors Laura Bell, memoirist of her life in Montana, and David Cruise and Alison Griffiths, biographers of Wild Horse Annie.
Fiction | Nonfiction
Fiction
Allen, Sarah Addison. The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Bantam. Mar. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-553-80721-9. $25. CD: Random Audio
After her mother’s death, 17-year-old Emily goes to live with her grandfather in Mullaby, NC, where the dead drop little notes and the wallpaper remakes itself daily. Originally previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/09, and no doubt worth waiting for, certainly for Allen’s many fans. With a five- to eight-city Southern tour; promotion to library reading groups and guides, too.
Bohjalian, Chris. Secrets of Eden. Shaye Areheart: Harmony. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-307-39497-2. $25. lrg prnt. CD: Random Audio.
Alice gets baptized and goes home to her husband, who kills her and then himself. Her minister understandably suffers a spiritual crisis. But is Alice’s death what is seems? Now this I want to read; with a multicity tour to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Boulder, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Raleigh, Little Rock, Washington, DC, and locales in New England and New Jersey and on Long Island. Check out the author’s blog comments on this book. Big.
Bradley, Alan. The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery. Delacorte. Mar. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-385-34231-5. $24. CD: Random Audio.
So you liked The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie? Here’s another sweet mystery starring Flavia de Luce, who’s trying to figure out a master puppeteer’s death. Grab it.
Chung, Sonya. Long for This World. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9962-3. $25.
Having fled Korea for America in 1953, Han returns with his daughter, a war photographer injured in Baghdad. What recommends this first novel? Chung’s many honors, including a Pushcart Prize nomination and the Charles Johnson Fiction Award. Plus publisher support, as evidenced by the reading group guide and other book club materials. See Chung's Facebook page.
Coben, Harlan. Caught. Dutton. Mar. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-525-95158-2. $27.95.
A reporter who chases down sexual predators helps get a child advocate arrested. But when he disappears, evidently victimized by vigilantes, who gather more fiercely when a girl named Erin goes missing, our reporter starts questioning her rush to judgment. Aha, Coben hands us a stand-alone; good and scary if you can take it.
Cullen, Lynn. The Creation of Eve. Putnam. Mar. 2010. 468p. ISBN 978-0-399-15610-6. $25.95.
Children’s author Cullen did best with I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter. So let’s trust she was in a Rembrandt mood when writing this account of Sofonisba Anguissola, a famed female portraitist of the Renaissance who fled Italy after a scandal in Michelangelo’s workshop. Alas, the Spanish court of King Felipe II proves just as troublesome. A big pitch; with a reading group guide. Check out this conversation with the author.
Cussler, Clive with Jack Du Brul. The Silent Sea: A Novel of the Oregon Files. Putnam. Mar. 2010. 448p. ISBN 978-0-399-15625-0. $27.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
On the lookout for a crashed satellite in the Argentine jungles, Juan Cabrillo, the guy who runs the good ship Oregon, finds something shocking that leads him to another discovery made on an island off the coast of Washington in the 1940s—and then to a Chinese curse hundreds of years old. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but of course there are fans.
Fairstein, Linda. Hell Gate. Dutton. Mar. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-525-95161-2. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Why does the victim of a shipwreck carrying human cargo have the same rose tattoo as a woman whose involvement with a New York congressman led to scandal? Sex crimes prosecutor Alexandra Cooper gets to put these two cases together. Fairstein’s usual gutsy stuff; with an eight-city tour.
Goodman, Carol. Arcadia Falls. Ballantine. Mar. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-345-49753-6. $25.
After her husband dies, Meg Rosenthal moves with her contentious daughter to the secluded little town of Arcadia Falls, where she takes a teaching job at a boarding school. Of course, the town has some dark and dirty secrets. Goodman is always good. New York and New England regional tour by request; promotion to library reading groups.
Hart, Erin. False Mermaid. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-1-4165-6376-1. $26.
After her Irish sojourn in Haunted Ground and Lake of Sorrows, Nora Gavin returns home to Minnesota, ready to pin the murder of sister Triona on Triona’s husband and to protect their child, her niece Elizabeth. Then Cormac, Nora's archaeologist buddy back in Ireland, digs up a story about a woman missing for a century that only Elizabeth understands is connected to her mother. One of the month’s better mystery picks. The author shares her thoughts on this book.
