Prepub Alert
By Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 10/15/2009
Fiction
Aciman, André. Eight White Nights. Farrar. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-374-22842-2. $26.
A man and a woman meet at a Christmas party and tentatively approach each other over the next seven days. Expect insightful writing from the Out of Egypt memoirist, who proved himself in fiction with the recent debut Call Me by Your Name.
Amsterdam, Steven. Things We Didn't See Coming. Pantheon. Feb. 2010. 208p. ISBN 978-0-307-37850-7. $24.
Maybe you haven't heard of Amsterdam—this is, after all, his first publication—but his collection of nine near-future tales won the Age Fiction and overall Book of the Year award in Australia. Amsterdam, who lives in Melbourne but is actually American, will be doing a five-city tour. Check it out!
Balogh, Mary. A Matter of Class. Vanguard: Perseus. Jan. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-1-59315-554-4. $15.95.
When Lady Annabelle Ashton gets caught in a scandal and must be married off, Reginald Mason is eagerly volunteered as husband by his social-climbing father. Of course, the bride and groom hate each other. Balogh always delivers, and with advertising on 650 romance and women's fiction sites, there will be demand. (See review, p. 63.)
Bova, Ben. Able One. Tor. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2386-6. $24.99.
A missile launched by a renegade North Korean faction explodes in space, and more missiles are promised. Enter ABL-1 (or Able One), a modified 747 with missile-bending laser capabilities—and an untested crew. The six-time Hugo Award winner just keeps going.
Boyd, Noah. The Bricklayer. Morrow. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-182701-3. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
Former FBI agent Steve Vail is asked to track down the Rubaco Pentad, nasties who take lives one by one as the FBI fails to meet their demand for cash. LJ's review is a bit mixed (see p. 70), but you should still consider this debut. There's the authenticity factor—Boyd racked up 20 years' experience with the FBI—plus publisher excitement. This and two more Vail thrillers were preempted within two days of submission, and a 150,000-copy first printing is promised.
Boyd, William. Ordinary Thunderstorms. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 416p. ISBN 978-0-06-187674-5. $26.99.
In London for a job interview, Adam Kindred has a chance meeting that leads to his losing everything in his life. Boyd's bracing novels all win awards—he's picked up the Whitbread/Costa twice—so you're right to expect a lot of this one. With a 50,000-copy first printing.
Clark, Clare. Savage Lands. Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2010. 394p. ISBN 978-0-15-101473-6. $25.
In 1704, a mere 200 Frenchmen live in Louisiana, and they need wives. Among the 23 young women sent from France for this purpose, Elisabeth is surprised to find herself passionately in love with her rough-and-ready soldier husband. From the author of The Nature of Monsters; buy for readers of both historical and literary fiction. With reading group promotion.
Collins, Jackie. Poor Little Bitch Girl. St. Martin's. Feb. 2010. 512p. ISBN 978-0-312-56745-3. $26.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Big-time attorney Denver, senatorial assistant Carolyn, and New York madame Annabelle all went to high school in Beverly Hills with Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous (you know, Lucky's son), who is best friends with Annabelle's coked-out boyfriend. The five reunite when Annabelle's movie star mom is murdered. Collins's standard drill; there are still fans.
Dorsey, Tim. Gator a-Go-Go. Morrow. Feb. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-143271-2. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
Florida nutcase Serge A. Storms wants a vacation but instead finds himself going after the Miami gang members chasing down the college-age son of someone who ratted on them. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
Erdrich, Louise. Shadow Tag. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-0-06-153609-0. $25.99. lrg. prnt.
Famed artist Gil paints intimate and ultimately intrusive portraits of his wife, Irene, who is further shocked to discover that he is secretly reading her diary and starts filling it with lies. Erdrich goes for psychological drama; I'm eager to see this. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
Green, Tim. False Convictions. Grand Central. Feb. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-446-40152-4. $24.99.
Back after her recent outing in Above the Law, Casey Jordan is now working with a charity that helps the unjustly convicted. Alas, her efforts on behalf of an indigent black man who had been tried in small-town Auburn, NY, meet with deadly resistance.
Hannah, Kristin. Winter Garden. St. Martin's. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-312-36412-0. $25.99.
Sisters Meredith and Nina are reunited by the impending death of their father, who persuades their chilly mother to retell the Russian fairy tale she used to lull them with as children—but to tell it in full. Hence they learn of her suffering during Russia's terrible 20th century. Confession: I haven't read Hannah, but this one intrigues me. With a one-day laydown on February 2; national tour and reading group promotion.
Harris, Robert. Conspirata. S. & S. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-7432-6610-9. $26. CD: S. & S. Audio.
After Imperium, the story of Cicero's struggle to become ruler of Rome. Toga lovers, unite; all else, beware.
