Publishers Weekly articles from November 2006

Publishers Weekly archives from November 2006

Modest Gain in chains' third quarter: Borders plans changes.(Foreword)(Industry overview)(Financial report)
November 27, 2006... Total revenue at the nation's three major bookstore chains rose 2.4% in the third quarter, to $2.07 billion. The pattern was a familiar one, with Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million posting a better sales performance than Borders Group. ...

Hal Leonard expands.(acquires Backbeat Books)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Hal Leonard Corp. has acquired Backbeat Books from CMP Media. The purchase adds about 200 titles to Leonard's book offerings, which include the Applause Theater & Cinema Books, Amadeus Press and Limelight Editions imprints. Hal Leonard, which...

Sarnoff to focus on BDMI.(Richard Sarnoff)(Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Richard Sarnoff is leaving his day-today responsibilities at Random House to concentrate on directing Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments. Andrew Weber, senior v-p of operations and technology, will take over Sarnoff's duties heading the...

Dystel fellows announced.(Oscar Dystel Fellowship)(Kathryn Walton, Adam Latham)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Kathryn Walton and Adam Latham are the recipients of the 2006-2007 Oscar Dystel Fellowship. Given to "outstanding" graduate students in the NYU Master of Science in Publishing, the award is named after the former CEO and chairman of Bantam...

Sara Nelson: the people's choice.(Foreword)(O.J. Simpson book and interview cancelled)(Viewpoint essay)
November 27, 2006... Was it Kierkegaard or Mick Jagger who said, "You can't always get what you want?" Well, never mind; in the book business we just got what we needed. Monday's statement from the office of Rupert Murdoch scrapping the O.J. Simpson...

New distributor formed.(Innovative Logistics)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Three former Watson-Guptill employees will take over the distribution facility being vacated by the publisher at the end of January to form their own distribution company. General manager Robert Hughes, customer service manager Joanne Nolan...

Jack leaving Granta next year.(Ian Jack)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Ian Jack will step down from his post as editor of Granta in June after directing the magazine for 12 years. Speaking to his departure, he said: "After editing nearly 50 issues of the magazine, which is about the same number as my...

Uncertain future for religious scholars meeting.(Separating?)(American Academy of Religion, Society of Biblical Literature)(Conference news)
November 27, 2006... The joint annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature set an attendance record; 11,000 scholars attended the conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. Matthew Collins, director of...

Heather Doss, Children's Buyer, Bookazine.(GALLEY TALK)(The Mysterious Benedict Society)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The catalogue copy had me instantly intrigued: Roald Dahl meets E.L. Konigsburg with a touch of Lemony Snicket. And pair that with a cover illustration that is reminiscent of Edward Gorey drawings--I was hooked! The Mysterious Benedict...

Funny Money.(Thurber Prize for American Humor)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Alan Zweibel, winner of the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor (a $5,000 cash prize), with Kitty Morton Epler, president of the board of Thurber House.

Obituary: Alice Kesterson.(Obituary)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Longtime Random House field sales rep Alice Kesterson died November 16 at age 50. Kesterson left Random in 2004 after 22 years at the publisher. She started out at Ballantine Books, covering the Chicago area, and held a variety of sales...

Correction.(Correction notice)
November 27, 2006... In last week's pictorial on the National Book Awards, we had the name of the fiction winner wrong; he is Richard Powers.

Politics, literature and bestsellers.(Seven Stories, 10 Years)(Seven Stories Press)
November 27, 2006... Ten years after Dan Simon launched Seven Stories Press, the independent house continues to succeed with an inventive publishing mix of political activism, high-minded literary works and the occasional bestseller. "We're an activist-oriented...

Survival diaries.(Foreword)(Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Amnesty International sponsored a launch party/fundraiser for the book/documentary film Darfur Diaries: Stories of Survival by Jen Marlowe with coauthors Aisha Bain and Adam Shapiro, published by Nation Books. Pictured (l. to r.) Nation...

Fall changes.(Selling Abroad)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... October brought lots of new titles to the international bestseller lists, including Bernard Werber's The Butterfly of the Stars, which knocked The Benevolent Ones out of the top fiction spot in France. Werber is a well-known SF author whose...

International bestsellers.(Foreword)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... International Bestsellers FRANCE FICTION NONFICTION 1 The Butterfly of the Stars Of Flesh and Soul Bernard Werber Boris Cyrulnik Albin Michel Odile Jacob ...

Calendar Dec. 3-9.(Foreword)(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 27, 2006... 12/3 A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway in 1947. New Directions just reissued Tennessee Williams's Memoirs (first published in 1975) with a new introduction by John Waters. 12/5 Desi Arnaz, who died on this date in...

