Prepub Exploded
Barbara Hoffert -- Library Journal, 10/15/2008
An LJ staple for nearly 20 years, Prepub Alert has been exploded! The online version will include more book and author details, expanded tour and promotional coverage, and useful hyperlinks, plus all the information offered in the print version. In this column: Cussler, Steel, and Pipher.
Fiction | Nonfiction
Fiction
Burnside, John. The Glister. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Mar. 2009. 240p. ISBN 978-0-385-52764-4. $22.95.
Boys keep disappearing in the ghostly woods near Innertown, itself a ghostly place now that the chemical plant is closed. With the police too scared to investigate, the children themselves take charge. Written by the award-winning Scotland-based author of The Devil’s Footprints, this book has been getting raves in the UK, including an Irvine Welsh review advising that "Glister oozes such menace that the nervous ought not to read it after dark."
Coben, Harlan. Long Lost. Dutton. Apr. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-525-95105-6. $26.95.
Coben fans haven’t heard from Myron Bolitar for three years, and Myron hasn’t heard from old flame Terese Collins for even longer. But he wings his way to Paris when she calls to say that she’s in trouble. Actually, Paris makes sense, as it’s partly the setting of the French film adaptation, recently released, of Coben’s Tell No One. With a national tour to eight cities, not yet determined; don’t forget to check out Coben’s MySpace page.
Cooper, J. California. Life Is Short but Wide. Doubleday. Mar. 2009. 352p. ISBN 978-0-385-51134-6. $24.95.
Winner of multiple awards, including the American Library Association’s Literary Lion Award, Cooper crafts the story of two families over two generations in early 20th-century Wideland, OK. Check out the author on a Library of Congress web cast, taken during the National Book Festival in 2001 and a 2006 NPR interview.
Cussler, Clive with Jack Du Brul. Corsair: A Novel of the Oregon Files. Putnam. Mar. 2009. 448p. ISBN 978-0-399-15539-0. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
The U.S. secretary of state has vanished en route to a summit meeting in Libya, and it’s up to Cussler stalwart Juan Cabrillo to find her. Somehow, an ancient naval battle and a few crumbling Islamic scrolls are implicated in the search.
Dahlquist, Gordon. The Dark Volume. Bantam. Mar. 2009. 528p. ISBN 978-0-385-34036-6. $26.
Remember Dahlquist’s surreal epic, The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters? Even as it’s released this winter in two volumes published a month apart (Vol. 1: ISBN 978-0-553-38585-4. $12. on sale 12/30/08; Vol. 2: ISBN 978-0-553-38586-1. $12. on sale 1/27/09), the sequel is being readied for a March release. Miss Celeste Temple and her cohorts continue dodging bad guys as they puzzle out the mystery of the glass books. A forthcoming Bantam Dell podcast of the author should boost sales; look also for electronic promotion on the Glass Books web site, including videos and games.
D’Amato, Brian. In the Courts of the Sun: A Novel of the 2012 Apocalypse. Dutton. Mar. 2009. 656p. ISBN 978-0-525-95051-6. $28.95.
It’s 2012, the year the Maya predicted would be the world’s last, and math prodigy Jed DeLanda has been persuaded to return to 664 C.E. to learn more about a sacrifice game mentioned in a recently discovered Maya codex. Too bad he lands not in the body of the king, as intended, but of someone about to be sacrificed. From best-selling author (Beauty) D’Amato, whose sculptures and installations have popped up at places like the Whitney in New York.
Delaney, Frank. Shannon. Random. Mar. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6525-7. $26.
In the 1920s, the Boston Archdiocese sends a disillusioned young priest to Ireland, where he lands smack in the middle of rebellion. With a ten-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago/Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Kanas City, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, and Sam Francisco. Delaney will join the authors doing online promotion via podcast.
Franklin, Ariana. Grave Goods: A Mistress of the Art of Death Novel. Putnam. Mar. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-399-15544-4. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Having proved herself in two previous outings (as has former journalist/biographer Franklin), now the author of best-selling historical novels) Adelia Aguilar faces a big new challenge: she’s asked to determine whether two long-hidden skeletons discovered at Glastonbury Abbey are those of Arthur and Guinevere.
Gordon, Emily Fox. It Will Come to Me. Spiegel & Grau. Mar. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-0-385-52587-9. $24.95.
Noted for her memoirs (Mockingbird Years, Are You Happy?), Gordon makes the leap to fiction with this tale of a faculty wife—and once-promising novelist—who hopes that the arrival of an exciting new campus couple will turn her life around.