Harrison, Kim. Black Magic Sanction. Morrow. Feb. 2010. 432p. ISBN 978-0-06-113803-4. $25.99.
A malicious coven accuses witch Rachel Morgan of consorting with demons, which could mean imprisonment—or death. Hot topic, hot author, so expect lots of interest; there's a one-day laydown on February 23 and a 250,000-copy first printing.
Hill, Joe. Horns. Morrow. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-06-114795-1. $25.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
Unable to recover from the brutal murder of his girlfriend—and insinuations that he's to blame—Ignatius Martin Perrish squanders a night in hard drinking and wakes up with horns and some incredible powers that could help him wreak revenge. Just what you'd expect from the author of Heart-Shaped Box; the one-day laydown (February 9), six-city tour, and 250,000-copy first printing are to be expected, too. Big.
Hobb, Robin. Rain Wilds Chronicles. Vol. 1: Dragon Keeper. Eos: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 496p. ISBN 978-0-06-156162-7. $26.99.
Dragons have hatched again outside the city of Cassarick, but because they are languishing, the Traders Council decides to relocate them to a better setting. The first of two volumes set in the world of Hobb's "Tawny Man" trilogy, with the second coming in May.
Lansens, Lori. The Wife's Tale. Little, Brown. Feb. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-316-06931-1. $24.99.
Poor Mary, so pretty but getting plumper by the minute. Finally, her husband fails to come home on the eve of their 25th wedding anniversary, and she sets out to find him—and maybe herself. Sounds simple, but as The Girls showed, Lansens can dig beneath the surface. With a reading-group guide.
Lustbader, Eric Van. Last Snow. Forge: Tor. Feb. 2010. 385p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2515-0. $25.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Why is a U.S. senator who was supposed to be in Ukraine found dead on the isle of Capri? And why must Jack McClure, charged with investigating, also responsible for rogue Russian agent Annika Dementieva and First Daughter Alli Carson?
Mason, Zachary. The Lost Books of the Odyssey. Farrar. Feb. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-374-19215-0. $24.
Reimagining the wanderings of Odysseus. Even before this debut was published, Mason was named a finalist for the 2008 New York Public Library Literary Lions Fiction Award. Expect a big push.
Moore, Lisa. February. Black Cat: Grove. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-8021-7070-5. pap. $14.95.
Helen lost her husband when the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland (an actual event), and though she looks tough on the outside, managing to raise her four children, she's breaking up within. I loved Moore's Alligator, and so did the folks who hand out the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, so I'm betting on this work. With a reading-group guide.
Palmer, Michael. The Last Surgeon. St. Martin's. Feb. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-312-58749-9. $26.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Gillian Coates doubts that her sister Belle, a nurse, committed suicide and follows up on Belle's connection to Dr. Nick Garrity, who's been bruised by war and now serves the homeless. Together Nick and Gillian discover that everyone who was in the operating room during a surgery gone wrong is dying. With a one-day laydown on February 16; enough to keep you out of the hospital.
Patterson, James. Worst Case. Little, Brown. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-316-03622-1. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
Wealthy New York children are being kidnapped by a psychopath who asks them whether they understand the price others pay for their lavish lifestyle. A badly considered answer means death. Pretty original for Patterson.
Porter, Henry. The Bell Ringers. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1931-5. $24.
When she inherits the estate of her former lover, England's head of intelligence, Kate Lockhart discovers that a top-secret data-mining system called Deep Truth has effectively killed off the notion of privacy. Fortunately, a group called the Bell Ringers is fighting back. Porter's Brandenburg Gate was an Economist Book of the Year and winner of the Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. And LJ loved it.
Roby, Kimberla Lawson. Be Careful What You Pray For. Morrow. Jan. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-06-144311-4. $23.99.
Alicia is so enthralled by her brand-new pastor husband that she doesn't see that he's been cheating on her and that he married her so that he could cozy up to her rich and famous father, the indefatigable Rev. Curtis Black. With a one-day laydown on January 19 and a 150,000-copy first printing.
Schine, Cathleen. The Three Weissmanns of Westport. Sarah Crichton Bks: Farrar. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-374-29904-0. $25.
When 78-year-old Joseph Weissmann divorces his wife because of irreconcilable differences, throwing her out of their classy New York apartment, she ends up in a tacky Westport, CT, beach cottage with her two grown daughters. Billed as a modern remake of Sense and Sensibility—poor Jane never gets a rest.
Shafak, Elif. The Forty Rules of Love. Viking. Feb. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-670-02145-1. $25.95.
Unhappily married and working as a reader for a literary agency, Ella Rubinstein encounters a novel about the Sufi mystic poet Rumi and his mentor, the whirling dervish Shams of Tabriz. It changes her life. Not sure whether this book will change your life, but the author of The Bastard of Istanbul gives us a lot more than Turkish taffy. Try it; with a five-city tour.
