Publishers Weekly articles from December 2011

Publishers Weekly archives from December 2011

Hard life.(Pick of the week)(The Last Warner Woman)(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Last Warner Woman Kei Miller. Coffee House (Consortium, dist.), $16 trade paper (270p) ISBN 978-1-56689-295-7 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Beautifully imaginative and structurally inventive, Miller's second novel (after The Same Earth)...

The Amazon workaround: the best way to blunt the e-tailer's clout is to support a diverse marketplace.(News)
December 19, 2011... Fear that Amazon will come to dominate the bookselling market is nothing new in the publishing industry. But last week, as booksellers continued to decry the company's price check app (which could be used to access prices on booksellers'...

Solid quarter at Scholastic.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Sales rose 3%, to $685.3 million, and net income increased 10.5%, to $82.8 million, in the second quarter ended November 30 at Scholastic. The gain was driven by a more than 30% increase in Scholastic's educational technology and service segment...

October book sales drop.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... After gains in August and September in the wake of Borders's closing sales, bookstore sales fell 6.6% in October, to $886 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Despite the drop in October, bookstore sales for the first 10 months of 2011...

Reader's Digest cuts 150 jobs.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Reader's Digest's latest restructuring eliminated 150 positions across all of its worldwide operations including books. The cuts are part of an effort by RD to refocus on its core "Master Brands." Harold Clarke continues as president and...

Panel examines Canadian school library crisis.(Looking for Solutions)(event hosted by the Ontario Library Association and Canadian Book and Periodical Council)
December 19, 2011... "Crisis or Opportunity? School Libraries in the 21st Century": that was the question for panelists and the audience at an event hosted by the Canadian Book and Periodical Council and Ontario Library Association earlier this month, and the answer...

Hemingway's letters sent to JFK Library.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Over 300 people gathered at Boston's JFK Library for a celebration of Ernest Hemingway "s letters, at which NPR's Scott Simon (far l.) moderated a panel. In addition to Simon, in attendance (l. to r.) were novelist Ward...

Moran steps down as Whitman Publisher.(Josalyn Moran of Albert Whitman and Co.)(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Josalyn Moran, v-p of publishing at Albert Whitman since 2010, is stepping down and will transition into an advisory role, effective January 1, 2012. Moran will be based in St. Louis.

Register of copyrights addresses legislative efforts.(Supporting SOPA?)
December 19, 2011... At a Copyright Clearance Center panel held December 12 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Maria Pallante, the register of copyrights, expressed support for the broad strokes of two copyright bills now before Congress--the Senate's PROTECT IP...

Authors Guild flies in Google case.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... On December 12, attorneys for the Authors Guild filed a motion for class certification, hitting the deadline set by Judge Denny Chin at a September conference on the abandoned Google settlement. The filing could lead to a ruling on whether...

Agency lawsuits consolidated.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Five class action lawsuits aimed at the big six publishers, Amazon, and B&N alleging a price-fixing conspiracy over implementation of the agency model for pricing e-books have been consolidated and will be handled in the Southern District of...

Tobar taps miners.(Deals)(Hector Tobar's nonfiction book about the Chilean miners)(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Sean McDonald at Farrar, Straus & Giroux bought North American rights to a new nonfiction book about the Chilean miners, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hector Tobar. Tobar's current book, the novel The Barbarian Nurseries, was...

Gallery Goes to the Pound, and the Prison, with Luttrell.(Deals)(Gallery Books and Sharron Kahn Luttrell's memoir entitled 'Weekends with Daisy')(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Sorche Fairbank, at Fairbank Literary Representation, closed a six-figure deal with Simon & Schuster's Gallery Books for journalist Sharron Kahn Luttrell's memoir, Weekends with Dais),. Abby Zidle and Jen Bergstrom pre-empted world rights to...

