Anna Badkhen’s The World Is a Carpet: Four Seasons in an Afghan Village (Riverhead: Penguin Group USA. Jun. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781594488320. $26.96). Award-winning reporter Badkhen, whose beats have included the Middle East, portrays life in an Afghan village by detailing the weaving of a single carpet.

Dan Beachy-Quick’s An Impenetrable Screen of Purest Sky (Coffee House, dist. by Consortium. Sept 2013. 224p. ISBN 9781566893411. pap. $15.95). Striking poet Beachy-Quick offers a first novel of sorts that promises to be an engaging study of memory, storytelling, and coming of age.

Will Ferguson’s 419 (Pintail: Penguin Group USA. Aug. 2013. 432p. ISBN 9780143188728. pap. $16). In this Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, an editor investigates the consequences of an Internet swindle, which has cost her father his life.

Ronald Frame’s Havisham (Picador. Nov. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9781250037275. $26). A noted British novelist reimagines the youth of one of Dickens’s most memorable characters, and you think you can resist?

Chris Kluwe’s Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies: On Myths, Morons, Free Speech, Football, and Assorted Absurdities (Little, Brown. Aug. 2013. 9780316236775. $27). You’ve got to love the title, and it’s intriguing that these pointed reflections on society come from a Minnesota Vikings punter already noted for thinking (and publishing) outside the box.

Leanda de Lisle’s Tudor: The Family Story (PublicAffairs: Perseus Book Group. Nov. 2013. 576p. ISBN 9781610393638. $29.99). The Tudors are so hot right now, so why not tune in to the author of the nicely praised The Sisters Who Would Be Queen.

Pierre Lemaitre’s Alex. (Quercus. Sept. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781623650001. $24.95). One of the first books from the British publisher’s new American division, this French thriller is buzzing and scary, scary, scary.

Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth (Soho. Sept. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9781616953157. $25). Several books this year examine the bond between humans and chimps, but this lovely work is told from the perspective of both and won a starred LJ review.

Kristina Riggle’s Whole Golden World. (Morrow Paperbacks. Nov. 2013. 448p. ISBN 9780062206459. pap. $14.99).  Not just engaging but engaged, this novel concerns a family upended by a teenage daughter’s affair with her married teacher.

Alyson Richman’s The Mask Carver’s Son. (Berkley. Sept. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780425267264. pap. $15). Set in 1890s Japan, Richman’s debut immediately intrigues by presenting a clash between East and West, between artist father and tradition-resistant son.

Najla Said’s Looking for Palestine: Growing Up Confused in an Arab American Family (Riverhead: Penguin Group USA. Aug. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9781594487088. $27.95.) Edward Said’s daughter is an actor, a speaker, and now a writer detailing her search for cultural identity.

Vivien Shotwell’s Vienna Nocturne. (Ballantine. Feb. 2014. ISBN 9780345536372. $26). Mezzo-soprano Shotwell already has a distinguished career, but now she launches herself as a writer with this novel inspired by a real-life soprano’s affair with Mozart.

Sign up today and be the first to receive Library Journal’s exclusive 2013 ALA Galley & Signing Guide from PrePub Alert editor Barbara Hoffert.

That’s the problem with cruising the show floor at the American Library Association conference, which is why Library Journal has a galley guide especially for you. The guide has been my sole focus this week, as I’ve wrapped up all my December 2013 coverage.

So you can do two things. First, register now for the 2013 Galley & Signing Guide, available shortly. Even if you aren’t attending the conference, I hope that you would find it interesting to see what’s forthcoming from a range of publishers. Second, check out my sneak preview of titles that might not be on your radar—titles I mostly discovered while working on the guide—but that you’ll definitely want to consider.

