Publishers Weekly articles from August 2011

Publishers Weekly archives from August 2011

Hangover town.(Pick of the week)(Broken Irish )(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * Broken Irish Edward J. Delaney. Turtle Point (Consortium, dist.), $18.50 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-933527-50-5 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Delaney sets his new novel (after Warp & Weft) in South Boston, Mass., where a wonderfully...

Books-a-million at the crossroads: the new #2 bookstore chain looks to step up.(News)
August 29, 2011... At no time in its history has the opportunity and danger been greater for Books-A-Million. Since Borders announced it was liquidating, BAM has moved aggressively to take over some of the failed chain's locations, betting that despite the erosion...

Borders sales rise as inventory shrinks.(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... With its going-out-of-business sales kicking in over the last 10 days of July, revenue at Borders Group hit $152.2 million in the June 26-July 30 period. In June revenue at the chain was $90.1 million. The retailer began its liquidation sales...

'Shack' author signs with Hachette.(Paul Young's The Shack and Hachette Book Group)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack, has signed for a new novel with Hachette Book Group's Nashville division, announced Rolf Zettersten, senior v-p of Hachette's FaithWords and Center Street imprints, who acquired the book. Young was...

Holt names editor-in-chief.(Henry Holt's Gillian Blake )(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Gillian Blake has been named editor-in-chief at Henry Holt. Blake, who will be starting on September 1, has been at Holt since 2009 and has worked with, among others, Rob Lowe (editing his recent bestseller for the division), and William Boyd....

New name, new model at BenchPrep.(E-textbooks)
August 29, 2011... Previously known as Watermelon Express, the test prep and educational app developer has a new name, BenchPrep, and has rebranded itself as a firm offering interactive learning programs that can be used on any device. Launched in 2009 by...

Krauss closes double at Rodale.(Deals)(Rodale Inc.'s Pare Krauss)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Pare Krauss, publishing director and v-p at Rodale, bought North American rights to a new book by Dr. Pamela Peeke called Unhooked: Trick Your Brain and Free Your Mind from Food Obsessions, Addictions and Overeating. Andrea Barzvi at ICM...

Mlynowski looks for happy endings with scholastic.(Deals)(Sarah Mlynowski)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sarah Mlynowski, author of the YA series Magic in Manhattan, closed a four-book deal for a new middle-grade series called Whatever After. Agent Laura Dail sold world English rights to AnnMarie Anderson at Scholastic;...

Doubleday/Talese nabs 'Cousins'.(Deals)(Nan A. Talese, Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer's First Cousins)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Ronit Feldman at Doubleday/Nan A. Talese bought North American rights to Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer's First Cousins, an examination of the enduring relationship and tense rivalry between Eleanor and Alice Roosevelt. Alice, whose married name...

Brandon Proia at PublicAffairs took world English rights to K. Eric Drexler's Radical Abundance, a technology book about nanoscale engineering.(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Brandon Proia at PublicAffairs took world English rights to K. Eric Drexler's Radical Abundance, a technology book about nanoscale engineering. Drexler has written extensively for academia on the subject of nanotechnology; for a general...

Tamara Island Stone's debut YA novel Mobius, which we reported sold to Disney-Hyperion for six figures in March, is headed to the small screen.(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Tamara Island Stone's debut YA novel Mobius, which we reported sold to Disney-Hyperion for six figures in March, is headed to the small screen. Michelle Weiner at CAA sold dramatic rights to the book, about a 16-year-old girl who meets a...

Hudson jumps on Borders's airport space.(Hudson News )(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... Hudson News has opened two stores in former Borders airport locations in the Baltimore-Washington International Airport just four days after Borders vacated the space. Last month, Hudson converted the Borders store at McCarran International...

S&S to distribute kindle bestseller.(Simon & Schuster and John Locke)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... John Locke, the first self-published author to sell over one million copies of his books in the Kindle Store, has struck a distribution deal with Simon & Schuster. The deal, which was negotiated by agent Jane Dystel, is an exclusive...

With the freelance settlement rejected, what's next?(Starting Over)(copyright infringement of publishers with the works of freelance writers by licensing or republishing articles in electronic databases without permission or compensation)
August 29, 2011... On August 17, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals sent the parties in the long-running class action suit known shorthand as Freelance back to the drawing board, rejecting an $18 million settlement struck in 2005. The case stems from the central...

Levitt retires.(Jim Levitt )(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... After 43 years with PW, Jim Levitt has announced his retirement as international sales director. For 28 years, Levitt represented PW in the West and then "retired" to do only international sales, an area he focused on for the past 15 years. Some...