Krokos gets beamed up at Starscape.(Deals)(Dan Krokos)(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... At Tot's YA fantasy/SF imprint, Starscape, Whitney Ross took North American rights, in a two-book deal, to The Planet Thieves and a sequel by Dan Krokos. Suzie Townsend at Nancy Coffey Literary represented Krokos in the deal. (Krokos is also...

Sullivan invades the 'One Percent'.(Deals)("The One Percent: What I Learned from the Richest People in America and What They Can Teach You" by Paul Sullivan)(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Alessandra Bastagli at Free Press bought North American rights to Paul Sullivan's sophomore effort, The One Percent: What I Learned from the Richest People in America and What The)' Can Teach You. The Gernert Company's Erika Storella handled the...

Snyderman, Gurian deliver new med guide.(Deals)(Nancy L. Snyderman and Michael Gurian)(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Nancy L. Snyderman and Michael Gurian sold a new health book, at auction, to Sarah Durand at Atria. Snyderman is the chief medical editor at NBC (and a bestselling author), and Gurian is behind the bestselling books The Wonder of Girls and The...

World Book Night advances.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Last week, World Book Night U.S. announced the 30 titles that "book givers" will be giving away for free on April 23 and also announced that a registration page has been created at www.us.worldbooknight.org, where volunteers can register through...

Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief of Europa Editions, nabbed North American rights to Richard Beard's novel Lazarus Is Dead in a deal brokered by agent Anna Stein on behalf of Lucy Luck at Aitken Alexander Associates Ltd.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Michael Reynolds, editor-in-chief of Europa Editions, nabbed North American rights to Richard Beard's novel Lazarus Is Dead in a deal brokered by agent Anna Stein on behalf of Lucy Luck at Aitken Alexander Associates Ltd. Lazarus was published...

Actress Meredith Eaton (NCIS) and her producing partner, Suzanne Tenner, optioned the dramatic rights to Melanie Benjamin's historical novel The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, which Delacorte published in July 2011.(Brief article)
December 19, 2011... Actress Meredith Eaton (NCIS) and her producing partner, Suzanne Tenner, optioned the dramatic rights to Melanie Benjamin's historical novel The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, which Delacorte published in July 2011. Bill Contardi handled the...

SnapTags push scanning technology forward.(Move Over, QR Codes)
December 19, 2011... In October. PW looked at publishing and QR codes, those little squares that appear on advertisements and look a lot like barcodes. While publishers are still figuring out how best to utilize that technology, they'll have to make room for the...

Jobs bio a global hit.(Selling Abroad)
December 19, 2011... A few days after Amazon announced that the Steve Jobs biography was its top-selling book of 2011 (combined print and e-book sales), the book debuted on bestseller charts around the world, including the three countries highlighted this month....

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.(Table)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Those Pretty Little Liars have racked up some pretty big numbers: five million copies sold since the debut of book #1, Unbelievable, in fall 2006 (PW's review called it "clique lit with a mystery twist"). Author Sara...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.(Statistical table)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cornwell brings Dr. Kay Scarpetta to life for the 19th time, launching Dec. 6 with a trifecta of major TV gigs--ABC's GMA, The View, and Nightline. For the latter, the author demonstrated her expertise in helicopters,...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.(Statistical table)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More on Steve Jobs. As reported in PW Daily--and myriad Web sites--Dec. 12, Isaacson's biography was Amazon's top-selling title this year. Not surprisingly, media interest remains strong. Variety reported that Sony...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.(Statistical table)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MOVIE UPDATE. If you've been to the flicks of late, you've doubtless encountered the ubiquitous Dragon Tattoo trailer. (You might also have noticed that the novel's mass market and trade paper editions have been...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.(Statistical table)
December 19, 2011... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We've previously noted the durability of trade paper bestsellers; for our final 2011 issue we're comparing this week's list with that of Dec. 20, 2010. Larsson's double play, of course, was present last year and...

