Baldacci, David. King and Maxwell. Grand Central. Nov. 2013. ISBN 9781455521319. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781455521227; lib. ebk. ISBN 9781455551453. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
No plot details yet, but here’s what you need to know about this latest Sean King and Michelle Maxwell title from Baldacci. It’s the sixth book in a series whose previous titles have all hit the top spot on the New York Times best sellers list; TNT has just ordered a ten-episode television series based on King and Maxwell’s exploits, with Jon Tenney and Rebecca Romijn slated for the leads; and there’s a 700,000-copy first printing.

Banks, Russell. A Permanent Member of the Family. Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 300p. ISBN 9780061857652. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062096746. Downloadable: HarperAudio. SHORT STORIES
From The Sweet Hereafter to Lost Memory of Skin, Banks writes morally wrenching tales that make us think. Here we get to think many times over, as this is a collection of 12 stories featuring troubled characters in a troubled nation, all yearning for connection. Look for a six-city tour to Boston, Miami, New York City, Nashville, Raleigh, and Washington, DC.

Child, Lincoln & Douglas Preston. White Fire. Grand Central. Nov. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781455525836. $27; ebk. ISBN 9781455525850; lib. ebk. ISBN 9781455551484. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Pendergast thrillers have done very nicely, thank you (2012’s Two Graves reached No. 1 on the New York Times ebook best sellers list and No. 8 on the hardcover list), but this one should get special attention because of intriguing literary allusions. In contemporary times, Corrie Swanson is examining the remains of several miners killed in a series of grizzly bear attacks in 1876 Roaring Fork, CO, when she discovers something shocking. She’s immediately silenced by the town’s leaders, who are mindful of Roaring Fork’s reputation as a high-end resort. FBI Special Agent Pendergast arrives to investigate just as arson breaks out, and a meeting between Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde figures in the backstory. In fact, key to the plot is the reputed discovery of a new Sherlock Holmes story, actually written by Child and Preston and approved by Doyle’s estate.

Griffith, Nicola. Hild. Farrar. Nov. 2013. 560p. ISBN 9780374280871. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374711016. HISTORICAL/LITERARY
Since Griffith has won the Tiptree, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, the Premio Italia, and the Lambda Literary Award six times, you’re well advised to grab this fictionalized portrait of a girl name Hild who grew up in seventh-century Britain and became St. Hilda’s of Whitby. Griffith gives us a determined and uncannily perceptive Hild who seems capable of predicting the future (or at least of human behavior), a trait that puts her in the life-and-death position of being made the king’s seer. The writing itself is uncannily perceptive, with none of the flowery excess of some historical fiction writing, though the detailed narrative runs close to 600 pages. I thought of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall even before I noted the comparison in the promotion. With a reading group guide.

Hammett, Dashiell. The Hunter and Other Stories. Nov. 2013. Mysterious: Grove/Atlantic. Nov. 2013. 256p. ed. by Julie M. Rivett & Richard Layman. ISBN 9780802121585. $25. SHORT STORIES
Edited by Rivett, Hammett’s granddaughter and a noted scholar on the master of hardboiled crime fiction, and Hammett biographer Layman, this book should get some attention. Among its entries are new stories found in Hammett’s archives, some rarely published pieces, and screen treatments that had vanished into various film-industry files. Here, for instance, you’ll find “The Kiss-Off,” which served as the basis for the Sylvia Sydney–Gary Cooper vehicle City Streets. There’s lots of editorial contextualizing, which should delight both fans and newbies.

Lynch, Paul. Red Sky in Morning. Little, Brown. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780316230254. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780316230247; lib. ISBN 9780316250344. HISTORICAL/LITERARY
“Night sky was black and then there was blood, morning crack of light on the edge of the earth.” That’s the opening line of Lynch’s debut novel, just another substantiation of the adage that the Irish can really, really write. If Dublin-based Lynch’s taut, absorbing, acerbically lyrical prose weren’t enough, there’s the intense and revelatory plot. Having killed a man in 1832 County Donegal whose father is an expert tracker now bent on vengeance, Coll Coyle goes on the run—all the way to the cholera-soaked work camps of the Philadelphia railroad. Lynch draws partly on actual events at a camp where recent evidence suggests that violence rather than illness led to the deaths of 57 Irish workers. Get it for all smart readers.

