Previews, Reviews, and Collection Development
Bass, Rick. All the Land to Hold Us. Houghton. Jul. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780547687124. $25. LITERARY FICTION It’s not surprisingly that nature writer Bass’s fourth novel, set in Texas, features oil and gas wildcatters, salt miners, and treasure hunters as well as high school football players and Baptists. Bass is always a treat. Bohjalian, Chris. [...]
Gardiner, Meg. The Shadow Tracer. Dutton. Jul. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780525953227. $26.95. THRILLER Single mother Sarah Keller makes a living by tracking down folks on the run from, say, debt or prison. But maybe she’s on the run herself; after her five-year-old, Zoe, is in a school bus accident, tests show that she’s not the daughter of [...]
Evanovich, Stephanie. Big Girl Panties. Morrow. Jul. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780062224842. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062224866. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. POP FICTION Rather too zaftig after turning to food for comfort during her husband’s illness and death, 32-year-old Holly Brennan is chagrined to be occupying the plane seat next to Logan Montgomery, personal trainer to star [...]
Brown, Daniel James. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Viking. Jun. 2013. 432p. ISBN 9780670025817. $27.95; ebk. ISBN 9781611761696. HISTORY/SPORTS They weren’t rich lads, like the fancy Eastern and British teams they faced down, but the members of the University of Washington’s eight-oar [...]
al-Shaykh, Hanan. One Thousand and One Nights: A Sparkling Retelling of the Beloved Classic. Pantheon. Jun. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780307958860. $26; eISBN 9780307958877. LITERATURE A crucial and sometimes controversial figure in Middle Eastern literature, Lebanese author al-Shaykh here translates 19 of the stories young queen Shahrazad told her husband each night so that he would [...]
Caputo, Philip. The Longest Road: Overland in Search of America, from Key West to Deadhorse. Holt. Jun. 2013. 520p. ISBN 9780805094466. $28; eISBN 9780805096965. MEMOIR What connects the mainly Inupiat children on snow-swept Barter Island off Alaska’s Arctic coast and the children of Cuban immigrants on Key West? As Caputo realized while visiting Barter Island [...]
Barnhardt, Wilton. Lookaway, Lookaway. St. Martin’s. May 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781250020833. $25.99; eISBN 9781250021502. POP FICTION Having written several quietly appreciated novels (e.g., Emma Who Saved My Life), Barnhardt bursts forth with a big book that has everyone bustling. Jerene Jarvis Johnston’s efforts to protect the family honor—and her part of Charlotte, NC, high society—are thwarted [...]
First novels: they’re the promise of a new voice, a new sensibility, and a new favorite author to follow. May 2013′s list is especially impressive, ranging in setting from Revolutionary America to 1899 New York to contemporary Africa. I couldn’t pick among them, so they’re all picks, worthy of special attention by serious readers. Brkic, [...]
Atkinson, Rick. The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944–1945 (Liberation Trilogy, Vol. 3). Holt. May 2013. 896p. ISBN 9780805062908. $38; eISBN 9781429943673. HISTORY Atkinson’s “Liberation Trilogy” opened with the Pulitzer Prize–winning (and best-selling) An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943, which was followed by The Day of Battle: The [...]
Allende, Isabel. Maya’s Notebook. Harper: HarperCollins. May 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780062105622. $28.99; eISBN 9780062105646. CD: HarperAudio. LITERARY FICTION Having sold over 57 million copies of her books worldwide, the esteemed author of The House of the Spirits knows what she’s doing. So trust her on this stylistic departure, which borrows from the thriller writer’s toolkit. [...]
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