Early Reviewers: Free advance copies of books
Check out the rules and Frequently Asked Questions and learn more in the Early Reviewers group. Eligibility: Publishers do things country-by-country. Books in this batch are open to residents of the US, Canada, the UK and Australia. Check the flags ( The deadline to request a copy is Sunday, November 30th at 6pm EST. | ||
 | Joker One by Donovan Campbell (Random House) | |
Right after graduating from Princeton, Donovan Campbell, motivated by his unwavering patriotism and deep sense of faith, decided to join the service, realizing that becoming a Marine officer would allow him to give back to his country, engage in the world, and learn to lead. In this immediate, thrilling, and inspiring memoir, Campbell recounts a timeless and transcendent tale of brotherhood, courage, and sacrifice. | 150 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Mar 10  | |
 | Fault Line by Barry Eisler (Ballantine Books) | |
In Silicon Valley, the eccentric inventor of a new encryption application is murdered in an apparent drug deal. In Istanbul, a cynical undercover operator receives a frantic call from his estranged brother, a patent lawyer who believes he is the next victim. ... (show rest) And on the sun-drenched slopes of Sand Hill Road, Silicon Valley's nerve center of money and technology, old family hurts sting anew as two brothers who share nothing but blood and bitterness wage a desperate battle against a faceless enemy. Alex Treven has sacrificed everything to achieve his sole ambition: making partner in his high-tech law firm. But then the inventor of a technology Alex is banking on is murdered... and the patent examiner who reviewed it dies... and Alex himself narrowly escapes an attack in his own home. Off balance, out of ideas, and running out of time, he knows the one person who can help him is the last person he'd ever ask: his brother. Ben Treven is a Military Liaison Element, an elite undercover soldier paid to "find, fix, and finish" high-value targets in America's Global War on Terror. Disenchanted with what he sees as America's culture of denial and decadence, Ben lives his detached life in the shadows because the black ops world is all he really knows—and because other than Alex, who he hasn't spoken to since their mother died, his family is long gone. But blood is thicker than water, and when he receives Alex's frantic call, Ben hurries to San Francisco to help him. Only then does Alex reveal that there's another player who knows of the technology: Sarah Hosseini, a young Iranian-American lawyer who Alex has long secretly desired... and who Ben immediately distrusts. As these three radically different people struggle to identify the forces attempting to silence them, Ben and Alex are forced to examine the events that drove them apart—even as Sarah's presence, and her own secret wants, deepens the fault line between them. A full-throttle thriller that is both emotionally and politically charged, Fault Line centers on a conspiracy that has spun out of the shadows and into the streets of America, a conspiracy that can be stopped only by three people—three people with different worldviews, different grievances, different motives. To survive the forces arrayed against them, they'll first have to survive each other. | 100 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Mar 10 | |
 | The Book of the Unknown by Jonathon Keats (Random House) | |
Marvelous and mystical stories of the thirty-six anonymous saints whose decency sustains the world–reimagined from Jewish folklore. A liar, a cheat, a degenerate, and a whore. These are the last people one might expect to be virtuous. But a legendary Kabbalist has discovered the truth: they are just some of the thirty-six hidden ones, the righteous individuals who ultimately make the world a better place. In these captivating stories, we meet twelve of the secret benefactors, including a timekeeper’s son who shows a sleepless village the beauty of dreams; a gambler who teaches a king ruled by the tyranny of the past to roll the dice; a thief who realizes that his job is to keep his fellow townsfolk honest; and a golem–a woman made of mud–who teaches kings and peasants the real nature of humanity. ... (show rest) With boundless imagination and a delightful sense of humor, acclaimed writer and artist Jonathon Keats has turned the traditional folktale on its head, creating heroes from the unlikeliest of characters, and enchanting readers with these stunningly original fables. | 100 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 10 | |
 | Etta by Gerald Kolpan (Ballantine Books) | |
Beautiful, elusive, and refined, Etta Place captivated the nation at the turn of the last century as she dodged the law with the Wild Bunch, led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Her true identity and fate have remained a mystery that has tantalized historians for decades. Now, for the first time, Gerald Kolpan envisions this remarkable woman’s life in a stunning debut novel. Kolpan imagines that Etta Place was born Lorinda Jameson, the daughter of a prominent financier, who becomes known as the loveliest of the city’s debutantes when she makes her entrance into Philadelphia society. Though her position in life is already assured, her true calling is on horseback. She can ride as well as any man and handle a rifle even better. But when a tragedy leads to a dramatic reversal of fortune, Lorinda is left orphaned, penniless, homeless, and pursued by the ruthless Black Hand mafia. ... (show rest) Rechristened “Etta Place” to ensure her safety, the young woman travels to the farthest reaches of civilization, working as a “Harvey Girl” waitress in Grand Junction, Colorado. There, fate intervenes once more and she again finds herself on the run from the ruthless Pinkerton Detective Agency. But this time she has company. She soon finds herself at the legendary hideout at Hole-in-the-Wall, Wyoming, where she meets the charismatic Butch Cassidy and the handsome, troubled Harry Longbaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid. Through a series of holdups and heists, Etta and Harry begin an epic and ultimately tragic romance, which will be the greatest of Etta’s life. Then, when Etta meets the young and idealistic Eleanor Roosevelt, her life is changed forever. Blending a compelling love story, high adventure, and thrilling historical drama, Etta is an electrifying novel. With a sweeping 1900s setting, colorful storytelling, and larger-than-life characters, Etta is debut that is both captivating and unforgettable. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Mar 24 | |
 | Hotel on the Corner of Bitter And Sweet by Jamie Ford (Ballantine Books) | |
In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept. ... (show rest) Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 27 | |
 | The Warded Man by Peter Brett (Del Rey) | |
The time has come to stand against the night. As darkness falls each night, the corelings rise—demons who well up from the ground like hellish steam, taking on fearsome form and substance. Sand demons. Wood demons. Wind demons. Flame demons. And gigantic rock demons, the deadliest of all. They possess supernatural strength and powers and burn with a consuming hatred of humanity. For hundreds of years the demons have terrorized the night, slowly culling the human herd that shelters behind magical wards—symbols of power whose origins are lost in myth and mystery, and whose protection is terrifyingly fragile. ... (show rest) It was not always this way. Once, men and women battled the corelings on equal terms. Once, under the leadership of the legendary Deliverer, and armed with powerful wards that were not merely shields but weapons, they took the battle to the demons . . . and stopped their advance. But those days are gone. The fighting wards are lost. Night by night the demons grow stronger, while human numbers dwindle under their relentless assault. Now, with hope for the future fading, three young survivors of vicious demon attacks will dare the impossible, stepping beyond the crumbling safety of the wards to risk everything in a desperate quest to regain the secrets of the past. Arlen will pay any price, embrace any sacrifice, for freedom. His grim journey will take him beyond the bounds of human power. Crippled by the demons that killed his parents, Rojer seeks solace in music—only to discover that music can be a weapon as well as a refuge. Beautiful Leesha, who has suffered at the hands of men as well as demons, becomes an expert healer. But what cures can also harm. . . . Together, they will stand against the night. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Mar 10 | |
