Publishers Weekly articles from November 2008

Publishers Weekly archives from November 2008

The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. Norton, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-393-06595-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Each bite of meat involves the killing of an animal that did not need to die,"...

Bruised Bellwether: Barnes & Noble's down quarter leads to a discouraging forecast.(BARNES & NOBLE BOOKSELLERS)
November 24, 2008... As bad as Barnes & Noble's third quarter performance was, more discouraging was the forecast by the nation's largest bookstore chain of a 6%-9% decline in comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter. In explaining the prediction, CFO Joseph...

Book comps up at Hastings.(Hastings Entertainment Inc.)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Comparable sales of books rose 1.0% at Hastings in the third quarter, led by sales of used trade paperback and hardcovers, plus new trade paperbacks. Overall, however, total revenue for the retailer fell 6.5%, to $114.3 million, and the...

B&T layoffs.(Baker and Taylor Retail)
November 24, 2008... According to industry sources, Baker & Taylor laid off 80 employees last week, with the bulk of the layoffs at B&T headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., and the Bridgewater, N.J., office. Several jobs were also cut at B&T Marketing Services in San...

Mainstream houses market Christian fiction.(Crossing Over)
November 24, 2008... Chosen, an upcoming novel by Patricia Haley, is based on the biblical kings David and Solomon. Xavier Knight's new novel, God Only Knows, is about a divorcee who finds redemption in becoming superintendent of a Christian elementary school....

Google pact gets initial Ok.(Association of American Publishers and Authors Guild settlement with Google )(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... The judge overseeing the AAP and Authors Guild settlement with Google has given preliminary approval to the deal. Approval will set in motion a string of events designed to lead to final approval of the settlement that is now set for June. In...

New Candlewick imprint.(Candlewick Press )(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Candlewick Press will debut its first imprint, Templar Books, next spring. A partnership with Britain's Templar Publishing, the line will bring selected Templar titles to the U.S. market, including picture books, novelty titles and board...

Linda Jones exiting Borders.(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Linda Jones, senior v-p of merchandising for the children's, multimedia, newsstand, calendar and game categories, will retire from Borders December 19. Executives reporting to Jones--including Diane Mangan, Patti Russo, and Joanna...

Correction.(Correction notice)
November 24, 2008... In the photo taken at the Texas Book Festival (Briefs, Nov. 10), the authors were misidentified: Marcia Kaylakie (center) is the author of Texas Quilts and Quilters. Rilla Askew (right) is the author of the novel Harpsong.

Najafi hosts a party.(Jahm Najafi, Bookspan Literary Celebration)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jahm Najafi, whose company acquired Bertelsmann's mail-order businesses earlier this year, was the host for the annual Bookspan Literary Celebration November 17 at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Najafi is...

Udon debuts manga line for kids.(Comics)(Udon Entertainment)
November 24, 2008... Udon Entertainment, an Ontario-based manga studio that produces manga adaptations of Capcom's popular Street Fighter video game, is launching Udon Kids Manga, a line of licensed Japanese comics titles aimed at children ages seven and up,...

Four more hours.(Timothy Ferriss signs deal with Crown Books Corp.)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Timothy Ferriss has just signed a major deal with Crown to continue his 4-Hour brand; executive editor Heather Jackson bought world rights to a new 4-Hour title from Stephen Hanselman at Level5 Media. Ferriss, whose The 4-Hour Work Week has...

Word by word.(Stanley Fish signs deal with HarperStudio)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... HarperStudio senior editor Julia Cheiffetz has signed up Stanley Fish's How to Write a Sentence in a world rights deal negotiated by Melissa Flashman at Trident. This celebration of language and rhetoric by the NYT columnist will draw from a...

Reich builds franchise.(Deals)(Christopher Reich )(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Doubleday executive editor Stacy Creamer has acquired two new novels of international espionage by Christopher Reich via Richard Pine at InkWell, who sold North American rights. The two books will continue the franchise that began with...

Fostering innovation.(HYperion buys rights to Eric Haseltine's Long Fuse: Big Bang )(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Hyperion editorial director Will Balliett bought world rights to Eric Haseltine's first book, Long Fuse: Big Bang via Wes Neff at the Leigh Bureau. Haseltine, a strategic and conceptual thinker who has worked with the Imagineers, where he was...