Simmons, Dan. Black Hills. Reagan Arthur Bks: Little, Brown. Feb. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-0-316-00698-9. $25.99. lrg. prnt. in trade pap. CD: Hachette Audio.
Sixty years after fighting at Custer's Last Stand and still haunted by the general's ghost, a Sioux named Paha Sapa is working as a dynamiter on the Mount Rushmore project and planning to put the past to rest—on the very day that FDR will be visiting the site. A big change from Drood; it's nice that Simmons isn't repeating himself. With a six-city tour.
Theroux, Paul. A Dead Hand: A Crime in Calcutta. Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-547-26024-2. $26.
Disaffected journalist Jerry Delfont picks up the pace when he is asked to investigate the death of a child and meets the charismatic Merrill Unger, a devotee of Kali. Set in India, like Theroux's recent story collection, The Elephanta Suite, which earned an LJ rave.
Trigiani, Adriana. Encore, Valentine. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-06-125707-0. $25.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio.
Valentine Roncalli is back, fighting with her brother for creative control of the Angelini Shoe Company. Then she rediscovers a family shoe design and secrets start to spill. Consider buying multiples—not hard to do with the 200,000-copy first printing. With a one-day laydown on February 9.
Nonfiction
Batuman, Elif. The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them. Farrar. Feb. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-0-374-53218-5. pap. $15.
The publicist insisted that I look in to this "awesome" title, and I'm glad I did. Stanford literary professor Batuman, whose pieces have appeared in n + 1, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, writes about murder on Tolstoy's estate, Pushkin in the Caucasus, and losing Isaac Babel's last living relatives in the San Francisco airport. A sleeper hit among those in the know? With a national tour.
Blum, Deborah. The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-1-59420-243-8. $25.95.
Blum brings her Pulitzer Prize-winning skills to this investigation of chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler, whose efforts to understand how toxins work significantly advanced the science of forensics. Interesting early 1900s New York setting, too; I was at first puzzled, but now I'm sold.
Cohodas, Nadine. Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone. Pantheon. Feb. 2010. 480p. ISBN 978-0-375-42401-4. $30.
Eunice Waymon wanted to be a classical pianist but instead became the extraordinary singer Nina Simone. More than music here; important cultural context.
Corbett, Christopher. The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2010. 240p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1909-4. $25.
The Chinese in the 19th-century American West as seen through the story of Polly, a Chinese concubine who ended up deep in Idaho after her owner lost her in a poker game.
Dillon, Brian. The Hypochondriacs: Nine Tormented Lives. Faber & Faber. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-86547-920-3. $25.
Irish Book Award winner Dillon takes on the intriguing topic of hypochondria as exemplified by nine people from Charlotte Brontë to Glenn Gould, who claimed that a nice little pat on the back had wrecked his ability to play forever. With an author tour.
Dow, David R. The Autobiography of an Execution. Twelve: Hachette. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-446-56206-5. $24.99.
Dow defends prisoners on death row. Many of them die. Some might have been innocent. This account of his work must be sobering.
Ferris, Timothy. The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-06-078150-7. $26.99.
Leading science writer Ferris argues that the scientific revolution actively contributed to the rise of democracy. My favorite nonfiction title this time 'round.
Fodor, Jerry & Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini. What Darwin Got Wrong. Farrar. Feb. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-374-28879-2. $25.
Another attack from conservative Christians? Not at all. In the name of furthering science, philosophy professor Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini, a trained biophysicist and molecular biologist who now teaches cognitive science, point out a flaw in Darwinism: just because a creature with a certain trait was selected, it doesn't mean that it was selected for that trait. Dangerous in the wrong hands but essential thinking about the scientific endeavor.
Fuller, Graham E. A World Without Islam. Little, Brown. Feb. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-316-04119-5. $25.99.
No, Graham, former vice chair of the CIA's National Intelligence Council, isn't proposing that we eradicate Islam (I'm troubled by the title). Examining the history of Islam, the causes of terrorism, and the conflict over Israel, he argues that the world today wouldn't be that different had Islam not evolved, hoping to point us past our presumptions to a deeper understanding of global issues.
Gardner, Mark Lee. To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West. Morrow. Feb. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-0-06-136827-1. $26.99. lrg. prnt.
If Gardner plays his cards right—and he's evidently very good when writing about the American West—this tale of Billy the Kid's capture could be as gripping as any thriller. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
Green, Stephen. Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality, and an Uncertain World. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1917-9. $25.
Green is chair of HSBC Holdings, which serves over 128 million customers in 84 countries. He's also an ordained priest of the Church of England. Here he retraces the history of finance to show that principle and profit are not contradictory, proposing a new and better capitalism that draws on the lessons of green technology, microfinance, and more. A tall order, but let's listen.
Greenberg, Gary. Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease. S. & S. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4165-6979-4. $27.
