E-Book? Just Say “No”

It’s interesting that, even though he was a pioneer in getting his books to market electronically, Stephen King has actively delayed e-book versions of his new book, Joyland, from shipping on the book’s June 2013 publication date. From Slashgear:

Stephen King is shunning ebooks in favor of traditional print runs for his new novel, Joyland, the outspoken author has revealed, confirming he has “no plans for a digital version.” King – whose new book is released in the US from June 4, though as a printed title only – specifically retained the digital publication rights so that physical copies could be prioritized. 

“Maybe at some point [there'll be an ebook]” King told the WSJ, “but in the meantime, let people stir their sticks and go to an actual bookstore rather than a digital one.”

Meanwhile, the e-book edition of Doctor Sleep, the long-awaited sequel to The Shining, is scheduled to go on sale the same September 2013 day as the hardcover.

This Just In… One Big Beautiful Thing by Marie Flanigan

In this touching debut novel, artist Kate Abernethy is trying to put her life back together after the death of her boyfriend.

At first, moving back in with her mother seems like a good way to sort out her finances and re-evaluate her life -- instead it proves to be a minefield of doubt and recrimination.

Floundering, Kate pushes herself to take new opportunities so she can rebuild her life and have a second chance at happiness.

You can order One Big Beautiful Thing here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Bespoke Books Unique to Every Reader

The idea sounds straight out of The Jetsons. An electronic reading experience -- a “book” if you will -- that is unique to each reader and is precisely as long as the available amount of time.  And what work of fiction has tantalized us with these possibilities?

Well, this particular idea comes straight from the pages of fact, not fiction. According to Advertising Age, Australian airline, Quantas, has gotten together with publisher Hachette and international advertising agency Droga5 to create Stories for Every Journey, “a collection of custom books, each of which promises to last only for the duration of one of the airline’s routes.”

Stephanie Tully, CMO Qantas Loyalty, said the tactile experience and custom-created books are meant to reflect the sophistication of the brand. It's a trait that's Qantas is focusing on more than ever thanks to its recent partnership with luxury airline Emirates, which makes Dubai a key travel hub and opens the airline up to 65 destinations. The effort is aimed at the brand's high-frequency travelers but is "just one of many conversations we're developing with our members, from Bronze to Platinum One," she said. 

"It occurred to us that, in this world of Kindles and iPads, the last bastion of the humble, paperback novel is actually at 40,000 feet," said Droga5 Sydney Creative Chairman David Nobay. "Just take a look at the bulging shelves at any airport bookstore. But, for all its relative clumsiness, there's an unmistakably reassuring charm about thumbing through a good book as you recline amongst the clouds."

But frequent readers will spot the possible hole in this scenario: how long is long enough?

“According to our literary friends at Hachette, the average reader consumes between 200 and 300 words per minute, which equates to about a page per minute,” said Mr. Nobay. That idea was applied more specifically to the shorter novels and flights, but “for the longer flights, we accommodated some napping time and meals,” Mr. Nobay said. “After a few hours with a fine Qantas in-flight meal with Australian Shiraz, most people need a break from reading.”

It’s a novel idea, quite worthy of getting Qantas -- and Droga5 -- a lot of ink. But in a world where the acquisition of reading material is as easy as it is in this one and where both airport bookshops and WIFI connections abound, a limited available reading selection, no matter how custom, seems… well… silly: one of those bright ideas you’d think someone would have had a second thought about before it got out of the gate.

The upside, of course: we’re in another new conversation about books and reading and that’s always a good thing.

This Just In… Untethered by Katie Hayoz

Sylvie isn’t comfortable in her own skin. In fact, there are times she can’t even manage to stay inside it. But if there is one thing she’s sure of, it’s her love for Kevin Phillips. She’s willing to stake everything on it -- her family, her friends, and possibly her soul.

Sixteen-year-old Sylvie has been best friends with Cassie forever. But everything is turned around when the boy Sylvie has loved since fifth grade falls for Cassie. Devastated, Sylvie intends to get Kevin by any means possible, even if it involves treachery, deceit and the dark side of astral projection. She is positive her plans will give her what she wants, but she doesn’t count on it all spiraling out of control.

Finalist in the Mslexia novel competition, Untethered by Katie Hayoz explores the intoxicating and dangerous world of jealousy and obsession when coupled with paranormal ability. It is a touching, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-breaking novel that speaks to the self-doubt lurking in us all.

You can order Untethered here. Visit author Katie Hayoz on the web here. ◊

This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Small Bookstores Fight Back

Though you don’t have to go far to find news from the book industry that is filled with doom and gloom, a bright thread can be seen gleaming through recent stories focusing on independent bookstores. From the Christian Science Monitor:

"2012 was the year of the bookstore," says Wendy Welch, co-owner of Tales of the Lonesome Pine in Virginia and author of the 2012 memoir "The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap." In her memoir, she recounts how she and her husband, Jack Beck, created – sometimes despite themselves – a successful used-book store in a town that, by any business measure, is too small to support one.

"Jack and I will never be rich. But we found a place where people said there wasn't a market and we said 'yes there was,' " says Ms. Welch. "We feel like it's important for bookslingers to hang together – we'll hang together or we'll hang separately.... And we're holding the line."

Sales at independent bookstores rose about 8 percent in 2012 over 2011, according to a survey by the American Booksellers Association (ABA). This growth was all the more remarkable since the sales of the national chain Barnes & Noble were so tepid. "I think the worst days of the independents are behind them," says Jim Milliot, coeditorial director for Publishers Weekly magazine. "The demise of traditional print books has been a bit overblown. Everybody is a little anxious, but they are starting to think they've figured it out for the time being."

The balance of this lengthy and interesting piece is here.

This Just In… Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth by Scott Terry

Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth: How a Gay Child Was Saved from Religion offers an illuminating glimpse into a child’s sequestered world of abuse, homophobia and religious extremism.

Scott Terry’s memoir is a compelling, poignant and occasionally humorous look into the Jehovah’s Witness faith -- a religion that refers to itself as The Truth -- and a brave account of Terry's successful escape from a troubled past.

At the age of ten, Terry had embraced the Witnesses’ prediction that the world will come to an end in 1975 and was preparing for Armageddon. As an adolescent, he prayed for God to strip away his growing attraction to other young men. But by adulthood, Terry found himself no longer believing in the promised apocalypse. Through a series of adventures and misadventures, he left the Witness religion behind and became a cowboy, riding bulls in the rodeo. He overcame the hurdles of parental abuse, religious extremism and homophobia and learned that Truth is a concept of honesty rather than false righteousness, a means to live a life openly, for Terry as a gay man.