 | Why the Long Face? by Ron MacLean (Swank Books) | |
An explosion sends an iron rod flying through the air. It impales a railroad worker in the skull. The unfortunate man is brought to Dr. Harlow, who will tend to him as he dies. But unbelievably, the railroad man recovers – and then threatens murder. The year is 1848, and Dr. Harlow has just realized that human morality comes down to nothing more than brain tissue; the hole in the patient's head has completely changed his personality. So begins one of the 15 stories in Ron MacLean's new collection, Why the Long Face?. Called "smart and elegant and spooky" by acclaimed writer Ralph Lombreglia, the book explores territory that is completely new in American fiction. MacLean's characters – from a girl who walks on telephone wires to a memory-addled truck driver — all offer revelatory evidence of the strange workings of the human mind. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Dec 15   | |
 | Without Warning by John Birmingham (Del Rey) | |
In Kuwait, American forces are stacked up, locked and loaded for the invasion of Iraq. In Paris, a covert agent, a woman who inhabits a twilight of lies and death, is close to cracking a terrorist cell. And just north of the equator, a forty-foot wood-hulled sailboat, manned by a drug runner, a pirate, and two gun-slinging beauties, is witness to the unspeakable. In one instant, all around the world, for politicians and peasants, from Gaza to Geneva, things will never be the same. A wave of inexplicable energy has slammed into the continental United States. America, as we know it, is gone. . . . WITHOUT WARNING ... (show rest) Now U.S. soldiers are fighting a war without command or control. A correspondent records horrors for no one. Washington is gone and the line of succession is in tatters; the functioning remnants of government are in Pearl Harbor, Guantánamo Bay, and one desperate, isolated corner of the Northwest. For the jihadists, it’s Allah’s miracle. For Saddam, it’s a chance to attack. Iran declares war on an America that doesn’t exist—except in the hearts and souls of the men and women who want it to. In this astounding work of alternate fiction, John Birmingham hurtles us into a scenario that is unimaginable but shatteringly real: a world of financial ruin where a cloud of noxious waste—from America’s burning cities—darkens Europe, while men and women in offices around the globe struggle to make decisions that cannot hold and opportunists unleash their secret demons. From a slick Texas lawyer who happens to be in the right place at the right time to a hard-working city engineer in Seattle who becomes his terrified city’s only hope, from the cancer-stricken secret agent to a drug runner off the Mexican coast and a U.S. general in Cuba, Without Warning tells a fast, furious story of survival, violence, and a new, soul-shattering reality. The first in an epic trilogy that will leave readers breathless and astounded, Without Warning offers a world without its policeman, its Great Satan, or its savior—as an unknowable future struggles to be born. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 03 | |
 | Honeymoon in Tehran by Azadeh Moaveni (Random House) | |
You're an American reporter in Tehran in 2005 covering the rise of Ahmadinejad when the unexpected happens—you meet your soul-mate, fall in love, and become pregnant. So begins the incredible story of Time magazine correspondent and author of Lipstick Jihad, Azadeh Moaveni, as she faces the future she didn't quite plan: hiding her pregnancy from the religious authorities until she can marry; navigating Byzantine wedding customs; giving birth in a country that often doesn't allow men in the delivery room; and finding herself with a newborn in a country very far from home. Honeymoon in Tehran is simultaneously powerful and poignant and fascinating and humorous. | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 03 | |
 | The Way of Ping by Stuart Avery Gold (Newmarket Press) | |
The sequel to the international bestseller "Ping: A Frog in Search of a New Pond" (400,000 copies sold, 20 translations), this parable addresses taking risks and discovering a new path. In this new adventure, the now legendary Ping has become the teacher. His travels take him to a pond-centered village ruled by Toad the Elder, locked into its provincial view, except for two young frogs, Daikon and Hodo. They convince Ping to take them on a journey that will change their lives forever. ... (show rest) This delightful story captures the fears and doubts faced by all who choose to leave the familiar to make their way in an unknown world, and teaches them to find their true path. As Ping says, "Years can wrinkle a frog's skin, but to live without purpose, well, that wrinkles the soul." | 50 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 07 | |
 | Sima's Undergarments for Women by Ilana Stanger-Ross (The Overlook Press) | |
REVIEW COPIES ARE IN PDF FORMAT There are some life-long quests that all women have in common—meaningful work, true love, and a bra that doesn’t leave red marks on your skin. With a gracefulness evocative of Amy Bloom and Alice McDermott, prizewinning writer Ilana Stanger-Ross has created a secret underground New York sisterhood where women of every shape and creed can come to share their milestones, laughter, loves, and losses against a backdrop of discount lingerie. ... (show rest) In the comfort of her Brooklyn basement bra shop, Sima Goldner teaches other women to appreciate their bodies, but feels betrayed by her own. Shamed by her infertility and a secret from her youth, she has given up on happiness and surrendered to a bitter marriage. But then Timna, a young Israeli with enviable cleavage, becomes the shop seamstress. As the two serve the colorful customers of the orthodox Jewish neighborhood, Sima finds herself awakened to adventure and romance. Years after giving up on their marriage, Sima and her husband, Lev, must decide if what they have is worth saving. Praise for Sima's Undergarments for Women Sima Goldberg, owner of a bra shop in Brooklyn, NY, is the kind of woman whom other women trust. Sima is privy to the thoughts and desires of her clientele as she custom-fits each one with undergarments that lift, correct, and enhance their female figures…all at discount prices, of course. But while her patrons bare their souls to Sima, she manages to keep the biggest secret to herself, one that has been a burden for over 46 years. It is only when Sima hires Timna, a young Israeli girl, to be her assistant that her secret is exposed. Timna is a free spirit who moves through Sima's life offering her the allure of love and adventure, yet when Timna flees, she leaves behind a wake of destruction. Debut novelist Stanger-Ross writes about the intimacy among women whose lives are defined by their Orthodox Jewish community. She deftly reveals just enough information about her characters to excite the reader's curiosity without making the story line predictable. In the end, this is a tale about appreciating one's life, and isn't that what life is about?—Library Journal Ilana Stanger-Ross grew up in Brooklyn. She holds an undergraduate degree from Barnard College and an MFA from Temple University. She is currently a student midwife on the University of British Columbia faculty of medicine. She has received several prizes for her fiction, including a Timothy Findley Fellowship, and her work has been published in Bellevue Literary Review, Lilith magazine, The Globe and Mail, and The Walrus magazine, among others. | 30 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 05 | |
 | Song in Stone by Walter H. Hunt (Wizards of the Coast) | |
There is a mystery in a chapel, and a man who must find the answer. A Song in Stone begins with the premise that Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland is part of an unfinished larger church - and that it contains a mystery, one clue of which is found in the intricate stonework of the chapel. It goes from there to the Middle Ages, taking Ian Graham, currently-unemployed television personality, with it, literally, as he tries to learn the chapel's secret before it is too late to return to his own time, his own life. ... (show rest) Before he goes, he must find the music that the stone points to. | 30 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 04 | |