Name change for MBA.(Midwest Booksellers Association)(Brief article)
August 29, 2011... In advance of its fall trade show, the Midwest Booksellers Association has changed its name to Midwest Independent Booksellers Association, or MIBA. This is the second new moniker for the association, once known as the Upper Midwest Booksellers...

Tome raiders.(Hot Topic)(recommended readings)(Recommended readings)
August 29, 2011... Tome Raiders If heft is what you're looking for--as well as something that can do double duty keeping doors ajar--you'll have a few literary options this fall. Whether you're in the market for revisionist history or alternate reality, you'll be...

Decatur book festival grows up.(Celebrating)
August 29, 2011... In its sixth year, the Decatur (Ga.) Book Festival is bigger than ever, but also running more smoothly than ever--at least, that's how it seems just days ahead of the September 2 keynote address that kicks off two very full days of readings,...

Correction.(News)(Correction notice)
August 29, 2011... In our roundup of 9/11 books last week, the description for Arab Detroit 9/11 was unaccountably missing and one of the author's names misspelled. Here is the complete listing. WAYNE STATE UNIV./ GREAT LAKES Arab Detroit 9/11: Life In the...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Goodkind is something of a Renaissance man, having pursued a career in marine and wildlife art, been a cabinet maker, and done restoration work on rare artifacts worldwide. With 250,000 copies in print, his latest opus...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After sounding the alarm in 2009's Aftershock, the three authors continue to warn in this revised and updated edition about a coming global financial meltdown, offering advice on protecting ourselves and our...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Move over, Stephanie Plum, as that notable Jersey girl meets a Massachusetts girl. Evanovich's new series features Diesel, a "mysterious fellow with unusual talents" who joins forces with local baker Lizzie Tucker, who...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "As he moved his men across the broken, streamcrossed country, past immense herds of buffalo and prairie-dog towns that stretched to the horizon, Colonel Mackenzie did not have a clear idea of what he was doing, where...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The audio version of Kathryn Stockett's bestselling The Help--available from Penguin Audio--received a rave review from PW in 2009 and won numerous Audie Awards in 2010. A feature film based on the book is in theaters...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "He woke in total darkness. He thought: This is death. Then he felt the water still on him, the heavy dropping weight of the plane around him. Inexplicably, the wires were gone, as was the raft. He was floating inside...

Tracking 20 years: the bookstore chain scene has changed dramatically in two decades.(RETAIL NATION)
August 29, 2011... The bookstore chain landscape has undergone seismic shifts over the past 20 years and will enter the fall with approximately 1,100 fewer stores than dotted the country in 1991. Just as it is today, Barnes & Noble was the country's largest...

Beyond that lady detective.(African Crime Fiction)
August 29, 2011... FOR MOST READERS, African crime fiction begins and ends with Alexander McCall Smith. His wonderful, internationally bestselling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which debuted in the U.S. in 1998, presents localized if significant problems...

Top 20 indies: the fall titles from independent and university presses that show big promise.(Independent & University Presses)
August 29, 2011... Despite many stores cutting back on hardcover fiction as e-books continue to erode print sales, booksellers have high expectations for the fall. "This season I'm very optimistic that there are a lot of books people will want to own," says Jason...

Fall for film.(Movie Tie-ins)
August 29, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Clooney, and Muppets, and Rum, oh my! While there's always something for everyone at the movies, the coming four months appear to hold even more "something"--celebrated swashbucklers buckle anew; Shakespeare's canon is...

Jamil Ahmad: treasure chest.(Author Profile)(Brief biography)
August 29, 2011... Jamil Ahmad, born in 1931 in Punjab, had never heard that Vladimir Nabokov was twice caught on his way to the incinerator with the manuscript of Lolita. Both times, his wife, Vera, intercepted him. With a deeper understanding of this anecdote...

Disappearing act: Tom Perrotta.(Author Profile)(Interview)
August 29, 2011... Tom Perrotta rules suburbia. It's been the backdrop for all of his books, including his new novel, The Leftovers (St. Martin's, Sept.) even while he explains that he never made a decision to write about it. "It just so happened that for most...

Rain Falls Like Mercy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * Rain Falls Like Mercy Jack Todd. Touchstone, $25 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4165-9851-0 The powerful concluding volume of Todd's trilogy about the Paint family (after Sun Going Down and Come Again No More) follows the clan from 1941 to 1949 as...

Headstone.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Headstone Ken Bruen. Grove Atlantic/Mysterious, $24 (240p) ISBN 978-0-8021-2600-9 Irish author Bruen's hard-hitting ninth Jack Taylor novel (after The Devil) finds the Galway PI coping with alcoholism, a permanent limp, hearing loss, and...