One year's soundtrack.(Da Capo acquires rights for David Browne's Fire and Rain: How Rock & Roll and America Changed in 1970 )
November 24, 2008... Da Capo executive editor Ben Schafer has acquired David Browne's Fire and Rain: How Rock & Roll and America Changed in 1970 via Erin Hosier at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. This socio-cultural-musical look at this pivotal year is told through the...

Man and wolf.(The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness distribution agreements)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Claiborne Hancock and Jessica Case at Pegasus have acquired U.S. rights to Mark Rowlands's The Philosopher and the Wolf: Lessons from the Wild on Love, Death and Happiness via Angela Rose at Granta. Rowlands, a philosophy professor at the...

The briefing.(Deals)(Shooting the Gap)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Joanna Yas at Open City has acquired North American rights to Rachel Sherman's first novel, Shooting the Gap, which had been previously signed up at Macadam/Cage; pub date is fall 2009. Open City published Sherman's collection of stories, The...

Calendar: Nov. 30-Dec. 6.(Foreword)(Calendar)
November 24, 2008... 11/30 Scott Brick reads Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (Blackstone)--it runs 64 hours over 50 CDs. This is the first time this 1957 novel has been available unabridged. 12/1 PW's starred review of Carrie Fisher's first memoir,...

Academic publishers debate the digital future.(University Presses)
November 24, 2008... The tension between the digital world and the world of the printed book was highlighted during "Why Books Still Matter," a one-day symposium on scholarly publishing held November 14 at Yale University. The conference was sponsored by Yale's...

Change, diversity celebrated at NBA ceremony.(2008 National Book Awards)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... The setting was the financial district but the mood was celebratory at the 59th annual National Book Award ceremony on November 19, held at the ornate Cipriani ballroom on Wall Street. The election of Barack Obama served as a touchstone in...

Rappaport leaving Perkins Agency.(People)(Jenny Rappaport)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... After two and a half years in business together, agents Lori Perkins and Jenny Rappaport are going their separate ways. Rappaport is leaving the L. Perkins Agency to start her own outfit, the Rappaport Agency. Rappaport will focus on fiction,...

Waugh up at Listening Library.(Rebecca Waugh)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Rebecca Waugh has been promoted to senior acquisitions editor at Listening Library. Waugh joined Listening Library last fall.

Promos at B-K.(People)(Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.)(Johanna Vondeling, David Marshall and Jeevan Sivasubramaniam)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Johanna Vondeling, David Marshall and Jeevan Sivasubramaniam have all been promoted at Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Vondeling has been promoted from editorial director to v-p, editorial and digital; Marshall from senior manager of digital...

Weise to Alyson.(People)(Don Weise, Alyson Books)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... Don Weise has been named publisher of Alyson Books, a multi-platform media company targeting the LGBT audience. Weise, who will be based in Alyson's New York office, was most recently at Carroll & Graf, where he was senior editor from...

Correction.(People)(Correction notice)
November 24, 2008... In last week's issue, Michael Schluter's title was misstated; he is senior director of sales, not director of sales, at Palgrave Macmillan.

Carol Schneck, Schuler Books & Music, Okemos, Mich.(Galley Talk)(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Michael Zadoorian's first novel, Second Hand, introduced us to a writer with a brilliant eye for local color, a great ear for dialogue, a wry sense of humor, and characters that hook the reader from the very first page. His new novel, The...

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When he was 12, radio and TV host Glenn Beck wanted a bike for Christmas. Instead, he got a handmade sweater. The result of his childhood disappointment is a semiautobiographical novel, The Christmas Sweater...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You: Being Beautiful was launched November 11 with a 1.3 million-copy printing, and Free Press has already gone back to press for 50,000 more. It certainly didn't hurt that the authors' first appearance was on...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Harper is working with Fox 2000 to promote the Marley & Me movie (release date is December 25) and John Grogan's book titles in the various HC divisions--hardcover, paperback and children's. The mass market movie...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
November 24, 2008... Perched in the #1 spot for its 25th consecutive week, The Shack has 4.88 million copies in print. "Before we started our partnership with Hachette, we sold 1.08 million copies," said Windblown president Brad Cummings. "The first million was...

Children's series and tie-ins bestsellers.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The film version of Irish author John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas premiered in the U.K. in September and has grossed $21 million. Now the Holocaust fable has opened Stateside, to mixed reviews. Some...

Audio bestsellers/fiction.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Meyer (seen here flanked by Twilight stars Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson) told moviejungle.com about visiting the movie's set: "So cool, but it was really surreal. The first night I was there, I went to...

