Books A Million January 2013

America’s Book Review | www.bookpage.com JAN 2013

C’MON,GETHAPPYFresh strategies fora happier you

LOSE WEIGHT,FEELGREATGetting back on trackwith new diet books

THEHUSBAND LIST

A Gilded Age rompfrom Janet Evanovich

THE FINALCHAPTER

The 14th and final bookof the epic fantasy series

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paperback picksPENGUIN.COM

All Necessary Force

A terrorist hit is coming. CIA, FBI, and Department of Defense systems have spiked, but traditional intel is going nowhere. It falls to the Taskforce—a top secret team that exists outside the bounds of U.S. law and is charged with finding and destroying asymmetric threats—to stop the unknown conspirators…

9780451415936 • $9.99

Perfect Fit

When Mike returns as Cara’s boss, the sexual tension between them is impossible to ignore. Both are convinced a future together is impossible. Until Mike’s real father’s secrets come back to haunt him and he realizes there are some things worth staying and fighting for. Including Cara.

9780425259719 • $7.99

Covert Warriors

At a Mexican roadblock, a US Embassy SUV is stopped at gunpoint, three of its passengers mur-dered, and a fourth kidnapped. Castillo & Company believe the murders and kidnapping were ordered to lure them to their deaths. Powerful forces in the US government are arrayed against them as well, and if one side doesn’t get them...the other side will.

9780515151268 • $9.99

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Choke Point

When the American ambassador to Colombia is kidnapped, the Ghost Recon team battles its way through rebels and discovers evidence of a new Islamic fundamentalist group. Their goal: stop the flow of oil in the Indian Ocean and cause devastating international economic chaos. Ghost Recon’s goal: stop them at all costs.

9780425264751 • $9.99

Taken

When Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are hired to find a missing girl, the investigation derails into a nightmare. Cole himself disappears and Pike is left to burn through the deadly world of human traffickers to find his friend. But he may already be too late.

9780425250594 • $9.99

Chance of a Lifetime

Emily’s writing group stumbles through both the fiction and reality of their lives—they’re learning much more than how to write. But Emily suddenly has other things on her mind when a friend from her past shows up in Harmony’s library. Now she must deal with a secret she’s kept for 15 years—a secret that changed her life and threatens to shatter her future.

9780425250525 • $7.99

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARYA Penguin Group (USA) Company

Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well—until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core. Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he’s determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached. But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won’t be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her… down to her very soul.

The New York Times bestseller! Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare…

9780451419705 • $15

Weekends Required

To support her ailing mother, Claire is forced to work a second job at a party-planning company. But when her handsome boss ends up with a front-row seat to the action, she’s mortified—and he’s intrigued. The more time they spend to-gether, the more he realizes how much he wants to offer her a happily ever after of her own.

9780451419613 • $7.99

Sea Glass Winter

Claire Templeton moved her troubled teenage son to the small town of Shelter Bay. But when his attitude earns her a visit from the handsome basketball coach, she wonders if this role model might be too much of a temptation—for her. But what she doesn’t realize is that Dillon isn’t playing games—he’s playing for keeps… .

9780451238931 • $7.99

3

paperback picksPENGUIN.COM

All Necessary Force

A terrorist hit is coming. CIA, FBI, and Department of Defense systems have spiked, but traditional intel is going nowhere. It falls to the Taskforce—a top secret team that exists outside the bounds of U.S. law and is charged with finding and destroying asymmetric threats—to stop the unknown conspirators…

9780451415936 • $9.99

Perfect Fit

When Mike returns as Cara’s boss, the sexual tension between them is impossible to ignore. Both are convinced a future together is impossible. Until Mike’s real father’s secrets come back to haunt him and he realizes there are some things worth staying and fighting for. Including Cara.

9780425259719 • $7.99

Covert Warriors

At a Mexican roadblock, a US Embassy SUV is stopped at gunpoint, three of its passengers mur-dered, and a fourth kidnapped. Castillo & Company believe the murders and kidnapping were ordered to lure them to their deaths. Powerful forces in the US government are arrayed against them as well, and if one side doesn’t get them...the other side will.

9780515151268 • $9.99

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Choke Point

When the American ambassador to Colombia is kidnapped, the Ghost Recon team battles its way through rebels and discovers evidence of a new Islamic fundamentalist group. Their goal: stop the flow of oil in the Indian Ocean and cause devastating international economic chaos. Ghost Recon’s goal: stop them at all costs.

9780425264751 • $9.99

Taken

When Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are hired to find a missing girl, the investigation derails into a nightmare. Cole himself disappears and Pike is left to burn through the deadly world of human traffickers to find his friend. But he may already be too late.

9780425250594 • $9.99

Chance of a Lifetime

Emily’s writing group stumbles through both the fiction and reality of their lives—they’re learning much more than how to write. But Emily suddenly has other things on her mind when a friend from her past shows up in Harmony’s library. Now she must deal with a secret she’s kept for 15 years—a secret that changed her life and threatens to shatter her future.

9780425250525 • $7.99

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARYA Penguin Group (USA) Company

Four years ago, Jocelyn left her tragic past behind in the States and started over in Scotland, burying her grief, ignoring her demons, and forging ahead without attachments. Her solitary life is working well—until she moves into a new apartment on Dublin Street where she meets a man who shakes her carefully guarded world to its core. Braden Carmichael is used to getting what he wants, and he’s determined to get Jocelyn into his bed. Knowing how skittish she is about entering a relationship, Braden proposes an arrangement that will satisfy their intense attraction without any strings attached. But after an intrigued Jocelyn accepts, she realizes that Braden won’t be satisfied with just mind-blowing passion. The stubborn Scotsman is intent on truly knowing her… down to her very soul.

The New York Times bestseller! Jocelyn Butler has been hiding from her past for years. But all her secrets are about to be laid bare…

9780451419705 • $15

Weekends Required

To support her ailing mother, Claire is forced to work a second job at a party-planning company. But when her handsome boss ends up with a front-row seat to the action, she’s mortified—and he’s intrigued. The more time they spend to-gether, the more he realizes how much he wants to offer her a happily ever after of her own.

9780451419613 • $7.99

Sea Glass Winter

Claire Templeton moved her troubled teenage son to the small town of Shelter Bay. But when his attitude earns her a visit from the handsome basketball coach, she wonders if this role model might be too much of a temptation—for her. But what she doesn’t realize is that Dillon isn’t playing games—he’s playing for keeps… .

9780451238931 • $7.99

contentsw w w . B o o k P a g e . c o m

January 2013

a m e r i c a ’ s B o o k r e v i e w

PUBLISHERMichael A. Zibart

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERJulia Steele

EDITORLynn L. Green

MAnAgIng EDITORTrisha Ping

ASSOCIATE EDITORKate Pritchard

ASSOCIATE EDITOREliza Borné

ASSISTAnT EDITORCat Acree

COnTRIBUTIng EDITORSukey Howard

CHILDREn’S BOOkSAllison Hammond

COnTRIBUTORRoger Bishop

CUSTOMER SERvICEAlice Fitzgibbon

PRODUCTIOn MAnAgERPenny Childress

SUBSCRIPTIOn MAnAgERElizabeth Grace Herbert

AD COMMUnICATIOnSAngela J. Bowman

EDITORIAL InTERnBrooke Allen

EDITORIAL POLICyBookPage is a selection guide for new books. Our editors evaluate and select for review the best books published each month in a variety of categories. Only books we highly recommend are featured.

BookPage is editorially independent and never accepts payment for editorial coverage.

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All material © 2013 by ProMotion, inc.

features05 The Wheel Of TIme

The conclusion to the best-selling saga

13 Brad melTzerMeet the author of The Fifth Assassin

14 eleanOr mOrSeSet in Africa, a novel of the human heart

24 JennIfer ChIaverInIThe former slave who inspired a novel

25 STePhen hunTer Looking for answers at Dealey Plaza

27 SOnJa lyuBOmIrSkyRedefining joy in The Myths of Happiness

28 PerSOnal fInanCeAdvice for your wallet and your career

29 dIeT & healThLosing weight to transform your life

33 BrITISh fICTIOn SPOTlIGhTBooks with “Upstairs Downstairs” drama

37 Clare vanderPOOlA new novel from the Newbery Winner

39 SnOWy PICTure BOOkSCozy reading for chilly days

39 STeve BreenMeet the author-illustrator of Pug & Doug

columns04 BOOk fOrTuneS04 The auThOr enaBler06 WhOdunIT08 rOmanCe09 BOOk CluBS10 COOkInG10 audIO 12 lIfeSTyleS

38

39

Ring in the new year by taking the first steps on your path to a happier, healthier life.

26 the pursuit of happiness

reviews32 fICTIOn

t o p p i c k : Me Before You by Jojo Moyes a l s o r e v i e w e d :

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black The History of Us by Leah Stewart Tenth of December by George Saunders The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

35 nOnfICTIOn t o p p i c k : She Matters by Susanna Sonnenberg a l s o r e v i e w e d :

The Universe Within by Neil Shubin On the Map by Simon Garfield Chanel Bonfire by Wendy Lawless The Fall of the House of Dixie by Bruce Levine The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond Kill Anything That Moves by Nick Turse

Subscribe to our free e-newsletters!GeT mOre BOOkPaGe

• BookPageXTRA • Top 10• Book of the Day• Children’s Corner

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38 ChIldren’S t o p p i c k : Just One Day by Gayle Forman a l s o r e v i e w e d :

Hokey Pokey by Jerry Spinelli Gingersnap by Patricia Reilly Giff Splintered by A.G. Howard

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The auThOr enaBlerB y s a m B a r r y

BOOk fOrTuneS

Our crystal ball predicts your next great read

Reader name: ShawntayeHometown: Lexington, KYFavorite genre: literary fiction and creative nonfictionFavorite books: Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen); Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand); The History of Love (Nicole Krauss); Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Like so many BookPage readers, Shawntaye is passionate about the written word. “I love when a book is so beautifully written I have to stop often and re-read a passage over and over and over again,” she wrote. “I also enjoy reading books with various themes and lots of symbolism: a book I can analyze in my mind or with others for days after finishing it. And I enjoy work that is reflective. If a book manages to be all three, I’m in heaven.” That’s a tall order, but I believe there are many books that will appeal to this thoughtful reader.

In particular, I recommend Heft by Liz Moore, which is now available in paperback. (It would be perfect for book clubs!) Moore weaves the first-person narrative of a morbidly obese man in Brooklyn with the story of a poor baseball prodigy in Yonkers. The novel is both sad and lovely, and I found myself underlin-ing many lyrical passages (when I wasn’t wiping away tears). Like the best fiction, it unfolds in surprising and satisfying ways.

As far as creative nonfiction, a fan of Eat, Pray, Love should enjoy two recent memoirs that detail transfor-mative experiences abroad. Radio Shangri-La by Lisa Napoli is about the author’s experience in Bhutan (a country that measures its suc-cess in “Gross National Happiness” instead of GDP). After traveling to the capital city of Thimphu, a place remarkably untouched by outside media, Napoli advises a youth radio station and meets many charming

people—of course, changing her own life along the way. In Sideways on a Scooter, author Miranda Ken-nedy quits her job in New York City and moves to Delhi. Though her own candid coming-of-age story is fascinating, readers will be especial-ly interested in Kennedy’s depiction of the challenges women face in contemporary Indian society. Reader name: Larry Hometown: Acton, MA Favorite genres: historical fiction, history Favorite books: Caleb’s Crossing (Geraldine Brooks); Sarah’s Key (Ta-tiana de Rosnay); Those Who Save Us (Jenna Blum); Truman (David McCullough); Mayflower (Nathaniel Philbrick)

Ah, historical fiction. There are so many wonderful choices! Chief among any list of recommendations should be the four historical novels written by Hilary Mantel—with a particular emphasis on Wolf Hall, a portrait of Thomas Cromwell. Both this novel and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, won the Booker Prize. Read these books and be fully im-mersed in Henry VIII’s court.

Another good bet is The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, a novel set in France and Hungary during the 1930s and ’40s. Though a 600-plus-page story of the Holocaust may sound like difficult reading, Orrin-ger’s old-fashioned epic is beauti-fully written and a powerful tale. We also loved The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean, a story of trauma, love and hope set during the 1941 siege of Leningrad. In the story, a museum docent takes refuge in the Hermitage and creates a “memory palace” in her mind.

Finally, readers interested in American history should not miss two recent books about our third president. Master of the Mountain by Henry Wiencek confronts Jef-ferson’s relationship with slavery and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power is an elegant biography by Jon Meacham. BookPage reviewer Roger Bishop wrote that it is “surely one of the best single volumes about him written in our time.”

For a chance at your own book fortune, email [email protected] with your name, hometown and your favorite genre(s), author(s) and book(s).

B y e l i z a B o r n écolumns

Practical advice on writing & publishing for aspiring authors

JudGInG a BOOkDear Author Enabler,

It seems that many times the layout, typeface and artwork of new books are very similar to one another. As a retired graphic designer, it surprises me that a professional assumes that a successful cover for one book would work just as well for another. I’ve also noticed that many self-published eBooks have the same type of covers copied over and over. Why does this professional “lazi-ness” (IMHO) occur? Do new authors have any input on the cover art of their book? How do new/young cover designers break into the business?

MiLee BelastoWinter Springs, Florida

There are trends and fads in the design of book covers. Publishers imitate the covers of successful books, hoping that some of the mag-ic will rub off. And there is another, more practical reason for repetition: With only a few moments to capture consumers’ eyes, the cover needs to communicate instantly “this is a thriller” or “this is a cookbook.” This need for a clear message often results in imitation. Given these con-straints, I am struck by the number of beautiful covers I see. There are a lot of creative people engaged in designing books today.

In general the author isn’t in a po-sition to insist on a particular cover design, or for that matter, title. Art directors make the best decisions on creating attractive, effective covers.

I suggest that new artists offer their services on a freelance basis to self-published authors; this can lead to revenue in the present and the chance of future work with estab-lished publishers. And of course there is the traditional route: reach-ing out to art directors at publishing houses and asking them to take a look at your portfolio.

TrIal & errOrDear Author Enabler,

Having worked for over 30 years in a job that involved a lot of proof-reading, I am increasingly frustrated by the number of errors I find in the many books I read. The impression is that no one bothers with proofread-ing; they just run the text through a

spell-checker and think that takes care of the problem. I am a very fast and accurate proofreader—do you know of any way I could offer my services to authors who seem un-interested in doing it for themselves?

Penny MasonColumbus, Ohio

There certainly is a need for proof-readers. Books, especially self-pub-lished books, are increasingly riddled with errors and inconsistencies. As a writer, I don’t know what I would do without capable people like Lynn Green, my editor at BookPage, or the editors of my books, Michelle Witte and Brendan O’Neill. To find clients in need of your proofreading skills, I would suggest advertising in journals that writers read—such as BookPage, Writers Digest, Poets & Writers—and getting the word out to publishing people via bookstores, libraries, social networks, creative writing de-partments and writers’ conferences.

Correction: Several professional proofreaders were disappointed by an answer in my November col-umn, in which I advised that it was acceptable to have “someone close to you proofread your work.” Ceil Goldman of Ormond Beach, Florida, writes, “Your thoughts on ‘proof-reading’ make it seem more like an editing function. The term in the last few decades has been conflated with editing and copyediting, but a proofreader does not give critiques, honest or not; their job is to compare the current draft with the previous production draft and mark errors.”

Cliché alert: In response to our reference to the hair-tucking explo-sion in fiction, many vigilant readers reported similar complaints. “I’ve noticed that most of the striking characters in novels have an ‘aqui-line nose,’ ” writes Mary Warren of Worth, Illinois. Jean Lamoureux of Villa Park, Illinois, observes, “Too many books have a character with green eyes. Seriously, how many green-eyed people does anyone know?” [At least one—your Author Enabler has green eyes.]

Send your questions about writing and publishing to [email protected].

5

Available in stores everywhere!

#1 New York Times bestselling author

A new tale of romance from the

12_441_BookPage_BSRiver.indd 1 12-11-30 4:21 PM

Like the progress of time itself, this remarkable fantasy series has had a long and circuitous journey. Author James Oliver Rigney Jr. launched the series in 1990, writing under the pen name Robert Jordan, and continued it until his death in 2007.

After reading a heartfelt eulogy to Jordan by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, Jordan’s widow and edi-tor, Harriet McDougal, chose Sander-son for the difficult task of wrapping up the epic series. Working from Jordan’s voluminous notes, outlines, character lists and scenes (including the ending), Sanderson has com-pleted the final three books in the series: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light.

The final hefty volume, at more than 900 pages, will provide the an-swer that readers have clamored for: How will the Last Battle play out?

To provide a satisfying answer to that question, Sanderson was assist-ed by the members of “Team Jordan,” which includes Harriet McDougal, as well as longtime assistants/editors Maria Simons and Alan Romanczuk. We asked McDougal a few questions about this final chapter.

With Robert Jordan you did “curb-side editing” (editing a man-uscript as it was written, chapter by chapter). How did your process work with Sanderson?

Harriet McDougal: With Brandon, Alan and Maria and I made broad-

gauge suggestions and agreed with him on major trajectories, back in the spring of 2011. In early 2012, Brandon delivered a draft to us. We worked on this draft for weeks, sent revision suggestions back, doing this in bunches all spring long. In the summer of 2012 we worked long weeks on more revisions.

