Prepub Exploded: March 2011
By Barbara HoffertSep 16, 2010
In this installment of Prepub Exploded, an expanded version of the column appearing regularly in LJ, you'll find plenty of thrillers, plus literary fiction whose locale ranges from Sudan to the Balkans. Nonfiction lets you know what's cookin'-chefs' memoirs are hot. This column combines all the big March titles in one, so you'll find double the number of picks!
Fiction
Aboulela, Leila. Lyrics Alley. Grove. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780802119513. $24.
In 1950s Sudan, the Abuzeid dynasty is humming along nicely when the golden-boy heir to the family fortune meets with a devastating accident. This creates particular tensions between the father's two wives, one representing tradition and the other the urge to modernize. Sudan-born Aboulela, who now lives in Qatar, won the first Caine Prize for African Writing and got some award noise for The Translator and Minaret. Breakout time for Aboulela?
Bass, Jefferson. The Bone Yard: A Body Farm Novel. Morrow. Mar. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780061806780. $24.99. lrg. prnt.
When a skull is found in the Florida woods and shallow graves then discovered on the grounds of a nearby reform school, since closed, who better to call in than the Body Farm's Dr. Bill Brockton? Some fans found last spring's The Bone Thief a bit diffuse, but the good doctor is still back with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Binchy, Maeve. Minding Frankie. Knopf. Mar. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780307273567. $26.95. CD: Random.
Bless her heart, Binchy tells folks, "Don't expect me to write about my dismal Irish childhood, because I didn't have one!" In her latest, recovering alcoholic Noel agrees to take care of the child an old girlfriend is carrying-she's terminally ill and adamant that the child is his. Fortunately, his friends pitch in, and all's well until a prim social worker intervenes. Binchy is a strong writer who remains strong; her first book with Knopf, 2007's Whitethorn Woods, was one of her biggest best sellers, and 2009's Heart & Soul hardly lost ground in a bad economy that saw book sales sink. With a 300,000-copy first printing and a reading group guide; wish she were visiting.
Coben, Harlan. Live Wire. Dutton. Mar. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780525952060. $27.95.
Sports agent Myron Bolitar is back, facing down a pregnant former tennis star whose rock star husband, Lex, has vanished. Was Lex starting to doubt that he was the baby's dad? Coben fans new and old love Bolitar, who has seasoned nicely over the years and after a hiatus has been popping back regularly into Coben's oeuvre.
Coughlin, Jack. An Act of Treason. St. Martin's. Mar. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780312612016. $25.99.
No, marine sniper Kyle Swanson and his girlfriend, CIA agent Lauren Carson, have not turned traitor. That's Jim Hall, Swanson's mentor and Carson's boss and former lover, who's selling secrets to a Pakistani warlord intent on making al Qaeda a legitimate political party. He just has to get rid of Swanson first. Dependable best-selling fiction.
Cumming, Charles. The Trinity Six. St. Martin's. Mar. 2011. 368p. ISBN 9780312675295. $24.99.
The famed Cambridge spy ring starring Anthony Blunt and Kim Philby was rumored to have a sixth man, never identified. What if modern Russian history scholar Sam Gaddis's good friend thinks she's on to the guy? And what if she suddenly ends up dead? Obviously, Sam will start digging. Cumming is a respected thriller writer-his Typhoon was even a New York Times Notable Book-and the premise here is intriguing.
Cussler, Clive & Jack Du Brul. The Jungle. Putnam. Mar. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780399157042. $27.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
A WMD first designed in 13th century China, trouble along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, and a woman missing in the steamy Southeast Asian jungles. Sounds like another Juan Cabrillo adventure. Fun fluff from prolific best seller Cussler (expect a couple from him in 2011), here backed up by Du Brul, who has his own strong series starring geologist/spy Philip Mercer.
Deutermann, P.T. Pacific Glory. St. Martin's. Mar. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780312599447. $25.99.
Naval academy buddies Marsh, Mick, and Tommy meet different fates after Pearl Harbor. Tommy marries Glory, the gorgeous woman they all pined for, and he is subsequently killed in battle; she ends up as an uncompromising Navy nurse. Meanwhile, Marsh sees action from Guadalcanal to Leyte Gulf, but fighter pilot Mick's sometimes drunken bravado gets him grounded. Quite a change for contemporary thriller author Deutermann; watch to see how this goes.