An Out in Print Best Book of 2012

“A lively, affectionate autobiography with messages of inspiration and acceptance." -- Kirkus

You can order Cowboys, Armageddon, and The Truth here. Visit author Scott Terry on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

The Place Where Art is Born

They are cluttered and cramped; they are airy and spare. They have vast and open views; they are small, windowless spaces. They are casual living spaces at the heart of their homes; they are cloistered nooks where no one else enters. These are the “Inspiring Workspaces Of The Famously Creative” and the only thing that connects them is the amazing -- world-changing? -- works that have been produced there.

BuzzFeed’s collection of the wonderful workspaces of 40 creative geniuses  includes painters, designers and writers: most of them household names. Among the writers Susan Orlean, Martin Amis (whose studio is shown above left), Will Self, Charlotte Bronte, Anne Sexton, Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, Mart Twain and others. You can see them here.

This Just In… You Know Yourself 2.0 by Uma o’Gil

You Know Yourself 2.0 is a madcap satire of the heady days of the Celtic Tiger in cosmopolitan Dublin as seen through the eyes of a wet-behind-the-ears radio reporter who tries to get a break, find love and put up with her ex-rockstar of a father... usually with disastrous consequences.

You Know Yourself 2.0 pays tribute to the rantings and ravings of salt-of-the-earth Dubs caught in the maelstrom and conjures up the ghost of Flann O’Brien as it revisits the National Library of Ireland, St-Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, Phoenix Park, Cafe-en-Seine, Bewleys, The Point and many other genuine Dublin places like no touristic guide ever will (oh no).

Shameless petting sessions in public places, drunken pub crawls, made-on-the-fly cabby running commentaries, charity parades, glitzy funerals, daytime TV madness, a feminist analysis of action movies, tricks of the trade for winding up radio interviewees, agony aunt cliches, spivs, playboys, meat markets, shopping emporiums, on-air assassinations, the Jesus Lizard at their most riotous -- and a simply cataclysmic reader-meets-author evening that will not reflect gloriously on anyone involved.

You can order You Know Yourself 2.0 here. Visit author Uma o'Gil on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Puns for a Wordy Cause

What is the worst pun of all time? There are so many bad ones, aren’t there? It would be difficult to tell! But it’s possible the question will be answered today in Austin, Texas at the O. Henry Pun-Off, a competition that turns 36 this year.

In the competition, punveterates stand against each other for two titles: Punniest of Show and Punslingers. You can see more about this “Jest for a Wordy Cause!” here and if you’re anywhere near the O. Henry Museum on Fifth Street in Austin, pop around back right now and see what can be seen.

JD Salinger Film Will Solve Mystery

Catcher in the Rye author, JD Salinger, has long been a source of myth and mystery. But one of the big questions remaining about the reclusive author, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, is this: what’s taken Hollywood so long to get to the story of hiss life?

Whatever the reason, the silence has ended: with the upcoming release of an indie documentary called Salinger, the gates of privacy and silence are being lifted and it seems as though you can expect to be hearing a lot about Saligner from here on in, at least for a while. From The Guardian:

Called simply Salinger, the film is the brainchild of Shane Salerno, who has spent nine years writing, producing and directing the project, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money. The move is a major shift in career for Salerno, best known as a writer of mainstream blockbusters such as Alien vs Predator: Requiem and Armageddon.

But the promise of lifting the lid on the life of one of America's most revered writers has proven a massive lure to Hollywood. Salinger has been bought up by independent film mogul Harvey Weinstein after he reportedly saw a private screening of it at 7.30 on the morning of the Oscars. Even though the screening did not apparently include all of the film's most confidential revelations, he snapped it up immediately. 

In fact, so impressed have its backers been with what Salerno and his team have uncovered they are also releasing a TV show based on the documentary and have struck a deal with publisher Simon and Schuster to bring out a book called The Private War of JD Salinger.

Taking a page from his subject’s style, filmmaker Salerno is stoking the fires of public interest by not giving interviews and not giving air to rumors of previously unknown about affairs Salinger might have had and unpublished books he might have written. However, when the book was announced, , Salerno said that the “myth that people have read about and believed for 60 years about JD Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being.”

Book Publicity 102: Another Wave

In late January, we wrote about an interesting press package that had appeared in the midst of the scads we receive every day. The book was a title to be published by Vintage in June called Taipei. As we pointed out in that piece, gifts and their books are soon separated and don’t add anything to the way we treat the book or how -- and even if --  it will ultimately be reviewed.

As much as we like presents, their inclusion will not buy a would-be reviewee any traction. In fact, if you send stupid gifts, it might lodge you in our memories in ways you had not desired. And what’s “stupid”? Like everything to do with this process, that’s pretty subjective. But walk cautiously and err on the side of lean. In general, the only way to get a great review is to start out with a great book. All the rest? It’s just icing on the cake, and you know what Marie Antionette had to say about that.

So, again: though gifts are not invited or even desired, every now and again one makes us stop and blink. Such was the case recently, when a press kit for a young adult novel called The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey rolled into the January offices. It was immediately apparent from the package we got that there’s something post-Apocalyptic going on with this one. A tiny first aid kit. A compass. A tampon. A tiny notebook and a tiny pencil. A pack of Welch's Fruit Snacks. All in a clear plastic bag labeled “The Fifth Wave Survival Kit”. There was also an ARC of the book with a simple one page press release.

What works about this package is that it’s the opposite of stupid. None of these things are costly or rare and very few of them are actually needed by a book review editor, and certainly not from one source. Together they tell a story about the book. Without cracking the cover you get a sense of danger and disconnection (the first aid kit, the compass, the notebook) you have the idea a girl will be involved (the tampon) and that survival will require the use of all available resources (those fruit snacks).

The package, while inexpensive to put together, gives the idea of the kind of journey is in store. The fact that the ARC also tells us that the books has a $750,000 marketing campaign is a big clue that the publisher has a pretty big steak in the success of the book. (And even inexpensive notebooks and tampons don’t grow on trees.)