Fortunately, Library Journal is again offering a galley and signing guide that should help you find what you want. Interested in Sophie McKenzie’s Close My Eyes, in advanced listening format, no less? What about Dara Horn’s A Guide for the Perplexed or Jayne Anne Phillips’s Quiet Dell? Wouldn’t it be cool to meet Trickster illustrator Matt Dembicki, fantasy star Richard Kadrey, or New York Times best-selling crime novelist Gregg Hurwitz?

That’s just a sampling of the hundreds of galleys and authors you will find in the 2013 Galley & Signing Guide. So hurry up and register to receive your guide, available shortly.

Way back when, the panels were launched with a first books presentation, and First Author, First Book remains my favorite. This year’s panel boast seven authors, ranging from Jessica Soffer, whose Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots explores one young woman’s painful coming of age within the context of Iraqi Jewish American culture, to Kent Wascom, who offers an urgent, over-the-top tale of America’s Southern frontier in The Blood of Heaven.

Other panels include Crossing Over: Teen Books for Everyone!, which features Anton DiSclafani, already in the news with The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, plus sf star Richard Kadrey and Darynda Jones, who has helped define paranormal romance. Quirky Books for Quirkier Librarians will introduce you to John Scalzi, Josh Hanagarne (the world’s strongest librarian), and more. Shoot Between the Lines: Mystery Writers Reveal All offers stars like Jeff Abbott, John Dufresne in witty crime fiction mode, and the high-profile husband-and-wife Swedish team publishing as Lars Kepler, whose books truly aren’t for chickens. Join us for them all.

Franck, Julia. Back to Back. Grove. Dec. 2013. tr. from German by Anthea Bell. 320p. ISBN 9780802121677. $24. LITERARY FICTION
Franck’s first publication in this country (2010) was the German Book Prize winner The Blindness of the Heart, which has appeared in 35 countries; it received significant review and off-the-bookpage attention here. Her second U.S. publication opens in East Berlin in 1954 and features Käthe, a sculptor of Jewish descent who raises her children in hardnosed Socialist fashion. But Thomas and Ella long for the West, where their father has fled. Furthermore, Ella is being abused by the family’s Stasi lodger, which adds psychological drama to Franck’s intense study of the relentless forces of history. Great for elevated book-club discussion.

Hart, Matthew. Gold: A History, a Hunt, a Fever. Gallery: S. & S. Dec. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9781451650020. $26. HISTORY
Since its emergence six millennia ago as the mark of royal or priestly power, gold has dominated our imagination. Hart, a well-established journalist and author whose works have appeared in venues like the Atlantic Monthly and the London Times, offers a history of this glittery, gorgeous metal, ranging from the conquistadores’ plunder of South America to the 1800s Gold Rush to the recent doubling of the price of gold from $800 to $1900 an ounce. And guess what? The biggest gold-producing country of all is China. Already, several long-lead print and TV and radio sources have expressed interest, so expect big things.

Joss, Morag. Our Picnics in the Sun. Delacorte. Dec. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780385342766. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780345539670. SUSPENSE
One dark night, two drunk and querulous strangers come to the English countryside cottage owned by Howard and Deborah, who has turned it into a bed-and-breakfast after Howard’s stroke. The next morning, one of the strangers has vanished and the other cannot pay the bill Deborah presents, which sets the scene for a suspenseful, intricately wrought investigation into the dark, linked pasts of all three characters. Scottish-born Joss, an Edgar Award nominee and Crime Writers’ Association Silver Dagger Award winner, is building a strong fan base.

Muñoz Molina, Antonio. In the Night of Time. Houghton Harcourt. Dec. 2013. tr. from Spanish by Edith Grossman. 656p. ISBN 9780547547848. $30. LITERARY FICTION
Winner of the 2011 Prix Méditerranné Etranger, the French award for best foreign-language novel, this novel opens in October 1936 with Spanish architect Ignacio Abel arriving at New York’s Penn Station, having abandoned his wife and children to the rising ferocity of the Spanish civil war in pursuit of a brightly burning affair with an American woman. The U.S. publication of Muñoz Molina’s Sepharad in 2003 was met with rapturous reviews (“a masterpiece,” the New York Review of Books), and with the redoubtable Grossman as translator this book can’t miss for sophisticated readers.

