Publishers Weekly articles from January 2004

Publishers Weekly archives from January 2004

Early signs point to solid holiday gains: indie sales up; Visa's bookstore sales rise 20%.
January 5, 2004... AFTER TWO YEARS of disappointing results, early indications are that books posted solid sales gains during the 2003 holiday season. Independent booksellers contacted by PW reported sales among the best ever, justifying the optimism that many...

The story is fiction.(book sales)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... The 2003 holiday season ended with record unit sales for the five top-selling fiction (1,678,660) and nonfiction (779,081) rifles. While nowhere near the record set to 1999 (1,555,159), nonfiction was still ahead of 2002 (878,947) and 2001...

Scholastic ProbesWays to build business.(News)
January 5, 2004... IN LAST MONTH'S conference call with analysts regarding second-quarter results (News, Dec. 22), Barbara Marcus, president of Scholastic's children's book publishing and distribution group, outlined a number of new initiatives the group is...

Hyatt, Kinde rise at Nelson.(People)(Michael S. Hyatt)(Wayne Kinde)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... THOMAS NELSON PUBLISHERS has promoted Michael S. Hyatt, publisher of the book group, to president and chief operating officer, effective February 1. Hyatt is credited with reorganizing Nelson's book division, launching WND Books and...

Macmillan acquires Mexican textbook line.(International)(Ediciones Castillo)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... The U.K.-based Macmillan Publishing Group has reached an agreement to acquire the educational publishing list of Ediciones Castillo, one of Mexico's largest Spanish-language textbook publishers. Founded in 1977, Ediciones Castillo publishes...

Client distribution services adding titles to publishing line.(Expanding)
January 5, 2004... CLIENT DISTRIBUTION SERVICES has recently signed a couple of new titles that will give its fledgling publishing program a shot in the ann. One is the bestselling Ernst & Young Tax Guide, and the second is Inside the Da Vinci Code by Dan...

Adult up in mixed November.(AAP Sales Report)(Association of American Publishers)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... AAP Sales Report Adult Up in Mixed November % CHANGE % CHANGE CATEGORY NOVEMBER YTD Adult Hardcover 11.8 -2.6 Adult Paperback ...

Ebrary cites '03 growth; predicts more.(E-publishing)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... CITING A 300% GROWTH in customers and revenue, Christopher Warnock, founder and CEO of Ebrary.com, an online information retrieval service, told PW, "It's been a great year." Founded in 1997, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ebrary.com offers...

S&S nixes Chinese 'Living History'.(news)(Simon and Schuster)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Simon & Schuster has terminated the right of the Chinese publishing house Yilin Press to continue to punish Sen. Hillary Clinton's Living History in China. S&S took the action after Yilin refused to restore all the sections of the book it had...

Georgia startup goes one-for-one.(Old-School)(Stroud and Hall, publisher of A National Party No More)
January 5, 2004... CECIL STATON, the publisher of Stroud & Hall, has a small catalogue. So small, in fact, that it contains only one book. But that book has been a bestseller for two mouths, lifting Stroud & Hall to one of the most improbable success stories of...

Industry investigating how to use 'usage statistics'.(The Future)
January 5, 2004... AT SOME POINT before the year 2010, hundreds of millions of dollars in annual publisher revenue will be determined by "usage statistics," measurements of how many times a piece of online content was visited, searched, downloaded, paid for....

Kovels enjoy long run in collectible world.(Family Affair)(Ralph and Terry Kovel)
January 5, 2004... DECADES BEFORE eBay and PBS's Antiques Roadshow, Ralph and Terry Kovel were helping the masses sort the treasure from the trash as the leading publishers on antiques and collectibles. This past year, the couple celebrated the 50th...

Parton's Library hits one million.(Literacy)(Dolly Parton's Imagination Library)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Dolly Patron's Imagination Library handed out its millionth book late last month, to one-year-old Cana Waynick of Danville, Ala. The country singer started the library in 1996 to inspire children to read by giving away a free copy of a book to...

AMS announces more delays on 10-Qs.(No News)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... WITH AMS's THIRD QUARTER drawing to a close, it appears that the San Diego, Calif., company is further delaying its 10-Q filings from the first two. In a notice filed last week with the SEC, the company said that the banks with which it...