Miles, Jonathan. Want Not. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780547352206. $26. LITERARY
Miles’s delicious debut, Dear American Airlines, was good enough to merit a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review and earned best-book plaudits from the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. So the cognoscenti will be anticipating this second novel, a study of how we desire—and desire too much—in this you-deserve-everything world. He explores this theme through three storylines—about a freegan couple living off the grid in Manhattan, a fading linguist in midlife crisis, and a New Jersey debt-collection magnate remaking his life. Tellingly, the novel opens on a date we reserve for the unreserved celebration of our bounty: Thanksgiving. Another tough, funny story from Miles; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Smith, Martin Cruz. Tatiana: An Arkady Renko Novel. S. & S. Nov. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9781439140215. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781439153185. CD: S. & S. Audio. POP FICTION
Famed for Arkady Renko, the sharp, incorruptible, quietly compassionate police inspector who first appeared in Gorky Park, Smith has two Hammett Prizes and a Golden Dagger Award to his name. But this book is billed as something more than mystery, with Arkady’s latest case reflecting troubles in the new Russia. After investigative reporter Tatiana Petrovna dies in a fall from the sixth floor of a Moscow apartment building, Arkady listens to tapes made by Tatiana that detail the cover-up of terrible crimes. His investigation leads him to Kaliningrad, geographically cut off from the rest of Russia, and a teenage chess hustler named Zhenya. Cultural study, character study, packet of thrills—this book should keep you busy.

Bloom, Paul. Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil. Crown. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780307886842. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780307886866. CD: Random Audio. PSYCHOLOGY
Are we inherently good? Are we inherently evil? Are these traits inborn? Are they learned? Bloom, Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale, has spent years researching these crucial, much-debated questions and has an answer. He argues that morality is hardwired, showing that babies and toddlers can distinguish between good and bad actions and can feel empathy, guilt, shame, and anger. Alas, they are also naturally bigoted, tending to confine their moral sense to like individuals—those within their own group. But if we can learn to stop playing with rattles and saying gah-gah, we can learn to overcome the limits of this inborn morality. An important topic, and since Bloom’s 2011 TED Global talk has been viewed more than a million times, he is a known quantity.

Brotton, Jerry. A History of the World in 12 Maps. Viking. Nov. 2013. 544p. ISBN 9780670023394. $40. HISTORY
Maps would seem to represent a clear-cut reality, but as Brotton shows, often they have been used to push imperial, religious, or economic aims or ideas. Thus, the 12 maps he discusses here, which date from ancient Greece to Renaissance Europe to Google Earth and take in Buddhist and Islamic realms as well as the West, can give us in-depth cultural understanding of several millennia of human history. An award-winning author and professor of Renaissance studies at Queen Mary University of London, Brotton has an excellent idea here (who doesn’t love maps?). Check out the 48-page full-color insert.

Gardiner, John Eliot. Music in the Castle of Heaven: A Portrait of Johann Sebastian Bach. Knopf. Nov. 2013. 608p. ISBN 9780375415296. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780385351980. MUSIC
Founder of the Monteverdi Choir and Players and L’Orchestra Révolutionnaire et Romantique, renowned conductor Gardiner knows—and loves—his Bach. He’s in fact one of our best interpreters of Bach (I swear by my disc of the B Minor Mass) and has been communing with the great composer since World War II, when one of only two authenticated portraits of Bach hung in his parents’ home during World War II for safekeeping. Here he gets inside Bach’s music to tell us how it is constructed and how it works its magic.

Halperin, Mark & John Heilemann. Double Down: Game Change 2012. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 512p. ISBN 9781594204401. $29.95. CD: Penguin Audio. POLITICS
National political correspondent for New York magazine and senior political analyst for Time, respectively, Halperin and Heilmann scored big with Game Change, a New York Times best seller that chronicled the 2008 presidential election. Now they’re back with coverage of the 2012 election, drawing on hundreds of interviews as they narrate events from the convention to Mitt Romney’s stumbles to the affirmation Barack Obama received at the polls. Already much anticipated.

Klíma, Ivan. My Crazy Century. Grove. Nov. 2013. tr. from Czech by Craig Cravens. 576p. ISBN 9780802121707. $30. AUTOBIOGRAPHY/HISTORY
If this were merely the autobiography of a world-class writer, second recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize, that would be enough. But, more tellingly, it’s the autobiography of a man who suffered under two totalitarian regimes: as a child, Klíma spent four years in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp outside Prague, and thereafter he lived under Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, banned from publication for 20 years though he appeared in samizdat with Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, and others. Hence, he has a lot to say about the 20th century—and, knowing Klíma, he’ll say it well.

Robb, Graham. The Discovery of Middle Earth: Mapping the Lost World of the Celts. Norton. Nov. 2013. 448p. ISBN 9780393081633. $28.95. HISTORY
The Celts once reigned from the Black Sea to Scotland, contributing mightily to the ancient world with their work in the arts and the sciences. Then came Julius Caesar and the end of a civilization, though some Druids (the Celtic intelligentsia) communed in Britain for one last stand. Bicycling along the Heraklean Way, an ancient route stretching from Portugal to the Alps, Robb learned some fascinating things about the Celtic use of celestial mathematics to organize their world. Will his account be good? Just note that Robb is the author of three prize-winning biographies, each one selected as a New York Times Best Book of the Year

Dawidoff, Nicholas. Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football. Little, Brown. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780316196796. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780316254991; lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316251846. FOOTBALLDawidoff doesn’t play professional football—he’s a Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Fly Swatter, the best-selling author of The Catcher Was a Spy, and honored by Conde Naste for his travel book, In the Country of Country—but with a locker and an office in the scouting department of the New York Jets, he got a good look at how pro football operates. Originating as a New York Times Magazine cover story; with 75,000-copy first printing.