It was a different process. Remem-ber, by the time of Jordan’s death we had worked together on about 20 books, Maria had been working with us for almost 12 years, and Alan for six.

It was more like working with Jor-dan on one of his early manuscripts. In the later books, he had already learned everything that would drive me nuts, so he didn’t do those things anymore.

What was the hardest part of see-ing the series through to comple-tion after your husband’s death?

The repeated reminder that he was no longer alive.

Can you share a favorite scene from A Memory of Light or from the series as a whole?

I have never forgotten Hopper’s death and joyful flight. Other than that, I love the whole series. And A Memory of Light as a whole.

How do you feel about the series coming to an end?

Sadness, joy and relief.

B y B e t h e . w i l l i a m s

The day that fans have been eagerly anticipating for more than 20 years arrives on January 8 with the publication of A Memory of Light, the final entry

in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

a fInal Turn fOr The Wheel Of TIme

a memOry Of lIGhT

By robert Jordan and Brandon SandersonTor, $34.99, 912 pages

ISBn 9780765325952, audio, eBook available

cover story

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harrIeT mcdOuGal

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John Connolly’s Charlie Parker books push the limits of the who-dunit genre. They read like detec-tive novels, but then they step over the line into Stephen King country, where apparitions dance at the periphery of the senses and where evil becomes palpable—and ever so believable. Connolly’s latest, The Wrath of Angels (Atria, $26, 480 pages, ISBN 9781476703022), finds the intrepid P.I. sitting in a bar, listening to a strange tale about a private airplane that went down in the dense woods of northern Maine. A pair of elderly hunters stumbled upon the scene long after the crash, and the plane gave up a couple—but only a couple—of its secrets: a seat with a handcuff attached (but no person or remains present) and a satchel full of money accompanied by a curious list of names and numbers. Both hunt-ers are now dead, and their fam-ily members want some closure around the whole affair. In short order they will fervently wish that they had never stirred up those ghosts. This tale is spooky, macabre and deliciously entertaining from start to finish.

a COmPrOmISInG POSITIOnThough I suppose murder could

be committed in any number of ways, it is nonetheless unusual for modern-day cops to be investigating a homicide performed via crossbow. However, that is exactly what Chief Inspector Alan Banks is doing in Peter Rob-

inson’s latest Yorkshire police procedural, Watching the Dark (Morrow, $25.99, 368 pages, ISBN 9780062004802). The victim is one Bill Quinn, a decorated policeman

and recent widower who was by all accounts devoted to his wife. That seems to be at odds with lurid photos found near the crime scene, however: photos of Quinn in flagrante delicto with a beauti-ful, perhaps underage, girl. Was he being blackmailed? And if so, was he murdered because the blackmail-ers had no real hold over him after his wife’s death? Banks is convinced that the murder is related to a case

Quinn investigated six years back, when a girl went missing in Tallinn. So with many more questions than answers in hand, Banks sets off for Estonia in search of clues. Taut suspense, complex characters and deft storytelling combine in this whodunit tour-de-force.

IrISh InveSTIGaTIOnPolitics makes strange bedfellows

—rarely so much as in postwar Ireland, where a number of Nazi collaborators were given sanctu-ary and set up with new identities. Fast forward to 1963, where Stuart Neville’s edgy political thriller, Ratlines (Soho, $26.95, 368 pages, ISBN 9781616952044), begins. John F. Kennedy is about to visit the Em-erald Isle, the first world leader to pay a state visit to the newly formed republic. Shortly before Kennedy’s arrival, a German immigrant is murdered in an Irish resort town; this is potentially a devastating embarrassment for the government, as the dead man was a wanted Nazi war criminal, hiding in plain sight for some 18 years. For investiga-tor Albert Ryan, his brief is short and sweet: Find the killer, keep the investigation on the down low, and bury it without a trace. This will be no easy feat for Ryan, who is caught between the conflicting mandates of his government handlers and the powerful Nazis they have shielded

for so long. According to Neville’s prologue, the setup is real-life his-tory and the rest is “just a story.” But what a story it is!

TOP PICk In mySTeryIn the early days of “Law & Order,”

the commercial spots advertising upcoming episodes be-gan with the catchphrase, “Ripped from the headlines.” Now, Dick Wolf, the producer of the show, has turned his hand to writing—and once again, that lead-in is dead on, as evidenced by his debut thriller, The Intercept, a tale of modern-day terrorism set at what must surely be the epicenter of terror, Manhat-tan’s Ground Zero. A terrorist

threat clouds the upcoming July 4th dedication of the new One World Trade Center project, and NYPD detective Jeremy Fisk is tasked with heading the investigation. The cost of failure is unthinkable, as the president and countless other lumi-naries will be on hand for the Inde-pendence Day festivities, and the gaze of the world will be fixed on the event. Fisk should be the perfect agent for the job: He is fluent in Arabic and versed in the nuances of the terrorist mind. Nonetheless, he cannot seem to catch a break; every lead either blows up in his face or proves to be a time-wasting red her-ring. And time is something Fisk can ill afford to waste.

In moving from the small screen to the printed page, Wolf has clearly lost not one iota of his ability to deliver first-rate suspense “ripped from the headlines.”

WhOdunITB y B r u c e t i e r n e y

The InTerCePT

By dick WolfMorrow$27.99, 400 pagesISBn 9780062064837eBook available

SuSPenSe

aPParITIOnS In Plane SIGhT

columns

Taut suspense, complex characters and deft storytelling combine in Watching the Dark, a whodunit tour-de-force.

THE DEADSHALL

NOT REST

TESSAHARRIS

A DR. THOMASSILKSTONE MYSTERY

The brilliant anatomistDr. Thomas Silkstonereturns in this vivid

and compellingmystery series set in

1780s London…

ALSO AVAILABLE

“Densely plotted...we await—indeed we demand—the sequel.”

—The New York Times Book Review

kensingtonbooks.com • tessaharris.com

�

�

“Well-roundedcharacters, cleverly

concealed evidence, andan assured prose stylepoint to a long run forthis historical series.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY,

starred review

8

rOmanCeB y c h r i s t i e r i d g w a y

columns

Kat Murray offers a feel-good contemporary Western romance in Taking the Reins (Brava, $9.95, 288 pages, ISBN 9780758281043). Peyton Muldoon loves her family ranch above all else, and she is working hard to get it back on its feet, despite the pressure she feels as a woman in a man’s world. There’s also the mem-ory of her dead mother to battle. The shallow woman’s choices—includ-ing her affair with the nasty char-acter she hired as a horse trainer—nearly destroyed Peyton’s legacy. But Peyton has kicked the bad guy out, and she rejoices when the best man for the job becomes available. Red Callahan has an impeccable reputation as well as a penchant for

taking on only short-term assign-ments . . . but Peyton’s determina-tion gets under Red’s skin and has him rethinking the appeal of putting down roots. Will Peyton let him get close, or is she too stubborn to see that she’s nothing like her mother? Well-detailed and spiced with a touch of suspense, this sexy read goes down easy.

a GIlded affaIrThe Husband List (St. Mar-

tin’s, $27.99, 320 pages, ISBN 9780312651329) by Janet Evanov-ich and Dorien Kelly is a histori-cal romance spiced with a dash of intrigue. In 1894, American heiress Caroline Maxwell is being pres-sured by her mother to marry into the English aristocracy. She has managed to frighten off titled men before, but now that Lord Bremer-ton is to arrive in America, Caro-line’s mother is determined that her daughter will be his bride. Caroline, however, longs for independence and adventure, and she sees a way to both in her brother’s handsome best pal, brash Irish-American Jack Culhane. Though Jack enjoys his bachelor status, Caroline is making

marriage sound bet-ter by the minute. The two fall in love, but it may prove impossible to overcome maternal expectations and the unsavory Lord Bremerton’s resolve to have Caroline as his wife. Details of Newport mansions, Worth gowns and a transatlantic ocean voy-age infuse this gently sensual and sparkling story of childhood friends becoming so much more. A frothy tale of Gilded Age fun.

TOP PICk In rOmanCeA paranormal adventure brings

romance into the lives of two people with special talents in Dream Eyes by Jayne Ann Krentz. Psychic coun-selor Gwen Frazier is accustomed to talking to ghosts, but she feels an ur-gent jolt when the spirit of her men-tor starts communicating. Gwen’s slain friend was part of a research group that was stalked two years before—some of the members were murdered—and she knows it’s time to get to the bottom of these crimes. Sent to her aid in the small Oregon town is Judson Coppersmith, a psychic investigator. Gwen and Judson had met once before, though in spite of their mutual attraction they didn’t pursue romance; Judson hadn’t felt ready for a relationship. When Judson and Gwen inevitably fall into bed after their reunion, they tell themselves they’re only working off the stress of their sleuthing. But their attachment only grows—not to mention their worry that they might not live to experience a future together. Imaginative and exciting, this tale will have readers guessing (and second-guessing) their way to its conclusion.

dream eyeS

By Jayne ann krentzPutnam$26.95, 336 pagesISBn 9780399158957Audio, eBook available

ParanOrmal rOmanCe

In lOve In The COunTry

All available as eBooks Visit LibraryLoveFest.com for more great reading

by HARPERCOLLINSFacebook.com/AvonRomance • AvonRomance.com

Novel Reads

The Lady Most Willing …by Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway After the success of The Lady Most Likely, New York Times bestselling authors Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, and Connie Brockway have joined

together once again, but this time to ask the question, who is The Lady Most Willing?

When Laird Taran Ferguson’s nephews refuse to wed and secure his birthright, he raids a ball and kidnaps four likely brides—a bonny lass, an heiress with a slight reputation problem, a rich English beauty, and a maiden without a name or a fortune. But which one is ready to fall in love with the Scottish lord? This historical romance novel in three parts—a single story with three compelling

voices—is one that will not soon be forgotten.

“Three popular grand dames of historical romance team up again (after The Lady Most Likely...) to create a charming three-part farce set in 1819 Scotland. Witty dialogue and good-natured, down-to-earth

characters make this a nice quick historical romance fix.”–Publishers Weekly

“A great read for anyone who loves a good romance, a must-read for historical-romance fans.”

–Kirkus, Star review

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New paperback releases for reading groups

edWardIan ParTy CraSherSSet in England in 1912, Sadie

Jones’ third novel, The Uninvited Guests (Harper Perennial, $14.99, 288 pages, ISBN 9780062116512), brims with sophisticated charm. The scene is an elegant old estate called Sterne, where the Torrington-Swift family is preparing to celebrate the 20th birthday of daughter Emerald. A glittering celebration has been organized, but plans go off course when a train accident occurs near Sterne, and some of the people involved arrive at the estate in search of assistance. The presence of strangers of the wrong sort (they were all traveling third class!) lowers

the tone of Emerald’s special eve-ning. A storm brings extra tension to the proceedings, as does a question-able parlor game. When Smudge Torrington, the family’s youngest daughter, launches what she calls her Great Undertaking, she caps off a night that won’t soon be forgotten. Jones has written a delightful novel that cleverly dissects the stuffy social mores of Edwardian England. Her depiction of a society and a family in flux feels picture perfect.

Sea ChanGeCharlotte Rogan’s novel, The Life-

boat (Back Bay, $14.99, 304 pages, ISBN 9780316185912), is a suspense-ful and provocative debut set in 1914. Grace Winter, the story’s narra-tor, is 22 years old and freshly mar-ried to Henry, a man of substantial wealth. When the luxury liner carry-ing them from London to America is rocked by an explosion, Henry jeop-ardizes his own well-being to help Grace escape to a crowded lifeboat. On board, Grace joins forces with John Hardie, a seasoned sailor who coldheartedly refuses to rescue other survivors from the water. Grace, as it turns out, makes it through this nightmare only to face another kind

of catastro-phe: She and two other survivors face criminal charges when they return. Rogan has woven a knotty tale about survival, self-sacrifice and human motivation with a complex figure at its center. Grace is at once canny and some-what naïve, a woman with a sharp wit and an iron will. Rogan, a new author who possesses the narrative instincts of an old pro, writes about the natural world and human nature with equal facility.

TOP PICk fOr BOOk CluBSA finalist for the National Book

Award, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain takes on the media and the military as it tells the story of Bravo Squad, a celebrated Army unit, and one of its heroes, Bil-ly Lynn. Caught in a firefight in Iraq that’s documented by an embed-ded Fox News team, the members of Bravo Squad are instant heroes. Back in the states, they embark on a Victory Tour that takes them to Texas Stadium and a Thanksgiving Day Dallas Cowboys football game. The Bravo boys experience mixed emotions in the midst of this media blitz. Billy recalls comrades who died overseas even as he’s distracted by a Cowboys cheerleader. The cel-ebratory moment is further diluted by the prospect of a return to Iraq. Expertly crafted in exuberant prose, this intelligent, funny novel offers an inside look at the soldier’s life while questioning the nature of patriotism and celebrity. A late bloomer in the literary world (he published his first book, a short story collection, at the age of 48), Fountain proves himself a writer to watch with this timely novel.

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Cinco de Mayo is months away, but if you start working your way through two new cookbooks that serve up a super selection of south-of-the-border delights, you’ll be a Master of Margaritas and the Toast of Taco Makers by fiesta time (and getting there is half the fun). Rick Bayless, that renowned maven of Mexican cuisine, has dedicated his latest book, Frontera: Mar-garitas, Guacamoles, and Snacks (Norton, $24.95, 256 pages, ISBN 9780393088922), to this quintessen-tial, pre-prandial, Mexican trifecta. With Rick as bartender, you’ll find: every margarita recipe you’ll ever need, from classics to seasonal fruit and herb variations; a meditation on making mezcal the mainstay instead of tequila (as a fan of mezcal, I can

testify to its sublime effect); and a rico roster of other kinds of tequila cocktails, including divine dulce dessert drinks. Now, you’ll need some nibbles to go along with your bebidas. No problema, there’s a year’s worth of extraordinary guaca-moles and a surprising selection of bright, boldly flavored veggies, fruits and spiced nuts and seeds. ¡Salud!

Mexican street food is among the world’s best, a culinary bazaar of siz-zling bits of pork, charcoal-scented beef, juicy slices of chorizo, fresh crispy spears of jicama and cucum-ber sprinkled with chile, sweet fried plantains drizzled with creamy condensed milk, grilled ears of corn smeared with mayonnaise, cheese and spices and so much more. In his new book, Tacos, Tortas, and Tama-les (Wiley, $19.99, 224 pages, ISBN 9781118190203), Roberto Santiba-ñez, a fabulous Mexican chef who’s an aficionado, student and practitio-ner of Mexican street food, takes us on a walk through the griddles, pots and street-side kitchens to spot-light tacos, tortas (best translated as sandwiches) and tamales, the tri-part heart of everyday Mexican

food. Each of these portable pleasures gets a chapter of its own, with an in-depth discussion of how to make them, how to vary the fill-ings, which lively salsas and condi-ments to spice them up with and the easy-to-follow, authentic recipes for everything, plus a cooling array of aguas frescas (fresh fruit drinks) and a few everyday sweets. ¡Buen provecho!

TOP PICk In COOkBOOkSSometimes being obsessive is a

plus. When Deb Perelman, creator of the wildly popular, award-winning blog SmittenKitchen.com, calls herself “obsessive,” it means that you’re in the hands of a hands-on, passionate home cook, without professional training or a profes-sional kitchen, who knows how she wants her food to taste and will fine-tune, twiddle and tweak until it’s just right, then share her culinary insights and inspirations with you. If you’re already a Deb devotee, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, her first cookbook (with food photos to die for), will confirm your zeal. If Deb is an unknown quantity, her chatty, reassuring style, her practi-cal take on what to serve when and her irrepressible enthusiasm will win you over. Just a quick perusal of the more than 100 recipes will have you racing to the kitchen to whip up Apricot Breakfast Crisp, Mushroom Bourguignon, Leek Fritters, Harvest Roast Chicken with Grapes, Olives and Rosemary, S’more Layer Cake and the best and easiest lemon bars (made with whole lemons pureed in a food processor) I’ve ever tasted.

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Detectives don’t come any tough-er or more appealing than Harry Hole, cocooned in his Scandinavian angst, never parted from the heavy emotional baggage he can’t seem to check anywhere. In his latest, Phantom (Random House Audio, $40, 16 hours, ISBN 9780449013632), Jo Nesbø brings the ex-cop back to Oslo, after three years of self-exile in Hong Kong and Shanghai, probing Harry’s troubled soul as he tries to right the wrongs that haunt him. He’s returned to rescue the adoles-cent son of his only true love from a murder rap. Oleg, who loved Harry as a father, has become a heroin addict and been jailed for killing his drug-dealing buddy. As Harry digs into the complex, crime-infested world Oleg fell into, he comes up

against a new, super-addictive syn-thetic heroin controlled by a sinister Siberian-based syndicate and his old slick, corrupt nemesis high in the police hierarchy. Subplots within subplots, ingeniously fleshed-out characters and an extraordinary performance by Robin Sachs make this the best Nesbø/Hole novel yet.

freedOm Of SPeeChI’ve been dazzled for decades by

Christopher Hitchens’ brilliant, cut-ting prose, by his endless, energetic delight in debating the issues he found so important and by his vital-ity and searing wit. So it was with some surprise that I found myself weeping as I listened to Mortality (Hachette Audio, $22.98, 2 hours, ISBN 9781619691889), read with perfect cadence by Simon Prebble. Hitchens, who reveled in burning the candle at both ends without more than a nasty hangover, entered “the land of malady” in 2010 when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. But he didn’t stop sending dispatches about his “year of living dyingly” until the end. There’s not a drop of self-pity in these essays, which first appeared in Vanity Fair. Hitchens suffered greatly in “tumor-

ville,” lost his hair and his vigor, but never his acuity, his sass, his mordant sense of humor. He battled bravely and wrote bravely and never sur-rendered the freedom of speech he so treasured. In addition to these essays are unfinished “Fragmentary Jottings” Hitchens made in his last days, a moving foreword by Graydon Carter and an afterword by Hitch-ens’ wife, Carol Blue.