The Very Picture of You.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Very Picture of You Isabel Wolff. Random, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-553-80784-4 Gabriella "Ella" Graham is a portrait artist in her mid-30s, living in present-day London, whose dedication to her artwork precludes her developing personal...

Letters from an Unknown Woman.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * Letters from an Unknown Woman Gerard Woodward. Arcade, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-61145-312-6 Woodward's brilliant exploration of ordinary lives caught in extraordinary circumstances showcases an imaginative wit, pointed insight, and a...

The Stranger's Child.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Stranger's Child Alan Hollinghurst. Knopf, $27.95 (464p) ISBN 978-0-307-27276-8 Hollinghurst, author of the Man Booker Prize-winning The Line of Beauty, published seven years ago, stakes his claim for Most Puckishly Bemused English...

On Loving Josiah.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... On Loving Josiah Olivia Fane. Maia (Dufour, dist.), $18.95 trade paper (316p) ISBN 978-1-906413-79-8 Growing up in Cambridge, England, protagonist Josiah Horatio Nelson has the cards stacked against him. Though his parents (who met in a...

River of Smoke.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... River of Smoke Amitav Ghosh. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28 (528p) ISBN 978-0-374-17423-1 Find a story line--there are a number of them--in the second installment of Ghosh's Ibis trilogy (after the Booker Prize-shortlisted Sea of Poppies)...

God Bless America.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... God Bless America Steve Almond. Lookout (lookout.org), $17.95 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-9845922-3-4 Almond (My Life in Heavy Metal) hears America singing, and the country is way off-key, at least in this collection of 13 irony-laden...

Ballistic.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Ballistic Mark Greaney. Berkley, $15 trade paper (480p) ISBN 978-0-425-24408-1 Greaney once again pumps new life into familiar thriller conventions in his third Gray Man novel starring ex-CIA agent Courtland Gentry (after On Target)....

Shadow Traffic.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Shadow Traffic Richard Burgin. Johns Hopkins Univ., $30 (280p) ISBN 978-1-4214-0273-4 Burgin (The Conference on Beautiful Moments) taps into humanity at its weakest in his seventh collection of darkly captivating stories. Gritty realistic...

PW talks with Ismet Prcic: immigrant song.(Q&A)(Interview)
August 29, 2011... Ismet Prcic talks truth in fiction, immigrant literature, and what he learned from Aleksandar Hemon, in his debut novel, Shards (Reviews, Aug. 8). Do you think readers will assume all the Ismets in the novel are you? I hate books that are...

Lyric Novella.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Lyric Novella Annemarie Schwarzenbach, trans. from the German by Lucy Renner Jones, afterword by Roger Perret. Seagull (Univ. of Chicago, dist.), $15 trade paper (164p) ISBN 978-0-85742-016-9 After its initial publication in Germany in 1933,...

Dukla.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Dukla Andrzej Stasiuk, trans. from the Polish by Bill Johnston. Dalkey Archive, $13.95 trade paper (200p) ISBN 978-1-56478-687-6 Character is plot in this unusual collection (first published in Poland in 1999) from Stasiuk, the author...

Burned.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Burned Thomas Enger, trans. from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund. Atria, $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-4516-1645-3 In Enger's plodding crime thriller debut, investigative reporter Henning Juul returns to work two years after an...

Silenced.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Silenced Kia DuPree. Grand Central, $13.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-446-54774-1 In Dupree's unflinching depiction of life in inner-city Washington, D.C., 30-year-old Nicola "Cola" Hampton struggles to keep her family together. Told...

Cemetery Girl.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Cemetery Girl David Bell. NAL, $14 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-451-23467-4 Set in a small Ohio college town, Bell's suspenseful, disquieting debut thriller gets off to a strong start. The disappearance of 12-year-old Caitlin Stuart, last...

The Rape of the Muse.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Rape of the Muse Michael Stein. Permanent, $28 (206p) ISBN 978-1-57962-2234 A comic drama of artist friends treating each other badly, and sometimes well, Stein's fifth novel (after In the Age of Love) is far less histrionic than its...

The Dark at the End: A Repairman Jack Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Dark at the End: A Repairman Jack Novel F. Paul Wilson. Tor, $25.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2283-8 More than 30 years in the planning, Wilson's 15th and final novel (after Fatal Error) of urban mercenary Repairman Jack and his role in...