A lot of YA hopes are riding on this one, which said press release makes pretty clear: “With the Solitary heartbreak of I Am Legend, the literary caliber of The Passage, the epic good vs. evil drama of The Stand, and the adrenaline of The Hunger Games,” and Booklist got on the bus with, “part War of the Worlds, part Starship Troopers, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and part The Stand.” Others go further for comparisons, but you get the idea: think big, think edge-of-your-seat, think mega-seller. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, the film rights were dealt with long before the book came out, as reported by Collider in March of 2012:

GK Films has pre-emptively acquired the feature rights to The 5th Wave, a sci-fi trilogy that young adult novelist Rick Yancey is planning. Variety provides the logline: “Series follows a teenage girl who survives an alien invasion only to then search for her brother, who may or may not have been abducted by human-looking extra-terrestrials.”  Naturally, romance is involved, as a cute* boy helps our heroine in her search.  But there’s a twist: he may be an alien in disguise.

Will The 5th Wave survive the hype? A week after the book came out, sales look strong and reviews are pretty glowing. This is definitely one to watch.

This Just In… The Confessions of Sylva Slasher by Ace Antonio Hall

Eighteen-year-old Sylva Fleischer and her friends raise the dead for a living for police investigations and mourning families.

Two years after her high school crush is assumed dead, Sylva’s friends convince her to go on a spring break cruise in an effort to suppress her depression over him. But when passengers mysteriously die and reanimate into flesheating zombies, Sylva plunges into a horrifying struggle between a ship infested with the undead and the scariest thing of all: a second chance with Brandon after she discovers he’s still alive. This is a zombie story that eats right to the core and leaves you licking your chops for more.

Got zombies? Sylva Slasher does...

“[Ace] wastes no time immersing us in full, gore-spattered, Technicolor horror… The tension is almost unbearable…” -- Leslie Ann Moore, author of Griffin’s Daughter

You can order The Confessions of Sylva Slasher here. Visit author Ace Antonio Hall on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Dr. Joyce Brothers Dies at 85

Syndicated columnist, author, mother and beloved psychologist, television personality and advice columnist, Dr. Joyce Brothers, passed away earlier today at the age of 85.

Joyce Brothers in 1957.

Joyce Diane Bauer married internist Milton Brothers in 1949, six years before she won The $64,000 Question game show, the first woman ever to do so. Her success put the attractive, intelligent and personable young doctor in the public eye, which led to more television, including her own relationship show in 1958 and a career in television and radio broadcast that would last into the 1990s. Brothers also had a column in Good Housekeeping for almost 40 years and, beginning in the 1970s, a syndicated newspaper column. From the New York Times:

Dr. Brothers arrived in the American consciousness (or, more precisely, the American unconscious) at a serendipitous time: the exact historical moment when cold war anxiety, a greater acceptance of talk therapy and the widespread ownership of television sets converged. Looking crisply capable yet eminently approachable in her pastel suits and pale blond pageboy, she offered gentle, nonthreatening advice on sex, relationships, parenting and all manner of decent behavior.

Brothers was the author of several bestselling books including 1982’s What Every Woman Should Know About Men and Widowed from 1992, a book about dealing with grief which she was inspired to write after the loss of her husband, Milton, to cancer in 1989.

A Mother’s Day Seduction

With Mother’s Day upon us, those of us who have lost our moms can find the day bittersweet. As author and occasional January Magazine contributor, MJ Rose, says eloquently in a fond remembrance at The Huffington Post, “I always miss my mom. Mother’s Day would be just one more day I’d feel her absence but for the relentless commercialization. Thanks to that, this day is even harder to deal with.”

And though all of our moms are special, to a booklover, Rose’s mom sounds like she was especially cool. Among other things, Rose recently shared on Facebook, “Her job before she had me was as a short story editor at Good Houskeeping -- assistant to Judith Krantz.”

Sadly, Rose’s mom never got to read any of her books, though Rose feels her influence in so many aspects of her own life to this day. “So for Mother’s Day,” Rose writes in her HuffPo piece, “I thought in tribute, I’d list the books on her shelves that she gave me  (or I snuck) to read. The ones I remember. The ones she loved or admired the most.” You can see Rose’s list here.

Rose’s dozen critically acclaimed novels were joined by a new one just this last week. Seduction (Atria) is a beautiful ghost story. Once again, Rose weaves a present day tale with a strong thread locked in history. In Seduction, a grief-stricken Victor Hugo, exiled to the Isle of Jersey, struggles to contact his beloved dead daughter in the afterlife… and comes in contact with some of the big names of myth and history: Plato, Shakespeare, Jesus and even the devil.

Meanwhile, in the present, a mythologist battling her own demons, comes to Jersey looking for secrets about the island’s Celtic roots. She’s been invited by an old friend who has a dark motive: Hugo’s lost conversations with a dark and evil force.

Seduction is twisty, sensuous and ultimately satisfying.

This Just In… Mayor of Hollywood by MB Brophy

A Hollywood murder with eerie ties to a 75-year-old case forces Lucy Cassidy to confront her child star past as old friends and colleagues top the suspect list… that is, until they start dying.

Ten years ago, Lucy Cassidy turned away from a lucrative acting career for a life in academia. Now a tenure-track professor of history and still shooting the occasional film during semester breaks, Lucy is asked by her lover, Detective Mark Adamson, to consult on the murder of a former A-list agent who was campaigning for the honorary position of Mayor of Hollywood. Intrigued by the case’s uncanny resemblance to the infamous 1931 “Handsome Dave” murders, Lucy is quickly drawn into the investigation, even as she struggles to conceal her own personal connection with the victim. But when an old friend joins the body count, Lucy begins to suspect that her past may hold the key to solving the case.

You can order Mayor of Hollywood here. Visit author MB Brophy on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Authors: Renewing the Bookstore Experience

Published authors bring baggage to the bookstore, not all of it good. That’s what Ploughshares seemed to be reminding authors in a recent piece: “How to Shop at a Bookstore: An Easy 20-Step Guide for Authors.”

Number one, when you first open the door:

1) First, smell it. Look at the new arrivals, lined up like candy. See if, for just one second, you can remember what it was like to walk into a bookstore as a reader. Just a reader, a happy, curious reader. With no agenda, no insecurities, no history of bookstores as scenes of personal failure and triumph. Wish for a time machine.

The second applies to everyone: not just authors, but all sorts of readers and everyone who loves books:

2) Nervously check how the store seems to be doing. Are the lights still on? Do the employees look well-fed? Thank God. The world isn’t over yet.

The balance are just as smart and on target, and are all right here.

This Just In… A Man of Honor by Loree Lough

On a steamy spring morning, Dusty Parker part-time pastor, part-time search-and-rescue team member and full-time administrator of a school for troubled boys, joins the search for a missing teenage girl. He partners with volunteer and inner-city school teacher Grace Sinclair, and what they find bonds them in ways neither could have expected.

