Publishers Weekly articles from June 1999

Publishers Weekly archives from June 1999

B&T, YBP Merge to Launch Academic Business Unit.(Baker & Taylor merges with Yankee Book Peddler)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... The deal means new products and services for research institutions and libraries IN A MOVE to strengthen its services to academic libraries, Baker & Taylor, the leading book wholesaler to libraries, will merge its academic services unit...

Sales, Earnings Up At John Wiley.(publishing company)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... JOHN WILEY & SONS reported that sales for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1999, rose 8.8% to $508.4 million. Net income increased to $39.7 million, compared to $36.6 million in fiscal 1998. Earnings in fiscal '98 included a one-time gain of...

Management Shifts at Ingram.(new vice-chairman to the board)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... INGRAM INDUSTRIES has made several changes, effective immediately, in its management structure. Orrin Ingram III has been named president and CEO of the company, and John Ingram has been named vice-chairman of the board. Robin Ingram Patton...

BPI Buys Britain's Whitaker Co.(acquisitions in the publishing industry)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... BPI, THE BUSINESS INFORMATION and magazine publishing subsidiary of the Dutch group VNU, has bought the British company Whitaker, publisher of the Bookseller, for an undisclosed sum. The sale includes Whitaker Business Publishing,...

Sales, Losses Soar at Online Bookstores.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... WHILE THE EXACT size and growth rate of the online book-selling market are much-discussed topics, a Publishers Weekly analysis of four e-retailers that report their results show that online book sales rose 322% in 1.998 to $687.1 million. ...

April Bookstore Sales Up 7.7%.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... BOOKSTORE SALES followed up a strong March, when sales increased 6.8%, with a more robust performance in April, when sales increased 7.7% to $906 million. Sales for the entire retail segment also rose 7.7% in April, according to estimates...

New Travel Imprint from PGI.(Publishers Group Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... AVALON PUBLISHING GROUP, a division of Publishers Group Inc., has announced the formation of Avalon Travel Publishing, an imprint that will be composed of Moon Travel Handbooks and Foghorn Outdoors. Susan Reich, COO of Avalon Publishing, told...

King Recovering; Scribner Cancels Appearances.(Stephen King, author, injured in a car accident)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... WHILE BESTSELLING author Stephen King recovers from injuries sustained in a recent Maine road accident, Scribner, his publishing house, has been forced to cancel the author's three appearances planned to promote the September release of a new...

Holt, Picador Partner for Trade Paperbacks.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... HENRY HOLT has teamed up with fellow Holtzbrinck publisher Picador USA in a joint venture that will have Picador publishing many of Holt's fiction titles in trade paperback. The first three titles to be published by Picador will be Salman...

Pattis to Head NTC/Contemporary.(Mark Pattis, new chairman of the publishing company)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Mark Pattis has been named chairman of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, the supplementary education and trade publishing division of Tribune Co. In the newly created position, Pattis will focus on strategic planning and business development...

General Publishing Closes.(publishing industry)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... GENERAL PUBLISHING GROUP of Los Angeles, which for two years in a row topped PW's list of fastest growing small companies, closed its doors on June 16. A public auction of its assets, advertised in Publishers Weekly, however, was postponed...

Meulenhoff Buying Het Spectrum.(publishing industry)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... ONE OF THE LAST remaining independent Dutch publishers of significant size, Het Spectrum of Utrecht, has entered into negotiations with that country's market leader, Meulenhoff & Co., for sale of 100% of the company. A family group now run by...

Sterling Celebrates 50 Years, Acquires Lark Books.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... As IT MARKS its 50th anniversary, Sterling Publishing has acquired Lark Books/Altamont Press. Lark, established in 1973, is the publisher of craft books including bestsellers Complete Soapmaker and Making Mosaics. It has a backlist of about...

Macmillan Library Units to Join Gale.(publishing industry)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... THE THOMSON CORP., which acquired Macmillan Library Reference earlier this month from Pearson for $86 million (Highlights, June 21), will merge the various MLR imprints with that of its Gale Group subsidiary. The imprints that are part of the...

