Griffin, W.E.B. & William E. Butterworth IV. Hazardous Duty. Putnam. Dec. 2013. 480p. ISBN 9780399160677. $27.95. THRILLER
Mexican cartels and Somali pirates are running rampant, and the President decides that Col. Charley Castillo is the only man who can handle the mess. Alas, he has just forced Castillo to retire, so nastily that some of Castillo’s men have gone into hiding. Is this President nuts? More in the “Presidential Agent” saga.

Jackson, Joshilyn. Someone Else’s Love Story. Morrow. Dec.  2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062105653. $26.99. lrg. prnt. Downloadable: HarperAudio. POP FICTION
Hugely best-selling Jackson is being positioned to break out even bigger with a love story that starts with a holdup at a gas station mini-mart. There, tall, blond geneticist William Ashe steps between the gunman and 21-year-old college student Shandi Pierce’s three-year-old son. For William, wracked by past tragedy, it’s not just a noble gesture but a conscious choice to meet destiny head on. With a six-city tour and a 150,000-copy first printing; pushed at BookExpo America.

Kenyon, Sherrilyn. Kiss of the Night. St. Martin’s. Dec.  2013. 384p. ISBN 9781250036773. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781429906135. PARANORMAL
Yes, you’ve seen it already: this is an early book in the blockbuster Dark-Hunter series, originally published in paperback in 2004. It features ancient Viking warrior Wulf, whom people cannot remember after he leaves their presence, and Cassandra, targeted for death by Daimons eager to free themselves from a curse—though her death means the death of the sun and everything with it. Here’s a special hardcover edition to replace your battered copies.

Perry, Anne. A Christmas Hope. Ballantine. Dec. 2013. 208p. ISBN 9780345530752. $18; ebk. ISBN 9780345545541. CHRISTMAS/HISTORICAL MYSTERY
Perry sets up a most unusual holiday party in her 11th Christmas novel. Claudine Burroughs, who works with William Monk’s wife at a women’s clinic, is bored at yet another festive event until a charming poet arrives with his prostitute companion. When the woman is found dead, Claudine starts to play sleuth. Books in this pleasing series sell in the 30,000-copy range.

Reich, Christopher. The Prince of Risk. Doubleday. Dec. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780385535069. $25.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385535076. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. FINANCIAL THRILLER
Reich, who’s been writing New York Times best-selling financial thrillers for a while—The Patriots Club won an International Thrillers Writers award in 2006—takes another trip to Wall Street. Robert “Bobby” Astor is flying high as a New York hedge fund manager when his father, chair of the New York Stock Exchange, is murdered in a mysterious attack on the White House Lawn. Soon, as Bobby’s business begins to tumble, it appears that the entire U.S. financial system is slated for ruin by nasty foreigners. Reich’s 2002 thriller, The First Billion, has been optioned for film, so stand by for more Reich enthusiasm.

Trigiani, Adriana. The Supreme Macaroni Company. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780062136589. $25.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. POP FICTION
As with last year’s The Shoemaker’s Wife, the author’s hottest seller to date, Trigiani picks up the cobbler’s toolkit to craft a story about love and work that ranges from New York to Italy and beyond. As Valentine Roncalli seeks to maintain the 100-year-old family business—the Greenwich Village–based Angelini Shoe Company—she complicates her life by falling in love with Gianluca Vechiarelli, a tanner whose secrets start to emerge on Christmas Eve as the couple celebrates the Feast of the Seven Fishes with Valentine’s family. With a one-day laydown on November 5 (news on this book just arrived), a ten-city tour, and a 150,000-copy first printing; pushed at BookExpo America.

Wasdin, Howard E. with Stephen Templin. Easy Day for the Dead: A SEAL Team Six Outcasts Novel. Gallery: S. & S. Dec. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781451682977. $26. THRILLER
Here’s the second in a New York Times best-selling series starring the Outcasts, an elite military operation that works outside of established boundaries to challenge anyone threatening U.S. security. In Iran, the Outcasts are about to assassinate the head scientist at a biological weapons lab when she explains that the government has established a dangerous satellite lab somewhere outside the country. She’ll reveals its whereabouts only if our team springs her husband from the secret detention facility where he’s being held to guarantee her work.

Weldon, Fay. The New Countess. St. Martin’s. Dec. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9781250028020. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250028037. CD: Macmillan Audio. HISTORICAL
Grand of Weldon to have dreamed up an Edwardian-era story that has held fans in between bouts of Downton Abbey. Here she wraps up the trilogy with Lord Robert and Lady Isobel Dilberne’s household preparing for a visit from Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Alas, the new heir, son of Arthur Dilberne and Chicago heiress Minnie O’Brien, isn’t entirely a proper little gentleman, and Mrs. O’Brien has arrived to stir up trouble. With a reading group guide.

ADRENALINE

Zan, Koethi. The Never List. Pamela Dorman: Viking. Jul. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780670026517. $27.95. F
Although best friends Sarah and Jennifer spent their entire childhood compiling the “Never List”— a set of detailed instructions designed to keep them safe from harm—it wasn’t enough to protect them from the sadist who abducted the girls from their college campus and kept them chained in a dark basement for three years while subjecting them to physical and psychological torture. A decade after Sarah’s escape from captivity, she continues to struggle with the knowledge that Jennifer did not survive. But when Sarah learns that her kidnapper is coming up for parole, she decides that it’s time to confront, once and for all, the terrible events of her past. VERDICT This fast-paced, disturbing thriller boasts a chilling premise as well as a layered first-person narrative full of shocking twists and turns. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/13.]