Hewson, David. Dante’s Numbers. Delacorte. Mar. 2009. 480p. ISBN 978-0-385-34148-6. $24.
Nic Costa’s back, and Dante’s got him. Costa is called in when a man dies and both a star and a priceless objet d’art vanish at the premier of a film version of Dante’s Inferno. An author podcast and "Booked for Breakfast" feature should boost this book, as should Hewson’s recent appearances at Boucheron, the International Thriller Writers Association Convention, and more.
Iggulden, Conn. Genghis: Bones of the Hills. Delacorte. Mar. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-385-33953-7. $25.
In Iggulden’s follow-up to Genghis: Lord of the Bows, the wily warrior continues his conquests even as he starts to think about a likely successor. When the time comes, check out the book video on the publisher’s web site—and, remember, this is the guy who gave us The Dangerous Book for Boys.
Kargman, Jill. The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund. Dutton. Mar. 2009. 272p. ISBN 978-0-525-95098-1. $24.95.
From the author who’s told us what it’s like to live at The Right Address, here’s the story of a hedge-fund wife who realizes that she just doesn’t fit the bill.
Kellerman, Jonathan. True Detectives. Ballantine. Mar. 2009. 368p. ISBN 978-0-345-49514-3. $27. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
PI Aaron Fox eagerly takes on a case involving a woman missing for two years—until he discovers that his hated half-brother cop is also on the case. At least they both agree that about consulting Alex Delaware, Kellerman’s psychologist extraordinaire.
Kolpan, Gerald. Etta. Ballantine. Mar. 2009. 352p. ISBN 978-0-345-50368-8. $25.
We all know about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but what about Etta Place, the Kid’s great love? Kolpan reimagines the life of someone lost to history. With a six-city tour to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Omaha, Denver/Boulder, and Iowa City. With an online discussion guide and promotion to feminist, Jewish, and Western web sites and blogs—and even the Junior League!
Lehrer, Jim. Oh, Johnny. Random. Mar. 2009. 240p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6762-6. $25.
Years after World War II has ended, a U.S. Marine recalls the young woman he encountered in Kansas City en route to the fighting. With a six-city tour by request. Lehrer is slated for an author chat on LibraryThing.
McMahon, Katharine. The Rose of Sebastopol. Putnam. Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-399-15546-8. $24.95.
When Rosa disappears while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War, cousin Mariella Lingwood heads to Sebastopol. Find out why McMahon’s book was a No. 1 UK best seller and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick.
Mason, Richard. Natural Elements. Knopf. Mar. 2009. 416p. ISBN 978-0-307-26746-7. $25.95.
Even as hedge-fund manager Eloise locates a nursing home for her gifted but ailing mother, she learns that the price of a special metal she has invested in has headed toward rock bottom. From the author of The Drowning People; with a five-city tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Mosley, Walter. The Long Fall: The First Leonid McGill Mystery. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59448-858-0. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Mosley’s newest gumshoe, Leonid McGill (his father was a Communist), is trying to stay on the straight and narrow, but his new case turns out to be a lot less innocuous than he thought. With a national tour.
Perry, Anne. Execution Dock. Ballantine. Mar. 2009. 272p. ISBN 978-0-345-46933-5. $26.
Perry regular William Monk goes after a child pornographer, especially when he starts killing off children who have outgrown their use.
Rice, Luanne. The Geometry of Sisters. Bantam. Feb. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-553-80513-0. $25. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
Retreating to a teaching job at progressive Newport Academy seems like the right thing to do as Maggie struggles with the death of her husband and elder daughter. Check out the author’s website/blog and expect big publicity.
Robards, Karen. Pursuit. Putnam. Mar. 2009. 400p. ISBN 978-0-399-15542-0. $24.95.
Lawyer Jessica Monaghan is thrilled to serve as escort to First Lady Annette Cooper—until a car crash leaves Cooper dead and Jess, after recovering from a coma, wondering if the whole thing was really an accident. Robards aims for another best seller.
Robotham, Michael. Shatter. Doubleday. Mar. 2009. 304p. ISBN 978-0-385-51791-1. $24.95.
Psychologist Joe O’Loughlin is distraught because he could not stop a woman from jumping off a bridge—and puzzled to learn that she was afraid of heights. Originally previewed in LJ 4/1/08, Shatter will be the first in a BBC-TV series featuring thrillers by Robotham.
