Booklist articles from April 2006

Booklist archives from April 2006

Burroughs, Augusten. Possible Side Effects.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Burroughs, Augusten. Possible Side Effects. May 2006. 292p. St. Martin's, $ 23.95 (0-312-31596-1). 808.54 Burroughs is the author of the memoir Running with Scissors (2002), a "runaway" best-seller, and an equally popular collection of...

Connelly, Michael. Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Connelly, Michael. Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers. May 2006. 288p. Little, Brown, $25.95 (0-316-15377-X). 363.25 Connelly, best-selling and Edgar Award-winning writer of the Harry Bosch mystery series, writes about cops,...

Kennedy, Edward M. America Back on Track.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Kennedy, Edward M. America Back on Track. Apr. 2006. 224p. Viking, $24.95 (0-670-03764-8). 973.931. America's iconic liberal offers his analysis of how and why the nation has gone astray from its values and principles and how it can...

Coben, Harlan. Promise Me.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Coben, Harlan. Promise Me. Apr. 2006. 384p. Button, $26.95 (0-525-94949.6). Crime Fiction Cohen, the reigning master of clockwork suspense, and winner of the trifecta of mystery-writing honors--the Edgar, the Agatha, and the...

Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Albright, Madeleine. The Mighty & the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs. May 2006. 352p. HarperCollins, $25.95 (0-06-089257-9). 261.8. Albright brings considerable experience as a former diplomat, history...

Giffin, Emily. Baby Proof.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Giffin, Emily. Baby Proof. June 2006. 352p. St. Martin's, $23.95 (0-312-34864-9). General Fiction. Giffin has made a name for herself with unconventional, extremely popular chick-lit novels that place her heroines in difficult situations;...

Harris, E. Lynn. I Say a Little Prayer.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Harris, E. Lynn. I Say a Little Prayer. May 2006. 256p. Doubleday, $ 21.95 (0-385-51272-4). General Fiction. Chauncey Greer operates a successful card company in Atlanta, Cute Boy Cards, with a specialty line for bisexuals and homosexuals....

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Dark Side of the Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Dark Side of the Moon. May 2006. 336p. St. Martin's, $19.95 (0-312-35743-5). Romance. With over six million copies of Kenyon's groundbreaking Dark Hunter series in print worldwide, her jump to hardcover was inevitable....

Fuentes, Carlos. The Eagle's Throne.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Fuentes, Carlos. The Eagle's Throne. May 2006. 338p. Random, $ 26.95 (1-4000-6247-0). General Fiction. As politics and history imbue the Latin American consciousness, so do they play a major thematic role in Latin American fiction. In his...

Weber, Ronald. News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light between the Wars.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Weber, Ronald. News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light between the Wars. Apr. 2006. 320p. index. Ivan R. Dee, $27.50 (1-56663-676-0). 070. Lured by the romance and low cost of life in Paris after World War I, aspiring...

Holmes, David L. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Holmes, David L. The Faiths of the Founding Fathers. Apr. 2006. 192p. illus. index. Oxford, $20 (0-19-530092-0). 200.973. Against the Religious Right's insistence that the Founding Fathers were conventional Christians, Holmes pits facts...

Shachtman, Tom. Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Shachtman, Tom. Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish. June 2006. 288p. Farrar/ North Point, $24 (0-86547-687-X). 289.7. Rumspringa is a Pennsylvania Dutch term roughly translatable as "running around." In an Amish context, it denotes a...

Beyond Shock and Awe: Warfare in the 21st Century.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Beyond Shock and Awe: Warfare in the 21st Century. Ed. by Eric L. Haney and Brian M. Thomsen. Apr. 2006. 260p. Berkley/Caliber, $24.95 (0-425-20798-6). 355. The articles in this reader on the immediate future of war are accessible to...

Horton, James and Horton, Lois. Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Horton, James and Horton, Lois. Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory. May 2006. 288p. index. New Press, $25.95 (1-56584-960-4). 306.3. The Hortons, history professors and authors of several books on slavery, offer...

