Publishers Weekly articles from December 2009

Publishers Weekly archives from December 2009

Heir to the throne.(Pick of the week)(Wishing for Tomorrow)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Wishing for Tomorrow Hilary McKay, illus, by Nick Maland. S&S/McElderry, $16.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4424-0169-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Readers may well approach this sequel to Frances Hodgson Burnett's timeless novel, A Little...

Digital rights battle brewing: debate will be centered over worth of older backlist titles.(Foreword)
December 21, 2009... A showdown in the publishing business seems all but inevitable following the letter Random House chairman Markus Dohle mailed to a number of literary agents on December 11, claiming the company has the right to exclusively publish the digital...

Shortcovers now Kobo.(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Shortcovers, the e-bookstore launched less than a year ago by Indigo Books & Music, has been spun off by its parent company and has added C$16 million in financing from Indigo, Borders Group, Instant Fame, and REDgroup Retail Pty....

Rosetta reaches its e-book moment.(The Right Time)(Rosetta Books to publish e-books)
December 21, 2009... The timing of Random House chairman Markus Dohle's December 11 letter to agents renewing the debate about who controls the right to publish the e-book editions of older backlist titles drew attention to another announcement: that bestselling...

Scholastic up.(Scholastic revenues rose)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Total revenue at Scholastic rose 1% in the second quarter ended November 30, to $660.1 million. Operating income slipped to $105.6 million from $108.0 million, but net income in the quarter rose to $55.5 million from $43.1 million. Operating...

Macmillan outlines e-book plans.(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... In 2010, Macmillan will try several different approaches to releasing e-book editions of frontlist titles. Some bestsellers will be released simultaneously with enhanced e-books priced close to the hardcover price and available for three months...

Women cutting book purchases.(Trends)
December 21, 2009... Through the first nine months of 2009, 64% of all book buyers said the bad economy had a negative impact on their book purchases, with 68% of women and 57% of men saying the economy has affected their book buying. Nearly one-third of those who...

Edelweiss to offer NetGalley.(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Above the Treeline and Firebrand Technologies will begin integrating NetGalley services into ATL's Edelweiss digital catalogues, starting in the second quarter of 2010. As a result, publishers will be able to provide egalleys to Edelweiss's 700...

Paulsen gets imprint.(Nancy Paulsen Books)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Nancy Paulsen, Putnam Books for Young Readers president and publisher, is launching an eponymous imprint, Nancy Paulsen Books, with the first titles landing in 2011. Paulsen, who has led the division for 15 years, plans to publish 12 to 15...

Melville promoted at AMP.(Andrews McMeel Publishing promoted Kirsty Melville as president)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Kirsty Melville has been promoted to the newly created position of president of Andrews McMeel Publishing's book division effective January 1. Melville is currently executive v-p and publisher.

Meat market.(Deals)(Clarkson Potter acquired world rights of Joshua and Jessica Applestone's untitled book)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Clarkson Potter has taken world rights to a currently untitled book by Joshua and Jessica Applestone, owners of Fleisher's, the upstate New York butcher shop that has been involved in the "anti-feedlot" meat movement. CP senior editor Rica...

Edible arrangements.(Deals)(Fairbank Literary sold world English rights of the Carl Warner's Food Landscapes )(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Agent Sorche Fairbank, of Cambridge, Mass., Fairbank Literary, sold world English rights to Carl Warner's photography book Food Landscapes in what she described as a "nearly six-figure" deal. David Cashion, at Abrams Image, took the book as part...

Married to the mob.(Deals)(Simon & Schuster acquired world rights of Suzanne Corso's novel, Brooklyn Story)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Mitchell Ivers, v-p and senior editor at Simon & Schusrer's Gallery Books, acquired world rights to screenwriter Suzanne Corso's debut coming-of-age novel, Brooklyn Story. Corso, who's worked in theaters as well as written a number of...