Doctorow, E.L. All the Time in the World: New and Selected Stories. Random. Mar. 2011. 208p. ISBN 9781400069637. $26.
Six new Doctorow stories, never before in book form, plus the best of the rest. Doctorow packs worlds into his short fiction: witness the story here about an everyday guy who suddenly opts to live off the grid, or another about a waiter whose immigrant Russian wife entangles him in organized crime. Doctorow's recent Homer & Langley has sold 165,000 copies so far, not as much as the Pulitzer Prize-winning The March or the phenomenal Ragtime, of course, but still a hefty number for any literary author. Can't wait.
Edgarian, Carol. Three Stages of Amazement. Scribner. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9781439198308. $25. CD: Random Audio.
At last! After 15 years, the author of the much-noted Rise the Euphrates (and cofounder of the magazine Narrative) is back with her second novel, which is ripe for the times. Just married, Lena Rusch and Charlie Pepper anticipate a golden future but encounter everyday tragedies from economic woes to a stillborn child. Meanwhile, Lena's Silicon Valley uncle, Cal, and his wife, Ivy, create troubles of their own. Check this out; it should attract good buzz. With a reading group guide and a four-city tour to Miami, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Fairstein, Linda. Silent Mercy. Dutton. Mar. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780525952022. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
One woman, wearing a Star of David, set ablaze on the steps of Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Manhattan. Another, of a different faith, dead in a Catholic Church in Little Italy. Is there a hate crime here for Alexandra Cooper to investigate? Fairstein was a Silver Bullet recipient at this year's Thrillerfest, and last March's Hell Gate was her best showing yet, so she is on a roll.
Feehan. Christine. Dark Prince: Author's Cut Special Edition. Morrow. Mar. 2011. 496p. ISBN 9780062009623. $19.99.
Finally, the first book in Feehan's mega-best-selling "Dark" series appears in hardcover-bolstered by 100 additional pages cut from the original. Your chance to cozy up to Raven Whitney, a telepathic hunter of serial killers. A 100,000-copy first printing.
Harrison, Kim. Pale Demon. Harper Voyager: HarperCollins. Mar. 2011. 448p. ISBN 9780061138065. $26.99. CD: HarperAudio.
Rachel Morgan must get to the witches' convention in San Francisco-fast. She's been condemned to death for using black magic and needs to clear her name. Since she's prohibited from flying, she teams up with an elfin tycoon, a living vampire (what?), and a pixie to drive cross-country. Alas, there's a would-be assassin slowing them down. The one-day laydown on February 22 says it all, and the 250,000-copy first printing is nice, too. Buy lots.
Fiction Pick
Holman, Sheri. The Witches on the Road Tonight. Atlantic Monthly. Mar. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780802119438. $24.
When a WPA author and photographer visit Eddie Alley's rural Virginia home, he takes the opportunity to escape not just poverty but insinuations that his mother practices sorcery. Years later, as a television horror-movie presenter in New York, he notices that his daughter has the same witchy ways as her grandmamma. Holman has drawn attention with The Dress Lodger, which sold 300,000 copies, and The Mammoth Cheese, shortlisted for the Orange Prize; here, she gets interestingly edgy while continuing to offer carefully observed social detail. With a reading group guide and an eight-city tour to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Richmond, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, Atlanta, and Miami.
Howrey, Meg. Blind Sight. Pantheon. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780307379160. $24.95.
A former Joffrey II dancer and winner of an Ovation Award for her work in the national tour of Contact, Howrey is making a bit of a stir with this debut. Raised by his New Age mother and devout grandmother, teenaged Luke suddenly gets to spend the summer with the father he's never met-a famous television star. With a four-city tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco.
Lee, Linda Francis. Emily and Einstein. St. Martin's. Mar. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9780312382186. $24.99.
My good buddy Karl Helicher, director of the Upper Merion Township Library in King of Prussia, PA, says that with many dog books appearing in this column it should be called Prepup Alert. And yes, dogs are big-in fiction as well as nonfiction; note that Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain has been on The New York Times trade paperback best sellers list for 65 weeks, never mind its hardcover success. Here, Emily's husband has just died, she's discovered that he was not the man she thought he was, and she's about to be evicted from New York's glamorous Dakota. Thank god for a wacky dog named Einstein.
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party: The New No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel. Pantheon. Mar. 2011. 256p. ISBN 9780307378392. $24.95.