Karsh, Efraim. Islamic Imperialism.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Karsh, Efraim. Islamic Imperialism. Apr. 2006. 320p. index. Yale, $30 (0-300-10603-3). 325. Middle East scholar Karsh surveys for a general audience the region's Islamic political past. Parallel to his narrative, Karsh frequently contrasts...

World War II.(The Manley Arts)
April 1, 2006... If the purpose of war is to kill people and break things, World War II was the greatest war of all time. It leads all other wars in the key indicators of destruction: number of nations involved, military personnel killed and wounded, civilians...

My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes: Uncensored Iranian Voices. Ed. by Ella Azam Zanganeh. Apr. 2006. 160p. illus. Beacon, paper, $14 (0-8070-0463-4). 305.40955. A seemingly devout cleaning lady sweeps a client's living...

Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Apr. 2006. 434p. index. Penguin, $26.95 (1-59420082-3). 394.1. Humans were clearly designed to eat all manner of meats, vegetables, fruits, and grains. But, as...

Sher, Julian and Marsden, William. Angels of Death: Inside the Biker Gangs' Global Crime Empire.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Sher, Julian and Marsden, William. Angels of Death: Inside the Biker Gangs' Global Crime Empire. May 2006. 456p. index. Avalon, $25.95 (0-7867-1744-0). 364.1. Taking direct aim at the avuncular persona head Angel Ralph "Sonny" Barger...

Silin, Jonathan G. My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Silin, Jonathan G. My Father's Keeper: The Story of a Gay Son and His Aging Parents. May 2006. 184p. Beacon, $23.95 (0-80707964-2). 306.87. Former early childhood classroom teacher Silin, who now teaches other early childhood teachers,...

Singular, Stephen. Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Singular, Stephen. Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer. Apr. 2006. 304p. illus. Scribner, $23 (0-7432-9124-7). 364.1. Singular tells the ghastly tale of Dennis Rader, the serial killer who terrorized Wichita and...

Bach, David. The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Bach, David. The Automatic Millionaire Homeowner: A Powerful Plan to Finish Rich in Real Estate. Apr. 2006. 272p. index. Broadway, $19.95 (0-7679-2120-8). 332.63. Adding to the number of current books on the popular topic of home ownership...

Badaracco, Joseph Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Badaracco, Joseph L Questions of Character: Illuminating the Heart of Leadership through Literature. Apr. 2006. 240p. Harvard Business School, $26.95 (1-59139-968-8). 658.4. Badaracco, an academic specializing in business ethics, presents...

Fromartz, Samuel. Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Fromartz, Samuel. Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew. Apr. 2006. 320p. Harcourt, $25 (0-15-101130-3). 338.1. Although initially attracted to organic food from his encounters with it as a cook, business journalist Fromartz...

Casagrande, June. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Casagrande, June. Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies: A Guide to Language for Fun and Spite. Apr. 2006. 200p. Penguin, paper, $14 (0-14-303683-1). 428. The author of a grammar column for L.A. community newspapers, Casagrande brings a...

Gibbons, Ann. The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Gibbons, Ann. The First Human: The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors. Apr. 2006. 288p. index. Doubleday, $26 (0-38551226-0). 576.8. A writer for Science magazine, Gibbons explains what paleoanthropologists have been doing over the...

Nicholls, Henry. Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Nicholls, Henry. Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon. Apr. 2006. 256p. illus, index. Macmillan, $24.95 (1-4039-4576-4). 597.9. The Galapagos Islands--the wellspring of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution--are the...

Ridley, Matt. Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Ridley, Matt. Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code. June 2006. 192p. HarperCollins, $19.95 (0-06-082333-X). 576.5. The codiscoverer with James Watson of the structure of DNA in 1953, Francis Crick died in 2004, doing science to the...

Stebbins, Michael. Sex, Drugs and DNA: Science's Taboos Confronted.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Stebbins, Michael. Sex, Drugs and DNA: Science's Taboos Confronted. Apr. 2006. 256p. illus, index. Macmillan, $24.95 (1-4039-9342-4). 570. The taboos referenced by the subtitle are the sanctions against scientists talking plainly to the...

Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. Apr. 2006. 312p. illus, index. Penguin Press, $24.95 (1-59420-079-3). 599.93. Genetics has been intruding on human origins research, long the domain of...