Flying starts: we pick four novelists and one illustrator who made notable debuts this season.(Children's Books)(Marie Lu, Christopher Silas Neal, Wendy Wunder, Rae Carson and Robison Wells)
December 19, 2011... MARIE LU Neither first-timer nerves nor the Santa Ana winds that brought massive power outages across Southern California could keep Pasadena resident Marie Lu from her very first signing as a published author--at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore...

Google eBooks one year later: a slow rampup so far.(RETAIL NATION)
December 19, 2011... Since its launch last December in partnership with the American Booksellers Association, Google eBooks has yet to capture significant market share. According to the Codex Group's recent "Showrooming" study, while the number of people who read...

Staying afloat in rough waters: in uncertain times, publishers offer a wide variety of financial strategies.(Focus on Personal Finance)
December 19, 2011... The statistics are grim: more than 50% of mortgages in the U.S. are underwater. Unemployment stands at 8.6%, the lowest figure since spring 2009, while outstanding student loan debt will exceed $1 trillion this year, outpacing credit card debt,...

The library alternative: innovation in library services is the key to breaking the impasse with publishers over e-books.(Libraries)
December 19, 2011... IN NOVEMBER, when Penguin abruptly announced it was pulling its frontlist e-books from library lending programs, the move was widely perceived as a response to Amazon--and a warning that, whatever the outcome of this latest struggle over...

Kambri Crews: playing it by ear.(Author Profile)(Biography)
December 19, 2011... Poised, intelligent, and with a quick wit, Kambri Crews comes across as a woman comfortable in her own skin. So comfortable, it's easy to forget that her father, a man she loves, is serving a 20-year sentence in a Texas maximum-security prison...

Temptation.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Temptation Douglas Kennedy. Atria, $16 trade paper (298p) ISBN 978-1-4516-0210-4 Kennedy's riveting new novel charts the changing fortunes of Hollywood screenwriter David Armitage when he crosses paths with wealthy, eccentric, and...

These Days Are Ours.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * These Days Are Ours Michelle Haimoff. Grand Central, $13.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4555-0029-1 Haimoff's engrossing debut, which unfolds in Manhattan soon after 9/11, chronicles rich kid Halley's attempts to make a life and come...

A Love Song for India.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... A Love Song for India Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Counterpoint (PGW, dist.), $26 (224p) ISBN 978-1-58243-792-7 There's a cinematic quality to many of these short stories, not surprising given Jhabvala's illustrious film career: she has written...

Other Waters.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Other Waters Eleni N. Gage. St. Martin's, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-65851-9 Psychiatry resident Maya Das has a white American boyfriend she knows her Indian family will never accept. Living in New York, Maya spends every Thursday night...

Red Plenty.(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Red Plenty Francis Spufford. Graywolf, $16 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-55597-604-0 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Though the intricacies of Soviet central planning may seem an unlikely topic for a work of historical fiction, Spufford succeeds...

The Lost Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Lost Daughter Lucy Ferriss. Berkley, $15 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-425-24556-9 This uneven novel follows a cast of vulnerable characters as they navigate lives littered with the tragic consequences of youthful mistakes. Brooke...

No One.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... No One Gwenaelle Aubry, trans, from the French by Trista Selous. Tin House (PGW, dist.), $12.95 trade paper (160p) ISBN 978-1-935639-22-0 In her first novel to be translated into English, Aubry, a philosopher and writer, examines mental...

Three Weeks in December.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Three Weeks in December Audrey Schulman. Europa, $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-60945-064-9 Deftly weaving the forays of two individuals, separated by a century, into the unknown heart of Africa, Schulman's fourth novel, her first in 11...

Lone Wolf.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Lone Wolf Jodi Picoult. Atria, $28 (448p) ISBN 978-1439-1-0274-9 Picoult returns with two provocative questions: can a human join a wolf pack, and who has the right to make end-of-life decisions? Luke Warren, a vital free spirit, has...

Other People We Married.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Other People We Married Emma Straub. Riverhead, $15 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-59448-606-7 Though fresh and satisfying insights can surface in even the most common terrain, this debut story collection, from the daughter of horror...

