Publishers Weekly articles from April 2005

Publishers Weekly archives from April 2005

We've got Harry's number: Scholastic's honest first print figures are rare in an industry besotted with wishful thinking.(editorial)
April 4, 2005... SCHOLASTIC'S ANNOUNCEMENT this week that its first printing of July's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince would be a record-breaking 10.8 million inspired two novel thoughts: 1) Refreshingly, an announced first printing might be close to, if...

The strangest program you've never heard of: Amazon.com's odd twist on pay-for-play.
April 4, 2005... DAN BROWN is a mega-star with four bestsellers and vast pop-cultural influence. Sheryl Jane Stafford is an unknown thriller writer self-published with Writer's Showcase Press. She has, it seems sale to say, less cultural influence. But the...

Freelancers get $18m, but still lose rights.(News)
April 4, 2005... THE $18-MILLION SETTLEMENT reached last week to compensate freelance writers for the use of their material in electronic databases brought more than 12 years of litigation and legal wrangling to an end. But while the settlement will compensate...

AMS reaching end of turbulent year.(Settling)(ADVANCED MARKETING SERVICES)
April 4, 2005... ADVANCED MARKETING SERVICES has reached settlements with all but "three or four" publishers regarding the distributor's cooperative advertising irregularities, Curt Smith, company CFO, told PW. Smith said the company "is trying to track down"...

Bookspan adds packaged goods to its mix.(Leveraging)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Bookspan, looking to fill excess capacity in its distribution facilities and generate incremental revenue, will provide direct-to-consumer fulfillment services to third-party clients in and out of book publishing. To facilitate its more into...

Ivan's carousel.(People)(Appointments in the book publishing industry)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... PUTNAM LAST WEEK named Warner associate publisher Ivan Held as its new president, replacing Susan Petersen Kennedy, who had been running the company on an interim basis since the departure of Carole Baron. Putnam has been hit by the decline in...

Travel, politics drive gains at Avalon.(Maturing)
April 4, 2005... ALTHOUGH ITS BIG political book of 2004 didn't sell as well as expected. Avalon Publishing Group had a successful 2004 and opened 2005 by taking complete ownership of its Shoemaker & Hoard imprint. In a wide-ranging interview with PW. Avalon...

Industry stocks: March performances.(Market Watch)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
April 4, 2005... Industry Stocks: March Performers Winners COMPANY FEBRUARY 28 MARCH 31 % CHANGE Marvel 17.62 20.00 13.5% Leapfrog ...

Denizens of L.A.'s shady underbelly.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... DENIZENS OF L.A.'S SHADY UNDERBELLY can rest a little easier. Harry Bosch, the L.A.P.D. homicide detective who's moved millions of books while purging the city of its seamier elements, is nowhere to be found in Michael Connelly's new thriller,...

Producers hoping for a shot at the latest.(Hollywood Reader)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... PRODUCERS HOPING FOR A SHOT AT THE LATEST novel from the author of The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules will apparently have to sit this one out. CAA's Bob Bookman has told several top execs inquiring about John Irving's...

With the recent option of Liza Ward's Outside Valentine (Holt, Sept. 2004), Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company may soon make its hometown as famous for its indie film scene as for its deep-dish pizza and Oprah.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... BRIEFS... With the recent option of Liza Ward's Outside Valentine (Holt, Sept. 2004), Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company may soon make its hometown as famous for its indie film scene as for its deep-dish pizza and Oprah. Steppenwolf...

Books are fun sues founder.(All in the Family)(Books Are Fun)(Reader's Choice)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... READER'S DIGEST'S Books Are Fun division has filed a motion to amend its lawsuit against the display marketing company Reader's Choice to include Earl Kaplan, the stepfather of RC founder Stephen Rosebrough and the founder of BAF. Kaplan sold...

April is spring training for poets.(National Poetry Month)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... SPRING MEANS WARM weather and baseball, and in the book industry, April also means National Poetry Month. This year, the Academy of American Poets, instrumental in the founding of the national celebration, will again be coordinating a wide...

Bleak February.(AAP Sales Report)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Bleak Feburuary % CHANGE % CHANGE CATEGORY FEBRUARY YTD Adult Hardcover -22.3 -1.8 Adult Paperback -8.4 -3.7 Adult Mass Market -43.2 -11.5...

