Publishers Weekly articles from March 2009

Publishers Weekly archives from March 2009

Haunted house.(Publishers Weekly: Pick of the week)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Little Stranger Sarah Waters. Riverhead, $26.95 (464p) ISBN 978-1-59448-880-1 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Waters (The Night Watch) reflects on the collapse of the British class system after WWII in a stunning haunted house tale whose...

Next on the electronic frontier: digital catalogues: Harper will use electronic catalogue for fall list; Edelweiss gains traction.(Foreword)
March 30, 2009... With its announcement last week that it is moving from print to digital catalogues beginning with its fall list, HarperCollins became the first major trade house to abandon print catalogues in favor of electronic versions, but other publishers...

Books up at Hastings.(Hasting Entertainment)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Book comps rose 1.3% for the year ended January 31 at Hasting Entertainment, beating comp-store sales for the entire chain, which fell 1.6%. Overall, Hastings had a 1.6% decline in total revenue for the year, to $538.7 million, while net income...

A down year for Random House.(Challenges)
March 30, 2009... With operating EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) falling significantly faster than sales last year, Random House's return on sales was 8.0% in 2008, the lowest since 2004, when the return rate was 7.8%. Moreover, the 137 million euros in...

Mixed quarter for Scholastic.(Scholastic Books)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Sales from continuing operations at Scholastic fell 2%, to $424.9 million, but excluding the impact of foreign currency, revenue would have increased 1%. Net loss for the quarter was $36 million, down from $79.3 million in last year's third...

Lande named Klutz publisher.(Scholastic's Debra Lande)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Debra Lande has been named to the newly created spot of publisher of Scholastic's Klutz division. Lande, who begins March 30, was most recently director of product innovation for Chronicle Books.

Filedby.com launches.(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... A Web site that features 1.8 million author Web pages has been launched by Filedby Inc., a new company founded by former Ingram executive Peter Clifton and industry analyst Mike Shatzkin. Filedby .com hosts Web pages that provide a brief...

First CBE flops.(Christian Book Expo)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... The first Christian Book Expo held in Dallas March 20-23 attracted only 1,500 consumers; organizers had hoped to draw between 15,000 to 20,000 book buyers to the event, which featured 238 Christian authors. Show sponsor ECPA was uncertain if it...

Freezes for B&N execs.(Barnes & Noble)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... The top five executives at Barnes & Noble will not receive an increase in their base salaries for the current fiscal year ending January 2010. The freeze was made at the recommendation of management. The execs, including chairman Len Riggio...

Meyer phenomenon propels Hachette.(Glittering)(Hachette Book Group on Stephenie Meyer's novel)
March 30, 2009... In discussing the first-half performance of Hachette Book Group earlier this year, CEO David Young said 2008 would be remembered as the year of Stephenie Meyer, a prediction that indeed came true. With Meyer's books selling a total of 29.7...

Foundry triples.(Deals)(Foundry Literary + Media)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Last week was a busy one at Foundry Literary + Media, which closed three sales by three agents in as many days. First, Peter McGuigan accepted a preempt from Bantam's Danielle Perez for Economist writer Robert Lane Greene's Talk This Way: The...

Mitzi's Book.(Deals)(Abrams Books for Young Readers on 'Mitzi's World')(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Abrams Books for Young Readers publisher Howard Reeves has acquired world rights to Mitzi's World, a collaboration between 7th Heaven actress Deborah Raffin and folk artist Jane Wooster Scott. This seek-and-find book will star the...

Body snatchers.(Deals)(Weinstein Books on 'The Bradbury Report')(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Weinstein Books editor Richard Florest bought North American rights to a debut novel by Steven Polansky called The Bradbury Report; Doug Stewart at Sterling Lord made the sale. Set 50 years in the future, when the U.S. has implemented a...

On the road.(Deals)(Riverhead Books on Davy Rothbart)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Sean McDonald at Riverhead has acquired Davy Rothbart's untitled collection of connected essays in a North American rights deal with Jud Laghi at LJK Literary Management. Rothbart, the creator of Found magazine and a frequent contributor to This...

Getting ready.(Deals)(Plume Publishing's 'How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It')(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Becky Cole has made her first acquisition since joining Plume last month; it's called How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It and the author is James Rawles, the founder of SurvivalBlog.com, which has gotten 235 million hits since...

Smith named Wiley COO.(John Wiley & Sons' chief operating officer Stephen Smith)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Stephen Smith has been named executive v-p and chief operating officer at John Wiley & Sons. Smith, who will be responsible for the overall direction of Wiley's global publishing businesses, is relocating from the U.K. to Wiley's...