Psychotherapist Greenberg, whose account of his experiences after enrolling in a clinical trial for major depression evoked strong reader response when it appeared in Harper's, argues that we've made depression an iconic belief, thus spending too much time making antidepression our goal. Cult potential?
Harris, Shane. The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59420-245-2. $27.95.
After the 1983 massacre of U.S. Marines in Beirut, National Security Adviser John Poindexter argued for a means of analyzing data on potential attackers in real time. After 9/11, he proposed Total Information Awareness, a surveillance program finally banned by Congress in 2003 that now exists in the shadowy world of black ops, says National Journal reporter Harris. It hasn't helped us identify new dangers, but it has cut into our civil liberties. Important and probably controversial; Henry Porter's The Bell Ringers (see p. 56) represents this idea in fiction.
Hessler, Peter. Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 416p. ISBN 978-0-06-180409-0. $27.99.
Wrapping up his Chinese trilogy, begun with Oracle Bones and River Town, Hessler considers the human consequences of China's recent economic development. Expect demand.
Johnson, Marilyn. This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-06-143160-9. $24.99.
Johnson, bless her heart, argues that in the Age of Google, librarians are more important than ever. And she tells the story of a bunch of cutting-edge "cybrarians" to make the point. With a 40,000-copy first printing; not bad!
Kotkin, Joel. The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59420-244-5. $25.95.
There will be 400 million Americans by 2050, with profound socioeconomic consequences: the focus, says Kotkin, will be on local, energy-reliant communities. We'll see.
Labash, Matt. Fly Fishing with Darth Vader. S. & S. Feb. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-1-4391-5997-2. $25.
Initially, I wasn't sure about including this first collection of journalist Labash's writing. But the New York Times called Labash "one of the best magazine writers in the country," and who am I to argue?
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Viking. Feb. 2010. 1104p. ISBN 978-0-670-02126-0. $40.
MacCulloch's The Reformation won a spate of awards, including one from the National Book Critics Circle, so you can expect this expanded treatment of Christianity's past, present, and future to be good.
Mayo Clinic & Donald Hensrud. The Mayo Clinic Diet. Good Bks. Jan. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-56148-676-2. $25.99.
So many diet books, but, hey, this is the Mayo Clinic talking. With a two-pronged approach, Lose It! and Live It!—that is, keeping it off, which we all know is the real problem.
Millet, Catherine. Jealousy: The Other Life of Catherine M. Grove. Feb. 2010. 192p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1915-5. $23.
When not serving as editor of the French magazine Art Press, Millet has been having wild sex with everyone, everywhere, as revealed in The Sexual Life of Catherine M.—a best seller here. Then she discovers that her partner is serious about someone else, and bad feelings erupt; wasn't it all about love at home and pleasure outside? Critics thought Sexual was either subtle or tasteless; on her current endeavor, you decide.
Mnookin, Robert. Bargaining with the Devil. S. & S. Feb. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4165-8332-5. $27.
Harvard professor Mnookin shows us how to negotiate and not just in business—his examples range from child-custody battles to a symphony orchestra challenging its conductor. I need this.
Nance, Malcolm. An End to Al Qaeda: Destroying Bin Laden's Jihad and Restoring America's Honor. St. Martin's. Feb. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-312-59249-3. $25.99.
Rethinking the War on Terror with the executive director of the new International Anti-Terrorism Center for Excellence. Nance wants us to ditch our reliance on military action and aim for smart work in counterintelligence and the information arena.
Rosen, Rebecca with Samantha Rose. Spirited: Connect to the Guides All Around You. Harper: HarperCollins. Feb. 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-0-06-176624-4. $24.99.
Rosen, who's famed for connecting with the spirits—you've seen her on Entertainment Tonight and The Rachael Ray Show—explains how you, too, can tap your intuition and fire up your spirit energy to achieve everything you ever wanted. She's popular; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Salwen, Kevin & Hannah Salwen. The Power of Half: One Family's Decision To Stop Taking and Start Giving Back. Houghton Harcourt. Feb. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-0-547-24806-6. $24.
Struck by the gap between the neighbor who owned a Mercedes and a homeless man on the street, teenaged Hannah Salwen inspired her family to sell their mansion, move into a smaller home, and give half their profits to charity. A real-life Pay It Forward in today's world? With a seven-city tour.
Sheridan, Sam. The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game. Atlantic Monthly. Feb. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1935-3. $25.
Having opened up professional fighting worldwide in the best-selling A Fighter's Heart, former Merchant Marine and Harvard grad Sheridan here plumbs the mental side of the sport. Not my game, but this should be a knockout with fight fans.
Watman, Max. Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw's Adventures in the Moonshine Capital of the World. S. & S. Feb. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-1-4165-7178-0. $25.
Just what you always wanted: a thinking man's history of moonshine. A fun way to end your week and this column.