FANTASY

Cargill, C. Robert. Dreams and Shadows. Harper Voyager. 2013. 434p. ISBN 9780062190420. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062190444. FANTASY
A child stolen away by the fairies is one of the oldest stories in fantasy, but in this debut, it is only the beginning of the tale. Ewan was taken as a baby to the Limestone Kingdom, where he was raised as a half-wild fairy creature and never told of the destiny that awaited him. Colby is another human child who encounters a djinn and makes a wish to see all the magical things that are normally veiled from human eyes. The fates of the two children are intertwined as they try to save Ewan from the forces of the Limestone Kingdom and the Wild Hunt. VERDICT Cargill shows us hard-drinking angels, jealous changelings, and trickster spirits in a brilliant modern fairy tale that is dark, bloody, and populated with creatures trapped by their own natures. (LJ 11/15/12)

HISTORICAL FICTION

Willig, Lauren. The Ashford Affair. St. Martin’s. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9781250014498.$24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250027191. F
Addie is the poor cousin who comes to live at Ashford House in 1906. Clementine is a high-powered attorney in 21st-century New York. When Clemmie learns about a buried family secret involving her Granny Addie, she begins a journey into the past that could change everything she thinks she knows about her family. VERDICT From the ballrooms of British society to colonial Kenya to modern-day Manhattan, this well-researched and lavishly detailed family saga spans a century and three continents. (LJ 2/1/13)

HORROR

Hill, Joe. NOS4A2. Morrow. 2013. 704p. ISBN 9780062200570. $28.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062200594. HORROR
Driving a 1938 Rolls-Royce, Charles Manx gathers deserving children and takes them to Christmasland, a place of endless games, cocoa, and gingerbread cookies that doesn’t appear on any map. Vic McQueen, the only kid to escape Manx’s macabre game, has unusual talents of her own. Now an adult, Vic must confront her worst nightmare to save her son before it is too late. VERDICT Hill delivers an intricate story line full of terror and courage that brings out the best and the very worst in his protagonists, characters you won’t soon forget. A book focused on Christmas may not be the most obvious summer read, but readers will feel the “chill” when they hear those
first Christmas carols come September. (LJ 2/15/13)

MYSTERY

Hallinan, Timothy. Little Elvises. Soho Crime. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781616952778. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781616952785. M
L.A. burglar Junior Bender has developed a reputation as a kind of ad hoc private eye with crooks for clients. His latest task in this second book of a series is to prove that a music-industry mogul, famous for promoting a string of 1960s pop sensations collectively known as “Little Elvises,” is innocent of the murder of a tabloid journalist. Of course, the complications only start there. VERDICT A well-drawn cast of quirky characters, witty dialog, and a fast-paced and funny plot make this crime novel nearly impossible to put down. (LJ 2/1/13)

ROMANCE

Higgins, Kristan. The Best Man. HQN: Harlequin. 2013. 432p. ISBN 9780373777921.$7.99. F
Faith Holland left town after her groom, Jeremy, left her at the altar. Now she’s returning home—a little older, a little wiser, but still struggling in the relationship department. Meanwhile, Jeremy’s best friend, Levi Cooper, has become the local sheriff, and Faith is not at all happy to run into him again, especially as she and Levi fight their attraction to each other. Can these two let their guard down enough to acknowledge their true feelings? VERDICT Higgins is a brilliant storyteller, filling her novel with zany situations, humorous dialog, and realistic characters.

SCIENCE FICTION

Scalzi, John. The Human Division. Tor. 2013. 432p. ISBN 9780765333513. $25.99. SF
In this collection of linked stories, army technician Harry Wilson and diplomatic corp officer Hart Schmidt are just two of the memorable characters trying to improve the reputation of humanity in a galaxy where everyone seems against them—even the population of their home planet, Earth. With a knack for crafting entertaining interstellar politics and diplomacy, Scalzi tells 13 discrete stories (originally sold serially online), each with its own perspective and tone. All told, these add up to one satisfying and very fun whole. VERDICT Featuring the author’s trademark humor, clever dialog, and a hefty dose of action, this is a wonderful addition to Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” universe.

WOMEN’S FICTION

Kinsella, Sophie. Wedding Night. Dial. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780812993844. $26. F
When the love of Lottie’s life gives her a vacation instead of an engagement ring, she breaks up with him in typical dramatic Lottie style. Days later, her college boyfriend Ben makes an appearance, and the two quickly decide to wed. Meanwhile, Lottie’s sister Fliss and Ben’s best friend Lorcan frantically try to derail the wedding night while they fight their own growing attraction. Never fear: in the end—after international flights, bribery, blackmail, and disaster—all the characters end up discovering true love and learning a bit about themselves in the process. ­VERDICT Kinsella continues to delight in creating quirky characters and over-the-top situations, and this title is a perfect choice for those craving a great escape.

ADDITIONAL WOMEN’S FICTION

Moore, Edward Kelsey. The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat. Knopf. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780307959928. $24.95. F
Dubbed the Supremes, Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean have been friends since their high school days back in the turbulent 1960s. The trio have met every week for 40 years at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat for food and friendship, laughter and tears. VERDICT This is a big-hearted novel, full of humor and appealing characters who make it a delightful read. While we don’t ordinarily think of male authors writing women’s fiction, Moore gets inside the heads of these women, and his genuine affection for his characters is compellingly evident.
(LJ 1/13)

BONUS GENREBLENDER: ADRENALINE/HORROR/SF

Beukes, Lauren. The Shining Girls. Mulholland: Little, Brown. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780316216852. $26. F
Harper Curtis is down on his luck, a drifter in Depression-era Chicago with a predilection for violence. When he finds a key to a special house that allows him to travel through time, he uses the house (or it uses him) to hunt down and kill certain special girls, his Shining Girls. Kirby Mazrachi is identified as a Shining Girl, but she survives Harper’s brutal attack and starts hunting him. VERDICT The gripping mix of sf, horror, and suspense works because of the way the likable characters Kirby and her newspaperman ally contend with the menacing chill of Harper and his special house. (LJ 4/1/13)

The 2012-2013 Reading List Council Members contributing to this article are Alicia Ahlvers, Craig Clark, Emily Hamstra, Jennifer Hendzlik, Megan McArdle, Jared L. Mills, Vicki Nesting, Gillian Speace, Valerie Taylor, Ann Chambers Theis, and Michelle Young.

