Publishers Weekly articles from September 2008

Publishers Weekly archives from September 2008

A Cubano Huck Finn.(Pick of the Week)(Dark Dude)(Young adult review)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Dark Dude Oscar Hijuelos. Simon & Schuster/ Atheneum, $16.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4169-4804-9 Hijuelos, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, has said that his first YA novel is...

A quarter to forget: Borders joins B&N, BAM in reporting down period.(Foreword)(Barnes & Noble, Borders and Books-a-Million)
September 1, 2008... Sales at the nation's three largest bookstore chains fell 3.8% in the quarter ended August 2, and while difficult comparisons to last year's quarter, when the chains combined to sell millions of copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,...

Taking a swing.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Storey Publishing celebrated its 25th anniversary last month with a country fair on the grounds at MassMoCA in North Adams, Mass. As part of the activities, Frank Philbrick, co-author of The Backyard Lumberjack,...

Quarto sales up.(Quarto Group Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... U.K.--based Quarto Group reported a 20% increase in sales, to 43.8 million [pounds sterling] ($81 million), and a 32.5% increase in adjusted operating profit, to 2.2 [pounds sterling] million, for the first half of 2008. Revenue in the...

Sluggish start for big Houses.(Results)
September 1, 2008... Worldwide sales at the five largest trade publishers in the U.S. inched up 0.5% in the first half of 2008, to $4.24 billion. Figures include sales from all of the publishers' global businesses, although with the exception of Hachette, the...

Virgin Comics shut.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Virgin Comics, the international joint venture between Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and the India-based comics publisher Gotham Entertainment, has been shut down. The company's New York City office and publishing unit has been closed, and...

Amazon buys Shelfari.(Amazon.com Inc., Shelfari.com)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Amazon has acquired Shelfari.com, the Seat-Lie-based social networking site for readers. Amazon had been an investor in Shelfari, which was launched in 2006 as a way to let readers compare books and make recommendations. Through 2007, the site...

Solid gain for exports in first half of '08.(Markets)
September 1, 2008... The weak dollar helped lift U.S. book exports in the six months ended June 30, with shipments increasing 10.5%, to $1.08 billion. The most significant increase came in exports to the U.K., which rose 21.7% in the period, to $173.2 million,...

LaTissia Mitchell, Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, Mich.(Galley Talk)(Captives)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... I love dreaming myself into movies, so I was already more than sympathetic to the plight of Daniel Bloom in Todd Hasak-Lowy's witty and hilarious debut novel, Captives [Spiegel & Grau, Oct.]. Bloom is a screenwriter who pens a new screenplay...

Dutton buys multimedia trilogy.(Dutton's Brentwood Books)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Penguin's Dutton imprint has paid seven figures for what it's dubbing a "digi-novel" by the creator of the C.S.I. television franchise. Dutton president Brian Tart made the deal. The multimedia three-book series by Anthony Zuiker will feature a...

A birthday remembered.(Roger Tory Peterson)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last week at the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Case, Md., Roger Tory Peterson's son, Lee Allen Peterson, elebrated the centennial of the birth of his father, the renowned naturalist, while speaking about the...

Caribbean booksellers cope with higher fuel costs.(Trouble in Paradise)
September 1, 2008... Even bookstores in paradise are not immune to the vagaries of the U.S. economy. Rising fuel prices have impacted bookstores as far away as the U.S. Virgin Islands, and store owners are coping with the higher costs in different ways. ...

Villalon takes buyout.(Oscar Villalon )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... San Francisco Chronicle books editor Oscar Villalon is leaving the paper, having taken a buyout. Villalon's last day was August 29, and it is expected that deputy book editor Regan McMahon will now oversee the section, one of a handful of print...

CIA, HC skirmish.(United States. Central Intelligence Agency, HarperCollins Publishers Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The CIA and HarperCollins have traded charges over the accuracy of Ron Suskind's The Way of the World. In a letter e-mailed August 22, the CIA charged that a number of claims made in the book are false and "profoundly offensive to the men and...

Houghton iPhone Apps.(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has released four reference titles as applications, or apps, for download to Apple's iPhone. The titles can all be purchased in Apple's App Store; the most expensive, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English...

Michaels re-ups with Kensington.(Deals)(Fern Michaels, Kensington Publishing Corp.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Kensington president Steve Zacharius has signed bestselling author Fern Michaels to a new five-book contract in a world rights deal negotiated by Martin Friedman at MeLaughlin & Stern; Audrey LaFehr will edit. The new books, beginning with...