AAP SALES REPORT: APRIL.(publishing industry)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... AAP SALES REPORT: APRIL Trade Paperback Rolls On April Year to Date * Adult Paperback 38.4 36.8 * Mass Market -23.9 -5.4 * School Text -4.7 3.1 Note: Table made from bar graph ...

PERILS OF THE WEB.(young author to write a book about sexual harassment in the internet)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Katie Tarbox is only 17 years old, but has a considerable story to tell, and she plans to tell it in a book just sold to Laurie Chittenden at Dutton after a heated three-day auction conducted by her Coast agent, B.J. Robbins.Girl.com is the...

WOOF!(doggie story snapped by Peter Workman 5)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... In a story that could be subtitled "Dog Bites Workman' the publisher of that name has bought Saving Gracle: A Dog's Tale, and thereby hangs one. Mark Beckloff and Dan Dye run Three Dog Bakery, which, as canine fanciers know, is one of the...

MARGOLIN MOVES.(Phillip Margolin moves to another company)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Bestselling authors continue to move to new houses in a steady stream, partly, no doubt, in search of bigger paydays, but just as often, it seems, in search of the greater enthusiasm a new publisher can sometimes bring. The latest such move...

David Rosenthal.(executive for Simon and Schuster acquires book from Time)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Simon & Schuster's David Rosenthal has acquired a book called People of the Century, an illustrated volume of profiles based on a series that occupied five special issues of Time magazine and was the subject of a series of CBS prime-time...

John Sterling.(Henry Holt executive with a new book form Joe Kanon)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... John Sterling, president of Henry Holt, has acquired a new novel by former Houghton Mifflin publisher Joe Kanon (Los Alamos), whom he had first published at Broadway. It is Holt's first hard-soft deal in association with St. Martin's, agented...

Michael Pietsch.(first book about the FBI, ever)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... For the first time in its history, the FBI has agreed to let an active agent write about the bureau, and Little, Brown's Michael Pietsch has the book. He pre-empted Christopher Whitcomb's Cold Zero, heading off a planned auction by ICM's...

Bob Spitz.(author)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Several people have reminded us that Bob Spitz wrote a major biography of Bob Dylan 10 years ago for Norton that is still in print (Hot Deals, June 14).

Licensing '99: Franchises at the Forefront.
June 28, 1999... AT LICENSING '99 INTERNATIONAL--the trade conference where licensed property owners pitch their entertainment, corporate and art brands to promotional partners and licensees--most exhibitors emphasized their ongoing franchises, and none of...

New Religion Review Team.(Henry Carrigan to become Editorial director at Trinity Press)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... HENRY CARRIGAN, religion book review editor for Publishers Weekly since 1995, has resigned to accept a position as editorial director at Trinity Press International, the academic imprint of the Morehouse Publishing Group. Replacing him as of...

BEHIND THE BESTSELLERS.(brief notes)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... THE SHADOW KNOWS Bob Woodward's Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate has not only generated strong sales since its June 15 pub date but has also stirred much debate around the Beltway. The Washington Post asked, "Deep...

Musicland Goes Online; Books to Pick Up in 2000.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... LAST WEDNESDAY, June 23, Musicland opened Web sites that mirror its four retail divisions: SamGoody.com, Suncoast.com, MediaPlay.com and OnCue.com. The sites offer a complete selection of music and video from the stores, but will initially...

RD Plans Health Web Site.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... MOVING TO FULFILL company chairman Thomas O. Ryder's promise that the Internet will be an important part of Reader's Digest's future, the publisher last week announced a wide-ranging alliance with WebMD, a health-care Web site. Under the...

Moravian Book Shop Evolves Through History.(Moravian Book Shop, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Oldest bookstore in the country still going strong after more than 250 years SINCE ITS INCEPTION in 1745 as a seller of books for the Moravian Church in the eastern Pennsylvania town of Bethlehem, the Moravian Book Shop has thrived by...