Chapman, Emma J. How To Be a Good Wife. St. Martin’s. Oct. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781250018199. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250018205. LITERARY SUSPENSE
Like McFarlane’s Night Guest (previewed below), Chapman’s debut concerns a present haunted (in every sense of the word) by the past. Good wife Marta has been married for so long that she can hardly remember a past without Hector. But now strange visions flit at the corner of her eye, including that of a blonde girl no one else can see. Is she losing her mind, or is she starting to remember something important? And what does the blonde girl want? Lots of push behind this first novel, including promotion at BEA.

Duffy, P.S. The Cartographer of No Man’s Land. Liveright: Norton. Oct. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780871403766. $25.95. LITERARY/HISTORICAL
In a book that turned out to be a real contender for this year’s Editors Buzz panel at BookExpo America, Duffy draws on deep roots in Nova Scotia to make her debut at age 65. She’s also drawing on current interest in World War I as the centenary looms. Raised as a pacifist, Angus joins up as a cartographer when his brother-in-law goes missing at the front but instead finds himself thrust into battle. Back home, son Simon Peter has battles of his own; he walks a fine line in a village increasingly rent by grief as the carnage mounts. Don’t miss.

McFarlane, Fiona. Night Guest. Faber & Faber. Oct. 20213. 256p. ISBN 9780865477735. $26. LITERARY SUSPENSE
Widowed Ruth lives a quiet life by the sea until a woman claiming to be a government case worker comes to her door one wet night and stays. Frida’s presence subtly changes the environment, as Ruth suddenly starts recalling her childhood in Fiji and seems to hear a tiger roaming outside her window. Yes, there’s a dark secret in the past, but this novel is more concerned with creeping fear, the long road of aging, and the inviolable presence of the colonial past. Former Michener Fellow McFarlane’s literary chiller is the publisher’s important fiction debut author for the fall.

Simsion, Graeme. The Rosie Project. S. & S. Oct. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9781476729084. $24. POP FICTION
It’s not every debut author whose work gets sold in more than 30 territories, but Simsion manages it with this funny, touching story about genetics professor Don Tillman, a socially challenged guy who sets out to find a wife. Don has drawn up a precise, deeply detailed list of requirements for the Wife Project, which gets thrown aside when he meets perpetually unpunctual, smoke-like-a-chimney barmaid Rosie. Not his type, but she’s hunting for her biological father and seeks out Don for professional advice. A relationship is born that radically alters his perceptions—and his goals. Huge in-house excitement, so watch this especially.

Boyle, T.C. T.C. Boyle Stories II: The Collected Stories of T. Coraghessan Boyle, Vol. II. Viking. Oct. 2013. 944p. ISBN 9780670026258. $45. SHORT STORIES
The author of 14 celebrated novels—e.g., Drop City was a National Book Award finalist—Boyle excels in the short form as well. His stories, which frequently appear in venues like The New Yorker and Harper’s, have won him the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. In 1998, T.C. Boyle Stories combined his first four collections; here, we have his three most recent collections, plus 14 new stories previously unavailable in book form. Reflecting Boyle’s typically twisty, running-wild imagination, these new works offers scenarios from giants bred for battle to a reclusive writer upended by the experience of receiving a minor award. Nearly 1000 pages of writing—how astonishingly prolific is that?

Cahill, Thomas. Heretics and Heroes: How Renaissance Artists and Reformation Priests Changed Our World. Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Oct. 2013. 384p. ISBN 9780385495578. $30.50; ebk. ISBN 978-0-385-53416-1. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. HISTORY
Hungering for more after reading Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve? Just can’t get enough of that crazy Renaissance family, the Borgias? Look no farther. In this sixth in his wildly popular “Hinges of History” series, Cahill covers the startling artistic and scientific advances, power struggles and religious schism, exploration and emerging individualism that defined the late 14th to early 17th centuries. With a five-city tour to Boston, Washington, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland (OR).

Drabble, Margaret. The Pure Gold Baby. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780544158900. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780544157767. LITERARY FICTION
Having announced in 2009 that she would stop writing fiction for fear of repeating herself, Drabble has, thankfully, had a change of heart. Here she offers a wrenching but clear-eyed look at the responsibilities of motherhood. Pregnant owing to an affair with a married professor, graduate student Jessica Speight gives birth to golden, glowy Anna. It soon becomes apparent that Anna will never be a normal child, and both character and reader must adjust to a different understanding of parenting. With a 30,000-copy first printing and strong reading group promotion.

Goleman, Daniel. Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062114860. $28.99. CD: HarperAudio. PSYCHOLOGY/BUSINESS
In 1995, Goleman published the hugely influential Emotional Intelligence, which now boasts nearly six million copies in print in 40 languages worldwide. A chapter in that book prompted editors at the Harvard Business Review to ask Goleman to write a separate piece. That piece—“What Makes a Leader?”—became the most requested reprint in the review’s history and is the inspiration for his latest work. Goleman’s answer to the question he posed would seem to be attention (or, alternately, focus), something often lacking in this hyped-up, hopped-up world. Goleman argues for three kinds of attention—inner, other, and outer—and declares that to excel in any area of endeavor from business to the arts we need all three. Fortunately, he’s got some best practices to offer in this regard. With a 200,000-copy first printing; a book I could clearly use.