Steel, Danielle. One Day at a Time. Delacorte. Feb. 2009. 336p. ISBN 978-0-385-34029-8. $27. lrg. prnt.
A lesser light in an in-the-news family, Coco Barrington grudgingly agrees to housesit for her sister, a Hollywood producer. Fortunately, an unexpected houseguest turns out to be an interesting—and interested—British actor. Steel aims to add another million to the 580 million copies of her books in print.
White, Randy Wayne. Dead Silence. Putnam. Mar. 2009. 352p. ISBN 978-0-399-15540-6. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Nothing Doc Ford did to earn entrance to the Explorers’ Club can match what he’ll encounter when his date—a U.S. senator—is nearly assassinated before his eyes and then mysteriously vanishes. White is planning on a three-week tour.
Nonfiction
Angwin, Julia. Stealing MySpace: The Battle To Control the Most Popular Website in America. Random. Mar. 2009. 336p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6694-0. $27.
The little web site that could: an award-winning reporter at the Wall Street Journal explains how MySpace became our space. With a five-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Bach, David. Fight For Your Money: The Ultimate Guide to Spending Smart and Avoiding the Financial Tricks That Make Corporations Billions at Our Expense. Broadway. Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-7679-2984-4. $24.95. CD: Random Audio.
Just in time: best-selling financial whiz Bach explains how you can keep from paying to much for your cell phone, cable, insurance, healthcare, and more. Look for online promotion.
Bailey, Blake. Cheever: A Life. Knopf. Mar. 2009. 736p. ISBN 978-1-4000-4394-1. $35.
Having edited a two-volume edition of Cheever’s works, Bailey (A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates) is ready to take on the man himself. With an eight-city tour: Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC and—of course—Westchester.
Barra, Allen. Yogi Berra: The Eternal Yankee. Norton. Mar. 2009. 480p. ISBN 978-0-393-06233-5. $27.95.
Dozens of photos and "Yogi-isms" enhance this story of Berra’s rise from Italian American boyhood in St. Louis to Yankee player boasting a record 14 pennants, ten World Series, and three MVPs. With a six-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, Birmingham, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Montclair, NJ. And no, that’s not a typo; Berra and author Barra aren’t related.
Belfort, Jordan. Catching the Wolf of Wall Street. Bantam. Mar. 2009. 480p. ISBN 978-0-553-80704-2. $25.
The Wolf of Wall Street returns to explain how serving time in prison for stock fraud helped him set his life straight. Catch Belfort’s tell-all on YouTube.
Caldwell, Christopher. Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West. Doubleday. Mar. 2009. 448p. ISBN 978-0-385-51826-0. $30.
Throughout Europe, liberal values are running up against the grievances of Muslims there through guest-worker programs, immigration, and asylum. Having spent ten years addressing the subject for places like the Financial Times, New York Times Magazine, and the Weekly Standard—where’s he’s senior editor—Caldwell shares what he’s learned.
Campbell, Donovan. Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood. Random. Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6773-2. $26.
Campbell’s 40-man infantry division—called Joker One—went to Afghanistan expecting to rebuild but found itself fighting jihadists instead. With a ten-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego.
D’Antonio, Michael. Forever Blue: The True Story of Walter O’Malley, Baseball’s Most Controversial Owner, and the Dodgers of Brooklyn and Los Angeles. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-1-59448-856-6. $25.95.
They hate him in New York because he moved the Dodgers to Los Angeles, but Walter O’Malley was ultimately an important force in baseball. From a Pulitzer Prize winner at Newsday.
Dickson, Paul. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary. 3d ed. Norton. Mar. 2009. 900p. ISBN 978-0-393-06681-4. $49.95.
Published in 1989 and again in 1999, this baseball classic has been expanded by more than 30 percent to include over 10,000 terms. Another home run, presumably. See the author in New York and Washington, DC.
Gillies, Isabel. Happens Every Day. Scribner. Mar. 2009. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4391-1007-2. $25.
You’ve seen her as Detective Stabler’s wife on Law and Order. Now read Gillies’s account of what happened when her real-life husband walked out on her and their two young sons.
Gubar, Susan. Judas: A Biography. Norton. Mar. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-0-393-06483-4. $27.95.
More than a biography, this is a cultural study of what Judas’s betrayal of Jesus has signified over 20 centuries. From the author of Poetry After Auschwitz.