Easterbrook, Gregg. The King of Sports: Football’s Impact on American Society. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9781250011718. $25.99; ebk ISBN 9781250011725. FOOTBALL
A contributing editor at several noteworthy magazines (e.g., the Atlantic Monthly) and author of the ESPN.com blog “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” (good enough to get 2.4 million unique page hits per month), Easterbrook used access to the Virginia Tech football program to detail not just the sport itself but its broad impact—arguing, for instance, that it has helped strengthen both American cities and colleges. Then there’s the problem of how college-age players are exploited. Not your average sports book.

Fagone, Jason. Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race To Revive America. Crown. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780307591487. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780307591500. SOCIAL SCIENCE
More than 300 teams worldwide responded to sf enthusiast’s Peter Diamandis’s announcement that he would give $10 million to anyone who built an easily mass-produced car that could zoom 100 miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. Fagone follows four of these teams, including a bunch of inner-city high schoolers and an Illinois team whose motto was “Someone Has To Do Something, and That Someone Is Us.” First serial to the Atlantic.

Holland, James. Dam Busters: The True Story of the Inventors and Airmen Who Led the Devastating Raid To Smash the German Dams in 1943. Atlantic Monthly. Nov. 2013. 464p. ISBN 9780802121691. $28. HISTORY
On May 16, 1943, 19 specially adapted Lancaster bombers soared away from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, intent on bombing to smithereens three dams deep within Germany. It was a suicide mission, cobbled together in ten weeks and using untested technology, and it succeeded. British military expert Holland gives us the lowdown on a key World War II maneuver.

Katz, Jon. The Second-Chance Dog: A Love Story. Ballantine. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780345531179. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780345545558. MEMOIR/PETS
After he moved to Bedlam Farm in upstate New York, Katz met Maria, a gentle artist seeking to regain her footing. The only roadblock to a relationship? Maria’s dog, Frieda, a rottweiler-shepherd mix that had run wild for several years in the Adirondacks and was Maria’s ferocious guardian. With love, perseverance, and five hundred dollars’ worth of beef jerky, Katz managed to win over Frieda and get his beloved. The New York Times best-selling author again warms our hearts while celebrating the human-animal bond.

Kosslyn, Stephen & G. Wayne Miller. Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights into How You Think. S. & S. Nov. 2013. 224p. 9781451645101. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781451645125. PSYCHOLOGY
Right brainers are intuitive, left brainers are analytical, and Kosslyn says it’s all hogwash; there’s no scientific proof. Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, he challenges the old orthodoxy by arguing that the brain operates according to patterns best described as Mover, Adaptor, Stimulator, and Perceiver. So which pattern fits your brain? Take Kosslyn’s test.

McCall, Bruce & David Letterman. This Land Was Made for You and Me (But Mostly Me): Billionaires in the Wild. Blue Rider Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 96p. ISBN 9780399163685. $25.95. HUMOR
Small but biting, this large-format book offers a mock survey of the superrich among us and their indulgences, e.g., a floating motorized giant designer teepee and Galapagolf, a very exclusive miniature golf course you know where. New Yorker artist and writer McCall and late-night hero Letterman will draw readers.

Majd, Hooman. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You To Not Stay: An American Family in Iran. Doubleday. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780385535328. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385535335. MEMOIR/CURRENT EVENTS
A former film and music executive and now contributing editor at Interview magazine, Iranian American Hajd here writes about his recent year-long stay in Iran with his new wife—blonde yoga instructor Karri—and enfant son. He had lived there only as a child, so this was both homecoming and eye-opener. His intimate stories, from his securing a bootlegger and an Internet connection that convinced the censors he was in New York to Karri’s struggles with a headscarf, give us a distinct view of the country.

Menaker, Daniel. My Mistake. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780547794235. $24; ebk. ISBN 9780547794242. MEMOIR
A former New Yorker and Random House editor, Menaker examines a life lived well if not perfectly. He’s bold enough to explore his years at The New Yorker, where he stayed for 26 years despite discouragement from William Shawn, and the perpetual self-doubt that has dogged him, particularly owing to his role in his brother’s inadvertent death. Certainly of interest to memoir fans and literati.

Parks, Phaedra. Secrets of the Southern Belle: How To Be Nice, Work Hard, Look Pretty, Have Fun, and Never Have an Off Moment. Gallery: S. & S. 256p. ISBN 9781476715452. $23. SELF-HELP
If Parks can be a fabulous homemaker, managing partner of a boutique law firm specializing in entertainment, intellectual property rights, civil, and criminal litigation, and star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, you can, too. Okay, maybe you can’t be a TV star, but Parks is here to how to be a Southern Belle. Hot on the blogs.

