Prepub Exploded: January 2011, Pt. 2
By Barbara Hoffert Jul 14, 2010In this edition of Prepub Exploded, an expanded online version of Prepub Alert, we're continuing to highlight January titles. Look for Kim Edwards's next big novel and memoirists ranging from Annie Proulx to Ron Reagan.
Fiction
Adams, Thelma. Playdate. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 496p. ISBN 978-0-312- 65666-9. $23.99.
It's complicated: in one of those sun-baked California suburbs, work-obsessed Darlene ignores smart daughter Belle and husband Lance, a very fit yogi and stay-at-home dad, while on the next block slick womanizer Alec helps support Darlene's business venture (and then some) even as wife Wren, another very fit yogi and stay-at-home mom, wants to practice poses with Lance. The increasingly turbulent Santa Ana winds that whip through this debut seem somehow symbolic. I'm hoping for sharp social satire here; from Us Weekly's film critic, with a 50,000-copy first printing.
Baxter, Charles. Gryphon: New and Selected Stories. Pantheon. Jan. 2011. 416p. ISBN978-0-307-37921-4. $27.95.
Top picks from four previous collections plus seven new stories from the elegant and slightly subversive Baxter, a National Book Award nominee for The Feast of Love. A treat for cognoscenti.
Clark, Mary Jane. To Have and To Kill: A Wedding Cake Mystery. Morrow. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-06-199554-5. $25.99. lrg. prnt.
Best seller Clark launches a cozy new series featuring Piper Donovan, a would-be actress who moves back home after her engagement crashes and lends a hand in the family bakery business. When someone near and dear to the bride whose wedding cake she's decorating turns up dead, Piper links up with an old neighbor-now a good-looking FBI agent, of course-to figure out who's trying to make bride and groom say "I don't." With a 100,000-copy first printing; buy for anyone who takes frosting over blood and guts.
Dew, Robb Forman. Being Polite to Hitler. Little, Brown. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-316-88950-6. $24.99.
It's summer 1953, and Agnes Scofield realizes that she's fed up with defining herself by her friends, her relatives, and her job. This shouldn't be a problem for her wild family, so quick to condemn those slaves of propriety who would be "polite to Hitler." Right? The quietly accomplished Dew won a National Book Award for First Novel back in 1982 for Dale Loves Sophie to Death; recommend to the Anne Tyler crowd. With a reading group guide.
Edwards, Kim. The Lake of Dreams. Viking. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-670-02217-5. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Home from Japan, still conflicted about her father's death, and still attracted to her first love, a local glass artist, Lucy Jarrett discovers a cache of heirlooms that gives her a shattering new understanding of her family history. Edwards's The Memory Keeper's Daughter having spent 122 weeks on the New York Times paperback best sellers list, of course you will want multiples. With a 15-city tour and a reading group guide.
Fforde, Katie. Love Letters. St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 496p. ISBN 978-0-312-67453-3. $25.99.
Laura volunteers to help organize a literary festival, only to find that the festival committee thinks she's a friend of hermit-like author Dermot Flynn and dispatches her to Ireland to get him to the festival. Turns out he's really crabby...but cute. Fforde is a huge best seller in the U.K. but hasn't broken out stateside; here's hoping, but meanwhile the St. Martin's folks see this as a little gem and librarian favorite.
Forna, Aminatta. The Memory of Love. Atlantic Monthly. Jan. 2011. 464p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1965-0. $24.95.
Determined young surgeon Kai Mansaray of Freetown, Sierra Leone, forges a relationship with a dying patient who's seen it all-and what better setting than a hospital to capture the tragedy of a country rent by civil war? Forna has knock-out credentials. Her Ancestor Stones grabbed a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, Germany's LiBeraturpreis, and Washington Post Best Novel honors; her memoir, The Devil That Danced on the Water, was a Samuel Johnson Prize finalist. Oh, and in 2007 Vanity Fair named her one of Africa's promising new writers. Her new book? At first glance, it's precisely and elegantly detailed, with a big story to tell but no recourse to sensationalism. For everyone beyond sheer populist readers; with a reading group guide and an eight-city tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto.