Audio bestsellers/nonfiction.
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After Obama gave his victory speech on election night, America wanted to hear even more from him. Random House Audio reprinted 6,000 more copies of Audacity (which has now sold 137,000 copies) and 2,500 more copies...

Sara Rosen: connecting the personal and the professional.(50 UNDER 40)(Interview)
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ask Sara Rosen what the biggest influence on her publishing career has been and she'll probably say parties. Rosen, 35, is senior v-p, marketing and publicity, and associate publisher of the inventive and socially...

First-time thrills: eight mystery debuts.(Recommended readings)
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Each season publishers promise thrills and chills from first-time mystery authors. What's the allure of these debuts, we wondered, for readers and specialty bookstores? According to Maggie Griffin, co-owner of New...

Green manufacturing: gains momentum.(Green Printing)
November 24, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There's little doubt that interest in sustainability issues has increased dramatically across the publishing supply chain in recent years. Issues like forest certification weren't even on the radar screen until a...

The fiction of prophecy.(Chris CLeave on his latest novel Little Bee)
November 24, 2008... Chris Cleave has just returned from a pre-publication tour of the West Coast for his second book, Little Bee, due out in February from Simon & Schuster. His first novel. Incendiary, was the harrowing story of a terrorist bombing in London; it...

My Abandonment.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... My Abandonment Peter Rock. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $22 (240p) ISBN 978-0-15-101414-9 The engaging but limited perspective of 13-year-old Caroline, "the hillbilly girl that lived in the park," reveals a highly circumscribed...

The Glister.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Glister John Burnside. Doubleday/Talese, $22.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-385-52764-4 In his bleakly beautiful seventh novel, Scottish author Burnside (The Devil's Footprint) delivers a cautionary tale illustrating that greed and an...

Wonderful World.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Wonderful World Javier Calvo, trans. from the Spanish by Mara Faye Lethem. Harper, $27.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-06-155768-2 Calvo's first novel to appear in English is a frenetic and magnificent mashup of family drama, mob...

Spoiled: Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Spoiled: Stories Caitlin Macy. Random, $24 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4000-6199-0 After examining the lives of privileged 20-somethings in The Fundamentals of Play, Macy sets her sights a decade older, and her new short story collection...

The Stepmother.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Stepmother Carrie Adams. Harper, $24.95 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-123265-7 Adams follows up 2006's The Godmother with a perceptive chick noir, once again debunking the notion that everything's smooth sailing once you've found the...

PW talks with Jan Burke: walking into the dark forest.(Q&A)(Publishers Weekly)(Interview)
November 24, 2008... Jan Burke, author of the Irene Kelly suspense series (Kidnapped, etc.), ventures into paranormal territory for the first time in The Messenger (Reviews, Oct. 20). Why the break from crime fiction? Through the Crime Lab Project, which...

Godmother.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Godmother Carolyn Turgeon. Three Rivers, $13.95 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-40799-3 This retelling of Cinderella follows the oft ignored character of the fairy godmother, who may or may not be a mentally ill New Yorker. Lil, as...

Hungry Woman in Paris.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Hungry Woman in Paris Josefina Lopez. Grand Central, $12.99 paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-446-69941-9 Screenwriter Lopez ventures into fiction with her abysmal chronicle of a depressed journalist who learns to cook while attempting to...

A Mad Desire to Dance.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * A Mad Desire to Dance Elie Wiesel. Knopf, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-307-26650-7 Nobel laureate Wiesel (Night) grapples with questions of madness, sadness and memory in this difficult but powerful novel. Doriel Waldman, a Polish Jew...

Mixed Blood.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Mixed Blood Roger Smith. Holt, $25 (320p) ISBN 978-0-8050-8875-5 Screenwriter Smith offers a gritty tale of corruption and vengeance set in South Africa in his absorbing debut. On the verge of financial ruin, American Jack Burn, a...

Ultimate Weapon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Ultimate Weapon Chris Ryan. Weinstein (Hachette, dist.), $23.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-60286-050-6 The apparent intelligence snafus that led up to the Iraq War provide the backdrop for this intricately plotted thriller from bestselling...

Drood.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Drood Dan Simmons. Little, Brown, $26.99 (784p) ISBN 978-0-316-00702-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bestseller Simmons (The Terror) brilliantly imagines a terrifying sequence of events as the inspiration for Dickens's last,...