Sales, losses up at Trudy.(Six-Month Results)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... A LICENSING AGREEMENT with Disney Publishing Worldwide had both positive and negative results for Trudy Corp.'s six-month results. Sales for the first half of the year, ended September 30 rose 9.4%, to $1.7 million, due mainly to initial...

Correction.(news)(Correction Notice)
January 5, 2004... Human Kinetics is publishing Optimal Muscle Training as a book/DVD package, not a book/CD package, as stated in News (Dec. 22).

It was a very brown year.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Check out the chart on page 5, and note the spectacular rise in unit sales for hardcover fiction bestsellers during the 2003 holiday season. A five-year comparison for the top five novels at Barnes & Noble, Borders and Waldenbooks during the...

A hot commodity.(behind the bestsellers)(From Emeril's Kitchens: Favorite Recipes from Emeril's Restaurants)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Cookbooks always enjoy strong sales during the gift-giving season, and this year's hardcover winner is From Emeril's Kitchens: Favorite Recipes from Emeril's Restaurants (popular TV chef Lagasse is chef-proprietor of seven eateries). The...

Counting Noras.(behind the bestsellers)(Nora Roberts)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Nora Roberts lands more titles on the national charts than any other author, and her 2003 count was stronger than ever. During 2003, she had 15 books on the mass market bestseller lists (she has three on the current list), for a total of 70...

Early stats.(behind the bestsellers)(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... Our feature next week will analyze the 2003 bestseller charts, showing which houses gained and/or lost share on the weekly charts and how veteran and first-time authors fared. Here is a preview: in 2003, only four hardcover novels had runs of...

Vintage collectibles: a series of paperback samplers lures readers deeper into the Vintage and Anchor backlist.(book news)
January 5, 2004... It began with a reader, an author and a problem. "Here's somebody I've always been meaning to read," said the reader, looking at the list of books the author had written. He scratched his head, and realized he didn't know where to begin. The...

Listen up awards 2003: politicians, movie stars, satirists and seasoned audiobook performers lend their voices to the year's best.(audio)
January 5, 2004... FICTION The John Cheever Audio Collection by John Cheever, read by the author, Meryl Streep, Peter Gallagher, George Plimpton et al. (Harper Audio). A first-class lineup of narrators--including Cheever and his son--read these selections...

Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... STEPHEN KING, READ BY GEORGE GUIDALL. Simon & Schuster Audio, unabridged, 22 CDs, 26 hrs., $75 ISBN 0-7435-3352-6 Roland of Gilead's quest to save all worlds from evil continues in this fifth installment of King's epic tale, which finds...

City of Masks: a Cree Black Thriller.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... DANIEL HECHT, READ BY ANNA FIELDS. Blackstone Audiobooks, unabridged, 11 cassettes, 16 hrs., $39.95 ISBN 0-7861-2572-1 Hecht's New Age ghost story introduces Cree Black, a psychologist of renown transformed years ago into a hyper-empathic...

The Namesake.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... JHUMPA LAHIRI, READ BY SARITA CHOUDHURY. Random House Audio, unabridged, six cassettes, 10 hrs., $34.95 ISBN 0-7393-0695-2 This recording features a spare, elegant reading by Choudhury of a story about identity, cultural assimilation and...

Dead Famous.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... CAROL O'CONNELL, READ BY ALYSSA BRESNAHAN. Listen & Live Audio, unabridged, seven cassettes, 12.5 hrs., $32.95 ISBN 1-59316-017-8 O'Connell's previous noirish novels featuring Kathleen Mallory (Crime School, etc.) wove together the NYPD...

The Opposite of Fate: a Book of Musings.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... AMY TAN, READ BY THE AUTHOR. Brilliance Audio, abridged, six cassettes, 9 hrs., $29.95 ISBN 1-59355-075-8 In her first collection of essays, Tan explains that she writes stories to understand "how things happen." These musings, as...

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... PAUL KRUGMAN, READ BY THE AUTHOR. HarperAudio, unabridged, four cassettes, 6 hrs., $25.95 ISBN 0-06-058177-8 "This is not, I'm sorry to say, a happy book," says Krugman in the introduction to this collection of essays culled from his...