Frenay, Robert. Pulse: The Coming Age of Systems and Machines Inspired by Living Things.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Frenay, Robert. Pulse: The Coming Age of Systems and Machines Inspired by Living Things. Apr. 2006. 400p. index. Farrar, $26 (0-374-11327-0). 620. In journalistic fashion, Frenay refracts what environmentally aware scientists, farmers, and...

Stewart, Keith and Bacarella, Flavia. It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Stewart, Keith and Bacarella, Flavia. It's a Long Road to a Tomato: Tales of an Organic Farmer Who Quit the Big City for the (Not So) Simple Life. May 2006. 288p. illus. Marlowe, paper, $15.95 (1-56924330-1). 631.5. If one is fortunate...

Ball, Philip. The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Ball, Philip. The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science. Apr. 2006. 464p. illus, index. Farrar, $26 (0-374-22979-1). 610. To his successful popular-science titles, Ball adds this biography of an...

Orr, Brian G. A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Orr, Brian G. A Pediatrician's Journal: Caring for Children in a Broken Medical System. Apr. 2006. 288p. Beaufort, $22.95 (0-8253-0538-1). 618.92. Orr begins his book with the disclaimer, "I am not a writer." Well, maybe not, but he is a...

Tending your garden.(2 books)(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Helphand, Kenneth I. Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime. May 2006. 320p. illus, index. Trinity Univ., $34.95 (1-59534-021-1). 635. Klindienst, Patricia. The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of...

Bradley, Valerie. The Complete Guide to Houseplants: The Easy Way to Choose and Grow Healthy, Happy Houseplants.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Bradley, Valerie. The Complete Guide to Houseplants: The Easy Way to Choose and Grow Healthy, Happy Houseplants. 2006. 288p. illus, index. Reader's Digest, $30 (0-7621-0634-4). 635.9. The operative term in houseplants is house, but how is...

Cox, Jeff. The Organic Cook's Bible: How to Select and Cook the Best Ingredients on the Market.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Cox, Jeff. The Organic Cook's Bible: How to Select and Cook the Best Ingredients on the Market. Apr. 2006. 560p. illus, index. Wiley, $40 (0-471-44578 -9). 641.3. A comprehensive guide to foodstuffs, this valuable reference tool empowers...

Burns, Catherine Lloyd. It Hit Me like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Burns, Catherine Lloyd. It Hit Me like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter. May 2006. 240p. Farrar/North Point, $23 (0-86547-708-6). 792.02. Burns recounts with gut-twisting authenticity the love-hate relationship she had...

The Glory of Gardens: 2,000 Years of Writings on Garden Design.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Glory of Gardens: 2,000 Years of Writings on Garden Design. Ed. by Scott J. Tilden. Apr. 2006. 256p. illus. Abrams, $50 (0-8109-5541-5). 712. Figures from history emerge alongside modern-day gardening mavens in a treasury of...

Khoury, George and Nolen-Weathington, Eric. Arthur Adams: Modern Masters, v.6.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Khoury, George and Nolen-Weathington, Eric. Arthur Adams: Modern Masters, v.6. 2006. 128p. illus. TwoMorrows, paper, $14.95 (1-893905-54-3). 741.5. Bursting on the comic-book scene at age 20 with his 1985 series Longshot, Arthur Adams'...

Mottram, James. The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Mottram, James. The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood. Apr. 2006. 452p. illus, index. Faber, $24.95 (0-571-22267-6). 791.43. The 1989 surprise success of Steven Soderbergh's sex, lies, and videotape after making a splash...

Said, Edward W. On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Said, Edward W. On Late Style: Music and Literature against the Grain. Apr. 2006. 208p. index. Pantheon, $25 (0-37542105-X). 700. "Late style" is the quality possessed by the puzzlingly beautiful artistic works that are created late in an...

Walker, Michael. Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Walker, Michael. Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. May 2006. 256p. illus. index. Faber, $24 (0-571-21149-6). 781.66. Walker recalls, mostly sweetly, the famed breeding ground for the L.A. cool that...