TOP PICk In audIOA real spy can be more intrigu-

ing than the fictional variety, and when that spy is Kim Philby—the most notorious of the notorious Cambridge Five, double agents in the British Secret Service spying for the Soviets—that intrigue grows exponentially. Robert Littell delves into Philby’s early years in his latest novel, Young Philby, conjuring him up through the eyes and observa-tions of his friends, comrades, lovers, Soviet handlers, British col-leagues (including the wonderfully outrageous Guy Burgess) and his eccentric, patrician father. And John Lee gives each character an authen-tic accent, German, Russian, upper-crust Brit, even Philby’s ever-present stutter, as he skillfully moves the narration along. The scene moves from London, Vienna, Berlin, Spain during the Civil War, France as the Nazis crash through the Maginot Line, to the mind-boggling, Byzan-tine horrors of Soviet interrogation sessions. A living, breathing Philby emerges, but his true heart, motives, treachery or abiding patriotism (a minority view) stay fascinatingly clouded by the smoke and mirrors of real-life espionage.

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Among the many self-help volumes on herbal medicine, Hands-On Healing Remedies (Storey, $18.95, 320 pages, ISBN 9781612120065) by Stephanie L. Tourles stands out as a literally well-oiled handbook for treating an alphabet’s worth of ailments from A to Z. Got insomnia? Two drops of a chamomile, sweet marjoram and lavender blend on your pillowcase might be the answer, as could a rubdown with lemon-balm-based moisturizer. Cold feet? Just cook up some chopped ginger along with some cloves, cayenne and sesame oil, and you’ll have the toastiest toes in the house. Hot flashes, bee stings, razor burns, sore muscles, colds and coughs, anxiety and headaches can

all be soothed with pure, nontoxic ingredients that are safe and easy to prepare. Tourles, a licensed holistic aesthetician, certified aromathera-pist and “a gardener with training in Western and Ayurvedic herbalism,” gives sage (and sometimes sage-oil) advice and topical (and topically ap-plied) insight into even the deepest issues compromising the health of women, men, children and elders.

COmInG hOme TO rOOSTBackyard chicken-keeping: Every-

body seems to know somebody do-ing it, and many of us have chicken-scratched our heads wondering how we might set out to do it ourselves. The reasons for keeping chickens are plentiful, especially if you’ve got kids: low maintenance, low cost, beautiful creatures—and (as Woody Allen famously remarked) we need the eggs. One obstacle to establish-ing your own little chicken farm is figuring out how to accommodate the ladies in style. For this purpose, Kevin McElroy and Matthew Wolpe lay out a comprehensive guidebook in Reinventing the Chicken Coop (Storey, $19.95, 192 pages, ISBN 9781603429801). The projects are free-ranging in difficulty, from be-ginner to intermediate to advanced,

with both ur-ban and sub-urban lots in mind. All 14 designs are architectural wonders of reductive space and ample imagi-nation. For any family with a shred of aesthetic sensibility (and just a tiny patch of backyard), this book can transform the chore of building a coop into a co-op of communal vision and hammer-and-nail-and-lumber-and-mesh constructive energy.

TOP PICk fOr lIfeSTyleSGeek Mom could not be more

timely. Ideas have become the main capital of our technologically ori-ented culture. So the best thing you can do for your children and their future success is to cultivate their minds—and the best way to do that is to empower their natural sense of curiosity. This is the tremendous excitement of Geek Mom, a mater-nal breakthrough at once spiritual and pragmatic. The authors, senior editors at GeekMom.com, present a broad curriculum of strategic paren-tal intervention, all underpinned by the principle that complex learning can be not only a daily practice, but also something a child naturally loves to do. In six parts, focusing on topics ranging from Superheroes to Lava Lamp Chemistry to Cupcakes, the book lays out the main lines of benevolent attack against intel-lectual inertia. Being a geek can be a double-edged sword: The geek manufactures things which make it easier for others not to create anything at all. But in Geek Mom, there’s no such paradox. In the end, as the Beatles remarked, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

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14

eleanOr mOrSeinterview B y a l d e n m u d g e

“Alice came to me more than 12 years ago as part of another book that didn’t get off the ground,” Morse says during a call to her home on Peaks Island, a three-mile ferry ride across Casco Bay from Portland, Maine. Alice Mendelssohn, one of two central characters in the novel, is an American woman who has come to Botswana with her husband in the mid-1970s, shortly after the new African nation gained its inde-pendence from Great Britain. “My books are not plot driven,” Morse continues. “I count on the charac-ters to drive the story, so I have to know who they are and what they are about before the story can really get going. And that requires a kind of patient listening to them.”

Isaac Muthethe, the novel’s other central character, was born in Morse’s mind some years later while she was teaching a fiction writing class. Isaac is a medical student who is forced to flee from South Africa to Botswana after he witnesses the shocking murder of a friend by white police officers. Isaac and Alice, both of whom feel profoundly displaced, develop an awkward acquaintanceship when she hires him to work as her gardener. Their friendship deepens dramatically when Isaac is mistakenly deported to South Africa and is imprisoned and tortured, accused of being an

African National Congress terrorist, and Alice sets out to find him.

“It matters to me to write a book that has some significance to it,” Morse says. “I’ve felt over the years that this is something that needs to be written. I’ve been interested in people who have been displaced for some time. I think that’s con-nected to all the moving around we did when I was a child. I understand what it feels like not to belong to a place.”

Morse’s father worked for General Electric, and as a child she moved

frequently around the Northeast and the Midwest. She has been writing fiction since she was very young, she says, but “didn’t feel very sup-ported in that desire. I had no models in

my family. When I hit about 40, I decided that no matter what else is going on in my life, I have to do this. That’s when I went back and got an M.F.A.”

Morse’s first novel, An Unexpected Forest (2007), won a Best Regional Fiction prize from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. She now teaches fiction writing in the M.F.A. program at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky.

While her characters Isaac and Alice may feel out of place, Morse’s descriptions of that place—the vast landscapes of Botswana—are specific and ravishing. “When I was going through the editing process there was some question about whether there was too much setting in the book. I argued strenuously for keeping as much setting as there is. Because like a character, it doesn’t just appear and then you forget about it. I wanted the setting to be something that embraced a reader throughout the book and was a con-

stant companion.”Morse was famil-

iar with much of that landscape after living in Botswana from 1972 to 1975 as a newlywed. Her then-husband, the son of British mis-sionaries, was born there and was serv-ing as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Agricul-ture. The couple had two children. She found a job at the tri-country University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland as head of the adult education wing. She had a weekly radio program and ran a national education campaign that trained learning groups in remote parts of the country to run conversations on what it meant to be part of a gov-ernment. “This was only six years into being an independent African country. It was fascinating work,” Morse recalls.

Little wonder then that White Dog Fell from the Sky touches on the politics of the era. But it’s a light touch. “I didn’t set out to write a political novel,” Morse says, “but it certainly has political aspects to it. I didn’t want to make it a polemical novel, and I was anxious to make the sections having to do with South Africa balanced. So there’s a white family [Isaac’s benefactors] who are not oppressors.

“There’s some remorse in me that I was not more political when I lived in Botswana. I was certainly aware of what was going on next door. Every time I went over the border I was stopped for 45 minutes or an hour because I had a radio pro-gram and I was teaching and I was an American. Those three things made me suspect in South Africa. So I experienced the regime, and I experienced white South Africans needing to justify how they were liv-ing. They couldn’t keep away from it. It just worried them. You could see it worried them.”

Within the political and natural

landscape of the novel, Isaac and Alice—particularly Alice—struggle to become and remain fully human. “Alice is a seeker,” Morse says. “She wants to live a large life. She bum-bles around some as she struggles to accept the discomforts around her and make something of them.”

Of her own challenges in writing her new novel, Morse says, “Once characters are born in me I have a responsibility to be as true to their story as I can be. From writing this book, I know that takes a certain amount of courage. It meant return-ing again and again to that place of deep imagining.”

Then, referencing William Faulkner’s Nobel address, she says, “I wanted to write about the human heart, its losses and joys, its separa-tions and connections.”

A reader finishes White Dog Fell from the Sky believing Morse has accomplished exactly that.

fOrGInG an unBrOken BOnd In afrICa

Some novels percolate in their authors’ minds for years. In the case of Eleanor Morse’s superb third novel, White Dog Fell from the Sky, the brew-time was at least a dozen and possibly as many as 40 years.

WhITe dOG fell frOm The Sky

By eleanor morseviking, $27.95, 368 pages

ISBn 9780670026401, eBook available

“I wanted the setting to be something that embraced a reader throughout the book and was a constant companion.”

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I, RhodaBy Valerie HarperThe beloved and award-winning television actress reflects on the role that made her famous on the groundbreaking series “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”


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Love Is a CanoeBy Ben SchrankSchrank delivers a smart, funny, romantic and satisfying novel about the fragility of marriage and the difficulty of repairing the damage when people forget how to be good to one another.


The Husband ListBy Janet Evanovich & Dorien KellySet in New York City in 1894, this is an Ameri-can Gilded Age romantic mystery evoking memories of the lavish lifestyles and social ex-pectations of the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers.


Empire and HonorBy W.E.B. GriffinOctober 1945: The Germans and Japanese have surrendered. For Cletus Frade and his col-leagues in the OSS, it should be time to pack up —but they have more important things to do.


The 9th GirlBy Tami HoagHoag brings back her fan-favorite Minneapolis investigators Sam Kovac and Nikki Liska in a haunting new thriller.


Home FrontBy Kristin HannahIn her most emotionally powerful story yet, Hannah explores the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage with this provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war.


The Third BulletBy Stephen HunterLegendary former Marine sniper Bob Lee Swagger becomes interested in the events of November 22, 1963, and the third bullet that so decisively ended the life of John F. Kennedy.


Fifty Shades Trilogy Box SetBy E.L. JamesNow available as a three-volume paperback boxed set, James’ #1 best-selling trilogy has been hailed as being “in a class by itself.”


Beautiful DisasterBy Jamie McGuireCollege student Abby Abernathy finds her newly minted “good girl” status challenged by a tattooed bad boy in this erotic romance.


Fifty Shades FreedBy E.L. James Just when it seems that their strength together will eclipse any obstacle, fate conspires to make Ana’s deepest fears turn to reality.


DirtyBy Megan HartElle doesn’t apologize for who she is or what she’s done in—or out—of bed. She has tried not to want anything. Until Dan.


Fifty Shades of GreyBy E.L. JamesWhen literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she is startled to realize she wants this man and despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him.


SwitchBy Megan HartWhen she finds an anonymous note, Paige dis-covers there’s something oddly freeing about doing someone’s bidding . . . especially when it feels so very, very good.


Fifty Shades DarkerBy E.L. JamesWhile Christian wrestles with his inner de-mons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.


TemptedBy Megan HartThe first time Anne met her husband’s best friend, she didn’t like him. But that didn’t stop her from wanting him. And, surprisingly, her husband didn’t seem to mind.


Bared to YouBy Sylvia DayWhen Eva falls in love with troubled, torment-ed Gideon Cross, she must decide whether love really does conquer all.


DeeperBy Megan HartTwenty years after their whirlwind romance, Bess finds Nick’s name on her lips, his hands on her thigh—called back from the swirling gray of purgatory’s depths. Dead, alive or something in between, they can’t stop their hunger.


Reflected in YouBy Sylvia DayGideon and Eva continue to confront their per-sonal issues—and one of Eva’s demons—in the suspenseful, sexy sequel to Bared to You.


The Dark GardenBy Eden BradleyAs a mistress at Club Privé, an exclusive S&M club, Rowan can live out her dominant fanta-sies safely, and with complete control—until the night Christian Thorne walks in.


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THE IT LIST: Literary Trends

Sweet SurrenderBy Maya BanksDallas cop Gray Montgomery is on a mission to find the guy who killed his partner. His only link to the killer is Faith, a beautiful stranger—and if Gray has to get close to her to catch the killer, so be it.


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Sweet TemptationBy Maya BanksMicah has new friends and a new life, but he’s about to be confronted with the one person who reminds him of all he’s tried to forget— Angelina, the sister of his oldest friend, David.


Release MeBy J. Kenner For fans of Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You comes an erotic, emotionally charged romance between a powerful man who’s never heard “no” and a fiery woman who says “yes” on her own terms.


Sweet PersuasionBy Maya BanksFor five years, Serena has run Fantasy Incorpo-rated and has devoted her time to fulfilling her clients’ fantasies. Never her own. Until now.


S.E.C.R.E.T.By L. Marie AdelineA lonely widow discovers an underground society dedicated to helping women realize their most intimate sexual fantasies, and soon immerses herself in an electrifying journey.


Sweet SeductionBy Maya BanksSalon owner Julie Stanford wanted Nathan Tucker ever since she gave him his first mas-sage. She doesn’t think he’s interested, so she decides to move on. But Nathan won’t let her get away that easy.


UnboundBy Celeste Bradley & Susan DonovanA Boston museum curator uses a celebrated courtesan’s diaries as a modern girl’s guide to finding love and empowerment—with astonish-ing results.


Sweet PossessionBy Maya BanksConnor Malone isn’t excited to babysit the outrageous and out-of-control pop star Lyric Jones. But part of him relishes taming the songstress and showing her what it’s like to be possessed—body and soul—by one man.


MaverickBy Lora LeighRisa has spent six years rebuilding her life. And now, to save it, she must pose as Micah’s lover and draw a killer into the open.


Sweet AddictionBy Maya BanksCole is successful beyond his wildest dreams. He can have any woman he wants, but there’s only one he can’t stop thinking about: his child-hood sweetheart, Renita.


Exposed to YouBy Beth Kery For Everett, women and sex came as easily as fame. How can he convince the guarded Joy that beneath the sexy façade of celebrity lies a real man who wants this real woman?


n o w r e a d t h e s e !

THE IT LIST: Literary Trends

Fat ChanceBy Robert H. LustigThis astonishing book documents the sci-ence and the politics that have led to the pandemic of chronic disease over the last 30 years.


The End of DiabetesBy Joel FuhrmanThis simple and effective plan offers great food, starts working right away and puts you on a direct path to a longer, better, fuller, disease-free life.


The Petite Advantage DietBy Jim KarasBased on solid, recent research, coupled with his passion for creating concrete solu-tions, Karas has crafted a program specially designed to help shorter women create a longer, leaner, sexier body.


The Digest Diet CookbookBy Liz VaccarielloVaccariello sifted through the latest weight-loss science to develop a groundbreaking 21-day eating plan demonstrated to help you drop the pounds.


Eat to Lose, Eat to WinBy Rachel BellerAmerica’s get-real nutritionist delivers the first book that combines science-based advice with step-by-step action plans for weight loss and optimal health.


The Virgin DietBy J.J. VirginAre you eating all the right things—low-fat yogurt, egg-white omelets, whole-grain bread, even tofu—but still can’t lose the weight? Your favorite “diet” foods may be to blame.


The Simple DietBy Tosca RenoReno delivers an exciting plan to gently lose your problem pounds without a big lifestyle change. On sale 4/2.


Hungry Girl to the Max!By Lisa LillienGo TO THE MAX with the most mas-sive and complete Hungry Girl cookbook ever—650 recipes from the guru of guilt-free eating!


The Digest DietBy Liz VaccarielloThis 21-day weight-loss plan is based on groundbreaking science and newly discov-ered foods and habits that help your body to release fat.


Wheat BellyBy William DavisAccording to Davis, our excess fat has noth-ing to do with gluttony, sloth or too much butter: It’s due to the whole grain wraps we eat for lunch.


THE IT LIST: New Year, New You

d i e t & h e a l t h

THE IT LIST: That’s Entertainmentd V d s r e a d t h e b o o k F i r s t

The HostBy Stephenie MeyerFeaturing what may be the first love tri-angle involving only two bodies, this rivet-ing and unforgettable novel will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compel-ling writers of our time.


Safe HavenBy Nicholas SparksAs Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with a dark secret that still haunts and terri-fies her . . . the past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport.


The Amazing Spider-ManTypical teenager Peter Parker (Andrew Gar-field) embraces his incredible destiny after uncovering one of his father’s most care-fully guarded secrets as Columbia Pictures reboots the Spider-Man franchise.


Warm BodiesBy Isaac MarionScary, funny and surprisingly poignant, this novel explores what happens when the cold heart of a zombie is tempted by the warmth of human love.


Men in Black 3The Men in Black are back, and this time Agent J (Will Smith) must take a trip into the past in order to save both the future and his taciturn partner, Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), in the third installment of the hit sci-fi comedy series.


On the RoadBy Jack KerouacKerouac’s groundbreaking novel is a Beat classic—and soon to be a major motion pic-ture with a star-studded cast.


PrometheusA team of space explorers embarks on a fantastic voyage to the edge of the universe after making a profound discovery that hints at the true origins of the human race in this belated pseudo-prequel to director Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic, Alien.