Hearst, Dorothy. Secrets of the Wolves. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-1-4165-7000-4. $24.
Some 14,000 years ago, a wolf pup named Kaala, an outcast from her pack because she is of mixed blood, is charged with the task of assuring that humans don't lose touch with nature. Sure, the premise of Hearst's "The Wolf Chronicles" trilogy is fantasy, but it's based on the scientific theory that humans and wolves (later dogs) coevolved, and Hearst had done her research. The first installment, Promise of the Wolves, did nicely; this second installment features Kaala's leadership of a bunch of wolves set to live among humans for a year. With a reading group guide; for fantasy fans and animal lovers.
Hunter, Stephen. Dead Zero: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4391-3865-6. $26.
Yup, Bob Lee, Marine Corps Master Sniper, swaggers back in for another adventure, and he should be proud; his previous venture, I, Sniper, hit the New York Times best sellers list the week it published and bunkered down there for longer than any other Hunter novel. Here, Swagger is after an AWOL-and markedly dangerous-staff sergeant who's somewhere in the Afghan desert, provoking both the FBI and the Taliban. Nothing cozy about this bloody work; with a seven-city tour to Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Washington, DC, and two other cities.
Iles, Greg. Unwritten Laws. Scribner. Jan. 2011. 504p. ISBN 978-1-4391-4029-1. $26.99.
Former Natchez prosecutor Penn Cage is a wreck; his father, Dr. Tom Cage, is accused of murder when his former nurse is found dead. Seems they had quite a relationship, unknown to Penn, and district attorney Shad Johnson is only too happy to get even with Cage Junior by letting Cage Senior have it. Will Penn's fourth outing be as hot and edgy as his last one, the push-the-envelope best seller The Devil's Punchbowl? Consider multiples to find out.
MY FICTION PICK
Kent, Kathleen. The Wolves of Andover. Reagan Arthur: Little, Brown. Nov. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-316-06862-8. $24.99. lrg. Prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
I'm backtracking here, since this is a November title, but I cannot let it pass by. In her luminous debut, The Heretic's Daughter, Kent re-created the story of Martha Carrier, her grandmother back nine generations, who was hanged as a witch in 1692. Here she goes deeper into Martha's life, introducing her as an independent-minded young woman, working as a servant in her cousin's household, who falls in love with enigmatic laborer Thomas Carrier. Life for them in Colonial Massachusetts is pretty rough going, not least because of the surrounding wolves-the two-legged as well as the four-legged variety. Heretic, exacting in its detail about human pettiness, persecution, and revenge, resolves in a powerful act of love. And, yes, I loved it (but don't go just by me; it was a New York Times best seller and went through four printings), and I'm expecting the same depth of sensibility in the new one. For readers of both historical and literary fiction.
Koryta, Michael. The Cypress House. Little, Brown. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-316-05372-3. $24.99. lrg. prnt. on demand.
Koryta is a multi-award winner (e.g., the Los Angeles Times Book Prize) with numerous big nominations to his name (the Edgar, Quill, Shamus, and Barry awards). His spring title, So Cold the River, is making a big splash; among other things, Amazon declared it a Best Book of June 2010. He's back really fast, continuing the foray into supernatural suspense begun with Cold. Koryta's protagonist, the unfortunate Arlen Wagner, knows when folks are going to die; their eyes turn to smoke. When he sees that fellow passengers on a Florida train all have those smoky eyes, he tries to warn them and then bails with the one passenger who listens. They end up at the Cypress House, with a beautiful hostess and a hurricane on the way. Sounds intriguing, and Koryta is now hitting the top rungs; buy accordingly.