New running press publisher.(Running Press' Christopher K. Navratil)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Christopher K. Navratil, most recently publisher of Andrews McMeel Universal's Accord Publishing division, has been named publisher of Running Press. He will start April 1. Navratil replaces Jon Anderson, who left to run Simon & Schuster's...

Macmillan expands podcasts.(Listen Up)(Macmillan Publishing)
March 30, 2009... After launching a dedicated Web site for podcasters--and potential authors--in September 2007, Macmillan is deepening its foothold in the downloadable audio market by selling expanded podcasts. The company's Quick and Dirty Tips series, spun...

Urban spirit offers Bibles for black worshipers religion publishing.(Religion Publishing)
March 30, 2009... Working for his father, the founder of Urban Ministries Inc.--an African-American religion media and book publishing company based in Chicago---Mel Banks Jr. couldn't help noticing the demand for Bibles aimed at the African-American consumer. So...

Shandler up at Alloy.(People)(Alloy Entertainment's Sara Shandler)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Sara Shandler has been promoted to v-p and editorial director at Alloy Entertainment. Shandler, who joined Alloy in 2003, has edited several bestselling Alloy series including Gossip Girl. Also being promoted are Andrea C. Uva, who's been named...

Oostergetel to PT.(People)(Publishing Technology's Natasha Oostergetel)(Brief article)
March 30, 2009... Natasha Ooster getel has been named online sales manager at Publishing Technology. Oostergetel, who has worked at Palgrave Macmillan, will be responsible for generating sales for PT online products.

Audio bestsellers.(audiobook bestsellers)(List)
March 30, 2009... Audio Bestsellers Fiction March (1) The Associate (unabr.). John Grisham. Read by Eric Singer: Random House Audio, $44.95 ISBN 978-0-7393-3304-4 (2) The Shack (unabr.). William P. Young. Read by Roger Mueller. Oasis...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jonesing for a new James Patterson? (And who could blame you: it's been two weeks since Little, Brown released Max, the fifth in the author's Maximum Ride YA series.) Fret not: coming next week is 7th Heaven, the latest...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A Lion Called Christian (copies in print: 171,000) depicts the bond between two Australians, John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke, and a boisterous lion cub they purchased at Harrod's in 1969. In 1970, the men needed...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Oops. No Bones about it--or rather, a paucity of Bones. We reported last week that Kellerman's latest mass market bestseller has 90,000 copies in print; the correct figure is 900,000. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On his...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On February 9, we asked, "Might a Reader [Oscar] win extend its bestseller tenure?" The answer Is yes, in both the novel and movie versions. At 15 weeks, the film is the second longest-running of the top 25--exceeded...

To tweet or not to tweet? The twitter basics: promoting books in 140 characters or less.(digital publishing)
March 30, 2009... By now, you may have heard that Twitter's 6.1 million unique monthly visitors make it the third most popular social network, compared to Facebook's 78.5 million users and MySpace's 65.7 million users, according to Quantcast. But as more authors,...

Jordan fenn: head of one of Canada's largest indie houses does things differently.(CHANGE MAKERS)(Interview)
March 30, 2009... While many heads of publishing houses have worked their way up through editorial, Jordan Fenn started out as a sales rep for H.B. Fenn and Company, the Toronto publishing company his father, Harold B. Fenn, started in 1982 (actually, Jordan's...

The new storytelling: kids' houses lead the way in developing multimedia platforms.(THE AMANDA PROJECT)(Fourth Story Media)(Cover story)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Back in early December, when we meet with Lisa Holton about her new book packaging company, Fourth Story Media, it seems like an oddly exhilarating moment to be discussing a start-up, much less a book publishing...

A garland of garlands: anthologies remain a mainstay of poetry publishing: the father of all poetry anthologies was Greek--the anthologia Graeca, known in English as the Greek anthology, the first version a collection of epigrams and poems compiled by Meleager of Gadara. that was in the first century B.C.(Poetry Month 2009)
March 30, 2009... Ever since, the poetry anthology has endured as a form that strives to represent or establish a particular tradition or mode of practice. Its role is vital not only in canon building but in audience building; more often that not, it is through...

Sustaining for sustenance: gardening gets back to its green roots.(Gardening Books)
March 30, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite publishing's massive layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, many gardening publishers have noted an increase in their annual sales. This is due in large part to a renewed excitement surrounding books on...

The Story Sisters.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Story Sisters Alice Hoffman. Crown/Shaye Areheart, $25 (336p) ISBN 978-0-307-39386-9 Lyrical but atypically monotonous, bestseller Hoffman's (The Third Angel) latest follows the dark family saga of Elv, Megan and Claire Story, sisters...