As they begin to build their lives together, a visitor from the past causes Dusty and Grace to further open their hearts and home. But a threat is looming on their seemingly perfect lives and in one terrifying night, everything changes.

You can order A Man of Honor here. Visit author Loree Lough on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

New This Week: Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt

Ava Lark is a character out of time and out of place. In a Boston suburb in 1956, newly divorced Ava rents a house for herself and her 12-year-old son, Lewis. She is Jewish, a working mom, a divorcee, at a time when the combination of these things was rare and even suspicious. When Lewis’ best friend, Jimmy, goes missing, the Cold War paranoia that engulfs their neighborhood directs itself at Lewis and his mother.

The trauma of losing his friend haunts Lewis and has great impact on his life. In his 20s, he is ungrounded and failing all of his relationships. When the truth around Jimmy’s disappearance belatedly come to light, all of those whose lives were impacted by his loss must rediscover their own truths.

Caroline Leavitt’s 10th novel is a triumph of light and dark. The story at times brings to mind Dennis Lehane’s masterful Mystic River: a missing child, Boston, and the shocking darkness of the human heart, starkly glimpsed. In the end, though, Is This Tomorrow (Algonquin) is a woman’s story in a way that Mystic River never could be. And, ultimately, it begs the question: when someone goes missing, what happens to those left behind?

Though all of Leavitt’s novels have been superb and highly acclaimed, it strikes me that Is This Tomorrow is her most accomplished work. There is a sharp nuance here, one that reverberates throughout. That and lovely, vivid characterizations and superb period detail contribute to making what may be Leavitt’s best book yet. ◊


Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

This Just In… The Lies Have It by Jill Edmondson

It’s election time in Toronto, and this year’s mayoral race is hotly contested. However, private investigator Sasha Jackson is more focused on bondage than ballots. After a wild night at a fetish party, a man Sasha had briefly met is found murdered near Cherry Beach, the whip marks on his back punctuated by two bullet holes. It initially seems like naughty sex that went a bit too far, but Sasha soon discovers that politicos like to play rough too, and might be hiding more than just their handcuffs.

Meanwhile, Sasha has two other cases on the go. A couple of distraught parents have hired her to find their runaway daughter Macy. Sasha’s search for the girl leads her to some of Toronto’s shadier neighbourhoods where she learns more than she wants to about teenaged angst and Ecstasy.

On top of the spank me, shank me cases, Sasha’s restaurateur brother has referred her services to a fine dining colleague who is convinced that someone in his restaurant is cooking the books instead of cooking five-star meals. Sasha should have just asked ‘Where’s the beef?’ but instead she spends a rainy night looking for it.

When Sasha dries off, she encounters an artistic dominatrix with passion for the environment, a political wife who never met a camera she didn't love, and a furry white cat that will inadvertently help to expose everything about Sasha’s latest case.

You can order The Lies Have It here. Visit author Jill Edmondson on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Art & Culture: Vintage Tomorrows: A Historian and a Futurist Journey Through Steampunk into the Future of Technology by James H. Carrott and Brian David Johnson

“A futurist and a cultural historian walk into a bar.”

The name of the first chapter is like a lead in to a joke, but is instead the set-up for a deeply interesting book deeply enmeshed in the culture of “what if?” Early on in Vintage Tomorrows (Make) the authors explain their journey in a way that sets the whole book up:

It begins, like so many great ideas, over a beer. A futurist and a cultural historian have a pint in Seattle and start talking about the future and the past. They’re both technologists, so it’s hardly surprising when the conversation drifts into the topic of steampunk, a modern day mashup of the future and the past, technology and culture….

So over a beer historian James H. Carrott and futurist Brian David Johnson ask themselves: What can steampunk teach us about the future? What happens when we look backward in order to look forward?

Over the next couple of years the pair traveled the world asking that question. And, face it, if it should be anyone asking this stuff, it’s these two. Johnson is a futurist at Intel where he does “future casting” to “provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing.” Carrott, meanwhile, has brought humor and theater into his work as a historian and he was for a time global product manager for Xbox 360 hardware. They are geek princes, clearly. Exactly the correct duo to set upon this journey. And they did it up right.

Is Vintage Tomorrows sometimes a little uneven? It is. And certainly parts of the book seem more gripping and convincing than others. For instance, when they are interviewing “experts” like William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, James Gleick and Margaret Atwood, they are at their best. Later, when they talk about their documentary-in-progress, they are less engaging. (But perhaps, by then, there was less to say?) For the most part, though, this is a worthwhile, if challenging, journey and definitely a book with something to say. ◊

Lincoln Cho is a freelance writer and editor. He lives in the Chicago area, where he works in the high-tech industry. He is currently working on a his first novel, a science-fiction thriller set in the world of telecommunications.

This Just In… The Other Side of the Ice: One Family's Treacherous Journey Negotiating the Northwest Passage by Sprague Theobald

A sailor and his family’s harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passage.

Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage -- the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific -- the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only 24 pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears and severe weather.

What Theobald couldn’t have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts and unspoken mistrusts hanging over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.

You can order The Other Side of the Ice here. Visit the official web site for both the film and the book here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Sex and the City Author Attacked by Pirate

It is every author’s worst nightmare and the embodiment of the industry’s worst fears.

On May 7th, a hacker calling himself Guccifer broke into Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s e-mail account and carried away a large portion of her unpublished novel, Killing Monica.  The manuscript had been attached to an outgoing message and sent to Bushnell’s publisher. And then things got worse. According to Techworld:

Extraordinarily, the hacker was also able to hack into the author’s Twitter account in order to post links to screengrabs of the book’s pages on a Google Drive repository before hijacking her website, making it a near clean sweep.

“Here you can read my last book ''killing monica'' first 50 pages; enjoy as long as you can!,” read the tweet on 7 May.

As though that weren’t bad enough, the attack continued:

Adding insult to injury, the attacker was also able to intercept between Bushnell and her agent as she tried to regain control of her Twitter account plus a number of private images and other personal messages.

“Oh dear this is terrible,” one of Bushnell’s emails reads.

This isn’t the first time Guccifer has struck. Techworld reports that he previous hacked into the e-mail accounts of friends and relatives of both former Presidents Bush, then leaking snippets of electronic conversations. Another time, he broke into the Facebook account of former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

“Since then,” says Techworld, “Guccifer has also reportedly attacked email accounts belonging to various high-profile individuals. That seems to be the logic; embarrass the wealthy and powerful.”