Holmes, Richard. Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air. Pantheon. Oct. 2013. 416p. ISBN 9780307379665. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780307908704. SCIENCE/HISTORY
A best seller that raked in both the Royal Society Prize for Science Writing and the National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction, The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science outline numerous bold scientific adventures, ballooning among them. Here Holmes details the history and consequences of ballooning, starting in the late 1700s and proceeding through acute Anglo-French rivalry, the long-distance voyages of the American entrepreneur John Wise and French photographer Felix Nadar, and the seven-mile-high flights of James Glaisher, FRS, which launched the new science of meteorology. Another book to make your wonder; with a five-city tour to Albuquerque, Dallas, Houston, New York, and Washington, DC.

Lepore, Jill. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin. Knopf. Oct. 2013. 464p. ISBN 9780307958341. $27.95. HISTORY
A Bancroft Prize winner and chair of Harvard’s History and Literature Program, Lepore offers a study of someone virtually unknown—Jane Franklin, the sister of Benjamin Franklin and one of his closest confidantes. The sharply observant Jane influenced her brother’s thinking, and he wrote more letters to her than to anyone else. Lepore draws on recently discovered documents, objects, and portraits to tell her story, which inevitably limns not just an unusual woman but an unusual time in American history. Look for an advance piece in The New Yorker, where Lepore is staff writer. With an eight-city tour to Boston, Kansas City, Madison, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC.

MacGregor, Neil. Shakespeare’s Restless World: A Portrait of an Era in Twenty Objects. Viking. Oct. 2013. 335p. ISBN 9780670026340. $36. HISTORY
In A History of the World in 100 Objects, British Museum director MacGregor used artifacts from the museum’s collection to tell the story of human history. The result was an absolute stunner, as I am sure this book will be as well. Here, MacGregor works with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC to portray 20 objects (in more than 100 color photographs) that sum up Shakespeare’s world. Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation map represent the age of exploration, for instance, while a bishop’s cup suggest the religious turmoil of the time. If all the world’s a stage, here Shakespeare’s world and his stage become one.

Venter, J. Craig. Life at the Speed of Light. Viking. Oct. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780670025404. $26.95. LIFE SCIENCES
Famed for sequencing the human genome—no small accomplishment, that—Venter has most recently led a group of scientists in the creation of “synthetic life.” Soon, we could be writing genetic code for new species, which doesn’t mean the creation of phantasmagorical creatures. Generating energy, producing food and clean water, cleansing the environment, even our own evolution—all are possible outcomes of this new development. Founder/CEO of his own not-for-profit research organization dedicated to genomic research and twice cited among Time’s 100 most influential people, Venter has the feisty cool to explain the basics of biological engineering while asking that bigger question, What is life?

Winterson, Jeanette. The Daylight Gate. Grove. Oct. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9780802121639. $24; ebk. ISBN 9780802193025. LITERARY/HISTORICAL FICTION
England’s James I hated Catholics and wrote a book condemning witchcraft; during his reign, the High Mass and the Black Mass were equated as heresies punishable by a slow, ugly death. Winterson takes us to James’s realm, to an old hunting ground called Pendle Hill—“some say the hill was the hunter—alive in its black-and-green coat cropped like an animal pelt”—where 13 women have gathered on Good Friday, 1612. Two are already charged with witchcraft, and magistrate Roger Nowell imagines the remainder are part of a coven. Or are they simply family and friends trying to help the innocent? Even if the 1612 Pendle witch trials didn’t have their echo 70 years later in Salem, MA, American readers will want to grab this book for E.M. Forster Award winner Winterson’s superbly cool, bristly prose and deft handling of history while imagining something darker beyond. Praise from the British press has been rousing.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. The Signature of All Things. Viking. Oct. 2013. 512p. ISBN 9780670024858. $28.95. CD: Penguin Audio. LITERARY/HISTORICAL FICTION
After Eat, Pray, Love and its follow-up, Committed—not to mention the NBA/NBCC–nominated biography The Last American—Gilbert returns to fiction, where she first made her mark with the Pushcart Prize–winning story collection, Pilgrims. She also turns her back on contemporary soul-searching for an intriguing-sounding story of love and science in the 1700s and 1800s. Impoverished Englishman Henry Whittaker makes a killing in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia, where daughter Alma is born in 1800. She becomes a distinguished botanist, then falls in love with the dreamy Ambrose, a painter of orchids intent on examining the spiritual side of things. Refreshingly, Gilbert isn’t taking sides, instead capturing the human desire to pull back the veil and grasp existence in all its manifestations. Get ready for the 15-city tour.

Mansbach, Adam. The Dead Run. HarperVoyager: HarperCollins. Oct. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780062199652. $25.99. ebk. ISBN 9780062199676. THRILLER/HORROR
Mansbach has made good use of the fame he gained with his monumental best seller, Go the F**k to Sleep, rushing to catch our attention first with the edgy, intellectual Rage Is Back and now with this edgy scarefest. (Rage got an LJ rave and Amazon Best Book of the Month honors, and back in 2005 Angry Black White Boy was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book, which proves that Mansbach is not just a one-book wonder.) Here, young women are turning up dead on both sides of America’s border with Mexico, but Sherry Nichols has managed to escape from those who’ve been doing the killing. Meanwhile, the wrongly imprisoned Galvan buys his freedom from a Mexican jail by agreeing to carry a mysterious package across the border. Now they’re both out in the unforgiving desert, and it’s not just the rattlesnakes that are creepy and dangerous. With a 75,000-copy first printing and West Coast appearances; the versatile Mansbach should not be missed.