 | A Rose by Any Name by Brenner, Douglas and Stephen Scanniello (Algonquin Books) | |
What do Phyllis Diller, Raymond Carver, Madame Marie Curie, and Snow White have in common? The answer is among the stories of twelve hundred glorious blossoms and their myriad and mystifying names. Encompassing art, literature, science, technology, history, and everything in between, the stories behind rose varieties include enough curiosities, romance, tragedy, wit, mystery, scandal, and earthy delights to satisfy even those who would never dream of actually tending a plant. In addition to names, readers will learn that the perfume of ‘Rosa Gallica’ wafted through Pliny’s Roman villa and lulled Marie Antoinette on the night before her wedding; that ‘Eglantine’ is threaded through Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; that roses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were mainly raised for medicinal purposes; and that the world of rose-naming rights is one of complicated and fiercely guarded copyrights and patents. ... (show rest) With full-color art throughout, this eclectic little volume is a must-have for die-hard rosarians—and, for the less rose-obsessed, it’s simply a marvelous miscellany starring what is arguably the world’s most popular flower. STEPHEN SCANNIELLO is best known as the gardener who transformed the Cranford Rose Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden into one of the world’s most acclaimed rose gardens. President of the Heritage Rose Foundation and a member of the American Rose Society, he is a judge for the international rose trials in Europe and the United States. DOUGLAS BRENNER writes about gardens, antiques, and architecture for publications such as the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, and Country Living. | 30 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 03 | |
 | Eclipse by Richard North Patterson (Henry Holt and Company) | |
The spellbinding story of an American lawyer who takes on a nearly impossible case—the defense of an African freedom fighter against his corrupt government’s charge of murder Damon Pierce’s life has just reached a defining moment: a gifted California lawyer, he’s being divorced by his wife and his work often seems soulless. Then he receives a frantic e-mail from Marissa Brand Okari—a woman he loved years ago—and decides to risk everything to respond to her plea for help. ... (show rest)Marissa’s husband, Bobby Okari, is the charismatic leader of a freedom movement in the volatile west African nation of Luandia, which is being torn apart by the world’s craving for its vast supply of oil. Bobby’s outspoken opposition to the exploitation of his homeland by PetroGlobal—a giant American oil company with close ties to Luandia’s brutal government—has enraged General Savior Karama, the country’s autocratic ruler. After Bobby leads a protest rally during a full eclipse of the sun, everyone in his home village is massacred by government troops. And now Bobby has been arrested and charged with the murder of three PetroGlobal workers. Still drawn to Marissa, Pierce agrees to defend Bobby, hoping to save both Bobby and Marissa from almost certain death. But the lethal politics of Luandia may cost Pierce his life instead. Culminating in a dramatic show trial and a desperate race against time, Eclipse combines a thrilling narrative with a vivid look at the human cost of the global lust for oil. Here is Richard North Patterson at his compelling best, confirming his place as our most provocative author of popular fiction. Richard North Patterson is the New York Times bestselling author of Exile, The Race, and thirteen other critically acclaimed novels. Formerly a trial lawyer, he was the SEC liaison to the Watergate special prosecutor and has served on the boards of several Washington advocacy groups. He lives in San Francisco and on Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Dr. Nancy Clair. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 06 | |
 | How to Profit From the Coming Rapture by Steve and Evie Levy as told to Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman (Little, Brown and Company) | |
Are the end times near? Is the Rapture really just around the corner? Could Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson possibly be right? About 1 billion people among us believe, yes, absolutely. And that means one thing: investment opportunities! ... (show rest) For those who are not as expertly versed in the Book of Revelation, Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman, authors of the bestselling Yiddish with Dick and Jane, helpfully offer both illumination and advice: What exactly is the Rapture, anyway? How is it different from the Tribulation? Who are the Antichrist, the Four Horsemen, and the 144,000 male virgins, and what do they want? And, most important, how can I make money during the 7 years of societal breakdown before Armaggedon? Taking the familiar form of a how-to investment guide, HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE COMING RAPTURE instructs those readers who will certainly be left behind (Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, less ardent Protestants, and many more) on how to exploit the inevitable demise of the world in order to make a tidy profit. Sure, the rivers and seas will run with blood, locusts will swarm, mountains will move all over the place, and famine will strike. But for the five billion of us left behind, the post-Rapture world will be a time of even more unique investment opportunities. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 08 | |
 | Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (St. Martin's Griffin) | |
When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there's either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills, and there's nothing wrong with Joe Ledger's skills. JOE LEDGER: a Baltimore detective who’s just been recruited to lead a secret taskforce for The Department of Military Sciences, or The DMS. ... (show rest) THE DMS: a rapid response taskforce created to deal with enemies that Homeland Security can't handle. GEN12: A terrorist-created bio-weapon that turns ordinary people into aggression-induced, highly infectious, near-invincible zombies… On March 3rd, 2009 the fate of the world rests in the hands of Joe Ledger and The DMS. Click on the link below to read the first few chapters of PATIENT ZERO | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Mar 03 | |
 | The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa (Picador) | |
Ricardo Somocurcio is in love with a bad girl. He loves her as a teenager known as "Lily" in Lima in 1950, when she flits into his life one summer and disappears again without explanation. He loves her still when she reappears as a revolutionary in 1960s Paris, then later as Mrs. Richardson, the wife of a wealthy Englishman, and again as the mistress of a sinister Japanese businessman in Tokyo. Charting Ricardo's expatriate life through his romances with this shape-shifting woman, Vargas Llosa has created a beguiling, epic romance about the life-altering power of obsession. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 09 | |
 | The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee (Viking Books) | |
In this stunning novel of World War II-era Hong Kong, the destinies of two vastly different women – one, a provincial newlywed from England; the other, a wealthy Eurasian society belle – become linked by the events of the war. "Rich with intrigue, romance, and betrayal, this wonderfully written, utterly captivating novel dazzles...this is a truly transporting – and indeed irresistible – work of fiction." ... (show rest) -Chang-Rae Lee "One of the most insightful, elegant and atmospheric novels I’ve read in a long time. Janice Lee is nothing short of brilliant and her novel is impossible to put down." -Gary Shteyngart | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 13 | |
 | Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation by Eboo Patel (Beacon Press) | |
