Publishers Weekly articles from January 2001

Publishers Weekly archives from January 2001

Scholastic Sales Surge Continues.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Company raises earnings forecast, sees higher operating margins WHILE MANY COMPANIES are lowering their sales and earnings estimates as the economy slows, Scholastic told analysts in mid-December that based on an unexpectedly strong first...

Hungry Minds to Miss 1st-Qtr. Targets.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Hungry Minds, whose executives had earlier warned that fiscal 2001 would be a "challenging year" (News, Nov. 20, 2000), announced late last month that the publishing company would not hit its projected sales and earnings targets for the first...

International Publishers Confront an E-Future.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... IN MID-DECEMBER, some 90 leading publishers gathered tinder the auspices of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, for their 16th annual fall seminar, following the London Online Conference. On this...

New Investor For iUniverse.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... IN ITS QUARTERLY filing with the SEC, Barnes & Noble reported a $326,000 gain on the partial sale of its stake in iUniverse. The sale reduced B&N's stake in the online vanity press from 49% to 29%. In 1999, B&N paid $20 million for a 41%...

October Bookstore Sales Up 6%.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... After two straight months of better than 20% sales gains, retail bookstore sales increased at a more modest 6.6% rate in October, to $1.07 billion, according to preliminary estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales for the entire retail...

A POETIC TRIBUTE.
January 1, 2001... Friends, admirers and fellow poets gathered at Teachers and Writers Collective in New York City last month, to honor Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Wright on the 20th anniversary of his death. Writers Garrison Keillor, Carol Bly, Galway...

Harcourt Purchase Largest Publishing Transaction in 2000.(Pearson also made deals during the year)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... REED ELSEVIER'S $4.5-billion purchase of Harcourt General was the publishing industry's largest deal in 2000 as the giant Anglo-Dutch company increased its presence in the professional publishing market while also making the company a major...

Michel Joins Time Warner Trade.(Bob Michel)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Bob Michel, who has spent more than 20 years representing American publishers in the international market, has been named director of international sales for Time Warner Trade Publishing. Michel joined the company December 18, replacing Craig...

Friedman Has New 3-Year Deal.(Jane Friedman of HarperCollins)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins, has signed a new three- year contract with News Corp. that will keep her heading the publishing house through November 2003. The new agreement follows a record year at HC in which revenues...

Ebrary, Taylor & Francis Ink Deal.(ebrary will provide search and browse capabilities)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EBRARY INC., the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based online research provider, has announced an agreement with academic publisher Taylor & Francis, to provide search, browsing and printout capability for 17,000 T&F titles in the humanities, engineering and...

Zaleski Succeeds Retiring Steinberg.(Jeff Zaleski will take over Sybil Steinberg's job at Publisher's Weekly)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... SYBIL S. STEINBERG, longtime senior editor of Fiction Forecasts and former head of PW Forecasts and PW Interviews, has retired from Publishers Weekly, effective December 31. She will continue with the magazine as a contributing editor, writing...

Jokey New Year for Dubya.(humor books on George W. Bush to be published in time for inauguration)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The president-elect is unique in that shortly after his inauguration he will be greeted with at least two joke books impugning his qualifications for his exalted position. One is y the folks who run the humor Web site Modern Humorist, who have...

Combination from Down Under.(agent Catherine Drayton sells Susan Johnson book)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... An Australian former lawyer is a new agent at the Arthur Pine agency, and has just sold, in her first deal there, a book by a fellow countrywoman. She is Catherine Drayton, and the book she sold, to Pocket Books' Tracy Behar, was A Better Woman...

The Third Side Heard From.(memoir on third party politics bought by Free Press)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... A book by Bill Hillsman, who has served as chief media campaign representative for such contrarian candidates as Sen. Paul Wellstone, Gov. Jesse Ventura and, most recently, for Ralph Nader and his Green Party in the presidential election just...

Candace Bushnell.(2-book deal with Hyperion)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Candace Bushnell, whose "Sex and the City" column in the New York Observer became the basis of a successful book with Grove Atlantic, and then was developed into a hit HBO TV series, made a two-book deal, for an undisclosed sum, for a pair of...