Everything We Ever Wanted.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Everything We Ever Wanted Sara Shepard. Harper, $14.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-208006-6 YA author Shepard (Pretty Little Liars) aims for adult readers with this expertly tendered novel of family dysfunction set in moneyed Main...

The Goat Woman of Largo Bay.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Goat Woman of Largo Bay Gillian Royes. Atria, $15 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-4516-2741-1 Journalism teacher Royes (Sexcess: The New Gender Roles at Work) makes her fiction debut with this disappointing first in a suspense series set...

The Prague Cemetery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Prague Cemetery Umberto Eco, trans. from the Italian by Richard Dixon. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27 (464p) ISBN 978-0-547-57753-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Eco's latest takes as its focal point the creation of the Protocols of the...

Everything Happens Today.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Everything Happens Today Jesse Browner. Europa (Penguin, dist.), $15 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-60945-051-9 Following The Uncertain Hour, Browner's latest tracks the emotional peregrinations of precocious Wes (who describes himself as a...

Robert Ludlum's The Ares Decision: A Covert-One Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Robert Ludlum's The Ares Decision: A Covert-One Novel Kyle Mills. Grand Central, $27.99 (448p) ISBN 978-0-446-69908-2 The action never flags in the eighth en try in the Covert-One series (The Arctic Event, etc.), based on a concept created...

The Train of Small Mercies.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Train of Small Mercies David Rowell. Putnam, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-399-15728-8 Set in June 1968, Rowell's first novel revolves around the solemn train journey that brought the body of slain Sen. Robert Kennedy from Penn Station to...

1Q84.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * 1Q84 Haruki Murakami. Knopf, $30 (928p) ISBN 978-0-307-59331-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The massive new novel from international sensation Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running) sold out in his native Japan, where it was...

American Boy.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... American Boy Larry Watson. Milkweed (PGW, dist.), $24 (224p) ISBN 978-1-57131-078-1 Watson's new novel about a young man's coming-of-age in rural Minnesota during the early '60s never veers off course. Working-class narrator Matthew Garth...

Phobos: Mayan Fear.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Phobos: Mayan Fear Steve Alten. Tor, $24.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7653-3033-8 In Alten's messy third Domain thriller (after Resurrection), a handful of genetically selected heroes, products of alien intervention, struggle to save humanity from...

Reclaiming Lily.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Reclaiming Lily Patti Lacy. Bethany House, $14.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0941-3 Texans Gloria and Andrew Powell adopt a Chinese girl, Lily (whom they rename Joy), who grows into a rebellious teenager. Meanwhile, Lily's older...

Attracted to Fire.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Attracted to Fire DiAnn Mills. Tyndale, $12.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4143-4864-3 Christy winner and prolific author Mills braids together romance and suspense in a compelling narrative about a young woman caught in the crosshairs...

A Perilous Conception.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... A Perilous Conception Larry Karp. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (274p) ISBN 978-1-59058-973-1; $14.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-59058-975-5 The pioneer period of in vitro fertilization forms the backdrop for Karp's promising first in a new...

Holiday heartwarmers.(novels)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Christmas-themed romances. Bring on the mistletoe! A Winter Scandal Candace Camp. Pocket Star, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4516-3950-6 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bestseller Camp (An Affair Without End) launches a Regency trilogy...

Ranchero.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * Ranchero Rick Gavin. Minotaur, $24.99 (272p)ISBN 978-0-312-58318-7 Full of inspired comic hyperbole, Gavin's rollicking debut does for the Mississippi Delta what Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen do for Florida. Former cop Nick Reid works for...

The Betrayal of Trust: A Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Betrayal of Trust: A Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler Mystery Susan Hill. Overlook, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59020-280-7 Quality-of-life issues figure prominently in Hill's thought-provoking sixth procedural featuring Chief Supt....

A Corpse's Nightmare.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... A Corpse's Nightmare Phillip DePoy. Minotaur, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0412-69946-8 Near the start of DePoy's intriguing sixth Fever Devilin novel (after 2008's The Drifter's Wheel), the folklorist wakes up in a Georgia hospital, where he...

Freezing.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Freezing Clea Koff. Severn, $28.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8096-3 Koff's intriguing mystery debut introduces two strong women, forensic anthropologists Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander, who have formed Agency Thirty-two One in Los Angeles to...

Poison, Your Grace: A Simon & Elizabeth Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Poison, Your Grace: A Simon & Elizabeth Mystery Peg Herring. Five Star, $25.95 (294p) ISBN 978-1-4328-2536-2 Simon Maldon, an apothecary's apprentice, earned the trust of the future Elizabeth I in Herring's first mystery, Her Highness'...