The Agency.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Agency Ally O'Brien. St. Martin's, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-37944-5 In this disconnected debut from O'Brien (collaborative pseudonym for a media agent and a suspense novelist), driven London literary agent Tess Drake is...

Bound South.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Bound South Susan Rebecca White. Touchstone, $14.99 paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5867-9 White's wonderful debut charts the clash of Southern tradition with present-day issues from the perspective of three white females over the...

Mistress Shakespeare.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Mistress Shakespeare Karen Harper. Putnam, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-399-15545-1 On November 27, 1582, the Worcester archives show a grant for a marriage license for one Anne Whateley and her groom, Wm Shaxpere. Yet several days...

Out of My Skin.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Out of My Skin John Haskell. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $13 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-374-29909-5 In his excellent third book, Haskell gets into the head of a lonely writer whose shot at a second chance hinges, strangely and...

The Winner of Sorrow.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Winner of Sorrow Brian Lynch. Dalkey Archive, $14.95 paper (364p) ISBN 978-1-56478-521-3 Irish poet and filmmaker Lynch's first novel is an engaging fictional account of the life of the little-remembered 18th-century English...

The Confessions of Noa Weber.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Confessions of Noa Weber Gail Hareven, trans. from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu. Melville (Consortium, dist.), $16.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-933633-37-4 Noa Weber is the complex narrator of Hareven's moving love story, the...

Brothers.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Brothers Yu Hua, trans. from the Chinese by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas. Pantheon, $29.95 (656p) ISBN 978-0-375-42499-1 Baldy Li, the hero of Yu's epic third novel, comes into the world on the same day his father...

Marshmallows for Breakfast.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Marshmallows for Breakfast Dorothy Koomson. Delta, $12 paper (480p) ISBN 978-0-385-34133-2 A young woman with plenty of issues gets sucked into her landlord's domestic woes in Koomson's heartwarming second novel (after My Best...

In Love with a Younger Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... In Love with a Younger Man Cheryl Robinson. NAL, $14 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-451-22582-5 Robinson's (Sweet Georgia Brown) new urban fiction is distinguished by its intractable protagonist, Olena Day, whose first love committed...

The Iron Duke.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Iron Duke L. Ron Hubbard. Galaxy, $9.95 paper (115p) ISBN 978-1-59212-319-3 Prolific pulp-fiction author Hubbard (1911-1986) offers a variation on a familiar romantic theme with this fast-paced if derivative thriller set in...

A Bullet for Billy the Kid: A Western Trio.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... A Bullet for Billy the Kid: A Western Trio Will Henry. Five Star, $25.95 (252p) ISBN 978-1-59414-725-8 Five-time Spur Award-winner Henry has been dead since 1991, but his many western novels and stories live on in print and film....

Signora da Vinci.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Signora da Vinci Robin Maxwell. NAL, $15 paper (416p) ISBN 978-0-451-22580-1 Maxwell (Mademoiselle Boleyn) re-creates Renaissance Italy in splendid detail, but fails to deliver a convincing narrative in her tale of da Vinci's...

Twins.('Nemesis', 'Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness')(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Two thrillers with the same title--one a contemporary Norwegian crime novel, the other a historical featuring legendary lawman Eliot Ness--are due in the new year. * Nemesis Jo Nesbo, trans. from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett....

Single Mama's Got More Drama.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Single Mama's Got More Drama Kayla Perrin. Mira, $13.95 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2616-8 Vanessa Cain returns in Perrin's over-the-top sequel to Single Mama Drama. With her fiance dead and his wife hounding her for her condo,...

We Take This Man.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... We Take This Man Candice Dow & Daaimah S. Poole. Grand Central, $14.99 paper (314p) ISBN 978-0-446-50183-5 Dwight and Tracey Wilson have two children and a committed marriage, until Dwight is offered a major promotion that will take...

Octavius the 1st.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Octavius the 1st Gaylord Brewer. Red Hen (CDC, dist.), $17.95 paper (158p) ISBN 978-1-59709-082-7 Octavius Trotter, the antihero of Brewer's flawed novella, is a lonely, obese, flatulent masturbator who lives with his mother,...

The Apothecary's Daughter.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Apothecary's Daughter Julie Klassen. Bethany House, $13.99 paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0480-7 Klassen's debut novel, Lady of Milkweed Manor, was a Christy Award finalist, and her new Regency promises the same thanks to fine...

