Prepub Exploded: October/November 2010
error: ERROR #6901: XSLT XML Transformer Error: SAXParseException: Expected end of tag 'br' (, line 1, column 523) Jun 3, 2010This expanded version of Prepub Alert wraps up important publications from the months of October and November, with authors ranging from David Baldacci to Lauren Hillenbrand.
Fiction
Baldacci, David. Untitled. Grand Central. Nov. 2010. 432p. ISBN 978-0-446-19552-2. $27.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio.
England's prime minister is visiting, a bomb explodes, and MI-5 agent Mary Chapman is sent over to help with the investigation. The Camel Club gets involved, too (no surprise there). Baldacci is set to deliver two books a year through 2012, so prepare for the onslaught.
Blatty, William Peter. Crazy. Forge. Nov. 2010. 208p. ISBN 978-0-7653-2649-2. $22.99.
In 1940s New York, wild-boy Joey El Bueno meets mysterious Jane Bent (where did she come from? can she really levitate?) and launches a friendship. Billed as funny and nostalgic...from the author of The Exorcist?
Franck, Julia. The Blindness of the Heart. Grove. Oct. 2010. 416p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1967-4. $24.95.
Having survived the horrors of World War II, a German woman named Helene abandons her son in a railway station in 1945 (in stark contrast to the railroad scene in Louis Begley's Wartime Lies). This account of Helene's life until that fateful moment won the German Book Prize and sold over 800,000 copies-and that's just in Germany. Rights have been sold to 35 countries.
Gardam, Jane. God on the Rocks. Europa. Nov. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-1933372-76-1. pap. $15.
Gardam is the only author to have twice claimed the Costa (formerly Whitbread) Book award, but she took some time to catch on in America. This novel appeared in 1978 in the UK and here, briefly, in 1981, but with the successful release of her masterly Old Filth a few years back she's having a big American success. This story relates a summer in the life of young Margaret Marsh, caught among her devout father, disappointed mother, and naughty nanny. Essential for Anglophiles and literary types.
Gingrich, Newt & William R. Forstchen. Valley Forge: George Washington and the Crucible of Victory. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Nov. 2010. 352p. ISBN 978-0-312-59107-6. $27.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
This second in a series begun last year with To Try Men's Souls drops us down into Valley Forge in winter 1776, when food and morale were both running low. Then Baron von Steuben arrives to help whip the army into shape. Should be popular but probably not to be recommended along with Ron Chernow's new Washington bio.
Grass, Gunter. The Box: Tales from the Darkroom. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2010. 160p. ISBN 978-0-547-24503-4. $23.
Fiction or nonfiction? Nobel laureate Grass reimagines himself from the perspective of his eight children, then throws in photos taken by family friend Marie with her old Agfa, which layers the account even more. Calling all literati with a postmodern bent.
Hannah, Barry. Long, Last, Happy: New and Selected Stories. Grove. Nov. 2010. 576p. ISBN 970-0-8021-1968-1. $30.
"Women, God, lust, race, nature, gay Confederates, good old boys, bad old boys, guns...." That's how Vanity Fair Daily clarified works by Hannah, a master storyteller who died in March 2010. This book combines the best of his four published story collections with his final manuscript, which makes it the book to have if you want Hannah represented in your collection. For short story fans and readers interested in "women, God, lust, race, nature...."
Johansen, Iris. Chasing the Night. St. Martin's. Oct. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-312-65119-0. $27.99.
Never give up: that's the motto of CIA agent Catherine Ling, whose two year old was kidnapped eight years ago in an act of revenge. Now Ling has enlisted the help of Eve Duncan, Johansen stalwart, mom of the murdered Bonnie, and forensic sculptor extraordinaire, to track the child. Of course there's a villain out there waiting to corner them. The one-day laydown on October 19 means extra big.
Kadare, Ismail. The Accident. Grove. Nov. 2010. 176p. ISBN 978-0-8021-2995-6. $24.