Acts of Faith is Eboo Patel's remarkable account of coming of age and coming to understand what led him toward religious pluralism rather than hatred. His story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people, and to the notion that we find the fulfillment of our identities in the work we do in the world. "A beautifully written story of discovery and hope." —President Bill Clinton ... (show rest)"Visionary . . . The tale of a man's increasing understanding that traditions of mercy, compassion, and social justice are embedded in every faith, and accessing them is the key to creating a pluralism that enhances faith rather than threatening it." —Adam Mansbach, Boston Globe Eboo Patel, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, an international nonprofit building the interfaith youth movement. He received his doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo is a regular guest on Chicago Public Radio, a regular panelist for the Washington Post/Newsweek On Faith blog, and a frequent contributor to the Op-Ed pages of The Chicago Tribune. Additionally, he has written for The Harvard Divinity School Bulletin, Utne Magazine, The Journal of Muslim Law and Culture and National Public Radio and has been featured on a range of media, including CNN Sunday Morning; NPR's Morning Edition; the PBS documentary Three Faiths, One God;The New Republic; American Public Media; the BBC; and CNN. He serves on the Boards of the International Interfaith Center, CrossCurrents Magazine and Duke University's Islamic Studies Center and is also an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations' Religious Advisory Committee and the EastWest Institute's Task Force on American Muslims. Eboo is a sought-after speaker whose addresses include the keynote speech at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum with President Jimmy Carter and the Baccalaureate Service Address at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the co-editor of Building the Interfaith Youth Movement: Beyond Dialogue to Action. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jun 01 | |
 | Circumference by Nicholas Nicastro (St. Martin's Press) | |
How do you measure the size of the planet you’re standing on? ... (show rest) “Circumference" is the story of what happened when one man asked himself that very question. Nicholas Nicastro brings to life one of history's greatest experiments when an ancient Greek named Eratosthenes first accurately determined the distance around the spherical earth. In this fascinating narrative history, Nicastro takes a look at a deceptively simple but stunning achievement made by one man, millennia ago, with only the simplest of materials at his disposal. How was he able to measure the land at a time when distance was more a matter of a shrug and a guess at the time spent on a donkey’s back? How could he be so confident in the assumptions that underlay his calculations: that the earth was round and the sun so far away that its rays struck the ground in parallel lines? Was it luck or pure scientific genius? Nicastro brings readers on a trip into a long-vanished world that prefigured modernity in many ways, where neither Eratosthenes' reputation, nor the validity of his method, nor his leadership of the Great Library of Alexandria were enough to convince all his contemporaries about the dimensions of the earth. Eratosthenes' results were debated for centuries until he was ultimately vindicated almost 2000 years later, during the great voyages of exploration. “Circumference” is a compelling scientific detective story that transports readers back to a time when humans had no idea how big their world was—and the fate of a man who dared to measure the incomprehensible. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 25 | |
 | Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano (Picador) | |
This groundbreaking, unprecedented bestseller in Italy is now an award-winning major motion picture from IFC Films. In Gomorrah Roberto Saviano offers an insider account that traces the decline of the city of Naples under the rule of the Camorra, an organized crime network more powerful and violent than the mafia. Saviano has received recent media attention after an alleged mafia threat on his life. | 25 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 25 | |
 | A Greener Christmas by Sheherazade Goldsmith (DK Publishing) | |
Are you dreaming of a green Christmas? A Greener Christmas is the only guide to celebrating Christmas in an eco-friendly way. Think about how much gets wasted during the holidays (and we don't just mean at the company party). Wrapping paper is used once then thrown away; twinkle lights blaze all night long and cost extra energy and cash. ... (show rest) But wait! These things are fun! They're part of what makes the holidays, THE HOLIDAYS. Right? Are we doomed to a mirthless holiday season? No, there is an alternative! A Greener Christmas will show you how to make your home merry, bright,and eco-friendly! Part craft book, part cookbook, part home décor and entertaining guide, A Greener Christmas lets the whole family get in on projects that are simple, seasonal, and planet-friendly. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Sep 30 | |
 | Firmin by Sam Savage (Delta) | |
In the basement of a Boston bookstore, Firmin is born in a shredded copy Finnegans Wake, nurtured on a diet of Zane Grey, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Jane Eyre (which tastes a lot like lettuce). While his twelve siblings gnaw these books obliviously, for Firmin the words, thoughts, deeds, and hopes—all the literature he consumes—soon consume him. Emboldened by reading, intoxicated by curiosity, foraging for food, Firmin ventures out of his bookstore sanctuary, carrying with him all the yearnings and failings of humanity itself. It’s a lot to ask of a rat—especially when his home is on the verge of annihilation. A novel that is by turns hilarious, tragic, and hopeful, Firmin is a masterpiece of literary imagination. For here, a tender soul, a vagabond and philosopher, struggles with mortality and meaning—in a tale for anyone who has ever feasted on a book…and then had to turn the final page. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Dec 30 | |
 | Going to See the Elephant by Rodes Fishburne (Delacorte Press) | |
On a windy September day, twenty-five-year-old Slater Brown stands in the back of a bicycle taxi hurtling the wrong way down the busiest street in San Francisco. Slater has come to “see the elephant,” to stake his claim to fame and become the greatest writer ever. But this city of gleaming water and infinite magic has other plans in this astounding first novel—at once a love story, a feast of literary imagination, and a dazzlingly original tale of passion, ambition, and genius in all their guises... Slater Brown lays siege to San Francisco like Achilles circling Troy—until he crashes headlong into reality. Out of money and prospects, he applies for a job at a moribund weekly newspaper called the Morning Trumpet—and, as if by fate, is given a very special parting gift from a moonlighting mystic. ... (show rest) Suddenly Slater has an exclusive on every story in the city. With his uncanny knack for finding scoops, he’s bringing the Trumpet back to life, infuriating a corrupt mayor and falling in love with the woman destined to become his muse. But it is the astonishing inventor Milo Magnet—a man obsessed with harnessing the weather—who will force Slater to navigate the most dangerous straits. For as Milo unleashes his power on San Francisco and the ravishing Callio de Quincy entrances Slater with hers, as storm clouds gather literally overhead, Slater will become at once a pawn, a savior, and the last best hope for a city that needs him—and his knack for the truth—more than ever before. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Dec 30 | |
 | Great Expectations - The Graphic Novel by Charles Dickens (Classical Comics) | |
No classical collection would be complete without at least one Dickens title; so here is the greatest of them all! The wonderful tale of Pip is retold here with fresh enthusiasm and deep Victorian ambience. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Dec 01  | |
 | Tender Grace by Jackina Stark (Bethany House) | |