A Killing Frost.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... A Killing Frost Hannah Alexander. Steeple Hill, $13.95 paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-373-78640-4 Christy Award-winning husband-wife team Mel and Cheryl Hodde, who write as Heather Alexander, start a new series after the popular Hideaway...

Scarpetta.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell. Putnam, $27.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-399-15516-1 At the start of bestseller Cornwell's plodding 16th thriller to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta (after Book of the Dead), the forensic pathologist--who recently...

A Tight Lie.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... A Tight Lie Don Dahler. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-312-38350-3 Golf fans will probably best appreciate Dahler's debut, narrated by pro golfer Huck Doyle, a nonpracticing attorney who works as a PI in Los...

Revelation.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Revelation C.J. Sansom. Viking, $25.95 (560p) ISBN 978-0-670-02051-5 In March 1543, while London buzzes about Henry VIII's campaign to win newly widowed Lady Catherine Parr for his sixth wife, hunchbacked barrister Matthew...

The Shanghai Moon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Shanghai Moon S.J. Rozan. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-312-24556-6 The hunt for a valuable brooch propels Edgar-winner Rozan's ninth Lydia Chin and Bill Smith nail-biter (after 2002's Winter and Night). In...

Body Copy.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Body Copy Michael Craven. Harper, $13.95 paper (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-165716-0 Ad man Craven's first novel introduces an extremely likable detective, Donald Tremaine, a former champion surfer, now a Malibu PI living in a trailer...

Batter Off Dead: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Batter Off Dead: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes Tamara Myers. NAL/Obsidian, $22.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-451-22592-4 In Myers's 17th Pennsylvania Dutch mystery (after 2008's As the World Churns), Magdalena Yoder, who's...

Fatal February.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Fatal February Barbara Levenson. Oceanview (Midpoint, dist.), $22.95 (264p) ISBN 978-1-933515-52-6 In Levenson's lighthearted if somewhat thin debut, Miami lawyer Mary Magruder Katz agrees to defend Lillian Yarmouth, accused of...

The Chee-Chalker.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... The Chee-Chalker L. Ron Hubbard. Galaxy, $9.95 paper (121p) ISBN 978-1-59212-354-4 The murder of James England, the owner of the radio station in Ketchikan, Alaska, presents a challenge for FBI agent Bill Norton, who's been...

In the Blood.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... In the Blood Adrian Phoenix. Pocket, $15 paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4165-4145-5 Phoenix trips the dark fantastic in this wild, bloody sequel to 2008's A Rush of Wings. Gifted musician and magic-user Dante Prejean was an...

Across the Sky.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Across the Sky Mark Rich. Fairwood (www.fairwoodpress.com), $17.99 paper (252p) ISBN 978-0-9820730-1-8 Rich turns out new wrinkles on common genre themes in this eloquent debut collection. There's some entertaining satire--such as...

Bones of the Dragon.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Bones of the Dragon Margaret Wets and Tracy Hickman. Tor, $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1973-9 In this barely disguised Viking pastiche, the dragonships have real dragons and the gods fight side by side with their heroes. Named Chief...

Gears of the City.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Gears of the City Felix Gilman. Bantam Spectra, $24 (464p) ISBN 978-0-553-80677-9 In Gilman's alternately fascinating and frustrating sequel to 2007's Thunderer, the time-walking musician Arjun has gone mad after trying to climb...

Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Sea, Swallow Me and Other Stories Craig Laurance Gidney. Lethe Press (www.lethepressbooks.com), $13 paper (204p) ISBN 978-1-590210-66-6 The best of the stories in this thoughtful debut collection make full use of African and...

Six Seconds.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... * Six Seconds Rick Mofina. Mira, $6.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2612-0 This well-crafted and timely thriller uncovers a terrorist plot stretching from the Middle East to the American West. When recently widowed Mountie Dan Graham pulls...

Bedeviled.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Bedeviled Maureen Child. Signet Eclipse, $6.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-451-22576-4 Nothing in painter Maggie Donovan's ordinary Southern California life prepares her to find a demon devouring her ex-boyfriend. In the ensuing struggle,...

Simple Wishes.(Brief article)(Book review)
November 24, 2008... Simple Wishes Lisa Dale. Grand Central/Forever, $6.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-446-40689-5 The only flaw in Dale's haunting debut is its reliance on the old chestnut that small town life is superior to the big-city crush. Adele Martin...