The accident? A cab crashing into a barrier on the autobahn one rainy morning in Vienna, killing the passenger, who the cabbie said were about to kiss. What unfolds is the story of a mysterious affair. Lovers of good literature will want this latest from Albanian author Kadare, winner of the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005.
Kleypas, Lisa. Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor. St. Martin's. Nov. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-0-312-60586-5. $16.99.
When Friday Harbor's local radio station broadcasts "Dear Santa" letters, everyone knows that the little girl asking for a mom is Halle Nolan, whose own mom died a few years ago. Alas for Halle's dad-now the matchmakers are really at work. A new series from a New York Times best-selling author, so be prepared for demand.
Mapson, Jo-Ann. Solomon's Oak. Bloomsbury USA. Oct. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-1-60819-330-1. $25.
Three people meet under Solomon's oak: the young, widowed Glory, who helps support herself by hosting weddings in the chapel her husband built under the tree's ancient boughs; a pierced and tattooed teenager named Juniper, now homeless; and a former Albuquerque police officer still in pain from an on-the-job injury who wants to photograph all of California's big trees. Fans of Mapson's Hank and Chloe know that these characters will interact lushly; nice to have Mapson back, I was wondering.
Ozick, Cynthia. Foreign Bodies. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-547-43557-2. $26.
Ozick's novels are so weighty that it feels as if she has written dozens, but this is only her sixth. It retells Henry James's The Ambassadors in mirror image, with a divorced schoolteacher reluctantly traveling to Paris to retrieve a wayward nephew. Lots of reading group promotion and good for the right bunch.
Pronzini, Bill. The Hidden: A Novel of Suspense. Walker. Nov. 2010. 224p. ISBN 978-0-8027-1800-6. $24.
The Coastline Killer is committing random acts of violence along California's northern coast, so why does a troubled young couple opt to spend the holidays at an isolated cabin near the water? So that Prozini, a Mystery Writers of America grand master, can write another chiller.
Sister Souljah.Untitled. Atria. Nov. 2010. 512p. ISBN 978-1-4391-6535-5. $26.99.
Ten years ago, Sister Souljah conquered street lit with The Coldest Winter Ever, then followed up with Midnight. Here she picks up where the last book left off, with her teenaged protagonist seeking his wife in Japan. Buy wherever street lit is popular; with a five-city tour to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York.
Trevor, William. Collected Stories. Vol. 2. Nov. 2010. 608p. ISBN 978-0-670-02206-9. $35.Aside from 14 novels, Trevor published 12 collections of short stories, with the first "collected" appearing in 1993. This second volume includes 48 stories from After Rain, The Hill Bachelors, A Bit on the Side, and Cheating at Canasta. Trevor is an absolute master-he's won four O. Henrys and three Whitbreads-and this should work well as either introduction or replacement for those battered copies of the original collections.
Vachss, Andrew. The Weight. Pantheon. Nov. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-307-37919-1. $25.95. When hardcore thief Sugar is accused of rape, he can't exactly offer an alibi: at the time, he and his partners were staging a huge break-in at a jewelry store. After completing his sentence for the first crime, he goes to collect his share of the jewelry-store loot-and discovers some complications. Vachss didn't fare so well when he stepped away from Burke with 2009's Haiku; let's see how this one works.
VanLiere, Donna. The Christmas Journey. St. Martin's. Nov. 2010. 96p. ISBN 978-0-312-61372-3. $14.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.VanLiere wrote this narrative for a church Christmas banquet, hoping to bring back the "wonderment" lost to one of the world's best-known journeys-Joseph and Mary's excursion to the tax office in Jerusalem, where Mary was subsequently delivered of the Savior. Look for lots of promotion when Lifetime airs VanLiere's The Christmas Secret, from last year.
Nonfiction
Ban Breathnach, Sarah. Peace and Plenty: Finding Your Path to Financial Security. Grand Central. Nov. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-0-446-56174-7. $24.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. Published in 1998, Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance has since sold five million-count 'em, five million-copies, spending more than two years in the No. 1 spot on the New York Times best sellers list. So this work, about finding ways to harvest one's resources in these parlous times by learning the blessings of the everyday, should do well indeed-though I would have expected a bigger promotional push.
