It’s a trend internationally, too—note the third annual Hanoi Library Comics Festival, held in Vietnam in June 2012. The gorilla of library comic-cons, though, has got to be the three-day Toronto Comics Arts Festival, in its 11th year at the Toronto Public Library and attracting 20,000 people annually. (Most library cons run one day or less and attract 50 to several hundred people.) McHenry Public Library’s ComiCon, begun in Illinois four years before the first Toronto affair, runs only one hour, which suits the McHenry folks just fine. Libraries can customize the concept to fit their individual expectations, needs, and resources and call it a comic-con, anime con, comics arts festival, or something else.

Artists drawing cool stuff, vendors selling cool stuff, and cosplayers in cool costumes form the core of most of these events. Workshops, lectures, panels, contests, gaming, videos, performances, and displays can add to the menu. Karaoke, crafts, live-action Angry Birds, involvement by voice actors or kid creators, maid café, cosplay prom, scavenger hunt, or zombie walk—even deputizing convention staff as ninjas—can provide a unique experience. Mini-comic-cons proclaim the library as a mecca for all-ages literacy and entertainment and one that has an unexpectedly high cool quotient. Libraries collaborate with Friends groups, grantors, comics shops, arts centers, gaming stores, and community organizations to support speakers, prizes, and plenty of freebies and generally to keep the events free of charge.

The payoff? Demands for yearly replays, enormous community enthusiasm, and memorable participant reaction. Kids who never before wanted to go to the library get drawn in by the art, stories, and fun. “Awesome and totally epic,” proclaimed one attendee at the 2011 Cumberland County Public Library’s Librari-Con in North Carolina.

Presentations on library mini-cons have been held by the Texas Library Association and at Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2), while articles have appeared in VOYA and Diamond Bookshelf. Look for more buzz forthcoming, and go forth and comic-convert your community!—M.C.

Abouet, Marguerite (text) & Clément Oubrerie (illus.). Aya: Love in Yop City. Drawn & Quarterly. (Aya). 2013. 384p. tr. from French by Helge Dascher. ISBN 9781770460928. pap. $24.95. LITERARY FICTION

This meaty and satisfying conclusion to a beloved series incorporates some dozen subplots. With Jane Austenesque skill, Abouet spins out and then ties up the interlocking dramas of the now-college-aged Aya and her Ivory Coast village-mates. The most disturbing subplot introduces Aya’s biology professor who makes a habit of demanding undesired and all-too-biological interactions from his female students. Meanwhile, lovable gay hairdresser Innocent makes new friends in Paris, and Moussa, slacker son of beer magnate Sissoko, runs away from home to find adventures that confound his parents. Ignace’s mistress Jeanne, babe-magnet Mamadou, smooth-talking Grégoire, and shy Félicité all have starring roles, as do Aya’s BFFs Adjoua and Bintou. The mating dance takes center stage throughout, and Abouet’s gleeful tone accompanies serious subtexts about family, responsibility, and loyalty. VERDICT The full “Aya” saga should especially appeal to fans of shojo manga. While earlier volumes have been praised as YA literature, this final volume suits older teens through adults due to its themes of sexual intrigue and assault. As with previous installments, Oubrerie’s art triumphs for its color, style, and masterly character depictions.—M.C.

Alice, Alex (text & illus.). Siegfried. Vol. 1. Archaia. 144p. tr. from French by Edward Gauvin. illus. ISBN 9781936393459. $24.95. FANTASY

Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle has been adapted into comics before, especially ably by P. Craig Russell. Alice, a French artist, has simplified the Wagnerian treatment while both retaining its gravitas and hyping female power. A Valkyrie daughter of Odin, assigned to guard a golden treasure, abandons duty to love a mortal man. But Odin wreaks vengeance on the escaping lovers, leaving them to die. Meanwhile, underworld-dweller Fafnir, his love for the gold’s beautiful guardian rejected, steals the treasure and becomes a monstrous dragonlike creature that is lost in greed and madness. Fleeing Fafnir’s tyranny, fellow underworldling Mime happens upon the infant born to the dying Valkyrie and adopts him. The young Siegfried grows to manhood, confused about his heritage, his possibly malevolent adopted parent, and his purpose in life—apparently to kill this Fafnir. Meanwhile, another Valkyrie ponders intervening in Siegfried’s future. VERDICT The first volume in a gorgeously painted trilogy evokes the best of Disney, Brian Froud, and the Tolkien films, while adding an environmentalist vibe. Lavish back matter includes concept art and interviews; an animated film is in production. Splendid stuff for adult and teen lovers of high fantasy.—M.C.

Subhiyah, Camaren (text) & Kyle Hilton (illus.). Agent Gates and the Secret Adventures of Devonton Abbey: A Parody. Andrews McMeel. 2013. 128p. ISBN 9781449434342. pap. $14.99. HISTORICAL FICTION

Television’s popular period drama Downton Abbey follows the aristocratic Crawley family and its servants under King George V. This puckish spoof reenvisions the Dowager Countess plus some of the “Crawhill” servants as undercover agents serving the British Secret Intelligence Service. All have unusual powers connected with the Philosopher’s Stone, which is kept at SIS headquarters in London. Agent Gates (based on Downton Abbey valet John Bates) sports a distinctly steampunk leg of bio­fusable titanium. For her part, the Dowager Countess boasts powers of vision rivaling those of Medusa. Unfortunately, the team must constantly maneuver around the clueless and witless Earl, who is more prone to ordering his incoming correspondence to be ironed for neatness than sussing out the impending threat posed by a German visitor. The rest of the Crawhills are similarly out to lunch except the eldest daughter, whom the Dowager Countess takes into her confidence about the SIS. VERDICT This dryly straight-faced spin-off in spare, realistic black-and-white art makes entertaining reading as tongue-in-cheek espionage that can be enjoyed even by those unfamiliar with the TV show. Recommended for adult spy-saga fans and for teens.—M.C.

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The following titles are reviewed in the February 1 print issue. Visit Book Verdict for the full reviews.

Gerber, Steve & others (text & illus.). Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers. Vol. 1. Marvel. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780785166870. pap. $39.99. SUPERHERO

Johns, Geoff (text) & Jim Lee & Scott Williams (illus.). Justice League: The Villain’s Journey. Vol. 2. DC. (New 52). 2013. 160p. ISBN 9781401237646. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781401244194. SUPERHERO

Robinson, James (text) & Cully Hamner & others (illus.). The Shade. DC. 2013. 280p. ISBN 9781401237820. pap. $19.99; ebk. ISBN 9781401237820. SUPERHERO

Vanistendael, Judith (text & illus). When David Lost His Voice. SelfMadeHero. 2013. 280p. tr. from French by Nora Mahony. ISBN 9781906838546. $24.95. LITERARY FICTION

Wood, Brian (text & illus.) & Rob G. (illus.) & others. The Couriers: The Complete Series. Image. 2012. 360p.ISBN 9781607066415. $24.99. CRIME

Woolfson, Alex (text) & Winona Nelson (illus.). Artifice. AMW Comics. 2013. 112p. ISBN 9780985760403. pap. $19.99. SF

Memorial Day anchors the end of May, reminding us of personal sacrifice and national responsibility. Veterans, both heroic and damaged, play prominent roles in several titles. Be sure to look at The Terrorist Next Door from Sheldon Siegel and Linda Rodriguez’s Every Broken Trust for contemporary plotlines. The latest anthology from the Mystery Writers of America, The Mystery Box, also showcases wartime-related mysteries from other eras.

The Edgar Awards (mysterywriters.org) and Agatha Awards (malicedomestic.org) will be given out at banquets the evenings of May 2 and May 4, respectively. Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter in real time or to check online the next day, as the awards will trigger holds alerts at the library soon after.

HONORS AND MEMORIES Going golden: Carolyn Hart publishes her 50th book this month with Dead, White, and Blue (see Series Lineup on page 64). Longtime readers know her for romantic suspense titles (some of which have been reissued), but most identify her with the “Death on Demand” series. She will be honored at Malice Domestic this month with the Amelia Award. Her readers’ advisory–friendly website is carolynhart.com.

RIP Historical mystery author Margaret Frazer (real name: Gail Frazer) passed away this February. Long known for her historical mystery series featuring Sister Frevisse and Joliffe, Frazer featured strong female leads and abundant historical detail; read more at margaretfrazer.com. The early Sister Frevisse titles were cowritten with Monica Ferris; start with The Novice’s Tale.

WALKING THE WALK Those of us who live in the Golden State have the good fortune to know Laurie R. King as a faithful advocate for library services. Generous with her speaking time, she recently completed a 10-stop “thank you” tour of libraries. The occasion? The 20th anniversary of her first book, A Grave Talent. Be sure to check her website (laurierking.com) for abundant library love. King will be honored as Malice Domestic’s guest of honor this year (malicedomestic.org).

Rogan, Barbara. A Dangerous Fiction: A Mystery. Viking. Jul. 2013. 324p. ISBN 9780670026500. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9781101622810. M

Successful literary agent Jo Donovan, the widow of an iconic literary figure, longs for the perfect life she remembers sharing with him. Then things take a turn for the worse when a stalker infiltrates both her physical and cyber worlds. The stalker’s insidious defamation of Jo’s character baffles her colleagues, the NYPD detectives working the case, and Jo herself. Then the attacks escalate to a real murder (one of her most famous clients is shot) and a clue left at the scene implicates Jo. But her inability to figure out who hates her so much brings the case to a standstill. Even the detective—a long-ago lover of Jo’s—is shocked by her warped perceptions of her past. Meanwhile, a determined killer moves ever closer. VERDICT This literary mystery veers back and forth between insider-gossip tone (replete with literary stereotypes) and genuine terror at warp speed, fulfilling many of the requirements for a perfect beach read. Readers who liked Debra Ginsberg’s Blind Submission and perhaps Jennifer Belle’s Little Stalker would enjoy.