HC revisits Neverland.(Deals)(HarperCollins Children's Books acquires North American rights for Peter Pan novels)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Rosemary Stimola, of Srimola Literary Studio, has closed a six-figure, two-book deal for Jodi Lynn Anderson with HarperCollins Children's Books. Zareen Jaffery, senior editor at HC Children's, took North American rights to Tiger Lily and another...

The great outdoors.(Deals)(Susan Golomb Literary signs world rights for children's picture books with Sierra Club Books)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Terra Chalberg at Susan Golomb Literary closed a three-book, world rights deal for park ranger/author Shelton Johnson with Sierra Club Books. Helen Sweetland at Sierra Club acquired the titles, all children's picture books, one nonfiction. The...

Europa nabs booker nom.(Deals)(Kent Carroll of Europa Editions acquired U.S. rights of James Scudamore's Heliopolis that was nominated for the Man Booker)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Europa Editions publisher Kent Carroll bought U.S. rights to James Scudamore's Heliopolis. The novel, about a Brazilian kid born in a slum and later adopted by a wealthy businessman, was nominated for the Man Booker this year; Scudamore also won...

Cussler suit tossed.(copyright infringement case against Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler )(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii has granted Penguin Group's motion for summary judgment, dismissing a copyright infringement claim filed by Louis Doody against Penguin and authors Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. The finding...

Obituary: Mark Gates.(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... Mark Gates, who was a sales rep for Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Holt from 1993 until his health worsened in 2008, died December 11 of lung cancer. He was 57. PW's publisher's rep of the year in 2006, Gates became involved in the book...

College stores, e-commerce boost B&N.(Quarterly Review)(Barnes and Noble)
December 21, 2009... Barnes & Noble's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the period ended October 31 was its first since the purchase of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers was completed and gives a little more detail on how each...

Dan Brown; lit prize winner.(Selling Abroad)(The Lost Symbol)
December 21, 2009... Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol was at or near the top in a number of major international markets in November. One exception was France, where Symbol has only recently been released and where Three Powerful Women by Marie NDiaye, the 2009 winner of...

Our cover: 'making the ordinary extraordinary': after all the posts on Twitter and after all the passionate discourse both pro and con, what do we take away from the controversy surrounding the photographic image (and the cover line) used to illustrate the African-American feature on the cover of the December 14 issue of Publishers Weekly?(The debate around an image)(Publishers Weekly's magazine cover)
December 21, 2009... We certainly acknowledge the passion and seriousness of the criticism we've received over the past week. Images of black people in general and certainly black women in particular continue to be a charged visual terrain. The sorry legacy of how...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Everybody's doin' it--compiling year-end Best Books lists, that is. PW'S done it, too (our Nov. 2 issue), so we decided to assemble our longest-running fiction and nonfiction rifles. The 2009 champ (drum roll, please)...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] And now for the longest-running titles on our 2009 nonfiction list--all authored, not surprisingly, by noted personalities with a platform. Leading off with a 37-week run is Steve Harvey's Act Like a Lady, Think Like a...

Paper bestsellers/mass market.
December 21, 2009... Author gets education.John Grisham will be the 2010 spring commencement speaker at the University of North Carolina at Chapel to UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp,"John [Grisham] is an engaging speaker who will have a profound message for our...

Paper bestsellers/trade.
December 21, 2009... Another honor--the newly created Times WHSmith Paperback of the Year--was just awarded to Shaffer and Barrows's widely praised novel. On the December 12 Times of London Web site, Alexander McCall Smith said, "It is atmospheric and touching; it...

Children's picture book bestsellers.
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Elf on the Shelf has become a Christmas phenomenon. Self-published in 2005, the book--a $29.95 hardcover packaged with an elf doll--is #1 on B&N. com, and is selling strongly at Borders.com and on Amazon as...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Alex R.ider's eighth adventure, Crocodile Tears, pubbed on November 17, and the series' British author, Anthony Horowitz, came stateside for a 10-day, 13-city tour. He plans to write two more novels starring the...