Years of teaching and delving into classic literature have been excellent training for Jackina Stark's pen. With her precise pacing and delicate prose in a style akin to Linda Nichols and Lisa Samson, she takes readers on a deeply moving emotional journey. After her husband passes away, all Audrey Eaton can think about is how much she wants her old life back. Attacked by grief but determined to find healing, she embarks on a journey to the one place Tom and she always intended to visit but never did. Along the way, she discovers, through shared experiences with friends old and new, the meaning of the "tender graces" God provides each and every day. ... (show rest)With this debut, Jackina Stark offers a raw portrait of widowhood through her beautiful and poignant narrative. At times achingly vulnerable and at others determinedly incisive, Tender Grace portrays a stirring journey to rediscovering joy and purpose. Reading Group Guide available at bethanyhouse.com | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 01 | |
 | The Centurion's Wife by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke (Bethany House) | |
A sweeping saga of the dramatic events surrounding the birth of Christianity—and the very personal story of Leah, compelled into a betrothal she never wanted, drawn by a faith she never expected... When her family's wealth and power are lost forever, Leah is sent to Pontius Pilate in hopes that he might arrange a strategic marriage. But despite her betrothed's striking countenance and position, Leah deems life as a centurion's wife a fate worse than death. ... (show rest)Head of the garrison near Galilee, Alban has ambitions that could one day see him at the seat of power—in Rome itself. Eager to prove himself, he takes on the assignment of a lifetime, one that will put his career, his beliefs, and his very life at risk. But when the death—and missing body—of an obscure rabbi find Leah and Alban searching for the same answers, what they discover changes everything. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 01 | |
 | The Returning by Ann Tatlock (Bethany House) | |
So Much Can Change in Five Years... When Andrea’s husband returns home after five years in prison, he claims to be a changed man. Already weathering a rocky marriage, Andrea is wary of John's new-found faith. ... (show rest)Added to this, his homecoming—and conversion—upsets the life she and the kids have adjusted to, drawing mixed reactions from their children. Can John and Andrea overcome the past and mend the rifts that have torn their family apart? Author Ann Tatlock is no stranger to literary honors or critical acclaim. Having received numerous awards for her previous works, Tatlock delivers yet another novel of stirring complexity and rich characters as she follows a fractured family's journey toward healing. "Her lovely prose reminds readers why it is a joy to savor her stories." —Publishers Weekly | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 01 | |
 | Genius and Heroin: The Illustrated Catalogue of Creativity, Obsession, and Reckless Abandon Through by Michael Largo (Harper) | |
What is the price of brilliance? Why are so many creative geniuses also ruinously self-destructive? From Caravaggio to Jackson Pollack, from Arthur Rimbaud to Jack Kerouac, from Charlie Parker to Janis Joplin, to Kurt Cobain, and on and on, authors and artists throughout history have binged, pill-popped, injected, or poisoned themselves for their art. Fully illustrated and addictively readable, Genius and Heroin is the indispensable reference to the untidy lives of our greatest artists and thinkers, entertainingly chronicling how the notoriously creative lived and died—whether their ultimate downfalls were the result of opiates, alcohol, pot, absinthe, or the slow-motion suicide of obsession. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 07 | |
 | Money Well Spent by Paul Brest and Hal Harvey (Bloomberg Press) | |
Drawing on examples from many different foundations, the authors present donors with the framework to design a plan that will ensure meaningful returns, addressing such key issues as: • how to focus time and money on issues that really matter ... (show rest) • effective use of tools—science, direct services, advocacy—that can achieve objectives • how to choose the forms of funding to achieve stated goals • measuring the impact of grants and programs • the need for patience in staying with winning strategies while having the courage to abandon strategies that aren’t working Paul Brest and Hal Harvey help run the sixth largest foundation in the United States. They bring a wealth of experience on what works and what does not. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 05 | |
 | Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People by Rich DeVos (Center Street) | |
The simple act of offering a kind word or two can have power to change lives in positive and profound ways. In TEN POWERFUL PHRASES FOR POSITIVE PEOPLE, DeVos focuses each chapter on one key phrase, such as "I'm Proud of You," or "I Believe in You," that he has found to help individuals overcome differences, build relationships, instill confidence, change attitudes, and generally make us feel positive about ourselves and about helping others. Each phrase is illustrated through anecdotes from DeVos's experiences and about people whose lives have been touched either by saying or hearing one of the small but powerful phrases. Anyone with the ability to offer a kind word to a friend, family member, or coworker will benefit from this book's positive, practical wisdom. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 08 | |
 | The Economist Book of Obituaries by Keith Colquhoun and Ann Wroe (Bloomberg Press) | |
Since 1995, The Economist has included unique and original obituaries in a quite popular column. The obituaries are remarkable because of the unpredictable selection of people written about, the surprising lives they led, and the brilliant writing style. The selection for this book ranges far and wide: Syd Barret of Pink Floyd to John Kenneth Galbraith; Pope John Paul II to Sony founder Akio Morita; Estée Lauder to Hunter S. Thompson; Marcel Marceau to even Alex the African Grey (science’s best-known parrot). The book also includes illustrations and photographs. Keith Colquhoun and Ann Wroe wrote all two hundred obituaries included in this collection. They are both celebrated authors as well as editors at The Economist. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 12 | |
 | The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You'll Ever Need by Larry Swedroe and Jared Kizer (Bloomberg Press) | |
Financial advisers Larry Swedroe and Jared Kizer show how to decrease risk and increase return by adding carefully chosen alternative investments to traditional stock and bond portfolios. In this, the third book in the popular “The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need” series, Swedroe and Kizer describe the mechanics of twenty alternative investments, explaining which to consider seriously and which to avoid entirely. They make specific recommendations about the best way to access each investment, address tax and liquidity issues, and create an allocation and implementation strategy. ... (show rest) Swedroe is a sophisticated financial professional with the common touch. He explains the technical issues clearly and gives readers the information and recommendations that will help them start investing like the pros. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 12 | |
 | The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson (W.W. Norton) | |
The New York Times best-selling author chronicles America's irrational love affair with Pluto, man's best celestial friend. In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted Pluto out of planethood. Far from the sun, tiny, and eccentric in orbit, it's a wonder Pluto has any fans. Yet during the mounting debate over Pluto's status, American rallied behind the extraterrestrial underdog. The year of Pluto's discovery, Disney created an irresistible pup by the same name, and, as one NASA scientist put it, Pluto was "discovered by an American for America." Pluto is entrenched in our cultural, patriotic view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson is on a quest to discover why. ... (show rest)Only Tyson can tell this story: he was involved in the first exhibits to demote Pluto, and, consequently, Pluto lovers have freely shared their opinions with him, including endless hate mail from third graders. In his typically witty way, Tyson explores the history of planet classification and America's obsession with the "planet" that's recently been judged a dwarf. | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 26 | |
 | Unleashing Courageous Faith: The Hidden Power of a Man's Soul by Paul Coughlin (Bethany House) | |