John Dies at the EndBy David WongAs you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was David’s fault.


ParaNormanEleven-year-old Norman Babcock (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a young misfit with a remarkable gift: He sees dead people.


© 2012 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Marvel, and the names and distinctive likenesses of Spider-Man and all other Marvel characters: TM and © 2012 Marvel Entertainment, LLC & its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. © 2012 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2012 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. and Hemisphere - Culver Picture Partners I, LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2012 Layout and Design Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

© 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Dune Entertainment III LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2012 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved. TwEnTIETH CEnTURy FOX, FOX and associated logos are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and its related entities.

The Dark Knight Rises It has been eight years since Batman van-ished into the night, turning from hero to fugitive. But everything will change with the arrival of a cunning cat burglar. Available on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.

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© 2012 warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Legendary Pictures Funding, LLC. BATMAn, THE DARk knIgHT, and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.

© 2012 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Just One DayBy Gayle FormanA breathtaking journey toward self- discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay. This is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels.


Revolution 19By Gregg RosenblumThe robots have enslaved mankind. But 17-year-old Nick, his tech-geek younger brother and his adopted sister realize that the robots have ruled for too long. Now it’s time for a revolution.


BoundlessBy Cynthia HandSince discovering the special role she plays among the other angel-bloods, Clara has been determined to protect Tucker from the evil that follows her, even if it means breaking both their hearts.


The Vincent BrothersBy Abbi GlinesWhat starts as a carefree fling becomes a lusty game of seduction. Sawyer and Lana may have different motives, but their scintillating hookups are the same kind of steamy.


Shark Wars #5: Enemy of OceansBy EJ AltbackerEach new Shark Wars book brings higher stakes—and hungrier sharks! Now, Gray, Barkley and their friends must prepare for a war unlike any they’ve faced before!


Inside Out and Back AgainBy Thanhha LaiFor all 10 years of her life, Ha has only known Saigon. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home, and she must board a ship headed toward hope. A moving story of change, dreams, grief and healing.


A Year with One DirectionBy One DirectionOne Direction is the biggest band on the planet. Celebrate their story with this of-ficial guide crammed full of exclusive inter-views and never-seen-before photos!


Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-BoxersBy Dav PilkeyCan George and Harold change the course of human history?!


THE IT LIST: For Young Readerst e e nk i d s

Ali’s Pretty Little LiesBy Sara ShepardSet in the weeks leading up to Ali’s murder, this Pretty Little Liars tale is told by the prettiest little liar of all: Ali herself. For the first time ever, we see how the mystery be-gan—and how Alison DiLaurentis died.


Nancy Clancy, Secret AdmirerBy Jane O’ConnorNancy Clancy and her best friend have love on the brain. But when the girls decide to play matchmaker, nothing works out as planned. Will love conquer all?


Visit www.booksamillion.com/bookclubs for up-to-date reading guides.

nonfictionThe Orchard: A MemoirBy Theresa WeirAt 21, Theresa Weir fell in love with Adrian, the pride of a family whose lives and orchard are said to be cursed. Mar-ried after only three months, Theresa finds life on the farm far more difficult and dangerous than she expected.


Catherine the Great By Robert K. MassieThe author of Peter the Great returns with another masterpiece of narrative biography, the extraordinary story of an obscure German princess who became one of the most powerful women in history.

Retail Price: $20 | With Discount Card: $18

t h i s M o n t h ’ s P i c k s

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The Hobbit By J.R.R. TolkienBilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable life. But his con-tentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep to whisk him away on an adventure.


The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer By Michelle HodkinMara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. But it can in this fast-paced psychological thriller that will leave you breathless for a sequel.


When She Woke By Hillary JordanBellwether Prize winner Hillary Jordan tells the story of a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated.


Carry the One By Carol Anshaw Following a devastating moment after Carmen’s wedding, three sib-lings and their friends move through the next 25 years under its long shadow—through friendships and love affairs; marriage and divorce; and the calamities and triumphs of ordinary days.


neXT mOnTh

The Life of PiBy Yann MartelAfter the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a 16-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an

orangutan—and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.


Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life By James PattersonIt’s Rafe Khatchadorian’s first day at Hills Village Middle School, and it’s shaping up to be the worst year ever. Luckily he’s got an ace plan for the best year ever—if

only he can pull it off.


Wicked Lovely By Melissa MarrAislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty and wishes she were as blind to their pres-ence as other teens. But now faeries are stalking her.


You’re Already AmazingBy Holley Gerth Like a trusted friend, Holley gently shows you how to forget the lies and expectations the world feeds you and instead believe that God loves you and has bigger plans for your life than you’ve

ever imagined.


The River By Michael Neale Gabriel is mysteriously drawn to a ribbon of frothy white water in the Colorado Rockies. But something holds him back—the memory of a ter-rible event he witnessed when he was a child.


The Paris WifeBy Paula McLain A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures the love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. A heartbreaking portrayal of love

and torn loyalty.


24

behind the book

B y j e n n i f e r c h i a v e r i n i

Arranged in the medallion style, with appliquéd eagles, embroi-dered flowers, meticulously pieced hexagons and deep red fringe, the quilt was the work of a gifted needle-worker, its striking beauty unmarred by the shattered silk and broken threads that gave evidence to its age.

The caption noted that the quilt had been sewn from scraps of Mary Todd Lincoln’s gowns by her dress-maker and confidante, a former slave named Elizabeth Keckley. I marveled at the compelling story those brief lines suggested—a cou-rageous woman’s rise from slavery to freedom, an improbable friend-ship that ignored the era’s sharp distinctions of class and race, the confidences shared between a loyal dressmaker and a controversial, divisive First Lady.

A few years later, while research-ing my Civil War novel, The Union Quilters, I realized that many of my secondary sources cited the same work—Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House, Elizabeth Keckley’s 1868 memoir. I immediately found a reprint and plunged into her story, which told of her harrowing years as a slave, her struggle for freedom

and her ascen-dance as the most popular dressmaker of Washington’s elite, including the new president’s wife. Sewing in the Lincoln family’s chambers within the White House, Keckley observed Abraham and Mary Lincoln in their most private, unguarded moments, and with them she witnessed some of the most glorious and tragic events in the na-tion’s history.

For years afterward, I longed to delve more deeply into Keckley’s story, to learn about the woman she was beyond her friendship with Mary Lincoln, to discover what had happened after the closing passages of her memoir and to uncover the details of everyday life in wartime Washington. How, I wondered, had Keckley spent that tense and fateful day in 1860 when the increasingly divided nation awaited the results of the election that would send Abra-ham Lincoln to the White House? What emotions had swept through her when invasion by the Confeder-ate Army seemed imminent? What sights, sounds and smells had she encountered while all around her the capital became an armed camp?

And the most provocative ques-tion of all: How had the publication of her memoir transformed Keck-ley’s life?

As she awaited the publication of Behind the Scenes, Keckley worried that she might be criticized for re-vealing too much about the private lives of President Lincoln and the First Lady. Her fears proved all too prescient, making the last chapters of her remarkable life as compelling as any that had come before.

Elizabeth Keckley’s relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln is the focus of Jenni-fer Chiaverini’s new novel, Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, a compelling fictional ac-count of Keckley’s life.

a fOrmer Slave’S SurPrISInG STOry

mrS. lInCOln’S dreSSmaker

By Jennifer ChiaveriniDutton, $26.95, 352 pages


More than a decade ago, I was researching ante-bellum and Civil War-era

quilts for my fourth novel when I discovered a photograph of an antique masterpiece.

25

STePhen hunTerinterviewB y j a y m a c d o n a l d

Swagger isn’t the rumored second gunman, mind you, favored by con-spiracy theorists as a more plausible presidential assassin than Lee Har-vey Oswald. Quite the contrary; in his latest outing, The Third Bullet, the nation’s top fictional ballistics expert takes his best shot at solv-ing America’s most baffling murder mystery—the assassination that marks its 50th anniversary this year.

As The Third Bullet kicks off, the widow of a prominent thriller writer very much like Hunter tracks Swag-ger down to his Idaho home to ask him to investigate the death of her husband, who was killed in a late-night hit-and-run that may have had links to the Kennedy assassina-tion. Swagger heads to Dealey Plaza, connects with the JFK conspiracy underground, tracks the author’s killer to Moscow and eventually encounters a CIA operative named Hugh Meachum who provides a shockingly plausible alternate answer to the age-old question: Who killed JFK?

By Hunter’s own admission, The Third Bullet was a tough slog between a mountain of hard evi-dence and a valley of public doubt about what actually happened on that long-ago Dallas afternoon. To flesh out his storyline, the author immersed himself in the Warren Commission Report, took inventory of the various conspiracy theories,

then set off like Swagger for Dealey Plaza to have a look for himself.

“What I tried to do from the very beginning was establish hard data points, things that everyone knew and all investigators agreed had happened,” he says. “Then I tried to plot between and around them.”

As he looked down from the famous sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, then sat on the park bench directly below it facing the 90-degree turn that the Kennedy motorcade negotiated before the fatal shot, Hunter’s own hunter’s instinct interceded. The motorcade had slowed to a near-stop for the turn, offering a fish-in-the-barrel shot that even a mediocre marksman like Oswald could have made, compared to the much longer, extremely difficult shot at a moving target as the motorcade pulled away.

“I was stunned,” he recalls. “I looked up and saw the window was about 75 feet away and I thought to myself, good God, why did he not take the easy shot?”

That epiphany unlocked the cen-tral mystery of The Third Bullet: If not Oswald, who?

To find a plausible explanation, Hunter recalled a book written by ballistics expert Howard Donahue that theorized Kennedy had been killed by a rogue Secret Service agent shooting from a trailing car.

“It was a thoroughly absurd book and was immediately condemned to purgatory by sentient people, but he understood the science of what happens when a bullet is fired at a man,” Hunter says. In the case of the Kennedy assassination, the third bullet, unlike the previous two, exploded on impact when it hit and killed the president. How could that happen if all three bullets came from the same rifle?

To answer that question, Hunter introduces us to Meachum, a vainglorious Yale-educated veteran of the CIA’s Plans Division with his own secret plans. As frighteningly cold and calculating as Meachum’s story is, Hunter challenged himself by presenting it as excerpts from the

man’s diary, his first foray into first-person nar-rative.

“I wrote that first and I really enjoyed that but there were all kinds of prob-lems,” he admits. “A lot of the ef-fects I get come from cutting and juxtaposing points of view, and it frightened me to get away from those points of view and be stuck in a single head, and yet I found the voice right away. In the end, my problem was shut-ting Hugh up, not getting him to talk. I discovered a lot of the plotting around Hugh while writing him.”

Hunter, who lives in Baltimore, wrote for the Baltimore Sun for more than 25 years before moving to the Washington Post, where he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for film criticism. He launched the Bob Lee Swagger series in 1993 with Point of Impact, incorporating an encyclope-dic knowledge of guns and ballistics, and has gone on to write 17 thrillers.

Did conducting his own investiga-tion into the Kennedy assassination change his view on what happened that dark day in Dallas?

“I suppose I confirmed my suspi-cions,” Hunter allows. “My theory of the world is that nothing works the way it’s supposed to work, so if anyone argues for perfection, they’re barking up the wrong tree. I wanted my Kennedy assassination conspiracy to be small and adept, but at the same time, mistakes were made, improvisations were made, the whole thing is thrown together on the fly and everybody happens to have a very good day on that day. To me, that was far more realistic than a theory that involves the CIA, Czechoslovakian intelligence and the Mattel toy company and their headquarters is under a volcano. You just don’t believe that.”

Does he agree with Stephen King, who concludes in his JFK specula-tive novel 11/22/63 that there’s a

99-percent chance Oswald did it?“That’s how I felt when I started,

but now I feel that figure is more like 95 percent,” Hunter says. “There’s a much larger chance than we know that something like [what] I came up with actually happened.”

unlOCkInG The mySTery Of a faTeful day

It seems inevitable that Bob Lee Swagger, thriller writer Stephen Hunter’s retired Marine sniper, would one day find a place in the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The ThIrd BulleT

By Stephen hunterSimon & Schuster, $26.99, 496 pages


“THIS AUTHOR DELIVERS PURE, UNDILUTED

EXCITEMENT.” Jayne Ann Krentz

ElizabethLowell.com

S A C R I F I C E

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

by ELIZABETH LOWELL

NOW IN PAPERBACK

26

features haPPIneSS B y h e a t h e r s e g g e l

frIendS fOr lIfeBette Midler’s signature song used

to be “You’ve Gotta Have Friends,” back before she got all wind-be-neath-my-wings-y. Carlin Flora’s Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are (Doubleday, $25.95, 288 pages, ISBN 9780385535434) seconds that emo-tion, noting the enormous health benefits of friendship along with

the idea that our friends shape our personality and choices even more than families do. Flora, formerly the features editor for Psychology Today, discovers that one unexpected benefit of friendship is that it allows us to be altruistic and care about others. This may be why the kids who make friends most easily are those who can quickly change gears and empathize with a wide variety of personality types. (It also helps if their names are easy to pronounce.) If you’ve been thinking of starting a book club with your BFFs, here’s your first assignment.

COmPaSSIOn In aCTIOnA professional relationship with

a religious leader led to a great friendship for Victor Chan. He traveled with the Dalai Lama for many years, recording talks and meetings with everyone from sick children to two men on either side of the long-standing “troubles” in Northern Ireland. In The Wisdom of Compassion (Riverhead, $26.95,

272 pages, ISBN 9781594487385), Chan recounts a variety of these encounters as they relate to “Over-coming Adversity,” “Educating the Heart” and “Compassion in Action.” We get a good sense of what Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader experiences on a typical day, and his personal-ity, which can be fiery but is more often full of effusive giggling, comes through nicely. Chan inserts himself into the narrative more than is war-ranted, but the overall message of the book is uplifting and inspiring: If we generate compassion within our-selves, then extend it to all people

(not just the ones we like most), we hold the potential to alleviate much of the world’s suffering.

BOOST yOur BraInPOWerIf you think attention and mind-

fulness are just for the spiritually inclined, you may be shortchang-ing your own intelligence. Sandra Bond Chapman’s Make Your Brain Smarter (Free Press, $26, 304 pages, ISBN 9781451665475) leads with the advice to stop multitasking and utilize what she calls the “brain-power of none,” emptying the mind to allow your thoughts to sort and settle. From there, focusing on just one thing intently or working only on your top two priorities lead to in-creased productivity and a healthier brain. While it’s disappointing to learn that crosswords and sudoku do less for brain health than previ-ously thought, Chapman’s program encourages thinking broadly and creatively to stimulate the frontal lobe. Considering that she created a program designed to sharpen the minds of Navy SEALs in the same way their elite training hones their bodies, you may want to toss the crosswords and give this a try.

fOCuS On SuCCeSSThe new year is when we often

resolve to take up better fitness habits and put down some of our vices; after all, if you can stick with it for three weeks it locks in, right? Actually, no, says PsyBlog creator Jeremy Dean. In Making Habits, Breaking Habits (Da Capo Life-long Books, $26, 272 pages, ISBN 9780738215983) he argues that one of the keys to changing a habit is—don’t say you weren’t warned—mindfulness. Despite the slew of books raving about the power of intention as the key to personal suc-cess, research finds that intention creates false expectations and leads more often to disappointment than to thin thighs or an Aston Martin. Instead, the practice of mindful-ness helps us act on our intentions

consciously, which reinforces new habits and makes it easier to break old ones despite the social cues that can trigger them. Thinking both abstractly and analytically can also develop the mind’s capacity and flexibility. Begin with the mind, then get on the treadmill, and you’re well on your way to self-improvement.

a PaTh ThrOuGh The darkSometimes the urge to care for

ourselves is slow in coming. When Katrina Kenison’s second son left home, she was confronted with an overwhelming sense of loss. It wasn’t just the empty nest or uncertainties of middle age, but also the shifting terrain of her marriage and the long shadow cast by the death of a friend that weighted her days. Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Con-tentment (Grand Central, $24.99, 288 pages, ISBN 9781455507238) fol-lows Kenison for a year in which she gently plumbs her intuition to find new purpose and resilience in the face of sorrow. When her life seems most empty, she realizes, “I do at least know this: . . . I can either run away from my loneliness, or I can practice tolerating myself as I am.” Yoga proves central to her healing, and its focus on mindfulness helps even the darkest places to reveal their beauty.

dOWn TO The rOOTSGarden blogger (and Kenison’s

writing partner) Margaret Roach pulls together the scientific and spiritual in The Backyard Parables: A Meditation on Gardening (Grand Central, $25.99, 288 pages, ISBN 9781455501984), but it doesn’t feel like work when you’re out getting your hands dirty. A year spent in her garden includes a glimpse of her “new spiritual practice—a mov-ing meditation aimed specifically at dandelions, a ritual that brings me into touch with my own power-lessness, and also my own power.” By turns wise and witty, the book is also jam-packed with practical tips for gardeners, from the basics of succession sowing to winning a showdown with chipmunks. Roach, former editorial director for Martha Stewart, followed a passion, culti-vated it devoutly and turned it into a career. She doesn’t need to discuss the how-to of mindfulness; her life is the best example of the way love and attention will make things bloom.

A s we greet the new year, many of us are not where we’d like to be in life. Whether that means personal relationships that could be improved or bad habits that need to be broken, progress begins when we lace up our shoes and take the

first step. A handful of new books each have a different subject in mind, but share a common endorsement of mindfulness as the key to a happier, healthier life.