Is calorie restriction headed to the bookshelves?(Extreme Dieting)
November 27, 2006... NewYork magazine dubbed it "the diet to end all diets" in a recent over story. It got a full page in the New York Times Science section and the Wall Street Journal said it "may help you live a longer life." The "it" in question is calorie...

Life on the inside.(DEALS)(Orange Is the New Black: My Year at "Club Fed")(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Agent Stuart Krichevsky just concluded an auction for a memoir by Piper Kerman titled Orange Is the New Black: My Year at "Club Fed"; Julie Grau won North American rights for Spiegel & Grau. The book chronicles Kerman's 15-month sentence at a...

Gen. Clark to Palgrave.(DEALS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Airie Stuart at Palgrave Macmillan has acquired world English rights to Gen. Wesley K. Clark's next book, American Son, via Trident's John Silbersack. Clark will offer a personal account of military events that have shaped his world view, as...

FSG signs Adrian.(DEALS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Eric Chinski at FSG has preempted a yet-untitled story collection and novel by Chris Adrian from Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit, who sold North American rights. The collection, to be published first, in early 2008, will include stories...

A baby name book.(DEALS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Elizabeth Beier at SMP has preempted world rights to Laura Wattenberg's Namerology, a baby-naming trend book, from Stephanie Kip Rostan at Levine Greenberg. The book will look at how class and culture influence baby names around the world,...

How to cartoon.(DEALS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Robert Weil at Norton has acquired world rights to three volumes from late comics legend Will Eisner, including a new book he drafted just before his death, to be the final book in a planned trilogy, from agents Judy Hansen and Denis Kitchen....

The briefing.(DEALS)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Molly Barton at Penguin has acquired North American rights to Ceridwen Dovey's debut novel, Blood Kin, directly from Alison Lowry at Penguin South Africa (Sarah Chalfant at the Wylie Agency now represents Dovey). This is a parable of a...

Miller moves at basic.(People)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Jo Ann Miller is leaving her position as editorial director of Basic, Basic Civitas and Westview to become editor-at-large for Basic Books. In her new role, starting in January, Miller will continue to work with some of her authors as well as...

March to Miramax.(People)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Camille March has been named associate director of publicity at Miramax Books. Before joining Grove, March worked for Putnam and Riverhead and was also a bookseller in Seattle.

Dear promoted at Penguin.(People)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Sandra Dear has been promoted from v-p of merchandising warehouse clubs to v-p of group company, custom and proprietary sales at Penguin Group (USA). Dear was previously at AMS.

Shields up at S&S.(People)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Colin Shields has been promoted to director of national accounts at Simon & Schuster. Shields, who has been at S&S for 10 years, will now have responsibility for Ingram, Baker & Taylor and American Wholesale Book Company.

Callahan up at HC.(People)(Brief article)
November 27, 2006... Alison Callahan has been promoted to executive editor at HarperCollins. Callahan, who will continue to report to Jonathan Burnham, has been at HC for six years and has a list that includes Armistead Maupin, Marian Keyes, Elizabeth Noble, Mike...

Top-selling adult hardcovers 2006.(Foreword)
November 27, 2006... TOP-SELLING ADULT HARDCOVERS 2006 With the bookselling season heating up, here are the bestselling adult hardcover fiction and nonfiction titles as measured by Nielsen BookScan through November 5. The top fiction title, For One More...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
November 27, 2006... "I like to think that Cross is the biggest, most thrilling, most emotional, and most surprising Alex Cross novel I've written yet. Not only does Alex have to confront his wife's killer--a lovely psychopath who's known even to his friends as...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
November 27, 2006... The debate continues: Dawkins was quoted in the November 21 New York Times; in an article titled "A Free-for-All on Science and Religion," he said that it's time for scientists to "take the gloves off." In the other Corner, that day's...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
November 27, 2006... In a recent "Three Questions" (PW Daily, Nov. 20), Bantam senior editor Tracy Devine talked about working with Dean Koontz. She was asked about the role she plays in her author's early drafts. Her response: "Most writers, Dean in particular,...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
November 27, 2006... "The son of a poet with a 'wild mental imbalance' and a professor with a 'pitch-black dark side,' Burroughs is sent to live with Dr. Finch when his parents separate and his mother comes out as a lesbian. While life in the Finch household is...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.
November 27, 2006... The plot for the third It Girl volume, Reckless, was loosely inspired by the 1985 John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club, says series editor Cindy Eagan. In Reckless, the girls from Waverly Academy are put into dorm lockdown for a weekend, as a...