Triple Flay.(Deals)(Bobby Flay )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Bobby Flay has signed with Rica Allannic at Clarkson Potter for three new cookbooks in a world rights deal with Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris. The first, Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries and Shakes, will come out next summer, to be...

The judicial bard.(Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Covering author and legal scholar Kenji Yoshino has sold a new book, Shakespeare and the Law, to Daniel Halpern and Ginny Smith at Ecco; Betsy Lerner at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner sold world rights except U.K. Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren...

Life in the ward.(Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Beth Rashbaum at Bantam won an auction for psychiatrist Julie Holland's memoir, Weekends at Bellevue, via Kirsten Manges, who sold North American rights. Holland, who ran the psych ER at the oldest public hospital in the U.S. for nine years,...

Wilson to Little, Brown.(Deals)(Timothy Wilson)(Little, Brown Book Group Ltd.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Little, Brown executive editor Tracy Behar preempted Timothy Wilson's new book, Subtexting, in a North American rights deal with Katinka Matson at Brockman Inc. Wilson, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia and the author of...

Witte's poems to Orchises.(Deals)(George Witte, Orchises Press)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... SMP editor-in-chief George Witte has sold his second collection of poems, Deniability, to Roger Lathbury at Orchises Press. This focused collection of formal poems will dissect the language of power. Witte's work has appeared in the 2007...

A .38 special for business.(Deals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Jossey-Bass editor Karen Murphy has acquired world rights to Jam! Run Your Business Like a Rock Star, by former lead guitarist for .38 Special Jeff Carlisi and Dan Lipson with Jay Busbee via Adam Chromy at Artists and Artisans. Carlisi and...

Calendar: Sept. 7-13.(Brief article)(Calendar)
September 1, 2008... 9/7 Alan Bali's new HBO series, Trueblood, premieres tonight. It's based on Charlaine Harris's tongue-in-cheek Southern Vampire novels that began with Dead Until Dark (Ace). 9/8 Out today: Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded...

Booksellers try to find the key in selling to inmates.(Captive Audience)
September 1, 2008... With 2.3 million Americans behind bars--including 1.5 million incarcerated in state institutions--inmates represent a significant market for booksellers, but reaching prisoners can be a difficult proposition, loaded with red tape and byzantine...

Alspaugh to Judith Ehrlich.(People)(Emmanuelle Alspaugh, Judith Ehrlich Literary Management )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Emmanuelle Alspaugh has joined Judith Ehrlich Literary Management as an agent. Alspaugh was an agent at Wendy Sherman Associates.

Thomas, Hames to Ingram Digital.(People)(Brett Thomas and Ian Hames )(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Brett Thomas and Ian Hames have both joined Ingram Digital, the Ingram content division devoted to digital content management solutions, as directors of business development in the team handling Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The...

Promos at St. Martin's.(People)(Rob Grom, Jason Ramirez and Jeannette Levy)(St. Martin's Press Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Rob Grom, Jason Ramirez and Jeannette Levy have been promoted in the design department at St. Martin's. Grom has been promoted to associate director; Ramirez to designer; and Levy to associate designer.

Hardcover bestsellers/fiction.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A video game begets a bestselling book: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the official tie-in to LucasArts much-anticipated Force Unleashed video game. An action-adventure novel set during the time between Episode...

Hardcover bestsellers/nonfiction.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "My father was a slight man with slouchy shoulders that made him appear even smaller. For all his power in Hollywood, most of the time he'd appear in a jogging suit with a pipe. He spoke in a soft voice with a hint...

Paperback bestsellers/mass market.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The September issue of Publishing Trends from Market Partners offers a few interesting stats. PT notes that romance is the largest fiction category and is expected to account for 13.3% of the consumer book market in...

Paperback bestsellers/trade.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "In his 13th book, bestselling Sparks limns the far-reaching implications of several seemingly ordinary choices made by Beaufort, N.C., veterinarian Travis Parker and his next-door neighbor Gabrielle Holland, a...

Comics bestsellers.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's much-acclaimed superhero epic, has always sold steadily as a backlist title. But since the July release of an online trailer promoting director Zack Snyder's forthcoming film...

Tracking the 39 clues: scholastic bets big on a new multimedia program.(Children's Books)
September 1, 2008... One million dollars in cash, or the first clue in a globe-trotting treasure hunt that may lead to untold power. Which would you choose? No, it's not the pitch for a reality show. It's the opening premise of The 39 Clues, a multi-platform...