Hastings tries out used books.(Product Mix)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... HASTINGS ENTERTAINMENT has become the latest retailer to enter the used book market. The company is testing the sale of used books in six stores and hopes to add used book sections to all stores by the summer. "We're playing with the model...

Matalin jumps in.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Simon & Schuster's new imprint editor, Republican operative and commentator Mary Matalin, lost no time in announcing her first acquisition, and it was a big one: a memoir by Mary Cheney, the vice president's controversial lesbian daughter,...

Night job: drag queen.(hot deals)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... A memoir by a young New Yorker who for a period of his life worked as an up-and-coming ad exec by day and at night dressed in glittering dresses and high heels and went on the downtown drag queen beauty contest circuit was snapped up by Maureen...

Viking wins hot Brit novel.(hot deals)(The Saffron Kitchen)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... One of the most talked-about debut novels at the London Book Fair was The Saffron Kitchen by Iran-born Londoner Jasmine Crowther, making several big foreign sales and inspiring a rush of offers from London and New York publishers. In the end it...

A second novel by Aurelie Sheehan (The Anxiety of Everyday Objects) went for six figures to Molly Stern at Viking.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... A second novel by Aurelie Sheehan (The Anxiety of Everyday Objects) went for six figures to Molly Stern at Viking. It's called History Lessons for Girls and involves two 1970s teenagers who create an intense private world to shut out the...

A book about how Sir Isaac Newton, in his role as head of Britain's Royal Mint, carried out an obsessive hunt for a leading counterfeiter of the time and eventually brought him to justice (and execution) was won at auction by Becky Saletan at Harcourt.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... A book about how Sir Isaac Newton, in his role as head of Britain's Royal Mint, carried out an obsessive hunt for a leading counterfeiter of the time and eventually brought him to justice (and execution) was won at auction by Becky Saletan at...

Not to be outdone by ReganBooks' near-monopoly of Scott Peterson titles to date, SMP's Charlie Spicer, normally quick off the mark in such matters, has signed his own: it's Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson, and its author, forensic psychiatrist and novelist Keith Ablow, promises to offer those insights, as he already has done frequently on TV.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Not to be outdone by ReganBooks' near-monopoly of Scott Peterson titles to date, SMP's Charlie Spicer, normally quick off the mark in such matters, has signed his own: it's Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson, and its author, forensic...

A book about Mel Allen, the celebrated sportscaster known as "The Voice of the Yankees," was sold to Mitch Rogatz and Michael Emmerich at World Books.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... A book about Mel Allen, the celebrated sportscaster known as The Voice of the Yankees, was sold to Mitch Rogatz and Michael Emmerich at World Books. It's The Voice: Mel Allen's Untold Story by baseball broadcast historian (and Allen friend)...

The recent suicide of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson was sure to inspire a book, and Norton's Amy Cherry has already signed one.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... The recent suicide of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson was sure to inspire a book, and Norton's Amy Cherry has already signed one. It's American Dreamer: The Life and Death of Hunter Thompson by journalism professor William McKeen, a...

Random invests in future.(Reading Is Fundamental)(Investment in American Reading Company)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... RICHARD SARNOFF, president of Random House Ventures, sees Random House's purchase of a minority stake in American Reading Company as an investment in Random's future, similar to the company's recent investment in Vocel, which delivers...

Bookseller Pat Wroclawski.(Obituaries)(Brief Article)(Obituary)(Biography)
April 4, 2005... PAT WROCLAWSKI passed away on March 20, after a long illness. She was 78. Wroclawski managed the Chestnut Court Book Shop in Winnetka, Ill., for 15 years, then ran the children's department at the flagship Krochs and Brentano's store in Chicago...

H. Bermont, 80.(Obituaries)(ARC's reading system)(Brief Article)(Obituary)(Biography)
April 4, 2005... HERBERT INGRAM BERMONT, a book retailer, author, publisher and book consultant, died of cancer at his Chicago home on February 12. He was 80. Bermont began his career in 1957 at Brentano's branch stores in the Washington, D.C., area. In...

Saturday's Crowds.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... More than 550 people showed up at Manhattan's Union Square Barnes & Noble on March 30 to hear Ian McEwan read from his new bestseller, Saturday. One day later, he was at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., where advance ticket sales of about...