Precious Ramotswe dreams that she is driving her dear, departed white van-and then she learns that the van is out there, just waiting for her to find it. Meanwhile, an apprentice has gotten a girl pregnant, cattle are being poisoned, and Violet Sephotho is running for Parliament. A no-brainer for mystery fans; with a 12-city tour.
Mankell, Henning. The Troubled Man: A Kurt Wallander Mystery. Knopf. Mar. 2011. 384p. ISBN 9780307593498. $25.95. CD: Random Audio.
Before Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, there was Mankell's Kurt Wallander. Here, he's not on the case when a retired naval officer disappears after a stroll in the forest, but he gets involved anyway because the gentleman is his daughter's father-in-law. Wallander is making his first appearance in more than ten years; evidently, it's likely his last. This will be big, with a 150,000-copy first printing.
Mosley, Walter. When the Thrill Is Gone: A Leonid McGill Mystery. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9781594487811. $26.95. CD: Penguin Audio.
Bad news for Leonid McGill in his third outing: no jobs, mortally ill friend, crazy stepson, crazy girlfriend, really crazy wife (she's made her old lover mad by taking on a new one), and now there's a client who looks like trouble. She says she's an artist, married to a rich collector, and she's afraid for her life. McGill has Easy Rawlins potential, but he's not there yet. With a national author tour.
Fiction Pick
Obreht, Téa. The Tiger's Wife. Random. Mar. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780385343831. $25. CD: Random Audio.
In the war-shattered Balkans, a young doctor searches for her grandfather, who has abandoned the entire family at a field hospital. To find him, she realizes that she must track down a strange character called "the deathless man," using clues from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Sounds partly fantastic, partly rooted in realities we should attend to, and completely original. An excerpt of this first novel got huge play in The New Yorker's 2009 fiction issue, and Obreht went on to publish in other big venues. There are high hopes for this book, which is being pitched to fans of Jonathan Safran Foer, Nicole Krauss, Junot Díaz, and Aleksandar Hemon; in other words, it's sharp, fresh, and on the edge. Watch this one.
Shepard, Jim. You Think That's Bad: Stories. Knopf. Mar. 2011. 268p. ISBN 9780307594822. $24.95.
The cognoscenti love Shepard, deservedly a National Book Award finalist for Like You'd Understand, Anyway. From a French aristocrat who enjoys murdering children to a man in love with the girlfriend of his brother, whose death he might have caused, these stories should showcase Shepard's out-there work. With a four-city tour, both East Coast and West Coast.
Sorokin, Vladimir. Day of the Oprichnik. Farrar. Mar. 2011. 192p. ISBN 9780374134754. $23.
Moscow 2028: Andrei Danilovich Komyaga, an Oprichnik-someone powerful in the new Russia-lives to defend "Papa," a despotic ruler in the mold of the old Soviet leaders. In fact, he could be Putin. Meanwhile, both the borders and the press are sealed tight. Sorokin is one of the top authors writing in Russia today; let's hope he won't be sealed tight. Not for everyone, but watch for the discriminating crowd and current-event types who turn to fiction for insight.
Thompson, James. Lucifer's Tears. Putnam. Mar. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780399157004. $24.95.
Finnish inspector Kari Vaara gets caught up in two apparently different cases: the investigation of a 90-year-old national hero for war crimes and the torture killing of a Russian businessman's cheating wife, whose lover clearly seems to have been framed. Thompson, an American who has lived in Finland for a dozen years, isn't yet as big as some of the publisher's other thriller authors (see, e.g., Cussler, above). But he's building nicely and has Putnam's complete backing.
Winslow, Don writing as Trevanian. Satori. Grand Central. Mar. 2011. 352p. ISBN 9780446561921. $24.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
In his 1979 thriller, Shibumi, international best-selling author Trevanian introduced assassin par excellence Nicholai Hel, raised in the gardens of a Japanese Go master to be utterly in control. Now, Winslow takes up the Trevanian persona to give Hel a prequel. It's 1951, and Hel is sprung by the CIA from three years of solitary confinement with the understanding that he will assassinate the Soviet Union's commissioner to China. Will he thereby achieve satori, that is, true harmony with the world? I'm betting that the sure-footed Winslow will spiff up Trevanian, but don't go by me: the publicist says, "Fast-paced, exotic, dangerous, and sexy-think Bourne and Bond."
Nonfiction
Achatz, Grant & Nick Kokonas. Life, on the Line: Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9781592406012. $28.95.