Hedges, Peter. The Heights. Dutton. Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-525-95113-1. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Brooklyn Heights, that is, where the chic compete. (But is it as cutthroat as Manhattan?) Tim Welch, who teaches at an exclusive high school, worships low-profile mom Kate Oliver. Both are thrown when the charismatic Anna moves into their orbit. From the lucky guy who gave us What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
Kellerman, Jonathan. Deception: An Alex Delaware Novel. Ballantine. 384p. ISBN 978-0-345-50567-5. $28. CD: Random.
Kellerman stalwart Milo Sturgis receives a DVD of a battered woman who accuses several fellow teachers at an exclusive private school of horrific sexual predation. Later she is found dead. Dependably creepy.
Kerr, Philip. If the Dead Rise Not: A Bernie Gunther Novel. Marian Wood: Putnam. Mar. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-399-15615-1. $26.95.
This fifth outing takes Bernie Gunther from 1934 Berlin, where he’s nearly swamped by Nazi infighting, to Batista’s Havana. Alas, the past never stays past. I talked up Kerr to the publicist.
Lee, Chang-Rae. The Surrendered. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2010. 528p. ISBN 978-1-59448-976-1. $26.95.
Little June Han and American G.I. Hector Brennan meet at an orphanage during the Korean War, where they come under the sway of a radiant but troubled missionary wife. Thirty years later, they must revisit the consequences. Suggested by a story Lee’s father told him in passing; probably the most important literary fiction on this list. With a national tour; reading group guide.
Lichtenstein, Alice. Lost. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-4391-5982-8. $24.
When Susan turns her back for a moment, her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, wanders away into a snowy January morning. She and search-and-rescue worker Jeff spend an increasingly frantic weekend trying to find him. A potential sleeper; Lichtenstein’s The Genius of the World won high praise, and there’s in-house enthusiasm. With a reading group guide. See more on GoodReads.
Mosley, Walter. Known to Evil: A Leonid McGill Mystery. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59448-752-1. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Leonid McGill, Mosley’s latest protagonist, seems to have caught on—his first outing, The Long Fall, made several best sellers lists. So you’ll likely be interested in how he gets tangled up with City Hall powerbroker Alfonse Rinaldo, who wants him to find a young woman yet reveals almost nothing about her. With a national tour.
Nova, Craig. The Informer. Shaye Areheart Bks: Harmony. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-23693-7. $26.
Berlin, 1930s. Beautiful young prostitute Gaelle and her protector, a lame teenaged boy named Felix, must contend with more than lust, corruption, and Nazi politics. A serial killer is on the loose. Intriguing relationship, intriguing setting, yet another tireless killer. With a reading group guide.
Robards, Karen. Shattered. Putnam. Mar. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-399-15627-4. $25.95.
A lawyer who’s paying the rent by reviewing cold cases after her firm goes belly up discovers photographs of family that went missing nearly three decades ago. Funny, but the toddler in the photos looks just like her. Her new boss gets interested. And you?
Sigler, Scott. Ancestor. Crown. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-40633-0. $24.99.
A bunch of scientists try to solve the problem of using animal tissue to replace defective human organs by re-creating a common ancestor. The result: one big, bad critter. Ah, ancient evil! This book was originally released by Dragon Moon Press in 2007 and, after hitting the top spot on Amazon’s sf and horror best sellers list, got a rewrite and a new chance to attack. The author followed up with the best-selling Contagious; with an eight-city tour.
Spragg, Mark. Bone Fire. Knopf. Mar. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-27275-1. $25.95.
In Ishawooa, WY, the sheriff finds a teenager murdered in a meth lab, and ailing 80-year-old Einar Gilkyson wishes his granddaughter hadn’t dropped out of college to care for him. Another of Spragg’s tender, clear-eyed looks at contemporary complexity. Among this bunch, the novel I’m most anticipating; with a reading group guide and an eight-city tour to Boulder, Denver, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, and locales in Montana and Wyoming.
Watson, Brad. Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives. Norton. Mar. 2010. 192p. ISBN 978-0-393-05711-9. $23.95.