Flying starts: five fresh children's book talents make their fall 2009 debuts.(Children's Books)(Malinda Lo, Nina LaCour, L.K. Madigan, Lauren Kate and Alex Beard)
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Malinda Lo With Ash, 35-year-old Malinda Lo makes her debut as a novelist--and Cinderella makes her debut as a lesbian. But Ash (Little, Brown, Sept.) remains a PG version of the classic fairy tale. "Even though I...

Kevin Weiss: Author Solutions CEO "wouldn't swap seats with anyone in traditional publishing".(CHANGE MAKERS)(Interview)
December 21, 2009... "I think we're stirring the pot--and the pot needs to be stirred," says Kevin Weiss, CEO of self-publishing giant Author Solutions. It's been an eventful few weeks for Weiss, thanks to the controversy that erupted last month from writers over...

It's mainly Maine at Islandport.(Independent Publishing)(Islandport Press)(Company overview)
December 21, 2009... Tough times may call for creative solutions, but for Islandport Press's founder, Dean Lunt, the decision to forgo a national distributor--or even selling to Ingram or Baker & Taylor--was not all that hard. Before starting the press, which...

Payback: revenge, recoup, reassess.(Personal Finance)(books about the financial crises and financial management)
December 21, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Personal finance and investment issues are still everyday fare as the recession continues to decimate savings and hit bank balances of people at all ages and stages of...

Books mentioned in this feature.(Personal Finance)(Bibliography)
December 21, 2009... On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System by Henry M. Paulson Jr. Business Plus, $28.99, Feb. ISBN 978-0-446-56193-8. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis. Norton, $27.95, Mar....

New books from old: turning classics into comics.(Graphic Adaptations)
December 21, 2009... Graphic novel adaptations of classic and contemporary prose works have surged in the past few years as more publishers explore ways to create book-length comics that can be used to encourage literacy and can also function as legitimate works of...

Why (we) write: a modern Greek tragi-comedy.(Why I Write)(Brief article)
December 21, 2009... LISTEN: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ASKED US TO DO A 3-PAGE ESSAY ON WHY WE WROTE "LOGICOMIX" WHY WE "WROTE IT"? I'VE NO IDEA, I JUST DREW IT! AND I COLORED ZE LITTLE SHAPES! BUT HOW DO THEY KNOW THERE IS A 3-PAGE ANSWER TO THAT? ASSUMING, THAT...

The Birth of Love.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Birth of Love Joanna Kavenna. Metropolitan, $14 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-8050-9154-0 Orange Award-winning (for Inglorious) Kavenna's latest is a complex and expansive narrative about childbirth, encompassing that singular event's...

Kapitoil.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Kapitoil Teddy Wayne. Harper Perennial, $13.99 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-187321-8 Magazine writer Wayne's strong and heartfelt debut novel, set in New York City in the months leading up to the millennium, follows Karim Issar as he...

House Rules.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... House Rules Jodi Picoult. Atria, $28 (544p) ISBN 978-07432-9643-4 Perennial bestseller Picoult (Handle with Care) has a rough time in this Picoult-esque blend of medical and courtroom drama that lacks her usual storytelling finesse....

A Dark Matter.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * A Dark Matter Peter Straub. Doubleday, $26.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-385-51638-9 In this tour de force from bestseller Straub (In the Night Room), four high school friends in 1966 Madison, Wis.--Hootie Bly, Dilly Olson, Jason Boatman, and...

Fantasy in Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Fantasy in Death J.D. Robb. Putnam, $26.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0399-15624-3 Lt. Eve Dallas, a top homicide cop for the New York Police and Security Department (the law enforcement agency for a mid 21st-century New York City), faces one of the...

Last Snow.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Last Snow Eric Van Lustbader. Forge, $25.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-7653-2515-0 Bestseller Lustbader's wordy sequel to First Daughter takes dyslexic Jack McClure, former ATF agent and now adviser to recently elected U.S. president Edward...