Playaway's military victory.(Digital Publishing)
September 1, 2008... On July 25, Playaway, a division of Ohio-based Findaway World that manufactures preloaded audio book players, sold its millionth unit as part of an order placed by the military for shipment overseas to soldiers and their families. The Playaway...

Digital technology brings kids' books to life.(Digital Publishing)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A computer isn't the only place to look for new takes on books that use digital technology. A new generation of interactive children's books featuring pen-like devices that trigger voiceovers, sound effects, music and activities on the pages of...

Brendan Deneen: a book-to-film vet tackles the world of talent management.(50 UNDER 40)
September 1, 2008... Brendan Deneen: has stumbled into some great gigs in his life. Despite his best attempts at remaining a starving artist, Deneen established himself as an expert in turning books into film, a talent that landed him a job as a film exec. Now, as...

Road tripping with Miriam Toews.(Author Profile)
September 1, 2008... It seems only fitting that Miriam Toews would drive more than two hours down I-29 from her home in Winnipeg to Grand Forks, N.Dak., to talk up her fourth novel. Aside from the fact that she "loves being on the road more than anything" (she...

A dog's life: people and books devoted to improving the lives of pets.(Cover story)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Americans love their pets, and more than ever they are putting their money where their hearts are. With total pet expenditures expected to top $43 billion in 2008, the pet industry has become a major contributor to...

Pet titles: going to the dogs (and cats).(Cover story)
September 1, 2008... "One of the reasons why dog books continue to outsell cat books and other categories of pet books has to do with the very nature of what makes dogs unique," says TFH publisher Christopher Reggio. "People want as much information as they can...

On sale in October.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Brand-name fiction from Nelson DeMille, Vince Flynn and Michael Connelly dominates the month, while new titles from Gregory Maguire, Julia Glass and Diane Johnson add spice. In nonfiction, restaurateur Ina Garten,...

Miles from Nowhere.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Miles from Nowhere Nami Mun. Riverhead, $21.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-59448-854-2 Mun's first novel is a 1980s urban odyssey in which Joon-Mee, a 12-year-old Korean-American, leaves her troubled Bronx family for the life of a New York City...

Sing Them Home.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * Sing Them Home Stephanie Kallos. Atlantic Monthly, $24 (560p) ISBN 978-0-87113-963-4 Kallos's (Broken for You) enthralling second novel takes the reader by storm as Hope Jones, Nebraska mother of three, is whisked away by a 1978...

Courage.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Courage Alan Littell. St. Martin's/Dunne, $16.95 (128p) ISBN 978-0-312-38436-4 An authentic-feeling ocean adventure, this slim novel is as much about the craft and lifestyle of seafaring as it is of the sea itself. The story involves...

My Life at First Try.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... My Life at First Try Mark Budman. Counterpoint, $24 (240p) ISBN 978-1-58243-400-1 This blazingly fast and funny "semi-autobiographical" novel follows a Russian man's comically earnest pursuit of the American dream. As a child, Alex,...

Second Time Around.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Second Time Around Marcia Willett. St. Martin's/Dunne, $13.95 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-30666-3 Mathilda Rainbird wills her English seaside estate to distant relatives shortly before her death, and the three beneficiaries' decision...

The Unpossessed City.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Unpossessed City Jon Fasman. Penguin Press, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59420-190-5 Bestseller Fasman, whose well-received debut, The Geographer's Library (2005), was set in Da Vinci Code territory, takes a compassionate look at the...

Night Work.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * Night Work Thomas Glavinic, trans, from the German by John Brownjohn. Canongate, $15 paper (264p) ISBN 978-1-84767-184-4 What if you woke up one morning to find that all life, both human and animal, had vanished without warning?...

By the Sword.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... By the Sword F. Paul Wilson. Forge, $25.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1707-0 Wilson's 12th action-packed adventure of urban mercenary Repairman Jack picks up where Bloodlines (2007) abruptly ended, with Jack's ongoing efforts to thwart the...

The Taker and Other Stories.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Taker and Other Stories Rubem Fonseca, trans, from the Portuguese by Clifford Landers. Open Letter, $15.95 (166p) ISBN 978-1-934824-02-3 The stories in Fonseca's collection, the first translated into English, are beautifully grim...

Night Sisters.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Night Sisters Sara Rath. Univ. of Wisconsin/Terrace, $24.95 (328p) ISBN 978-0-299-22870-5 Rath's latest novel (after Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages), a witty blend of the occult, suspense, mystery and a dash of romance,...