Day camp with books: Texas bookstore expands its program of "literary camps."(BookPeople Inc. )
November 27, 2006... Last June, Austin's BookPeople hosted an innovative program: Camp Half-Blood. The week-long day camp for children, inspired by Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, took its name from the "half-bloods," the children of Gods...

Debating ways to make regional shows pay: as conditions shift, the fall events can use a makeover.(Retailing)(book publishing trade shows)
November 27, 2006... With fewer booksellers making the trip to regional trade shows and publisher attendance off as well, it is time to reexamine the purpose of the fall events, parties on both sides agree. This fall's Mountains and Plains Booksellers Association...

Little, Brown and Ansel Adams: 30 years: Hachette Book Group CEO David Young calls the books' enduring success "something we all dream of."(Cover story)
November 27, 2006... Ask the average American to name one of our country's famous photographers, and he or she will probably say Ansel Adams; the artist's b&w images of the American West are ubiquitous in conference rooms and dorms. Although Adams died in 1984,...

Taschen finally comes to Gotham.(New York location)
November 27, 2006... For all the talk about New York being an epicenter of both book publishing and art, the famously edgy illustrated book publisher Taschen has offices in every major world city except the Big Apple. Based in Cologne, Germany, Taschen has...

Snapshot: fall photo books: these six books quickly rose to the top of the piles in our review department.(Disco Years)(Edie: Girl on Fire)(In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World's Most Famous Fashion Magazine)(After the Flood)(Zheng He: Tracing the Epic Voyages of China's Greatest Explorer)(Explorations Along an Imaginary Coastline)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * Disco Years RON GALELLA. PowerHouse, $65 (200p) ISBN 978-1-57687325-0 Illuminated by Galella's paparazzi flash-bulb, or maybe just the drugs, these photos of Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli and other instantly recognizable...

Radish's list of dreams come true.(Author Profile)(Kris Radish)(Interview)
November 27, 2006... Kris Radish has paid her dues. She's picked tomatoes, washed windows, tended bar, waitressed, worked in a factory, managed a bowling alley, reported for local newspapers and harvested nightcrawlers. "What kept me going was, I'd close my...

The Moments Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim's Progress.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Moments Lost: A Midwest Pilgrim's Progress BRUCE OLDS. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25 (480p) ISBN 978-0-374-11821-1 Olds's elephantine third novel opens as a bildungsroman based loosely on the real life of one Frank Shavs. Olds calls...

The Innocents.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Innocents CAROLINE SEEBOHM. Algonquin, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-56512-496-7 The author of biographies on Conde Nast and Marietta Tree, Seebohm here intriguingly fictionalizes the glitterati of WWI-era New York and France (with "Mrs....

A Tendering in the Storm.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... A Tendering in the Storm JANE KIRKPATRICK. WaterBrook, $13.99 paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-57856-735-5 Based on true events, this second book in the Change and Cherish Historical Series continues the saga of the feisty Emma Giesy, a member of...

Roma: A Novel of Ancient Rome.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Roma: A Novel of Ancient Rome STEVEN SAYLOR. St. Martin's, $25.95 (576p) ISBN 978-0-312-32831-3 Author of the critically acclaimed Roma Sub Rosa series of historical mysteries, Saylor (The Judgment of Caesar) breaks out on an epic scale...

The Other Side of You.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Other Side of You SALLEY VICKERS. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-374-22190-4 In this hypnotic chronicle of quiet desperation, 45-year-old English psychoanalyst David McBride has an intense and personally illuminating...

PW talks with Jonathan Raban: spy versus spy versus spy.(Q&A)(Interview)
November 27, 2006... Set slightly in the future, Jonathan Raban's ironic comedy, Surveillance (Reviews, Nov. 13), asks serious questions about America's antiterrorist policies. Explain what you mean by surveillance. I believe it's the universal infection...

Jamestown.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * Jamestown MATTHEW SHARPE. Soft Skull, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-1-933368-60-3 A wonderfully warped piece of American deadpan, Sharpe's retelling of the Jamestown settlement has the settlers arriving in the Virginia swamp on a bus from...

Dear Catastrophe Waitress.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Dear Catastrophe Waitress BRENDAN HALPIN. Villard, $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-8129-7702-8 Vindictive songs change the course of two people's lives in Halpin's third novel (after Long Way Back), a funny and unlikely story about...

The Gypsy Madonna.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Gypsy Madonna SANTA MONTEFIORE. Touchstone, $15 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-7432-7889-8 British author Montefiore (Last Voyage of the Valentina) offers up an uneven mix of family intrigue and international mystery in her latest. When...