Black Hills.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Black Hills Dan Simmons. Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, $25.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-316-00698-9 Hugo-winner Simmons, the author of such acclaimed space operas as Hyperion and Olympos as well as Drood, an intriguing rift on Dickens's...

Point Omega.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Point Omega Don DeLillo. Scribner, $24 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4391-6995-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's hardly a new experience to emerge from a Don DeLillo novel feeling faintly disturbed and disoriented. This is both a charm and a curse of...

Ordinary Thunderstorms.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Ordinary Thunderstorms William Boyd. Harper, $26.99 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-187674-5 Whitbread-winner Boyd (A Good Man in Africa) ventures into thriller territory with this fast-paced Hitchcockian wrongman whodunit. While in London...

Split Image.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Split Image Robert B. Parker. Putnam, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-399-15623-6 Bestseller Parker's enjoyable ninth novel featuring Paradise, Mass., police chief Jesse Stone (after Night and Day), focuses on Stone's deepening connection with...

The Three Weissmans of Westport.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Three Weissmans of Westport Cathleen Schine. Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-0-37429904-0 A geriatric stepfather falls in love with a scheming woman half his age in Schine's Sense and...

The Man from Beijing.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Man from Beijing Henning Mankell, trans. from the Swedish by Laurie Thompson. Knopf, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-307-27186-0 A massacre in the remote Swedish village of Hesjovallen propels this complex, if diffuse, stand-alone...

Three Days Before the Shooting ...(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Three Days Before the Shooting... Ralph Ellison. Modern Library, $50 (1,136p) ISBN 978-0-375-75953-6 The publication of this behemoth compilation of Ellison's efforts toward his never-finished second novel is assuredly an...

Brava, Valentine.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Brava, Valentine Adriana Trigiani. Harper, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-125707-0 Trigiani's sequel to Very Valentine is a sweet second act for shoemaker and designer Valentine Roncalli. Val takes over the New York family-run shoe...

Conspirata.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Conspirata Robert Harris. Simon & Schuster, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-6610-9 In this gripping second installment to his ancient Rome trilogy (after Imperium), bestseller Harris proves once again that politics is an ugly game....

A classic, updated: Cathleen Schine's The Three Weissmans of Westport (reviewed on p. 36) is a little bit 21st-century homage to Sense and Sensibility and a little bit homecoming to her childhood town of Westport, Conn.(Q&A: PW Talks with Cathleen Schine)(Interview)
December 21, 2009... What made you want to write your own version of Sense and Sensibility? I'd finished reading Sense and Sensibility for the millionth time, and I wondered what the modern equivalent of that sudden shift in your life would be. We don't have...

Occupied City.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Occupied City David Peace. Knopf, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 9780-307-26375-9 Set in 1948 and based on a Japanese murder case, Peace's second novel in his Tokyo trilogy (after Tokyo Year Zero) is a tour de force. One afternoon, just after...

The Postmistress.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Postmistress Sarah Blake. Putnam/Amy Einhorn, $25.95' (336p) ISBN 978-0-399-15619-9 Weaving together the stories of three very different women loosely tied to each other, debut novelist Blake takes readers back and forth between...

The Pint Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Pint Man Steve Rushin. Doubleday, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-385-52992-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The first novel from former Sports Illustrated columnist Rushin joins other works of pub fiction, yet it's the wordplay--not the...

One Amazing Thing.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... One Amazing Thing Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Hyperion/Voice, $23.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4013-4099-5 In a soggy treatment of catastrophe and enlightenment, Divakaruni (The Mistress of Spices) traps a group of nine diverse people in the...

The Man from Saigon.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * The Man from Saigon Marti Leimbach. Doubleday/Talese, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-385-52986-0 Leimbach (Dying Young) sets her vivid and powerful new novel in 1967 Vietnam to tell the story of Susan Gifford, a women's magazine writer who...