 Hallinan, Timothy. The Fame Thief: A Junior Bender Mystery. Soho Crime. Jun. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9781616952808. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781616952815. M

Professional burglar Junior Bender agrees to help mobster/movie mogul Irwin Dressler find out who ruined beautiful starlet Dolores La Marr back in the early 1950s. Dressler’s bucket list includes finding out who set up Dolores so that her “good name” was stolen. Apparently, back in 1951, the lovely starlet was caught up in a raid, then kept in jail when all the others got their charges dropped and she eventually had to testify in front of Senate subcommittee hearings on organized crime. The investigation dredges up old vendettas, putting everyone involved in danger. Meanwhile, an engaging subplot involving Junior’s family adds a slightly comic air to the book. VERDICT Hallinan’s natural storytelling skills will hold readers rapt through his Shakespeare-quoting, five-act tale as they relish his attention to Los Angeles cultural details and ability to weave two time periods together so effectively. This third series entry (after Little Elvises) manages to keep it simultaneously playful yet empathetic.

 Robson, Sandra J. False as the Day Is Long: A Keegan Shaw Mystery. Rainbow. May 2013. 236p. ISBN 9781568251462. pap. $16.95. M

Almost on a lark, Floridian freelance photojournalist Keegan takes on a sleuthing assignment and finds her subject more complicated than expected. Abby’s daughter, Sunni, has asked Keegan to follow Abby to London. Secretive about her past, Abby has been acting suspiciously and Sunni thinks London might be where her birth father lives. Believing she’s on a paternity hunt, Keegan soon learns that Abby was party to an unsolved murder that claimed her roommate’s life back in 1966. Abby might be seeking closure for a terrible chapter in her life, but now someone else wants to eliminate her entirely. Keegan is caught up in a swirling scene of jealousy, long-simmering hatred, and folks on the run. VERDICT One woman’s search for her past threatens those who were left behind. Robson’s effective use of twists and turns is nicely paced and introduces an engaging protagonist with plenty of her own skeletons in the closet to explore. More Keegan, please.

For all the latest reviews in this subject area and more, check out our new Book Verdict site! Book Verdict is fully accessible to all users, though certain content and functionality are only available to subscribers.To log in to your account, click here. To view the new subscription options, Get Started With Book Verdict ProToday.Don’t know if you have an account with us? It’s easy to check and verify your email, or create a new account.

The following titles are reviewed in the May 1 print issue. Visit Book Verdict for the full reviews.

DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS

Morris, R.N. The Mannequin House: A Silas Quinn Mystery. Crème de la Crime: Severn. May 2013. 232p. ISBN 9781780290386. $28.95; ebk. ISBN 9781780103877. M

Nesbitt, John D. Dark Prairie. Five Star: Gale Cengage. (Five Star Frontier Fiction). Jul. 2013. 216p. ISBN 9781432827502. $25.95. M

Short Stuff

Mystery Writers of America Presents The Mystery Box. Grand Central. May 2013. 384p. ed. by Brad Meltzer. ISBN 9781455512355. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781455522675. M

Check These Out

Coonts, Deborah. Lucky Bastard. Forge: Tor. May 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780765335463. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466822726. M

Pryor, Mark. The Crypt Thief: A Hugo Marston Novel. Seventh St. Bks.: Prometheus. May 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781616147853. pap. $15.95; ebk. ISBN 9781616147860. M

Rodriguez, Linda. Every Broken Trust: A Mystery. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. May 2013. 304p. ISBN 9781250030351. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250030368. M

Runcie, James. Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. (Grantchester Mysteries). May 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781608199518. pap. $16. M

Siegel, Sheldon. The Terrorist Next Door: A David Gold Mystery. Poisoned Pen. Jul. 2013. 300p. ISBN 9781464201646. $24.95; ISBN 9781464201660. pap. $14.95. M

COZY CORNER

Mugavero, Liz. Kneading to Die: A Pawsitively Organic Mystery. Kensington. May 2013. 344p. ISBN 9780758284785. pap. $7.99; ebk. ISBN 9780758284792. M

Parra, Nancy J. Gluten for Punishment: A Baker’s Treat Mystery. Prime Crime: Berkley. May 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780425252109. pap. $7.99; ebk. ISBN 9781101622292. M

Sabrina, a tough, competent San Francisco homicide officer, carries a secret history so dark she never dares to let down her guard. Once held hostage, sexually assaulted, and left for dead, she has taken on a new identity and relocated far from her small-town Texas roots. But now she’s been outed by her former neighbor, trained mercenary Michael O’Shea, whose own little sister was brutally killed by the same man who terrorized Sabrina. It seems the attacker finds a new victim annually on Sabrina’s birthday, and this has been going on for more than a dozen years. Another year is up and Sabrina must finally confront her demon, though
the road will be violent and harrowing. VERDICT Prepare to be overwhelmed by the tension and moodiness that permeates this edgy thriller. Beaumont’s ability to keep the twists coming even when the answer seems obvious is quite
potent. This debut would please Chelsea Cain readers. Consider also for fans of Robin Burcell and Michelle Gagnon.

Pregnant Izzy Chambers Perry is dismayed when she finds an empty car seat and a knit blanket at the beach, but no baby. Then a scuba diver dies suspiciously in the seventh in this Massachusetts-set cozy craft series (after A Fatal Fleece).

Hambly, Barbara. Good Man Friday: A Benjamin January Novel. Severn House. Jun. 2013. 252p. ISBN 9780727882554. $29.95. M

When money becomes tight, January takes on an unusual assignment that requires him to leave New Orleans for Washington. Needless to say, 1838 wasn’t the safest of times for a free man of color. This is the 12th installment in a memorable historical series (after Ran Away).

Hart, Carolyn. Dead, White, and Blue: A Death on Demand Mystery. Prime Crime: Berkley. May 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780425260777. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9781101622421. M

Tourists aren’t supposed to just disappear during the Fourth of July celebrations, but a well-known visitor does. When a second person vanishes soon after, Annie Darling’s radar goes up. This is the 23rd entry (afterDeath Comes Silently) of a standard-bearer series.

Housewright, David. The Last Kind Word: A McKenzie Novel. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Jun. 2013. 312p. ISBN 9781250009609. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 97814250037398. M

McKenzie knows that his posing as an undercover agent for the ATF won’t go smoothly when the authorities need his help with a gunrunning case. The resourceful detective figures it out in his tenth episode (afterCurse of the Jade Lily).

Myers, Tamar. The Girl Who Married an Eagle: A Mystery. Morrow. May 2013. 260p. ISBN 9780062203854. pap. $13.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062203861. M

Don’t miss the finale (and fourth entry) to this haunting and inspirational story out of 1950s Congo (after The Boy Who Stole the Leopard’s Spots), partially derived from Myers’s own background as a child of missionaries.

Palumbo, Dennis. Night Terrors: A Daniel Rinaldi Mystery. Poisoned Pen. May 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781464201295. $24.95; pap. ISBN 9781464201318. $14.99. M

Snowstorms only make a nightmarish case worse for Dr. Rinaldi and the others trying to save a former FBI profiler whose life is in grave danger in this thrilling case, number three for the psychologist (after Fever Dream).

Slan, Joanna Campbell. Picture Perfect Corpse: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery. Midnight Ink. May 2013. 328p. ISBN 9780738735382. pap. $14.99. M

She survives a shooting and that’s just for openers. It’s a wild week for pregnant Kiki, whose life reads more “thriller” than “crafter” in her sixth outing (after Ready, Scrap, Shoot).

Stanley, Michael. Deadly Harvest: A Detective Kubu Mystery. Bourbon Street: HarperCollins. May 2013. 496p. ISBN 9780062221520. pap. $14.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062221537. M

Newcomer Det. Samantha Khama helps Det. David “Kubu” Bengu when a serial killer targets girls in Botswana, possibly to use their bodies in a potion called muti. A father, devastated by loss, seeks revenge by murdering a politician in this complicated case, Kubu’s fourth (after Death of the Mantis).

Sweeney, Leann. The Cat, the Mill and the Murder: A Cats in Trouble Mystery. Obsidian Mysteries: NAL. May 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780451415417. pap. $7.99; ebk. ISBN 9781101609682. M

Amateur sleuth, quilter, and cat lover Jillian Hart was expecting to find feral cats in an abandoned mill, not a human corpse. The South Carolina-set cozy series is up to number five (after The Cat, The Wife and the Weapon).

LJ‘s first feature on the best new magazines was William A. Katz’s “Magazine Madness” published April 1, 1988. In that inaugural essay, Katz noted that 500–600 new magazines were launched each year, but “only a handful are worthy of attention.” We all know that the web and smart devices have changed the publishing landscape, and one consequence is fewer new print magazines. According to ­Mediafinder.com, 227 magazines launched in 2012, compared to 239 launched in 2011. While the number of new publications is half the rate of the 1980s, Katz’s point about the portion worthy of librarians’ attention remains valid.

Noteworthy or not, magazines inevitably come and go. The death rate improved a bit last year, with 82 closures versus 152 in 2011. As any librarian not living under a rock knows, Newsweek ceased as a print publication at the end of 2012 (following U.S. News & World Report in 2010). Individuals can pay $2.99/month to read it on their iPad, NOOK, Android, Kindle, or computer. The best access option for libraries is probably to rely on aggregated databases, as Newsweek is very commonly included in database offerings from ProQuest, EBSCO, and Gale.

Big budgets and wide distribution aren’t enough on their own to sustain a magazine. Witness the demise of Holmes: The Magazine To Make It Right after less than two years of publication. Occasionally, it’s the low-budget, kitchen table–produced new periodicals that end up showing the most resiliency. An example of a past “best magazine of the year” published on a shoestring is hand-sewn Vintage, which against this reviewer’s expectations has published three issues and continues to thrive. Despite the occasionally grim fate of individual titles, magazines remain a potent economic force. Periodicals make up 28 percent of the publishing market in the United States, with total revenues on the order of $12.5 billion per year (“Publishing Industry Profile: United States,” Mar. 2012).

Eyes on the future of news weeklies have turned to Time. News stories in early 2013 reported that Time Warner would sell Time, Inc. to Meredith, which publishes 18 magazines. But in March, Time Warner announced that it is going to spin off its entire Time Inc. subsidiary into a separate publicly traded company.