Mutch, Barbara. The Housemaid’s Daughter. St. Martin’s. Dec. 2013. 416p. ISBN 9781250016300. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250031969. HISTORICAL FICTION
Cathleen Harrington hadn’t seen her fiancé, Edward, for five years when she traveled from Ireland to South Africa in 1919 to marry him. She makes the best of a loveless situation in a harsh desert environment by writing in her diary and befriending first her housemaid and then the housemaid’s mixed-race daughter, Ada, whom she teaches to play the piano and bonds with in a way she cannot with her husband and her own daughter. When Ada disappears, Cathleen must decide whether to challenge convention by trying to find her. South African–born Mutch’s debut received UK raves, with rights sold to a dozen countries; here she’s benefiting from big in-house buzz.

Ridley, Jane. The Heir Apparent: A life of Edward VII, The Playboy Prince. Random. Dec. 2013. 752p. ISBN 9781400062553. $35. BIOGRAPHY
Known as Bertie, King Edward VII was a wild womanizer and gluttonous gambler until he ascended the throne at age 59 after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. Suddenly, he emerged as a conscientious ruler who redefined the monarchy for the 20th century. All you need to know: the London Independent’s review called this “not only the best biography of King Edward VII; it’s also one of the best books about royalty ever published.” A huge British best seller; does this tell us anything about Charles?

Baxter, Greg. The Apartment. Twelve: Hachette. Dec. 2013. 208p. ISBN 9781455574780. $24; ebk. ISBN 9781455547715; lib. ebk. ISBN 9781455548477. LITERARY
One of Twelve’s two galley giveaways at BookExpo America, this debut novel has already garnered strong UK reviews and some great author blurbs. Baxter, an American living in Berlin, drops a fellow American into an unnamed European city with an Old World feel and pairs him with a man helping him hunt for an apartment. The result is a novel that investigates friendship, violence, and the clash of cultures in clean, straightforward language. Watch this one.

Hall, James W. Going Dark. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Dec. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9781250005007. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250038333. THRILLER
Florida private investigator Daniel Thorn is worried when he learns that his recently discovered son, Flynn Moss, has innocently become involved with Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a radical environmental group responsible for arson and considered a top terrorist threat by the FBI. When Flynn learns that insider ELF members are planning to turn the organization’s peaceful takeover of a nuclear plant into a Fukushima-style radioactive catastrophe (really?), his father pitches in to save the situation—and his son. Hall’s Edgar and Shamus statues guarantee readership.

Lawson, M.A. Rosarito Beach. Blue Rider Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Dec. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780399165733. $26.95. THRILLER
Lawson—actually, Mike Lawson, creator of the Joe DeMarco series, using a lightly disguised pen name—launches a new series starring tough ’n’ sexy DEA agent, Kay Hamilton. Kay has just landed in San Diego and is about to bust the younger brother of drug kingpin Caesar Olivera—which she believes will lead to busting Olivera himself—when a stranger arrives on her doorstep and makes the case way more personal and complicated. Let’s see where this series is going.

Murphy, Monica. Three Broken Promises. Bantam. Dec. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9780804176804. pap. $14; ebk. ISBN 9780804176811. ROMANCE
Fans are clamoring for this third installment in the New Adult series from New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Murphy, which portrays a young man’s intense anguish over his best friend’s death in Iraq, for which he feels responsible. Colin assuages his feelings by acting as guardian angel to his friend’s younger sister, who has something else in mind.

Robards, Karen. Hunted. Gallery. S. & S. Dec. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781451678710. $26. ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
A top hostage negotiator for the New Orleans Police Department, Caroline Wallace finds herself facing former colleague Reed Ware, who’s got the mayor and the chief of police at the end of his gun. When the SWAT team launches a premature attack, Reed manages to take Caroline hostage—and explains that he’s in danger after having discovered high-level police and government corruption. (But of course. This is the Big Easy.) From a New York Times best-selling author.

