Web-Exclusive Reviews: Week of 5/28/2007
-- Publishers Weekly, 5/28/2007
NONFICTION
THE BABY THIEF: The Untold Story of Georgia Tann, the Baby Seller Who Corrupted Adoption
Barbara Bisantz Raymond. Carroll & Graf, $26.95 (308p) ISBN 9780786719440
An episode in American adoption history little remembered by the public at large, the crimes of nationally-lauded Memphis orphanage director Georgia Tann are skillfully and passionately recounted by freelance writer Raymond, herself an adoptive mom. The portrait of Tann that emerges is a domineering, indefatigable figure with an insane commitment to ends-justify-the-means logic, who oversaw three decades of baby-stealing, baby-selling and unprecedented neglect. Meanwhile, she did more to popularize, commercialize and influence adoption in America than anyone before her. Tann operated carte blanche under corrupt Mayor Edward Hull Crump from the 1920s to the '50s, employing a nefarious network of judges, attorneys, social workers and politicos, whom she sometimes bribed with "free" babies; her clients included the rich, the famous and the entirely unfit (who more than occasionally returned their disappointing children for a refund). "Spotters" located babies and young children ripe for abduction-from women too uneducated or exhausted to fight back-and Tann made standard practice of altering birth certificates and secreting away adoption records to attract buyers and cover her tracks-self-serving moves that have become standard practice in modern adoption. A riveting array of interviews with Tann's former charges reveals adults still struggling with their adoption ordeal, childhood memories stacked with sexual abuse, torture and confusion. Raymond's dogged investigation makes a strong case for "ridding adoptions of lies and secrets," warning that "[u]ntil we do, [Tann] and her imitators will continue to corrupt adoption." A rigorous, fascinating, page-turning tale, this important book is not for the timorous. (May)
COFFEE AT LUKE'S: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest
Edited by Jennifer Crusie. BenBella, $17.95 paper (208p) ISBN 9781933771175
Novelist Crusie resumes editorial duties in this follow-up to her previous Smart Pop series entries (Flirting with Pride and Prejudice, Totally Charmed), a collection of essays on the television series Gilmore Girls, a small-town mom-and-daughter dramedy known for clever, rapid-fire dialogue and rich relationships. This title arrives just in time for grieving fans-after seven seasons, Gilmore recently aired its final show-but is a typically mixed bag. Charlotte Fullerton's defense of the show's cantankerous elder stateswoman, Emily, is an insightful look at "a fascinatingly complex, layered fictional human being." Sara Morrison's "Your Guide to the Real Stars Hollow Business World," in which she compares the Connecticut town of her teenage years with Gilmores' setting to determine which businesses would survive, is amusing but aimless. Further off the mark is Jill Winters' exploration of the static life of a fictional town ("Stars Hollow does not seem to be a place where one can evolve") in which she seems to forget that she's discussing a comedy-drama, not real life-a mistake she's not alone in making. This title may not have a long shelf-life, but disenfranchised Gilmore devotees-likely the most bookish TV fans a bookseller could hope for-are sure to give it attention. (May)
GENERATION WHAT?: Dispatches from the Quarter-Life Crisis
Edited by Bess Vanrenen. Speck, $15 paper (264p) ISBN 9781933108124
Editor Vanrenen, a freelance writer in Denver, makes a decent if familiar case for the ennui of the 20-something set, who have been "sold the American dream," only to face an "overwhelming" number of questions, and even more options. Unfortunately, the essays she's assembled to parse that ennui are decidedly bottom-heavy on the hit-to-miss ratio. Hits come from Joshua Bernstein, recalling in straightforward prose his unsatisfying stint at a "bottom-rung" porn publishing company; and Rebecca Landwehr, who details a break-up with her high school sweetheart after a ten-year relationship. The misses all have in common a half-baked commitment to the assignment and a sense that we've read, seen or heard this all before. Kate Torgovnick's "How I Became a Bed-Maker," about her growing maturity and necessity for order, and Justin Maki's "Salvation in Wordplay," dealing with his post-collegiate experiences in Japan, prove uninteresting and occasionally difficult to digest; however, they're just two among numerous disappointments. To be sure, 20-somethings, like everyone else, can and do go through legitimate crises of faith and identity; those looking for levelheaded answers-or even a few well-posed queries-will do better looking elsewhere. (May)