New Today: A Dual Inheritance by Joanna Hershon

Boston 1962. Hugh Shipley and Ed Cantowitz are seniors at Harvard. Son of poor Jewish immigrants, Ed craves financial success, something he’s willing to aim for at almost any cost. Hugh, on the other hand, is from a wealthy family and has loftier goals. He wants to go to Africa and help those less fortunate than himself.

The years unwind and, in carefully shared chapters, the picture changes. Over time, Ed discovers he is less hollow than he feared. For his part, Hugh finds he is more flawed than he ever dreamed. And the two are bound by their love for the beautiful and enigmatic Helen, whose contributions to their shared stories will be surprising.

I’ve oversimplified, of course. Compressing a gorgeous, rich and deeply nuanced story into a couple of paragraphs. A Dual Inheritance (Ballantine) is so much more than that. For one thing, the careful unraveling of many years and an international backdrop give the novel an epic canvas. Hershon’s keenly told observations add another, deeper, dimension while her bang-on dialog and detailed character studies result in a story that seems to breath on its own as it leads us from Boston to Wall Street and from China to Haiti and Africa.

This is Hershon’s fourth novel, after The German Bride, Swimming and The Outside of August. This may be the best of a very good bunch. A Dual Inheritance is a stunning and accomplished read. I enjoyed every line. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

This Just In… Escaping the Boy: My Life with a Sociopath by Paula Carrasquillo

One of the least diagnosed members of the population is also one of the most destructive: the narcissistic sociopath. There is nothing romantic or advantageous about being a sociopath and having no conscience. Sociopaths are good at going unnoticed by the rest of us because, unfortunately, they are good at pretending (lying) and wearing many masks (again, lying). Simply put, they lie to themselves and everyone else. They lie so much that some of them are convinced of their own lies, which is where evil is born.

This biographical story describes the evolution of the boy, the epitome of a narcissistic sociopath. Chronicled are his many abuses against his friends, girlfriends, fiancées, wives, family members and the nature of humanity itself.

Is it possible to break free from such a person unscathed? Is it possible to beat such a person at his own game? Can good triumph over evil? Will the boy ever understand what he is? Or is it up to the rest of us just to stay out of the way of narcissistic sociopaths?

Awareness is at the heart of the story. Awareness brings power and strength. Knowing you are not alone in your struggle to deal with such evil is the first step in purging your life of that evil.

You can order Escaping the Boy here. Visit author Paula Carrasquillo on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Non-Fiction: Visions of Infinity by Ian Stewart

Almost from the beginning, I had a problem with Visions of Infinity (Basic Books), mathematics professor Ian Stewart’s love letter to advanced thinking.

The title begs the reader to embrace the inevitability of an endless line of questions looking for answers. But it was the subtitle that, for me, presented the largest hurdle: “The Great Mathematical Problems,” is what it says which, in the end, only goes to confirms Stewart’s infinite visions.

“Mathematics is a vast, ever-growing, ever-changing subject,” Stewart warns in his preface. Because of this, Stewart says a little later, “A basic aim of mathematics is to uncover the underlying simplicity of apparently complicated questions.”

Simplicity or no, those without a solid grounding in and appreciation for higher mathematics probably won’t get as much as they could from Visions of Infinity. This isn’t armchair maths, nor is Stewart meant to be a sort of Alain de Botton for math enthusiasts.

“Mathematic research is like exploring a new continent,” Stewart says, then explains what he means. If you love maths and would like to know more about the inner workings of a mathlete’s mind, you’ll want Visions of Infinity at the top of your reading pile. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

This Just In… Memoirs of an Outlaw: Life in the Sandbox by Robert M. Tanner III

In Fallujah, during a particularly difficult time in the Iraq War, a group of Marines are deployed on a tour that will bring them closer together, while threatening to tear them apart.

The Delta Company Outlaws are a group of Light Armored Reconnaissance Marines deployed in 2004 to one of the most hostile war zones in the world. Through the memoirs of one Marine, this touching story encapsulates the drama surrounding everyday life during the Iraq War. With a bond formed through blood, sweat, and tears, a group of unfamiliar Marines will come together stronger than family.

Memoirs of an Outlaw: Life in the Sandbox is a dramatic new take on the Iraq War that focuses more on the personal aspects of war than exclusively on combat. With a touching approach to the camaraderie, daily life, and devastating losses, Robert M. Tanner delves into the brotherhood that’s formed throughout a deployment while documenting the combat experiences and daily life of a Marine. Inspired by a bond that’s stronger than blood, Memoirs of an Outlaw began as a therapeutic way to document wartime experiences and eventually led to a full-fledged memoir. The story captures the tension, drama and bonding that comes with combat and living in a hostile environment far away from home.

You can order Memoirs of an Outlaw here. Visit author Robert M. Tanner III on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Cookbooks: 200 Easy Mexican Recipes by Kelley Cleary Coffeen

When I was growing up, the biggest food-related treat I could imagine was going to a certain Mexican restaurant in the heart of Venice, California, that was, at the time, something of an institution in Los Angeles. It was old and elegant and, to my mind, vast. The service was wonderful, the food sublime, but to my mind, the very heart of the restaurant and the best part was the woman who worked throughout service in a central spot next to a special oven making handmade corn tortillas intended for the immediate pleasure of diners. And that pleasure was intense. The delicate tortilla was carefully protected in a special basket. It was translucent in the candlelight: a honey colored disc of delight, so perfect in taste and texture and temperature, the only thing that needed to be added was your enjoyment. Left to my own devices, I could have made a meal just of those, every time.

For me with my western European background, that pleasure was not to be duplicated. You can’t package that particular combination of wonderfulness. And, no matter what anyone tells you, you just can’t take it home. After all, a proper corn tortilla is made out of almost nothing: masa harina and water; nothing more. An extra fancy corn tortilla might (might) have also a touch of salt and baking soda, but even that isn’t always the case. The secret lies in two things: a practiced hand and immediate consumption.

Based on the very clear recipe in 200 Easy Mexican Recipes (Robert Rose) I was able to move forward quite nicely on both requirements. Now, clearly, I’m not going to manage the creation of a corn tortilla with the expertise and excellence of the women I saw doing it -- almost floorshow style -- at the center of my favorite childhood restaurant. But with a combination of careful following of instructions followed by speedy consumption, my results were more than passable: they were delicious!

Of course, corn tortillas do not alone Mexican food make. Not by a longshot. But Las Cruces, New Mexico-based author Kelley Cleary Coffeen does a great job with a wide swath of the wonderful variations of food we think of as Mexican. As she points out, “Mexican cuisine is all about layering flavor upon flavor, adding freshness and spicy accents all at the same time.” She stresses “simplicity in methods and variety of ingredients.” All of this goes a long way to explain the growth of appreciation for this type of food over the last decade or so. At its best, Mexican food is fresh, makes terrific use of local ingredients… and lays on the flavor. A wonderful combination of things that, with some modification, most types of diets can incorporate.