CulTIvaTInG a mIndful neW year

27

B y a m y s c r i B n e r

SOnJa lyuBOmIrSkyq&a

What is it about our culture—and our very nature—that makes us place such importance on happi-ness? Why are we programmed to expect happiness only if we check certain boxes, such as marriage and wealth—and a perfectly green lawn?

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of Cali-fornia, Riverside, has been research-ing happiness for more than two decades. In a new book, she offers a fresh way of thinking about happi-ness, and smart tips on how to get it.

You write about the links between money and happiness and suggest that people embrace thrifty habits. Is that feasible in our society?

It is absolutely feasible to become more thrifty. Indeed, although overconsumption is highlighted by the media and ubiquitous in some social circles, I believe that many, many people in the West are repelled (or at least not attracted) by materialism, and, instead, practice a very experience-focused and family-focused approach to life. If you are not one of those people, then my and others’ research suggests ways that you can thwart poor consumer decision-making and curtail over-spending—for example, by spend-ing your money on experiences (a dinner with friends) rather than possessions (e.g., a nicer stereo).

You offer great advice on choices

that will lead to happiness. Which of those tips do you find most per-sonally difficult to follow?

A recurring theme in the book is the importance of trying to appreci-ate what you have and see “the big picture.” One of the strategies that I use is to ask myself after a crisis or a really bad day, “Will it matter in a year?” Yet this is not always easy to follow. My favorite anecdote is one day when I was telling my husband, Pete, about what a great strategy this is and how well it works. Just when I finished talking, my daughter, who was then 7, walked in and her long, beautiful hair was completely entangled with gum. I just lost it! I started yelling at her: “How could you do such a thing?!” And Pete started laughing. “What were you just telling me? Will this matter in a year?” “But it will matter in a year!” I cried. “I’m going to have to cut her hair off and it’s still going to be short a whole year later!” Though that was clearly not an occasion in which I used the strategy effectively, I still try to practice it as often as I can.

You write that “the effects of sharing troubles and obtaining help from a friend, companion, lover, family member, or even a pet are almost magical in their power.” Why is that?

I allude to an occasion in the book when I was heartbroken over a break-up and I was crying for hours; then I picked up the phone and talked to a close friend about what happened and my despair dropped from about a 10 to a 2 or 3. I wasn’t suddenly joyful, but I was no longer so distressed. It really shocked me how just one social interaction—the act of sharing with a close other—would have such a powerful effect. Of course, a great deal of research confirms my experience. When we have social support, we experience pain less intensely, we bounce back quicker from adversity, and we even judge hills to be less steep.

If you were to give a family mem-ber or friend one piece of advice about being happy, what would it be?

If I had to give one general piece of advice to anyone about how to at-tain and sustain happiness, it would be to nurture their interpersonal relationships. Investing in relation-ships—expressing gratitude, doing kindness, trying to be empathetic, and staying positive and support-ive—will probably contribute to your happiness and health more than anything else. (But work is a close second!)

What is the greatest misconcep-tion that most people have about happiness?

My book describes several mis-conceptions about happiness, but I think the biggest is the one that I call “I’ll be happy when_____.” That is, we believe that we may not be happy now, but we’ll be happy when Mr. Right comes along or we get a new boss or we have a baby. The problem with these beliefs is not that they’re wrong—they’re right, but only in part. We likely will be happy when or if those events come to pass, but that boost in happiness is likely to be short-lived.

Do you think people can over-think happiness?

People can definitely become too focused on happiness and its pursuit. New research shows that if we are wrapped up in trying to become happy to the exclusion of other goals and if we are constantly monitoring our happiness (“Am I happy yet? Am I happy yet?”), then such efforts may seriously backfire. My recommendation is to keep the pursuit of happiness in the back of your mind but to focus primarily on those goals that will get you there—e.g., absorbing yourself in meaning-ful goals, investing in relationships, expressing gratitude, etc.

What makes you happy?Freud suggested that lieben und

arbeiten—“to love and to work”—are the secrets to well-being, and that has certainly been true for me.

makInG ChOICeS fOr a haPPIer yOu

The cover of The Myths of Happiness says it all: An attractive brunette stands on her slightly browning lawn and peers over at her neighbors’ emerald-

green grass and luscious flower bed.

© D

AnA

PATR

ICk

The myThS Of haPPIneSS

By Sonja lyubomirskyPenguin Press, $27.95, 320 pages


Order online at ATLASBOOKS.COM

or call 1-800-BOOK-LOG

Room 939Jenny Lynn Anderson

Lewis Publishing978-0-9839923-0-1 | $14.95

Jenny Lynn Anderson fell victim to a vicious attacker who turned hotel room 939 into a torture chamber, lasting but fifteen minutes. Anderson’s candid recount of sexual assault will convince the reader there is merit in surviving, even if it takes twenty years in its deliverance.

Worry WartLisa Kildahl

Parables & Books978-0-9833188-8-0 | $9.99

Chloe Lore is a worrywart. She is a sweet young girl, but she worries about everything, even things out of her control. Get to know the world of Chloe, her family, and friends as you learn about being able to take control of your own life.

The AbsoluteMari Carmen Ortiz Monasterio, Carolina

Fuentes, Catherine Fabbro

Carolina Fuentes Catherine Fabbro 978-0-9860259-0-7 | $14.99

For the first time in all of the Ages, the Konocimiento Kósmico (Kosmic Knowledge) is revealed. It tells us who we are, where we come from and where we’re going, to avoid once again being manipulated and diverted from our destiny.

Mary’s ChoiceDr. Barbara Horton Jones

Turtle Dove Press978-0-9882546-0-2 | $15.99

A delightfully illustrated children’s book shows how God loves and blesses Mary as she grows from a baby to a young woman. An affirming tale full of joy.

Recipient of a 5-star Clarion Review

28

PerSOnal fInanCe

Though you may be reluctant to be seen reading it in public, Jan Cullinane’s The Single Woman’s Guide to Retirement (Wiley, $18.95, 307 pages, ISBN 9781118229507) is a guidebook in the best possible sense. Carefully organized and exceedingly thorough, Cullinane’s guide covers everything from finan-cial basics—including taxes, retire-ment funds and costs of living—to where to live now that the kids have left the nest and what to do with your sudden influx of free time. Featuring first-hand accounts from women who have gone through a myriad of life changes, including be-ing widowed or divorced, or chang-ing careers or locations, Cullinane moves through the considerations many retiring women face with logic and heart. Lest you think this is only for the older (and, as the title suggests, single) women in your life, the book opens with information on how women are statistically likely to outlive men, or suffer financially from a divorce. It’s full of good advice for all, although the carefully researched and detailed specifics Cullinane includes at the end of each chapter might be best for those single women close to, or in, their retirement years.

aTTITude ChanGeSWhen Carrie Rocha and her

husband took stock of their finances early in their marriage, they realized that though they always met their financial obligations to others, they had little to nothing left over in case of an emergency. In Pocket Your Dollars (Bethany House, $13.99, 224 pages, ISBN 9780764210877), Rocha details how an emergency can, in fact, happen to you (delightful though it may be to imagine other-wise). Although your financial situ-

ation may seem dire now, it needn’t always be that way, she writes. Using her own story, and those of others, she provides concrete plans for getting your financial life in order. She also focuses strongly on the “attitude changes” or psycho-logical barriers many people must face when trying to improve their personal finances. “Today is the day,” she says, “to let go of your past and start focusing on your future.” Rocha follows up with concrete plans for overcoming any personally imposed impediments; for example, she writes, “make a list of everyone . . . you need to forgive in order to accept your present financial situ-ation.” For readers who think that they weren’t taught to handle their finances correctly, or that everyone around them is making financial change impossible, Rocha’s meth-ods should prove worthwhile.

SavInG TIme and mOneyChock full of interesting, useful

and (occasionally) bizarre tips for everything from your household to your finances and your car, Mary Hunt’s Cheaper, Better, Faster (Revell, $14.99, 400 pages, ISBN 9780800721442) is an incredibly thorough amalgamation of ideas to make your life exactly that—cheap-er, better and faster. Though some of the tips were hard to under-stand—I’m still grap-pling with the logistics of a tip involving frozen fish and a milk carton—most of

them were enlightening and helpful, and the book is one I would encour-age anyone to keep on hand. Need to clean your microwave? Hunt’s suggestion to “stir 2 tablespoons baking soda into a cup of water. Set in the microwave and allow to boil for at least 5 minutes,” remove, and wipe down, got my own microwave clean when years of struggling with cloths and frustration couldn’t. The book could benefit from an index of sorts, but a quick skim through your chapter of choice should be enough to obtain whatever tip you’re look-ing for. Whether you need advice on holiday decorating or renter’s insurance, Cheaper, Better, Faster is a great resource to have in your library.

yOur SeCOnd ChaPTerNancy Collamer’s Second-Act

Careers (Ten Speed, $14.99, 272 pages, ISBN 9781607743828) is an excellent starting point for retirees who are starting to think about go-ing back to work in a new field. The emphasis here is not on providing detailed resources for those heading back into the workforce, but rather on offering an overview of the pos-sibilities for a new career—includ-ing starting a business, freelancing, consulting, working part-time in a variety of capacities, and in one

particularly engaging chapter, trav-eling. This is a better resource for a fairly well-off individual looking to explore her options, as opposed to a retiree desperate for a new source of income, and at times the occu-pational suggestions seem slightly unrealistic. (It’s unlikely that many people will pursue a second career as a fitness instructor, for instance.) But if you’re interested in exploring your options and engaged by self-administered reflection exercises (Collamer features many toward the end of the book), then Second-Act Careers is a useful launching pad.

What Second-Act Careers lacks in specificity, Marci Alboher’s The Encore Career Handbook (Work-man, $15.95, 336 pages, ISBN 9780761167624) more than com-pensates for in attention to particu-lars. Alboher starts with a realistic view of the post- and semi-retire-ment landscape, accounting for age discrimination, the flailing economy and the changing job market, and moves on to detail ways to both brainstorm and find a new career that fits your lifestyle and skills, as well as concrete steps to make that new career work financially and logistically. Each chapter features a detailed Frequently Asked Ques-tions section, as well as carefully listed resources for further research. She also provides thorough first-hand accounts from others who have taken on second careers. The real goldmine, however, is the lengthy list of possible career op-tions listed at the back of the book, along with extensive resources for further pursuing those options. Al-boher’s attention to detail will prove incredibly useful—from verbatim suggestions on how to network via email and in person, to budget worksheets and business plan build-ers, this is the ultimate workbook for anyone looking to branch out professionally in retirement.

A s the new year begins, many readers are looking for advice on getting their finances or careers in order. Whether you need a kickstart for saving and organizing your money, a guide to planning your retirement, a blueprint for

considering a second career or a handy encyclopedia of money-saving tips and tricks, these books will help you get your footing when it comes to your finances.

B y a B i g a i l d a l t o n

mOney makeOverS fOr The neW year

features

29

PerfeCT healTh dIeTBy Paul Jaminet, Ph.d., and Shou-Ching Jaminet, Ph.d.Scribner, $28, 448 pages, ISBn 9781451699142Frustrated by years of chronic health problems, a husband and wife (both scientists) set out to de-

termine whether their diet was making them sick and what they should eat to become healthy and stay that way. The result is a detailed and rigorous guide to eating an ideal diet—one that will help you avoid illness and reach your optimum weight.WHY YOU’RE FAT: The standard American diet (SAD) is deficient in nutrients and filled with food toxins that can cause chronic disease and obesity.HOW YOU FIX IT: Eat a low-to-moderate-carbo-hydrate, high-fat, moderate-protein diet.FIRST STEP: Familiarize yourself with the Paleo-era diet of our hunter-gatherer ancestors.COMMITMENT: Readers are free to choose either a total commitment to the plan or to browse and find areas that interest them.EAT THIS: A balance of plant and animal foods, including “safe” starches, fruits, low-calorie veg-etables, meats, seafood, eggs and healthy oils.DON’T EAT THIS: Grains, cereals, sugar, beans, peanuts and vegetable seed oils (such as soybean oil and corn oil).STARTLING CLAIM: “Weight loss should be easy and hunger-free.”

faT ChanCeBy robert h. lustig, m.d.Hudson Street Press, $25.95, 336 pages ISBn 9781594631009

Dr. Robert Lustig is on a crusade to end obesity. However, as he explains in Fat Chance, what he is

actually fighting is the raft of chronic metabolic diseases that are correlated with obesity, includ-ing heart disease, diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver. A person can be overweight and still be perfectly fit and healthy, especially if they exercise regularly. WHY YOU’RE FAT: A complex mix of reasons, but one main culprit is sugar, the “Darth Vader of the Empire, beckoning you to the Dark Side.”HOW YOU FIX IT: Decrease your sugar intake, increase your fiber intake and make moderate exercise a regular habit. (Exercise may not make you thinner, but it will make you healthier.)FIRST STEP: Begin reading labels to seek out sugar in the food you buy, and cook your own meals from fresh ingredients whenever you can.

COMMITMENT: Hardest for those who are in the soda-and-fast-food habit.EAT THIS: Foods high in fiber (especially insolu-ble fiber) and low in sugar (especially fructose), such as whole grains, nuts, eggs, whole fruits and vegetables.DON’T EAT THIS: Foods high in sugar and low in fiber—that includes both soda and fruit juice!STARTLING CLAIM: Forty percent of “normal-weight” people (those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9) are insulin resistant, which is a sign of chronic metabolic disease. Many people whose BMI is in the “normal” range actually have the visceral fat of an obese person—a condition called “thin on the outside, fat on the inside.”

ThInner ThIS yearBy Chris Crowley and Jennifer Sacheck, Ph.d.workman, $24.95, 368 pages ISBn 9780761168003

Chris Crowley, co-author of Younger Next Year, offers a new

guide that teaches you how to lose 25 pounds (and keep it off!) when in life’s “third act.” Jen Sacheck, a nutritionist and exercise physiologist, shares the science behind the importance of diet and exercise and offers a regimen to get healthier. Crowley puts her know-how to the test in chatty “day-in-the-life”-style essays.WHY YOU’RE FAT: You eat too much “dead food” (food with little nutritional value) and you don’t exercise enough.HOW YOU FIX IT: Eat approximately 20 percent less than you’re eating now (with vegetables and fruit making up 50 percent of your diet) and exercise six days a week for the rest of your life—including aerobic activities and strength training.FIRST STEP: Make up your mind to change your lifestyle—then read this book!COMMITMENT: High. For the program to work, you’ve got to exercise regularly and eat well—forever. This is no fad diet, but sound advice for taking care of your body.EAT THIS: Vegetables, fruits, lean protein, whole grains (think barley, quinoa and brown rice).DON’T EAT THIS: Dead food (think processed foods, soda, refined white flour, sugar).STARTLING CLAIM: “People who are in good shape and exercise regularly also burn fat much more effectively for much more of the time. . . . So they can run or swim or bike much longer, because the whole process becomes so well-tuned.”

The SuGar BlOCkerS dIeTBy rob Thompson, m.d.Rodale, $25.99, 384 pages, ISBn 9781609618438We’ve all heard that obesity is a risk factor for diabetes, but the reasons are rarely explained. Dia-betic cardiologist Rob Thompson

sheds light on the cause of type 2 diabetes among overweight people and reveals a plan to prevent and treat the disease while losing weight.WHY YOU’RE FAT: The refined-starch-heavy diet of Americans is too rapidly digested as glucose, which causes loss of sensitivity to insulin leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes. HOW YOU FIX IT: Avoid excessive starches. When you do eat starches, add certain types of foods called “sugar blockers” that slow the absorption of glucose.FIRST STEP: Learn what foods are sugar blockers.COMMITMENT: Easy. You don’t have to give up any food forever.EAT THIS: Fibers such as bran and flax seeds; veg-etables and fruits that are low in sugar; vinegar-based dressing with salad and small amounts of fatty snacks such as nuts or cheese before a meal.DON’T EAT THIS: Refined carbs like white bread, unless eaten with a sugar blocker.STARTLING CLAIM: Indulging in dessert only after you’ve finished the main course will help the digestive system absorb glucose slower, leading to weight loss.

The PlanBy lyn-Genet recitasgrand Central Life & Style, $25.99, 320 pagesISBn 9781455515486

You’re over age 35 and no mat-ter what you do—lots of exercise, a measly diet of 800 calories a

day—your weight refuses to budge. According to nutritionist Lyn-Genet Recitas and her team of naturopathic doctors, everything you know about being healthy is completely wrong.WHY YOU’RE FAT: It’s not carbs, it’s not too much fat; it’s low-grade inflammation caused by so-called “healthy” foods.HOW YOU FIX IT: Determine and stop eating the “reactive” foods that cause your inflammation, thus losing half a pound a day, reversing illness and improving digestive function and happiness.FIRST STEP: Horror—mysterious “healthy” foods are making you fat. After you’ve calmed down, commence a three-day cleanse with a diet of uni-versally non-reactive foods, then start testing the reactivity of every other food in the world. COMMITMENT: Relatively high. You’re essentially training to be your own nutritionist, and your list of reactive foods changes as you age.EAT THIS: Whatever works.DON’T EAT THIS: One of the “Devil Foods” (oatmeal, salmon, asparagus, tomato sauce, tofu, black beans and turkey) might make you gain three pounds overnight.STARTLING CLAIM: “There is no such thing as healthy. There is only what works for your body.”

dIeT & healThB y t h e e d i t o r s o f B o o k P a g e

make 2013 yOur healThIeST year ever

Maybe you’re looking to drop the five (or 10 or 15) pounds you packed on during pie season—er, the holidays. Maybe you’ve noticed some health problems getting worse as you’ve gained

weight over the years. Today’s diets aren’t just about dropping pounds; they’re about investing in yourself and your health. Change what you eat to change your life—it all starts with finding the right book for your body.