Border Songs.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Border Songs Jim Lynch. Knopf, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-35736-6 Lynch digs into the strange culture of a U.S.-Canada border town in his lush second novel (after The Highest Tide). Brandon Vanderkool, the town freak people talk about...

The Scarecrow.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Scarecrow Michael Connelly. Little, Brown, $27.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-316-16630-0 Bestseller Connelly comments on the plight of print journalism in a nail-biting thriller featuring reporter Jack McEvoy, last seen in 2004'S The Narrows....

Brimstone.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Brimstone Robert B. Parker. Putnam, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15571-0 Parker's gunslinging saddle pals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch return for their third adventure, in which the two lawmenfor-hire exchange snappy dialogue and hot lead...

Blind Sight.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Blind Sight Terri Persons. Doubleday, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-385-52653-1 In Persons's middling third paranormal crime thriller to feature Minnesota FBI agent Bernadette Saint Clare (after Blind Rage), Saint Clair and her boss, Tony...

Sunnyside.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * Sunnyside Glen David Gold. Knopf, $26.95 (640p) ISBN 978-0-307-27068-9 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the bestselling author of Carter Beats the Devil comes an elegant blend of reality and fiction, war drama and Hollywood glamour. Gold...

Bad Things.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Bad Things Michael Marshall. Morrow, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-143440-2 At the start of this unsettling novel of supernatural suspense from bestseller Marshall (The Intruders), four-year-old Scott Henderson dies from no apparent cause...

Soul of a salesman: PW talks with Clancy Martin.(Q&A)(Interview)
March 30, 2009... You may think twice about buying that Rolex after reading how to sell, Clancy Martin's hilarious and devastating debut about an impressionable Canadian teenager who learns some hard lessons about life, love and diamonds in 1980s Ft. Worth, Tex...

The Red Squad.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Red Squad E.M. Broner. Pantheon, $24 (224p) ISBN 978-0-307-37791-3 Broner (A Weave of Women) succeeds in capturing the political spirit of the 1960s and '70s in this character-driven tale of English graduate students and teachers...

Wicked Prey.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Wicked Prey John Sandford. Putnam, $27.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-399-15567-3 The 2008 Republican convention serves as the backdrop for bestseller Sandford's amped-up, ultra-violent 19th thriller to feature Lucas Davenport of the Minneapolis...

Right of Thirst.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Right of Thirst Frank Huyler. Harper Perennial, $14.99 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-168754-9 Doctor-author Huyler offers in his first novel (after story collection The Laws of Invisible Things) a clear-eyed if occasionally overwrought...

Whispered Lies.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Whispered Lies Sherrilyn Kenyon with Dianna Love. Pocket, $15 paper (400p)ISBN 978-1-4165-9742-1 Romantic suspense fans will welcome the second BAD (Bureau of American Defense) Agent novel from bestseller Kenyon and RITA Award-winner Love...

Transit.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Transit Bernard Share. Dalkey Archive, $12.95 paper (140p) ISBN 978-1-56478-542-8 A quirky, colloquial time-traveling novel by Share (The Emergency) carries two men back to their days at Trinity College circa 1949. Two aging salesmen run...

The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards Robert Boswell. Graywolf, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-55597-524-1 In this imaginative story collection, author Boswell (Century's Son) examines the limits and losses of ordinary souls with technical mastery...

The Brothers Boswell.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Brothers Boswell Philip Baruth. Soho, $24 (336p) ISBN 978-1-56947-559-1 Baruth (The X-President) shows his versatility with this chilling literary thriller. In 1763 London, John Boswell, the resentful younger brother of Samuel...

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Pirates! In an Adventure with Napoleon Gideon Defoe. Pantheon, $16.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-375-42398-7 Pirate Captain returns in this installment of Defoe's loony pirate yarns (The Pirates! in an Adventure with Ahab; The Pirates! in an...

Do not go non-prolifically into that good night.(My Father's Tears and Other Stories and Endpoint and Other Poems)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Two of the three posthumous Updike books publishing this year deal heavily with late-life laments. * My Father's Tears and Other Stories John Updike. Knopf, $25 (304p) ISBN 978-0-307-27156-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Updike compresses...

Choral Society.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Choral Society Prue Leith. St. Martin's/Dunne, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-56078-2 Three Notting Hill 50-somethings meet in a choral class and join together to overcome the vicissitudes of midlife in Leith's tribute to friendship. Lucy is...

Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes. Ig (Consortium, dist.), $14.95 (200p) ISBN 978-0-9815040-2-5 In her debut collection, Milanes tells varied, often heartbreaking tales of Cuban-American exiles. With young...

Chin Up, Honey.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Chin Up, Honey Curtiss Ann Matlock. Mira, $13.95 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2558-1 Life in Matlock's nostalgic Valentine, Okla., is a Bradburyesque vision with drugstore soda fountains, old-timey radio shows filling the airwaves and a...

Wonder.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Wonder Hugo Claus, trans, from the Dutch by Michael Henry Heim. Archipelago (Consortium, dist.), $15 paper (344p) ISBN 978-0-9800330-1-4 Belgian author Claus (1929-2008) reveals in this haunting, polyglot novel (first published in the...

When to Go into the Water.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... When to Go into the Water Lawrence Sutin. Sarabande (Consortium, dist.), $15.95 paper (136p) ISBN 978-1-932511-72-7 In discrete, delightfully composed vignettes, Sutin, a biographer of Aleister Crowley and Philip K. Dick, tells the...

Secret Keepers.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Secret Keepers Mindy Friddle. St. Martin's, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-53702-9 In her second novel, Friddle (The Garden Angel) returns to the family plot for the surprising story of a dysfunctional Southern family, a long-buried secret...

Rooftops of Tehran.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Rooftops of Tehran Mahbod Seraji. NAL, $15 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-451-22681-5 Set in 1970s Iran during the shah's regime, this earnest, semiautobiographical debut novel is told from the perspective of bookish 17-year-old Pasha Shahed,...

What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going Damion Searls. Dalkey Archive, $12.95 paper (102p) ISBN 978-1-56478-547-3 A too spare debut collection of five elegantly crafted stories by translator Searls (Rilke's The Inner Sky) explores the...

Strangers in the Land of Egypt.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Strangers in the Land of Egypt Stephen March. Permanent, $28 (248p) ISBN 978-1-57962-185-8 North Carolina writer March (Catbird) has written an accomplished, intricate coming-of-age tale set in a small Southern city where Jesse, the...

Repeat After Me.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Repeat After Me Rachel DeWoskin. Overlook, $23.95 (319p) ISBN 978-1-59020-222-7 DeWoskin, author of the memoir Foreign Babies in Beijing, presents a complex love story of cultural intersection, communication barriers, psychotic breakdowns...

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire C.M. Mayo. Unbridled, $26.95 (448p) ISBN 978-1-932961-64-5 Epic in scope, Mayo's impressively researched novel set in mid-19th century Mexico City mines the true story of the short turbulent reign of...

Blood Bayou.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Blood Bayou Karen Young. S&S/Howard, $14.99 paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-4165-8750-7 Young's 35th novel comes from an evangelical Christian imprint, and this outing adds to her blend of suspense and romance spiritual elements that would...

First Family.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * First Family David Baldacci. Grand Central, $27.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-446-53975-3 Plenty of intense action drives bestseller Baldacci's stellar fourth novel to feature former Secret Service agents Michelle Maxwell and Sean King (after...

Just Take My Heart.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Just Take My Heart Mary Higgins Clark. Simon & Schuster, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4165-7086-8 In this intense novel of suspense from bestseller Clark (Where Are You Now?), the obvious suspect in the shooting murder of famous actress...

Leaden Skies.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Leaden Skies Ann Parker. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (298p) ISBN 978-1-59058-577-1 The July 1880 visit of former president Ulysses S. Grant to the mining community of Leadville, Colo., sparks Parker's third mystery (after 2006's Iron Ties), a...

The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu: A Detective Kubu Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu: A Detective Kubu Mystery Michael Stanley. Harper, $24.99 (464p) ISBN 978-0-06-125249-5 In Stanley's fine second mystery to feature Botswana police detective David Bengu (after 2008's A Carrion Death),...

The Dark Horse.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Dark Horse Craig Johnson. Viking, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-02087-4 In Johnson's superb fifth contemporary mystery to feature Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (after 2008's Another Man's Moccasins), Walt has his doubts about Mary...

The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, India's "Most Private Investigator".(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Purl, India's "Most Private Investigator" Tarquin Hall. Simon & Schuster, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4165-8368-4 Vish Puri, the head of Delhi's Most Private Investigators Ltd., tackles...

Jelly's Gold: A McKenzie Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Jelly's Gold: A McKenzie Novel David Housewright. Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-37082-4 In Edgar-winner Housewright's enjoyable sixth novel to feature PI Rushmore "Mac" McKenzie (after 2008's Madman on a Drum), graduate student...

Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Sex, Thugs, and Rock & Roll Edited by Todd Robinson. Kensington, $14 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-7582-2267-1 Robinson's second anthology derived from the online magazine Thuglit is an improvement over 2008's Hardcore Hardboiled. Jason...

Embrace the Grim Reaper.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Embrace the Grim Reaper Judy Clemens. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (328p) ISBN 978-1-59058-589-4 The intriguing first in a new series from Clemens (Different Paths and four other Stella Crown mysteries) introduces a classic tragic heroine, Casey...

Island of the Naked Women.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Island of the Naked Women Inger Frimansson, trans, from the Swedish by Laura A. Wideburg. Pleasure Boat Studio/ Caravel (SPD, dist.), $18 (280p) ISBN 978-1-929355-56-3 When Tobias Elmkvist, a Stockholm novelist with career troubles, visits...

Cursed: A Regan Reilly Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Cursed: A Regan Reilly Mystery Carol Higgins Clark. Scribner, $25 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4165-6217-7 In Clark's rambunctious 12th Regan Reilly mystery (after 2008's Zapped), the New York City PI heads for Los Angeles to help an old neighbor,...

The Island.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Island Tim Lebbon. Bantam Spectra, $12 paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-553-38468-0 Stoker-winner Lebbon returns to the magic-saturated land of Noreela (most recently the setting for 2008's Fallen) for this gripping adventure. Kel Boon...

The Empress of Mars.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Empress of Mars Kage Baker. Tor, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1890-9 Baker seamlessly expands her 2004 Hugo and Nebula--nominated novella of the same title into tale of nonconformist survival. Widow Mary Griffith and her daughters...

Dead and Gone.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Dead and Gone Charlaine Harris. Ace, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-441-01715-7 Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse braces herself for trouble when another group of supernatural beings goes public in her disjointed eighth adventure (after...

The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Good Humor Man, or, Calorie 3501 Andrew Fox. Tachyon, $14.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-892391-85-8 Fox (Fat White Vampire Blues) pens a half-baked rift on Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 that imagines a near-future America where the government...

Flood.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Flood Stephen Baxter. Roc, $24.95 (496p) ISBN 978-0-451-46271-8 In an engrossing, daring and occasionally overambitious novel, Baxter (Weaver) narrates the final 42 years of dry land on earth. Four political hostages are freed in Barcelona...

A Breed Apart.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * A Breed Apart Pierre Davis. Dell, $6.99 (448p) ISBN 978-0440-24508-7 Medical thriller meets gritty detective novel in this extremely well-written and suspenseful tale of a most unusual dog. When police detective Elliot Elliot is ordered...

Moonlight Warrior.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Moonlight Warrior Janet Chapman. Pocket Star, $7.50 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-9487-1 Chapman revisits her time-traveling band of medieval Scots warriors in the first of a series spun off from 2008's Secrets of the Highlander. Kenzie Gregor is...

Hunt at the Well of Eternity.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * Hunt at the Well of Eternity Gabriel Hunt. Hard Case Crime, $6.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8439-6246-8 James Reasoner (the Civil War Battle series) is the first to take the shared Hunt pen name and launch an adventure series that raises the...

Wolverine: Prodigal Son.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Wolverine: Prodigal Son Antony Johnston and Wilson Tortosa. Del Rey, $12.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-345-50516-3 In this alternate, mangafied vision of Wolverine's past, we find a teenage Logan living at the Quiet Earth School in Canada and...

The Eternal Smile.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... * The Eternal Smile Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim. Roaring Brook/First Second, $16.95 paper (176p) ISBN 978-1-59643-156-0 This collaboration between multiple-award winners Yang (American Born Chinese) and Kim (Same Difference and Other...

Tsubasa: Those with Wings, Volume 1.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Tsubasa: Those with Wings, Volume 1 Natsuki Takaya. Tokyopop, $14.99 paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4278-1428-9 Fans of Takaya's Fruits Basket may find Tsubasa a bit disappointing. Takaya's earlier work is a sprawling fantasy that lacks the...

The Management Myth: Management Consulting Past, Present, and Largely Bogus.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... The Management Myth: Management Consulting Past, Present, and Largely Bogus Matthew Stewart. Norton, $27.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-393-06553-4 Stewart (The Courtier and the Heretic) reflects on his unconventional path to becoming a successful...

Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 30, 2009... Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook David M. Carroll. Basic, $24 (208p) ISBN 978-0-547-06964-7 In this sensuous nature journal, MacArthur "genius" award winner Carroll (The Year of the Turtle) follows the inhabitants of his local...