Merrill Markoe.(signs contract for first novel)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Merrill Markoe, who made a name as the former head writer for the David Letterman Show, has signed to do her first novel, for Villard editorial director Bruce Tracy; it is said to be a series of diary entries by a woman with overbearing parents...

Fred Ramey.(signs Daniel Akst's new book)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Fred Ramey and Greg Michalson, whose MacMurray & Beck published Daniel Akst's first novel four years ago, have now preempted his second, The Webster Chronicle, for their new BlueHen imprint at Penguin Putnam. They bought world rights from agent...

Jantel Hill.(signs Hilda Gurley-Highgate's first novel)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Jantel Hill at Doubleday preempted, for a low six figures for world rights, a first-novel saga of African-American women, covering six generations from the slave ships to the present. It is Sapphire's Grave by black lawyer Hilda...

Darrin Bastfield.(contract for Tupac Shakur biography)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Darrin Bastfield knew the late rap king Tupac Shakur when both were teenagers in Baltimore, and has written a memoir about his friend in those days; Wendy Sherman made the North American rights sale to Anita Diggs for her One World imprint at...

French Publishing Giant Has New CEO.(Vivendi Universal Publishing names Agnes Touraine)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JUST A WEEK after the consecration of Vivendi Universal, merging the global French conglomerate with Seagram's movie and music companies to give birth to the world's number two media group after AOL Time Warner, Vivendi Universal Publishing...

National Geographic Launches Travel Series.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The National Geographic Society plans to launch a new literary travel book series in the fall of 2001, in consultation with agent Andrew Wylie and featuring many distinguished authors that Wylie represents. The new series will publish six...

Xrefer.com Offers HM Titles.(Houghton Mifflin reference titles added)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... THE BRITISH ONLINE company xrefer.com has announced its first deal with a U.S. content partner. Under the arrangement with Houghton Mifflin, a number of HM reference titles, including The American Heritage Concise Dictionary and Dictionary of...

Religion Scholars, Publishers Meet in Nashville.(American Academy of Religion/ Society of Biblical Literature hold annual meeting)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... THE ANNUAL MEETING of the American Academy of Religion/ Society of Biblical Literature, held at Nashville's Opryland Hotel and Convention Center late last year, drew an estimated 7,800 participants, down only slightly from last year's meeting...

Backbeat Books: Miller Freeman Changes Name and Tempo.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... MILLER FREEMAN BOOKS of San Francisco celebrates 10 years of music book publishing this season while announcing a name change to Backbeat Books. The new name coincides with the launch of a music supersite by Backbeat's parent company, Music...

Howard, Wood Get Klein Awards.(PEN/Roger Klein Award)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... GERALD HOWARD, vice-president and editorial director at Broadway Books and executive editor at Doubleday, has won the 2000 PEN/Roger Klein Award for editorial excellence, Roger Klein Foundation director Tom Wallace announced. Howard previously...

Dystel Buys Client List.(Jane Dystel Literary Management now represents 300 clients)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JANE DYSTEL LITERARY Management Inc. has acquired the client list of Bedford Book Works from founder and owner Joel E. Fishman. Fishman, who was also a founder of the short-lived Subrights.com, sold the agency to pursue other interests. ...

CLARIFICATION.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2001... THE BOOK INDUSTRY STUDY GROUP did not review the African-American Book Buyers Survey cited in our feature on African-American publishing (December 11, p. 37), nor did the association examine the survey's methodology or review the figures. The...

CORRECTION.(Correction Notice)
January 1, 2001... THE PHONE NUMBER for PW's new Midwest correspondent, Brad Zellar, was incorrectly listed in our December 18 issue. The correct number is (612) 925-8616.

The Biggest Cheese(s).(best seller records)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2001... Spencer Johnson's megaselling Who Moved My Cheese? was the best performer during the course of 2000. Not only did it not miss a single week on our charts, it commanded the #1 spot 40 out of 51 times. Hardcover fiction set some interesting...