The Best American Mystery Stories 2011.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * The Best American Mystery Stories 2011 Edited by Harlan Coben. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Mariner, $14.95 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0447-55396-2 The excellent 15th edition of this "best of" series, edited by mystery maven Otto Penzler,...

Killer Sweet Tooth: A Daphne Martin Cake Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Killer Sweet Tooth: A Daphne Martin Cake Mystery Gayle Trent. S&S/Gallery, $15 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0002-5 At the start of Trent's entertaining third Daphne Martin cake cozy (after 2009's Dead Pan), baker Daphne and her...

Mind over Monsters: A F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad Investigation.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Mind over Monsters: A F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad Investigation Jennifer Harlow. Midnight Ink (www.midnightinkbooks.com), $14.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7387-2667-0 With a wackiness level approaching Saturday morning cartoon territory,...

The Bible Repairman and Other Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Bible Repairman and Other Stories Tim Powers. Tachyon (IPG, dist.), $14.95 trade paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-61696-047-6 Terrible choices face the protagonists of six poignant pieces by historical fantasist Powers (On Stranger Tides). Some...

Dead Mann Walking.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Dead Mann Walking Stefan Petrucha. Roc, $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-0-451-46421-7 Petrucha gets Hessius Mann, zombie PI, off to a promising start in this tale of murder and the undead. Mann was a police detective in the U.S. city of...

Cold Fire.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Cold Fire Kate Elliott. Orbit, $14.99 trade paper (544p) ISBN 978-0-316-08099-6 Elliott's second Spiritwalker novel (after Cold Magic) explores a magical alternate Earth in all its intricate and colorful glory. The city of Adurnam is...

Debris.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Debris Jo Anderton. Angry Robot (Random, dist.), $7.99 mass market (432p) ISBN 978-0-85766-154-8 Anderton's debut impressively combines far-future world-building, conspiracies, and a redemption quest. Elite architect Tanyana manipulates...

The Cold Commands.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Cold Commands Richard K. Morgan. Del Rey, $26 (512p) ISBN 978-0-345-49306-4 Morgan's gory fantasy delves deep into the war-torn world introduced in 2007's The Steel Remains. Three veteran warriors, briefly reunited, split up once more...

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt Caroline Preston. HarperCollins/Ecco, $25.99 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-06-196690-3 The origin story behind this graphic novel-cum-scrapbook, the first illustrated work by Jackie by Josie novelist Preston, might be...

Everybody Dies: A Children's Book for Grownups.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Everybody Dies: A Children's Book for Grownups Ken Tanaka. Maximum Pleasant, $10 trade paper (32p) ISBN 978-0-615-46493-0 A parody in the vein of the classic Japanese children's book Everyone Poops, this slender volume addresses matters...

Bleedout.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Bleedout Mike Kennedy and various. Archaia/Black Label (www.aspcomics.com), $14.95 (104p) ISBN 978-1-936393-18-3 Based on an expansion of the MMO game Crimecraft, this graphic novel spinoff paints a world where thanks to peak oil and an...

Justice.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Justice Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and Doug Braithwaite. DC, $39.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4012-3185-9 Buried in the frenzied action of DC's latest all-star extravaganza is an interesting question: the members of the Justice League of America may...

The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... The Accordion Family: Boomerang Kids, Anxious Parents, and the Private Toll of Global Competition Katherine Newman. Beacon, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8070-0743-3 Newman (The Missing Class) examines the proliferation of "accordion families,"...

Against Thrift: Why Consumer Culture Is Good for the Economy, the Environment, and Your Soul.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Against Thrift: Why Consumer Culture Is Good for the Economy, the Environment, and Your Soul James Livingston. Basic, $27.50 (288p) ISBN 978-0-465-02186-4 Since September 11, Americans have been exhorted to spend more; to do otherwise...

A Team for America: The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... A Team for America: The Army-Navy Game That Rallied a Nation Randy Roberts. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-547-51106-1 Purdue University historian Roberts {Joe Louis: Hard Times Man) uses WWII to establish the context of...

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... * The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War Peter Englund. Knopf, $35 (512p) ISBN 978-0-307-59386-3 In a brilliant feat of retrospective journalism, leading Swedish historian Englund allows 20 individuals during...

Tarnished Victory: Finishing Lincoln's War.(Brief article)(Book review)
August 29, 2011... Tarnished Victory: Finishing Lincoln's War William Marvel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35 (480p) ISBN 978-0-547-42806-2 Pointless bloodshed and moral squalor suffuse this somber, cynical climax to the author's multivolume revisionist...