All of the classics are here, in several variations. Lots of solid recipes for salsas, quesadillas and nachos, from basic to more complicated. Recipes for slightly more demanding, but still popular dishes are included, as well. Chile Rellenos, for example, are here in all of their cheesy splendor, as are fish tacos, chimichangas, enchiladas and burritos. Quite beyond the basic, included are recipes for tamales, menudo and empanadas.

Clearly, with 200 recipes, there is room for lots of variation, but if you ever wanted to try your hand at Mexican cooking and wanted a clear and basic starting point, you won’t go wrong with 200 Easy Mexican Recipes.

This Just In… The Island of Lote by Emily Kinney

Milo Hestler is a lonely, unusual, fourteen-year-old girl. She is constantly moving from home to home with her oblivious parents. The only friend she has is her conscience, whom she has named Bob. Her only comforts are cooking and listening to hip-hop.
     
When her family moves yet again, Milo is bullied mercilessly by her classmates. Such treatment prompts her to travel to Australia for summer camp. During the plane ride, Milo awakens to find the plane deserted and about to crash.
     
After parachuting into the ocean, she discovers she is near an island. Milo passes out, and upon waking, learns she was rescued by a boy named Simon, who is cute, but can’t speak English. Not able to understand him, she accidentally says yes when he asks her to marry him.
       
He leads her to a small town on the island, where they locate someone who can translate for them. Milo is outraged to hear that she is engaged to Simon and wants to call it off, but learns that this island has rules that cannot be broken. She must go through with the marriage against her will.

You can order The Island of Lote here. Visit author Emily Kinney on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Harper Lee in Fight for Mockingbird Rights

Sad to hear that 87-year-old Harper Lee is having to sue to regain control of the rights to her classic and only novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Reuters reports:

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "To Kill A Mockingbird," Harper Lee, on Friday sued her literary agent, claiming he tricked her into assigning the copyright on her book to him.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan against Samuel Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's long-time agent, Eugene Winick, who had represented her for more than 40 years. When Winick became ill in 2002, Pinkus diverted several of Winick's clients to his own company, the lawsuit said.

To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960 and has sold over 30 million copies world wide.

If Shakespeare Walked in 2013

This is a bit of silly, but it’s also pretty fun. What would prominent figures from the long ago look like if they were alive today?

The Huffington Post tries to answer with a bit of help from some serious heavy hitters, including a platoon of digital artists, as they imagine (by way of educated guesses and some very serious tech) what Queen Elizabeth I, Henry the VIII, William Shakespeare and Horatio Nelson might look like if they were alive and working today.

(Is it just my eye, or did modern day William Shakespeare come out looking a lot like thriller novelist Owen Laukkanen?)

Dan Brown Translators at Work in Bunker

A couple of weeks before Inferno is published, it’s nothing like a secret that Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown has a new book coming out. If it’s up to his European publishers, though, what’s inside the book will remain hidden from public view until the last possible moment.

According to the LoveGermanBooks blog, translating a Dan Brown book is no picnic:

Eleven translators into various languages, all spending weeks working in a windowless basement room beneath the Mondadori publishing house in Milan. They weren't allowed to take mobile phones in there, had to access the internet under surveillance via one computer, and worked until at least 8 pm every single day of the week. Although they were allowed to use the staff canteen, they had fake alibis in case anyone asked them what they were doing there.

All of this fuss, the blog tells us, is because the book is coming out simultaneously in several languages to avoid potential loss of revenue.

The foreign publishers seem to feel it's a good idea to make their translators work under these backbreaking conditions so that they don't lose revenue to the English original by bringing the translations out later - and because they obviously don't trust them not to pirate the content. Lord knows Dan Brown can hardly afford to let anyone know plot details beforehand; in 2011 he was apparently worth $400m.

If you want to know a bit about what’s inside the book, we previously reported on Inferno here and here.

This Just In… The Tipping Point by Walter Danley

When Tom Burke dies skiing Aspen Mountain, his business partner, Garth Wainwright, must find his killer. Cautioned to leave the investigation to the authorities, Wainwright won’t let go. His two closest partners, Tom Shaw and Robert Keating don’t believe his suspicion of foul play. Searching for the killer, Wainwright uncovers a conspiracy within the company of millions of dollars embezzled from investors… and some partner involvement is probable. Who can be trusted?

When a second partner is murdered, the fraud and the murders are connected and Shaw and Keating become believers and join Wainwright’s search for the killer. The Tipping Point will be the exposure of the fraud to the SEC, which will destroy the company; will shut it down. The company’s investors are not the only ones that will lose. Wainwright is concerned for his personal net worth and his safety because he knows that one of his partners is a killer.

Wainwright adds spice to an already flavorful mix when he falls in love with Lacey Kincaid, a former Boston criminal prosecutor. They devise a plan to smoke out the guilty partners, without exposing the fraud to the SEC or triggering an FBI investigation of the interstate homicides. A perilous dance of deception implements the complicated strategy. The plan forces the killer to surface… and then another partner dies.

From the ski slopes of Aspen to the corporate boardroom in Seattle, murder and mayhem follow ten business partners who succumb in four assassinations, one suicide, and three bankruptcies, leaving Wainwright and Shaw to exorcise greed, complicity and fraud in order to restructure the company to its former acclaim.

You can order The Tipping Point here. Visit author Walter Danley on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Parents Stress Importance of Libraries

The library at Melk Abbey in Austria.

From the “You honestly thought we needed a study to tell us this?” department comes a real gem: According to Pew Research the “vast majority of parents of minor children -- children younger than 18 -- feel libraries are very important for their children.” Here’s what Pew determined:

The importance parents assign to reading and access to knowledge shapes their enthusiasm for libraries and their programs:

• 94% of parents say libraries are important for their children and 79% describe libraries as “very important.” That is especially true of parents of young children (those under 6), some 84% of whom describe libraries as very important.
• 84% of these parents who say libraries are important say a major reason they want their children to have access to libraries is that libraries help inculcate their children’s love of reading and books.
• 81% say a major reason libraries are important is that libraries provide their children with information and resources not available at home.
• 71% also say a major reason libraries are important is that libraries are a safe place for children.
• Almost every parent (97%) says it is important for libraries to offer programs and classes for children and teens.