Lennon, F.J. Soul Trapper. Atria: S. & S. Jan. 2011. 256p. ISBN 978-1-4391-8444-8. $24.99.
Laid-back sort-of musician Kane Pryce boasts one distinction: he owns a supernaturally charged object called a Soul Trap that lets him locate ghosts stuck in this realm and send them on to the next. Here, while helping a frantic priest roust out the ghost of a little boy haunting his church, he falls for the boy's mom-who's been dead for five decades. Oops. Lennon, who's developed nearly 50 computer games and software titles, here expands on one of his most popular applications, which undoubtedly makes this the first novel ever inspired by an iPhone program. Calling all techno wizards-and suspense lovers, too.
Macomber, Debbie. Family Affair. Morrow. Jan. 2011. 112p. ISBN 978-0-06-199712-9. $16.99. lrg. prnt.
Lacey Lanchester is mad at neighbor Jack, who flirts with her though he has a girlfriend and whose big tomcat just jumped her Abyssinian. Then she finds out that his presumed lady love is actually his sister...and the Abyssinian is pregnant. A new hardcover edition of an old favorite; with a 200,000-copy first printing. Refresh your collection.
Meltzer, Brad. The Inner Circle. Grand Central. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-446-57789-2. $26.99. lrg prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
When government archivist Benjamin January shows secret crush Clementine Kaye the vault where the President reviews secret documents, they discover a dictionary that belonged to George Washington hidden in a desk chair. This inevitably leads to questions-not to mention murder. Best-selling author Meltzer's latest, The Book of Lies, didn't do quite as well as its predecessor, though selling more than 150,000 copies in hardcover and 300,000 in paperback (so far) is nothing to sneeze at. With lots of promotion and a ten-city tour.
Patterson, James & Michael Ledwidge. Now You See Her. Little, Brown. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-316-03621-4. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
Good looks, a good-looking husband, a sumptuous Key West lifestyle, and a baby on the way-Jeanine would seem to have it all. Then she digs up a terrible secret and must run for her life. Yes, years later that secret comes back to threaten her successful and neatly manicured new life. Patterson has coauthored five best sellers with Patterson, including titles in the Michael Bennett series. Buy multiples, inevitably.
Phillips, Susan Elizabeth. Call Me Irresistible. Morrow. Jan. 2011. 400p. ISBN 978-0-06-135152-5. $25.99. lrg. prnt.
Remember Teddy, the nine-year-old from Phillips's Fancy Pants and the devastatingly handsome college grad in Lady Be Good? He's back, about to marry former First Daughter Lucy, whose best friend, Meg-herself the daughter of famous parents-thinks he's all wrong for Lucy. Now everyone in town hates poor Meg, her car just died, and she's flat broke. And then there's the understandably angry but still irresistible Teddy. Phillips has won four RITAs and received RWA's lifetime achievement award; her newest is getting a one-day laydown on January 18 and a 250,000-copy first printing. A no-brainer wherever romances are read.
Roby, Kimberla Lawson. Love, Honor, and Betray. Grand Central. Jan. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978-0-446-57245-3. $24.99.
The Rev. Curtis Brown has an illegitimate toddler daughter-no surprise there, he's such a philanderer-and he wants to take her in when her mother dies. Alas for the little girl, his wife is none too thrilled. Roby always blends her best-selling prose with concern for social issues, and her fans love it. [For more on Roby, see ALA 2010: At ALTAFF Programs, It's All About the Books]
Thor, Brad. The Athena Project. Atria: S. & S. Nov. 2010. 336p. ISBN 978-1-4391-9295-5. $26.99. CD/eAudio: S. & S. Audio.
With this title, bumped up from December, Thor launches a new series called the "Athena Project" that introduces us to the female operatives of Delta Force from the moment they're recruited as topnotch athletes to their deployment. Reputedly grounded in fact; with a nine city tour to ...that says great expectations.