BookTalk Expands to Crown, Ballantine and Doubleday.(chatting with your favorite authors)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... DIAL 1-818-788-9722 and Bret Easton Ellis's cold, sexy voice answers. Glamorama, he reminds, is out from Knopf, and then he starts talking about Victor Ward, "the boy of the moment in 1990s Manhattan, a male model and wannabe actor who dates...

School's Out, but Kids' Sidelines Work Harder Than Ever.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Summer market abounds with plush toys, colorful books and other treats for campers AS IN PAST SEASONS, many of the most creative and engaging new sidelines for summer 1999 target children, little and big. Kamp Kids, a new stationery...

An Author's 'Last Shot' Takes Off.(Lisa Zeidner's book selling better than expected)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... An accessible, sexy topic proves the charm for four-time novelist Lisa Zeidner LISA ZEIDNER is a professor of English and creative writing at Rutgers University's Camden, N.J., campus. She regularly writes book reviews for the New York...

Inspired by 'Lolita'.(Barney Rosset to publish a controversial book)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... IN AN UNUSUAL royalty-sharing agreement with the estate of Vladimir Nabokov, publisher Barney Rosset can now release Pla Pera's Lo's Diary, a retelling of Lolita from the nymphet's point of view that was previous canceled by FSG over...

Sibling Revelry For 'Car Talk'.(pairs of brothers to market book online)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... THERE'S MORE THAN ONE set of brothers involved in A Haircut In Horse Town--and Other Great Car Talk Puzzlers, which will be distributed to the book trade with an initial 25,000-copy printing by Perigee next month. Yes, authors Tom and Ray...

Cruise Okays 'Eyes Wide Shut' Photos.(Tom Cruise)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... THE CONTENT OF Warner Books' tie-in to Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (Book News, June 14) continues to change. Not long ago, a 16-page photo insert for the August release, a rare combination of screenplay and original source material (in...

Flying Starts.(children's book author David Almond)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Five first-time children's authors and illustrators talk about their fall debuts DAVID ALMOND When David Almond's novel Skellig (Delacorte, May) appeared last year in the author's native England, his publisher, Hodder Children's...

KAREN ROMANO YOUNG.(children's book author)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Like the illustrious vehicle in Karen Romano Young's fresh and funny novel, the framework for The Beetle and Me (Greenwillow, May) had been around for awhile and just needed some tuning up. While in high school, Young had written and...

JONATHAN FROST.(children's book author)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Jonathan Frost was in junior high when he made up his mind to be an artist. It wasn't until over two decades later, however, that he turned his hand to children's books, with the publication of Gowanus Dogs (FSG/Foster, Apr.). Born in...

JENNIFER HOLM.(children's book author)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... The idea for Jennifer Holm's novel Our Only May Amelia (HarperCollins, June) emerged from a Christmas present. Six years ago, while unpacking an old suitcase in her grandmother's house, Holm's Aunt Elizabeth found a diary kept by Holm's...

AMY WALROD.(children's book illustrator)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... To hear Amy Walrod tell it, her "flying start" as a children's illustrator has been a long time coming. "I had a difficult couple of years there," says the 1995 Rhode Island School of Design graduate, whose quirky paint-and-paper collages...

CLARION CREATES WIESNER ACTIVITY KIT.(Clarion Books, children's book author David Wiesner)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... To promote a 1992 title by Caldecott Medalist David Wiesner, June 29, 1999, Clarion Books created an activity kit for Barnes & Noble and Borders and sent postcards to members of the Association of Booksellers for Children and librarians. ...

PLEASANT COMPANY TO PUBLISH NEWSLETTER.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Pleasant Company, publisher of the American Girls series, is now publishing a newsletter called Daughters that offers girls ages 10-16 and their parents advice on such subjects as health, family, friends and growing up. Pleasant Company...

FREDDY THE PIG GETS A YOUNG EDITOR.(children's book publishing)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Walter Brooks's famous pig detective Freddy has long been a favorite among young mystery fans, and now one of those fans has collaborated with editors at the Overlook Press, which has been reissuing Brooks's classics, on a new volume, The Wit...

