Previews, Reviews, and Collection Development
Brown, Sandra. Deadline. Grand Central. Sept. 2013. 300p. ISBN 9781455501519. $28. CD: Hachette Audio. SUSPENSE War-weary journalist Dawson Scott needs the distraction of the case dropped into his lap by an FBI contact; former U.S. Marine Jeremy Wesson, son of terrorists who have been on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for decades, is missing and [...]
Baker, Nicholson. Traveling Sprinkler. Blue Rider: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780399160967. $26.95. LITERARY Baker’s The Anthologist, in which Paul Chowder tries valiantly to get started on a collection of formal verse, won best-book nods from a half-dozen venues. This new novel again features the hapless Chowder, here eager to jump-start his life [...]
Bacevich, Andrew. Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country. Metropolitan: Holt. Sept. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9780805082968. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780805096033. POLITICAL SCIENCE A Brown professor of history and international relations who served as an officer in the U.S. Army for 23 years, Bacevich argues that there is a tremendous divide between [...]
Two weeks ago, I reported on Library Journal‘s Editors’ Picks webcasts, which will launch on Tuesday, March 19, from 3:00 to 4:00 pm ET. Last week I reported on this year’s National Book Critics Circle Awards ceremony, which was topped by Ben Fountain’s win for his debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk. In a [...]
McDermott, Alice. Someone. Farrar. Sept. 2013. 224p. ISBN 9780374281090. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781429969420. CD: Macmillan Audio. LITERARY FICTION As evidenced by her seamless National Book Award winner, Charming Billy, few authors are as good as McDermott at making the ordinary extraordinary. Her new novel opens with young, bespectacled Marie meeting free-spirited Pegeen, who declares herself [...]
Chamberlain, Diane. Necessary Lies. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781250010698. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250010704. CD: Macmillan Audio. WOMEN’S FICTION Chamberlain has published nearly two dozen novels, many best sellers and one a RITA Award winner. But this work, which has the house jumping, is being billed as her breakout. A half-century ago in rural [...]
Bernstein, Arnie. Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9781250006714. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250036445. HISTORY It’s startling to learn that the German-American Bund was a powerful fifth column in late 1930s America, determined to establish a fascist dictatorship. Just as startling is the [...]
Ben Fountain’s debut novel, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ecco: HarperCollins), an LJ Best Book that sharply contrasts our media-centric society with the horrors of war. Robert A. Caro’s The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Knopf), the fourth volume in a grand, ferociously detailed biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Andrew Solomon’s Far [...]
Ellison, Keith. My Country, ’Tis of Thee. Gallery: S. & S. Sept. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9781451666878. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781451666892. POLITICAL SCIENCE Elected U.S. Representative to Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in 2007, Ellison is the first Black Muslim in the U.S. Congress and the first African American elected to the House from Minnesota. Not a [...]
Armstrong, Kelley & others. Four Summoner’s Tales. Gallery: S. & S. Sept. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781451696684. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9781451696752. SHORT STORIES/PARANORMAL Wanna get scared? Four New York Times best-selling authors help out with stories of bringing back the dead. In Kelley Armstrong’s “Suffer the Children,” a stranger promises to revive children lost to [...]
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