Toibin, Colm. The Empty Family: Stories. Scribner. Jan. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978-1-4391-3832-8. $24.
Toibin ranges far in his new collection, from Lady Gregory and Henry James to Pakistani workers in Barcelona to an Irish set designer newly returned to her homeland. Can't wait to see this collection from the author of such award winners as Brooklyn and The Master and the lovely collection Mothers and Sons.
Winter, Kathleen. Annabel. Black Cat: Grove. Jan. 2011. 480p. ISBN 978-0-8021-7082-8. pap. $14.95.
A child born in 1968 in Labrador, Canada, seems to be both boy and girl-a secret kept by the midwife and the parents, who opt to raise him as Wayne. Eventually, Wayne must acknowledge his second self, a girl he privately calls Annabel. Winter's story collection, boYs, won numerous awards in Canada; this debut novel should appeal to anyone interested in questions about gender and self.
Woods, Stuart. Strategic Moves. Putnam. Jan. 2011. 304p. ISBN 978-0-399-15711-0. $25.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
In Woods's latest, Stone Barrington is pleased to bring a new client to his law firm. Then he realizes that the guy might make Bernie Madoff look like a pussycat. Woods's Lucid Interval debuted at No. 5 on the New York Times list this spring and hung around for four weeks; his Santa Fe Edge will be out in September. Yes, Woods delights his fans by giving them three books a year for the last couple of years; get ready.
Yan Lianke. Dream of Ding Village. Grove. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1932-2. $24.
A Chinese village hopes to get rich by opening several blood-plasma collection stations but instead gets AIDS-and death. Never mind that Yan is an award-winning author and that this novel was named one of the Ten Best of the Year by Asia Weekly, it was still censored upon its publication in China-probably because it was based on an actual blood-selling scandal. For readers who like sharp political satire, also evident in Yan's sly Serve the People!, released here in 2008.
Nonfiction
Auchincloss, Louis. A. Voice from Old New York: A Memoir of My Youth. Houghton Harcourt. Dec. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-0-547-34153-8. $25.
Former president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, Auchincloss wrote more than 60 fiction and nonfiction titles that mostly capture the upper-crust New York society to which he belonged. For his final book-he died in January 2010 at age 92-he unbends a bit and turns the spotlight on himself.
Blow, Detmar & Tom Sykes. Blow by Blow: The Story of Isabella Blow. It: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. 304p. ISBN 978-0-06-202087-1. $30.
Fashion icon? Style queen? Isabella Blow was very nearly a walking work of art. Alas, she committed suicide in 2007. Her husband's memoir, featured at AAP's inaugural fall books preview at ALA, sounds absolutely fascinating. With a 50,000-copy first printing.
Brinkley, Douglas. The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1910-1960. Harper: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. 480p. ISBN 978-0-06-200596-0. $29.99.
With this new book on conservation efforts in Alaska, popular historian Brinkley helps us celebrate the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower's December 6, 1960, executive order creating Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, which made lots of best book lists in 2009, Brinkley starts with TR and then moves through to the 1950s. At that time, a group of environmentalists-including Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and, interestingly, the Walt Disney Corporation-helped fight off the drillers and secure the refuge. One of my nonfiction favorites; with a 150,000-copy first printing.
Burns, Rebecca. Burial for a King: Martin Luther King Jr.'s Funeral and the Week That Transformed Atlanta and Rocked the Nation. Scribner. Jan. 2011. 208p. ISBN 978-1-4391-3054-4. $24.
Former editor in chief of Atlanta magazine and currently its interactive director, Burns returns to the April 9, 1968, funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.-seven and a half hours and the largest funeral ever of a private U.S. citizen, with more than 150,000 people attending. Burns shows that while 110 riots broke out nationwide, peace held at the funeral itself, making it a turning point for Atlanta-and, ultimately, America. Not sure what the publisher expects of this, but I leapt at it.