More rocket science from Pew: parents are more likely to use library services than other adults. Also, mother are more likely to use library services than fathers. As well, lower income parents stress the importance of library services more than those who are affluent.

Though booklovers will find absolutely no surprises anywhere here, in this instance, it’s terrific to be able to say “toldja so!”

You can find links to the report and the assessments here.

Original Breakfast at Tiffany’s Script Sells for Big Bucks

We just can’t seem to get away from hot written ephemera auction news lately. Every time we turn around, we’re reporting that some new poem or book or manuscript has left the block in a shower of unprecedented dollars.

Our most recent entry comes from Amherst, Massachusetts where Truman Capote’s typed and corrected script for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s recently sold in an online auction for $306,000.

According to Associated Press, “Capote’s handwritten notations include changing the femme fatale’s name from Connie Gustafson to the now-iconic Holly Golightly.”

It appears the manuscript was bought by a Russian billionaire “who plans to display it in Moscow and Monaco.”

This Just In… The Seeker by Malcolm R. Campbell

David Ward grows up on a Montana ranch where he develops an enduring love of mountains and the magic of the high country secrets he learns from his medicine woman grandmother. A vision quest at the summit of a sacred mountain opens his eyes to his future while blinding him to the details.

As a seasonal employee at a mountain hotel, David meets Anne Hill during the summer of Glacier National Park’s worst flood. Out of the ravages of water, they spend an idyllic summer in the beautiful Garden of Heaven.

When Anne is confronted by a stalker on a dark street in her Florida college town, the magic David uses in an attempt to save her changes her and leads them into the dark territory of misunderstandings and the blood of Tate’s Hell Swamp.

You can order The Seeker here. Visit author Malcolm R. Campbell on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Sotheby’s and PEN Team Up to Present Innovative Literary Auction

Auction house Sotheby’s and the English branch of PEN, the international writer’s organization, have teamed up to produce an innovative fundraiser for the organization. Fifty member authors have contributed first-edition copies of one of their books, annotated, commented on or illustrated in a creative way.

Some of the authors whose work is included are Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Margaret Drabble, Helen Fielding, Nadine Gordimer, Seamus Heaney, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan, J.K. Rowling, Lionel Shriver and many others. The included works provide a fascinating insight into the creative process of each author.


The auction, to be held at Sotheby’s London on May 21st, will benefit English PEN to defend the freedom to write and the freedom to read in the UK and across the world.

According to Sotheby’s, the results of asking 50 authors to contribute in this way “are astonishing and highly individual. Some writers made copious amendments, others chose to jot comments on endpapers and blanks; some excised or corrected text and several illustrated their works.”

The works being auctioned on May 21st include Metroland (Julian Barnes), The Conservationist (Nadine Gordimer); Death of a Naturalist (Seamus Heaney), Life of Pi (Yann Martel) War Horse (Michael Morpurgo), Northern Lights (Philip Pullman), Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (Ralph Steadman), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppard), Knots and Crosses (Ian Rankin) and many others.

You can see the various annotations and learn how to bid here and here.

This Just In… Remember to Breathe by Simon Pont

“Last night I was breaking all the rules, making up new ones. Me, a wild bunch of one, trailing a blaze of glory, saying, yes, tonight, I'm living on a prayer. I was winging it, squaring off with fate, dialing my date with destiny, letting my ego write the checks, going eye-to-eye, punch-for-punch, drink-for-drink with the ruffian that is life.

“And when I was done, there was no need to look back in anger, because when I was done I could’t look back at all.”

Meet Samuel Grant. He’s trying to work a few things out.

Remember to Breathe is a rom-com trip set to a retro beat, for anyone who’s ever partied like it was 1999. And woken to realize that the last tequila was unwise.

You can order Remember to Breathe here. Visit author Simon Pont on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Crime Fiction: Too Many Cooks and Champagne for One by Rex Stout

In 2008 and 2009, Bantam Books reprinted 10 of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mysteries in rather handsome two-in-one paperback volumes. One of those -- comprising both Too Many Cooks and Champagne for One -- had been sitting on my shelf, unread, for a couple of years. But I finally took it with me on a recent trip.

Like most mystery-fiction fans, I’d read plenty of Nero Wolfe stories in years past, and was ready to become reacquainted. One of the stories in this paperback, Cooks, was originally published in 1938; the other saw print 20 years later.

My first surprise was that these tales stood up well, despite the passage of so much time. Even though I’d probably read them both before (in fact, I’m sure I read Champagne at some other point in the past), I was engrossed.

The next surprise was not so positive: I found it hard to deal with all the careless prejudice that features in Stout’s fiction, and was a significant part of the period during which he lived and wrote (1886-1975). It made me wonder how best to deal with this issue. We went through the same sort of debate a few years back with sanitized versions of Mark Twain works, and that didn’t seem to go so well.

Too Many Cooks is set at a spa in the American South, where some of the greatest chefs in the world have gathered. Wolfe, who is notorious for not wanting to leave his New York brownstone, has been invited as the keynote speaker.

But murder is on the menu when one of the attending chefs is killed. That event forces Wolfe to delve into the unsavory relationships between this gathering’s other guests, for without his investigative intervention, who knows how long the less-brilliant local authorities might take to solve this case? Wolfe doesn’t want to be away from home too long.

Wolfe and his younger, much more energetic chief investigator/secretary, Archie Goodwin, are their inimitable selves in these pages. The rest of the characters are feisty, opinionated and unpredictable. It will probably occur to the reader that some problems could have been resolved more easily, had there only been computers or cell phones at the time; but, in fact, it’s a pleasure to watch some old-school detecting.

In Champagne for One (1958), the set-up is more contrived. A wealthy New York woman sponsors a dinner and dance for a few residents of a home for unwed mothers -- a charity created by her late husband. One of those young residents, who had threatened to commit suicide, does, indeed, die at the event.

It sure looks like suicide. But Archie Goodwin, who had shown up for this occasion as a favor to an acquaintance, thinks it’s murder instead.

Once you get past the setting (a dance for unwed mothers? Really? Even in the 1950s, this would have been bizarre), Champagne offers a classic Wolfe puzzle. The great man is irritated; he doesn’t like his routine to be interrupted. But he finally puts his brain into gear, interviews everyone concerned, and works his way through both deception and blackmail to get to premeditated murder.

Too Many Cooks is the better of the two tales here, but also the one more tainted by ugly language. The racism on display probably comes from a combination of the times, the Southern location and the presence of many African-American characters.

But it’s not just those players who feel the brunt of bigotry; there are derogatory references made here to Italians as well.