ARTHUR WINS HIS SECOND EMMY AWARD.(children's animated television program on PBS)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Arthur, the enormously popular PBS children's series based on Marc Brown's Arthur Adventures (Little, Brown), has won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program for the second year in a row. The award was announced last...

Ricky Still Rockin'.(books about singer Ricky Martin)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... AFTER RUNNING a story on the various Ricky Martin books (Children's Books, May 31), we became aware of the following forthcoming titles. Out this month from Kensington's Zebra Books is Ricky Martin: Red-Hot on the Rise by Kathleen Tracy....

Roundtable Press Starts Children's Line.(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... ROUNDTABLE PRESS, a packager of illustrated nonfiction, self-help and gift books, has announced its expansion into illustrated nonfiction and fiction for young readers. Betsy Gould, publisher of Bantam's juvenile division for a decade and...

The Big Bang Theory.(computer book publishing)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... The founder of Muska & Lipman thinks that the secret to success is quick response SUMMER IS THE TIME for heat and fireworks. One computer publisher producing some fireworks this season is Muska & Lipman of Cincinnati. Andy Shafran,...

COMPUTER BEST SELLERS.(computer books)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... OPERATING SYSTEMS 1 Windows 98 for Dummies. Andy Rathbone. IDG, $19.99 ISBN 0-76450-261-1 2 UNIX in a Nutshell, 2nd Ed. O'Reilly & Associates. O'Reilly & Associates, $19.95 ISBN 1-56592-001-5 3 Linux for Dummies, 2nd Ed. Jon...

Management Demonstrating Net Results.(books on business management)
June 28, 1999... With the Internet's pervasive influence, a growing number of today's titles could more correctly be categorized as e-management One word summarizes what's going on with business management books today: Internet. Other trends sort...

White Collar Whizzes.(business management books)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... TOM PETERS CONCEDES that matters of business and management have improved since he wrote, with Robert Waterman, the wildly successful In Search of Excellence nearly 20 years ago. "The word 'quality' was a bit of a novelty then' he says, "and...

Nikki Giovanni: Three Decades on the Edge.(Interview)
June 28, 1999... SITTING OPPOSITE PW at a midtown coffee shop, Nikki Giovanni wears a gray-green pants suit, sharply tailored and threaded with silvery fibers that make the material sparkle every time she moves. Her blue tie, printed with little tumbling...

HANGOVER SOUP.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Louise Redd. Little, Brown, $22.50 (272p) ISBN 0-316-47900-4 "I met my husband in college, where it's hard to tell who's a true alcoholic and who's not," explains Faith Evers, the deliciously astute narrator of Redd's second novel, which...

THE NOTEBOOK OF LOST THINGS.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Megan Staffel. Soho, $23 (240p) ISBN 1-56947-160-6 The intensity of Staffel's graphic first chapter, in which one of the protagonists guillotines a chicken, stands in contrast to the rest of this mild novel dealing with death and renewal...

THE ABYSSINIAN.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Jean-Christophe Rufin, trans. By Willard Wood. Norton, $25.95 (448p) ISBN 0-393-04716-4 French physician Rufin's extensively researched historical novel, winner of both the Prix Mediterrance and the Prix Goncourt, is a sprawling romance...

THE LADIES FARM.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Viqui Litman. Crown, $23 (256p) ISBN 0-609-60380-9 Litman's brisk and chatty first novel promises to celebrate women's friendship, but her characters sometimes seem to care more for jewelry and real estate. The "farm" of the title is a...

SHADOW-BOX.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Antonia Logue. Grove/Atlantic, $24 (336p) ISBN 0-8021-1647-7 The dual metaphor of shadow-box (a shallow container to display items/to spar with an imaginary opponent) figures luminously in Irish writer Logue's notable debut, an epistolary...

THE PLEDGE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Rob Kean. Delacorte, $24.95 (5l4p) ISBN 0-446-52497-2 First novelist Kean's overlong tale of a pervasive, sinister college fraternity fails to thrill, and offers few other virtues. When freshman pledge Chad Ewing is found bloodied and...