Thompson, Sam. Communion Town. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Dec. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781620401651. $25. POP FICTION
Longlisted for the Man Book Prize, Thompson’s debut novel has an intriguing premise. He envisions an imaginary city, then portrays characters on its edges, from a lovesick folksinger and a slaughterhouse worker to a fretful tourist and a ghost. Each tale is told in a different style (e.g., steampunk, gothic horror). A real brain twister that evidently uses genre means for larger ends and should attract a broad range of readers.

Wagner, Bruce. The Empty Chair: Two Novellas. Blue Rider Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Dec. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780399165887. $26.95. NOVELLAS
Cult favorite Wagner, who delivers a powerful sense of Los Angeles generally and film culture specifically in works like Wall Street Journal Best Book Dead Stars, expands his reach with these two novellas. Related by a fictional Wagner, “First Guru” tells the story of a gay Buddhist living in the Big Sur who achieve enlightenment after a child’s tragic suicide, while “Second Guru” features a fading wild child who treks back to India so that she can complete her spiritual journey.

Bradlee, Ben, Jr. The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams. Little, Brown. Dec. 2013. 784p. ISBN 9780316614351. $30; ebk. ISBN 9780316084482; lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316163712. CD: Hachette Audio. BIOGRAPHY/SPORTS
On leave from 25 distinguished years as a reporter and then deputy managing editor at the Boston Globe, Bradlee gives us a biography of Ted Williams, the best hitter in baseball history. Bradlee benefited from full access to Williams’s papers, letters, and even home movies, plus interviews with close family members and several of Williams’s girlfriends, and he addresses Williams’s Mexican heritage (on his mother’s side) and Korean War service. Great expectations.

Brown, Bobbie & Caroline Ryder. Dirty Rocker Boys: Love and Lust on the Sunset Strip. Gallery: S. & S. Dec. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781476734705. $26. MEMOIR
A star turn in hard rock band Warrant’s notorious “Cherry Pie” music video, often called the most sexually explicit music video ever made; marriage to Warrant’s lead singer, Jani Lane; engagement to Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee after her marriage collapsed; flight from Lee, who promptly married Bobbie’s friend Pamela Anderson; then, vengefully and self-destructively, a long string of wild affairs with big-name actors and rock stars. This memoir will be raucous reading for those who want it.

Hatch, Thom. Glorious War: The Civil War Adventures of George Armstrong Custer. St. Martin’s. Dec. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781250028501. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250028518. HISTORY
George Armstrong Custer will forever be defined by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry’s resounding defeat at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, where Custer himself lost his life. But veteran author Hatch (The Last American Outlaws: The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) reminds us that Custer made a huge mark during the Civil War, participating in most of the significant battles in the east and capturing the first Confederate battle flag. Great for perspective and American history buffs.

Johnson, Sue. Love Sense: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic Relationships. Little, Brown. Dec. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780316133760. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780316251082; lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316251099. CD: Hachette Audio. RELATIONSHIPS
If you’ve read clinical psychologist Johnson’s best-selling Hold Me Tight, which still sells 3,000 copies a month after its 2008 publication, you’ll know that she is responsible for developing Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Here she plumbs new research to argue that love isn’t arbitrary but an important attachment bond aiding our survival while showing how we can cultivate the “love sense” that leads to sustained relationships. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Kramer, Wendy & Naomi Cahn. Finding Our Families: A First-of-Its-Kind Book for Donor-Conceived People and Their Families. Avery: Penguin Group (USA). Dec. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781583335260. pap. $18. FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS
More than one million people in the United States have been born through donor sperm or eggs, and this book is designed to help them and their families. Kramer, who created the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) website with her donor-conceived son, Ryan, joins with family law professor Cahn in a discussion of issues like development, self-image, and the search for a biological parent. Not surprisingly, DSR receives up to two million hits a month, and this book should be correspondingly popular.