Chopra, Sanjiv & Alan Lotvin with David Fisher. Doctor Chopra Says: Medical Facts and Myths Everyone Should Know. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 496p. ISBN 978-0-312- 37692-5. $26.99.
What's the best diet, the best vitamin, and the best screening test for cancer? Is Echinacea really good for you and water from plastic bottles really bad for you? As dean of Continuing Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, where doctors go to update their skills, Chopra should have all the answers. (Lotvin is a cardiologist.) Good ready-reference and good for settling arguments; with a 150,000-copy first printing.
Darznik, Jasmin. The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life. Grand Central. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-446-53497-0. $24.99.
Born in Tehran of an Iranian mother and German father and now living in the United States, Darznik was jolted when she came across a photo of her mother in a wedding veil-standing with a man Darznik didn't recognize. At first reluctant to explain, her mother eventually sent her a series of ten cassette tapes revealing her sorrowful history and forced abandonment of Darznik's sister, Sara. Startling and moving, I thought, and also noted Darznik's credentials: she won the 2006 Zoetrope Short Fiction contest and has racked up numerous awards, e.g., a Jackson Phelan award, for the manuscript of this memoir. Then I checked with the publisher and found that buzz really is building on this book-especially after the author's recent New York Times Op-Ed piece. I'm betting on this one.
Dederer, Claire. Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses. Farrar. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-374-23644-1. $25.
Dederer threw out her back out, took up yoga, and then threw out her basics beliefs. Yoga wasn't just another good thing to do, like shunning white bread and practicing attachment parenting, but a whole new world view. I'm curious to see where this one is going. For yogis and other seekers; with a national tour and reading group guide.
Freeman, Philip. Alexander the Great. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 512p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9280-8. $30.
He's done Julius Caesar, so it's hardly surprising that Classics professor Freeman wants to go back to the ruler studied by Caesar himself (not to mention Hannibal and Napoleon). The publisher's pitch? Hey, we loved Russell Crowe in Gladiator and Brad Pitt in Achilles; why not Alexander? But who would play him?
Gill, Jonathan. Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to Capital of Black America. Grove. Feb. 2011. 496p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1910-0. $29.95.
I would have waited until next month to feature this February publication, but it pairs so nicely with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts's Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, previewed below. American history/literature professor Gill revisits Harlem, from Henry Hudson's first encounter with the Natives through the Revolutionary War, settlement by different immigrant groups, and the neighborhood's emergence as the center of black America and source of everything from jazz and hip-hop to major civil rights efforts. Sounds like solid, approachable history.
Graff, Garrett M. The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror. Little, Brown. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-0-316-06861-1. $27.99.
Editor in chief of the Washingtonian, Graff conducted interviews, combed previously barred documents, and traveled extensively with FBI Director Robert Mueller (more than any other journalist, we're told) to chronicle a bunch of FBI agents intent on battling terrorists but on their own terms-that is, without sacrificing high ideals. Which evidently created tensions with the CIA. The very young, very hot (as in hotshot) Graff has been singled out as a journalist to watch; watch this book.
Harvey, Steve. Straight Talk, No Chaser: How To Find, Keep, and Understand a Man. Amistad: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978-0-06-172899-0. $24. CD: HarperAudio.
Seven million people tune in daily to hear the Steve Harvey Morning Show, the No. 1 syndicated morning show in a variety of demographics, and Harvey's Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man was the No. 2 best-selling book in 2009. And you're wondering why his new relationship book has a 750,000-copy first printing?
Hicks, Brian. Toward the Setting Sun: John Ross, the Cherokees, and the Trail of Tears. Atlantic Monthly. Jan. 2011. 416p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1963-6. $26.
Only an eighth Cherokee, John Ross eventually became Cherokee chief for four decades in the early 1800s and mightily battled Andrew Jackson's desire to evacuate his and other "Civilized Tribes" to lands beyond the Mississippi. Noted journalist/author Hicks should tell this story passionately, as he is of Cherokee descent.