Tartt, Donna. The Goldfinch. Little, Brown. Oct. 2013. 608p. ISBN 9780316055437. $30. ebk. ISBN 9780316248679. CD: Hachette Audio. LITERARY FICTION
In 1992, Tartt debuted with the The Secret History, a WH Smith Literary Award winner that has sold over five million copies and still draws gasps whenever it’s mentioned to admiring fans. In 2002, she followed up with The Little Friend, another eye-opener that was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. So it’s about time for her third novel, and you can fairly expect something good. After young Theo Decker survives an accident that kills his mother, he is abandoned by his father and lives with the family of a friend. Battling to come to terms with loss, he becomes obsessed with a small painting that reminds him of his mother and is eventually drawn into New York City’s art underworld. With a 250,000-copy first printing, a ten- to 12-city tour, and what’s billed as a social media extravaganza.

Turow, Scott. Identical. Grand Central. Oct. 2013. 416p. ISBN 9781455527205. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781455527212. CD: Hachette Audio. CRIME
Turow has taken us to Kindle County before, though not like this. Here he uses the Greek myth of Castor and Pollux to tell a wrenching story of murder and betrayal while showing just how gullible humans can be. It’s awkward for Paul Giannis, who’s running for mayor of Kindle County, that identical twin Cass is just being released from prison 25 years after pleading guilty to the murder of his girlfriend, Athena Kronon. Athena’s murder is being reinvestigated by Evon Miller, head of security for the Kronon family business, and octogenarian private investigator Tim Brodie. And oh, what that investigation reveals. A 700,000-copy first printing and a big push at BookExpo America.

Winchester, Simon. The Men Who United the States: America’s Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible. Harper: HarperCollins. Oct. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9780062079602. $29.99. lrg. prnt. CD: HarperAudio. HISTORY
While this book is billed as history, trust the New York Times best-selling author of books like Krakatoa and The Map That Changed the World (about the geologist William Smith) to couch his understanding of how various New World territories came together to form the United States in terms of scientific endeavor. Winchester looks at explorers like Lewis and Clark, who observed astonishing flora and fauna as they trekked to the Pacific Coast, and the engineers whose building of the transcontinental telegraph and the Interstate Highway System bound the country together. One of the most important science lessons you’ll ever have; with a 150,000-copy first printing and a ten-city tour to New York, Boston, St. Louis, Washington DC, Nashville, Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

Kent, Hannah. Burial Rites. Little, Brown. Sept. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780316243919. $26. LITERARY THRILLER
At age 26, Australian Ph.D. student Kent won the 2011 Writing Australia Unpublished Manuscript Award and has since seen rights for her work sold to at least 18 countries after heated bidding. Drawing on real-life events, she retells the story of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, who was convicted of murder in 1829 Iceland. Agnes is at first shunned by the farming family she must live with as she awaits execution, but as she begins a frantic confession family members come to realize that there is another side to her story.

Smith, Michael Farris. Rivers. S. & S. Sept. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781451699425. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781451699449. LITERARY
Smith’s debut is set in the near future, when storms stirred by climate change have laid waste to America’s Southeast and forced inhabitants away from coastal areas. A man named Cohen, whose pregnant wife was killed during a mandatory evacuation, has returned to his Mississippi home for good. Attacked one day after he picks up two teenage hitchhikers, who steal his food and remaining family mementos, Cohen finds himself in hot pursuit of justice. It’s not the comparisons to Cormac McCarthy and James Lee Burke that have hooked me; it’s the quality writing promised by Smith’s many honors (e.g., the Transatlantic Review Award, the Brick Streets Press Short Story Award).

Zailckas, Koren. Mother, Mother. Crown. Sept. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780385347235. $24; ebk. ISBN 9780385347242. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE
Having published the searing memoir Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood, which has sold more than 500,000 copies, Zailckas has a ready audience for a debut novel drawing on the twinned experiences of family and addiction. Teenage Violet, hospitalized after drug experimentation; autistic eight-year-old Will; their withdrawn, Scotch-guzzling dad, Douglas; even runaway sister Rose—all are under the terrifying control of ever-interfering matriarch Josephine. Lots of promotion, including a blog tour and book club outreach.

Brown, Carrie. The Last First Day. Pantheon. Sept. 2013. 272p. ISBN 9780307908032. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780307908032. LITERARY
Honored with a Discover Great New Writers Award for her first novel, Rose’s Garden, Brown here writes a novel about the autumnal years. Orphaned as a child, Ruth marries accomplished, morally upright Peter, and together they pour their love, energy, and money into the school for boys that Peter famously heads for decades. Now that he is approaching retirement, the childless couple must plan for “the last first day”—and all the days that follow. Excellent for book clubs and relevant to a big chunk of the reading populace.

Doig, Ivan. Sweet Thunder. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). Sept. 2013. NAp. ISBN 9781594487347. $27.95. LITERARY/HISTORICAL
I’m cheating a bit, since this wrap-up to the Morrie Morgan trilogy, begun with The Whistling Season and continued with Work Song, has a late August on-sale date. But news of the book just surfaced (it actually catalogs in the fall). In 1920s Butte, MT, Morrie becomes chief editorialist for the newly hatched Butte Thunder, which is taking on the powerful Anaconda Company. Septuagenarian Doig has been writing admired books for decades but lately seems to be breaking out, with mentions in New York and V Magazine and activity on the New York Times best sellers lists. Great expectations for this work, somewhat autobiographical as Doig has worked on newspapers himself.