Madam Secretary.( )(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, READ BY THE AUTHOR. Hyperion Audiobooks, abridged, four cassettes, 6.5 hrs., $25.98 ISBN 1-4013-9742-5 As one might expect from someone with Albright's resume, the former Secretary of State speaks clearly, makes her...

A Mighty Heart.(Brief Article)(Audiobook Review)
January 5, 2004... MARIANE PEARL, READ BY THE AUTHOR. Simon & Schuster Audio, abridged, four cassettes, 6 hrs., $26 ISBN 0-7435-2840-9 Documentary film director and former French public radio and television journalist Pearl tenderly recounts the heartbreaking...

Audio bestsellers.
January 5, 2004... Fiction [1] The Da Vinci Code (abr. CD). Don Brown. Read by Colin Stinton. Random House Audio. Five CDs, six hours, $29.95 ISBN 0-7393-0204-34 [2] Big Bad Wolf (unabr. CD). James Patterson. Read by Peter J. Fernandez and Denis O'Hare....

A vertical leap: companies are adding businesses outside of core operations to boost profits.(Outlook 2004)
January 5, 2004... IT WAS APPROXIMATELY one year ago that Barnes & Noble stunned the publishing world with its announcement that it was buying Sterling Publishing. The purchase is a key part of B&N's vertical integration strategy, one in which B&N sells other...

Children's books: the great balancing act: with numbers growing closer to adult sales, publishers offset backlist losses with frontlist gains, and look to more media-driven properties.(Outlook 2004)
January 5, 2004... AT A TIME WHEN THE BOOK industry has made a parlor game of finding euphemisms for poor sales--think "challenging market" and "disappointing sell-through"--children's publishers have a happier story to tell. Through October, children's...

Ken Auletta: media monitor.(PW interview)(Interview)
January 5, 2004... On a springlike November day, PW traveled to New York City's far East Side, just a few blocks from Gracie Mansion, to meet with the New Yorker's media columnist, Ken Auletta. Soon we are sitting in Auletta's cozy, book-lined study where...

Islands.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ANNE RIVERS SIDDONS. HarperCollins, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-06-621111-5 Middle-aged readers especially will warm to Siddons's 15th novel, in which a group of old friends play together, age together and endure the vicissitudes of fate....

Hard Revolution.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... GEORGE PELECANOS. Little, Brown, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-316-60897-1 * The author's admirers are familiar with middle-aged black PI Derek Strange, featured in several novels (Soul Circus, etc.) so strong that one critic has dubbed Pelecanos...

Why She Went Home.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... LUCINDA ROSENFELD. Random, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 1-4000-6185-7 Rosenfeld's funny, sassy, uneven second novel picks up where her debut, What She Saw..., left off. Serial dater Phoebe Fine--who's pushing 30 and is fed up with men, her job and...

Can You Keep a Secret?(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SOPHIE KINSELLA. Dial, $21.95 (768p) ISBN 0-385-33681-0 Things are suddenly starting to look up for the hapless but optimistic Emma Corrigan. She has kept her job at Panther Cola for nearly a year, has the perfect boyfriend and hopes for a...

A Spectacle of Corruption.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... DAVID LISS. Random, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-375-50855-4 This sequel to Liss's Edgar Award-winning A Conspiracy of Paper (2000) brings back ex-pugilist Benjamin Weaver and Iris 18th-century London environs in all their squalid glory. Benjamin...

Bright Sword of Ireland.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JUILENE OSBORNE-McKNIGHT. Forge, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-765-30698-0 Gentle, peace-loving Finnabair, daughter of the ambitious warrior queen Medb of Connacht, makes a beguiling narrator in Osborne-McKnight's third engaging historical to recast...

Head Games.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... EILEEN DREYER. St. Martin's, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-312-26578-6 Things have never been easy for Molly Burke: the trauma nurse and part-time death investigator who previously appeared in Dreyer's Bad Medicine suffered through a loveless...