Muñoz, Heraldo. Getting Away with Murder: Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination and the Politics of Pakistan. Norton. Dec. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780393062915. $26.95. HISTORY/MODERN
As lead commissioner of the UN investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Muñoz, currently assistant secretary-general in charge of Latin America and the Caribbean for the United Nations Development Programme, is well qualified to deliver this report. He’s already an experienced author, having written The Dictator’s Shadow, a Washington Post Best Book. Muñoz examines not just the suicide bombing that took Bhutto’s life but the complexities of Pakistani politics and the longstanding influence of the Bhutto family.

Stossel, Scott. My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind. Knopf. 352p. ISBN 9780307269874. $27.95. Downloadable: Random Audio. PSYCHOLOGY
Now the most commonly acknowledged form of mental illness, anxiety wasn’t even a diagnostic category 30 years ago, but observers as far back as Hippocrates recognized its troublesome signs. Atlantic editor Stossel draws on his own battle with anxiety as he blends historical account (from, e.g., Robert Burton and William James) with a discussion of anxiety’s blindsiding consequences, the various treatments, and significant biological, cultural, and environmental factors. Obviously, there’s an audience.

Suchet, John. Beethoven: The Man Revealed. Atlantic Monthly. Dec. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780802122063. $30. BIOGRAPHY/MUSIC
A noted Beethoven scholar who hosts a morning show on Britain’s Classic FM, Suchet offers a big, bold biography of Beethoven, frequently drawing on sources not previously available in English. His argument: that more than with any other composer, understanding the life—Beethoven’s fractured childhood, fierce temperament, and obsessive concern with his nephew—helps us appreciate the music.

Tippins, Sherill. Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel. Houghton Harcourt. Dec. 2013. 448p. ISBN 9780618726349. $30; ebk. ISBN 9780544003064. HISTORY
Tippins has an interesting (and clearly inquiring) turn of mind, having also written February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten and Gypsy Rose Lee Under One Roof in Wartime America. Here she offers a history of New York’s matchless Chelsea Hotel, established in 1884 by a French Socialist utopian and home to artists ranging from Edgar Lee Masters to Patti Smith. So cool.

Walsh, Stephen. Musorgsky and His Circle: A Russian Musical Adventure. Knopf. Dec. 2013. 496p. ISBN 9780307272447. $37.50; ebk. ISBN 9780385350488. MUSIC
In the mid-1860s, Russian music was given a great push forward by five modestly trained but immodestly talented composers—Mily Balakirev, César Ciu, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, and, of course, Modest Musorgsky (as his named is transliterated here). Critic/musicologist Walsh explains how and why this blazing moment occurred and examines the results, for which we can all be grateful.

Bruen, Ken. Purgatory. Mysterious Pr: Grove/Atlantic. Nov. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780802126078. $24. CD: HighBridge Audio. MYSTERY

Nine previous titles, a Shamus Award, two feature films, and now this: even as he struggles to maintain his hard-won stability, former cop Jack Taylor must face a vigilante killer wiping out the bad guys of Galway and leaving little missives to Jack signed C 33. Bruen’s doctorate in metaphysics adds depth.

Cornwell, Patricia. Dust. Putnam. Nov. 2013. 480p. ISBN 9780399157578. $28.95. CD/downloadable: Penguin Audio. THRILLER

Home in Cambridge, MA, 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.

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 doing about it? Cussler launched his career 40 years ago with 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. 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. With a 35,000-copy first printing and really buzzing on the blogs.

Littell, Robert. A Nasty Piece of Work. Thomas Dunne: 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 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. With 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. 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. 320p. 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 (adaptation) & 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. CD: Hachette Audio. HISTORICAL/POP FICTION

This prequel to Meacham’s best-selling debut, Roses , 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. With 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, he learns that creepy letters making the village rounds speak of wicked crimes, even murder.