Nighttime is Clark's time.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Mary Higgins Clark is a regular on PW's weekly charts and also on our end-of-the-year bestseller lists. Last April, Nighttime Is My Time hit the list in the #3 spot (as did many other bestsellers in 2004, when The Da Vinci Code and The Five...

Kiss her hello.(behind the bestsellers)(Allison Dubois promotes new book)(Brief Article)(Biography)
April 4, 2005... Allison Dubois wears many hats, including her newest, as bestselling author of Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye. Fireside published the book with a 110,000-copy printing, and is now up to 140,000 after two additional printings. The cover line on the...

Plan B still on the A list.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Anne Lamott's current bestseller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, has been on PW's chart for a month (copies in print: nearly 150,000). Riverhead has had Lamott on tour for most of the month and reports standing-room-only crowds at all her...

Back in the Club.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Hyperion's recent bestseller The Killing Club by Marcie Walsh with Michael Malone is back on the charts again and is up to 150,000 copies in print after four trips to press; first printing was 100,000 copies. The book takes the TV tie-in to a...

Teaching booksellers 'The King's English': lessons from a quarter-century of indie bookselling.(bookselling)
April 4, 2005... Part memoir, part reading guide, The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller can also be read as a primer-of cautionary tale--for aspiring booksellers. Making her authorial debut, Betsy Burton, owner of The King's English in...

Labyrinth expands to new haven.(Renovations)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... With its purchase of 27-year-old Book Haven in New Haven, Conn., last week, Labyrinth Books, a 7,200-sq.-ft. scholarly bookstore near Columbia University, is replicating its concept of an academic bookstore, or what co-owner Cliff Simms calls...

Regional endings: Far West.(distribution daybook)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... In yet another sign of the difficulties faced by regional wholesalers, 35-year-old Far West Book Service Inc. in Portland, Ore., shut its doors earlier this month. During the past year, St. Louis, Mo.-based Booksource closed its retail division...

Careful growth.(distribution daybook)(Wilson and Associates)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Size may matter more for wholesalers than distributors. Certainly, small can still be beautiful when it comes to distribution clients. Four-year-old Wilson & Associates in Alvin, Tex., which started with one client in 2001, has grown...

Aperture to D.A.P.(distribution daybook)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... With its move to Chelsea completed earlier this month, 52-year-old Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fine photography, is continuing to reinvent itself by focusing on its publishing program. After 20 years with Farrar,...

The distribution business continues to be wracked with graphic shifts.(Short Takes)(Public Square Books to distribute spanish editions of Frank Miller's Sin City series)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... The distribution business continues to be wracked with graphic shifts. Public Square Books will distribute a Spanish-language edition Frank Miller's seven-book Sin City series, which has long been a mainstay of Dark Horse's backlist in English"...

In the U.S., Diamond Book Distributors continues to shine with even more clients, including two new publishers, year-old Infinity Studios, which specializes in manga from Korea and Japan, and newly established Best Sellers Illustrated, which will launch in May with a graphic novel based on H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... In the U.S., Diamond Book Distributors continues to shine with even more clients, including two new publishers, year-old Infinity Studios, which specializes in manga from Korea and Japan, and newly established Best Sellers Illustrated, which...

Star turns on audio: celebrities tell--and narrate--their tales.(audio)
April 4, 2005... As print publishers capitalize on an appetite for memoirs that is turning books by celebrities both notorious (Jose Canseco) and revered (Bob Dylan) into bestsellers, audio publishers are increasingly taking the fixation with fame even further...

Hear's to your health.(audio)(Redwood Audiobooks and STI Certified Products launches HealthText Audio )(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Redwood Audiobooks and compact disk company STI Certified Products are launching HealthText Audio, a new audiobook series focused on health and wellness topics to be copublished by the companies. Audio titles in the new line will be abridged...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Audiobook)
April 4, 2005... THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY: The Tertiary Phase DOUGLAS ADAMS, PERFORMED BY THE AUTHOR, SIMON JONES, GEOFFREY McGIVERN ET AL. Audio Partners, three CDs, 3 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 1-57270-469-1 * American readers may not be aware that...

Drama City.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... DRAMA CITY GEORGE PELECANOS, READ BY CHAD COLEMAN. Time Warner AudioBooks, abridged, five CDs, 6 hrs., $31.98 ISBN 1-58621-728-3 One of the finest writers in crime fiction today, Pelecanos once again delivers a moving story of life, death...