Konigsberg, Ruth Davis. The Truth About Grief: The Myth of the Five Stages of Mourning and the New Science of Loss. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4391-4833-4. $26.
In 2007, while researching an Elle story on widowhood, Konigsberg came across a newly released study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting that the bereaved typically experience more yearning than depression or anger-two of the five stages Elisabeth K?bler-Ross famously enunciated in On Death and Dying in 1969. That book has shaped our understanding of grief, but, says Konigsberg, it was based on little research and is all wrong. Here she aims to explain how people really grieve. Given how much we have medicalized that process, this is important to consider.
Lawrence, Greg. Jackie as Editor: The Literary Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-312-59193-9. $25.99.
Everyone remembers the glamorous First Lady Jackie Kennedy and the equally glamorous Mrs. Aristotle Onassis. But Jackie worked as an editor for nearly two decades, signing and publishing more than 100 titles for Viking and Doubleday. Best-selling author Lawrence, three of whose books were edited by Jackie, tells this story. Not a celeb bio, or at least not quite; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Levy, Steven. Searching for Google. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9658-5. $26.
Everything you ever wanted to know about Google but were afraid to ask, brought to you by Newsweek's chief technology correspondent. Levy chatted with Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as other top management, and gives us a full history while taking on prickly questions like China and Google's reputedly quirky management style. With a three-city tour to New York, San Francisco, and Seattle; important for libraries.
Mulvaney, Kieran. The Great White Bear: A Natural and Unnatural History of the Polar Bear. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978-0-547-15242-4. $26.
A seasoned traveler to the Arctic, a frequent contributor to venues like BBC Wildlife, a correspondent for Discovery News, and author of At the Ends of the Earth: A History of the Polar Regions), Mulvaney seems well positioned to tell us about world's largest land carnivore. Rumor has it that the writing is graceful and absorbing. Definitely promote to your conservation and natural history fans and pair with Richard Ellis's On Thin Ice.
Nugent, Kevin (text) & Abelardo Morell (illus.). Your Baby Is Speaking to You. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2011. 128p. ISBN 978-0-547-24295-8. $20.
Nugent, director of the Brazelton Institute of Children's Hospital, Boston, and author with T. Terry Brazelton of the widely used Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale, here shows newbie parents what all those yawns, shrieks, cries, and little smiles mean. He's helped along by images from photographer Morell, who's exhibited in major museums worldwide. America's parents are ever desperate, so this should do well.
Panek, Richard. The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race To Discover the Rest of Reality. Houghton Harcourt. Jan. 2011. 128p. ISBN 978-0-547-98244-8. $26.
Dark matter, dark energy. Sounds like a thriller, and this probably will be thrilling reading to anyone who wants to stay current in the sciences. Panek, who here expands on a story he wrote for the New York Times, explains that only four percent of the universe is made of the stuff we know. The rest is missing in action, and scientists are vying bitterly to be the first to figure out where it is. When they find it, we could discover that our understanding of the universe is way off. Heady stuff for smarter types; with a four-city tour to New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Polonsky, Rachel. Molotov's Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian History. Farrar. Jan. 2011. 416p. ISBN 978-0-374-21197-4. $27.
After moving to Moscow with her husband, British journalist Polonsky discovered that their apartment building on Romanov Street was once home to infamous Stalinist Vyacheslav Molotov. The current resident of his old apartment showed her the magic lantern Molotov had left behind and the room containing Molotov's library-which included not just Russian classics but books by writers he'd condemned to the Gulag. In her literary excursion, Polonsky uses this library to ignite her understanding of Russia. As such, it sounds fascinating, and upon its U.K. publication this book got generally warm reviews-and one anonymous bashing that turned out to be from noted Slavicist Orlando Figes, whose Natasha's Dance Polonsky had panned back in 2002. Consider strongly wherever Russia, literature, and literary scandal is popular-and remember how well Elif Batuman's The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them has been doing.