Watson’s first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a National Book Award finalist and a terrific read. So look out for this new story collection.
White, Jenny. The Winter Thief: A Kamil Pasha Novel. Norton. Mar. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-393-07017-0. $24.95.
The Imperial Ottoman Bank blows sky high, and a Socialist commune is suspected. But the real trouble comes for Special Prosecutor Kamil Pasha when he discovers that the secret police plan to obliterate both the commune and the villages around it. Pasha’s third outing should be fun; East Coast tour.
White, Randy Wayne. Deep Shadow. Putnam. Mar. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-399-15626-7. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Two of Doc Ford’s friends are trapped in an underwater cave after a diving mishap at a Florida lake, but when Doc surfaces to find help, he instead encounters two vicious ex-cons intent on resurrecting treasure rumored to lie beneath the waves. For those who like trouble.
Bell, Laura. Claiming Ground. Knopf. Mar. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-307-27288-1. $24.95.
Looking for something different after graduating from college in the 1970s, Bell headed to Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin to herd sheep. She stayed on, currently serving at the state’s Nature Conservancy while winning awards for her writing. A memoir that claims the high ground; with a tour that includes Boulder, Denver, New York, Portland (OR), Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle, and locales in Montana and Wyoming.
Brandt, Anthony. The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage. Knopf. Mar. 2010. 448p. ISBN 978-0-307-26392-6. $28.95. CD: Random Audio.
Would you set out to find a way to the fabled East by trying to break a path through the Arctic ice? History as adventure from the books editor at National Geographic Adventure; with a six-city tour, including Denver, New York, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Brizendine, Louann, M.D. The Male Brain: A Breakthrough Understanding of How Men and Boys Think. Broadway. Mar. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-7679-2753-6. $24.99.
Having given us the New York Times best-selling The Female Brain, Brizendine, who founded the first clinic to study gender differences in the brain (and boasts too many other accomplishments in the field to list) takes on the male brain. It goes in for analysis, thrives on competition, and has a much bigger area than the female brain for sexual pursuit. Sounds enlightening, but how does this overturn stereotypes, as the promotion claims?
Carter, Miranda. The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires, and the Road to World War I. Knopf. Mar. 2010. 544p. ISBN 978-1-4000-4353-7. $30.
The kaiser (Wilhelm II), the king (George V), the tsar (Nicholas II), and how they mistakenly believed that their personal connection as first cousins would protect Europe from catastrophe. Intriguing history; one of my nonfiction favorites.
Cruise, David & Alison Griffiths. Wild Horse Annie: The Last of the Mustangs. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-1-4165-5335-9. $25.
How could anyone kill a horse? That’s what Velma Johnston (aka Wild Horse Annie) thought when she encountered a bunch of ragged wild horses rounded up for slaughter outside Reno, NV, in 1950. This biography recounts her efforts to save the mustang. Maybe not as big as some other books on this list, but I want to push it.
Fraser, Laura. All Over the Map. Harmony. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-307-45063-0. $24.
Remember The Italian Affair? Fraser’s best seller recounted her relationship with a Parisian professor, which helped her survive a nasty divorce. But then he dumped her (while they celebrated her 40th birthday, no less), and here she explains how she finally learned to live for herself. Part of the hot Eat, Pray, Love trend; should be big.
Greenberg, Mike & Mike Golic. Mike and Mike’s Rules for Sports and Life. ESPN: Random. Mar. 2010 208p. ISBN 978-0-845-51622-0. $26.
From the guys who deliver ESPN’s top-rated morning show. Given their three million daily viewers, there will be readers.
Hall, Stephen S. Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience. Knopf. Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-26910-2. $26.95.
Our hunt for understanding started in ancient Greece, China, and beyond in the fifth century B.C.E. and eventually moved to science, leading to our study of the brain. All this is explained by award-winning science writer Hall. Not just for scientists; with a five-city tour, including Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.
Kakalios, James. The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration of the Science That Made Our World. Gotham Bks: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-1-59240-479-7. $26.
Kakalios’s The Physics of Superheroes went through multiple printings, and Kakalios was also the official on-set science consultant for the movie Watchmen. If anyone can explain quantum physics to the rest of us, he can.