Twenty-first-century men are too often frustrated cubicle dwellers while deep in their hearts they dream of Braveheart. The ancient Greeks believed manly courage-physical, moral, and spiritual-was found in the male soul. Called thumos, this type of courage appears in the New Testament, urging men to take action. For many men, thumos is the missing ingredient in their spiritual growth, ready to bless them with power, purpose, and integrity to make them better leaders, disciples, husbands, and fathers. Thumos, says Paul Coughlin, will repair the twenty-first-century male soul. In Unleashing Courageous Faith Paul Coughlin is simply a guy with a strong message for other guys-including former Christian Nice Guys. He unflinchingly looks at both the noble and undesirable aspects of thumos, coaching men to choose the good and resist the bad. This book is filled with practical help and information in Coughlin's signature readable style, packed with illustrations from his life and the lives of admirable men. It's ideal for men's groups as well as individuals. ... (show rest)Our homes, our churches and our nation need men with more than active hearts and keen minds. We need men with active thumos courage, and we need our culture to respect it and discipline it—not kill it. We face a battle to awaken it. —Paul Coughlin | 20 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 01 | |
 | A Mercy by Toni Morrison (Knopf Canada) | |
A powerful tragedy distilled into a small masterpiece by the Nobel Prize—winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier. Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader in 1680s United States, when the slave trade is still in its infancy. Reluctantly he takes a small slave girl in part payment from a plantation owner for a bad debt. Feeling rejected by her slave mother, 14-year-old Florens can read and write and might be useful on his farm. Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master’s house, but later from the handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved, who comes riding into their lives . . . ... (show rest) At the novel’s heart, like Beloved, it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother and a daughter – a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 11 | |
 | After the Floods by Bruce Henricksen (Lost Hills Books) | |
After the Floods is a novel set in post-Katrina New Orleans and in a fictional Minnesota town that is also recovering from disaster. In both settings, magical realism underlines the theme of nature gone awry. There is humor in the story, and the treatment is hopeful. The New Orleans Times-Picayune calls it a "spiritual comedy" and a "thoroughly delightful read." | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 15 | |
 | Bringing Tony Home by Tissa Abeyesekara (North Atlantic Books) | |
Set in the 1940s and 1960s, Bringing Tony Home is a masterful modern example of a timeless genre, the bildungsroman. In the title novella, a boy returns to his old home to find Tony, his beloved dog who was abandoned when economic circumstances forced the family to leave. “Bringing Tony Home” recounts this perilous journey in detail, movingly tracing the boy’s rescue attempts and his spiraling emotions as he endures changes occurring in his family. In “Elsewhere: Something Like a Love Story,” a young boy finds forbidden love with a schoolmate scorned for her poverty. “Elsewhere” continues their saga, touching on the bittersweet memories they share as adults, and on the woman’s increasingly precarious place in a society concerned only with status. The other stories, “Poor Young Man: A Requiem” and “Hark, The Moaning Pond: A Grandmother’s Tale,” delve into a young man’s relationship with his father as the latter’s fortunes fade, and into the now-mature man’s attempts to come to grips with the death of his grandmother and what she symbolized. Abeysekara’s ability to evoke the sights and sounds of another time and place, and his skill in rendering the inner lives of his characters, make Bringing Tony Home a remarkable read. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 25 | |
 | Canvey Island by James Runcie (Other Press) | |
It is 1953 in Canvey Island and a storm surge is flooding the streets. Len and Aunt Violet are out dancing on the mainland, he in polished shoes with slicked hair, she in fur stole and long gloves. Back at home, Len’s wife Lily and their small son Martin fight to stay above the rising waters, waistdeep in a raging black torrent. When Lily’s foot is lodged beneath debris, she begs Martin to get help. This sight of his mother, ghostly in her drenched nightdress, is his last glimpse of her alive. Lily’s death is an unbearable rupture in Martin’s life that lets in a host of unwelcome developments, not least that of his father’s growing closeness to his flashy aunt Violet. When Martin goes off to Cambridge to study water engineering, he breaks all ties to Canvey Island and settles down with the bohemian feminist Claire, a rebellious vicar’s daughter. But when Claire takes her activism too far by taking their daughter to a peace camp rally, Martin drifts back to Canvey Island and into the arms of his teenage love. He finds himself drawn into his old world, its secrets and lies, its wounds and passions, its sacrifices and hopes. Profoundly moving and elegantly written, Canvey Island tells the story of changing times in post-war Britain through one family’s tragedy and loss. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 11 | |
 | Drood by Dan Simmons (Hachette Book Group) | |
On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens—at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world—hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying? ... (show rest) Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 09 | |
 | Look Before You Leap: A Premarital Guide for Couples by Sandra L. Ceren (Loving Healing Press) | |
Ready to Tie the Knot? Originally published as a highly recommended professional text for premarital counselors, the research based quizzes, exercises, and case examples are now available for couples planning to marry. The materials can help you discover more about yourselves and your partner and determine readiness for marital challenges. Therapists' Acclaim for Look Before You Leap “Dr. Ceren shares her forty years of experience in helping couples to reduce and prevent relationship problems before committing to marriage. The book is a remarkable roadmap to a healthy relationship and insight into self, written by a therapist who combines experience and skill in improving the lives of others.” —Rosalee G. Weiss, Ph.D., Diplomate, American Board of Psychological Specialties | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 01 | |
 | Love's Civil War by Victoria Glendinning (McClelland & Stewart) | |
The passionate, life-long love affair between two magicians of the written word. The Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen and the Canadian diplomat Charles Ritchie met at a christening in London, England, in 1941; shortly afterward they embarked on a love affair that lasted until her death in 1973. At the time they met, she was married, but Ritchie quickly became her whole life, although she remained committed to the loving but sexually unfulfilling life with her husband. When Ritchie realized that she would never divorce, he eventually married too — wedding his cousin Sylvia in 1948. In a terrible twist of fate, Bowen’s husband died just a few years later. ... (show rest) Most of the time the lovers were apart, snatching a few days together when they could. But they wrote constantly to each other, letters in which she poured out her heart to him about their affair, about her money troubles, about friends, politics, and literature, and Ritchie kept every letter she wrote. His own letters to her have not survived, but he wrote candidly about her and his conflicted feelings for her in his diaries, diaries that were heavily edited for the four volumes that have been published. Ritchie died in 1995. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 21 | |
 | Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi (New York Review Books) | |