OFF SEASON: The Unexpurgated Edition.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Jack Ketchum, intro. by Douglas E. Winter. Overlook Connection (P.O. Box 526, Woodstock, Ga. 30188; overlookcn@aol.com), $45 (225p) ISBN 1-892950-10-3 Eighteen years after its mass market release by Ballantine, Ketchum's debut horror...

AWAKE WHEN ALL THE WORLD IS ASLEEP.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Shree Ghatage. Anansi (General Distribution, dist.), $13.95 paper (l76p) ISBN 0-88784-602-5 The inescapable nature of fate and the demands and obligations of tradition are sensitively explored in the 11 linked stories in Ghatage's debut...

FAST EDDIE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Robert L. O'Connell, Morrow, $24 (288p) ISBN 0-688-16690-3 An engagingly offbeat debut novel by an iconoclastic military historian (Of Arms and Men: A History of War, Weapons and Aggression), this is an often irreverent, even ribald,...

THE COMING OF NIGHT.(Review)
June 28, 1999... John Rechy. Grove, $23 (256p) ISBN 08021-1650-7 In a return to some of the themes of his first novel, the gay classic City of Night (1963), Rechy follows an ensemble cast of mainly gay characters over the course of one day in 1981 Los...

WHAT SHE LEFT ME: Stories and a Novella.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Judy Doenges. Middlebury College/UPNE, $22.95 (l76p) ISBN 0-87451-937-3 Winner of Bread Loaf's 1998 Bakeless Prize for Fiction, this collection of nine stories and a novella situates diverse characters in hard times, but supports them...

SPEAK RWANDA: A Novel.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Julian R. Pierce. Picador, $23 (304p) ISBN 0-312-20367-5 Since 1994, several books of nonfiction, and now Pierce's debut novel, have tried to comprehend how an estimated one million Tutsi men, women and children came to be slaughtered by...

ULTIMATE JUSTICE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Mimi Latt. Simon & Schuster, $24 (384p) ISBN 0-684-84382-X There's justice, and then there's justice in Latt's third legal thriller (Powers of Attorney and Pursuit of Justice). While visiting her dying mother in L.A., deputy district...

OUT OF ORDER.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Bonnie MacDougal. Ballantine, $24.95 (400p) ISBN 0-345-43444-7 Political drama and star-crossed romance mix with the suspenseful action of a legal thriller and family mystery as MacDougal tackles murder, espionage, kidnapping, statutory...

THE WILD CHILD.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Mary Jo Putney. Ballantine, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 0-345-43315-7 Lady Meriel Grahame, the eighth heroine in Putney's Fallen Angels series, has lived in a world of self-imposed silence since the night of violence in colonial India that claimed...

DO YOU PROMISE NOT TO TELL?(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Mary Jane Clark. St. Martin's, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 0-312-20527-9 Clark's second thriller (after Do You Want to Know a Secret?) again features the world of broadcast media. Farrell Slater, the 38-year-old producer of the highly rated, New...

HENRY OF ATLANTIC CITY.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Frederick Reuss. MacMurray & Beck, $22 (250p) ISBN 1-878448-89-7 A wonderful foil for an uncaring world, six-year-old Henry wants to be a saint: he's read up on fifth-century Byzantium, and on the early Christian heresy called...

THE PASSENGER.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Patrick A. Davis. Putnam, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 0-399-14491-9 Davis's sturdy, adrenaline-charged political techno-thriller sets a down-to-earth air force colonel against a deadly conspiracy involving formidable players in the White House and...

MAPS.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Nuruddin Farah. Arcade, $23.95 (272p) ISBN 1-55970-485-3 Maps and Gifts (see below) are the first two volumes in Farah's second trilogy, 'Blood in the Sun (after the acclaimed, three-volume Variations on the Theme of an African...

GIFTS.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Nuruddin Farah. Arcade, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 1-55970-484-5 In Gifts, the second volume in Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy (see Maps, above), the same forces of war and unrest in Somalia shape the life of Duniya, a widowed nurse with three...