Redman, Jason & John Bruning. The Trident: The Forging and Reforging of a Navy SEAL Leader. Morrow. Nov. 2013. 304p. 9780062208316 $26.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Harper Audio.MEMOIR/MILITARY
Decorated Navy SEAL Lieutenant Redman served in Columbia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq before leading a mission against al Qaeda in 2007 that left him grievously wounded by machine-gun fire. During the several years and 37 surgeries he needed to recover, Redman became famous for the sign on his door at Bethesda Naval Medical Center admonishing visitors not to feel sorry for his wounds. This inspirational biography of his SEAL training, service, and recovery is getting a 100,000-copy first printing.

Rosenblatt, Roger. The Boy Detective: A New York Childhood. Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780062241337. $19.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062241337. MEMOIR
A multithreat author—as a journalist, he’s won two George Polk Awards, the Peabody, and the Emmy, and he’s also given us fiction, nonfiction, and Off-Broadway plays—Rosenblatt has triumphed recently with several affecting (and New York Times best-selling) memoir/meditations, including Making Toast. Here he recalls his postwar Manhattan childhood, framing his story with the walk he took from Gramercy Park to Madison Square Park one winter night after teaching a class on East 28th Street. This should be a charmer.

Sifton, Elisabeth & Fritz Stern. No Ordinary Men: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Hans Von Dohnanyi, Resisters Again Hitler in Church and State. New York Review Books. Oct. 2013. 160p. ISBN 9781590176818; ebk. ISBN 9781590177020. HISTORY
Few Germans resisted the Nazis once they came into power; among those who did, theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his brother-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi, stand out. Told by Sifton, daughter of Reinhold Niebuhr, and Stern, University Professor Emeritus and the former provost of Columbia University, this work chronicles the efforts of both men to combat the Nazi regime while showing that the Resistance movement was broader than we have understood. A story that needs to be heard.

Weir, Alison. Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World. Ballantine. Nov. 2013. 432p. ISBN 9780345521361. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780345521385. BIOGRAPHY
We know all about Henry VIII’s famous wives—and even more famous daughter—but what about his mother, who legitimized the new Tudor dynasty as the only living descendent of Yorkist King Edward IV? (She was sister to the little princes rumored to have died in the Tower.) The popular Weir, who has tackled many of England’s great royal women in biography and fiction, here takes on Elizabeth of York in what appears to be the only biography currently available for lay readers.

Delbanco, Nicholas. The Art of Youth: Crane, Carrington, Gershwin, and the Nature of First Acts. New Harvest. Nov. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9780544114463. $25. BIOGRAPHY/ARTS
Delbanco investigates prodigious talent and what delivering on it really means by focusing on three artists who couldn’t keep delivering because they died young: Stephen Crane, Dora Carrington, and George Gershwin. Or had they already done their best work? From an elegant author of fiction and nonfiction; his Lastingness: The Art of Old nicely bookends this new title.

Garfield, Simon. To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing. Gotham Bks: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781592408351. $27.50. REFERENCE/WRITING
From love letters to letters of recommendation, from early letter-writing manuals to epistolary novels to the correspondence of famous folks ranging from Erasmus to Princess Diana, this work discusses the art of letter writing and its swift shrinkage in the Internet era. From the author of the beloved best seller, Just My Type.

Hilburn, Robert. Johnny Cash: The Life. Little, Brown. Nov. 2013. 608p. ISBN 9780316194754. $30; ebk. ISBN 9780316248693. BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC
Decades-long music critic/editor for the Los Angeles Times, Hilburn had advantages when penning this big bio of country music legend Cash. He not only was a friend of Cash but also had access to many of Cash’s private papers through his estate. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Hood, Ann. Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting. Norton. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780393239492. $24.95. NEEDLEWORK
Get out your needles. Award-winning author Hood (The Red Thread) has asked 27 writers, from Elizabeth Berg and Ann Patchett to Sue Grafton and Andre Dubus III, for original essays on what knitting has meant to them.

Johnson, Paul. Mozart: A Life. Viking. Nov. 2013. 176p. ISBN 9780670026371. $25.95. MUSIC
Noted historian Johnson’s subjects have ranged from Napoleon to Darwin to Jesus, so why not that transcendent musical genius, Mozart? Johnson rethinks aspects of Mozart’s life from health to finances but focuses on the magisterial music. Especially nice for generalists.

Keller, Timothy. Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life’s Biggest Questions. Dutton. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780525954354. $19.95. RELIGION
Famed pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, Keller argues that Jesus didn’t give easy answers to our most basic questions, e.g., What’s my purpose? What does it mean to live successfully? Am I part of the problem or part of the solution? Here he evokes ten crucial encounters in the New Testament to show how Jesus wanted us to ponder these concerns. From a hugely best-selling author.