Dolnick, Ben. At the Bottom of Everything. Pantheon. Sept. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9780307907981. $24.95. ebk. ISBN 9780307907998. LITERARY
Dolnick offered two coming-of-age novels, Zoology and You Know Who You Are, as he was coming of age himself. They were nicely received (The New Yorker thought he had some growing to do but praised his light touch in Zoology). This is his hardcover breakout—and the chance to prove that he has grown. Adam has long since split from former best friend Thomas and is working as a tutor by day while sleeping with a student’s mom by night when he receives a plea for help from Thomas’s mother. Soon he’s on a voyage through mental illness, spiritual regeneration, and India.

Horn, Dara. A Guide for the Perplexed. Norton. Sept. 2013. 336p. ISBN 9780393064896. $25.95. LITERARY
What do computerized data storage, sibling rivalry, the Book of Ruth, and Egyptian uncertainty after the Arab Spring have in common? They’re all part of this latest work about two crucial aspects of being human: the ability to remember and to love. Horn has already proven herself by being named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and winning two National Jewish Book Awards. A sure bet.

Perrotta, Tom. Nine Inches: Stories. St. Martin’s. Sept. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781250034700. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250034694. CD: Macmillan Audio. SHORT STORIES
The 12 stories in this first collection by New York Times best-selling author Perrotta range from “Senior Season” to “The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face,” the Boston Book Festival’s first One City, One Story selection. But they generally partake of Perrotta’s familiar theme: the craziness of family life in the suburbs. Look for a national tour.

Searles, John. Help for the Haunted. Morrow. Sept. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780060779634. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062199430. LITERARY THRILLER
One cold winter’s night, Sylvie Mason’s parents leave her in the car as they enter an isolated old church, clearly on a mission; their job is to help “haunted souls” find some measure of peace. Shortly thereafter, gunshots sound, and Sylvie is left an orphan in the care of an older sister who might be implicated in their parents’ death. Editor-at-Large at Cosmopolitan, Searles is the author of Boy Still Missing and Strange but True, both national best sellers and both optioned for film. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Vian, Boris. Mood Indigo. Farrar. Sept. 2013. tr. from French by Stanley Chapman. 224p. ISBN 9780374534226. pap. $14; ebk. ISBN 9780374710873. LITERARY
A man of many talents—he was an author, actor, engineer, jazz musician, and more who belonged to Sartre’s circle of friends, translated Raymond Chandler, and championed Duke Ellington (note the title)—Vian died young and is best remembered today for his novels. This love story, a modern French classic that came in tenth on Le Monde’s recent list of the 100 Books of the Century, has been translated before. But this fresh rendering by Chapman—just deceased and himself a polymath involved in architecture, theater, and writing, all on the experimental edge—comes just in time for a big new movie directed by Michel Gondry and starring Audrey Tautou.

Watson, Larry. Let Him Go. Milkweed, dist. by PGW. Sept. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781571311023. $24. LITERARY
Watson came on the scene two decades ago with the fiercely lyric, fiercely ethical Montana 1948, a Milkweed National Fiction Prize winner that won attention nationwide and sold 250,000 copies. His new work sounds of a piece. In early 1950s Dalton, ND, George and Margaret Blackledge are mourning the death of their adult son (thrown from a horse) when his widow, Lorna, gets remarried to Donnie Weboy and relocates to Bentrock, MT. Of course, she’s taken little Jimmy with her, and Margaret insists that she and George travel to Bentrock, hoping to persuade Lorna to return to Dalton because they miss their grandson. That means a fight with all the Weboys. A book I’m especially anticipating; with a five-city tour to Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, and St. Paul.

Woodrell, Daniel. The Maid’s Version. Little, Brown. Sept. 2013. 176p. ISBN 9780316205856. $25. CD: Hachette Audio. LITERARY/HISTORICAL
Woodrell’s first novel since 2006’s chillingly exact Winter’s Bone, made into the film starring Jennifer Lawrence, was inspired by a 1928 dance-hall explosion in his hometown that took 28 lives and left many others injured. The explosion reverberated for generations; Woodrell heard about it from his grandmother, maid to a family that included someone rumored to be responsible for the incident. Historical in content and lyrical in style, with some fracturing of chronology, this book represents a deepening of Woodrell’s art. Don’t miss.

Baker, Lori. The Glass Ocean. Penguin Pr: Penguin Group (USA). Aug. 2013. 352p.
ISBN 9781594205361. $25.95. HISTORICAL
Set in the Victorian world but neither Dickensian nor steampunk, this debut novel by Bobst Literary Award winner Baker is narrated by red-haired, six-foot-plus Carlotta Dell’oro, who relates the story of her parents’ lives. On an 1841 expedition aboard the Narcissus, during which he’s expected to sketch sea creatures, Leonardo Dell’oro falls for remote, lovely Clotilde Girard, whose father funded the voyage. Leonardo brings Clotilde to remote Whitby, England, when her father goes missing, but they aren’t the perfect couple. Eventually, Leonardo apprentices himself to a glassblower, learning to transform his sea sketches into fragile, fantastical forms. Love, art, and history; who can resist?

Engel, Patricia. It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris. Grove. Aug. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9780802121516. $25; ebk. ISBN 9780802193278. LITERARY
Lots of readers have wanted to know what Engel would write after her arresting debut, Vida, a PEN/Hemingway finalist. And here it is, an enticingly written work featuring Lita del Cielo, daughter of two Colombian orphans who made a fortune in America in the Latin food market. She’s not hanging around, though, but going to Paris for a year to study before taking her place in the family business. In Paris, Lita rents a room in Countess Séraphine’s decaying mansion–cum–boarding house and eventually finds love with sweet, introspective Cato, son of a virulent right-wing politician. Now what happens to her plans?