WHAT IT TAKES TO GET TO VEGAS.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Yxta Maya Murray. Grove/Atlantic, $23 (320p) ISBN 0-8021-1642-6 Rita Zapata, the Mexican-American heroine of Murray's (Locas) beautifully written but patchy second novel about coming of age in East L.A. in the '80s and '90s learns early...

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... William Sutcliffe. Penguin, $9.95 paper (256p) ISBN 0-14-028358-7 David Greenford, the skeptical British narrator/hero of this breezy novel, just wants to sleep with Liz, his best friend's girlfriend, but winds up spending three harrowing...

LEGAL FICTION.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Bob Huffman Jr. Creative Arts, $13.50 paper (l20p) ISBN 0-88739-205-9 The way that this potent debut collection tears at the pompous facade that surrounds lawyers and the legal system would be humorous if it weren't so disturbing. In...

THE LONE WOMAN.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Bernardo Atxaga, trans. by Margaret Jull Costa. Harvill (FSG, dist.), $24 (120p) ISBN 1-86046-421-1 Basque writer Atxaga, whose 1994 novel, The Lone Man, described a former terrorist's inability to escape his past, offers a compact,...

NIGHT ON FIRE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Diana Deverell. Avon, $23 (304p) ISBN 0-380-97611-0 Black market missiles and warring bikers mix dangerously with a teenage boy's medical emergency and a troubling, out-of-the-past romance in Deverell's solid second Casey Collins novel...

PADDIES.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Patrick Mulrooney. Creative Arts, $24.95 (275p) ISBN 0-88739-206-7; paper $16.50 -194-X Woefully lacking in originality, imagination and any vestige of literary style, this would-be western is a plodding read. Inspired by his tutelage...

UNDER THE SAME HEAVEN.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Marjorie Bradford. Black Belt, $17.95 paper (460p) ISBN 1-881329-42-1 An engaging story written in homespun prose, Bradford's debut provides a panoramic view of the South near the end of the Great Depression. The narrative begins in...

OVER UNDER SIDEWAYS DOWN.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Gordon Skene. Malvern/British Book Company, $24.95 ISBN 0-947993-79-7 From within a life-threatening coma, a middle-aged man delves into the mystery of what he has become, returning mentally to the California of the 1960s and '70s, in...

THE SPLINTERED DAY.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... V.K. Mina. Serpent's Tail (Consortium, dist.) $14 paper (2l4p) ISBN 1-85242-452-4 Structurally untraditional, sometimes erotic and sometimes painfully hip, Mina's first novel is a story of romantic exhilaration and disaffection among the...

LOVE: A USER'S GUIDE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Clare Naylor. Fawcett, $12.95 paper (228p) ISBN 0-449-00556-9 The British Invasion rolls on, with permutations of Bridget Jones popping up everywhere, this time in Naylor's lighthearted and assured debut novel. Twentysomething Amy is a...

THE GHOST.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Marc Olden. Simon & Schuster, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-684-83467-7 From the author of Fear's Justice comes a blustering crime novel that reads a lot like a film treatment, swift and shallow. Ross Magellan is a sultry undercover New York cop...

CHUMP CHANGE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... David Eddie. Riverhead, $13 paper (224p) ISBN 1-57322-736-6 It's hard to claim literary burnout after a brief stint as a glorified filing clerk at Newsweek, but the slacker protagonist of Eddie's debut novel, 28-year-old, double-M.A.,...

IN THE GARDEN OF PAPA SANTUZZU.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... Tony Ardizzone Picador. USA, $24 (368p) ISBN 0-312-20307-1 Gathered around a metaphorical campfire, the members of the extended Girgenti clan take turns regaling us in this robust, beguiling novel about family and the immigrant experience...

CITYSIDE.(Review)(Brief Article)
June 28, 1999... William Heffernan. Morrow, $24 (320p) ISBN 0-688-16406-4 Heffernan (The Dinosaur Club) whips up a superior potboiler in this tale of corrupt newspapering, brutal cops and greedy doctors. It is New York, 1975, and in the post-Watergate era...