Teen Angst Sells.(good holiday showing for nonfiction teen titles)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... It seems that lots of teenagers received books about topical issues that are of interest to them. We know this because there are at least three such books reported by booksellers nationwide among their December bestsellers. Health...

Darwin Honors the Unfit.('Darwin Awards' remains high seller)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... The humor book for the holiday season may be The Darwin Awards by Wendy Northcutt, which heralds, as the book's jacket notes, "Those individuals who ensure the long-term survival of our species by removing themselves from the gene pool in a...

Holiday Countdown, Part 2.(book sales statistics)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Back on December 18, we noted in this column that sales figures for the first two weeks after Thanksgiving (the official launch of the holiday shopping frenzy) showed that fewer books were enjoying the record-breaking unit sales achieved during...

Marriage 101: Here We Go Again.('The Surrendered Wife' stirs controversey)
January 1, 2001... A new how-to title causes a stir with its old-fashioned advice for women What year is this, anyway? That's what some women may wonder as they hear about a new paperback original called The Surrendered Wife: A Practical Guide for Finding...

Vindicated After 55 Years.(telling of sinking of Indianapolis re-issued in hardcover)
January 1, 2001... It happened in the waning days of World War II. After completing her mission to deliver the nuclear essence of the bombs later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to an island near Guam, the USS Indianapolis set off on her return to the...

Independents Fight Back.(new marketing efforts from independent book stores)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2001... Two new organizations are making "locally owned" a baffle cry for independents At regional trade shows over the past year, Boulder Book Store owner David Bolduc and Jeff Milchen, president and director, respectively, of the Boulder...

Chronicle's Postmodern Experience.(Chronicle Books opens boutique store in San Francisco)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Chronicle Books of San Francisco has created what might be called the city's first postmodern retail book experience: part marketing expo, part tourist attraction and part bookstore. The Chronicle boutique, as employees call it, opened in the...

Robert Cormier Remembered.(Obituary)
January 1, 2001... Marilyn E. Marlow Curtis Brown, Ltd. Friends and colleagues pay tribute to the esteemed author Most of Robert Cormier's fans were first aware of his writing with the publication and subsequent reviews of The Chocolate War in 1974....

Listen Up Awards 2000.(audiobook awards)
January 1, 2001... Words that are music to your ears. Last year's best of the best. This year's crop of audio releases was a feast for the listener, with a fine variety of excellent titles in all genres. Here, we focus on those that are truly outstanding and...

THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD/MULES AND MEN.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... ZORA NEALE HURSTON, READ BY RUBY DEE. Caedmon, unabridged, 10 hrs., six cassettes, $29.95 ISBN 0-694-52402-6 * Undoubtedly one of the important American novels, Hurston's tale of a black woman's struggle for independence and...

THE RED TENT.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... ANITA DIAMANT, READ BY CAROL BILGER. Audio Renaissance, unabridged, 12 hrs., eight cassettes, $39.95 ISBN 1-5592-7645-2 If you've ever been irked by the contention in Genesis that men did all the begetting, you'll like the idea behind...

THE LAST PRECINCT.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... PATRICIA CORNWELL, READ BY KATE READING. Putnam Berkeley, unabridged, 17.5 hrs., 10 cassettes, $44.95 ISBN 0-399-14636-9 Although Reading is once again admirably brisk and believable as Cornwell's thorny forensic expert Dr. Kay Scarpetta,...

THE FAMILY ORCHARD.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... NOMI EVE, READ BY POLLY DRAPER AND FRITZ WEAVER. HarperAudio, abridged, 6 hrs., four cassettes, $25 ISBN 0-694-52436-0 * In this highly accomplished and beautifully interpreted first novel, Eve's metaphorical orchard bears strange and...

THE RESCUE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... NICHOLAS SPARKS, READ BY MARY BETH HURT AND JOHN BELFORD LLOYD. Time Warner, 6 hrs., four cassettes, $25.98 ISBN 1-570-42964-2 Communication is the underlying theme of this pop-psychology romance. Denise Holden is the single mother of...