Achatz was a much-decorated chef (e.g., James Beard Rising Star award) and had just founded Alinea, recently named the best restaurant in North America by Restaurant, when he discovered that he had stage IV cancer of the tongue. He lost his tongue, endured aggressive treatment, and learned to cook with his other senses. A food memoir and a conquering-illness memoir rolled into one; it should get lots of attention.
Burke, Carolyn. No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf. Knopf. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9780307268013. $28.95.
If you liked the film La Vie en Rose (brava, Marion Cotillard, for that Oscar), you'll probably love Burke's account of the Little Sparrow's life. Biographer Burke's other subjects range from Lee Miller to Mina Loy. A personal favorite; with a 30,000-copy first printing.
Nonfiction Pick
Christian, Brian. The Most Human Human. Doubleday. Mar. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780385533065. $27.95.
The Turing Test: a bunch of judges ask questions of undisclosed contestants, trying to figure out which are human and which is a computer. There's a prize for the Most Human Computer-and the Most Human Human. When Christian became a contestant in 2009, he was determined to prove himself more human than any computer (in the previous year, things were getting fuzzy). Here, he talks about the contest and the pressing issues it raises. Since Christian has degrees in both philosophy and computer science and an MFA in poetry, he should do this justice. I'm intrigued.
English, T.J. The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge. Morrow. Mar. 2011. 496p. ISBN 9780061824555. $27.99.
The city was New York, and the time was 1963, when two young white women were murdered in their apartment and nearly blind black teenager George Whitmore was charged. The corrupt and deeply racist NYPD had evidently coerced a confession. Best-selling author English weaves together the story of Whitmore, bad cop Bill Phillips, and Dhoruba bin Wahad, a member of the fledgling Black Panther Party, to tell this chilling story. News then that remains news now; with a 100,000-copy first printing.
Nonfiction Pick
Foreman, Amanda. A World of Fire: A Saga of the Civil War, at Home and Abroad. Random. Mar. 2011. 464p. ISBN 9780375504945. $35. CD: Random Audio.
It wasn't just Americans who died in the bloody Civil War; 50,000 Britons volunteered, too, fighting mostly for the North but also for the South, defending Big Cotton and the plantation way of life. Foreman details their contributions by profiling several volunteers. Am I pitching this book because it's being made into an eight-part BBC series (those series always land here)? Or because Foreman's Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was a best-selling Whitbread Prize winner that had an afterlife as a movie? Or because the author is being boosted as mediagenic? Okay, all pluses if you are wondering about buzz, but I'm singling out this book because it sounds truly intriguing and, in a glutted field, original. With an author tour to Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Gettysburg, Richmond, Atlanta, and San Francisco.
Fragoso, Margaux. Tiger, Tiger. Farrar. Mar. 2011. 368p. ISBN 9780374277628. $26.
Seven-year-old Margaux befriended 51-year-old Peter at the swimming pool, and her troubled mother approved; he seemed like a good influence. Not so, as we find out in this large and eerie memoir; in the end, after an increasingly dangerous relationship that lasted 15 years, Fragoso barely escaped with her life. Sounds fascinating, though the proof will be in the reading.
Garber, Marjorie. The Use and Abuse of Literature for Life. Pantheon. Mar. 2011. 416p. ISBN 9780375424342. $26.96.
Just how important is literature today? And what does that word even mean? Harvard University professor and noted author Garber takes on a topic near and dear to at least some of us. A good book club book for educated readers; with a seven-city tour to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Hamilton, Gabrielle. Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. Random. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9781400068722. $25. CD/downloadable: Random Audio.
Another food memoir! The chef/owner of New York's celebrated Prune talks about her unorthodox upbringing (French mom, bohemian dad), backpacking worldwide at 19, and launching her career. Since she has an MFA in fiction and has published in notable venues, she's being positioned as literary.
Kasarda, John D. & Greg Lindsay. Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next. Farrar. Mar. 2011. 480p. ISBN 9780374100193. $28.
Okay, this is scary. Kasarda, a professor at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School, predicts that with globalized business, prolonged workdays, and constant air travel, the city's center will no longer be the cultural downtown but the airport. Look at Beijing and Amsterdam. For futurists everywhere.
Lelyveld, Joseph. Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India. Knopf. Mar. 2011. 320p. ISBN 9780307269584. $27.95. CD: Random Audio.