Lewisohn, Mark. Tune In: The Beatles—All These Years. Crown Archetype. Nov. 2013. 1248p. ISBN 9781400083053. $40; ebk. ISBN 9780804139342. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. MUSIC
The author of the highly regarded Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and Complete Beatles Chronicle, Lewisohn knows his Fab Four stuff. Here, he offers the first in a trilogy chronicling the band, giving us deep detail on their lesser-known Liverpool and Hamburg years. Imagine, still revelations after all this time.

O’Connor, Flannery. A Prayer Journal. Farrar. Nov. 2013. 112p. ed. by W.A. Sessions. ISBN 9780374236915. $18; ebk. ISBN 9780374709693. LITERATURE
Written in 1946–47 while O’Connor was at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and only recently discovered, this devotional journal shows the author speaking directly to God, working out both her religious sentiments and her literary aspirations. Fans will appreciate the insight into her work.

Solomon, Deborah. American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell. Farrar. Nov. 2013. 512p. ISBN 9780374113094. $30; ebk. ISBN 9780374711047. BIOGRAPHY/FINE ARTS
Praised for her biographies of Jackson Pollack and Joseph Cornell (and fussed at for focusing on art instead of film when interviewing Steve Martin about his art world–based novel at New York’s 92nd Street Y in 2010), noted art critic Solomon makes a surprise leap to rock-solid Americana artist Norman Rockwell. But as she says, Rockwell painted “a history of the American people that had never happened,” and she goes on to detail his not-so-apple-pie personality; he even ended up in treatment with psychotherapist Erik Erikson. This work  should surprise some folks.

Wall, Mick. AC/DC: Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. 448p. ISBN 9781250038746. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250038746. MUSIC
Famed British rock writer Wall, who has chronicled Led Zeppelin, Guns ‘n’ Roses, and Metallica, moves on to AC/DC. The band started in Australia in 1973 with Scottish brothers Angus and Malcolm Young and has been going strong since then, having sold something like 200 million albums. Their story is rock’s story, and fans will want.

Wasson, Sam. Fosse. Eamon Dolan: Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2013. 672p. ISBN 9780547553290. $32. BIOGRAPHY/PERFORMING ARTS
Bob Fosse won an astonishing eight Tony Awards for his choreography, and the celebrated Fosse style of dance is indelible. But he acted and directed, too, and Wasson—not a dance critic but a cultural historian who writes most frequently on film—should give him larger context in this biography. I just hope he’s taken a few jazz dance classes, if only for fun. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Choi, Roy & others. L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food. Anthony Bourdain Bks/Ecco: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062202635. $29.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062202642. COOKERY.MEMOIR

Chopra, Deepak. What Are You Hungry For?: The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being, and Lightness of Soul. Harmony, dist. by Crown. Nov. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780770437213. $26. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. COOKERY/SELF-HELP

De Laurentiis, Giada. Giada’s Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets. Clarkson Potter, dist. by Crown. Nov. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780307987204. $32.50; ebk. ISBN 9780307987204. COOKERY

Drummond, Ree. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Holidays! 135 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations. Morrow. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780062225221 $29.99.COOKERY

Lagasse, Emeril. Emeril’s Cooking with Power: 100 Delicious Recipes Starring Your Slow Cooker, Multi Cooker, Pressure Cooker, and Deep Fryer. Morrow. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780061742989. $25.99. COOKERY

Goodyear, Dana. Anything That Moves: Renegade Chefs, Fearless Eaters, and the Making of a New American Food Culture. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9781594488375. $27.95. COOKERY

Valastro, Buddy. Family Celebrations with the Cake Boss. Nov. 2013. ISBN 9781451674330. $30. COOKERY

Vatinet, Lionel. A Passion for Bread: Lessons from a Master Baker. Little, Brown. Nov. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780316200622. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780316255738; lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316255721.COOKERY

Wells, Patricia. My Two French Kitchens: Recipes and Lessons from Paris and Provence. Morrow. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780062088918. $35.COOKERY

White, Michael & Andrew Friedman. Classico e Moderno. Ballantine. Nov. 2013. 448p. ISBN 9780345530523. $50. COOKERY

Hot Authors from Julius Erving to Shirley MacLaine

Erving, Julius & Karl Taro Greenfeld. Dr. J: My Life Above the Rim and Behind Closed Doors. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062187925. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062188038. MEMOIR/SPORTS

Feldman, Corey. Coreyography: A Memoir. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780312609337. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250038784. MEMOIR/FILM

Huston, Anjelica. Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London, and New York. Scribner. Nov. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781451656299. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781451656312. CD: S. & S. Audio. MEMOIR/FILM

Nolte, Nick. Rich Man, Poor Man: A Memoir. Morrow. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062219572. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062219596. lrg. prnt. MEMOIR/FILM

MacLaine, Shirley. What If…: A Lifetime of Questions, Speculations, Reasonable Guesses, and a Few Things I Know for Sure. Atria. Nov. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9781476728605. $23; ebk. ISBN MEMOIR/FILM

Tyson, Mike & Paul Sloman. Undisputed Truth: Subtitle TK. Blue Rider Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780399161285. $27.95. MEMOIR/FILM

This year’s festivities start on Wednesday, May 29, at the Jacob K. Javits Cemter in New York City, with conferences and special events that include Library Journal’s Day of Dialog. On May 30-June 1, doors are open to the exhibits, where you’ll be hunting for books and authors to love.