EDITH'S STORY.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EDITH VELMANS, READ BY MIRIAM MARGOLYES. Audio Partners, unabridged, 6 hrs., four cassettes, $29.95 ISBN 1-57270-177-3 * Velmans's gripping, deeply personal memoir deserves to take its place beside the diary of Anne Frank. Like Frank,...

STAYING STREET SMART IN THE INTERNET AGE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... MARK McCORMACK, READ BY DAVID ACKROYD. New Millennium Audio, abridged, 6 hrs., two cassettes, $25 ISBN 1-931056-04-8 McCormack, founder and CEO of sports and celebrity management firm IMG and author of the bestselling What They Don't Teach...

YOUNG MEN & FIRE.(Review)
January 1, 2001... NORMAN MACLEAN, READ BY JOHN MACLEAN. HighBridge, 6 hrs., four cassettes, $24.95 ISBN 1-56511-396-9 When Maclean (A River Runs Through It, etc.) died in 1990, he left an unpublished manuscript about the fatal Mann Gulch fire of 1949. After...

DEFINITELY ABOVE AVERAGE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... GARRISON KEILLOR, READ BY THE AUTHOR AND OTHER PERFORMERS. HighBridge, 2 hrs., two cassettes, $18.95 ISBN 1-56511-411-6 With music performed by the Fairfield Four, the Rankin Family and Beausoleil, this latest collection from Keillor's...

THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2000.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EDITED BY JAMES GLEICE, READ BY THE AUTHORS. Harper Audio, 6 hrs., four cassettes, $25.95 ISBN 0-694-52399-2 For a collection of pieces centered on what many think a dry subject, this recording offers a surprising diversity of topics and...

Audio Bestsellers.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... Fiction 1. The Mark: The Beats Rules the World (abr.). Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Read by Frank Muller. Tyndale House. Two cassettes, three hours, $15.99 ISBN 0-842-33231-6 2. Deck the Halls (abr.). Mary Higgins Clark and...

To E or Not to E... and other Questions.(electronic publishing)(Industry Overview)(Panel Discussion)
January 1, 2001... SHORTLY BEFORE CHRISTMAS, half a dozen members of PW's staff got together around a table and before microphones with five people with different--and fascinating--notions of where the book business might be heading in this time of earth-shaking...

A Pioneer Gazes Ahead.(Jason Epstein)(Interview)
January 1, 2001... Jason Epstein--editor, entrepreneur, skeptic of progress--eyes the book business JASON EPSTEIN," says the jacket blurb on his Book Business: Publishing Past, Present and Future (Norton; Forecasts, Dec. 22.), "has led arguably the most...

Beyond E-Books Glimpses of the Future.(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2001... TWENTY YEARS AGO, Publishers Weekly (Mar. 20 & 27, 1981) published a report on new electronic media that covered teletex and videotex, video-cassettes, home computers (e.g., by Radio Shack), cable TV and an experiment in Ohio that linked 200...

Ready for the Revolution.(the printing industry in the electronic age)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2001... Printers are finding new roles--and they have a plan to help publishers and retailers adjust, too LAST MONTH, Vista Computer Services executive v-p John Wicker made some bold predictions about the future of publishing. Perhaps the scariest...

The Land Of the Giants.(acquisitions and mergers have created huge publishing conglomerates)(Industry Overview)
January 1, 2001... Years of acquisition activity have created a few mammoth companies AFTER YEARS OF MERGERS, THE LANDSCAPE OF THE book publishing industry has never been so top heavy. In each of the three major publishing segments -- trade, educational and...

PARADISE PARK.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... ALLEGRA GOODMAN. Dial, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 0-385-33416-8 * Goodman's (Kaaterskill Falls) marvelous new novel involves a woman's tragicomic search for spiritual meaning, a journey as physically peripatetic as it is emotionally migratory. As...