MY NONFICTION PICK
Proulx, Annie. Bird Cloud: A Memoir. Scribner. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-1-7423-8880-4. $26.
Multi-award-winning novelist Proulx's home is built around a massive library and sits on 600 acres she bought six years ago from the Nature Conservancy of Wyoming. The land drops down 400 feet to the North Platte River and supports bald eagles and mountain lions. Initially, Proulx intended to write an account of building the house with the help of an unorthodox bunch of brothers called the James Gang, but she soon veered into a discussion of the Wyoming landscape itself-and of her own family history, dating back to the great-great-grandfather who ran a riverboat in the West and met up with folks like Mark Twain and Lafayette. Since Proulx's fiction is in turn vivid, coruscating, multilayerd, and insightful, I can only imagine what a good read this memoir will be. Not just for her fans but for anyone who loves the West.
Reagan, Michael with Jim Denney. The New Reagan Revolution: How Ronald Reagan's Principles Can Restore America's Greatness. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-312-64454-3. $25.99.
Ronald Reagan's older, adopted son returns to his father's administration to offer prescriptions for what ails us today, arguing against big government, calling liberal ideas late-show reruns, and recommending how to survive economic meltdown. There's an audience, for sure. With a 100,000-copy first printing.
Reagan, Ron. My Father at 100. Viking. Jan. 2011. 352p. ISBN 978-0-670-02259-5. $27.95.
Just in time for the centenary of Ronald Reagan's birth on February 6, 2011, here's a tribute from his younger son that evokes touch football games while exploring aspects of his father's life that he never knew before. More personal than brother Michael's book and said to be written with Nancy Reagan's cooperation, which is...a good thing? I dunno, let the guy speak for himself. With a four-city tour.
Rhodes-Pitts, Sharifa. Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America. Little, Brown. Jan. 2011. 288p. ISBN 978-0-316-01723-7. $24.99.
Nowhere? Harlem is in fact in upper Manhattan, and it's indeed a mecca for black America. Rhodes-Pitts, winner of a Lannan Foundation fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, considers myths, meaning, and legacy and gives us her personal Harlem, too. Get the story now, as gentrification and Columbia University's hunger for real estate threaten to change the neighborhood forever.
Rosenbaum, Ron. How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III. S. & S. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-1-4165-9421-5. $28.
Slate.com columnist Rosenbaum, whose interests are broad-his best-known books are Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars-here urgently warns us that we could be in the run-up to World War III. So why isn't anyone paying attention? Sobering.
Schlessinger, Laura. Surviving a Shark Attack (On Land): Overcoming Betrayal and Dealing with Revenge. Harper: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. 208p. ISBN 978-0-06-199212-4. $25.99. CD: HarperAudio.
Revenge might be sweet, but Schlessinger wants us to drop the desire to get even (something we really never can do) and instead get beyond duplicitous behavior by friends, relatives, colleagues, and spouses. A tall order but admirable, and Schlessinger's self-help always sells; with a one-day laydown on January 18 and a 150,000-copy first printing.
Taylor, William C. Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways To Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself. Morrow. Jan. 2011. 320p. ISBN 978-0-06-173461-8. $26.99.
Coauthor of the best-selling Mavericks at Work and an in-demand speaker at businesses and business events nationwide, Taylor visits 25 companies that have successfully moved forward so that he can teach other business folks how to rethink their own companies. Oh, and some of the folks he visited? Swatch watches, Pedigree dog food, and Girl Scouts of the USA. That I like.
Vaynerchuk, Gary. The Thank You Economy. Harper: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. 208p. ISBN 978-0-06-181418-8. $24.99.
Another book on how to do business better: by "out-caring" and "out-loving" the competition, as consumers want quality stuff and a sense that they matter. Vaynerchuk is author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller Crush It! (he's also creator of Wine Library TV), so I guess he knows from quality.