False Convictions.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... False Convictions Tim Green. Grand Central, $25.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-446-40152-4 A brisk plot with plenty of surprises more than makes up for stock characters in bestseller Green's entertaining third novel featuring Dallas attorney...

As It Was Written.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... As It Was Written Sujatha Hampton. St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-58412-2 Hampton's debut novel is a spectacular, colorful, and way too busy mess. There is the gigantic Mr. Nair and his five daughters (only two of whom...

After the Fire.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... After the Fire Karen Campbell. Hodder & Stoughton (IPG, dist.), $24.95 (480p) ISBN-978-0-340-93561-3 Constable Jamie Worth, a newly qualified Strathclyde firearms officer, views himself as a "John Wayne sharpshooter with a Glasgow...

Brendan.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Brendan Morgan Llywelyn. Forge, $24.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-86099-8 Veteran historical author Llywelyn retells the colorful life story of revered Irish monastic saint Brendan the Navigator in the form of a personal journal, written by...

The Silver Hearted.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Silver Hearted David McConnell. Alyson, $14.95 paper (220p) ISBN 978-1-59350-140-2 McConnell (The Firebrat) delivers an inventive if slightly flat tale of intrigue set in a volatile near future as an unnamed narrator is tasked with...

Roy Bean's Gold.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Roy Bean's Gold W.R. Garwood. Five Star, $25.95 (250p) ISBN 978-1-59414-839-2 Before Judge Roy Bean became infamous as the whiskey-soaked law west of the Pecos, he was just a randy 23-year-old pistolero who chased women and gold in 1849...

Never Breathe a Word: The Collected Stories of Caroline Blackwood.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Never Breathe a Word: The Collected Stories of Caroline Blackwood Caroline Blackwood. Counterpoint, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58243-569-5 A selection of grimly compelling fiction and journalistic pieces by Blackwood (1931-1996), the...

Here Comes Trouble.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Here Comes Trouble Donna Kauffman. Kensington/Brava, $14 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-7582-3133-8 In Kauffman's latest sensual scorcher, middle-aged Kirby Farrell worries that the mild winter may spell disaster for her Vermont ski...

Butterfly Tattoo.( )(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Butterfly Tattoo Deidre Knight. Samhain (www.samhainpublishing.com), $16 paper (288p) ISBN 978-160504-544-3 Making a compelling case for bisexuals who recognize no gender boundaries when it comes to true love, Knight's engrossing...

Mulligan Girl.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Mulligan Girl Rebecca L. Boschee.Avalon, $23.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8034-9992-8 Making a snappy hole-in-one romantic comedy debut, Boschee tracks the mischief a little white lie creates for an Arizona single when she falls in love with a...

Listen.
December 21, 2009... Listen Rene Gutteridge.Tyndale House, $12.99 paper (29 7p) ISBN 978-1-4143-2433-3 Clever novelist Gutteridge (the Storm series) has consistently upped the ante of Christian storytelling by offering her readers intelligent and...

Hunter's Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Hunter's Moon Don Hoesel. Bethany House, $14,99 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0561-3 From the author of the archeological thriller Elisha's Bones comes a story closer to home and family. When struggling author CJ Baxter returns to his...

Union Atlantic.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Union Atlantic Adam Haslett. Doubleday/Talese, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-52447-6 In Haslett's excellent first novel (following Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist short story collection You Are Not a Stranger Here), a titan of...

Fancy Beasts.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Fancy Beasts Alex Lemon. Milkweed (PGW, dist.), $16 (96p) ISBN 978-157131-443-7 Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection...

The Lesser Fields.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Lesser Fields Rob Schlegel. Center for Literary Publishing (Univ. of Colorado, dist.), $15.95 (64p) ISBN 9784-885635-12-9 Schlegel's debut, winner of the 2009 Colorado Prize for Poetry, presents a stark, haunted landscape, as...