Though one of the best-known books in the world, Pinocchio at the same time remains unknown—linked in many minds to the Walt Disney movie that bears little relation to Carlo Collodi’s splendid original. That story is of course about a puppet who, after many trials, succeeds in becoming a “real boy.” Yet it is hardly a sentimental or morally improving tale. To the contrary, Pinocchio is one of the great subversives of the written page, a madcap genius hurtled along at the pleasure and mercy of his desires, a renegade who in many ways resembles his near contemporary Huck Finn. Pinocchio the novel, no less than Pinocchio the character, is one of the great inventions of modern literature. A sublime anomaly, the book merges the traditions of the picaresque, of street theater, and of folk and fairy tales into a work that is at once adventure, satire, and a powerful enchantment that anticipates surrealism and magical realism. Thronged with memorable characters and composed with the fluid but inevitable logic of a dream, Pinocchio is an endlessly fascinating work that is essential equipment for life. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 18 | |
 | Sister Wife by Shelly Hrdlitschka (Orca Book Publishers) | |
In the isolated rural community of Unity, the people of The Movement live a simple life guided by a set of religious principles and laws that are unique to them. Polygamy is the norm, strict obedience is expected and it is customary for young girls to be assigned to much older husbands. Celeste was born and raised in Unity, yet she struggles to fit in. Perhaps it's because of Taviana, the girl who has come to live with them and entertains Celeste with forbidden stories, or Jon, the young man she has clandestine meetings with, or maybe it's the influence of Craig, the outsider she meets on the beach. Whatever it is, she struggles to accept her ordained life. At fifteen she is repulsed at the thought of being assigned to an older man and becoming a sister wife, and she knows for certain she is not cut out to raise children. She wants something more for herself, yet feels powerless to change her destiny because rebelling would bring shame upon her family. ... (show rest) Celeste watches as Taviana leaves Unity, followed by Jon, and finally Craig, the boy who has taught her to think "outside the box." Although she is assigned to a caring man, his sixth wife, she is desperately unhappy. How will Celeste find her way out of Unity? Torn from the headlines and inspired by current events, Sister Wife is a compelling portrait of a community where the laws of the outside world are ignored and where individuality is punished. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 01 | |
 | The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews (Faber and Faber) | |
Meet the Troutmans. Hattie is living in Paris, city of romance, but has just been dumped by her boyfriend. Min, her sister back in Canada, is going through a particularly dark period. And Min’s two kids, Logan and Thebes, are not talking and talking way too much, respectively. ... (show rest) So when Hattie receives a phone call in the middle of the night from eleven-year-old Thebes, begging her to return to Canada and help sort out their family, she knows she has to go. When she arrives home, Min is on her way to a psychiatric ward, and Hattie becomes responsible for her niece and nephew. She quickly realizes that she is way out of her league, and hatches a plan to find the kids’ long-lost father. With only the most tenuous lead to go on, she piles Logan and Thebes into the family van, and they head south. At once hilarious and heartrending, The Flying Troutmans tells the story of a fractured family on the verge of spinning off its axles and a road trip that just might keep them together. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 05 | |
 | The Hidden by Tobias Hill (Faber and Faber) | |
In Sparta, a city that masks age-old secrets and private enmities, a close-knit group are excavating. They are a potent and seductive mix: Natsuko, beautiful and mysterious; Jason, restless and menacing; Eberhard, commanding, aloof and fiercely intelligent. When Ben, lost and aimless, comes to Greece to escape private failures, he is inevitably drawn to them, thrilled by the idea of acceptance and excited by the dangerous games they play. But there is more to the group than Ben understands and he finds out too late that some things should remain hidden. He must decide where his loyalties lie – before the decision is taken for him. Powerful and gripping, The Hidden is a novel of the secrets we keep, the ties that bind us and the true cost of following our desires. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 09 | |
 | The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (Picador) | |
A PICADOR PAPERBACK ORIGINAL. From one of Japan's most beloved bestselling authors, Yoko Ogawa, comes an achingly beautiful story about family, memory and math. He is a brilliant math professor with a peculiar problem—since a traumatic head injury, he has lived with only eighty minutes of short-term memory. She is an astute young housekeeper with a ten-year-old son who is hired to care of him. Thought the Professor can hold new memories for only eighty minutes, his mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past; and through him, the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the housekeeper and her son. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Feb 03 | |
 | The Island at the End of the World by Sam Taylor (Faber and Faber) | |
Through the eyes of eight-year-old Finn we find ourselves on a small island, surrounded by nothing but sea. Finn lives here with his Pa, his elder sister Alice and his younger sister Daisy, and has no memory of any world but this one. All he knows of the past comes from the songs and stories of his father, which tell of the great flood that drowned all the other inhabitants of the earth and which their family survived thanks to the ark in which they now live. Alice, however, has entered adolescence, and treasures vague memories of her dead mother and of life before the flood. As her relationship with her father changes, she begins to see holes in his account of the past, and desperately seeks contact with the outside world. And when a boy, a stranger, is washed up on the shore, apparently in answer to the message she sent in a bottle, it appears they may not be alone after all. Set in the near future, told from three different viewpoints and written in extraordinary prose, THE ISLAND AT THE END OF THE WORLD is an original, moving exploration of family love, truth and lies, and how strange and frightening it can feel for a child to discover the adult world. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 22 | |
 | The Lit Report by Sarah N. Harvey (Orca Book Publishers) | |
Julia and Ruth have been unlikely best friends since they first met in Sunday school-Ruth was standing on the Bible-crafts table belting out "Jesus Loves Me." Now that they're a year away from graduation, they're putting the finishing touches on their getaway plans. But their dream of a funky big-city loft and rich, interesting older men is threatened when preacher's daughter Ruth goes to a wild party without studious Julia, and all hell breaks loose. Ruth gets pregnant; Julia gets creative. Determined to support her friend and stay on track for life after high school, Julia comes up with a plan that will require all her intelligence, compassion, ingenuity and patience. Drawing on some great (and some not-so-great) works of literature, Julia proves that you can learn a lot just by opening up a book. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 01 | |
 | Three Minutes on Love by Roccie Hill (The Permanent Press) | |
Rosie Kettle, quick and intuitive, leaves her small town in the California desert to attend art college in San Francisco in the late 60’s, where she discovers a passion for photography and music. Through a chance meeting with a flamboyant Hungarian illegal immigrant who runs a local music newspaper, Rosie is offered her first job photographing a down-andout blues musician where she meets David Wilderspin, a young guitar sideman in the bluesman’s band. Although he is only 19, David is already a survivor— the estranged son of a violent, Russian choreographer, whose conflicted feelings for his father he must come to terms with. Only days after they meet, the bluesman hangs himself. This self-destructive act changes their lives forever. David, obsessed with music and determined to be successful, quickly turns to rock and roll. For Rosie, the picture she took that night jack-knifes her into a new career as one of the first women rock photographers in a male-dominated profession. It also introduces her to the chaotic, seductive life of the music industry. ... (show rest) Three Minutes on Love is a novel about artistic will and human redemption, set within the southern California music business of the late 20th Century, where men in suits happily aided young, talented musicians to self-destruct. Rosie’s first person narrative is a rare love story played out on a stage of celebrity and power, as David and Rosie fight their way through the destructive excess of the burgeoning rock music world, and eventually, through one of the greatest tragedies imaginable. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Oct 17 | |