Kiriakou, John with Michael Ruby. The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA’s War on Terror. Bantam. Mar. 2010. 192p. ISBN 978-0-553-80737-0. $26.
Now senior investigator on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Kiriakou served in the CIA for 15 years and helped capture al Qaeda high-up Abu Zubaydah. Here he discusses numerous operations and weighs in on the issue of torture. Editorials and interviews suggest that he holds complex views on the latter, claiming that waterboarding likely saved lives but that it is now unnecessary and, indeed, torture.
Korb, Scott. Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-59448-899-3. $25.95.
Food, homes, politics, medicine, crime, punishment, customs, and staying clean: it’s all here in this account of the biblical world from the coauthor of The Faith Between Us. Scholarly research but nonscholarly tone; many readers will like.
Lewis, Michael. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. Norton. Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-393-07223-5. $27.95.
You’d expect the author of Moneyball to explain just why the economy crashed among all the books on the topic, this is a main pick. 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.
Mayes, Frances. Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life. Broadway. Mar. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-7679-2982-0. $25.
The woman who singlehandedly started the travel-memoir craze returns with more on her life in Tuscany, including her purchase and renovation of a new house in the 13th-century village Fonte delle Foglie. With only a four-city tour, alas. Can’t miss.
Painter, Nell Irvin. The History of White People. Norton. Mar. 2010. 448p. ISBN 978-0-393-04935-3. $27.95.
The award-winning author and Princeton professor emerita considers the history of an idea: that of race and especially of the white race as superior, as first seen in 18th-century America and eventually essential to the American identity. Trust this to be provocative; with a four-city tour to New York, Princeton, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
Prud’homme, Alex. Clean, Clear, and Cold: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-1-4165-3545-4. $27.
Forget oil. We need to worry about whether we’ll run out of water—and how we will protect what we have. Makes you anxious; with a four-city tour to Denver, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Rosenblum, Lawrence D. See What I’m Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of Our Five Senses. Norton. Mar. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-393-06760-6. $26.95.
Great title for a book about how our five senses work—and work together. From a University of California, Riverside, psychologist.
Roth, Geneen. Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything. Scribner. Mar. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4165-4307-7. $24.
Why do we eat? According to Roth, whose 1991 best seller When Food Is Love spoke to the likes of Oprah Winfrey, stuffing ourselves is a way to detach from life and avoid feelings. So we need to understand what we’re really hungry for. Maybe a little different from the standard get-skinny titles; with a four-city tour to Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Saunders, Frances Stonor. The Woman Who Shot Mussolini. Metropolitan Bks: Holt. Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-8050-9121-2. $26.
On April 7, 1926, Irishwoman Violet Gibson failed in her attempt to assassinate Mussolini in Rome’s Campidoglio Square, and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Expect good work from Saunders, whose The Cultural Cold War won the Royal Historical Society’s Memorial Prize.
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Crown. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4000-5217-2. $26. CD: Random Audio
Doctors retrieved cells from Henrietta Lacks, the descendants of freed slaves, and used them to create the first immortal human cell line grown in culture—with important consequences for cancer research, in vitro developments, gene mapping, and more. But they never told her or her family. A real detective story from science writer Skloot that should be both fascinating and infuriating.
Trombley, Laura. Mark Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years. Knopf. Mar. 2010. ISBN 978-0-307-27344-4. $28.95.
Never heard of Isabel Van Kleek Lyon? Secretary to Mark Twain in his final years, she managed virtually all aspects of his life until they had a falling out and she disappeared into history.
Trout, Nicholas. Love Is the Best Medicine: What Two Dogs Taught One Veterinarian About Hope, Humility, and Everyday Miracles. Broadway. Mar. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-7679-3197-7. $23.99. CD: Random Audio
In this follow-up to the best-selling Tell Me Where It Hurts, veterinarian Trout reveals how he saved two dogs—and they saved him. Dog books are trending ever upward, and I say yes! With a five-city tour to Des Moines, Phoenix, Denver, Boulder, and San Diego.
Welch, Gina. In the Land of Believers. Metropolitan Bks: Holt. Mar. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-8050-8337-8. $25.
A young, secular Jewish woman from California joined Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church to get a better understanding of evangelical Christianity. This would seem to be not a hatchet job but a sincere and thoughtful reflection.