The company will have from $500 million to $1 billion in debt and falling revenue and will no longer be able to draw funds from Time Warner’s lucrative film and television assets, the New York Times reported. On the other hand, Time Inc. accounts for one-quarter of the revenue of the top 50 magazines in the United States. Time, Sports Illustrated, People, and InStyle continue to represent some of the strongest brands with the most loyal subscriber bases in the industry, so the company has a solid foundation from which to work.

A key to any magazine’s success nowadays is its ability to develop online revenue streams. Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) reported that as audiences increasingly access magazine content across multiple platforms, more companies are buying magazine ad space on tablets and the web (“Huge Increase Reported in Brands Advertising with Magazines on Tablet, Online and Print Platforms since 2010,” Oct. 12, 2012). The same press release from the MPA reports that the number of magazine apps released has grown from 192 in the third quarter of 2010 to 1,728 during the same period of 2012. Perhaps to underscore the importance of nimbleness in new media, the MPA recently changed its name to the Association for Magazine Media. (But despite the name change, it’s keeping the acronym MPA.)

Ellen Levine of Hearst Magazines represented the MPA at a September 2011 Senate hearing on the postal service’s continuing financial difficulties (Congressional Digest, Feb. 2012). She stated that subscriptions account for 90 percent of circulation and that 90 percent of readers still want a printed copy. This amounts to 300 million paid subscriptions per year. Noting that postage represents about 20 percent of the cost of producing a magazine, she emphasized the need for affordable and reliable delivery but expressed neutrality on the issue of five-day delivery.

The best magazines launched in 2012 include one sport magazine, a travel magazine, two in the lifestyle genre, an art journal, and five literary magazines. None this year are strictly online; all are available in print.

American Reader. m. $39.99. Ed: Uzoamaka Maduka. theamericanreader.com
Editor in chief Maduka received attention that should delight the founder of any literary magazine, a feature praising the merits of American Reader (AR) in the New York Times (1/2/13). The magazine is visually quite traditional, with a subdued cover, refreshingly unremarkable typography, and sparing use of mostly black-and-white illustrations. Yet AR is by no means staid. The twentysomething Princetonians responsible for this journal have wrought a thoroughly contemporary, independent, high-quality collection of reviews, fiction, and poetry. It’s rounded out with light touches of photography, translated works, and reprints.

ARTMargins. 3/yr. print + online. $200. Ed: Sven Spieker. www.mitpressjournals.org/loi/artm
MIT Press’s new scholarly art journal explores artistic endeavors from regions formerly considered as peripheral to the art world. The editorial board intends to use perspectives from areas such as Latin America and Eastern Europe to enrich the dialog in art history; to study “the migration of initiatives, ideas, and artistic practices across continents now and in the past.” While regrettably prone to the dense and jargon-filled prose so typical in current humanities scholarship, ARTMargins provides a valuable venue for international perspectives in art history from formerly underrepresented points of view.

Blindfold. q. $33.80. Ed: Jeramy Pritchett. www.blindfoldmag.com
Blindfold implores us to “take it off”e_SEmDthe blinders, that is. Having both eyes open will reveal patterns of destruction wrought by inattention to our impact on ecosystems. Blindfold is for readers who, in editor Pritchett’s words, “don’t want to wake up one day to find our planet dead.” The message is conveyed mostly through profiles of individuals acting in environmentally conscious ways. The magazine tends toward a hippie vibe, but the messages are tempered and the writing level-headed. Blindfold is colorfully illustrated and physically well constructed on good quality 9e_SDRq x 11e_SDRq paper. Larger fonts and less saturated colors would improve this worthy voice espousing sustainable harmony with our fragile planet.

Decades. irreg. $15/issue. Ed: Chloe Schildhause. www.decadesforever.com
Edgy and weird, Decades gets a nod as one of the best magazines of 2012 owing to its creative originality. Three twentysomething women teamed up with simpatico peers to inaugurate the magazine with a “beet stain issue,” as in using beet juice to simulate blood. It’s odd, and a bit gross, but they manage to pull off a legitimate compilation of avant-garde art. The beet theme is not overdone, as much of the inaugural issue spans a range of diverse topics. While not for every library, Decades provides an interesting example of contemporary literature from witty and brash members of the Millennial generation.

Empirical. m. $54.95. Ed: Tara Grover Smith. empiricalmagazine.com
Chico, CA–based Empirical publishes essays on current events, poetry, short fiction, photography, and a few reviews of works in various media. Billing itself as having the pioneering spirit of the Pacific Northwest, the editors of Empirical lean in a decidedly liberal direction. Nonfiction essays in recent issues address the plight of organized labor, the perils of ignorance, and the necessity of sustainable agriculture. Firmly held perspectives are rationally argued in an openly unapologetic manner. Insofar as directness is a virtue, Empirical provides a worthwhile and visually attractive outlet for liberal ­perspectives.

Howler. q. $50. Ed: George Quraishi & Mark Kirby. howlermagazine.com
The founders of independent soccer magazine Howler have a range of experience on the staffs of prominent publications including GQ, Esquire, and ESPN. The depth of their professional experience is apparent in Howler’s expert graphic design and inspired editorial content. The title Howler comes from the British term for a blunder and is a nod to British humor. The editors intend to “explore the ways soccer helps us understand social problems, ethnic tension, big business, youth culturee_SEmDand we can poke fun at ourselves for being people who say stuff like that.” Visually gorgeous, intellectually engaging, Howler provides a unique take on one of the world’s favorite sports.

Inspirato. 3/yr. $9.99/issue. Ed: Mendy Charlton. inspiratomagazine.com
Editorial content makes up a relatively small portion of this coffee-table visual feast of luxury travel destinations. Inspirato is a destination travel club targeted to members willing and able to enjoy vacations at multimillion-dollar homes in prime tourist locations. About a third of the magazine describes those locations, so the prime audience are members of the club. But articles also cover destinations and experiences available to anyone, and the photography is first-rate. Beautiful and opulent, Inspirato should delight armchair travelers.

Louisiana Kitchen & Culture. bi-m. $35.82. Ed: Jyl Benson. louisiana.kitchenandculture.com
How can one not like a magazine with a masthead that includes a “master intoxicologist & music editor” and a board of six “contributing taste buds”? Louisiana Kitchen & Culture (LK&C) is a gumbo of authentic New Orleans published from an office on Annunciation Street in the Lower Garden District. Its pages are a delightful visual feast of chef and restaurant profiles, local folkways, and, of course, recipes. Food is the centerpiece—crawfish hash, bacon fat doughnuts, duck soup with quacklings, ­bananas foster martinis, plus many disarmingly simple recipes for Cajun and Creole dishes. LK&C is an especially fine effort that will entertain and inform patrons, not to mention make their mouths water.

Mother Earth Living. bi-m. $27.95. Ed: Jessica Kellner. motherearthliving.com
Formerly Natural Home & Garden, Mother Earth Living is a breezy, easy read. “Back to basics” topics include clutter-free living, foods for feeling young, principles of old-fashioned cooking, and basic information about genetically modified foods. While none of the information presented is especially new, the pleasing graphic design and straightforward writing style make it an attractive offering for public libraries. As with all the titles in the Mother Earth brand, advertisements complement editorial content.

Radio Silence. bi-a. $25. Ed: Dan Stone. maintainradiosilence.com
One element of a multimedia nonprofit organization, print magazine Radio Silence (RS) is ostensibly about “literature and rock ’n’ roll.” But Radio Silence eloquently embraces the richly varied affinities creative writing shares with all kinds of music. Writers relate how music has influenced them, and musicians write about influences of literature on their lives and work. At the heart of the success of RS is the editor’s fine ear for lyric prose. Stone has wrought a very cool, eminently readable new literary magazine. Its attractiveness is boosted by the publisher’s donation of a portion of sales to buy books and musical instruments for kids. n

Steve Black for many years was LJ‘s magazine reviews columnist. He is a Serials and Reference Librarian at the College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY

By Brian E. Coutts and Cheryl LaGuardia

Last year brought a big change to the reference world: Encyclopaedia Britannica announced its exit from the print business, 244 years after its famous, eponymous work was first published. The year also saw the term F-bomb, which first surfaced 20 years ago, appearing in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary along with sexting, flexitarian, and life coach. An article in The Guardian alleged that a former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary deleted thousands of words because of their foreign origins; Oxford University Press responded that the deletions were for space and cost considerations.

The year also saw observation of the centennial anniversary of the sinking of Titanic, a disaster that is covered comprehensively in one of our recommended websites, and the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, every aspect of which is described in ABC-CLIO’s The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. As civil war raged in Syria and new conflict broke out in Mali, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought shed some light on the background to these conflicts as it tracked differing positions Islam has taken during its political expansion over the past 14 centuries.

The most pivotal event in modern Irish history occurred when more than a million people perished of hunger between 1845 and 1852, a story that is brilliantly told in New York University Press’s lavishly illustrated and thoroughly documented Atlas of the Great Irish Famine. On a much narrower theme, the Atlas of Yellowstone combines 500 maps, photos, charts, and the latest satellite imagery to create a visually stunning reference work on our first national park.

The first edition of the Oxford Latin Dictionary begun in 1933 took almost 50 years to reach print in 1982. Fortunately, this second edition has taken only 20 years. With 40,000 entries, 100,000 translations, and more than five million word of text, it’s the largest and most up-to-date Latin-English ­dictionary available.

SAGE has several entries on our list, such as its Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste, the first encyclopedia to focus on what we throw away. A generation of readers of graphic novels get a well-deserved reference source covering “Heroes and Superheroes,” “Independents and Underground Classics,” and “Manga” in Salem Press’s Critical Survey of Graphic Novels.

These are just a few of the outstanding print resources described on the following pages; you’ll also find listings for outstanding new reference databases and recognition of the stellar ­rerelease of JSTOR in August 2012. [The original LJ reviews excerpted here are by Cheryl LaGuardia (CL) and Bonnie J.M. Swoger (BS), as marked.] For sheer labors of love, though, the winners this year are Louisiana Place Names, the entries of which were collected over a lifetime by Clare D’Artois Leeper, who died shortly before this was published by LSU Press, and Flies: The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera from University of Guelph entomologist Stephen A. Marshall, who displays the world’s fly families in 2,200 stunning color photographs from Firefly Books.