To help you, I’ve been tracking some of the show’s top titles, from large publishers and small, focusing on tote-away galleys from adult authors and key in-booth signings. The result is the fourth annual BEA Galley & Signing Guide, ready shortly.

Sign up for your downloadable/printable PDF today.

Flagg, Fannie. The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion. Random. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781400065943. $27; ebk. ISBN 9781400065943. lrg. prnt. POP FICTION
Not surprisingly, the author of Fried Green Tomatoes revisits the South, but her novel takes in a larger swath of territory, ranging from Wisconsin to Texas. Flagg’s heroine, from present-day Alabama, is intrigued by the story of five women working at a Phillips 66 gas station in 1943, just as Flagg was intrigued by the story of women who ran a gas station and flew in the WASPs during the war. Fans will be waiting; Flagg’s latest, I Still Dream About You, sold over 500,000 copies across formats. Billed as a comic mystery, and note the author tour to Fairhope (AL), Mobile, Birmingham, Huntsville, Nashville, Bowling Green, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara.

Kadrey, Richard. Dead Set. Harper Voyager: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062283016. $22.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062283023. FANTASY
New York Times best-selling author Kadrey, soon to be a guest of honor at the San Diego Comic-Con International 2013, takes a break from his Sandman Slim novels with this story of Zoe, bereft after her father’s death and a move to the Big City with her mother. For solace, she escapes to a dreamscape where she can visit her lost brother, though the atmosphere is subtly disturbed by a new, unseen presence. Then, at a used record store, she discovers vinyl discs whose grooves hold not music but lost souls and realizes that she might be able to reach her father. It will cost her, though. Stop by to hear Kadrey speak at a United for Libraries panel at ALA; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Lamb, Wally. We Are Water. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 576p. ISBN 9780061941023. $29.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062199027. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. POP FICTION
You can’t get much more affecting than two-time Oprah pick author Lamb, and here he nicely nails the zeitgeist with the story of outsider artist Anna Oh, a long married and the mother of three, who leaves her husband to marry her polished Manhattan art dealer, Vivica. With the approach of the wedding—set in Connecticut, where same-sex marriage has just been legalized—painful family issues boil to the surface. Anna, former husband Orion, and the children tell the story in alternating voices. With a one-day laydown on October 29, a 500,000-copy first printing, and a ten-city tour to Boston, Connecticut, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, DC.

Setterfield, Diane. Bellman & Black. Emily Bestler Bks: Atria. Nov. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9781476711959. $22. LITERARY
As a child, William Bellman nastily kills a bird with a slingshot but doesn’t suffer the consequences until decades later when all his good fortune starts crumbling away. Soon, a black-garbed stranger arrives, and William finds that he can save what little he has left if he agrees to enter into the spooky business concern that becomes Bellman & Black. You expected something lighthearted after the dark and intriguing knottiness of Setterfield’s No. 1 New York Times best seller, The Thirteenth Tale? Lots of anticipation; over 800 folks have already proclaimed their interest on Goodreads.

Shreve, Anita. Stella Bain. Little, Brown. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780316098861. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780316215442. CD: Hachette Audio. HISTORICAL/POPULAR
Shreve, who handles contemporary and historical fiction with equal grace, here takes us to World War I London for a probing psychological drama. An American woman named Stella Bain, found shell-shocked in a garden, is kindly taken in by surgeon August Bridge and his wife. They soon learn that she was working as a nurse’s aide at the front but has no memory of her life before being discovered wounded on the battlefield. Perennial best seller Shreve—more than 12 million copies of her novels have been sold in the United States alone—catches our interest with a story of love, memory, and a war now much on our minds.

Stone, Robert. Death of the Black-Haired Girl. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780618386239. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780547760384. LITERARY
Stone, who can work on a global scale—think Dog Soldiers or Damascus Gate—here presents a more intimate but still deeply explosive story. Steven Brookman, a married professor at a prestigious New England college, decides to end his risky affair with brilliant, wayward student Maud Stack. Maud will have none of it, however, and the moral issues that arise are less clear-cut than they seem. I’ve just started reading this one, and already I’m hooked; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Ephron, Nora. The Most of Nora Ephron. Knopf. Nov. 2013. 576p. ISBN 9780385350839. $35. LITERARY COLLECTIONS
From her journalism (like her famous piece on being flat-chested), to her best-selling novel, Heartburn (about her failed marriage to Carl Bernstein), to her portraits of famed women, dazzling movie scripts, and recent blog posts on political and aging, here’s 40 years of writing from the beloved literary star whose recent death shook us all. Hilarious goodness; big New York Times advertising.