A Pulitzer Prize winner, George Polk Award winner (twice), and New York Times fixture for four decades, Lelyveld here aims to give us the real Gandhi-the one who sometimes succeeded (spectacularly) and sometimes failed. Another way to understand India, ever more in the news; with a six-city tour to Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
Lemmon, Gayle Tzemach. The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything To Keep Them Safe. Harper: HarperCollins. Mar. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780061732379. $24.99.
When the Taliban took over Kabul and women could no longer work or attend school, the economy shuddered to a halt. To support her family, Kamela Sediqi began making clothes at home-and soon built up a business that sustains 100 neighborhood women. She's so successful, you can even find her on LinkedIn! Compared (not surprisingly) to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea and even more akin to William Kamkwamba's The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, this sounds like heartfelt inspiration. With a 50,000-copy first printing.
Levin, Gail. Lee Krasner. Morrow. Mar. 2011. 400p. ISBN 9780061845253. $27.99. lrg. prnt.
With a 25,000-copy first printing, Levin's bio is not the biggest book on this list. But to me it's one of the more important ones. A remarkable painter in her own right (one of only four women to receive a retrospective at MoMA), Krasner sometimes gets lost in the glare generated by her high-powered husband, Jackson Pollock. Esteemed art historian Levin, a Krasner expert, should bring the woman and her remarkable milieu to life.
Nichols, David. A. Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis-Suez and the Brink of War. S. & S. Mar. 2011. 336p. ISBN 9781439139332. $28.
Eisenhower expert Nichols revisits the Suez crisis, burrowing into hundreds of newly declassified documents to demonstrate the President's mastery of the situation-which, says Nichols, was not the little skirmish we like to pretend it was. A big book.
Orman, Suze. The Money Class. Spiegel & Grau. Mar. 2011. 304p. ISBN 9781400069736. $26.
With nine back-to-back New York Times best sellers, Oprah fame, her own TV show (No. 1 at CNBC, going strong for nine seasons), and a one-hour PBS special airing in March 2011, Orman is the guide to contemporary finance. Here, she updates our understanding of retirement for the contemporary era.
Polly, Matthew. Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor; An Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts. Gotham: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2011. [PAGES??] ISBN 9781592405992. $26.
Slate travel writer (and former Rhodes scholar) Polly took up mixed martial arts at the creaky age of 36 and trained worldwide, winning his first match against an opponent many years younger. Okay, not my thing, but for the four million students studying at 30,000 martial arts schools nationwide, this should be catnip. And American Shaolin, Polly's wide-ranging account of his time spent in China studying with fighting monks, sold more than 70,000 copies.
Rosenberg, Tina. Join the Club: How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World. Norton. Mar. 2011. 288p. ISBN 9780393068580. $25.95.
Peer pressure. It sounds bad. But Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Rosenberg has a different take, showing how it can help minority students get good grades and even helped precipitate the fall of Milosevic. Pitched as this year's The Tipping Point.
Thubron, Colin. To a Mountain in Tibet. Harper: HarperCollins. Mar. 2011. 224p. ISBN 9780061768262. $25.99.
There are few people I would rather have escort me to Tibet than Thubron, author of the acclaimed Shadow of the Silk Road. He went the hard way, though, trekking by foot along the Karnali River, the highest source of the Ganges. For all armchair travel and spiritual buffs; with a 40,000-copy first printing.
Vowell, Sarah. Unfamiliar Fishes. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Mar. 2011. 272p. ISBN 9781594487873. $25.95.
In 1898, the United States became the big boss of many lands, invading Cuba and the Philippines and annexing Guam, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. Vowell, who loves to see things slant (see The Wordy Shipmates), is especially interested in Hawaii, where carousing whalers met prim missionaries, and the last Hawaiian queen wrote a song performed at President Obama's inauguration.
Xinran. Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love. Scribner. Mar. 2011. 240p. ISBN 9781451610895. $25.
Beijing-born Xinran, now a journalist in London, won acclaim for her sociological study, The Good Women of China. (I myself am partial to her affecting novel, Sky Burial.) Here, she focuses on the fate of China's girls-sometimes put up for adoption, sometimes drowned-and the heartrending consequences for the mothers who gave birth to them. This should get some attention.
CORRECTIONS: Two previously cited Prepub Exploded titles were listed incorrectly: T. Jefferson Parker's forthcoming January title is The Border Lords, and the author of Damage, correctly spelled, is John Lescroart.