 | Walking the Dog by Charles Davis (The Permanent Press) | |
Santa Margarita y Los Monjes is a small place, but that doesn't prevent things happening on a large scale. Gravity is suspended in the Case of the Disappearing Private Parts, war is turned upside down and inside out because making love really is much more fun, greed gets flushed into the underworld where it belongs, and death is exposed as something less than it's cracked up to be. In these and other tales, the residents of this little known tropical island, which doesn't appear on any maps (the best places never do), muddle through the vagaries of modern life, inadvertently subverting its manifold absurdities and occasionally stumbling across the odd, sometimes very odd, eternal truth. Dodging his Aunt Dolores and her abundant Woes, while pursuing her earthy and amply carnal counterpart, Joy, the narrator recounts the adventures and misadventures of his invincibly elementary cousins, The Boys, of Good God Donald the laid-back missionary, and Magritte his lexically challenged housekeeper, of Georgie Pujol the diffident witch doctor, Mr. Bagwell the life-affirming undertaker, the irrepressible Uncle Ken, a very ardent dog called Newhouse, the island's henpecked despot, the hard-working residents of the House of Low Women, and a succession of hapless envoys from the world without. In the process, we are immersed in a warm and colorful place, a world apart in which you may recognize the humdrum cares of everyday living, but will be astounded at how readily treatable they are when subjected to a little common nonsense. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Aug 01 | |
 | Authors Access: 30 Success Secrets for Authors and Publishers by Watson, Tichelaar, & Volkman (Modern History Press) | |
The industry’s most experienced veterans are ready to share their hard-won success secrets with you about... and more... The distilled wisdom from interviews, reports, and lessons learned from dozens of guests over two years of weekly podcasts is now at your fingertips! Whether you’re into nonfiction, children’s books, mysteries, romance, science fiction, or history, you can take your writing and marketing power to new worlds of possibility with ... Authors Access — Where authors get published and published authors get successful! More information at www.AuthorsAccess.com From Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 06 | |
 | Bestseller! by Jane Daniel (Laughing Gull Press) | |
In 1994 Misha Defonseca joined up with tiny Mt Ivy Press to produce a book about her childhood experiences during the Holocaust. A Jewish war orphan who lost her identity when her parents were arrested by the Nazis, she set out on foot at age 7 to find them, walking 3,000 across war-torn Europe and hiding in the forest where she was befriended by wolves. The book was just hitting its stride, attracting interest from Disney Studios and Oprah Winfrey, when suddenly Defonseca turned against her publisher, Jane Daniel, and filed a lawsuit. Claiming that the publisher had not done enough to promote the book, she won a $33 million judgment, one of the largest in Massachusetts history. Ten years and thirteen additional lawsuits later, Daniel was wiped out financially and emotionally. In the interim, Defonseca's book had become a bestseller in eighteen countries and a feature film. Then Daniel, by accident, stumbled across documents suggesting that Defonseca was not who she claimed to be. Daniel's only remaining asset was the story about the case that she had been writing in her head through the whole ordeal. She began posting chapters, as she completed them, on a blog, not knowing what to expect. "This book is being written in real time," she wrote. "I do not know how it will end." What happened next is miraculous — a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction detective story: Daniel was contacted by a forensic genealogist who came across the blog and thought she could crack the case. With no name, date or place of birth to go on it seemed an impossible mission. But truth has a mysterious way of seeking the light. After 20 years of deceiving millions of people, Defonseca, at last, was confronted with her real identity: the daughter of a Nazi collaborator from a Catholic family. Defonseca confessed that her memoire was a hoax. This is a story of the wildcat world of independent publishing, the horrors of the legal system, and most of all, a personal battle for survival against staggering odds. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Nov 01 | |
 | Garner on Language and Writing by Bryan A. Garner (ABA Publishing) | |
Since the 1987 appearance of A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Bryan A. Garner has proved to be a versatile and prolific writer on legal-linguistic subjects. This collection of his essays shows reveals both profound scholarship and sharp wit. The essays cover subjects as wide-ranging as learning to write, style, persuasion, contractual and legislative drafting, grammar, lexicography, writing in law school, writing in law practice, judicial writing, and all the literature relating to these diverse subjects. Some have called Garner a controversialist, and he doesn't shrink from controversy here: he takes aim at legal academia, at word-bungling law reviews, at writers who interlard their writing with overlong citations, at judges who use extremely arcane words for little or no reason, and at the many conventions that tend to mire legal writing in perpetual mediocrity. There are piquant book reviews that damn the work of some famous writers, such as Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) and the linguist Stephen Pinker, as well as enthusiastic recommendations of books that Garner finds meritorious. In the final chapter, Garner collects "recommended sources on language and writing." This one-of-a-kind bibliography guides readers to seminal texts in virtually every language-related field, from brief-writing to playwriting to poetry to linguistics to general semantics. In her foreword, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declares the book to be "a 'must read' primer" for her law clerks. Anyone with a lively interest in language, writing, and law will find this book hard to lay aside. | 15 review copies available closed for requests Request by Nov 30 On sale Jan 01 | |
 | Knitting for Good by Betsy Greer (Trumpeter Books) | |
In the last five years knitting has undergone a complete transformation. Once considered a grandmotherly craft, knitting is now embraced by new generations of young, socially and politically conscious crafters. For these new knitters, their craft represents much more than the finished project; their knitting is a way to slow down in a fast-paced culture, subvert producers of mass manufactured merchandise, embrace the domestic, connect to people in their community, support communities across the globe, and express their own personal style and creativity.Betsy Greer, creator of Craftivism.com, has written the handbook for this new culture of knitters. By highlighting the subversive, revolutionary, and political aspects of knitting, Greer shows readers that knitting can be a profound way to:Connect to ourselves by embracing the personal and meditative aspects of knitting;Reach out to our community through sharing our skill and through charity knitting; andSupport others across the globe by using knitting as a form of activism and expression. She offers musings, thoughts, tips, stories, and step-by-step projects—all in support of the belief that every time we knit we have the opportunity to create positive change in the world. | ||
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