If Not Metamorphic.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * If Not Metamorphic Brenda lijima. Ahsahta Press (SPD, dist.), 17.50 (128p) ISBN 978-1-934103-10-4 In Iijima's fourth collection, shifts and spaces on the page animate the messy and glorious process of making meaning. As suggested by...

The Stranger Manual.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Stranger Manual Catie Rosemurgy. Graywolf, $15 (104p) ISBN 978-1-55597-547-0 Rosemurgy's oddball second book is spoken in the voice of a quirky alter-ego named "Miss Peach," who says about herself, "There is a cartoon about...

Rumored Islands.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Rumored Islands Robert Farnsworth. Harbor Mountain (SPD, dist.), $14 (88p) ISBN 978-0-9815560-3-1 More than 20 years after his last book, Farnsworth (Honest Water) returns with poems of wonder and shame, loneliness and "the strange,...

100 Notes on Violence.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... 100 Notes on Violence Julie Carr.Ahsahta (SPD, dist.), $19 (120p) ISBN 978-1-934103-11-1 A sprawling experimental poem in 100 parts, Carr's third collection variously examines the ways violence permeates our daily lives. Part personal...

Plummet.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Plummet Chris Nealon. Edge (SPD, dist.), $14 (72p) ISBN 978-1-890311-29-2 Internationally renowned as a scholar of modern poetry and gay and lesbian writing, Nealon is also a formidably intelligent, decidedly challenging poet. This...

Approaching Ice.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Approaching Ice Elizabeth Bradfield. Persea (Norton, dist.), $15 (112p) ISBN 978-0-89255-355-6 Few books of new poems stick as tightly to one topic as Bradfield's second effort: a long set of poems about polar explorers, from a...

Poems of the Black Object.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Poems of the Black Object Ronaldo V. Wilson. Futurepoem (SPD, dist.), $15 (102p) ISBN 978-0-9822798-0-9 Readers lucky enough to spend time with Wilson's uncommonly varied second book will find achingly self-conscious short prose essays,...

Boris by the Sea.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Boris by the Sea Matvei Yankelevich. Octopus (SPD, dist.), $14 (72p) ISBN 978-0-9801938-2-4 In his second collection of poems, Ugly Duckling Presse founding editor Yankelevich adopts the voice of a kind of brilliant savant. The titular...

Lake Antquity.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Lake Antquity Brandon Downing. Fence (UPNE, dist), $40 (189p) ISBN 978-1-934200-27-8 In this heavily illustrated collection of hyperkinetic text and image collages, Downing--poet, visual and video artist--presents a wild array of...

Hello Sunshine.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Hello Sunshine Ryan Adams. Akashic (Consortium, dist.), $24.95 (280p) ISBN 978-1-933354-95-8; $15.95 ISBN 978-1-933354-95-5 paper Ryan Adams is among his generation's most gifted and important singer/songwriters. Just into his 30s,...

Our Lady of Immaculate Deception.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * Our Lady of Immaculate Deception Nancy Martin, Minotaur, $24.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-57372-0 In this stellar first in a new series, Martin (Murder Melts in Your Mouth and six other Blackbird Sisters mysteries) introduces Roxy...

The Ten-Mile Trials.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... The Ten-Mile Trials Elizabeth Gunn. Severn, $27.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6824-4 Rutherford, Minn., population 100,000, isn't usually a hotbed of crime, but there's more than enough to keep police captain Jake Hines scrambling in Gunn's...

Mexico City Noir.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... Mexico City Noir Edited by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, trans, from the Spanish by Achy Obejas. Akashic, $15.95 paper (250p) ISBN 978-1-933354-90-3 Taibo's introduction, evocatively titled "Snow White vs. Dr. Frankenstein," is more...

City of Dragons: A San Francisco Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 21, 2009... * City of Dragons: A San Francisco Mystery Kelli Stanley. Minotaur, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-60360-1 Set in San Francisco in 1940, Stanley's stunning first in a new series introduces a gutsy, independent heroine who isn't always...