Hylton, Wil S. Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9781594487279. $27.95. HISTORY/MILITARY
I’ve heard persuasive raves about this work by Hylton, a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. His concern: the Pacific theater of World War II, from which more than 56,000 U.S. troops are still missing—two-thirds of all American MIAs over the past century. Hylton highlights the issue by focusing on an American bomber lost somewhere over the small, scattered archipelago of Palau on September 1, 1944, with 11 men on board. For 60 years, the U.S. government, children of the airmen, and a cutting-edge team of scientists and scuba divers have made efforts to find them. NPR interest.

Kurin, Richard. The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 624p. ISBN 9781594205293. $50. HISTORY/UNITED STATES
Lincoln’s hat, Harriet Tubman’s hymnal, Sitting Bull’s ledger, Cesar Chavez’s union jacket, the Enola Gay bomber, even Dorothy’s ruby slippers—these are among the objects featured here that tell the story of America. Kurin, the Smithsonian Institution’s under secretary for history, art, and culture, worked with the institution’s curators and scholars to put together this compendium, which matches photos of each object with a discussion of its creation or discovery and its significance. This museum-based visual approach to history, exemplified by Neil MacGregor’s A History of the World in 100 Objects, certainly pays off.

Patchett, Ann. This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062236678. $28.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. MEMOIR
The author of six novels, including the Orange Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award winner Bel Canto, Patchett has also written two affecting works of nonfiction. Here’s another, which pulls together essays appearing in the Atlantic, Harper’s, Vogue, and the Washington Post to offer overall perspective on Patchett’s life, from a topsy-turvy childhood to the sorrows of a bad first marriage and the joys of a second happy one. A sense of what truly grounds Patchett—her writing, her friends, her husband—emerges from these pages. Sure to be loved.

Pierpont, Claudia Roth. Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books. Farrar. Nov. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780374280512. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374710446. LITERARY CRITICISM
Written by a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker who focuses on the arts, this work is not a biography of Philip Roth. Nor is it a straightforward evaluation of his works. Instead, Pierpont looks at the whole—the man, the writing, and the mythologies that have grown up around both—to show us the meaning of a great writer. Interestingly, Pierpont has known Roth for several years and can add telling personal detail. Not to be missed by those serious about their literature; note that Pierpont is a National Book Critics Circle Award nominee for Passionate Minds.

Cornwell, Patricia. Dust. Putnam. Nov. 2013. 480p. ISBN 9780399157578. $28.95. CD/downloadable: Penguin Audio. THRILLER
Home in Cambridge, MA, trying to forget her work on a horrendous mass killing, medical examiner Kay Scarpetta must deal with the murder of a female grad student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose body is found wrapped in linen and carefully posed on the rugby field. Strange how this case resembles one that Scarpetta’s FBI husband is handling in Washington, DC. Cornwell’s works have been translated into 36 languages in more than 50 countries, and fans keep coming back, rain or shine.

Cussler, Clive with Jack Du Brul. Mirage. Putnam. Nov. 2013. 416p. ISBN 9780399158087. $27.95. CD/downloadable: Penguin Audio. ACTION/ADVENTURE
Rumor says that a weapon out there somewhere can obliterate American aircraft carriers—just as U.S. Navy experiments with electromagnetic radiation reputedly obliterated a U.S. destroyer in 1943. Could the new weapon be linked to the work of Nikola Tesla, and what is Juan Cabrillo going to do about it? Cussler launched his career 40 years ago with publication of The Mediterranean Caper, which appears in hardcover this summer for the first time.

Evanovich, Janet. Untitled Plum #20. Bantam. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780345542885. $28. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. THRILLER
No word yet on plot, but aside from almost criminally popular bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, all the Plum stalwarts are back: wild Grandma Mazur, hooker–turned–bounty hunter Lula, hunky cop Joe Morelli, and private security specialist Ranger. Look for a huge marketing campaign with some new tricks; Bantam has rights for the next three books starring Plum and will work to make her even bigger, if that’s possible.

Goldman, William (text) & Michael Manomivibul (illus.). The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2013. 464p. ISBN 9780544173767. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780544177222. POP FICTION
First a 1973 novel by Goldman, then a 1987 film directed and coproduced by Rob Reiner with a screenplay by Goldman, The Princess Bride is a true cult phenomenon; the Facebook fan site boasts 2.3 million fans. Now, to celebrate the book’s 40th anniversary, fantasy artist Manomivibul enhances the text with his own mood-inducing visuals—30 full-page plates and 20 spot pieces. With a 35,000-copy first printing and really buzzing on the blogs. 