Mean Town Blues.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Mean Town Blues Sam Reaves. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $25 (320p) ISBN 978-1-60598-003-4 At the start of Reaves's intricate standalone thriller, 27-year-old Tommy McLain suffers a stomach wound in the current Iraq war that ends his army...

Just After Sunset.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... In the introduction to his first collection of short fiction since Everything's Eventual (2002), King credits editing Best American Short Stories (2007) with reigniting his interest in the short form and inducing some of this volume's contents....

PW talks with Karen Maitland: an age like our own.(Interview)
September 1, 2008... Maitland follows her acclaimed first novel, The White Room, which drew on her experiences in Nigeria and Belfast, with Company of Liars (Reviews, Aug. 25), set in England during the Black Plague. What led to your interest in medieval...

In the Devil's Territory.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... In the Devil's Territory Kyle Minor. Dzanc (www.dzancbooks.org), $16.95 paper (230p) ISBN 978-0-9793123-6-6 This debut collection focuses on religion and doubt, and showcases the potential and inconsistency of its young writer. "The...

Blackout.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Blackout Gianluca Morozzi, trans, from the Italian by Howard Curtis. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 paper (285p) ISBN 978-1-904738-32-9 In Morozzi's overly clever psycho-thriller, three people get trapped in an elevator in Bologna,...

Museum of Human Beings.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Museum of Human Beings Colin Sargent. McBooks (IPG, dist.), $23.95 (352p) ISBN 978-1-59013-167-1 Playwright Sargent's debut novel is a stylish look at the fate of Sacagawea's baby son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the first Native...

Conspiracy of Silence.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Conspiracy of Silence Martha Powers. Oceanview (Midpoint, dist.), $24.95 (328p) ISBN 978-1-933515-18-2 When Clare Prentice, a Chicago journalist, discovers she's adopted in this cozy romantic thriller from Powers (Death Angel), she's...

Vulcan's Fire: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Vulcan's Fire: Harold Coyle's Strategic Solutions, Inc. Harold Coyle and Barrett Tilman. Tor, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1373-7 In Coyle and Tillman's second thriller to chronicle the exploits of Strategic Solutions Inc. (after...

Aquamarine: Final Tales of the Revolution.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Aquamarine: Final Tales of the Revolution Peter Pessl, trans, from the German by Mark Kanak. Twisted Spoon (SCB, dist.), $14.50 paper (155p) ISBN 978-80-86264-28-8 If you've ever dropped acid in the desert with a cabal of mad poets,...

Skin Lane.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * Skin Lane Neil Bartlett. Serpent's Tail, $14.95 paper (344p) ISBN 978-1-8524299-2-8 British author Bartlett (Mr. Clive and Mr. Page) deserves to win acclaim on this side of the Atlantic for this complex and rich journey into the...

Camera.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Camera Jean-Philippe Toussaint, trans, from the French by Matthew B. Smith. Dalkey Archive, $12.95 paper (122p) ISBN 978-1-56478-522-0 This sparse and stylized novel by Toussaint (Monsieur) pursues the listless cerebral meanderings of...

A Lion among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... A Lion Among Men: Volume Three in the Wicked Years Gregory Maguire. Morrow, $26.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-054892-6 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The entertaining third installment of bestseller Maguire's Wicked Years series, a revisionist...

Until We Reach Home.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Until We Reach Home Lynn Austin. Bethany House, $13.99 paper (400p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0495-1 In 1897, the promise of the gold-paved streets of America can heal the broken hearts and lives of orphans Elin, Kirsten and Sofia Carlson, if...

Living with the Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Living with the Dead Kelley Armstrong. Bantam Spectra, $22 (384p) ISBN 978-0-553-80664-9 Bestseller Armstrong's newest will be greeted with warm enthusiasm by fans awaiting the return of the half-demon Hope Adams and her werewolf...

Stepping into Sunlight.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Stepping into Sunlight Sharon Hinck. Bethany House, $13.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-7642-0283-4 Hinck, a 2008 Christy finalist for visionary fiction, offers an especially grounded tale of sudden trauma and slow healing. Narrator Penny...

Greasing the Pinata: A Cape Weathers Investigation.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Greasing the Pinata: A Cape Weathers Investigation Tim Maleeny. Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (342p) ISBN 978-1-59058-566-5 Maleeny smoothly mixes wry humor and a serious plot without sacrificing either in his third Cape Weathers mystery (after...

The Fire Kimono.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * The Fire Kimono Laura Job Rowland. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-37948-3 Set in 1700, Rowland's outstanding 13th Sano Ichiro mystery (after 2007's The Snow Empress) finds Sano, whom the shogun raised to the...