Innocent in Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Innocent in Death NORA ROBERTS WRITING AS J.D. ROBB. Putnam, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-399-15401-0 Once again Lt. Eve Dallas shows why she's "New York City's top murder cop" in Roberts's 24th thriller under her Robb pseudonym set half a...

Dancing to "Almendra".(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Dancing to "Almendra" MAYRA MONTERO. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-374-10277-7 Montero's compelling latest (following Captain of the Sleepers) is set in Mafia-dominated Cuba in 1957, before Castro took power but during...

White Lines.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... White Lines TRACY BROWN. St. Martin's Griffin, $14.95 paper (516p) ISBN 978-0-312-33648-6 Brown's epic (after Criminal Minded) explores New York's ghettoes of the 1980s and '90s, following two characters caught up in the crack epidemic....

Hide.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * Hide LISA GARDNER. Bantam, $25 (384p) ISBN 978-0-553-80432-4 In bestseller Gardner's first-rate follow-up to Alone (2005), Bobby Dodge, once a sniper for the Massachusetts State Police and now a police detective, gets called to a...

Good Things.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Good Things MIA KING. Berkley, $14 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-425-21371-1 A domestic diva goes from princess to pauper in King's mushy debut. Deidre McIntosh, the 40-year-old host of Seattle television show Live Simple, has had a successful...

Talking to the Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Talking to the Moon NOEL ALUMIT. Carroll & Graf, $14.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7867-1629-6 Nurse Belen Lalaban and her letter-carrier husband, Jory, came to America from the Philippines to escape, among other things, their class-crossed...

The Sacred Place.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Sacred Place DANIEL BLACK. St. Martin's, $23.95 (312p) ISBN 978-0-312-35971-3 While spending the summer of 1955 with relatives in Money, Miss., 14-year-old Chicago-raised Clement unleashes hell when he buys a root beer at the general...

Strangled.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Strangled BRIAN McGRORY. Atria, $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7434-6368-3 Newspaper reporter Jack Flynn, last seen in McGrory's debut, The Incumbent (2000), investigates a series of contemporary murders that parallel the terrifying Boston...

The IHOP Papers.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The IHOP Papers ALI LIEBEGOTT. Carroll & Graf, $14.95 paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-78671-794-1 Liebegott's debut novel is a coming-of-age coming-out in the tradition of Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle, but here, the portrait of an artist as...

The Story of the Cannibal Woman.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Story of the Cannibal Woman MARYSE CONDE, TRANS. FROM THE FRENCH BY RICHARD PHILCOX. Atria, $24 (320p) ISBN 978-0-7432-7128-8 Caribbean author Conde (Crossing the Mangrove) makes one woman's search for identity a vehicle to explore a...

Confessions of a Rookie Cheerleader.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Confessions of a Rookie Cheerleader ERIKA J. KENDRICK. Ballantine/One World, $13.95 (304p)ISBN 978-0-345-49486-3 After leaving New York for hometown Chicago to take her dream job at RockStar Records, 28-year-old Hannah Love is "reunited...

Capitol Threat.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Capitol Threat WILLIAM BERNHARDT. Ballantine, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-345-47017-1 Set in a near future in which "the Christian Congregation, one of the most powerful lobbies in the country... helped put the last three Presidents in...

Field of Fire.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Field of Fire JAMES O. BORN. Putnam, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-399-15398-3 Born's fourth thriller introduces a new hero, but an implausible premise, stock characters and some cliched prose may disappoint fans of his earlier novels (Escape...

A Relatively Young Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... A Relatively Young Man PETER SVENSON. Permanent, $26 (157p) ISBN 978-1-57962-147-6 This sardonic, humorous romp is the third book of Svenson's that follows midlist fiction writer Budge Moss (last seen in Wrongful Reconciliation)....

Radiant Days.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Radiant Days MICHAEL A. FITZGERALD. Shoemaker & Hoard, $15 paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-59376-131-8 FitzGerald's quiet debut centers on Anthony, a Gen X-er slacking away at a meaningless but remunerative Web producer job in dot-com-boom San...

Kiss Her Goodbye.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Kiss Her Goodbye ROBERT GREGORY BROWNE. St. Martin's, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-35839-6 Provocative violence, a colorful Chicago background and a dollop of the supernatural lift Browne's debut thriller. ATF agent Jack Donovan almost...

Remember to Forget.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Remember to Forget DEBORAH RANEY. S&S/Howard, $12.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-58229-643-2 Rita Award-winning novelist Raney (Beneath a Southern Sky) pens a lackluster romance that never quite takes off. Maggie Anderson leaves behind an...

Consolation.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Consolation MICHAEL REDHILL. Little, Brown, $24.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-73498-1 Redhill's signature poetic touch and finely drawn characters are on display in his second novel (after story collection Fidelity and novel Martin Sloane),...