Kilbrack: Or, Who is Nancy Valentine?(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JAMIE O'NEILL. Scribner, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 0-7432-5595-X Written a decade before Irish author O'Neill's breakthrough novel At Swim, Two Boys, this richly comic tale is at once a satire of Irish popular novels and exemplar of the genre....

The Island of Bicycle Dancers.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JIRO ADACHI. St. Martin's, $22.95 (240p) ISBN 0-312-31245-8 A 20-year-old Korean-Japanese woman comes to New York City to work at her Korean uncle's grocery for one dramatic summer in Adachi's sometimes awkward but energetic debut. Yurika...

The Last Crossing.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... GUY VANDERHAEGHE. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (400p) ISBN 0-87113-912-X * This sweeping epic novel of the search for a lost Englishman in the raw Indian territories of the U.S.-Canadian Western borderlands in the late 19th century was a Canadian...

Land of Echoes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... DANIEL HECHT. Bloomsbury, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 1-58234-393-4 Hecht takes another step toward his grand goal of setting a supernatural mystery in even U.S. state with this second in the Cree Black series. City of Masks, the well-received first...

I'm a Believer.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JESSICA ADAMS. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-312-32107-4 The latest import from U.K. astrologist/novelist Adams (Tom, Dick, and Debbie Harry) is a whimsical, poignant paranormal love story. After his girlfriend, Catherine, dies...

When in Rome ...(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... GEMMA TOWNLEY. Ballantine, $12.95 paper (320p) ISBN 0-345-46756-6 Scattered with references to Roman Holiday, this would-be madcap romantic comedy by the sister of bestselling chick-lit writer Sophie Kinsella strives for love, laughs and...

Children of God Go Bowling.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SHANNON OLSON. Viking, $24.95 (292p) ISBN 0-670-03281-6 Chick lit? More like curmudgeon lit--and it couldn't be funnier in this wry, quirky sequel to Welcome to My Planet (Where English Is Sometimes Spoken). Thirty-something Shannon Olson,...

Brothers in Arms.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... MARCUS WYNNE. Forge, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 0-765-30782-0 Dale Miller and Charley Payne, the heroes of Wynne's two previous novels (No Other Option and Warrior in the Shadows respectively), just happen to be sitting around in separate coffee...

The Chase.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SUSAN WALES AND ROBIN SHOPE. Revell, $12.99 paper (368p) ISBN 0-8007-5934-6 In this romantic thriller for the Christian market, an unlikable protagonist and numerous cliches mar the story of a journalist who "had traded her own...

Above the Thunder.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... RENEE NANFREDI. MacAdam/Cage, $24 (344p) ISBN 1-931561-59-1 * Manfredi charts the disappointments and surprises of the human heart in her stunning debut novel, a complex ensemble character study that revolves around Anna Brinkman, a...

The Last Joy.(book Review)
January 5, 2004... KNUT HAMSUN, TRANS. FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY SVERRE LYNGSTAD. Green Integer, $12.95 paper (282p) ISBN 1-931243-19-0 The Norwegian Hamsun won the 1920 Nobel Prize for Literature on the strength of novels such as Hunger (1890), Pan (1894) and...

Madras on Rainy Days.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SAMINA ALI Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-374-19562-5 In this painstakingly detailed but strained debut, Ali explores the stifling world of Indian Muslim domestic life and the odd partnership forged by husband and wife in an...

The Changeling of Finnestuath.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... KATE HORSLEY. Shambhala, $22.95 (352p) ISBN 1-59030-048-3 Middlesex in the Middle Ages? Almost. In this complex, intelligent novel, Horsley tells the story of Grey, a 14th-century Irish peasant girl who, until adolescence, believed she was...

Night of the Radishes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SANDRA BENITEZ. Hyperion/Theia, $23.95 (288p) ISBN 0-7868-6400-1 Set in Minnesota and Mexico, Benitez's engrossing fourth novel recounts the journey of a responsible daughter who travels south to search for her long-lost brother....

Crofton's Fire.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... KEITH COPLIN. Putnam, $21.95 (288p) ISBN 0-399-15112-5 Coplin's debut novel soars well above most humdrum historical fiction, borne aloft by graceful prose, compellingly likable characters and a spirit of heartfelt humanity. West Point...