Marías, Javier. The Infatuations. Knopf. Aug. 2013. 352p. tr. from Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa. ISBN 9780307960726. $26.95; ebk. ISBN 9780307960733. CD/downloadable: Random Audio. LITERARY/SUSPENSE
Titles by Marías have sold six million copies in 50 countries worldwide, and his prizes range from the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award to the Prix Femina Étranger. His devoted following in the United States is about to get bigger with his shift to a powerhouse publisher. Already a best seller in Europe, this work is a murder mystery wrapped in a novel of ideas, asking questions about love, mortality, and truth vs. appearance. María Dolz can’t help admiring the couple she spots daily at the Madrid café where she breakfasts; they seem so much happier than she is. Then the husband is murdered, and when María pays the widow a sympathy call, she meets (and falls for) a man with disturbing insights into the crime.

Yoon, Paul. Snow Hunters. S. & S. Aug. 2013. 192p. ISBN 9781476714813. $22; ebk. ISBN 9781476714837. LITERARY
A National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 emerging author whose debut collection, Once the Shore, won a Best Debut Fiction award from National Public Radio, Yoon should do splendidly with this story of a young North Korean named Yohan. At the end of the Korean War, Yohan manages to defect, ending up in a Brazilian port town. Four people make his life less lonely: the Japanese tailor for whom he works, the groundskeeper at the church, and two wild children named Santi and Bia. Interesting that North Korea is surfacing in fiction (see, e.g., Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son), and great to see a new work by Yoon.

Greer, Andrew Sean. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells. Ecco: HarperCollins. Jul. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9780062213785. $26.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062213846. LITERARY FICTION
Since Greer’s beautifully layered The Confessions of Max Tivoli is a favorite novel of mine (and of others, as it was a New York Times best seller and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book), I was excited to come upon this new work. Like Confessions, it plays smartly with time. In 1985, Greta Wells is so distraught by the death of her twin brother and her breakup with a longtime lover that she seeks psychiatric treatment. The unexpected effect: she finds herself living alternate lives as a bohemian adulteress in 1918 and a dedicated wife and mother in 1941 whose challenges recall her contemporary ones despite differences in circumstance. Greer should make this work beautifully; with a 100,000-copy first printing and a national tour to Boston, Iowa City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle and upon request.

Grimes, Martha & Ken Grimes. Double Double: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism. Scribner. Jun. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9781476724089. $25. ebk. ISBN 9781476724126. MEMOIR
Mystery Writers of America grandmaster Grimes and her son, who works in public relations, here join forces on a dual memoir about their struggles with alcoholism. As they consider drinking, recovery, relapse, success, and failure, they highlight how individual the struggle is; each person combats his or her demons is a specific way. Not the largest book (the first printing is 35,000) but one that could make a difference.

Keneally, Thomas. The Daughter of Mars. Atria: S. & S. Jun. 2013. 544p. ISBN 9781476734613. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781476734637. LITERARY/HISTORICAL FICTION
Trust the Booker Prize–winning author of Schindler’s List to come up with a moving historical premise, though this book is set during World War I. Sisters Naomi and Sally Durance leave Australia to serve as nurses, first at Gallipoli and then on western front, where their training hardly prepares them for the carnage they witness. In a French hospital established by the free-spirited Lady Tarlton, they both have the chance at love they never thought they’d take. Great international reviews; the Telegraph (UK) says this “might even be the best” from Keneally.

Norman, Howard. I Hate To Leave This Beautiful Place. Houghton Harcourt. Jul. 2013. 208p. ISBN 9780547385426. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780547724775. MEMOIR
Two-time National Book Award nominee Norman’s fiction is so affecting, so beautifully thoughtful, that one must anticipate this memoir with glee. Norman builds his narrative around five events of “arresting strangeness,” relating a boyhood summer involving sexual hints from his brother’s girlfriend, glimpses of his conman father, and work in a bookmobile, for instance, and an eerie instance during his decade in the Arctic translating Inuit tales when he learns that John Lennon has died even as he’s rendering the cry of a goose (actually, a transformed stone carver) about to migrate: “I hate to leave this beautiful place.” With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Vanderbes, Jennifer. The Secret of Pigeon Point. Scribner. Jun. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9781439167007. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781439167052. LITERARY FICTION
Vanderbes, who made her name with the shimmering Easter Island (which got several best book nods) and cemented it with Strangers at a Feast, returns with a World War II story that could be read in conjunction with Keneally’s The Daughters of Mars, previewed above. When her brother goes missing in battle, Juliet Dufresne—already studying nursing while dreaming of becoming another Madame Curie—lies about her age so that she can enlist as a nurse. Even as she searches for word of her brother, she works at a field hospital in Italy, befriending patients and staff alike and discovering an assured sense of self. Serious readers, unite.

Walls, Jeannette. The Silver Star. Scribner. Jun. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9781451661507. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781451661552. CD: S. & S. Audio. LITERARY FICTION
Walls’s memoir, The Glass Castle, has been a New York Times best seller for more than five years, and her first novel, Half-Broke Horses, was revelatory. So I’m anticipating this Seventies-set tale about two sisters, “Bean” and Liz Holladay, who wind up in a crumbling antebellum mansion in Virginia with widowed Uncle Tinsley when their footloose artistic mother vanishes from their California home. Twelve-year-old Bean looks up to assured and inventive big sister Liz, but it’s Liz who stumbles when they enroll at their new school and finally runs into some very adult trouble. With a 500,000-copy first printing and a ten-city tour to Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC; don’t miss.