The Possibility of You.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Possibility of You Pamela Redmond. S&S/Gallery, $15 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-4516-1642-2 Redmond's latest novel takes place against the backdrop of 20th-century American feminism, following three generations of women...

Into the Free.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Into the Free Julie Cantrell. David C. Cook, $12.99 trade paperback (400p) ISBN 978-0-7814-0424-2 A young girl growing into adolescence confronts family abuse and a dark past in this lyrical debut novel. Millie Reynolds and her mother...

Sixty Acres and a Bride.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Sixty Acres and a Bride Regina Jennings. Bethany House, $14.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0990-1 Jennings's debut novel will have historical romance fans flocking to her tale that puts a Texas spin on the story of Ruth, Naomi, and...

The Sugar Frosted Nutsack.(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Sugar Frosted Nutsack Mark Leyner. Little, Brown, $24.99 (180p) ISBN 978-0-316-60845-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sporting an even more eye-catching title than his previous books My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist and the #1 New York...

The Book of a Thousand Eyes.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Book of a Thousand Eyes Lyn Hejinian. Omnidawn (IPG, dist.), $24.95 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-890650-57-5 Ample, enticing, slippery, sometimes funny, and all too easily divided into its 300-odd independent segments, the latest from...

The Eternal Ones of the Dream: Selected Poems 1990-2010.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Eternal Ones of the Dream: Selected Poems 1990-2010 James Tate. Ecco, $19.99 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-06-210186-0 Tate is now in the late period of a long and influential career in poetry. His early style, unfurled in books like...

Fast Animal.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Fast Animal Tim Seibles. Etruscan (Consortium, dist.), $14 trade paper (72p) ISBN 978-0-9832944-2-9 Crisply comic, disarmingly frank, and aurally bold, the sharpest poems in this seventh volume from Seibles (Hammerlock) set their emotional...

White Papers.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... White Papers Martha Collins. Univ. of Pittsburgh, $15.95 trade paper (80p) ISBN 978-0-8229-6184-0 This tightly focused, strongly argued book-length sequence uncovers a personal, regional, cultural, and institutional history of whiteness...

Slot.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Slot Jill Magi. Ugly Duckling (SPD, dist.), $17 trade paper (136p) ISBN 978-1-933254-87-6 Visual and architectural memorials, with other questions of space and urban surroundings, provoke the brief lines and terse prose poems in this...

One Sleeps the Other Doesn't.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... One Sleeps the Other Doesn't Jacqueline Waters. Ugly Duckling (SPD, dist.), $15 trade paper (104p)ISBN 978-1-933254-83-8 Waters's second full-length is nothing if not challenging, and her challenges never arrive without pleasure. Faux-naif...

Poison Flower.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Poison Flower Thomas Perry, Grove/Atlantic/Mysterious, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8021-2605-4 Near the start of Perry's exciting seventh Jane Whitefield novel (after 2009's Runner), Jane cleverly frees prisoner James Shelby, unjustly convicted...

Wild Thing.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Wild Thing Josh Bazell. Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, $25.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-316-03219-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Carl Hiaasen fans will relish Bazell's frenetic sequel to 2009's Beat the Reaper. Professor Marmoset, the guardian angel...

Pineapple Grenade.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Pineapple Grenade Tim Dorsey. Morrow, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 9780-06-187690-5 Bestseller Dorsey dishes up his Miami mayhem with a side order of mordant wit in his 15th Serge Storms novel (after 201l's When Elves Attack). This time, Serge...

Upgunned.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Upgunned David J. Schow. St. Martin's/Dunne, $25.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-57137-5 At the outset of Schow's sardonic tale of hard-boiled hijinks in the film world, a stranger shows up at the studio of photographer and part-time pornographer...