The Illuminator.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... THE ILLUMINATOR BRENDA RICKMAN VANTREASE, READ BY SIMON JONES. Audio Renaissance, abridged, five CDs, 6 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 1-59397-596-1 Narrator Jones approaches this mesmerizing tale of medieval England with a dignity more befitting...

Vanishing Acts.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... VANISHING ACTS JODI PICOULT, READ BY JONATHAN DAVIS, JULIA GIBSON, JIM JENNER, ROBERT RAMIREZ AND SHARON WASHINGTON. Recorded Books, unabridged, 14 CDs, 16.5 hrs., $33.99 ISBN 1-4193-2014-9 Each of the five narrators in this excellent...

Strange Affair.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... STRANGE AFFAIR PETER ROBINSON, READ BY SIMON PREBBLE. Harper Audio, abridged, five CDs, 6 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 0-06-076333-7 * In this artful abridgement of Inspector Alan Banks's 15th series appearance, things get personal for the Yorkshire...

Hidden River.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... HIDDEN RIVER ADRIAN MCKINTY, READ BY GERARD DOYLE. Blackstone Audiobooks, unabridged, 10 CDs, 12.5 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 0-7861-8291-1 Doyle's reading of McKinty's third novel (after Dead I May Well Be) seems awkward initially. The...

By Myself and Then Some.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... BY MYSELF AND THEN SOME LAUREN BACALL, READ BY THE AUTHOR. Harper Audio, abridged, six CDs, 7 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 0-06-083530-3 Bacall's 1979 National Book Award-winning memoir, By Myself,, has been reissued with an 80-page "And Then Some"...

The Money Book for The Young, Fabulous & Broke.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... THE MONEY BOOK FOR THE YOUNG, FABULOUS & BROKE SUZE ORMAN, READ BY THE AUTHOR. Penguin Audio, abridged, five CDs, 6 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 0-14-305736-7 No narrator, no matter how skilled, could sell the advice of personal finance guru Orman as...

Electric Universe: the Shocking True Story of Electricity.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
April 4, 2005... ELECTRIC UNIVERSE: The Shocking True Story of Electricity DAVID BODANIS, READ BY ADAM LEVY. Random House Audio, abridged, four CDs, 5 hrs., $27.50 ISBN 0-7393-1325-8 Levy delivers a smart, crisp performance of Bodanis's enjoyable survey of...

Audio bestsellers.(Bibliography)
April 4, 2005... PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Available online the Friday before issue date at: www.publishersweekly.com Audio Bestsellers Fiction 1 Honeymoon (unabr. CD). James Patterson. Read by Campbell Scott and Hope Davis. Time...

What's your niche? Five children's publishers have identified specific needs, and are targeting those markets.(children's books)
April 4, 2005... In some publishing ventures it's all about finding your forte and hitting your stride. This is surely the case with a number of small children's houses that have established solid reputations for specialized lists that serve a specific...

The quills primer: a new set of book awards will pair a populist sensibility with Hollywood-style glitz and become the first literary prizes to reflect the tastes of the group that matters most in publishing--readers.
April 4, 2005... The Philosophy The Quills, an initiative sponsored by Reed Business Information (PW's parent company), is designed to be an industry-qualified "consumers choice" awards program for books, honoring the current titles readers deem most...

Plan nine from outer space: a Southern vampire named Bill, a mega-movie prequel, a comic book tie-in--nine hot books from the SF/fantasy category's major publishers.
April 4, 2005... When PW asked nine key publishers to pick their strongest book coming out this year, we wondered if there would there be similarities or connections among them, or would each be sui generis. The answer is yes to both. Not surprisingly, fantasy...

A hobbit takeover?
April 4, 2005... THE SWORD MAY not be mightier than the pen, but lately it seems to be more than holding its own against the laser pistol. As tales of spaceports and cybernetics give way to stories of witchcraft and wizardry, the question might well be asked:...

War of the words.(Retailers name the science fiction books they always stock)
April 4, 2005... Ironically, the future-focused SF category relies heavily on the past for sales--backlist classics claim large swaths of shelf space in both specialty and general bookstores. In an effort to discover the must-haves, PW asked several retailers...

Clubbing @ 52.(Bookspan's Science Fiction Book Club)
April 4, 2005... "Science fiction has always been a field that looks backward as it looks forward," says Andrew Wheeler, senior editor of Bookspan's Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC). Although he was talking specifically about new books that refer back to other...