30

publisher favorites_________________

_______________

________________

__________________________

Killer ShowJohn BarylickThis definitive book on The Station nightclub fire tragedy has been called “a modern cautionary tale that will take your breath away” by Publishers Weekly.[University Press of New England]9781611682656 $27.95

The ForgottenDavid BaldacciThings get personal for Army Special Agent John Puller when he must investigate his aunt’s death in Florida. But this was no accidental death, and Florida is far from paradise.[Grand Central]9780446573054 $27.99

Back to BloodTom WolfeTom Wolfe sets his newest novel in Miami’s bad-to-the-bone Biscayne Bay, where a high-energy cast of characters bursts to life in a panoramic story of the new America. [Little, Brown]9780316036313 $30

Truth in AdvertisingJohn KenneyA funny, smart first novel for fans of Nick Hornby and Jonathan Tropper. The winning story of how a clever ad man learns how to be a real man.[Touchstone]9781451675542 $24.99

The Time Keeper Mitch AlbomThe author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven crafts his most imaginative novel yet: the story of the first man on earth to count the hours.[Hyperion]9781401322786 $24.99

VanishedIrene HannonVanished is the exciting first book in the Private Justice series: Three justice seekers who got burned playing by the rules now have a second chance to make things right.[Revell]9780800721237 $14.99 pb

Julie Andrews Treasury for All SeasonsJulie Andrews and Emma Walton HamiltonThis collection of classic and new poems celebrates every day, every season and every holiday. Sweet introductions by Julie Andrews make this the perfect family read.[Little, Brown Books for Young Readers]9780316040518 $19.99

Basher History: U.S. Presidents

Dan GreenEvery president has his own

entry and speaks directly to the reader. In Basher’s humorous fashion, these

lively and enlightening articles bring history to life.

[Kingfisher]9780753469644 $14.99 hc9780753469248 $8.99 pb

Splendors and GloomsLaura Amy Schlitz

“Few books can be called both delightful and eerie.

Utterly transporting.” —Rebecca Stead,

Newbery Medal winner“As mysterious and timeless

as a fairy tale.” —Booklist (starred review)

[Candlewick]9780763653804 $17.99

I Lay My Stitches DownCynthia Grady

This moving and eloquent set of poems, brought to life by

vivid and colorful artwork from Michele Wood, offers a time-

less witness to the hardship endured by America’s slaves.

Each poem is supplemented by a historical note.[Eerdmans Books

for Young Readers]9780802853868 $17

A Ball for DaisyChris RaschkaHave a ball with Daisy in the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner, a beautiful wordless picture book from Chris Raschka![Schwartz & Wade]9780375858611 $16.99

Cross RoadsWm. Paul Young

When egotistical businessman Anthony is left comatose from

a cerebral hemorrhage, he finds himself in a surreal world

that leads him on a hopeful path to redemption.

[FaithWords]9781455516049 $24.99

An American TuneBarbara Shoup

An achingly poignant story of a family crushed under the weight of suppressed

truths, illuminating the irrevocability of choices and

their effect on our lives.[Indiana University Press]

9780253007421 $19 pb

Your Food Is Fooling YouDavid A. Kessler, MD

Is your diet a vicious cycle of sugar, fat, and salt? Your

food is fooling you! David A. Kessler, M.D., best-selling

author of The End of Overeat-ing, delivers this new book

adapted especially for teens.[Roaring Brook Press]

9781596438316 $9.99 pb

Diet for a New America (25th Anniversary Edition)

John RobbinsDrawing a clear line

connecting America’s factory farm system with disease,

animal cruelty, and ecological crises, John Robbins makes

an eloquent argument for vegetarianism.

[New World Library]9781932073546 $18.95 pb

Dog CompanyPatrick O’Donnell

“Patrick O’Donnell takes you from the scaling of Pointe du Hoc’s murderous cliffs on the

Normandy coast to the Battle of the Bulge and into the rubble of Germany. World War II comes to life through the eyes of this one

company of intrepid U.S. Army Rangers.”—Douglas Waller,

author of Wild Bill Donovan[Da Capo Press]

9780306820298 $26

Drinking BostonStephanie Schorow

An intoxicating history of America’s first drinking town, Drinking Boston examines the city’s politics, mythology and

the struggle between morality and freedom through its his-

toric and celebrated barrooms.[Union Park Press]

9781934598092 $18.50 pb

Immortal DiamondFather Richard RohrExamines the fundamental issues of who we are, to help us on our path of spiritual maturity. Written by Father Richard Rohr, the best-selling author of Falling Upward.[Wiley]9781118303597 $19.95

FashionDKTracing the evolution of fashion from ancient times to the catwalk couture of today, this illustrated guide looks at 3,000 years of shifting trends and innovative designs.[DK]9780756698355 $50

The Boy Kings of TexasDomingo MartinezA 2012 National Book Award finalist, this lyrical, gritty coming-of-age story about a Texas border-town family illuminates a little-understood corner of America.[Lyons Press]9780762779192 $16.95 pb

LincolnKarl WeberThis companion book to the major motion picture has leading historians answer-ing the question: What Would Lincoln Do?[PublicAffairs]9781610392631 $14.99 pb

Delia’s Dull DayAndy Myer

Poor Delia, her life is so dull. But if Delia would just pay attention, she’d realize

that amazing things are happening all around her!

[Sleeping Bear Press]9781585368044 $16.95

Clifford CollectionNorman Bridwell

Celebrate Clifford’s 50th anniversary with this

collection of six classic stories that were originally

published beginning in 1963!

[Cartwheel]9780545450133 $12.99

American DriveRichard E. Dauch with Hank

H. CoxAmerican Drive answers the question everyone’s

been asking: Can America compete with cheap

foreign labor and restore skilled, well-paying jobs to

our economy?[St. Martin’s]

9781250010827 $27.99

31

Regional Catalog page

publisher favorites_________________

_______________

________________

__________________________

Killer ShowJohn BarylickThis definitive book on The Station nightclub fire tragedy has been called “a modern cautionary tale that will take your breath away” by Publishers Weekly.[University Press of New England]9781611682656 $27.95

The ForgottenDavid BaldacciThings get personal for Army Special Agent John Puller when he must investigate his aunt’s death in Florida. But this was no accidental death, and Florida is far from paradise.[Grand Central]9780446573054 $27.99

Back to BloodTom WolfeTom Wolfe sets his newest novel in Miami’s bad-to-the-bone Biscayne Bay, where a high-energy cast of characters bursts to life in a panoramic story of the new America. [Little, Brown]9780316036313 $30

Truth in AdvertisingJohn KenneyA funny, smart first novel for fans of Nick Hornby and Jonathan Tropper. The winning story of how a clever ad man learns how to be a real man.[Touchstone]9781451675542 $24.99

The Time Keeper Mitch AlbomThe author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven crafts his most imaginative novel yet: the story of the first man on earth to count the hours.[Hyperion]9781401322786 $24.99

VanishedIrene HannonVanished is the exciting first book in the Private Justice series: Three justice seekers who got burned playing by the rules now have a second chance to make things right.[Revell]9780800721237 $14.99 pb

Julie Andrews Treasury for All SeasonsJulie Andrews and Emma Walton HamiltonThis collection of classic and new poems celebrates every day, every season and every holiday. Sweet introductions by Julie Andrews make this the perfect family read.[Little, Brown Books for Young Readers]9780316040518 $19.99

Basher History: U.S. Presidents

Dan GreenEvery president has his own

entry and speaks directly to the reader. In Basher’s humorous fashion, these

lively and enlightening articles bring history to life.

[Kingfisher]9780753469644 $14.99 hc9780753469248 $8.99 pb

Splendors and GloomsLaura Amy Schlitz

“Few books can be called both delightful and eerie.

Utterly transporting.” —Rebecca Stead,

Newbery Medal winner“As mysterious and timeless

as a fairy tale.” —Booklist (starred review)

[Candlewick]9780763653804 $17.99

I Lay My Stitches DownCynthia Grady

This moving and eloquent set of poems, brought to life by

vivid and colorful artwork from Michele Wood, offers a time-

less witness to the hardship endured by America’s slaves.

Each poem is supplemented by a historical note.[Eerdmans Books

for Young Readers]9780802853868 $17

A Ball for DaisyChris RaschkaHave a ball with Daisy in the 2012 Caldecott Medal winner, a beautiful wordless picture book from Chris Raschka![Schwartz & Wade]9780375858611 $16.99

Cross RoadsWm. Paul Young

When egotistical businessman Anthony is left comatose from

a cerebral hemorrhage, he finds himself in a surreal world

that leads him on a hopeful path to redemption.

[FaithWords]9781455516049 $24.99

An American TuneBarbara Shoup

An achingly poignant story of a family crushed under the weight of suppressed

truths, illuminating the irrevocability of choices and

their effect on our lives.[Indiana University Press]

9780253007421 $19 pb

Your Food Is Fooling YouDavid A. Kessler, MD

Is your diet a vicious cycle of sugar, fat, and salt? Your

food is fooling you! David A. Kessler, M.D., best-selling

author of The End of Overeat-ing, delivers this new book

adapted especially for teens.[Roaring Brook Press]

9781596438316 $9.99 pb

Diet for a New America (25th Anniversary Edition)

John RobbinsDrawing a clear line

connecting America’s factory farm system with disease,

animal cruelty, and ecological crises, John Robbins makes

an eloquent argument for vegetarianism.

[New World Library]9781932073546 $18.95 pb

Dog CompanyPatrick O’Donnell

“Patrick O’Donnell takes you from the scaling of Pointe du Hoc’s murderous cliffs on the

Normandy coast to the Battle of the Bulge and into the rubble of Germany. World War II comes to life through the eyes of this one

company of intrepid U.S. Army Rangers.”—Douglas Waller,

author of Wild Bill Donovan[Da Capo Press]

9780306820298 $26

Drinking BostonStephanie Schorow

An intoxicating history of America’s first drinking town, Drinking Boston examines the city’s politics, mythology and

the struggle between morality and freedom through its his-

toric and celebrated barrooms.[Union Park Press]

9781934598092 $18.50 pb

Immortal DiamondFather Richard RohrExamines the fundamental issues of who we are, to help us on our path of spiritual maturity. Written by Father Richard Rohr, the best-selling author of Falling Upward.[Wiley]9781118303597 $19.95

FashionDKTracing the evolution of fashion from ancient times to the catwalk couture of today, this illustrated guide looks at 3,000 years of shifting trends and innovative designs.[DK]9780756698355 $50

The Boy Kings of TexasDomingo MartinezA 2012 National Book Award finalist, this lyrical, gritty coming-of-age story about a Texas border-town family illuminates a little-understood corner of America.[Lyons Press]9780762779192 $16.95 pb

LincolnKarl WeberThis companion book to the major motion picture has leading historians answer-ing the question: What Would Lincoln Do?[PublicAffairs]9781610392631 $14.99 pb

Delia’s Dull DayAndy Myer

Poor Delia, her life is so dull. But if Delia would just pay attention, she’d realize

that amazing things are happening all around her!

[Sleeping Bear Press]9781585368044 $16.95

Clifford CollectionNorman Bridwell

Celebrate Clifford’s 50th anniversary with this

collection of six classic stories that were originally

published beginning in 1963!

[Cartwheel]9780545450133 $12.99

American DriveRichard E. Dauch with Hank

H. CoxAmerican Drive answers the question everyone’s

been asking: Can America compete with cheap

foreign labor and restore skilled, well-paying jobs to

our economy?[St. Martin’s]

9781250010827 $27.99

32

fICTIOn

lOve In a hOPeleSS PlaCer e v i e w B y a B B y P l e s s e r

Louisa Clark lives a small, simple life. At age 27, she shares a home with her quirky family, works at a local café and maintains a lackluster relationship with her beau of seven years. She may have dreamt of leav-ing her tiny English village once or twice, but it just doesn’t seem practi-cal; with the recent economic downturn, Lou’s salary has kept the family afloat. And then her boss closes his café and Louisa is left adrift. Forced to take almost any job that will pay the family’s bills, Louisa agrees to serve as caretaker for a wealthy quadriplegic, despite having absolutely no training. As she quickly discovers, the job is much more—in ways both triumphant and tragic—than she bargained for.

Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You is a most unconventional love story. Lou and her charge, the handsome, privileged Will Traynor, are at first like oil and water. Will is cold and aloof with everyone, but he seems gener-ally displeased to have Lou around. Lou comes to realize that’s because she isn’t just a caregiver—she’s a babysitter. Will was an adventure junkie with career success, complete independence and a slew of gorgeous women by his side. His injury has left him physically and emotionally

devastated—and certain that he doesn’t want to live this way. But both Lou and Will have surprises in store for each other, and Moyes lets their relationship develop in wonderful, hilarious and unexpected ways. Lou simply will not let Will go down without a fight, and in her battle to save his life, she ends up changing her own.

Moyes’ twisting, turning, heartbreaking novel raises provocative moral questions while developing a truly unique relationship between two people brought together by chance. With shades of David Nicholls’ beloved One Day, Me Before You is the kind of book you simply can’t put down—even when you realize you don’t want to see it end. This may not be a novel for the faint of heart, but it is a big-hearted, beautifully written story that teaches us it is never too late to truly start living.

me BefOre yOu

By Jojo moyesPamela Dorman Books, $27.95, 384 pages


The laST runaWay

By Tracy ChevalierDutton $26.95, 320 pagesISBn 9780525952992Audio, eBook available

hISTOrICal fICTIOn

Tracy Chevalier, of Girl With a Pearl Earring fame, shifts her focus from Europe and enigmatic works of art to 1850s Ohio and the Under-ground Railroad in her latest, The Last Runaway. Jilted by her fiancé, quiet Quaker Honor Bright departs safe England for untamed America, and learns there that living accord-ing to one’s principles is easier said than done.

Left suddenly alone on her new continent after a family tragedy, Honor seeks comfort in the medita-tive routine of her beloved quilting. Her talent for stitching gains her

an unlikely friend: the whiskey-swilling, cursing Kentucky export Belle Mills, who, to Honor’s shock, is hiding runaway slaves. Opposed to slavery like other Quakers, Honor silently approves of Belle’s actions, but when she begins helping slaves herself, she is met with resistance from her new community of Friends—despite their passionate abolitionist speeches. Further com-plicating matters are Honor’s first stirrings of lust: Belle’s brother, Don-ovan, is coarse, violent and, worst of all, a slave hunter—yet Honor can’t get him out of her head, even as she’s drawn to red-blooded Quaker farmer Jack Haymaker. As Honor moves deeper into the risky world of aiding slaves, she is confronted with several difficult choices.

Evoking 19th-century Ohio life with a quiet lushness, Chevalier seamlessly seeds vivid period details into her writing. Though minor bits test patience—Honor can suppos-edly hear an eye blink—the conflicts of this young woman’s head and heart will pull readers to the last

page. Chevalier questions the differ-ence between bravery and foolish-ness and explores whether ideology should displace family ties, and her characters are drawn with satisfy-ing shades of gray. Having lived in England for nearly 30 years, the American-born Chevalier calls this novel her “love letter home.” Warm and thoughtful, The Last Runaway gratifyingly probes America’s grow-ing pains.

— s h e r i b o d o h

The drOWnInG hOuSe

By elizabeth Blacknan A. Talese$25.95, 288 pagesISBn 9780385535861eBook available

deBuT fICTIOn

The island of Galveston is a strange kind of American micro-

cosm, existing both as its own slightly warped little world and as an important thread in the na-tional fabric. It’s Texas but not Texas; tourist-filled and welcoming, yet uniquely distant; and always dan-gerously close to natural disaster. Elizabeth Black sets her spellbind-ing debut novel, a story of secrets, loss and the redemptive power of truth, against this compelling backdrop.

Clare is a celebrated New York photographer whose life crumbles in the wake of tragedy. When an invitation to stage an exhibit of her work promises to take her back to Galveston, her hometown, Clare relishes the chance to escape the stifling world of her married life. But back home, she finds old secrets stirring, and she becomes capti-vated with a decades-old legend of a drowned girl and what it means for her family’s own relationship with the wealthy, almost mythological Carradays of Galveston.

Black’s luxurious prose makes Galveston into a dark, fading fairy-tale world, and her descriptions of Clare’s internal strife reveal a keen insight into the human condition that eludes many more seasoned novelists. A page-turning chronicle of grief and memory, The Drowning House is a remarkable blend of hu-man drama and satisfyingly South-ern Gothic mystery, propelled by Black’s lyrical, haunting narration.

— M a t t h e w J a c k s o n

The hISTOry Of uS

By leah StewartTouchstone$24.99, 384 pagesISBn 9781451672626Audio, eBook available

POPular fICTIOn

Leah Stewart’s fourth novel, fol-lowing 2011’s Husband and Wife, opens as 28-year-old Eloise Hempel, newly hired as a history professor at Harvard, receives a phone call from her 11-year-old niece Theo in Cin-cinnati. Eloise’s sister, Rachel, and her husband have died in a crash while on vacation. Theo and her siblings, Josh, 9, and Claire, 2, had been staying with Francine, Eloise and Rachel’s mother, who somehow

reviews

visit BookPage.com for a Q&A with Jojo Moyes.