Horner, Jack & James Gorman. How To Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn’t Have To Be Forever. Dutton. Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-525-95104-9. $25.95.
Since proteins extracted from fossil molecules show that Tyrannosaurus rex and the contemporary chicken have much in common, paleontology professor Horner—also paleontology curator at the Museum of the Rockies—has managed to manipulate chicken embryos to grow T. rex–like limbs and tails. No wonder he advised Steven Spielberg on Jurassic Park.
Kirn, Walter. Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever. Doubleday. Mar. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-0-385-52128-4. $24.95.
A noted book critic and novelist (e.g., Thumbsucker) recalls his escape from rural Minnesota to Princeton University, where he found social one-upmanship taking the learning out of "higher learning."
Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food. Norton. Mar. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-393-06595-4. $24.95.
What effect does raising animals for our consumption have on the planet and, ultimately, on us? From the author who has considered When Elephants Weep; with a six-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. And look for a blog tour, too.
Meers, Sharon & Joanna Strober. Getting to 50/50: How Working Moms and Dads Can Have It All By Sharing It All. Bantam. Feb. 2009. 384p. ISBN 978-0-553-80655-7. $24.
A former managing director at Goldman Sachs, who with her husband created Partnership for Parity at Stanford Business School and the Dual-Career Initiative at Harvard, joins with a Silicon Valley pro to explain how couples can learn to balance family responsibilities. Look for a forthcoming author podcast on the publisher’s web site.
Newberg, Andrew, M.D. & Mark Robert Waldman. How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist. Ballantine. Mar. 2009. 352p. ISBN 978-0-345-50341-1. $27.
Neuroscientists Newberg and Waldman, both associated with the Center for Spirituality and God at the University of Pennsylvania, explain that merely thinking about God does good things for your brain—though fundamentalist thoughts appear to rewire it in unhealthy ways. Look for online promotion at various political, scientific, spiritual, and New Age web sites, including Beliefnet.
O’Brien, Robyn with Rachel Kranz. Junked!: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick—and What We Can Do About It. Broadway. Mar. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-0-7679-3071-0. $24.95.
After her daughter had a bad allergic reaction to some innocent-looking eggs, O’Brien discovered that the United States allows toxins in food (generally banned elsewhere) that have led to allergies, asthma, cancer, and other ills among children. The author has since founded AllergyKids.
Pipher, Mary. Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2009. 288p. ISBN 978-1-59448-861-0. $25.95.
The author who gave us Reviving Ophelia finally tells her own story, focusing on the kinds of secrets we all keep—from everyone, from certain people, and from ourselves.
Purdy, Jedediah. A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom. Knopf. Mar. 2009. 304p. ISBN 978-1-4000-4447-4. $23.95.
Can a nation of individualists also be a community of citizens? One of many questions this leading young scholar asks about the meaning of freedom in America. With a four-city tour to Boston, New York, Raleigh/Durham, and Washington.
Showalter, Elaine. A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. Knopf. Mar. 2009. 608p. ISBN 978-1-4000-4123-7. $30.
In this history of 250 important American women writers, Princeton emerita professor Showalter starts in 1650 and ranges all the way up to Toni Morrison and Jodi Picoult. With an eight-city tour to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Singer, Peter. The Life You Can Save: A Simple Solution to Global Poverty. Random. Mar. 2009. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6710-7. $24.
Noted bioethics professor Singer (Animal Liberation) asks how we can call ourselves moral when, wealthy as we are, we can’t give enough to save the world’s poor. With a six-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle. A dedicated web site (www.LifeYouCanSave.com, not yet live) has links to aid organizations; proceeds to Oxfam.
Tatar, Maria. Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood. Norton. Mar. 2009. 320p. ISBN 978-0-393-06601-2. $26.95.
A Harvard professor of Germanic languages and literature, Tatar moonlights as a folklore expert. Here she rethinks the importance of reading in childhood.
Welch, Suzy. 10-10-10: Your Life, My Life, and a Life-Transforming Idea. Scribner. Mar. 2009. 224p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9182-5. $24.
The Harvard Business Review’s former editor in chief, now a columnist for O, Welch explains how to work through dilemmas: decide where you want to be in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years. With a ten-city tour to Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Wilson, William Julius. More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. Norton. Mar. 2009. 256p. ISBN 978-0-393-06705-7. $24.95.
Conservatives blame racial inequality on culture and liberals on institutions, but provocateur Wilson (The Declining Significance of Race) says it’s a combination of both.