The Crossings.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JACK KETCHUM. Cemetery, Dance, $35 (110p) ISBN 1-58767-067-4 When Stephen King accepted his lifetime achievement garland front the National Book Foundation in November, he spoke of several genre authors worthy of an award nomination, giving...

A Family Affair.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... MARCUS MAJOR. Dutton, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 0-525-94768-X Major reunites some of the cast from his popular debut, Good Peoples (2000), in another engaging if predictable tale that explores the erosion of trust and commitment among the members...

Winsor McCay: Early Works.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... WINSOR McCAY. Checker, $19.95 paper (224p) ISBN 0-9741664-0-5 McCay, one of early newspaper comics' major figures, delighted in seeing how a sequence of graphic images could lead readers to imagine reality' transformed. The form best suited...

Point Blank.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ED BRUBAKER AND COLIN WILSON. WildStorm/DC Comics, $14.95 paper (128p) ISBN 1-4012-0116-4 Brubaker has a feel for writing about the urban underworld (documented in his graphic novel A Complete Lowlife), and here he puts a small-time...

The Life Eaters.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... DAVID BRIN AND SCOTT HAMPTON. WildStorm/ DC Comics, $29.95 (144p) ISBN 1-4012-0098-2 In 1986, science fiction writer Brin (Startide Rising; The Kiln People) published a novella, "Thor Meets Captain America," an alternate-history story in...

The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 1: Tower of the Elephant and Other Stories.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ROY THOMAS AND BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH. Dark Horse, $15.95 paper (164p) ISBN 1-59307-016-0 These reprints from Marvel's Conan the Barbarian (originally published in the early 1970s) shows the best and worst of sword and sorcery adventure. At...

Buddha Volume 1: Kapilavastu.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... OSAMU TEZUKA. A. Vertical (NBN, dist.), $24.95 (400p) ISBN 1-932274-43-8 * Tezuka, the master of Japanese comics, mixes his own characters with history as deftly as he transfers the most profound, complex emotions onto extremely cartoony...

Yossel: April 19, 1943.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JOE KUBERT. ibooks, $24.95 paper (128p) ISBN 0-7434-7516-X Kubert explores what might have been in this gripping account of WWII's Warsaw ghetto uprising. In the text introduction, Kubert recalls how his Polish family attempted to emigrate...

Don't Look Back.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... KARIN FOSSUM; TRANS. FROM THE NORWEGIAN BY FELICITY DAVID. Harcourt, $23 (304p) ISBN 0-15-101032-3 In Fossum's moody and subtle U.S. debut the fifth in her Inspector Sejer series, the popular Norwegian mystery writer displays her mastery...

A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus Novel.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... IAN RANKIN. Little, Brown, $22.95 (416p) ISBN 0-316-09564-8 * The 14th novel to feature the always compelling (and, as his name suggests, perpetually puzzling) John Rebus begins with what seems to be a uniquely American crime: a madman...

In Your Face: A Lily Pascale Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SCARLETT THOMAS. Justin, Charles/Kate's Mystery, $23.95 (264p) ISBN 1-932112-08-1 Alternating between the firs>person narrative of her amateur-sleuth heroine and an interview with a serial killer describing each of his murders, Thomas's...

Sherlock Holmes and the Hapsburg Tiara.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ALAN VANNEMAN. Carroll & Graf/Penzler, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-7867-1297-X After his weak debut, Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra (2002), which pitted the master sleuth against a race of intelligent rat-men, Vanneman provides a more...

Intensive Scare Unit.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... J.S. BORTHWICK. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-312-32494-4 In Borthwick's appealing 12th outing to feature English professor and amateur sleuth Sarah Deane (after 2002's Murder in the Rough), Sarah's 74-year-old cantankerous...

A Ruinous Wind: A Thomas the Falconer Mystery.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JOHN PILKINGTON. Severn, $27.99 (230p) ISBN 0-7278-6031-3 British author Pilkington's second Elizabethan mystery (after 2002's The Ruffler's Child) nicely blends historical events with engaging characters and a suspenseful plot but, alas,...