TURNING ON THE GIRLS.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... CHERYL BERNARD. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23 (336p) ISBN 0-374-28178-5 Women have taken over the world in this gender-centric, rollicking good novel. Called on the carpet for bad behavior and general ineptness, the worst specimens of the...

SINGING BOY.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... DENNIS MCFARLAND. Holt, $25 (309p) ISBN 0-8 050-6608-X Tragedy strikes quickly, and the memory of it fades slowly--that is the simple theme of this psychological drama by bestselling writer McFarland (The Music Room). Architect Malcolm...

THE FLORABAMA LADIES' AUXILIARY & SEWING CIRCLE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... LOIS BATTLE. Viking, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-670-89469-9 That readers who pick up Battle's (Bed & Breakfast) eighth novel, with its folksy, long Southern title, will expect something along the lines of the Ya-Yas is understandable; what awaits...

WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... THOMAS FLEMING. Forge, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 0-312-87204-6 Fleming's latest historical, set in Indiana and Kentucky during the final months of the Civil War, is jagged around the edges yet moving and memorable. Based on the true story of a...

GOOD COUNSEL.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... TIM JUNKIN. Algonquin/Ravenel, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 1-56512-284-4 A lawyer's ambition costs him his marriage and his career in Junkin's evocative second novel, which opens with protagonist Jack Stanton on the run from the law. Stanton's crime...

I'M GONE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JEAN ECHENOZ, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY MARK POLIZZOTTI. New Press, $22.95 (208p) ISBN 1-56584-628-1 This fast-paced comedy of art smuggling and sexual vagaries won France's esteemed Prix Goncourt--with good reason. After leaving his wife,...

A SPELL OF WINTER.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... HELEN DUNMORE. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-87113-782-8 * Unsettling love and stifled horror create and then destroy the claustrophobic world of this lush, literary gothic set in turn-of-the-century England. Catherine and Rob Allen,...

OVER TUMBLED GRAVES.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JESS WALTER. ReganBooks, $25 (384p) ISBN 0-06-039386-6 Shifting ably to fiction, true crime specialist Walter (In Contempt; Every Knee Shall Bow), turns out a strong, character-driven serial-killer thriller. In Spokane, Wash., a...

MARBLE HEART.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... GRETTA MIJLROONEY. HarperCollins/Flamingo, $19.95 (296p) ISBN 0-00-225929-X British author Mulrooney (Araby) has written a page-turner with meat on its bones, a psychological thriller as dark and satisfying as a pint of Guinness....

RED MOON.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... MICHAEL CASSUTT. Forge, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-87440-5 What really happened to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, who died mysteriously in a plane crash? Why weren't the Russians the first to put a man on the moon? Accomplished...

THE HUNTED.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... ALAN JACOBSON. Pocket, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 0-671-02680-1 Questions of identity are at the heart of Jacobson's follow-up to the suspense thriller False Accusations. Unfortunately, despite an unexpected twist at the end, those questions...

THE GOOD BODY.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... BILL GASTON. ReganBooks, $25 (288p) ISBN 0-06-039411-0 Although a quick synopsis of Canadian writer Gaston's American debut might sound maudlin--a rootless minor-league hockey player contracts multiple sclerosis and goes home to make peace...

THE CURE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... DAVID SHOBIN. St. Martin's, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 0-312-26686-3 Shobin's latest medical thriller seizes on the recent surge in the use of herbal supplements in large doses and takes the potential danger to its lethal extreme. Dr. Steve...

NO EYE CAN SEE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JANE KIRKPATRICK. WaterBrook, $11.95 paper (400p) ISBN 1-57856-233-3 Christian novelist Kirkpatrick follows her well-received All Together in One Place with this rich and engaging sequel that could easily stand alone. She picks up the...

ELVIS AND NIXON.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JONATHAN LOWY. Crown, $22.95 (304p) ISBN 0-609-60818-5 Proving that fact is stranger than fiction, first-time novelist Lowy spins a surreal tale based on the real-life meeting between Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley on December 21, 1970,...