Braestrup, Kate. Beginner's Grace: Bringing Prayer to Life. Free Pr. Nov. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-4391-8426-4. $25.
Braestrup had a huge best seller-and a Discover Great New Writers award winner-with Here If You Need Me, a 2007 memoir about her work as Unitarian-Universalist chaplain to the Maine Warden Service after her husband's death. Her Marriage and Other Acts of Charity, a spiritual living-type book, was not as big but had strong appeal to that core audience. So will this book, a discussion of the different ways to pray.
Firstbrook, Peter. The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family. Crown. Nov. 2010. 304p. ISBN 978-0-307-59140-1. $26.
To write this book, former award-winning BBC producer/director Firstbrook ventured five times to Kenya, interviewing dozens of Obama's Luo relatives to build an account that goes back 400 years and covers 23 generations. He's also got never-before-seen photos and footage of the interviews that will be used to promote the book. Yes, Obama is a tenth great-grandchild of a warrior not to be messed with, and yes, this is Obama's Roots-I don't want to repeat the promo, but it's true. Gee, no audio?
FreeDarko.The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. Bloomsbury USA. Nov. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-60819-083-6. $25.
Never heard or FreeDarko? It's a blogging collective that turned out The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac in 2008 and made a certain kind of history. (Time Out called it "Emersonian.") This goes deeper; it even compares Red Auerbach to filmmaker John Cassavetes. Cool, if I don't say so myself.
Gourmet Magazine. The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe from Each Year; 1941-2009. Nov. 2010. 176p. ISBN 978-0-547-32816-4. $18.
From Cajun Macaroons to Glittering Lemon Sandwich Cookies, the best cookie recipe from each year of Gourmet's existence. I want this book, and, given how big cookery is in public libraries nationwide-our book-buying surveys prove it-this belongs in most collections.
Kissinger, Henry. Untitled on China. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2010. 400p. ISBN 978-1-59420-271-1. $32.95.
Ever the scholar, Kissinger can't just talk about Sino-American relations over the past six decades and his considerable part in the diplomatic dance involved; he goes back to China's early history as a power so vast it had no equal yet preferred subtlety to military action. Sounds like him, doesn't it? Expect lots of attention for this one.
Marable, Manning. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Viking. Nov. 2010. 608p. ISBN 978-0-670-02220-5. $30.
With nearly 3.5 million copies of The Autobiography of Malcolm X in print, why do we need a biography? Evidently, Marable, founding director of African American studies at Columbia, drew on lots of new material, including diaries, lost chapters of the autobiography, and previously unavailable FBI files. Plus there's the value of a different perspective. Important.
Potter, Wendell. Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. Bloomsbury. Nov. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-1-60819-281-6. $26.
"For twenty years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies. I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick-all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors." Potter's June 2009 testimony before the Senate explains the import of this book better than I could. I hope this is as good as it sounds.
Scottoline, Lisa with Francesca Scottoline Serritella. My Nest Isn't Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space. St. Martin's. Nov. 2010. 256p. ISBN 978-0-312-66229-5. $22.99. CD: Macmillan Audio.
Published last year, Scottoline's Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog-a collection drawn from the author's "Chick Wit" column, which appears weekly in the Philadelphia Inquirer-grabbed as many readers as the famous Scottoline thrillers. This compendium of "true-life stories" about lost keys, chin hair, and grrrudges was written with Scottoline's daughter, who won a stack of writing awards while at Harvard. Just enough of a difference to keep this fresh. With a one-day laydown on November 2.
Streisand, Barbra. My Passion for Design. Viking. Nov. 2010. 288p. ISBN 978-0-670-02213-7. $60.
The very first book from Barbra, and it's not about singing/acting but about her interest in decorating/design, with a glimpse into her many homes. But of course there's an audience.
Talty, Stephan. Escape from the Land of Snows: The Young Dalai Lama's Harrowing Flight to Freedom and the Making of a Spiritual Hero. Crown. Nov. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-307-46095-0. $26.