The Writers: The Comics Journal Library 6.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Writers: The Comics Journal Library 6. Ed. by Tom Spurgeon. 2006. 360p. illus. Fantagraphics, paper, $19.95 (1-56097696-9). 741.50922. The artists have long grabbed the most at tendon in the world of comic books, with writers generally...

Drape, Joe. Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Drape, Joe. Black Maestro: The Epic Life of an American Legend. May 2006. 288p. illus. index. Morrow, $24.95 (0-06-053729-9). 798.40092 The prospects for a small black man born in the American South in 1882 were grim. That Jimmy Winkfield,...

Sultans of Swat: The Four Great Sluggers of the New York Yankees.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Sultans of Swat." The Four Great Sluggers of the New York Yankees. Apr. 2006. 352p. illus. St. Martin's, $29.95 (0-312-34014-1). 796.357. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle were four of the greatest hitters in the...

Creeley, Robert. On Earth: Last Poems and an Essay.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Creeley, Robert. On Earth: Last Poems and an Essay. Apr. 2006.76p. Univ. of California, paper, $21.95 (0-520-24791-4). 811. Robert Creeley was clearly preoccupied with aging, regret, and acceptance while working on this final book before...

Ko Un. The Three Way Tavern. Tr. by Clare You and Richard Silberg.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Ko Un. The Three Way Tavern. Tr. by Clare You and Richard Silberg. Apr. 2006. 176p. index. Univ. of California, $45 (0-52024612-8); paper, $16.95 (0-520-24613-6). 895.7. Well regarded in Korea and short-listed for the Nobel Prize, Un has...

Groom, Winston. Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Groom, Winston. Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans. May 2006. 320p. illus. Knopf, $26 (I-4000-4436-7). 973.5. The Battle of New Orleans is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated military...

Wright, Franz. God's Silence.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Wright, Franz. God's Silence. Apr. 2006. 80p. Knopf, $24 (1-4000-4351-4). 811. In his first book since winning the Pulitzer Prize, Wright conjures his particular magic through a personalized mix of realism, lyricism, and mysticism in...

Axelrod, Alan. Profiles in Audacity: How History's Greatest Leaders Made Their Greatest Decisions.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Axelrod, Alan. Profiles in Audacity: How History's Greatest Leaders Made Their Greatest Decisions. June 2006. 320p. Sterling, $19.95 (1-4027-3282-1). 909.82. Axelrod examines the lives, careers, and decisions of 46 of the world's most...

Hosking, Geoffrey. Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Hosking, Geoffrey. Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union. Apr. 2006. 436p. index. Harvard, $35 (0-674-02178-9). 947.084. Although a bit overlong, this book takes a new look at some well-worn historical material. Hosking makes...

Marozzi, Justin. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Marozzi, Justin. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World. Apr. 2006. 368p. illus, index. Da Capo, $26.95 (0-30681465-X). 950.2092. A nomadic mass of destruction, Tamerlane (1336-1405) was just sedentary enough to leave behind, in...

Mushikiwabo, Louise and Kramer, Jack. Rwanda Means the Universe: A Native's Memoir of Blood and Bloodlines.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Mushikiwabo, Louise and Kramer, Jack. Rwanda Means the Universe: A Native's Memoir of Blood and Bloodlines. Apr. 2006. 384p. illus, index. St. Martin's, $25.95 (0-312-20959-2). 967.57. Reflecting on the world's belated reaction to the...

Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism. Ed. by Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John Stauffer. May 2006. 366p. New Press, $60 (1-56584-992-2); paper, $22.95 (1-56584-880-2). 973.7. Perspectives on abolitionists...

Rabb, Theodore K. The Last Days of the Renaissance & the March to Modernity.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Rabb, Theodore K. The Last Days of the Renaissance & the March to Modernity. Apr. 2006. 272p. illus, index. Basic, $26 (0-46506801-4). 940.2. Modern historians are often loathe to utilize periodization in describing the transformation of...

Schultz, Connie. Life Happens and Other Unavoidable Truths.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Schultz, Connie. Life Happens and Other Unavoidable Truths. Apr. 2006. 304p. Random, $22.95 (1-4000-6497-X). 973.931. Following an editor's advice, Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, began to inject...