Joyce, G.B. The Black Ace Putnam. Pintail: Penguin Group (USA). Nov. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780143188711. pap. $16. MYSTERY
In a sports mystery featuring ice hockey, second in the Brad Shade series, Joyce shows off his skills as an ESPN Magazine writer, three-time National Magazine Award winner, and former scout for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Shade gets in deep while investigating the reputed suicide of a former teammate. Distinctive: just how many ice hockey mystery series are there?

Littell, Robert. A Nasty Piece of Work: A Novel. Thomas Dunne Books: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9781250021458. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250022806. MYSTERY
Working as a private investigator in New Mexico, Former CIA agent Lemuel Gunn agrees to look for Emilio Gava, who jumped bail after being arrested for buying cocaine. But he has no picture of Gava and begins wondering whether the man even exists. Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Littell, whose The Company was a New York Times best seller, here sidesteps from espionage to mystery.

Locke, Kate. Long Live the Queen. Orbit: Hachette. Nov. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780316196147. $17; ebk. ISBN 9780316196147. lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316402200. STEAMPUNK/FANTASY
Locke really started something with God Save the Queen, a steampunk saga with Queen Victoria still alive today and ruling as part of a vampire aristocracy. In this wrap-up to the trilogy, heroine Xandra Vardan finds that being crowned goblin queen has not made her life any easier. Much anticipated and a 35,000-copy first printing.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon: No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Pantheon. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780307378415. $24.95. MYSTERY
Mma Ramotswe is back, investigating a series of curious incidents that seem designed to put the Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon out of business. Meanwhile, the shifting cultural landscape complicates life for Mma Makutsi, who’s about to have a baby. No. 14 for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency; with a reading group guide and a ten-city tour.

McCullough, Colleen. Sins of the Flesh. S. & S. Nov. 2013. 320 p. ISBN 9781476735337. $26. MYSTERY
Summertime is not so easy in 1969 Holloman, CT, as Capt. Carmine Delmonico returns from vacation to find he must hunt for a killer whose victims turn up emaciated and emasculated. Then murder of a different sort occurs, and Delmonico has two chaotic cases to handle. McCullough’s pleasing series continues.

Martin, George R.R. (text) with Daniel Abraham (adapt.) & Tommy Patterson (illus.) A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Vol. 3. Bantam. Nov. 2013. 160p. ISBN 9780440423232. $25. FANTASY/GRAPHIC NOVEL
No need to explain the allure of Martin’s A Game of Thrones and no need to tell you that it has been adapted as a graphic novel; this is the third volume. Here, Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell faces enemies known and unknown.

Meacham, Leila. Somerset. Grand Central. Nov. 2013. 624p. ISBN 9781455547388. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781455547371. lib. ibk. ISBN  9781455551477. CD: Hachette Audio. HISTORICAL/POPULAR
This prequel to Meacham’s best-selling debut, Roses (we’ve since had Tumbleweeds), offers 150 years’ worth of Tolivers, Warwicks, and DuMonts. Bereft of his inheritance, Simon Toliver leaves South Carolina’s Plantation Alley and strikes out with friend Jeremy Warwick for a new territory: Texas. Billed as Gone with the Wind with a bit of The Help (something for everyone?), and there’s a 100,000-copy first printing.

Palliser, Charles. Rustication. Norton. Nov. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780393088724. $25.95. HISTORICAL/LITERARY
Fans hooked on Palliser’s writing since his engrossing puzzle-box debut, The Quincunx, will be delighted to learn that he has returned to mid-1800s England, where Richard Shenstone has been sent down from Cambridge in uncertain disgrace. Living with his newly impoverished mother and ever weirder sister, Effie, he learns that creepy letters making the village rounds speak of wicked crimes, even murder. Fun for all.

Rendell, Ruth. No Man’s Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel. Scribner. Nov. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781476744483. $26. MYSTERY
Retired Chief Inspector Wexford decides to help out when female vicar Sarah Hussein is found strangled in the nastiest way. At the scene of the crime, Wexford unthinkingly picks up a letter showing that, aside from her status as a mixed-race woman and single mom working for reform in a white male–dominated field, the victim may have had a secret in her past. Juicy reading; book club promotion.

Wan, Helen. The Partner Track. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9781250019578. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250019585. POP FICTION/LEGAL
Poster girl for Parsons Valentine & Hunt LLP’s open-minded hiring—she’s Chinese American and a woman, after all—Ingrid Yung still finds herself on the outside looking in. Then after an embarrassing incident at the firm’s annual summer outing she finds herself in charge of the company’s new diversity initiative. At what cost? Associate General Counsel at the Time Inc. division of Time Warner, debut novelist Wan knows the territory.

Wilson, Robert Charles. Burning Paradise. Tor. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780765332615. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466800762. SF
You would think 19-year-old Cassie Klyne would be happy; it’s 2015, and she’s living in a world that has not seen war since 1918. But Cassie knows that this benign state of affairs has been engineered by extraterrestrials using humans for their own purposes and that her parents were killed for knowing this secret. Hugo Award winner Wilson scares us again.