Arts

Classical Music in Video. Alexander Street Press

A streaming video collection designed to support the study of classical music, CMIV includes music appreciation, history, performance, and analysis and theory. It covers music from medieval times to the 21st century, with historical recordings from the 1950s to the present. It’s an outstanding addition to ASP’s other video databases in the arts, and an excellent selection for libraries supporting serious students and researchers in the discipline. (LJ 10/1/12, CL)

Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. 2d ed. 2 vols. Scarecrow. 984p. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780810882720. $160.

Opera lovers will rejoice with this revised edition by a noted musicologist that updates many of the original 3,500 entries while adding coverage of 900 more works, most focusing on the past decade. There is an introductory brief history of opera in English arranged by country. The core text arranges operas alphabetically by title and provides information on authors, first and notable performances, principals and conductor, setting, bibliography, and discography. Volume 2 lists composers, librettists, and authors and offers a chronology. There’s even an index of characters with vocal ranges listed.

The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. 6 vols. Oxford Univ. 3846p. ed. by Colum Hourihane. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780195395365. $895.

These 2,030 entries span from the western shores of Ireland in the sixth century to the eastern fringes of Europe in the 16th. While drawing from the earlier Dictionary of Art, entries are updated to reflect 15 years of new research, and 270 new pieces enhance coverage of gender, pilgrimage, and Jewish medieval art as well as add biographies of deceased medievalists. Comprehensive coverage of all major works, sites and monuments, and figures and media are enhanced by 637 illustrations including 72 pages in full color. Access is assured by an exhaustive, 226-page index. Written by leading scholars and edited by a team headed by Hourihane at Princeton, this work greatly elevates knowledge of the period.

Sundholm, John & others. Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema. Scarecrow. 452p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780810855243. $120.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have been the source of some of the world’s greatest films, directors, actors, and actresses. Including works like Ingmar Bergman’s haunting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Scandinavian cinema dates back to 1897. Five film studies professors have here combined their talents to produce 400 cross-referenced entries covering the industry’s people, films, themes, and studios. These are preceded by detailed cinematic histories of each country and a list of acronyms and followed by a detailed bibliography arranged by country and then by topic.

Business & Economics

The Encyclopedia of Housing. 2d ed. 2 vols. SAGE. 872p. ed. by Andrew T. Carswell. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412989572. $375.

This welcome second edition of a work first published in 1998 will help readers to make sense of terms such as assisted living, exurbia, and tax increment financing. New articles describe the foreclosure crisis that began in 2007 and attempts that were made to deal with it on a federal level. There’s a detailed explanation of the subprime mortgage crisis and the new Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design standards for green building. Available in print and online, this is a timely resource.

Encyclopedia of New Venture Management. SAGE. 512p. ed. by Matthew R. Marvel. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412990813. $125.

With interest surging in high schools and colleges about new-venture management (entrepreneurship), this work by a business professor with contributions from 128 international writers should be in hot demand. From accounting, adaptation, and advertising to venture valuation and work-life balance, the 193 entries discuss entrepreneurial characteristics and skills from creativity to obstacle identification and examine case studies by product type. Even universities are involved with their business incubators.

Food

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. 2 ed. 3 vols. Oxford Univ. 2508p. ed. by Andrew F. Smith. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780199734962. $450.

The first edition of this book with its 770 entries from 200 authors drew widespread acclaim in 2004. This new release with its 1,300 entries from 350 authors adds another volume and updates and revises earlier entries. There’s more emphasis on the food of ethnic and immigrant groups, new biographies, histories of iconic products, and culinary profiles of 30 cities like New Orleans with its mufalettas and Café du Monde. Controversies surrounding “foie gras” are discussed as are recent developments in obesity. Finally, there is extended coverage of organic and locally grown foods.

General Reference

Academic World Book; World Book

This reference and research all-in-one site includes an encyclopedia, primary-source reproductions (several hundred thousand letters, books, speeches, articles, records, interviews, and images), biographies, a citation builder, an atlas (and interactive maps), a dictionary, time lines, fiction and non­fiction ebooks, tutorials and exercises about college-level research skills, a writing center, links to global newspapers, and multimedia (animations, maps, pictures, sounds, tables, and videos). The amount and quality of the material here, and its organization and presentation, are first-rate. This reasonably priced, go-to source will prove invaluable to many students. (LJ 9/15/12, CL)

Leeper, Clare D’Artois. Louisiana Place Names: Popular, Unusual, and Forgotten Stories of Towns, Cities, Plantations, Bayous, and Even Some Cemeteries. Louisiana State Univ. 293p. maps. bibliog. ISBN 9780807147382. $39.95.

More than 50 years ago Leeper, who died earlier this year, began a column called “Louisiana Places: Those Strange Sounding Names” for the Baton Rouge Sunday Advocate. The 893 entries here are drawn from some of those columns and based on written records, legend, oral history, tradition, and folklore. Many of the places listed were named for prominent families, such as Kentwood in Tangipahoa Parish, which was called after Amos Kent, who speculated in land along the Illinois Central. Others are named for saints like St. Martinville, or after a fourth-century French bishop, St. Martin of Tours. Still others, such as Cloud Crossing, evoke weather. All states should have such a fascinating collection of terms devoted to them.

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the United States 2013. Bernan Assocs. 1025p. maps. index. ISBN 9781598885910. $179.

Librarians everywhere rejoiced when ProQuest announced its decision to take over publication of a classic source published since 1878, most recently by the Census Bureau. The 2013 print edition adds new tables on “Same Sex Households” (there were 646,464 in 2010), “Obese Children” (18%), “Youth with a Major Depressive Disorder” (8% in 2010), and “Mean Student Loan Debt” ($26,682). A new table, “Leisure Time Use” shows that most people watch too much TV (53% of their free time) as opposed to participating in sports/recreation (7%) or reading (4%). With enhanced indexing, the print edition is easy to navigate and a pleasure to use. ProQuest’s subscription database version includes monthly updates and enhanced searching capabilities.

State Stats; CQ Press

This sleek, dynamic statistics database covers a wide range of topics, seeking to be users’ first stop for statistics about the United States. Data come from the past ten to 15 years, with a few pieces from the early 1990s. They are pulled from a series of CQ Press print works published between 1995 and 2011, including State Rankings, Health Care State Rankings, Crime State Rankings, and Education State Rankings. Much of the information available in here comes from publicly available sources, but those sources are seldom as simple to use, and few governmental statistics repositories have the functionality to compare data this easily. (LJ 6/15/12, BS)

Statista; Statista

This database aggregates statistics and data sets from an impressive variety of fields and groups them into 20 main categories covering topics such as advertising, telecommunications, chemicals, energy, education, consumer goods, e-commerce, banking, health care, retail, demographics, sports, transportation, and tourism. The interface is elegant and incredibly user-friendly, especially in comparison to some sources of free statistics. Institutions that purchase this product will quickly find it becoming the number one source for reference questions beginning, “I need statistics on….” (LJ 1/12, BS)

Humanities

Atlas of the Great Irish Famine. New York Univ. 710p. ed. by John Crowley & others. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780814771488. $75.

By the mid-1830s, one-third of the Irish population depended on the potato for 90 percent of its food. Failures of the potato crops beginning in 1845 and the onset of blight in 1846 contributed to more than a million people perishing of hunger in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. It was the greatest social disaster to occur in one country in the 19th century. Perhaps a million and a half emigrated overseas, primarily to the United States, Canada, and Australia, and still others moved to British slums. This work offers accounts found in written and oral sources, and poetry, art, and photography, all enhanced by 200 new digitized maps to create a picture of this pivotal event.

Atlas of Yellowstone. Univ. of California. 274p. ed. by W. Andrew Marcus & others. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780520271555. $65.

In 1871, a U.S. Geological Survey team including artist Thomas Moran and photographer William Jackson explored the sources of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The appearance of their works in “The Wonders of the West” for Scribner’s Monthly in February 1872 prompted Congress and President Grant to create the first national park in the United States in this unique area of 2.2 million acres. A class project in advanced cartography at the University of Oregon grew exponentially to include a veritable army of cartographers who have created these 500 maps and accompanying text that explain the geographic setting, human and physical geography, and even the wildlife of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park.

The Cambridge History of Religions in America. 3 vols. Cambridge Univ. 2663p. ed. by Stephen J. Stein & others. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781107013346. $450.

Leading scholars trace here the development of religious traditions in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean, including those transplanted from other parts of the world as well as domestic religious movements. Volume 1 covers pre-Columbian times to 1790 in 39 essays on topics from French Catholicism in New France to Congregationalism in New England. The 39 articles in Volume 2 (1790–1945) describe the dramatic expansion of religious diversity with its attendant conflicts. A final volume (1945–present) in 37 essays explores conflicts over race, gender, sex, and civil rights. A rich collection.

The Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War: A Political, Social, and Military History. 3 vols. ABC-CLIO. 1084p. ed. by Spencer C. Tucker & others. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781851098538. $310.

The war between 1846 and 1848 cost $100 million and 13,000 lives. Mexico lost half of its national territory while the United States completed its westward expansion to the Pacific. Some 800 alphabetically arranged entries, 25 tables, 31 maps, and 146 primary documents from 167 contributors enhance our knowledge of this prelude to sectional crisis here and civil war in Mexico. Even General Santa Anna gets his due.

The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812: A Political, Social, and Military History. 3 vols. ABC-CLIO. 1034p. ed. by Spencer C. Tucker & others. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781851099566. $310.

The United States declared war against Britain on June 18, 1812, primarily for maritime reasons but also with hopes of expanding into Native-held regions of the Old Northwest. The war was a defining moment for the provinces that would later confederate into the Dominion of Canada, and it enhanced American nationalism especially after Andrew Jackson’s stirring defense of New Orleans. Here 166 cross-border contributors help make sense of it all in 867 entries that are accompanied by maps, a chronology, and 113 primary documents.

Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO); Gale Digital Collections

NCCO, a multiyear digitization and publishing project, will culminate in an enormous gathering of primary-source materials from 1789 to 1914 (with some content stretching beyond that period) arranged in cross-searchable online collections by topics or themes. Material comes from libraries, archives, special collections, and repositories worldwide and includes books and monographs, broadsides, diaries, financial accounts, hand-written sheet music, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, pamphlets, periodicals, letters, photographs, poetry, statistics, and more and is in Western and non-Western languages. The rare material, the powerful yet uncomplicated search mechanism, and the added-value subject indexing stand out here. (LJ 6/1/12, CL)

The Oxford Classical Dictionary.
4th ed. Oxford Univ. 1592p. ed. by Simon Hornblower & others. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780199545568. $175.

Since the first edition in 1949, the OCD has acquired legendary status among classical scholars as a place of first reference. The third edition, published in 1996 and revised in 2002 with 6,250 entries from 364 international scholars, was almost entirely rewritten. This fourth edition, while adding only 90 new and replacement entries, revises and updates many others. New coverage ranges from pieces on Jewish art to circumcision, masculinity, opera, and the Sabbath. A six-page replacement entry on Homer by Suzanne Saïd is particularly noteworthy. This remains an indispensable source.

Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO)
Oxford University Press

A collection of authoritative Oxford (OUP) editions of major works in the humanities, OSEO is designed to serve research in the fields of English literature, history, philosophy, and religion, with launch content including the complete text of more than 170 scholarly editions of material written between 1485 and 1660. There are approximately 12,000 works—equal to 82,000 print pages—now in the collection, including all of Shakespeare’s plays and the poetry of John Donne. The full text of each work is included, along with the editor’s record of variations in the text and explanatory notes. Many works include historical context and information on editorial principles. This game-changing online file surpasses the equivalent print editions and is recommended for serious scholarship in the humanities everywhere. (LJ 11/15/12, CL)

Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950–1975: Rock and Roll, Counterculture, Peace and Protest; Adam Matthew

This resource collects international archival materials, including original manuscripts and typescripts, photos, letters, pamphlets, advertisements, clippings, censorship documentation, leaflets, government files, video clips from ITN Source and Huntley Film Archives, images of posters, pins, and other memorabilia, and a chronology from 1950 to 1975 containing embedded articles and images. The content is outstanding; overall discoverability and accessibility are good. Recommended enthusiastically to public, academic, and special libraries serving serious American and British cultural and historical researchers. (LJ 4/1/12, CL)

Romanticism Redefined (RR)
Alexander Street Press

Focusing on the period between 1800 and 1830, RR collects 123,481 pages of text from 3,323 publications of London-based publishers Pickering & Chatto (P&C) and the complete run of The Wordsworth Circle (updated as new issues become available). P&C material includes, for example, diaries, letters, literary criticism, historical writings, speeches, lectures, travel and exploration literature, political and sociological works, and critical essays commissioned by P&C and written by leading scholars of the period. The content is superb, with linked contextual notes in the texts, and the interconnections among the authors and their works become evident after only a few searches. A slice of heaven for serious, scholarly researchers of the Romantic period. (LJ 1/12, CL)

Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC); Beacham Group

TRAC combines original analytical articles, copies of related news stories from a wide variety of sources, and links to connected resources and tools to create a compelling collection. Profiles of terrorist groups make up the largest section of the database, with hundreds of entities listed (including some that are no longer active, such as the African National Congress). Group profiles may include brief summaries of origins and links to TRAC articles about their ideology, tactics, and targets. An attractive, high-quality, and comprehensive treatment of terrorism-related information. (LJ 5/1/12, BS)

Women and Social Movements, International (WASMI)‚ 1840-Present
Alexander Street Press

WASMI is a collection of primary-source materials from more than 300 repositories around the world. Documents here are mainly in copyright and previously unpublished and include letters, diaries, manuscripts, conference proceedings (a major portion of the file), journal articles, memoirs, photographs, ephemera, and national committee reports. These are licensed from women’s organizations, archives, and publishers and accompanied by scholarly essays for historical context. The file also provides links to 20,000 pages of online primary-source material. Approximately seven percent of the content is in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, or Spanish, and well over half of the published material is from outside the United States. This scholar’s dream will be equally accessible to high school students and post-docs alike. It is recommended to libraries worldwide serving historical, cultural, and political researchers. (LJ 5/15/12, CL)

Language & Linguistics

Baker, William & Kenneth Womack. The Facts On File Companion to Shakespeare. 5 vols. Facts On File. 2156p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780816078202. $375.

Many readers have difficulty understanding and enjoying Shakespeare’s work. The primary objective of this wonderfully organized and accessible new resource is to counter those difficulties. Active Shakespearean scholars and teachers provide extensive coverage of every play, 76 sonnets, and all of his longer poems, beginning with “Venus and Adonis.” Part 1 places the Bard’s life in context through the latest research. Part 2 covers his poems and Part 3 his plays. Discussions of modern criticism and the plays today will interest students.

Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Heroes and Superheroes. 2 vols. 818p. ISBN 9781587658655. $295.

Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Independents & Underground Classics.
3 vols. 1084p. ISBN 9781587659508. $395.

Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Manga. 382p. ISBN 9781587659553. $195.

ea. vol.: Salem. ed. by Bart H. Beaty & Stephen Weiner. Illus. bibliog. Index.

Graphic novels, with their unique combination of visual images and text with an emphasis on art over description, have flourished in recent decades. This project is designed to provide insights into and analysis of the most influential and widely read such novels. Heroes and Superheroes covers 130 works whose titles such as Batman: Dark Victory and Wonder Woman: Love and Murder will be immediately recognizable. Independents & Underground Classics discusses 215 works that were either self-published or produced by independent houses since the 1960s. Finally, Manga examines a Japanese literary form introduced to the this country in translation, covering 65 meta series and stand-alone books including Naoko Takeuchi’s wildly popular Sailor Moon, which ran as a television series from 1995 to 2000. For each title there is a plot summary, a list of characters, and discussion of themes and impact. Beaty (Univ. of Calgary) and Weiner (director, Maynard PL) are leading experts in the genre. Access to the online database version is free with print purchase.

The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Yale Univ. 294p. ed. by Charles Clay Doyle & others. illus. bibliog. ISBN 9780300136029. $35.

With its focus on proverbs that originated since 1900, this rich collection of 1,400 sayings drawn from newspapers, songs, and films is the first to use recently digitized sources to provide more accurate attributions. Alphabetized by keyword with information about each proverb’s earliest datable appearance, origin, history, and meaning, the work is endlessly entertaining.

Law & Politics

Encyclopedia of Global Studies. 4 vols. SAGE. 1959p. Helmut K. Anheier & Mark Juergensmeyer. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412964296. $540.

The outline for this work emerged from meetings with leading scholars in London, Tokyo, and California. With a stated purpose of providing a seminal resource for the emerging field of global studies, some 600 alphabetically arranged entries describe civil society, communication, conflict, culture, demographics, economic issues, environmental issues, governance and world order, health and nutrition, and justice and legal issues. While most entries are topical (“Biohazards”), others describe ideas such as capitalism or even events such as 9/11. In print and online.

Encyclopedia of U.S.-Latin American Relations. 3 vols. SAGE-CQ Pr. 1013p. ed. by Thomas M. Leonard. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780872897625. $500.

Some 800 alphabetically arranged entries by Latin American specialists describe the ebb and flow of U.S.-Latin American relations since 1800. An excellent introduction provides the parameters that are explored in abundant detail in entries on the history of U.S. relations with individual counties. Biographies describe major Latin American leaders and key U.S. statesmen as well as the Latin American policies of U.S. Presidents. Major initiatives such as Kennedy’s “Alliance for Progress” are analyzed, as are U.S. occupations such as that of the Dominican Republic in 1965 and commodities including bananas, coffee, copper, and oil.

Oxford Latin Dictionary. 2d ed. 2 vols. Oxford Univ. 2344p. ed. by P.G.W. Glare. bibliog. ISBN 9780199580316. $450.

This resource has had a tortuous history. The idea for such a dictionary was first discussed in 1875 but abandoned in favor of an American competitor. Work on the first edition began in 1933 but was not completed until 1982, as it was slowed by wars, editors, and a desire to assemble it from a fresh reading of Latin texts. For the second edition, the newly digitized text now boasts 40,000 headwords and 100,000 senses enriched by 400,000 citations from 700 classical resources. As before, it covers the language of Rome from its earliest days to 200 CE.

The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton Univ. 656p. ed. by Gerhard Bowering & others. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780691134840. $75.

In this timely volume, 15 major entries examine key topics such as Muhammad, jihad, gender, fundamentalism, and pluralism. The remaining nearly 400 entries focus on the origin and evolution of Islamic political terms, concepts, personalities, movements, places, and schools of thought. The article on sharia (sacred law of Islam) is one of the longest. There are detailed entries on Shiism and Sunnism, to which the majority of contemporary Muslims adhere. The editor is professor of Islamic Studies at Yale.

Walton, Hanes, Jr. & others. The African American Electorate: A Statistical History. 2 vols. SAGE-CQ Pr. 940p. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780872895089. $350.

This is the richest collection of African American electoral data ever compiled. It aims to capture the dynamism of the African American electorate starting with the free men and women of color in Colonial America and continuing through electoral disenfranchisement to the historic election of Barack Obama in 2008. The compilers use descriptive and visual statistics, and their addition of newly found data makes this particularly valuable. From table 9.5, which shows “Free African American Male Voting in Presidential Elections, 1789 to 1868,” to Diagram 23.1, which visually depicts the dismantling of the Democratic Party’s White Primary, the work portrays a remarkable journey.

Sciences

Coombes, Allen J. The A to Z of Plant Names: A Quick Reference Guide to 4000 Garden Plants. Timber. 312p. illus. bibliog. ISBN 9781604691962. $19.95.

Covering more than 4,000 of the most commonly grown garden plants in Europe and North America, botanist Coombes tells us where plants come from, who discovered them, and how they got their names. He explains for example that Zinnia (“zin-ee-uh”) L (Asteraceae) is named for 18th-century German botanist Johann Zinn, and its 17 species of annuals and perennials range from the United States to South America.

Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreams: The Evolution, Function, Nature, and Mysteries of Slumber. 2 vols. Greenwood. 904p. ed. by Deirdre Barrett & Patrick McNamara. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780313386640. $189.

A vast array of topics are discussed here, from acute sleep deprivation to disturbed sleep and PTSD, the impact of media on nightmares, sleep and shift work, sleep apnea, and even yawns. The book also describes studies showing that, for example, sleep duration in children and adolescents has declined by one hour over the past ten years, and documenting a relationship between daytime tiredness and mobile phone use. This fascinating work from cutting- edge researchers has the most attractive cover of the year.

Gardiner, Jim. The Timber Press Encyclopedia of Flowering Shrubs. Timber. 436p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780881928235. $49.95.

Director of horticulture for all of the Royal Horticultural Gardens in the UK, Gardiner says he became hooked on flowering shrubs as a student and has been taking slides of ones that make rewarding garden plants for more than 40 years. These plants have been collected worldwide as well as introduced by hybridizers and nurseries. The 1,700 illustrated here are arranged alphabetically by genus name with notes on size, need for sun/shade, flowering period, and hardiness. A “Table of Selected Shrubs” lists key design and cultural characteristics. One of the most beautiful books of the year.

Marshall, Stephen A. Flies: The Natural History & Diversity of Diptera. Firefly. 616p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781770851009. $125.

University of Guelph entomologist Marshall has been an insect enthusiast since he was five. He notes that diptera (flies) have been around for more than 300 million years and that they have an enormous impact on the planet, killing millions of people by transmitting disease but also pollinating plants and disposing of dung and carrion that would quickly otherwise overwhelm us. Part 1 of the book describes the life of the creatures, Part 2 examines their diversity, and Part 3 gives advice on how to study, collect, and identify flies. With 2,200 stunning color photos, this book offers a whole new perspective on a world of more than 160,000 species.

Mikkola, Heimo. Owls of the World: A Photographic Guide. Firefly. 512p. illus. maps. index. ISBN 9781770851368. $49.95.

A native of Finland, the author is the world’s best-known owl expert, having visited the birds in 128 countries over the past 40 years. Here he describes all of the world’s 249 species of owls in copious detail with tips on identification, habitat, calls, and status and distribution. The text is enhanced by 750 color photographs from leading wildlife photographers. A spectacular book.

Naughton, Donna. The Natural History of Canadian Mammals. Univ. of Toronto. 784p. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781442644830. $69.95.

Naughton, a biologist, spent 11 years studying and drawing mammals for this project. It profiles all 215 known species of mammals in Canada from the family Aplodontiidae (mountain beaver) whose single living species is considered the most primitive living rodent, to the prolific family Sciuridae (squirrels and marmots), those large-eyed mammals with bushy tales, and killer whales, the largest of the dolphin family. Each is described in abundant detail with graphics of skulls, illustrations of tracks, full- color drawings, and photographs. An ebook version is due out soon, with a French translation to follow.

Social Sciences

Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage. 2 vols. SAGE. 1177p. ed. by Carl A. Zimring & William L. Rathje. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412988193. $320.

This may be the first encyclopedia to focus exclusively on what society throws away, as what’s old hat to archaeologists has only recently drawn the attention of other social scientists. Covering everything from global municipal waste management systems to the residual impact of consumer products, these articles will both inform and, in some cases, alarm. Every U.S. state’s waste management program is discussed as are those of many of the world’s major cities. In print and online.

Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education.
4 vols. SAGE. 2476p. ed. by James A. Banks. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412981521. $595.

This landmark study serves both as a history of where we’ve been and a road map to where we need to be. The 700 entries describe alternative education modes, curriculum issues, exceptionality, gender and sexual orientation, global dimensions (by region), immigration, language, racial and ethnic diversity, and testing and assessment. A series of special essays, “Perspectives in Education,” from eminent scholars provides additional insights. In print and online.

Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures, and Contemporary Issues. 3 vols. Sharpe Reference. 1004p. ed. by Steven Danver. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780765682222. $349.

Drawing on the talents of 150 scholars, Danver has selected 400 native groups from six regions of the world to profile and organized them by region. The first volume describes groups ranging from the Han, who represent 90% of China’s population to the Kuna, who live along the Caribbean coast of Panama, and from the Sami, who live within the Arctic Circle in Finland, Norway, and Sweden to the San of Namibia and Botswana. Part 2 examines the treatment of these peoples in some 80 countries. A final section describes 50 issues that affect these groups worldwide from land and water rights to social discrimination.

The Social History of Crime & Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. 5 vols. SAGE. 2606p. ed. by Wilbur R. Miller. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781412988766. $560.

Traditional social science methods have been combined here with “bottom up history” with its focus on criminals and their interaction with the criminal justice system to create an immense if uneven literature on crime, policing, the courts and law, imprisonment, and philosophical issues from the Colonial period to the present. The coverage by state is a useful feature. A series of extended essays by period complemented by primary documents make this an excellent classroom resource. In print and online.

Sports

Maxymuk, John. NFL Head Coaches: A Biographical Dictionary, 1920–2011. McFarland. 430p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780786465576. $49.95.

Recent sports headlines touted that this year’s Super Bowl teams would be coached for the first time by two brothers, Jim and John Harbaugh of the 49ers and the Ravens, respectively. The writers could have verified that in this engagingly written new biographical dictionary by Rutgers reference librarian (and LJ reviewer) Maxymuk. In it he describes all 466 men who have served as head coaches in the NFL since 1920. For each he discusses their approach, style, and relative success. He’s even created an algorithm to rank coaches by their results (Paul Brown tops the list).

Sports Around the World: History, Culture, and Practice. 4 vols. ABC-CLIO. 1848p. John Nauright & Charles Parrish. illus. maps. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781598843002. $415.

Defining sport as a rulebound physical activity that is played at informal and formal levels by various age groups, the editors have selected 850 entries written by 250 experts in various sports and events and arranged them regionally. For each there is an opening essay on sports history and culture in the region followed by detailed entries on particular sports, athletes, competitions, and venues. General essays explore topics from disabled athletes to sexuality and sports psychology. Of particular interest is coverage of lesser-known activities from capoeira in Brazil to camel racing in the Middle East.

Brian E. Coutts is Professor and Head, Department of Library Public Services, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. Cheryl LaGuardia is a Research Librarian for the Widener Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Cynthia Etkin is a Librarian in Washington, D.C.

Best 2012 Indie Novels
Barry, Kevin. City of Bohane. Graywolf. 288p. ISBN 9781555976088. $25.
Barry’s dystopian tale was rightly shortlisted for the Costa Book Award/First Novel category; it’s a rich, raucous, wild, profane, over-the-top account of a darkly futuristic Irish city, told with stylistic panache.

Beha, Christopher R. What Happened to Sophie Wilder. Tin House. 256p. ISBN 9781935639312. pap. $15.95.
There’s not a misstep in this carefully chiseled debut as Charlie Blakeman struggles to solve the mystery of old flame Sophie Wilder, who drops into his life after a decade, unwinds a painful tale, and then vanishes.

Clarke, Lindsay. The Water Theatre. New York Review Books. 450p. ebk. ISBN 9781590176504. $9.99.
Whitbread Prize winner Clarke delivers an engrossing story of love, friendship, and betrayal involving Martin Crowther; his mentor, Hal Brigshaw; and Brigshaw’s rebellious children, Marina and Adam. An ebook original.

Gillespie, William. Keyhole Factory. Soft Skull: Counterpoint. 368p. ISBN 9781593764463. pap. $16.95.
Presented as a mix of often split-page prose, poetry, and illustration, this wild ride into a slightly different present opens at an academic poetry conference and gets more endearingly crazy thereafter.

McFadden, Bernice L. Gathering of Waters. Akashic. 250p. ISBN 9781617750311. pap. $15.95.
Giving tragedy an unexpectedly magical dimension, McFadden revisits the 1955 death of Emmett Till, just as Tass Hilson, who loved him, revisits the site of Till’s death decades later to calm the troubled waters of her soul.

Miller, Andrew. Pure. Europa. 336p. ISBN 9781609450670. pap. $17.
Miller’s Costa Award winner delivers an astonishingly apt and solid sense of Paris directly before the French Revolution, as an engineer named Baratte is tasked, symbolically, with cleansing an overflowing cemetery.

Nayman, Shira. A Mind of Winter. Akashic. 332p. ISBN 9781617751035. pap. $15.95.
Rendered in fraught, achingly perfect prose, this tale shows how three characters on three continents cope with dislocation and shattering memory post–World War II.

Ruby, Ilie. The Salt God’s Daughter. Soft Skull: Counterpoint. 352p. ISBN 9781619020023. $25.
Dreamlike and shaped by Celtic myth, Ruby’s narrative explores the mother-daughter bond through Ruthie, daughter of free-spirited Diana and mother of Naida, born with a secret and lured by the sea.

Smith, Alexis M. Glaciers. Tin House. 112p. ISBN 9781935639206. pap. $10.95.
In this spare, beautifully written first novel, Isabel constructs a story to fit the mysterious message she finds on one of the postcards she collects but takes longer to make a successful story of her own life.

Straight, Susan. Between Heaven and Here. McSweeney’s. 208p. ISBN 9781936365753. $24.
Glorette Picard is murdered during a sunbaked Rio Seco, CA, August, and the ever humane Straight shows the consequences for one small but indelible community.

Tan Twan Eng. The Garden of Evening Mists. Weinstein. 352p. ISBN 9781602861800. pap. $15.95.
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Eng’s piercingly elegant second novel brings together the only survivor of a Japanese internment camp and an exiled Japanese garden in a bracing act of redemption.

2012 Indie Novels I Couldn’t Forget
Béchard, Deni Y. Vandal Love. Milkweed. 352p. ISBN 9781571310910. pap. $16.
Winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book, this fluidly told novel about several generations of a French Canadian family cursed with being either runts or giants is storytelling at its best.

Friel, James. The Posthumous Affair. Tupelo. 298p. ISBN 9781936797097. $29.95; pap. ISBN 9781936797011. $16.95.
Two children, delicate Daniel and wealthy Grace, known as the Fat Princess, meet in Washington Square in the late 1800s, and the story of their unfolding friendship is both charming and edgy, real and surreal.