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fICTIOn

Over her 40-year career as a writer, Fay Weldon has been known for her unpredictability, from controversial early novels such as The Life and Loves of a She-Devil to the commercial tie-in The Bulgari Connection. Now the author of the first episode of the original “Upstairs Downstairs” turns her attentions to 1890s England. The first in a planned trilogy, Habits of the House (St. Martin’s, $25.99, 320 pages, ISBN 9781250026620) is a comedy of manners that takes advantage of Weldon’s rich sense of farce.

Habits of the House opens on the well-appointed front steps of 17 Belgrave Square, where Eric Baum, financial counselor to the Earl of Dilberne, is ringing the doorbell. The relentless pealing sets off a chain of responses from the domestic staff, who ignore the bell, deeming Baum “too foreign looking” to be worthy of the front door. Lady Isobel and her adult children, the ne’er-do-well Robert and his fiercely independent suffragette sister, Rosina, can’t be bothered to get out of bed. It is the Earl who finally allows Baum in, noting that this is the first time he has opened the front door himself.

The news Baum brings isn’t good—the Earl’s investments in South African gold mines have been badly affected by the Boer war. The only real answer is to marry the children off to money without delay, despite the fact that Rosina seems unmarriageable and Robert is keeping a mistress. Cue the entrance of wealthy Ameri-

cans—beef baron Billy O’Brien, his vulgar wife, Tessa, and their daughter Minnie, a beautiful girl with a questionable past.

Habits of the House moves quickly, and though the charac-ters sometimes seem like they’ve been ordered from Central Casting (doughty cook, brash American, street-smart manservant), the novel retains a tongue-in-cheek humor even when it examines the tougher issues of the times.

Elizabeth Wilhide’s Ashenden (Simon & Schuster, $24.99, 352 pages, ISBN 9781451684865) trac-es the history of a grand British home from the 18th century to the present. Middle-aged New Yorker Charlie Minton is awoken by a phone call from his sister: They have inherited the estate owned by their Uncle Hugo and Aunt Reggie. Charlie goes to England to find the house in terrible disrepair. The National Trust isn’t interested, and he and his sister can’t agree on another solution. The novel then moves from the present day through the two centuries since the house was built. Readers meet the financially insolvent Mores, who never even paid the initial builder; Mrs. Trimble, who spent years as a housekeeper only to end up impoverished; a POW during World War II; and finally Reggie and Hugo, for whom the restora-tion of the house was an extension of their loving marriage.

This is Wilhide’s first novel, though she has written books on interior design and collaborated on projects with notables like designer Orla Kiely. Ashenden’s history is based on the history of Basildon Park, which was also built in the 18th century, lived in by many families, turned into an army hospital and a prisoner of war camp, and lovingly restored in the 1950s. This charming book suggests a house is a living, ever-changing thing, deeply affected by the people who live and work in it.

InSIde The GreaT hOuSe

Do you have “Downton Abbey” fever? Novelist Fay Weldon and interior design expert Elizabeth Wilhide have just the books to keep

you happily distracted until the third season begins on January 6—or to ease the wait for season four.

spotlight BrIT fICTIOn

finds herself unable to make that dif-ficult call herself.

Though she loves Boston, espe-cially her plum job at Harvard, Eloise realizes she is the logical choice to raise her sister’s children in Cincin-nati—with their familiar schools, their extracurricular activities, their friends.

The story then shifts to 2010, 17 years later. Eloise, Theo, Josh and Claire all live in Francine’s huge old house in Clifton, the Cincinnati neighborhood close to the univer-sity where Eloise now teaches. With the kids about to leave home, Eloise feels this is the perfect time to put the house on the market—maybe she could even move back to Boston at long last. But therein lies the snag, for the children, now grown, are all very attached to the house where they grew up as orphans. Unfortunately, none of them have the means to keep it.Theo feels the strongest—but still a student working on her dissertation, she has nothing to contribute to the bills. Josh dropped out of his band a year earlier, and has a mediocre job; Claire, a ballerina, is leaving soon for a position in New York City.

Stewart is a wonderful observer of family relationships, and she adroitly weaves the stories of Eloise and the children she’s raised—their work, their loves, their disappointments and dreams—while focusing on what ties families together, and what ultimately keeps those ties from breaking.

— d e b o r a h d o n o v a n

TenTh Of deCemBer

By George SaundersRandom House$26, 272 pagesISBn 9780812993806Audio, eBook available

ShOrT STOrIeS

George Saunders is one of the masters of the difficult art of the short story. In his latest collection, Tenth of December, wounded char-acters confront situations that range from slightly skewed to downright Orwellian.

In “Victory Lap,” a teenaged boy prevents a catastrophe by breaking all the rules his smothering, control-

freak parents have laid down for him. In “Escape From Spiderhead,” prisoners are subjected to high-tech Milgramesque experiments where their emotions are manipulated, ef-fortlessly, by intravenous drugs. The point of the exercise is uncertain to the prisoners, the experiment-ers and the reader, and the story is so matter of fact in its depiction of

horror that the reader almost wishes she’d never read it. This is not the last story in which impossi-ble but cleverly named psycho-tropic drugs will mess with the insides of people’s heads.

Most of the stories are narrated by men, or have men as their protagonists. The boys are outsiders, either too fat or too nerdy, and many of the men have soul-crushing and even bizarre jobs. In “Exhortation,” a director urges his staff to keep up their “positive ener-gy” for some task that has a whiff of both uselessness and nefariousness about it, lest their shady overlords grow extremely displeased.

At last, the reader comes to the title story. It’s about an unpopular schoolboy, a dying man and a frozen lake. A masterpiece that reveals the power of stubborn love and redemp-tion, it seems, in a strange way, to make the suffering in the other sto-ries worthwhile. In Tenth of Decem-ber, Saunders proves that he’s both a brilliant observer of weirdness and a fierce believer in the connections that keep people going.

— a r l e n e M c k a n i c

The TWelve TrIBeS Of haTTIe

By ayana mathisknopf$24.95, 256 pagesISBn 9780385350280Audio, eBook available

deBuT fICTIOn

The saga of Hattie Shepherd, an African American who leaves Georgia in 1925 in pursuit of the American dream in Philadelphia,

B y l a u r e n B u f f e r d

Saunders is a brilliant observer of weirdness—and a fierce believer in human connections.

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may sound as if it would be made of common elements. But the talent of her creator, first-time novelist Ayana Mathis, is uncommon, as the opening pages of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie—an Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection—make clear.

Her preacher in Georgia declared the North to be “a New Jerusalem,” but Hattie’s long road of trouble and travail over six decades begins very soon after she arrives in Philadel-phia, where her twin babies become desperately ill.“She pressed her cheeks to the tops of their heads. Oh, their velvet skin! She felt their deaths like a ripping in her body.”

Out of fear that her nine later children and her grandchildren will fail to survive in a world of hatred and poverty, Hattie becomes a hard, demanding woman. Mathis dra-matically shows this shift through the perspectives of 12 different characters. The author’s electric style is both tough and compas-sionate, creating almost unbearably poignant moments.

Mathis moves the reader from Hattie’s perspective to the story of her grown son Floyd, a horn player, 23 years later. Then the focus shifts to Six, a preacher; then to the child Ruthie; and on to eight more of Hattie’s descendants. But Hattie is a vibrant participant in the drama of each separate narrative. In fact, the dialogue throughout is achingly real. This is a novel of distinctive and haunting voices that yearn for love.

The Promised Land of the North fails Hattie and her family. What suc-ceeds is the culture of a people, of a family, that has struggled to endure.

— d a v i d M a d d e n

The deaTh Of BeeS

By lisa O’donnellHarper$25.99, 320 pagesISBn 9780062209849eBook available

deBuT fICTIOn

No matter how you and your fam-ily choose to celebrate the holidays, chances are it doesn’t involve bury-ing your parents in the backyard on Christmas Eve. Alas, the same can-not be said for the sibling protago-nists in Lisa O’Donnell’s first novel,

The Death of Bees. Setting the tone for what is to

come, the book opens with 15-year-old Marnie telling readers that not only is it Christmas Eve, but it is also her birthday, and the parents that

she and her sister have just buried in their backyard were anything but beloved.

Rest as-sured, this is no saccharine, gentle story of

a loving family torn asunder. As far as Marnie is concerned, her parents’ deaths are just one more mess they have left for her to clean up, just one more burden far too heavy for her and 12-year-old Nelly to have to carry. Yet carry it they must, leaving readers to root for these two newly minted orphans as they attempt to outwit child protective services, settle debts with their father’s drug dealer—who is owed money they don’t have—and keep their lonely next-door neighbor from discover-ing the truth about what his dog keeps trying to dig up in their back garden. Through it all, the girls navigate the more traditional hard-ships of adolescence with pluck and determination, proving that though they may be damaged, they can never be fully broken as long as they have each other.

From its first line to its last, The Death of Bees is unapologeti-cally candid and heralds a brazen new voice in the literary world. O’Donnell, a Scot who now lives in L.A., is also an award-winning screenwriter. Her prior career ex-perience shows in her novel: She im-bues Marnie and Nelly with voices that are honest and authentic, and the narrative flows with the exact right current to hook readers early and then slowly reel them in.

This is a dark and mordant novel, yet despite its fighting words, a tender heart beats deep at its center. Although undeniably bleak at times, Marnie and Nelly’s story is not de-void of hope and has much needed punches of humor throughout. The result is a riveting and rewarding read.

— s t e p h e n i e h a r r i s o n

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O’Donnell is a brazen new voice in the literary world.

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nOnfICTIOn

The frIendS WhO ShaPe uSr e v i e w B y k e l l y B l e w e t t

For fans of searingly honest memoirs, the publication of Susanna Son-nenberg’s She Matters is a cause for celebration. Sonnenberg’s previous book, Her Last Death, explored her tumultuous relationship with her provocative and ultimately destructive mother. This book turns to more nurturing, though occasionally heartbreaking, women in Sonnenberg’s life: her friends.

Comprised of 20 short essays, Sonnenberg’s book discusses all kinds of friendships—those that ended well, ended badly, ended mysteriously or (occasionally) continue today. Her Rolodex of friends includes a writer, a painter, a stay-at-home mom, a rabbi and a massage therapist. I can only imagine what her friends must have thought when they found themselves drawn by her pen; but for readers, the rewards are rich. The book’s honesty, eloquence, laugh-out-loud humor, finely wrought prose and magnificent scope will keep readers eagerly turning the pages.

The Sonnenberg who closes the book is not the same woman we meet on page one. Because the essays are arranged chronologically, readers

learn how major life decisions—from embracing motherhood to moving to Montana, from becoming a writer to working in an abortion clinic—have shaped the way she chooses and fosters her friendships. We see how time and change impacted some of her oldest relationships. Given this benefit of space and reflection, Sonnenberg adds asides that deepen some of the early stories. “Had I paid attention,” she says of one friend, “she would have shown me a first real lesson in grief, its disorganizing confusions, its inescapable solitude.”

One of the many things to appreciate about this book is its refusal to bundle each friendship into a neat bow. Instead, these memorable and lovely essays gesture to the real-life intricacies of relationships. They celebrate the many pleasures of knowing and being known. For readers who welcome a complex perspective beautifully rendered in writing, this book is not to be missed.

She maTTerS

By Susanna SonnenbergScribner, $24, 272 pages


The unIverSe WIThIn

By neil ShubinPantheon$25.95, 240 pagesISBn 9780307378439eBook available

SCIenCe

The biblical passage, “You are dust, and to dust you shall return,” is a poignant reminder of our fragile place in the world. It also reminds us how deeply we are connected to the earth, the water, the air and to the other creatures who roam the land. Neil Shubin’s The Universe Within is a further reminder of this critical relationship.

At a time when we pay increas-ing attention to the effects of our actions on the planet, The Universe Within also reveals how the uni-verse has had a huge impact on the development of the human race. For

example, many scientists believe that our universe was created by the Big Bang. Shubin writes that atoms from the Big Bang can be found in our air, our water and inside of us, as a sort of recycling process for the ages. “The particles that make us,” Shubin writes, “have traveled billions of years across the universe; long after we and our planet are gone, they will be a part of other worlds.”

Once Shubin establishes his thesis that we humans and our universe are made of the same tiny particles, it’s easy to accept his arguments for how we are connected in other ways. Consider that humans are made up mostly of water, which also covers most of our earth; or look at Shubin’s illustration of the strong likenesses even among wildly diverse creatures, such as the strik-ingly similar shapes of the leg bones of an elephant and a mouse.

The Universe Within gives us an appreciation of how we are just small specks and small moments in time. But it also challenges us to

take steps to protect our environ-ment so our world can last a little longer.

— J o h n t . s l a n i a

On The maP

By Simon Garfieldgotham$27.50, 464 pagesISBn 9781592407798

hISTOry

“Maps hold a clue to what makes us human,” Simon Garfield writes in the introduction to his lively, loose-limbed exploration of our seemingly tireless quest to visually represent the lay of the land. Garfield’s interest in the human side of mapmak-ing—the personalities, anecdotes, curiosities—is what makes On the Map such an enjoyable read.

Garfield’s 22 chapters follow a

rough chronology, beginning with the Great Library of Alexandria, where Eratosthenes of Cyrene in the third century B.C. came remarkably close to calculating the true circum-ference of the earth, and ending with contemporary medicine’s attempt to map the human brain. In between, he regales readers with tales of map-makers and map thieves, treasure maps, the origins of the atlas and the development of the beautiful sche-matic map of the London tube. Who was Mercator and why do we think his distortion-filled map is so impor-tant? How did the Americas come to be named after Amerigo Vespucci, a former bank clerk who sailed for South America nearly a decade after Columbus reached the Caribbean? Why did a nonexistent mountain range remain on maps of Africa for almost a century? The answers can be found in On the Map.

An Englishman, Garfield’s topic selections skew toward the Brit-ish, but On the Map also includes chapters on the grid map of Man-hattan and the mapping efforts of the Lewis and Clark expedition (with an interesting aside on Native Americans’ evanescent sand maps). So On the Map is capacious rather than comprehensive. It is also vastly entertaining.

— a l d e n M u d g e

Chanel BOnfIre

By Wendy lawlessgallery$25, 304 pagesISBn 9781451675368eBook available

memOIr

There are bad mothers and there are alcoholic mothers, and then there are bad, alcoholic, psychotic mothers like Georgann Rea. Add glamour, beauty and a rapidly dwin-dling divorce settlement, and you’ve got Chanel Bonfire.

A small-town blonde from Kansas City, Georgann married up and out, catapulting herself and her two small daughters from a Midwestern first marriage to the luxuries of life in New York and London. In doing so, she effectively kidnapped the girls, blocking them from any con-tact with their father and holding

36

them hostage to her volatile moods, her drinking, her florid romantic conquests and her suicide attempts.

Older daughter Wendy tries to protect her little sister Robbie from the worst of it, but she can’t stop the destructive spiral of her mother’s rage: how she breaks their toys, locks them in a closet, flirts with their boyfriends and tells them they’ve ruined her life. A fortuitous connec-tion with a therapist helps Wendy, even as the violence between Rob-bie and their mother escalates. Little by little, the girls raggedly break away from their mother, although physical separation is easier than mental detachment.

This miracle of a memoir is completely free from self-pity, and it’s surprisingly suspenseful. Written from the point of view of Wendy’s younger self, it unfolds for the read-er as it unfolds for the daughters: with no clear resolution in sight. And yet it is clearly the product of a healthy retrospection, driven by a cinematic attention to detail, dia-logue and scene. In writing Chanel Bonfire, Wendy Lawless has given up disguising her mother’s craziness in favor of telling the truth as clearly and objectively as is possible to do.

— c a t h e r i n e h o l l i s

The fall Of The hOuSe Of dIXIe

By Bruce levineRandom House$30, 464 pagesISBn 9781400067039eBook available

amerICan hISTOry

Few experiences are as exhila-rating as watching a bully being brought to his knees. And if his former victims have had a hand in his collapse, it’s all the more deli-cious. That, in essence, is the scene Bruce Levine presents in The Fall of the House of Dixie as he traces the smug rise and ignominious fall of the Confederacy in America’s Civil War. Levine offers a fresh perspec-tive on this oft-told story by relying heavily on personal letters, journals and diaries to reveal just how vile, self-serving and, ultimately, delu-sional the slaveholders were.

Brushing aside the notion that

slavery was merely one of many is-sues over which the war was fought, Levine, a professor of history at the University of Illinois, shows that it was at the center of everything—the economy, culture, social relation-ships and worldview. While it was true that most Southerners didn’t own slaves, those most active in the push for secession did—and they were the ones who stood to gain the most if the war went their way. After describing the brutal conditions under which slaves lived, Levine then quotes a series of masters on how happy and contented their slaves are with their lot. “A fascinat-ing quality of the human mind is its ability to hold firmly and simultane-ously two contradictory ideas,” he observes wryly.