The Royal Wulff Murders.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * The Royal Wulff Murders Keith McCafferty. Viking, $26.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-670-02326-4 A fisherman snags a body from a river, a sultry singer asks an artist to catch a fish her late father caught and marked, and feisty Montana sheriff...

Dying in the Wool.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Dying in the Wool Frances Brody. Minotaur, $24.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-312-62239-8 Amateur sleuth Kate Shackleton, whose usual avocation is searching for servicemen who went missing during the Great War, faces a tight deadline in Brody's...

One Blood.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... One Blood Graeme Kent. Soho Crime, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-1-61695-058-3 Kent's second mystery set in the Solomon Islands in 1960 (after 2011's Devil-Devil) will appeal to history buffs and those fond of exotic locales. During the open day...

Bloodland.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Bloodland Alan Glynn. Picador, $16 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-62128-5 In this elegantly plotted thriller from Irish author Glynn (Winterland), Dublin reporter Jimmy Gilroy, who's hurting for steady work, seizes the opportunity to...

Black Site: A Delta Force Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Black Site: A Delta Force Novel Dalton Fury. St. Martin's, $25.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-66837-2 Former Delta Force commander Fury, author of the nonfiction bestseller Kill Bin Laden, makes his fiction debut with a thriller that crackles...

Catch Me.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Catch Me Lisa Gardner. Dutton, $26.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-525-95276-3 The well-wrought suspense offsets the shaky plot of bestseller Gardner's sixth novel featuring Boston Sgt. Det. D.D. Warren (after 2011's Love You More). Charlene Rosalind...

The Devil's Odds.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Devil's Odds Milton T. Burton. Minotaur, $25.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-64335-5 The Wild West lives in this exciting stand-alone set in early 1940s Texas from Burton (Night of the Red Moon). Virgil Tucker, who's about to resign from the...

Absolute Zero Cool.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Absolute Zero Cool Declan Burke. Liberties (Dufour, dist.), $22.95 trade paper (238p) ISBN 978-1-90-759331-4 In this ambitious meta-thriller from Irish author Burke (The Big O), the unnamed narrator, a stand-in for the author, meets a...

Unwanted.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Unwanted Kristina Ohlsson, trans, from the Swedish by Sarah Death. Atria/Emily Bestler, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-1-4391-9889-6 Superior prose, plotting, and characterization lift this procedural set in Stockholm, the first in a series. When...

Redemption: A Joe Burgess Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Redemption: A Joe Burgess Mystery Kate Flora. Five Star, $25.95 (366p) ISBN 978-1-59415-379-2 In Flora's middling third Joe Burgess mystery (after 2008's The Angel of Knowlton Park), the Portland, Maine, homicide detective investigates the...

Rat Poison.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Rat Poison Margaret Duffy. Severn, $28.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8098-7 Action trumps plausibility in Duffy's 15th mystery set in Bath featuring husband and wife ex-MI5 agents Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley (after 2010's Corpse in...

Back in the Habit: A Falcone & Driscoll Investigation.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Back in the Habit: A Falcone & Driscoll Investigation Alice Loweecey. Midnight Ink (www.midnight-inkbooks.com), $14.95 trade paper (312p) ISBN 978-0-7387-2668-7 Loweecey's entertaining second mystery featuring PI Giulia Falcone (after...

Private: #1 Suspect.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Private: #1 Suspect James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Little, Brown, $27.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-316-09740-6 In chapter one of Patterson and Paetro's lackluster second novel featuring Jack Morgan (after 2010's Private), Morgan, the founder...

Taken.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Taken Robert Crais. Putnam, $26.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-399-15827-8 At the start of bestseller Crais's satisfying 15th Elvis Cole novel (after 2011's The Sentry), Jack Berman, a USC dropout, and his girlfriend, Krista Morales, a star student...

Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel Faye Kellerman. Morrow, $25.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-206432-5 A teenage romance dominates bestseller Kellerman's subpar 20th novel featuring LAPD Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus (after 2010's...