Haake, Katharine. The Time of Quarantine. What Books. 294p. ISBN 9780984578214. pap. $15.
Dystopian novels are everywhere, but this tale of a boy raised by computers after climatic catastrophe has an arresting lyricism. Readers are in the midst of the story from the first sentence.

Healy, Trebor. A Horse Named Sorrow. Univ. of Wisconsin. 284p. ISBN 9780299289706. $26.95.
Seamus, a 21-year-old working as a clown, meets wildly self-assured Jimmy in 1980s San Francisco, but it’s the age of AIDS, and “Jimmy was a song, see? But the song’s over.” Immensely poignant.

Lawler, Patrick. Rescuers of Skydivers Search Among the Clouds. FC2: Univ. of Alabama. 160p. ISBN 9781573661683. pap. $15.95.
A fugelike, mazelike story of a family in free fall that you’ll find utterly original.

Mhlongo, Niq. Dog Eat Dog. Ohio Univ. 224p. ISBN 9780821419946. pap. $18.95.
You would expect a novel dealing with frustrated youth in 1994 South Africa to be edgy and angry, but this is also darkly, sparkly funny and an engrossing read.

Spatz, Gregory. Inukshuk. Bellevue Literary. 192p. ISBN 9781934137420. pap. $14.95.
Exact, haunting prose tells the story of a boy obsessed with Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin after his mother abandons the family.

Wetherell, W.D. The Writing on the Wall. Arcade: Skyhorse. 232p. ISBN 9781611457445. $24.95.
Retreating to an old house in New England after receiving tragic news, Vera discovers writing beneath the peeling wallpaper that leads her on an intriguing, deftly rendered journey.

Yuknavitch, Lidia. Dora: A Headcase. Hawthorne. 240p. ISBN 9780983477570. pap. $16.95.
Yuknavitch offers a contemporary retelling of Freud’s famous case of sexually fueled hysteria that’s fresh, funny, in your face, and, finally, touching.

Best 2012 Short Story Collections
Chaon, Dan. Stay Awake. Ballantine. 272p. ISBN 9780345530370. $25.
Chaon’s disquieting collection captures the horror in the everyday.

Cohen, Joshua. Four New Messages. Graywolf. ISBN 9781555976187. pap. $14.
From online porn in Europe to a professor who refuses to read his students’ work, Cohen offers utterly original, weirdly wonderful tales.

Díaz, Junot. This Is How You Lose Her. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). 224p. ISBN 9781594487361. $26.95.
Love won, love lost, and who wouldn’t love this National Book Award–nominated collection, which features indelible portraits of life’s everyday, awful pain.

Donaghue, Emma. Astray. Little, Brown. 288p. ISBN 9780316206297. $25.99.
Moving from horrific rape during the American Revolution to two aging women sculptors in 1968 Ontario and beyond, these masterly explorations of history show what short fiction can do.

Englander, Nathan. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. Knopf. 224p. ISBN 9780307958709. $25.99.
In fluid prose, Englander takes on tough topics like Jewish belief, the consequences of the Holocaust, inane suburbia, and contemporary social mores and gives us unexpected answers.

Hadley, Tessa. Married Love: And Other Love Stories. HarperPerennial: HarperCollins. 240p. ISBN 9780062135643. pap. $14.95.
Not just married love but family life and social stratification come under Hadley’s expert scrutiny here.

James, Tania. Aerogrammes: And Other Short Stories. Knopf. 192p. ISBN 9780307268914. $24.
A turn-of-the-century Indian wrestler, a disillusioned dance teacher, a girl and her chimpanzee, a woman who marries a ghost: one cannot deny that James creates startling characters.

Keret, Etgar. Suddenly, A Knock on the Door. Farrar. 208p. ISBN 9780374533335. pap. $14.
Israeli author Keret has a singular talent for making the absurd very, very real and believable.

Munro, Alice. Dear Life. Knopf. 336p. ISBN 9780307596888. $26.95.
Munro is such a master of the short story that it’s almost boring to put her on this list, but of course it belongs here.

Parameswaren, Rajesh. I Am an Executioner. Knopf. 272p. ISBN 9780307595928. $24.95.
Parameswaren’s graceful and absorbingly written first collection is a revelation, filled with unexpected stories about, say, a love-struck executioner and a hungry tiger.

Scanlon, Seamus. As Close As You’ll Ever Be. Cairn. 162p. ISBN 9780985319717. pap. $18.
Scanlon’s fierce, tough-minded stories effectively capture the tensions of Northern Ireland in you-are-there prose that will make you squirm.

2102 Story Collections I Couldn’t Forget
Battles, Matthew. The Sovereignties of Invention. Red Lemonade. 160p. ISBN 9781935869122. pap. $14.95.
You know that any collection opening with a story about dogs found inexplicably in trees truly earns the term invention in its title.

Bertino, Marie-Helene. Safe as Houses. Univ. of Iowa. 164p. ISBN 9781609381141. pap. $16.
A debut story collection that won the 2012 Iowa Short Fiction Award; offbeat tales of a thieving professor, a girl refusing a prize ham, and bringing home Bob Dylan for Thanksgiving.

Brown, Karen. Little Sinners and Other Stories. Univ. of Nebraska. 208p. ISBN 9780803243422. pap. $17.95.
Indelible characters whose sorrows are our own inhabit this Prairie Schooner Book Prize winner.

Holland, Noy. Swim for the Little One First. FC2: Univ. of Alabama. 184p. ISBN 9781573661690. pap. $16.95.
The ambitious and inventive Holland arranges her narratives in brief, stinging paragraphs that may not connect in obvious ways but are too sharp and structured to be called impressionistic.

Olsen, Erica. Recapture. Torrey. 200p. ISBN 9781937226053. pap. $15.95.
Unsentimental stories that tell us what the American West looks like now and what we’ve lost; the Grand Canyon, for instance, can be seen only in replica after environmental catastrophe.

Pritchard, Melissa. The Odditorium: Stories. Bellevue Literary. 252p. ISBN 9781934137376. pap. $15.95.
Award-winning author Pritchard crosses genres to create energized, fiercely atmospheric tales about holy fools, haunted hospitals, Annie Oakley, and more.

Sanders, Ted. No Animals We Could Name. Graywolf. 272p. 9781555976163. pap. $15.
A lion fashioned from bedsheets that comes alive, a lizard who bites the dust, and various humans sorting through life: Sanders’s debut collection, winner of the Bakeless Prize for Fiction, is disarming.

Singleton, George. Stray Decorum. Dzanc. 220p. ISBN 9781938103544. pap. $15.95.
Distant fathers, alienated sons, and a dog’s visit to the vet; Singleton, whose work you’ll find   in venues like the Atlantic Monthly, captures the quotidian in straight-ahead prose

Spiegel, Jennifer. The Freak Chronicles. Dzanc. 261p. ISBN 9781936873708 . pap. $15.95.
Witty, vernacular stories about people on the edge—that is, freaky.

As you can see from our lists—these ten bests and 16 other great reads that struck us as noteworthy in 2012—we decided that there’s no shame in a lowly birth.

Your patrons will be the beneficiaries: the advice in Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things, to pick the blog-turned-book that made our top ten, is so far from Ann Landers as to almost be a different genre, one that we at LJ now call “makes you cry on the subway.”

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, one of our “More of the Best,” is the one that gave me pause. Its style reminds me of a cross between David Foster Wallace’s work (think lots of footnotes) and my childhood favorite, Bunty magazine, in which parenthetical asides made clear that the author’s deadly wit was being held in check by a boring editor. But Lawson’s is a different bird altogether. Tales of her childhood surrounded by (and sometimes inside) the weird products of her father’s taxidermy career will have you crying alright but with laughter.

The other “Internet book,” James’s Paris in Love, is the Facebook title, and it’s perfect escapism, describing the author’s sabbatical year in the city with her family. (Readers who’ve complained in the past that nobody reads our best books: here you go.)

We’re breaking other new ground, too, with two “best” write-ups for the same title. It’s Suzanne Joinson’s romantically titled A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar. This book has been on my towering side-of-the-bed pile for a while, and it’s clearly time I got to it as it gets an in-house nod from the editor of our Prepub Alert column, Barbara Hoffert, and one from Jane Henrickson Baird of  Anchorage PL, AK, an LJ reviewer of historical fiction.

As usual, we find ourselves bursting with more recommendations than our pages can accommodate. For more bests, including how-to titles; other LJ staffers’ picks; and the top audio and video offerings of the year, see all of our Best of… posts.—Henrietta Thornton-Verma

Blair, Joe. By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir of Disaster
and Love. Scribner. ISBN 9781451636055. $24;
ebk. ISBN 9781451636079. MEMOIR
A startling, bleak, and thoroughly honest memoir from husband and father Blair, it documents a flood, a marriage in danger, a family in flux, and an inscrutable but mesmerizing boy whose developmental disabilities make his parents’ life a kind of hell but whose lovely, undulating patterns, which he traces in the dirt of their backyard, will stay with readers long after they finish the book. While the midlife-crisis memoir might seem typical, this one isn’t. (LJ12/11)—Molly McArdle

Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Random. ISBN 9781400067558. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780679643951. SOC SCI
India may have a thriving economy and expansive future, but Boo shows us the lives excluded from those attainments as she follows members of a ragged Mumbai slum improvised on the edge of the city’s 21st-century expansion. With character studies so eloquent that readers may forget these are realities, Boo charts how Abdul, Fatima, Kalu, and others assert power and hope in the midst of their calamitous existence. (LJ 2/15/12)—Margaret Heilbrun

Cash, Wiley. A Land More Kind Than Home. Morrow.
ISBN 9780062088147. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062088246. F
Snake-handling preachers and bizarre, dysfunctional families are clichés of Southern fiction, but they can still make a great story. Cash’s debut novel centers on Jess, a boy who keeps his counsel when his mother’s church attempts to cure his disabled brother, unleashing a torrent of sadness and misadventure. The real hero, though, is Adelaide, a quiet activist who is one of the novel’s multiple alternating narrators. (LJ 3/1/12)—Henrietta Thornton-Verma