CHOICES.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... PHYLL ASHWORTH. Criterion House (www.criterionhouse.com), $25 (373p) ISBN 1-884162-06-1 This mainstream fiction debut by a romance novelist opens on a promising note, with a taut prologue depicting the final minutes of an ill-fated DC-6,...

PW Talks with Evan Hunter.(Brief Article)(Interview)
January 1, 2001... PW: Candyland (reviewed on p. 68) is an unusual book, with its two bylines and two writing styles. Why did you do it? EH: I didn't start out to do this. I was writing an Evan Hunter novel, and in the middle of it I had the idea, "Gee,...

CANDYLAND: A Novel in Two Parts.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EVAN HUNTER AND ED MCBAIN. Simon & Schuster, $25 (304p) ISBN 0-7432-1316-5 * Hunter (The Blackboard Jungle; etc.) and McBain (the 87th Precinct novels) are the same man, of course, although all the evidence in this superb crime novel,...

THIS HEART OF MINE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS. Morrow, $23 (384p) ISBN 0-380-97572-6 Veteran romance writer Phillips (First Lady; Lady Be Good, etc.) makes her hardcover debut with this consuming story of a star-crossed children's-book author and a football...

GOB'S GRIEF.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... CHRIS ADRIAN. Broadway, $24.95 (324p) ISBN 0-7679-0281-5 Blending history and fiction in the tradition of E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, this skillfully imagined first novel follows Walt Whitman as the poet unwittingly aids the son of early...

COMBAT.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EDITED BY STEPHEN COONTS. Forge/Doherty, $27.95 (768p) ISBN 0-312-87190-2 Editor Coonts (Flight of the Intruder, etc.) has gathered an impressive group of techno-thriller authors for this testosterone--laden anthology. Ten original short...

INDIVISIBLE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... FANNY HOWE. Semiotext(e) (MIT, dist.), $11.95 paper (282p) ISBN 1-58435-009-1 Experimental poet and novelist Howe tells the story of modern-day martyr Henny, a filmmaker living in a working-class Boston neighborhood and married to McCool,...

BROWN SUGAR: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... EDITED BY CAROL TAYLOR. Plume, $13 paper (256p) ISBN 0-452-28224-1 "In Brown Sugar we're here to represent, to show the real souls of black folk, our own particular ardor and passion." So writes Taylor, a longtime publishing professional...

SISTER INDIA.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... PEGGY PAYNE. Riverhead, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 1-57322-176-7 When writers set their novels in exotic places, there is always the risk that the background will outshine the characters and plot. Such is the case with travel writer Payne's...

THE LECTURER'S TALE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... JAMES HYNES. Picador USA, $25 (432p) ISBN 0-312-20332-2 * Splicing a demonic strain into the usual elements of academic comedy, Hynes's novel, following his acclaimed Publish or Perish, reads like David Lodge rewritten by Mikhail...

THE FORBIDDEN STORIES OF MARTA VENERANDA.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... SONIA RIVKBA-VALDES, TRANS. FROM THE SPANISH BY DICK CLUSTER. Seven Stories, $2 1.95 (160p) ISBN 1-58322-047-X In her first book-length appearance in English, Cuban-born Sonia Rivera-Valdes shows herself to be a poet of humanity's...

EXILE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... DENISE MINA. Carroll & Graf $23 (368p) ISBN 0-7867-0838-7 * Following her Creasy Award--winning debut, Garnethill (1999), Mina delivers a second powerful novel with the same self-destructive characters, notably protagonist Maureen...

THREAD OF EVIDENCE.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... FRANK SMITH. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-312-26947-1 DCI Neil Paget returns for another smoothly executed British police procedural, Canadian writer Smith's fourth (following Candles for the Dead). Successful contractor...

BUBBLES UNBOUND.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2001... SARAH STROHMEYER. Dutton, $22.95 (288p) ISBN 0-525-94580-6 Meet Bubbles Yablonsky, beautician-reporter-sleuth and blazing star of Strohmeyer's entertaining, establishment-bashing debut as a mystery writer. Like the mills that gird the...