January Publications.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... In Daniel Pennac's delightfully quirky Monsieur Malaussene (translated from the French by Ian Monk), the final book in his Belleville quintet (The Scapegoat, etc.), his hapless hero, Benjamin Malaussene, once again plays the fall guy. Charged...

Gods' Concubine: Book Two of the Troy Game.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... SARA DOUGLASS. Tor, $27.95 (512p) ISBN 0765-70541-0 In the long, complex second installment of her Troy Game quartet (after 2003's Hades' Daughter), Australian author Douglass moves her teeming cast of mythic heroes from ancient Greece to...

The Stone of the Stars: The Dragon Throne Book I.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ALISON BAIRD. Warner Aspect, $13.95 paper (420p) ISBN 0-446-69098-8 * Canadian author Baird blends an accessible style, typical of her popular young adult novels (The Hidden World; The Dragon's Egg), with a rich mythology in this delightful...

Beast Master's Circus.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... ANDRE NORTON AND LYN McCoNCHIE. Tor, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-765-30042-7 Telepathic beasts and the efforts of Laris, a young animal trainer, to escape her bondage to Dedran, a greedy Circus Master, add intrigue to this latest installment of...

The Burning Land.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... VICTORIA STRAUSS. Eos, $24.95 (496p) ISBN 0-380-97891-1 Two theocratic societies clash in this solid if predictable fantasy from Strauss (The Arm of the Stone). Overthrown decades ago by an egalitarian revolution that quickly evolved into a...

The puzzle of detective inspector John Rebus.(PW Talks with Ian Rankin)(Interview)
January 5, 2004... PW: For the benefit of American readers, what exactly is "Irn-Bru," which appears so often in your novels? Ian Rankin: Irn-Bru [pronounced "Iron Brew"] is a Scottish soft drink; it's bright orange, sugary and fizzy, and seems a staple of...

Ring of Fire.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... EDITED AND CREATED BY ERIC FLINT. Baen, $23 (528p) ISBN 0-7434-7175-X Readers who enjoyed editor Flint's novels (1632; 1633) of a West Virginia town transported by a black hole back in time to Germany during the Thirty Years War will...

January Publications.(Brief Article)
January 5, 2004... In Steve White's fantasy Demon's Gate, the Bronze Age Prince Valdar and the sorcerer Nyrthim have their work cut out for them. The barrier against long-exorcised demons is crumbling, threatening universal ruin. As usual, White offers fast...

Again the Magic.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... LISA KLEYPAS. Avon, $6.99 (400p) ISBN 0380-81108-1 Kleypas (Worth Any Price, etc.) has made a name for herself with her darkly sensual historical romances and her willingness to treat the social issues of the Victorian era with the same...

Fair Play.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... DEIRDRE MARTIN. Berkley, $5.99 (368p) ISBN 0-425-19457-4 Martin's second playful romance set in the world of professional hockey (following Body Check) scores again. After nearly being raped by a sports star, Theresa Falconetti doesn't date...

Highlander Unbound.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JULIA LONDON. Pocket Star, $6.99 (400p) ISBN 0-7434-6506-7 London (The Secret Lover, etc.) returns to her historical romance roots with this sprightly Regency. Determined to save his family's estate, Scottish Captain Liam Lockhart of the...

Iron Coffin.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JOHN MANNOCK. Signet, $6.99 (400p) ISBN 0-451-21140-5 Fans of nautical novels may enjoy this highly technical WWII novel from first-time author Mannock, who takes the unusual approach of casting the crew of a German U-boat as the hook's...

Afternoons with Mr. Hogan: A Boy, a Golf Legend, and the Lessons of a Lifetime.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... JODY VASQUEZ. Penguin, $20 (160p) ISBN 1592-40051-5 Despite legendary golfer Ben Hogan's reported gruffness, reluctance to give interviews and inability to make polite small talk, people liked him. Especially first-time author Vasquez, who,...

The Pecking Order: Which Siblings Succeed and Why.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
January 5, 2004... DALTON CONLEY. Pantheon, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-375-42174-2 The surprising fact that sibling differences account for three-quarters of all differences between individuals in explaining American economic inequality acts as a challenge for NYU...