The Dark Hills Divide.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... What is it? Book 1 in The Land Of Elyon trilogy by Patrick Carman (Scholastic/Orchard, Jan.) First printing: 100,000 Amount paid: $225,000 for the trilogy Plot: A 12-year old girl longs to escape from within the walls built around...

Wolf Brother.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... What is it? Book 1 in The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, a six-book series by Michelle Paver (HarperCollins, Feb.) First printing: 100,000 Amount paid: 2 million [pounds sterling] in the U.K.; seven figures in the U.S. Plot: Set...

The Cry of the Icemark.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... What is it: Book 1 in a trilogy by Stuart Hill (Scholatic/Chicken House, Apr.) First printing: 50,000 Amount paid: "A very modest few thousand pounds," according to publisher Barry Cunningham. Plot: A princess unites animals and...

Sue Monk Kidd: Monk Kidd's Monk.(Interview)(Biography)
April 4, 2005... It started with a chair. Sue Monk Kidd, the unassuming author of the bestselling The Secret Life of Bees, was struck by the image of a chair a friend of hers had seen in an old church in England. It had a mermaid carved into it. "I was...

The Icarus Girl.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE ICARUS GIRL HELEN OYEYEMI. Doubleday/Talese, $23.95 (352p) ISBN 0-385-51383-6 The story of a troubled eight-year-old haunted and ultimately possessed by family secrets, this spooky debut novel from a 20-year-old Nigerian-born Cambridge...

The Writing on the Wall.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE WRITING ON THE WALL LYNNE SHARON SCHWARTZ. Counterpoint, $24 (304p) ISBN 1-58243-299-6 The aftermath of the World Trade Center attack provides a traumatic backdrop to Schwartz's latest novel (after In the Family Way), an intellectually...

The Summer We Got Saved.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE SUMMER WE GOT SAVED PAT CUNNINGHAM DEVOTO. Warner, $23.95 (416p) ISBN 0-446-57696-4 The dawn of integration challenges the Southern smalltown conventions of Bainbridge, Ala., bringing unexpected epiphanies to a cast of loosely...

Hot Sauce.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... HOT SAUCE SCOTT POMFRET AND SCOTT WHITTIER. Warner, $12.95 paper (256p) ISBN 0-446-69431-2 Pomfret and Whittier's entertaining, effervescent novel follows two Boston men through the pleasures and pitfalls of love. Rich, "obscenely...

The Closers.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE CLOSERS MICHAEL CONNELLY. Little, Brown, $26.95 (400p) ISBN 0-316-73494-2 * LAPD detective Harry Bosch, hero of last year's The Narrows and other Connelly thrillers, is back on the force after a two-year retirement. Assigned to the...

All American Boy.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... ALL AMERICAN BOY WILLIAM J. MANN. Kensington, $24 (352p) ISBN 0-7582-0328-4 Mann (Where the Boys Are) shifts gears from party-boy frivolity to the tragic consequences of buried family secrets in his most complex novel to date. Back home in...

The Power of the Dog.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE POWER OF THE DOG DON WINSLOW. Knopf $25.95 (536p) ISBN 0-375-40538-0 The war on drugs is powerfully dramatized in Winslow's ambitious, dense and gritty latest (after 1999's California Fire and Life). Art Keller is a brilliant DEA agent...

A Long Way Down.(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... A LONG WAY DOWN Nick Hornby. Riverhead, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 1-57322-302-6 * If Camus had written a grown-up version of The Breakfast Club, the result might have had more than a little in common with Hornby's grimly comic, oddly moving...

Last Call For Blackford Oakes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... LAST CALL FOR BLACKFORD OAKES WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. Harcourt, $25 (368p) ISBN 0-15-101085-4 Master spy Blackford Oakes hies to Russia to thwart yet another assassination plot against Soviet Communist Party chief Mikhail Gorbachev in...

People I Wanted to Be.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... PEOPLE I WANTED TO BE GINA OCHSNER.L Houghton Mifflin/Mariner, $12 paper (192p) ISBN 0-618-56372-5 * In this offbeat, affecting follow-up to her debut collection, The Necessary Grace to Fall, Ochsner assembles a host of oddballs whose...