Patriot Hearts: A Novel of the Founding Mothers.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Patriot Hearts: A Novel of the Founding Mothers BARBARA HAMBLY. Bantam, $25 (448p) ISBN 978-0-553-80428-7 Hambly (The Emancipator's Wife) showcases three wives and one concubine who kept the founding fathers happy at home and handled a...

Web of Evil.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Web of Evil J.A. JANCE. Touchstone, $25.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4165-3707-6 At the start of bestseller Jance's uninspired second All Reynolds thriller (after Edge of Evil), Ali's husband, Paul Grayson, is killed on the eve of their...

In the Last Blue.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... In the Last Blue CARME RIERA, TRANS. FROM THE CATALAN BY JONATHAN DUNNE. Overlook, $26.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-58567-853-2 This novel of the Spanish Inquisition was an acclaimed contribution to Catalan letters on its 1994 release. In an act...

Secrets of the Model Dorm.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Secrets of the Model Dorm AMANDA KERLIN AND PHIL OH. Atria, $22.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9826-1 Everything that could be expected in a novel about aspiring models is present: casual sex, drug usage, club hopping, backstabbing, and...

Disturbing the Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Disturbing the Dead SANDRA PARSHALL. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (332p) ISBN 978-1-59058-378-4 In Parshall's dark, suspenseful second novel (after 2006's Heat of the Moon), Mason County, Va., sheriff's deputy Tom Bridger reopens a cold case...

The Collaborator of Bethlehem.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * The Collaborator of Bethlehem MATT BEYNON REES. Soho, $22 (264p) ISBN 978-1-56947-442-6 This powerful first novel from British journalist Rees humanizes the struggle of the West Bank, where Omar Yussef, a modest 56-year-old...

Water Like a Stone.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Water Like a Stone DEBORAH CROMBIE. Morrow, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-052527-9 The start of Crombie's solid 11th contemporary police procedural featuring Duncan Kincaid of Scotland Yard and Gemma James of the Notting Hill Metropolitan...

The Conjurer: A Martha Beale Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The Conjurer: A Martha Beale Mystery CORDELIA FRANCIS BIDDLE. St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-35246-2 Sordid secrets of the rich and powerful drive the plot of Biddle's unconvincing Philadelphia historical, the...

Hell Hath No Curry: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Hell Hath No Curry: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes TAMAR MYERS. NAL, $21.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-451-22033-2 In Myers's over-the-top 15th crime caper starring Amish-Mennonite sleuth and innkeeper Magdalena Yoder (after 2006's...

Well Bred and Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Well Bred and Dead: A High Society Mystery CATHERINE O'CONNELL. Harper, $13.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-112215-6 Meet Pauline Cook, star of O'Connell's sparkling stand-alone. Cook, a widowed Chicago socialite, is devastated by the...

Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery MARTHA GRIMES. Viking, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-670-03786-5 Following hard upon the action of 2006's twisty The Old Wine Shades, Grimes's equally intricate 21st Richard Jury mystery brings the Scotland Yard...

Mad Professor: The Uncollected Short Stories of Rudy Rucker.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Mad Professor: The Uncollected Short Stories of Rudy Rucker RUDY RUCKER. Thunder's Mouth, $15.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-56025-974-9 Much cyberpunk SF is grimly noir in depicting future-shocked people trapped by their limitations, but in...

Off Armageddon Reef.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * Off Armageddon Reef DAVID WEBER. Tor, $25.95 (608p) ISBN 978-0-765-31500-7 Weber (At All Costs) launches an epic series with this gripping far-future saga, which spring-boards off the near-destruction of humanity in a massive war with...

Jade Tiger.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... Jade Tiger JENN REESE. Juno (www.juno-books.com), $12.95 paper (239p) ISBN 976-0-8095-5674-8 Reese's vibrant debut introduces Shan Westfall, a half-Chinese, half-American crime fighter, who yearns to unite the mystical power of the Jade...

The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3 EDITED BY KAREN Joy FOWLER, PAT MURPHY, DEBBIE NOTKIN AND JEFFREY D. SMITH. Tachyon (IPG, dist.), $14.95 paper (290p) ISBN 978-1-892391-41-4 A dozen writers pay tribute to Alice Sheldon (1915-1987), who...

Best New Fantasy.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 27, 2006... * Best New Fantasy EDITED BY SEAN WALLACE. Prime (www.primebooks.net), $12.95 paper (238p) ISBN 978-0-8095-5678-6 Given the many SF, fantasy and horror "best of' anthologies, do we really need another? The answer is yes if the editor is...