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 a 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 she may have had a secret in her past.

Wilson, Robert Charles. Burning Paradise. Tor. Nov. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780765332615. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466800762. SF

It’s 2015, and Cassie Klyne is 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.

Nonfiction

Davis, Wes. The Ariadne Objective: The Underground War To Rescue Crete from the Nazis. Crown. Nov. 2013.304p. ISBN 9780307460134. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780307460158. HISTORY

History both crucial and swashbuckling: an odd bunch of British intelligence officers joined with Cretan resistance fighters and an American avenging his father’s murder to keep German forces from occupying Crete—truly important, for otherwise Germany would have been able to dominate the Middle East. Journalist/former assistant English professor Davis worked for two years at excavations on Crete.

Drury, Bob & Tom Clavin. The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend. S. & S. Nov. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9781451654660. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781451654707. BIOGRAPHY

The New York Times best-selling coauthors have an intriguing subject in Oglala Sioux chief Red Cloud—the only Plains Indian to defeat the U.S. Army in war. Among the resources they use to help polish our memory of Red Cloud, now somewhat faded, is an autobiography lost for more than 100 years.

Hill, Clint & Lisa McCubbin. Five Days in November. Gallery: S. & S. Nov. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781476731490. $27. BIOGRAPHY

As Jacqueline Kennedy’s secret service guard, Hill leapt onto the car in Dallas after shots resounded and hung on for the race to the hospital. Here he offers a minute-by-minute insider’s account of unfolding events. Interest is building; note that Hill has also authored the best-selling Mrs. Kennedy and Me .

Lethbridge, Lucy. Servants: A Downstairs of Britain from the Nineteenth-Century to Modern Times. Norton.Nov. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780393241099. $27.95. HISTORY

Not just for Downton fans: here is an account of the servant’s life in Britain from Edwardian times until now, from the grandest estates to the middle-class household happy to show that they can afford help—if only just one maid.

Matthews, Chris. Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked. S. & S. Nov. 2013. NAp. ISBN 9781451695991. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781451696011. BIOGRAPHY

The subtitle is certainly telling. Matthews, Tip O’Neill’s former chief of staff for six years and now seen on the NBC-syndicated The Chris Matthews Show , portrays a civilized friendship between O’Neill and President Reagan even though their politics could not have been more different.

Orfalea, Gregory. Journey to the Sun: Junipero Serra’s Dream and the Founding of California. Scribner. Nov. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9781451642728. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781451642759. HISTORY

Though little known, Junipero Serra had a huge impact on this country’s development, having led efforts to establish Catholic mission churches throughout California. PEN finalist Orfalea did research in multiple languages on two continents to tell Serra’s story.

Richie, Alexandra. Warsaw 1944: Hitler, Himmler, and the Warsaw Uprising. Farrar. Nov. 2013. 464p. ISBN 9780374286552. $28. HISTORY

With the Allies starting to win the war and the Red Army in particular driving German troops back west, the underground Polish Home Army decided it was time to expel the enemy from Warsaw. Thus was launched the extraordinary Warsaw Uprising, which for reasons detailed here failed tragically after 63 days.

Riffenburgh, Beau. Pinkerton’s Great Detective: The Amazing Life and Times of James McParland. Viking. Nov. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780670025466. $32.95. BIOGRAPHY

Riffenburgh, who has a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge, hotfoots it over to America to write about the Pinkerton National Detective Agency’s most celebrated agent, James McParland, who took on the Molly Maguires, Butch Cassidy, and more.

Tobin, James. The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio To Win the Presidency. S. & S. Nov. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780743265157. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781451698671. BIOGRAPHY

Franklin Delano Roosevelt demonstrated true grit in his battle with polio, which National Book Critics Circle award winner Tobin argues was the transformative experience that made him the statesman he was.

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