Raymond + Hannah: a Love Story.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... RAYMOND + HANNAH: A Love Story STEPHEN MARCHE. Harcourt/Harvest, $14 paper (224p) ISBN 0-15-603257-0 In his startling debut, Marche offers up a rare hybrid: the page-turner prose poem. Raymond and Hannah meet at a party in Toronto, and...

The Discontinuity of Small Things.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE DISCONTINUITY OF SMALL THINGS KEVIN HAWORTH. Quality Words in Print (www.qwipbooks.com), $23.95 (240p) ISBN 0-9713160-4-X Nazi-occupied Denmark provides a tumultuous backdrop for this thoroughly imagined debut that chronicles a chapter...

The Sad Truth about Happiness.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE SAD TRUTH ABOUT HAPPINESS ANNA GIARDINI. HarperCollins/Fourth Estate, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 0-06-074176-7 This charming though overwritten debut from novelist Carol Shields's eldest daughter hinges on the sympathetic protagonist's...

Other Electricities: Stories.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... OTHER ELECTRICITIES: Stories ANDER MONSON. Sarabande, $14.95 paper (192p) ISBN 1-932511-15-6 * Monson's inventive collection illuminates the barren landscape of Michigan's snowbound Upper Peninsula with a glittering mosaic of short...

The Cripple and His Talismans.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE CRIPPLE AND HIS TALISMANS ANOSH IRANI. Algonquin, $22.95 (256p) ISBN 1-56512-456-1 An unnamed narrator searches for his missing arm in a Bombay marked by odd magic and peopled by surreal prophets in Irani's lush debut novel. The...

Tokyo Cancelled.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... TOKYO CANCELLED RANA DASGUPTA. Grove/Black Cat, $13 paper (400p) ISBN 0-8021-7009-9 Dasgupta spins a self-consciously modern tapestry of freewheeling fantasies and subverted fairy tales with his ambitious first book. When a severe blizzard...

Chuck Dugan Is AWOL: a Novel with Maps.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... CHUCK DUGAN IS AWOL: A Novel with Maps ERIC CHASE ANDERSON. Chronicle, $19.95 (224p) ISBN 0-8118-3920-6 Anderson (brother of film director Wes Anderson) debuts with a whimsical little tale, which, though billed as fiction for grownups,...

Genevieve.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... GENEVIEVE ERIC JEROME DICKEY. Dutton, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 0-525-94878-3 Bestseller Dickey (Drive Me Crazy) offers more sex-drenched melodrama with an instantly engrossing story about a couple whose marriage is tested by secrets both...

So Fly.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... SO FLY GISELLE ZADO WASFIE. St. Martin's/ Griffin, $12.95 paper (240p) ISBN 0-31233325-0 When plucky, ambitious Sophie graduates from college in 1998, all she knows is that she loves writing and she digs music. So she hightails it to New...

Dirty Blonde and Half Cuban.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... DIRTY BLONDE AND HALF CUBAN LISA WIXON. HarperCollins/Rayo, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 0-06-072174-X In search of her Cuban roots in modern-day Havana, American Alysia Briggs reinvents herself in Wixon's frank, fearless novel, based on her...

Natives and Exotics.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... NATIVES AND EXOTICS JANE ALISON. Harcourt, $23 (256p) ISBN 0-15-101201-6 Generations of an Australian family are linked across time and space by their relationships to a changing world and a common search for a true home in a tender,...

He Drown She in the Sea.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... HE DROWN SHE IN THE SEA SHANI MOOTOO. Grove, $23 (320p) ISBN 0-8021-1798-8 The fictional island of Guanagaspar is again Mootoo's primary setting in his second novel, and, like Cereus Blooms at Night, the story is rich in the patois and...

The Italian Secretary: a Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes.(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE ITALIAN SECRETARY: A Further Adventure of Sherlock Holmes CALEB CARR, AFTERWORD BY JON LELLENBERG. Carroll & Graf, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 0-7867-1548-0 Writing a Sherlock Holmes tale is, for popular writers, equivalent to playing Hamlet...

The Night Garden.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 4, 2005... THE NIGHT GARDEN PAMELA HOLM. MacAdam/Cage, $23 (230p) ISBN 1-59692-118-8 Toughing it out in San Francisco, single mother Dawn and her nine-year-old daughter, Jewel, prove a sympathetic pair in Holm's fresh first novel (after her memoir...