The dynamics of the war, even when the South seemed to be win-ning, made slavery increasingly untenable. Both sides needed their labor for military purposes, which gave blacks a certain leverage. With the men of the plantations away, it was more difficult to keep the slaves subdued and productive at home—and impossible to keep them from hearing the siren call of liberation, especially as Northern armies took control of the Mississippi and the vital port of New Orleans, and as General Sherman’s forces did their scorched-earth march from Atlanta to Savannah. Yet many slaveholders, instead of becoming gallantly self-sacrificing when the South needed them most, clung to their sense of entitlement, refusing to contribute war materials, pay higher taxes or allow their slaves to be used for the common good. Nobody was going to tell them what to do.

— e d w a r d M o r r i s

The WOrld unTIl yeSTerday

By Jared diamondviking$36, 512 pagesISBn 9780670024810Audio, eBook available

CulTure

As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and

absorbing new book. In The World Until Yesterday, he pushes us to reconsider the contours of human society and the forces that have shaped human culture.

Drawing on both his personal experiences of traditional societies, especially among New Guinea High-landers, and in-depth research into cultures as diverse as Amazonian Indians and the !Kung of southern Africa, Diamond convincingly ar-gues that while many modern states enjoy a wide range of technological, political and military advantages, they often fail to offer an improved approach to such issues as raising children or treating the elderly.

Hardly naïve, Diamond acknowl-edges that the modern world would never embrace many practices, such as infanticide and widow-strangling, embedded in traditional cultures but horrifying to modern ones. Yet traditional societies also value societal well-being over individual well-being, so that care for the elderly is an integral part of their social fabric—an arrangement that “goes against all those interwoven American values of independence, individualism, self-reliance, and privacy.”

Ranging over topics that include child-rearing, conflict resolution, the nature of risk, religion and physical fitness, Diamond eloquent-ly concludes with a litany of the advantages of the traditional world. “Loneliness,” he observes, “is not a problem in traditional societies,” for people usually live close to where they were born and remain “sur-rounded by relatives and childhood companions.” In modern societies, by contrast, individuals often move far away from their places of birth to find themselves surrounded by strangers. We can also take lessons from traditional cultures about our health. By choosing healthier foods, eating slowly and talking with friends and family during a meal—all characteristics Diamond attri-butes to traditional societies—we can reform our diets and perhaps curb the incidence of diseases such as stroke and diabetes.

Powerful and captivating, Dia-mond’s lucid insights challenge our ideas about human nature and cul-ture, and will likely provoke heated conversations about the future of our society.

— h e n r y l . c a r r i g a n J r .

kIll anyThInG ThaT mOveS

By nick TurseMetropolitan$30, 384 pagesISBn 9780805086911eBook available

hISTOry

The literature of the Vietnam War does not feature much hagiography, just stories of inner torment, sense-less deaths and shattered ideologies. What’s tragic—and overlooked—is that the soldiers were not the only ones who endured an unimaginable hell. In the sobering Kill Anything That Moves, Nick Turse provides an exhaustive account of how thou-sands upon thousands of innocent, unarmed South Vietnamese civilians were senselessly killed by a military that equated corpses with results.

Turse’s book, a graphic collec-tion of rapes, shootings and wanton disregard for human life, is a dif-ficult, frequently depressing affair. By the end, it reads as a parody of machismo taken to fatal, troubling extremes. But this actually hap-pened. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?

Relying on interviews, govern-ment documents and other re-search, Turse breaks down how these atrocities came to pass. Recruits in basic training became killing machines; indeed, they were rewarded for a high number of kills. Secretary of Defense Robert McNa-mara’s game plan for the war boiled down to “killing more enemies than their Vietnamese opponents could replace.” The U.S. military did little to protect Vietnamese civilians, es-sentially shooting anyone running away or wearing black. A bit of cleri-cal fudging turned farmers, chil-dren and the elderly into kill-crazy Vietcong.

It went on like this for years, with the infamous massacre at My Lai serving as just the most publicized example. The incidents become a blur of awfulness, a rush of power run amok. Kill Anything That Moves is a staggering reminder that war has its gruesome subplots hidden underneath the headlines—but they’re even sadder when our heroes create them.

— p e t e c r o a t t o

nOnfICTIOnreviews

37

Clare vanderPOOl

The numBerS never lIe

In both of Clare Vanderpool’s artfully written novels, the young protagonists’ fathers yank them out of the lives they’ve known and deposit them in unfamiliar

surroundings, where they must make sense of the past and find their way in a strange new present.

But while Abilene (the main char-acter in the 2011 Newbery Medal winner Moon Over Manifest) and 13-year-old Jack Baker of Navigat-ing Early both narrate richly layered tales that explore memory, loss, dis-covery and redemption, their stories are in fact quite different.

Vanderpool says in an interview from her home in Wichita, Kansas, “Abilene has never lived in one place or been grounded in a community, and that’s what she’s sent to.” By contrast, “Jack was comfortable and grounded, and now he’s at the edge of the country without any bear-ings.”

Indeed, when Kansas-boy Jack sees the ocean for the first time, he throws up. A bumpy cargo-plane ride to the Maine coast contrib-uted to his stomach upset, but his disorientation also stems from emotional upheaval: World War II has just ended, Jack’s mother has recently died, and his father has brought him east to attend a boys’ boarding school near his military post in Portsmouth. Although Jack can appreciate the salty air, the ocean waves are forbidding and the multi-hued sand reminds him of his beloved mother, who was like “sand that clings to your body, leaving its impression on your skin to remind you of where you’ve been and where

you come from.”Even as he grieves the loss of his

mother and his home, Jack begins to explore his new surroundings, goes out for the crew team and becomes friends with a boy named Early Auden. Early is an intelligent, ec-centric sort: He’s obsessed with the Appalachian brown bear and timber rattlesnake, plays Billie Holliday only when it rains, and he has excel-lent water-sports skills, too.

That bundle of attributes make Early irresistibly intriguing to Jack, and as the boys grow closer, Early reveals something even more fasci-nating: The numbers of pi have col-ors, and he can read in the numbers a dramatic and exciting story that’s going to help him find that brown bear—and his brother, a soldier who was lost in the war.

Jack listens to each installment of the adventures of Pi (the hero of Early’s tale), but is skeptical about the story, let alone the possibility of finding bear or brother. Even so, he joins Early on his quest: The two explore on land and sea along the Appalachian Trail, and encounter a range of unusual people with their own stories—some scary, some poignant, all of them mysteriously similar to the people and places in the tale of Pi’s journey.

Navigating Early is a complex story, to be sure, and it’s all the more satisfying for its poetic language and intimation that not everything has a logical explanation. Vanderpool herself is quite comfortable with the latter notion. “Jack’s mom introduc-es that idea to him . . . the way our paths cross, our lives intersect and collide,” she says. “They’re all things I’ve experienced in my own life. I know this story pushes magical realism just a tad, but I’m okay with that because, in my own life, there are amazing things that happen, coincidences and connections you would never expect.”

The novel’s exploration of the ways in which physical places can shape our emotions is also a theme that’s been central to Vanderpool’s

experience. “That absolutely comes from me,” she says. “I’ve traveled a lot, and have lived in the same neighborhood my whole life, which I love. It’s very much part of my makeup.” She adds with a laugh, “When I was dating my husband, I joked with him and said, ‘Where you go, I go! Pick any house on these four streets.’ ” And so he did: They and their four children live in a house two blocks from Vanderpool’s childhood home.

Having her mother nearby is something Vanderpool enjoys, not least because the idea for Navigat-ing Early was touched off by her mother’s description of a vivid dream about a young man who was an exceptionally talented pianist. “That got me thinking,” she says. “I thought it would be interesting to write about a younger character with some type of savant ability.”

She began to do research about savants, and about pi, which, she says, “is the be-all, end-all for peo-ple that are into [math]. . . . It has a magical, mystical quality.” A trip to Maine helped solidify the landscape in her mind. And then, Vanderpool says, Early made himself known: “At a certain point,” she explains, “you let go of the inspiration and re-search and the characters take over. . . . It might sound strange because they’re characters you’re making up, but it’s the only way I can describe it. You give them a chance to tell you who they are.”

Fortunately, Vanderpool was lis-tening. In doing so, she has created a memorable story that is by turns poignant, funny and exciting—and reminds us not to rule out the pos-sibility that there might be a bit of magic in our everyday lives.

navIGaTInG early

By Clare vanderpoolDelacorte, $16.99, 320 pages

ISBn 9780385742092, audio, eBook availableAges 10 and up

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Can smart, gutsy Katie stop a serial killer?

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children’s books revIeWS

In SearCh Of ThaT JOIe de vIvrer e v i e w B y j i l l r a t z a n

Is one day enough to change your life? Allyson Healey’s existence has always been predictable and mundane. She’s never questioned her mother’s color-coded schedules or her own intention to go to medical school like her father. But on the last day of an unexciting pre-college Eu-ropean summer tour, everything changes. Allyson decides at the spur of the moment to spend a day in Paris with Willem, a 20-year-old traveling Shakespearean actor whom she’s just met.

A dizzying day of Parisian adventure follows, but the next morning Ally-son finds herself stranded and alone. Haunted not only by the loss of Wil-lem but also by the loss of the person Willem inspired her to be, Allyson’s first semester of college is marred by depression and failure.

When a guidance counselor suggests she drop her science labs for a Shakespeare class, a new door opens for Allyson. She begins to build an independent identity around her own interests and goals. Forgoing the summer internship her mother has arranged for her, Allyson finds her own job and makes plans to return to Paris to look for Willem. She soon discovers that her trip is as much about finding herself as finding Willem.

Gayle Forman, best-selling author of If I Stay and an experienced traveler herself, infuses this tale of self-discovery with details of international travel, Shakespeare’s plays, and the sights, smells, tastes and textures of Paris. Against this backdrop, and in the setting of Allyson’s small Boston-area college, Forman develops a cast of well-drawn characters in realistic relationships—from Allyson’s strained post-high school relationship with her longtime best friend Melanie, to her growing friendship with Dee, a classmate who’s not afraid to challenge oth-ers’ preconceptions of his unusual fashion choices. In the end, though, what captures readers’ hearts is Allyson’s own emerging individuality as she struggles with defining—and then becoming—the person she wants to be.

Readers curious about Willem’s side of the story can look forward to Just One Year, coming this fall.

JuST One day

By Gayle formanDutton, $17.99, 320 pages

ISBn 9780525425915, eBook availableAges 14 and up

hOkey POkey

By Jerry Spinelliknopf$15.99, 304 pagesISBn 9780375831980 Audio, eBook availableAges 10 and up

mIddle Grade

Hokey Pokey is the perfect kids’ world. There are many places to play, continuous cartoons on a big screen, wild herds of bicycles, even places for tantrums and snuggling. Only kids live here, from the time they first shed their diapers until they become Big Kids. But what happens then?

Newbery Award-winning author Jerry Spinelli explores this question with his usual grace and creativity in Hokey Pokey. His main character Jack wakes up one morning to find that his great stallion bike Scramjet has been stolen and nothing is as

he expects. When he discovers that his tattoo, the one every newbie gets upon entering Hokey Pokey, is start-ing to fade, he knows for sure that his life is about to change forever.

It’s hard to talk about how won-derful this book is without giving away its secrets. Adults will know early on what Jack is experienc-ing, and tweens might guess but not fully understand. Pre-teens will identify with Jack—and his friends the Amigos and his nemesis Jubi-lee—in a way that will startle them. The ending is a satisfying “click” of the last puzzle piece. If readers are put off by the childish-seeming premise at the beginning, encourage them to keep going. Hokey Pokey is not just a place, but also a journey they will recognize.

This is the kind of remarkable, unique and perfect coming-of-age story that makes the reader think, “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” And all of a sudden, there is no better way to describe child-hood—or its end.

— J e n n i F e r b r u e r k i t c h e l

GInGerSnaP

By Patricia reilly Giffwendy Lamb/ Random House$15.99, 160 pagesISBn 9780375838910 Audio, eBook available Ages 9 to 12

mIddle Grade

In Gingersnap, Newbery Honor winner Patricia Reilly Giff returns to the Brooklyn of her childhood to tell the heartwarming story of a young girl during World War II.

Since her parents’ death in a car accident, Jayna has been under the care of her brother, Rob. But Rob is called up for duty, leaving Jayna with Celine, their landlady.

When a telegram arrives, the news is terrifying: Rob is missing in ac-tion. Unable to face a loveless future as a burden to Celine, Jayna decides to take matters into her own hands.

With her pet turtle in a cat carrier, Jayna boards a bus from upstate New York to Brooklyn. She is follow-ing clues in her mother’s old recipe book, which tell of a bakery called Gingersnap. Could a grandmother she has never known live there?

Evoking the sights, sounds and tastes of neighborhoods from a time gone by, Gingersnap was a labor of love for Giff, whose inspirations in-cluded memories of her grandfather.

Readers are often introduced to WWII through stories of combat. Gingersnap offers an evocative pic-ture of life on the home front.

— d e b o r a h h o p k i n s o n

SPlInTered

By a.G. howardAmulet$17.95, 384 pagesISBn 9781419704284eBook availableAges 14 and up

Teen

Alyssa Gardner can hear the voic-es of insects and plants. You’d hear and see strange things, too, if your great-great-great-grandmother were none other than Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Won-derland and your family had been cursed ever since Alice’s return.

To save her mother and herself from the curse, Alyssa discovers a way into Wonderland and acciden-tally pulls her sexy next-door neigh-bor, Jeb, down the hole with her. Together they encounter outlandish creatures—from zombie flowers to an octo-walrus—and realize dark discrepancies from Carroll’s playful tome. But before they can look for a way home, Alyssa must fix Alice’s mistakes and break the curse—not an easy task when seductive Mor-pheus, a caterpillar/moth creature that used to haunt her in the human world, keeps changing the stakes.

While readers will delight in such recognizable scenes as Alyssa drink-ing from a bottle to shrink, the richly detailed scenes that stray from the original will entice the imagination. In the process of finding her sanity and saving herself and Jeb, Alyssa may discover love as well. These adventures are indeed wonderful.

— a n g e l a l e e p e r

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WOrkInG fOr a lIvInGHusband and wife team Caralyn

and Mark Buehner have come up with an intriguing idea in Snow-men at Work (Dial, $16.99, 32 pages, ISBN 9780803735798), the fourth book in their popular Snowmen series. What if snowmen had actual jobs as dentists, me-chanics, grocers and the like? Sparkling oil-and-acrylic paint-ings pop with energy and allow the Buehners to create warm and humorous scenes on every page. Each spread includes four hidden characters—cat, mouse, T. rex and rabbit—adding to the fun. Readers will have to slow down to find these little critters, but the search will allow them time to appreci-ate the charms of each detailed illustration.

WOrTh The WaITBunnies on Ice

(Roaring Brook, $16.99, 32 pages, ISBN 9781596434042) is Johanna Wright’s tribute to ice skaters of all levels. Remind-ing us that, as in many life events, “you have to wait for the conditions to be just right,” Wright takes us through spring plant-ing, summer swim-ming and harvest. This trip through the seasons allows the reader and lap-listener to slow down and enjoy the journey. Wright’s gentle acrylic-and-ink illustrations, in her signature naïve style, are filled with details that amuse both the eye and the heart. The members of the bun-ny family enjoy one another as they celebrate life together—gardening, swimming, raking, cooking, build-ing a scarecrow, making music and, at last, skating. I always want to join

the families that Wright constructs, especially if it means I could bundle up and skate on a frozen lake.

BrrrrrThe town of Toby Mills is cold.

Very cold. After a few days of sub-freezing weather, the local paper

declares what the townspeople already know: It’s a cold snap! Veterans Eileen Spinelli and Marjorie Priceman team up in Cold Snap (Knopf, $17.99, 40 pages, ISBN 9780375857003), a brisk tale of one town as it handles a long period of cold weather. A stat-ue of the town founder is at the center of the story. Actually, his nose is at the center of the story. The icicle that slowly grows from it is an unusual calendar of cold, but a humor-ous one that serves as a wonderful anchor for the story. Illustra-tions, in vivid, mostly primary-colored gouache, highlight a week of bone-chilling cold, but also show how warm a commu-nity can be. Millie and Chip throw snowballs, kids race down T-Bone Hill on their toboggans and skis, townspeople warm themselves in the diner, knitters

create warm hats, and ice skaters race around the pond. As the week unfolds, the townspeople get colder and colder, shivering in their church pews, getting stuck inside frozen train doors, and suffering with broken furnaces. Priceman’s breezy style, all movement and energy, is a perfect fit with Spinelli’s staccato, happening text. Readers will want to stay in Toby Mills longer than the week—maybe long enough to enjoy some sugar-on-snow.

leT IT SnOWfeature

January is the month for snow and cold and ice. Whether you live with snowy weather, or wish you did, pour a mug of cocoa and share these three

picture books with your favorite little snowman.

STOrIeS TO Warm WInTer’S ChIll

B y r o B i n s m i t h

meet STeve Breen

Steve Breen is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and author of the syndicated comic strip grand Avenue. He also writes and illustrates books for children, including his latest, the hilarious story of best friends PuG & dOuG (Dial, $16.99, 32 pages, ISBn 9780803735217). Breen and his family live in San Diego County, California.

PuG & dOuG

To use this online coupon, enter coupon code BKPGJ5 at checkout to save 10% off your online purchase of $50 or more. Coupon expires 1/31/13. Coupon may not be combined with any other offer or coupon. Coupon is not valid in retail stores and cannot be used with the purchase of gift cards, magazine subscriptions or NOOK® products. Coupon may not be applied to previous orders. Coupon can only be used once.

Take 10% off your online purchaseof $50 or more at booksamillion.com

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