Deep Sky.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Deep Sky Patrick Lee. Harper, $7.99 mass market (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-195879-3 The marvelous final volume in bestseller Lee's thriller trilogy that began with The Breach (2009) and Ghost Country (2010) opens with a bang. Covert agent...

Blood and Bullets.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Blood and Bullets James R. Tuck. Kensington, $7.99 mass market (304p) ISBN 978-0-7582-7147-1 Deacon Chalk is a monster-hunter with a dead family, a love for big guns and bigger cars, and ambiguous ethics despite his devotion to...

The Ritual.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * The Ritual Adam Nevill. St. Martin's Griffin, $14.99 trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-312-64184-9 "And on the second day things did not get better." This suitably foreboding opening sentence sets the stage for a dark and mesmerizing horror...

Dark Inspiration.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Dark Inspiration Russell James. Samhain (www.samhainpublishing.com), $15 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-60928-669-9 James's unremarkable debut is a conventional haunted house story with a premise that too often recalls Stephen King's The...

Fat Girl in a Strange Land.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Fat Girl in a Strange Land Edited by Kay T. Holt and Bart R. Leib. Crossed Genres (www.crossedgenres.com), $11.95 trade paper (172p) ISBN 978-0-615-56971-0 In Holt's and Leib's uneven anthology of 14 stories about overcoming obesity in...

Prehistoric Clock.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Prehistoric Clock Robert Appleton. Harlequin/Carina, $3.99 e-book (184p) ISBN 978-1-4268-9315-5 A science experiment gone horribly wrong is the catalyst for this fast-paced steampunk adventure. Prof. Cecil Reardon invents a way to travel...

The Fourth Wall.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... The Fourth Wall Walter Jon Williams. Orbit, $13.99 trade paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-316-13339-5 Williams turns in a sedate and sinister near-future mystery to follow thrillers This Is Not a Game and Deep State. Sean Makin is a former child...

Hitchers.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Hitchers Will McIntosh. Night Shade (www.nightshadebooks.com), $24.99 (296p) ISBN 978-1-59780-335-9 Hugo-winner McIntosh ("Bridesicle") delivers a moving tale of individual grief and recovery against the backdrop of a devastated world....

Songs of the Earth: Book 1 of the Wild Hunt.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Songs of the Earth: Book 1 of the Wild Hunt Elspeth Cooper. Tor, $24.99 (480p) ISBN 9780-7653-3165-6 Century after century, the Eadorian faith abjured those who heard the song of the Earth, labeled them as witches, and burned them at the...

Undone Deeds.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Undone Deeds Mark Del Franco. Ace, $7.99 mass market (326p) ISBN 978-1-937007-25-6 In the sixth Connor Grey supernatural investigation (after Uncertain Allies), the incapacitated former druid's struggle to overcome multiple injuries pales...

Firelight.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... * Firelight Kristen Callihan. Grand Central/Forever, $5.99 mass market (400p) ISBN 978-1-455-50859-4 Debut author Callihan pens a compelling Victorian paranormal with heart and soul. Miranda Ellis has an unearthly talent for creating fire...

PW talks with Julianna Baggott: amid horror, love endures.(Q&A)(Interview)
December 19, 2011... Pure (Reviews, Nov. 14), Baggott's first horror novel, divides future humans into two classes: those cataclysmically merged with animals, toys, and other people, and the dome-dwelling, authoritarian "Pures." How did you develop the setting?...

The darkest reading of the year.(Deliver Me from Darkness)(Darkest Highlander)(King of Darkness)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... Three paranormal romances for the long February nights. Deliver Me from Darkness Tes Hilaire. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $6.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4022-6434-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Holy warriors descended from angels face...

A Town Called Valentine.(Brief article)(Book review)
December 19, 2011... A Town Called Valentine Emma Cane. Avon, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-210227-0 Cane's debut contemporary sparkles . with charm and gentle humor, buoyed by convincing protagonists who share a passion that slowly, deliciously ramps...