Shaara, Jeff. Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Shaara, Jeff. Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground. Apr. 2006. 304p. illus. Ballantine, paper, $18.95 (0-345-46488-5). 973.7. Shaara is the author of two "nonfiction novels" that completed the Civil...

Soderlind, Lori. Chasing Montana.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Soderlind, Lori. Chasing Montana. Apr. 2006. 280p. Univ. of Wisconsin/Terrace, paper, $22.95 (0-299-21754-X). 978.6. As debut memoirs supplant debut novels, the themes of much first fiction loss of illusions, painful early loves,...

Tolan, Sandy. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Tolan, Sandy. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. May 2006. 368p. index. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (1-58234-343-8). 956.9405092. To see in human scale the tragic collision of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples,...

Amdahl, Gary. Visigoth.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Amdahl, Gary. Visigoth. Apr. 2006. 200p. Milkweed, paper, $15.95 (1-57131-051-7). Amdahl moves like lightning and carries a big stick in this rampaging collection of short stories, and not only when he's portraying reckless hockey players....

Baggott, Julianna and Almond, Steve. Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Baggott, Julianna and Almond, Steve. Which Brings Me to You: A Novel in Confessions. Apr. 2006. 320p. Algonquin, $22.95 (1-56512-443-X). Coauthored by pop-culture darlings Baggott and Almond, this is a surprisingly poignant and meaningful...

Barr, Nancy Verde. Last Bite: A Novel of Culinary Romance.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Barr, Nancy Verde. Last Bite. June 2006. 304p. Algonquin, $22.95 (1-56512-495-2). Casey Costello, chef for a network morning news show, dumps her two-timing dentist lover and immediately swears off further amatory involvements. Resisting...

Beck, Timothy James. Someone Like You.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Beck, Timothy James. Someone Like You. Apr. 2006. 352p. Kensington, paper, $14 (0-7582-1035-3). Derek Anderson yearns for Belgian waffles, his comfort food, as he endures the required orientation for clerks at Drayden's Department Store....

Blackburn, Wendy. Beachglass.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Blackburn, Wendy. Beachglass. May 2006. 336p. St. Martin's, $24.95 (0-312-35158-5). Beachglass, each piece uniquely shaped and polished by waves and sand, typically begins as ordinary bottle shards. Delia, an alcoholic 10 years sober,...

Brett, Lily. You Gotta Have Balls.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Brett, Lily. You Gotta Have Balls. July 2006. 288p. Morrow, $24.95 (0-06-050569-9). In this very funny sequel to Too Many Men (2001), Ruth Rothwax, the owner of a successful letter-writing business in Manhattan, can't seem to relax. She worries...

Charles, Bryan. Grab on to Me Tightly as If I Knew the Way.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Charles, Bryan. Grab On to Me Tightly as if I Knew the Way. June 2006. 256p. HarperCollins/Perennial, paper, $13.95 (0-06-088298-0). The wistful title (taken from song lyrics by the band Pavement), eye-catching cover art from Chicago...

Rules for readers--and that means librarians, too!(At Leisure)(Column)
April 1, 2006... We've all seen it happen. That reader whom we helped a few weeks ago returns to the desk and tells us she hated the book we suggested--but she read the whole thing! She expects a pat on the back for her perseverance, but we just want to scream!...

Byrd, Lee Merrill. Riley's Fire.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Byrd, Lee Merrill. Riley's Fire. May 2006. 272p. Algonquin/Shannon Ravenel, $22.95 (1-56512-497-9). This slim novel is set in the almost suffocatingly insular world of Galveston's Shriner's Burns Institute. It is here that seven-year-old...

Chiaverini, Jennifer. Circle of Quilters.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Chiaverini, Jennifer. Circle of Quilters. Apr. 2006. 320p. Simon & Schuster, $23 (0-7432-6020-1). Elm Creek Quilt Camp is firmly at the center of her latest novel in the series, though Chiaverini broadens the geography and characters. An...

Cohen, Paula Marantz. Jane Austen in Scarsdale: Or Love, Death, and the SATs.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Cohen, Paula Marantz. Jane Austen in Scarsdale: Or Love, Death, and the SATs. Apr. 2006. 304p. St. Martin's, $23.95 (0-312-32502-9). Following her send-up of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen in Boca (2002), Cohen tackles Austen's final...