Icon of world peace, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959, when an uprising against Communist rule promised fierce bloodshed. Here's betting that Talty, author of terrific books like The Illustrious Dead, will persuasively capture the dangerous two-week flight undertaken by the Dalai Lama and his emotions as an embattled teenager charged with saving his nation.
Twain, Mark. Autobiography of Mark Twain. Vol. 1. Univ. of California. Nov. 2010. 743p. ISBN 978-0-520-26719-0. $34.95.
When Twain settled down to write his autobiography, he didn't come up with anything standard but instead dictated a flow of reflections in no particular sequence. The resulting work has been published in three different versions over the last 100 years since Twain's death, but now the publisher is committed to presenting the work in its entirety, exactly as Twain meant it; volumes 2 and 3 will appear over the next two years. Billed as an authoritative edition from the Mark Twain Project; important for major libraries.
Warwick, Dionne with David Freeman Wooley. The Amazing Dionne Warwick Story. Atria. Nov. 2010. 384p. ISBN 978-1-4391-7134-9. $25.99.
Forty-two albums. Fifty-plus hits on Billboard's Top 100. Five Grammies. Warwick did all that and still had time for humanitarian causes. Sounds less like autobiography, more like personal reflections.
My Picks
Carroll, Jim. The Petting Zoo. Viking. Nov. 2010. 320p. ISBN 978-0-670-02218-2. $25.95.
Carroll published six volumes of poetry, taking his maiden voyage while still in high school, and was intimately familiar with the St. Mark's-associated literary scene of 1960s New York. His edgy and alluring memoir, The Basketball Diaries, which detailed his heroin addiction and the prostitution that supported it even as he played basketball for prestigious Trinity High School in New York, was released the same year he formed the Jim Carroll Band and crashed the New Wave/punk rock scene. Even if I didn't know all this-and in fact I didn't know all this-I would want to grab Carroll's very long-awaited first novel, being published after his death in 2009. Protagonist Billy Wolfram absolutely rocks the late 1980s New York art scene but is so overcome when viewing an exhibit of Vel?quez paintings that he falls apart and holes up in his loft. Vel?quez does that to me, too, but, more to the point, here is what I love: a novel that investigates the alive and thrashing spiritual power of art-from someone who should know. Can't wait.
Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Random. Nov. 2010. 496p. ISBN 978-1-4000-6416-8. $27. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio.
With nearly six million copies in print, Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit is not just a major award winner but reputedly the world's best-selling sports book to date-and the author's second book is nothing like it. While researching the great racehorse, Hillenbrand happened to flip over a newspaper clipping and saw an account of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete (ironically, once compared to Seabiscuit) who served as an Army Air Force bombardier during World War II. In 1943, he crashed into the Pacific and managed to survive 47 days on a raft, fending off sharks, storms, and a Japanese bomber. Even more remarkably, Zamperini is still alive and working as a religious educator in California; he cooperated with Hillenbrand's seven-year effort to write this book. Random Senior VP Jennifer Hershey raved about this book at the Editors' Picks panel at LJ's Day of Dialog before BEA. No doubt about it; this will be huge.
This Just In
Shakespeare, William. Double Falsehood. (The Arden Shakespeare, Third Edition). Methuen, dist. by Bloomsbury. 2010. ISBN 978-1-903-43677-6. $22.
A new play by Shakespeare? That's been argued since 1727, when Lewis Theobald presented Double Falsehood; Or, The Distrest Lovers with the claim that it was "written originally by W. Shakespeare"-with some reworking from Theobald, the nerve. History shows that a play probably called The History of Cardenio, by John Fletcher and William Shakespeare, was performed in 1613 and evidently lost. Is Double Falsehood really Shakespeare's lost play? Some scholars are moving toward tentative acceptance, and Arden, which publishes a complete edition of the plays in paperback, has now added this edition, which includes a lengthy introduction examining the long-simmering debate. My sense after reading Act I; okay, someone's been messing with Shakespeare, or maybe we've got a draft here, but it's definitely worth looking into this to keep the debate going.<