Williams, Beatriz. A Hundred Summers. Putnam. Jun. 2013. 368p. ISBN 9780399162169. $26.95. Downloadable: Penguin Audio. HISTORICAL FICTION
Williams, who proved herself capable of smart, delicious writing with the time-traveling Overseas, returns with a second novel set in upper-crust Seaview, RI, in 1938. New York socialite Lily Dane is anticipating a leisurely summer there until she learns that Nick and Budgie Greenwald are in town. What’s worse than dealing with your former fiancé and the former best friend who stole him away? Even as both Greenwalds worm their way back into Lily’s affections, Williams adds a signature touch of historic drama as a deadly hurricane hurries up the coast. Not your standard summer read.

Guinn, Matthew. The Resurrectionist. Norton. Jul. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780393239317. $25.95. SUSPENSE
A young medical resident serving out his probation for Xanax abuse by handling public relations for his medical school dean has a choice to make when some campus digging uncovers the bones of dissected African American slaves. Evidently, they had been snatched in the pre–Civil War era by “resurrectionists” paid by the school to find fresh corpses for anatomy training. Intent moral and historical issues, then, but note that the book is labeled suspense; there’s tingly Southern gothic here, too. Guinn, once a personal assistant to the late James Dickey, rates reading group promotions, a regional tour, and some good blurbs.

Handey, Jack. The Stench of Honolulu: A Tropical Adventure. Grand Central. Jul. 2013. 240p. ISBN 9781455522385. $18.99. CD/downloadable: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
Not surprisingly, Emmy Award winner Handey, famed for his New Yorker humor and offbeat philosophizing in his “Deep Thoughts” series, has turned out a first novel that goes for the funny bone. Desperate to escape Honolulu, here reimagined as anything but paradise, the untrustworthy narrator and his sidekick, Don, link up with a travel agent who may also be a witch and soon find themselves on a hunt for the Golden Monkey. You were warned!

Hill, Katherine. The Violet Hour. Scribner. Jul. 2013. 256p. ISBN 9781476710327. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781476710327. LITERARY
The violet hour is that dusky moment between daylight and nightfall when everything is in transition, as are the Greens. As Abe, a rheumatologist, guides his new boat across San Francisco Bay with sculptress wife Cassandra and Harvard-bound daughter Elizabeth. he ends up in a bitter battle with the relentlessly unfaithful Cassandra and leaps overboard, swimming away from his marriage. With a 50,000-copy first printing, book club promotion, and a four-city tour to Boston, Madison, CT, New York, and Washington, DC; Hill has published in places like n + 1 and AGNI, so the cognoscenti will be anticipating this first book.

Lott, Jessica. The Rest of Us. S. & S. Jul. 2013. 304p. ISBN 9781451645873. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781451645897. LITERARY
After college—and the wild love affair with her poetry professor—Terry finds herself stuck in a dead-end job, her artistic ambitions perpetually on hold. Then she reads the professor’s obituary in the papers and starts rethinking her life. And then she runs into him, happily alive and shopping at Bloomingdale’s, which precipitates a real friendship that gets Terry back on track. Lott showed promise by winning Low Fidelity Press’s Novella Award for Osin, so let’s see what she does with a full-length novel.

Rich, Frederic C. Christian Nation. Norton. Jul. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9780393240115. $25.95. ALTERNATE HISTORY
Distinguished lawyer Rich skips the briefs and uses fiction to consider what Christian fundamentalists really mean when they say they want a Christian nation. Here, President McCain has died, and Sarah Palin rules the nation, moving it toward theocracy as constitutional rights are summarily abandoned. Not escapist reading, though there will be tension.

Shah, Saira. The Mouse-Proof Kitchen. Emily Bestler Bk: Atria. Jul. 2013. 352p. ISBN 9781476705644. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781476705682. POP FICTION
Delighted to be pregnant, Anna determines that she will move to glorious Provence with her partner, Tobias, a laidback musician. But the farmhouse they acquire is full of pesky little rodents, and then their daughter, Freya, is born severely disabled. Kitchens aren’t mouse-proof, and life isn’t foolproof after all. As a three-time Emmy winner, Shah obviously has writing skills—and connections.

Sidorova, J.M. The Age of Ice. Scribner. Jul. 2013. 388p. ISBN 9781451692716. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781451692730. HISTORICAL
Moscow-born Sidorova, now a professor of cellular biology at the University of Washington, opens her novel in 1740s St. Petersburg as the Empress Anna Ioanovna orders another of her cruel and crazy divertissements. A disgraced nobleman and a humpback are forced to consummate a marriage of sorts in a palace made of ice. Of the twin boys born nine months later, one, Prince Alexander Velitsyn, discovers that he has the frightening gift (or curse) of longevity and immunity to the cold. Historical fiction fans will appreciate the breadth (the narrative ranges over three continents and two centuries) and the appearance of real-life figures, including Mary Shelley.

Zambrano, Mario Alberto. Lotería. Harper: HarperCollins. Jul. 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780062268549. $21.99; ebk. ISBN 9780062268563. POP FICTION
Here’s perhaps the big-news debut of this group of debuts, with a 75,000-copy first printing and a big publicity push. Former professional ballet dancer Zambrano (e.g., Nederlands Dans Theater) has protagonist Luz Castillo use lotería, the Mexican version of bingo, to tell the story of her life. With her father in jail and her sister hospitalized, 11-year-old Luz is in state custody and refusing to speak. But as she writes in her journal, she sifts through the vivid lotería cards (featuring mermaids, stars, and spiders, for instance) and uses them for inspiration. A very good bet.