Fountain, Ben. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Ecco: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780060885595. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062096821. F
A member of Bravo Squad, whose fiercely fought battle in Iraq was caught on tape by an embedded Fox News crew, Billy Lynn is on a victory tour of sorts with the survivors. In a compacted but unrushed time frame, Fountain effectively captures both the transformative experiences of one young man and the horrific impact of war. As he ponders life choices, Billy makes a surprising decision, bringing to a conclusion a perfect read. (LJ 5/15/12)—Barbara Hoffert

Frank, Katherine. Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox, and the Creation of a Myth.  Pegasus. ISBN 9781605983349. $27.95; ebk. ISBN 9781453249178. LIT
A man approaching age 60, an indefatigable writer of essays and polemics, tries his hand at fiction. He is Daniel Defoe in 1719. The book: Robinson Crusoe. Frank alternately explores Defoe’s life of astonishing intellectual activity and that of East India Company sea captain Robert Knox, who, decades before Defoe’s novel, was taken prisoner on the island of Ceylon where he remained for over 20 years before escaping and writing of it. These two men’s journeys  will capture you. (LJ 2/15/12)—Margaret Heilbrun

Joyce, Graham. Some Kind of Fairy Tale. Doubleday. ISBN 9780385535786. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385535847. FANTASY
When Tara Martin shows up at her parents’ home on Christmas Day 20 years after she had disappeared, a bit bedraggled but not looking much older, her bewildered family struggle to make sense of her story. Was Tara really kidnapped by fairies, or is she lying or insane? A haunting blend of fantasy and reality by a modern master of fantasy. (LJ 6/1/12)—Wilda Williams

Miller, Madeline. The Song of Achilles. Ecco: HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062060617. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062060631. F
Patroclus is an awkward, exiled young prince; golden Achilles is the much-admired son of a sea goddess. In telling the story of their intense friendship and love, debut novelist Miller brings Homer’s ancient Greece to glorious life and offers a “masterly vision of the valor, drama, and tragedy of the Trojan War.” Her reinterpretation of The Iliad deservedly won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. (LJ 11/15/11)—Wilda Williams

O’Connor, Anne-Marie. The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele
Bloch-Bauer. Knopf. ISBN 9780307265647. $32.50;
ebk. ISBN 9780307957566. FINE ARTS
This epic story of a painting begins in the late 19th century, as Gustav Klimt becomes the premier painter of the Vienna Secession and Adele Bloch-Bauer, a renowned salon hostess and patron of the arts, and ends at the beginning of the 21st century, as his portrait of her is auctioned for a record-breaking $135 million. In between, the painting is seized by Nazis, renamed to hide its Jewish subject, held by Austria for decades, and finally won back by Bloch-Bauer’s heirs in an agonizing legal battle. (LJ 3/1/12)—Molly McArdle

Smith, Zadie. NW. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA).
ISBN 9781594203978. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9781101595923. F
Relating the story of four people in North West London, Smith articulates important issues of race and class, but what matters most is her distinctive narrative voice. In numbered, run-on chapters that occasionally turn to aphorism, memo, and even poetry, Smith shows us how to write for the 21st century, when the online environment has changed our way of thinking, that makes other books sound ordinary. An aesthetic and emotional knockout. (LJ 9/15/12)—Barbara Hoffert

Strayed, Cheryl. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from “Dear Sugar.” Vintage: Random. ISBN 9780307949332. pap. $14.95; ebk. ISBN 9780307949325. SELF-HELP
Strayed has made a career out of touching her readers’ lives with stories of her own. This collection of her “Dear Sugar” columns, which originally appeared on The Rumpus (therumpus.net), may at first glance look like a nontraditional Best Book pick. Instead, Strayed’s columns transcend the genre that made Ann Landers famous. This is a book for readers who want to cry their eyes out but emerge feeling, somehow, stronger. (LJ 5/15/12)—Molly McArdle

Best All-Ages Game

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC. Published by WB Games
This game might come across as simple, fun fare for kids, but upon closer inspection it really has something for everyone. While the cast of familiar DC Comics heroes and villains as Lego characters will delight comic fans young and old, the challenging puzzles, engaging level design, and open world exploration will satisfy gamers requiring depth and complexity. With unlockable characters and a bounty of hidden secrets, this game offers lots of replay value. What’s more, it provides some good old-fashioned co-op play that doesn’t require an Internet connection, so kids and parents can play together.

Best Strategy Game

FTL: Faster Than Light. PC. Published by Subset Games
FTL is not a game for novices. It makes no apologies for demanding that gamers be on their toes. Within a deceptively simple interface, gamers take on the role of a starship captain on a critical mission to deliver vital intelligence before rebel forces overtake the ship. Combining resource management, strategic combat, and role-playing, this product offers some of the gaming world’s most satisfying challenges yet. Victories are hard won, the sense of danger and exploration is real, and it’s never the same game twice. (See LJ 1/13, p. 59, for an in-depth ­review.)

Best Action Game

Mark of the Ninja. Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade), PC. Published by Microsoft Game Studios
Everybody loves ninjas, and this game delivers what may be the best ninja experience yet. While in most stealth-based games, cover and concealment are tools for defense, Mark of the Ninja gives players more control over their surroundings—a ninja can use the shadows to hide from enemies and avoid obstacles, but he can also use stealth tactics to instill fear in his opponents and become a swift and terrible creature of darkness. With a variety of tools, a clean interface that offers extensive information, and pick-up-and-play controls, this game satisfies puzzle and action fans alike: they can even earn points for making it through each level without killing any guards, adding a new kind of challenge and a completely different take on the way of the ninja.

Best Game for Readers

Assassin’s Creed III. Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Published by Ubisoft
While the “Assassin’s Creed” series has always offered solid game play with lots of replay value and some truly thrilling experiences—swan-diving off 100′-high ledges into a nearby haystack to escape guards never gets old—the true lure of this series is the rich fiction surrounding it. The conflict between two ancient orders—the Templars and the Assassins—over the mysterious Pieces of Eden is accomplished through layers and layers of conspiracy, adventure, and intrigue all wrapped up in a historical setting with strong sf elements. This series is a testament to the power of video games to excel as artistic media, on par with the best books, creating a rich world with amazing visuals, memorable characters, and engrossing stories. This game continues the tradition by bringing the epic to the American Revolution and placing the gamer in the role of Connor Kenway, a half British/half Native American man caught between two cultures and on a mission to keep the Templars from seizing the power to rule the world.

Game of the Year

Dishonored. Xbox 360, Playstation 3. Published by Bethesda Softworks
The best games offer lots of choices: weapons and gadgets to use, strategies for conflicts, and the capacity to develop the main character as desired. Dishonored delivers on all fronts and manages to be aesthetically pleasing while offering the opportunity to gain technical proficiency as well. Taking on the role of a bodyguard framed for the murder of the very person he was to protect, the main character completes missions to clear his name and seek revenge. Gamers who enjoy lots of combat and action can play aggressively, engaging enemies directly. Those who prefer a more subtle approach can use stealth and trickery. Nothing ever feels forced, allowing players to develop their own strategies and approaches. Dishonored asks participants to use their imagination and critical thinking skills; a fine example of the best that video games have to offer.

Cult of Youth. Love Will Prevail. Sacred Bones.
Besides running a record label (Blind Prophet) and a record store (Heaven Street), cultural polymath Sean Ragon has also led his ensemble project Cult of Youth through a series of darkly shimmering albums in thrall to the likes of Death in June and Current 93. His new work injects unprecedented light and color into Cult of Youth’s music, with horns and strings bringing to bear both psychedelic whimsy and baroque flourishes.

Hard Corps. Clean Tables Have To Be Burnt. Minimal Wave.
Continuing an unbroken streak of winning reissues of dark synth’s forgotten treasures is this LP of unreleased tracks from UK synth act Hard Corps, whose sound was a beguiling mix of punishing electronics and the lush vocals of French front woman Regine Fetet (d. 2003). Despite major label albums and tours with Depeche Mode, it never happened for Hard Corps, but their music still sounds timely, modern, and emotive. Kids by the score are ripping off their act.

Killer Mike. R.A.P. Music. Williams Street.
Atlanta-based MC Killer Mike brings a fiery urgency and political sensibility back to hip-hop with this kinetic new record. One could be forgiven for thinking that Killer Mike’s career peaked early with an appearance in 2001 on a Grammy-winning Outkast song, but R.A.P. Music is his most essential moment yet. Crafted with producer extraordinaire El-P, every regional “scene” is touched on and tangled together, while K.M.’s commanding delivery presides over the whole affair, yelling truth to power.

Røsenkøpf. Røsenkøpf. Wierd.
These three young New Yorkers dress like front-row denizens at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert circa 1981, but when they turn up their instruments, it’s a whole other, louder matter entirely. Røsenkøpf is an angry, bruise-red hybrid of Neu’s motorik precision, Cabaret Voltaire’s discipline through punishment, and, most thrillingly, the fell sonics of black-metal maniacs like Xasthur. A smoldering, distinctly urban dread pervades every chord.

Scott Walker. Bish Bosch. 4AD.
The stuff of which nightmares are made. I’ve discussed reclusive songwriter Scott Walker in the past: his abrupt retreat from pop stardom in the 1960s; his embrace of stranger, darker sounds; his glacial working methods. None of this matters when approaching Bish Bosch; this album exists in a void of its own, with no discernible precedents or influences. An eldritch spire of sound, Walker’s rich baritone works itself into all manner of nonlinear shapes over an almost literal world of sound, both found and carefully crafted.

Honorable Mention

Russian Tsarlag. Liquid Nails LP. Personnel.
In stark contrast to the “everything, all the time, now” mentality that the Internet has instilled in us regarding culture, Tampa’s enigmatic dandy, Russian Tsarlag, completely eschews all modern methods of dissemination and promotion of his music. An album will surface, unheralded, on a tiny imprint, sell a couple of hundred copies, and then be gone forever. Don’t confuse quantity with quality; this album, one of about five Tsarlag released this year, is among his finest to date. A murky wedge of depressive sonics that evokes the Cure circa Faith, played through an old transistor radio.