The Archbishop in Andalusia: A Blackie Ryan Novel.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Archbishop in Andalusia: A Blackie Ryan Novel Andrew M. Greeley. Forge, $24.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1590-8 Greeley's breezy 17th Blackie Ryan novel (after 2007's The Bishop at the Lake) takes Ryan to the south of Spain for a...

I Was Dora Suarez.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... I Was Dora Suarez Derek Raymond. Serpent's Tail, $14.95 paper (192p) ISBN 978-1-85242-799-3 First published in the U.K. in 1990, Raymond's searing fourth entry in his Factory series (The Devil's Home on Leave, etc.) opens with a...

Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Veil of Lies: A Medieval Noir Jeri Westerson. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-312-37977-3 Crispin Guest, a former knight who was stripped of his rank after being implicated in a plot against Richard II, now makes his...

Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead Livia J. Washburn. Kensington, $22 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7582-2566-5 Gone with the Wind provides the inspiration for Washburn's fun Literary Tour mystery, the first in a new cozy series. Divorcee Delilah...

A Good Death.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... A Good Death Elizabeth Ironside. Felony & Mayhem (www.felonyandmayhem.com), $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-934609-19-4 British author Ironside (Death in the Garden) convincingly depicts the trauma of life in Vichy France in her compelling...

Dirty Water.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Dirty Water Mary-Ann Tirone Smith and Jere Smith. Hall of Fame (Midpoint, dist.), $22.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-9776240-2-7 Smith (Girls of Tender Age) and son work real-life members of the 2007 Boston Red Sox, most notably David "Big Papi"...

Alembical.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * Alembical Edited by Lawrence M. Schoen and Arthur Dorrance. Paper Golem (www.papergolem. com), $24.95 (172p) ISBN 978-0-9795349- 1-1; $12.95 paper ISBN 978-0-9795349-2-8 This superb small anthology comprises four solid...

The Gods Return: The Third Volume of the Crown of the Isles.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Gods Return: The Third Volume of the Crown of the Isles David Drake. Tor, $25.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7653-1261-7 Charming Prince Garric, determined Princess Sharina and rejuvenated wizardess Tenoctris were hoping for a bit of rest...

The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives James P. Blaylock. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $38 (476p) ISBN 978-1-59606-170-5 Long recognized as a master of steam-punk fiction, Blaylock (The Man in the Moon) collects four short...

The Engine's Child.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Engine's Child Holly Phillips. Del Rey, $15 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-345-49965-3 In this murky, unpleasant novel, set on a world almost entirely covered with water, Moth, a preternaturally gifted young woman, defies her priestly...

Sunborn: Volume Four of the Chaos Chronicles.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Sunborn: Volume Four of the Chaos Chronicles Jeffrey A. Carver. Tor, $27.95 (432p) ISBN 978-0-312-86453-8 The long-anticipated fourth entry in Carver's Chaos Chronicles (after 1996's The Infinite Sea) is space opera at its most...

Fifty-to-One.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Fifty-to-One Charles Ardai. Hard Case Crime, $7.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-8439-5968-0 High-speed action and nonstop thrills highlight the 50th novel from Hard Case Crime, penned by publisher and Edgar-winning writer Ardai (The Good-Neighbor...

Murder Packs a Suitcase.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Murder Packs a Suitcase Cynthia Baxter. Bantam, $6.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-553-59035-7 Veteran mystery writer Baxter (Monkey See, Monkey Die) kicks off her new series with a respectable but uninteresting start. Recent widow Mallory...

Red.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Red Jordan Summers. Tor, $6.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-7653-5914-8 Summers (Off Limits) occasionally stumbles in this intense series launch, a futuristic paranormal romance set in an ecologically desolate 2160. Gina "Red" Santiago, the lone...

Any Given Doomsday.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Any Given Doomsday Lori Handeland. St. Martin's Paperbacks, $6.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-94919-8 Handeland (Thunder Moon) launches the intriguing Phoenix Chronicles urban fantasy series with a strong story that's only missing one...

Aya of Yop City.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... * Aya of Yop City Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie. Drawn & Quarterly, $19.95 (128p) ISBN 978-1897299-41-8 Abouet and Oubrerie's sequel to their 2007 graphic novel Aya is a charming comedy of manners about a group of young...

Wanted.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Wanted Matsuri Hino. Viz, $8.99 paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-4215-1934-0 This single-volume trilogy of connected short stories will be a quick read for shojo fans. Armeria is a girl with a powerful singing voice; while performing for a...