As it turned out, I never got used to such insults. Each time I encountered one, it was like hitting a wall. I lost the flow of the story for a moment, had to swallow hard and then resume. But I don’t know any better way of handling this. The story, a classic of whodunit literature, is obviously a product of its era and place. I wouldn’t want someone deciding for me that I couldn’t read this or another work, simply because of its controversial language. ◊

Roberta Alexander is an editor and mystery reviewer in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

This Just In… A Good Catch by L.L. Lee

The seven women in the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, grief support group have been meeting for four years in an effort to comfort each other.

Now, tired of grieving and feeling sorry for themselves, some are ready to get on with their lives and look for new love. Everyone joins the fishing party; ven the woman in the throes of menopause who vows at first to stay single, and the 90ish member who has lost three husbands. That’s when the trolling and fun begin.

In spite of their hilarious, inept attempts at finding love, they are successful in landing their catches, the good as well as the bad. Now what do they do with them? Do they throw them back in or are they keepers? Are they really ready to let go of their former loves?

You can order A Good Catch here. Visit author L.L. Lee’s Amazon page here. ◊

This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

New in Paperback: Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber

Several years ago, my husband and I decided not to have children. It’s a decision we’ve seldom regretted, but I never regretted it less than when reading Sandra Steingraber’s Raising Elijah (Da Capo), a book that is essentially about the hazards of raising children in an increasingly toxic world.

Dangers to children -- both born and unborn -- abound. The very thought of it must, for parents, be crazy making. I can’t imagine how they do it. But if Raising Elijah were just a book about the myriad environmental hazards to children, it would be a deeply interesting book. Steingraber knows these waters well. But that would be a book that lacked this author’s heart and voice. Raising Elijah is lovely. It is interesting and mortifying, moving and funny. A call to action and a call to grief. Most simply, it is a wonderful book.

Steingraber, herself a PhD and a cancer survivor, is the author of Living Downstream and Having Faith, both highly personal books that look at the environment and what troubles it in an entirely lucid and compelling way. And while all of what she shares is interesting, some of it is downright shocking. Even alarming. Take this:

Here is what we know about the boy babies of women pregnant during the 9/11 attacks: Some of them disappeared. That is to say, they were never born at all. And they vanished not just among women living in New York City but throughout the United States. Three to four months after 9/11, significantly fewer boys were born and the death rate of male fetuses … increased by 12 percent.

This gender-selective loss and consequent reduction in the male birth rate is not without precedent. The male birth rate has been known to decline after “natural disasters, pollution events, and economic collapse.” No one understands the biological underpinnings for this phenomenon. 

And while on a certain level, all of this makes perfect sense, it feels startling to have it pointed out in this way: and having it not be something that is always and perfectly known. Plus, by the time early in the book when Steingraber shares these details, you are so entwined in the details of the story she is telling that when she does tell us, you just want to weep.

Raising Elijah is a call to action and a sweet love letter to motherhood from a talented and learned pen. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

This Just In… I’ll See You in Your Dreams by Tony Miller

Charlie was a ghost hunter who didn’t really believe in ghosts, but he believed in the effect being a ghost hunter had on girls. He thought he had perfected the ultimate pick up line, “I’m a ghost hunter.” All that came crashing down when he met his soulmate… a ghost.

While photographing a Victorian mansion he was startled to meet the ghost of Anne Meux. She died in 1970 at age 85. In ghost form, she was only 25 and beautiful. Charlie found himself in a riveting conversation. Who was she? Where was she? What was she doing in her old room?

After their conversation, Tony asked himself: Why was he madly in love with an apparition? Or, even worse, a hallucination? If she was in a parallel universe, could he bring her back to his time and place? His best friend Stanley was the smartest guy he knew. Stanley was working on his PhD in Physics. Surely he could figure this out.

Presented with the idea, Stanley was intrigued and agreed to help his best friend. A physicist, Stanley was well aware of parallel universes and the duality of the universe. Stanley was convinced that science and religion were two sides of the same coin. The dogma in both seemed to prevent the ultimate discovery of “truth.” He enjoyed asking the curious: “Since ‘space’ was created by the big bang…what did it go bang in?” and “If God created it all by saying ‘Let there be light!’ who was he talking to?” And the ultimate question: “What was there just before the bang or Gods command?” The same answer.

You can order I’ll See You in Your Dreams here. Visit author Tony Miller on the web here. ◊


This Just In... is a column that shares basic information on selected titles. Titles are included at the editor’s discretion and on a first come, first served basis or for a small fee. Want to see your new book included? Ordering details are here.

Dawkins Tops Lists of World Thinkers

Like the lists of the most beautiful and most successful people in the world, a list of the world’s best thinkers has to be at least a teensy bit subjective.

Even so, when Prospect Magazine named author, intellectual and all ’round brainy guy, Richard Dawkins, the world’s top thinker a few days ago, there wasn’t a lot of disagreement. Says Prospect:

When Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evolutionary biologist, coined the term “meme” in The Selfish Gene 37 years ago, he can’t have anticipated its current popularity as a word to describe internet fads. But this is only one of the ways in which he thrives as an intellectual in the internet age. He is also prolific on Twitter, with more than half a million followers—and his success in this poll attests to his popularity online. He uses this platform to attack his old foe, religion, and to promote science and rationalism. Uncompromising as his message may be, he’s not averse to poking fun at himself: in March he made a guest appearance on The Simpsons, lending his voice to a demon version of himself.

Other authors who made the list are Oliver Sacks (#13); Arundhati Roy (#15); Hilary Mantel (#33), Zadie Smith (#35); David Grossman (#42) and Andrew Solomon (#43).

Scroll down the page to see Prospect’s methodology in picking their top 65.

The list is interesting, but the Guardian seems a little skeptical at least about some aspects when it says:

To qualify for this year's world thinkers rankings, it was not enough to have written a seminal book, inspired an intellectual movement or won a Nobel prize several years ago (hence the absence from the 65-strong long list of ageing titans such as Noam Chomsky or Edward O Wilson); the selectors' remit ruthlessly insisted on "influence over the past 12 months" and "significance to the year's biggest questions". 

This requirement may have been a factor in the top 10 being all-male (presumably a source of frustration to the five women on the selection panel, including Prospect's editor Bronwen Maddox), with longlistees such as Hilary Mantel, Martha Nussbaum and Sheryl Sandberg not making it through to the elite of the elite, and the likes of Germaine Greer and Naomi Klein not even making it into the 65. But it may also, of course, simply reflect the gender make-up of the monthly's readership.

Their assessment is here.