Corman, Avery. The Boyfriend from Hell.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Corman, Avery. The Boyfriend from Hell. May 2006. 256p. St. Martin's, $23.95 (0-312-34979-3). Corman, best known as the author of the novel that was adapted into the Oscar-winning film Kramer vs. Kramer, introduces a little hint of the...

Doughty, Anne. The Hawthorns Bloom in May.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Doughty, Anne. The Hawthorns Bloom in May. Apr. 2006. 320p. Severn, $28.95 (0-7278-6325-8). As Doughty returns to the story of the Hamiltons of Ballydown, Ireland, it's 1912, and Rose and John are grandparents. One son, James, remains...

Goudge, Eileen. Immediate Family.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Goudge, Eileen. Immediate Family. May 2006. 352p. Pocket, $24 (0-7434-8319-9). The old adage "you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family" takes on a cunning new connotation in Goudge's zesty tale of four college pals catching...

Collinsworth, Eden. It Might Have Been What He Said.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Collinsworth, Eden. It Might Have Been What He Said. June 2006. 288p. Arcade, $23.95 (1 -55970-812-3). In an elegantly written, consistently surprising first novel, Collinsworth, the former publisher of Arbor House, pens a roman clef set...

Griffiths, Niall. Wreckage.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Griffiths, Niall. Wreckage. Apr. 2006. 268p. Graywolf, paper, $15 (1-55597-441-4). This intensely lyrical tale of ruined lives--some known, some suspected, and some taken utterly by surprise--in Liverpool's wrecked age charts the descent...

Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Love in the Present Tense.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Love in the Present Tense. May 2006. 240p. Doubleday/Flying Dolphin, $21.95 (0-385-51800-5). Pearl was only 13 when she got pregnant and gave birth to her baby boy, Leonard. It was also on her thirteenth birthday when...

Joseph, Frank S. To Love Mercy.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Joseph, Frank S. To Love Mercy. Apr. 2006. 260p. Mid-Atlantic Highlands, paper, $14.95 (0-9744785-3-9). In 1940s Chicago, upon departing a White Sox game, Steve Feinberg and his family are accosted by a group of black youth hoping to...

Khadra, Yasmina. The Attack.(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Khadra, Yasmina. The Attack. Tr. by John Cullen. May 2006. 208p. Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, $18.95 (0-385-51748-3). A rocket attack opens and closes the new book by Algerian army-officer-turned-novelist Mohammed Moulessehoul, who retains the...

Leimbach, Marti. Daniel Isn't Talking.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Leimbach, Marti. Daniel Isn't Talking. Apr. 2006. 240p. Doubleday/Nan A. Talese, $22.95 (0-385-51751-3). Leimbach, the author of Dying Young (1989), tackles a story that hits close to home for her: a young mother grappling with the...

Montefiore, Santa. Last Voyage of the Valentina.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Montefiore, Santa. Last Voyage of the Valentina. June 2006.416p. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, paper, $15 (0-7432-7686-8). Montefiore is well known by women's-fiction readers in England but less recognized in the U.S. All that is about to...

Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... * Nemirovsky, Irene. Suite Francaise. Tr. by Sandra Smith. Apr. 2006.416p. Knopf, $25 (1-4000-4473-1). Nemirovsky, a young Russian Jewish emigre, became a celebrated novelist in Paris at age 26 in 1929. She wrote eight more novels; then,...

Mayhew, Margaret. I'll Be Seeing You.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... Mayhew, Margaret. I'll Be Seeing You. June 2006. 384p. Severn, $28.95 (0-7278-6352-5). When Juliet Porter's mother, Daisy, dies of cancer, it's a terrible shock. But another shock awaits Juliet in a letter her mother wrote shortly before...

McGlothin, Victor. Down On My Knees.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... McGlothin, Victor. Down On My Knees. May 2006. 304p. Kensington/Dafina, paper, $15 (0-7582-1346-8). Grace Hilliard is a successful executive at Pinnacle Marketing and a single mother, raising her 13-year-old son, Andre. Although Grace has...