HATE MAIL FROM CHEERLEADERS: And Other Adventures from the Life of Reilly
Rick Reilly. Sports Illustrated, $25.95 (318p) ISBN 9781933821122
Sports fans and regular readers of Sports Illustrated will already know to snap up this book when they see it's a collection of pieces by award-winning SI columnist Rick Reilly. Others should follow their lead, as this superb, wide-ranging collection isn't so much about sports as about "people who happen to be in sports." Some columns are tearjerkers, such as the story of a blind man who finally gets to "see" a match played by his beloved New York Islanders, but most are laugh-out-loud funny, like the one detailing the season Reilly coached his daughter's middle school basketball team ("I learned something about seventh-grade girls: They're usually in the bathroom"). A few are scathing, as in his acid-laced response to Barry Bonds denying he used steroids ("Bonds's records should stay in the books. With a little syringe next to every one"). And though it may not be surprising how many columns aim for inspiring-like the story of spirited Ben Comen, a high school cross-country runner with cerebral palsy-it's a shock how many hit the mark. Reilly's columns are short but pack a punch; a collection best savored, readers should resist as best they can the urge to consume this book in a single sitting. (May)
SCORPION DOWN: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the U.S.S. Scorpion
Ed Offley. Basic, $27.50 (480p) ISBN 9780465051854
The U.S.S. Scorpion SSN 589, a 99-man fast attack submarine, sank 400 miles southwest of the Azores on May 22, 1968, a time during the Cold War when the Soviet Navy was expanding and becoming more aggressive. The Navy's top secret court of inquiry, however, theorized that the Scorpion was sunk by its own hot-running torpedo, not an enemy vessel. In this thorough post-mortem, military beat reporter Offley challenges the Navy's official report-including details like when the wreckage was found and what the sub's mission had been-with a succinct charge: "It was all a lie." Offley believes the Scorpion was sunk by the Soviets, in retaliation for the loss of one of their subs two months prior. Using the U.S.S. Pueblo incident of January, 1968, in which key cryptography gear was lost, Offley connects the dots between the Navy, the John Walker spy ring, and Soviet intelligence to conclude that the Russians had access to all of the Navy's most secret communications, allowing them to ambush the Scorpion. Most of Offley's argument, while compelling, is based solely on interviews with former Navy personnel, and a lack of factual evidence weakens it. Still, this well-told narrative history holds much appeal for naval historians and conspiracy buffs. (May)
THE SUN FARMER: The Story of a Shocking Accident, a Medical Miracle, and Family's Life-and-Death Decision
Michael McCarthy. Ivan R. Dee, $24.95 (224p) ISBN 9781566637008
In November 1999, Illinois farmer Ted Fink was transporting a tank of propane when his tractor backfired, igniting an explosion that could be seen and felt for miles. Ted, in the middle of it, suffered burns over most of his body. Wall Street Journal reporter McCarthy spent more than a year meeting with Ted and his wife, Rhoda-even staying on for a season to work the farm with them-to gather the story of their life together and the horrific accident that changed it. Besides a chronicle of Ted's long road to recovery (beginning with 420 days in a Madison, Wis. hospital), an examination of the synthetic skin ($100,000 worth) that saved him, and a look at farm accidents in America (Ted's grandfather died in one), McCarthy rounds out his portrait with telling stories of family life-though a detailed but irrelevant genealogy smacks of filler. McCarthy is at his best detailing the fallout from the subject at hand: wounds that won't heal, mobility problems, money problems and Ted's radically altered visage among them.. Though he obviously gained much from his time with the Finks-including access to Rhoda's diary, excerpts from which are included-McCarthy's approach has a feature-story feel that holds back the extraordinary narrative. (May)
TABLOID PRODIGY: Dishing the Dirt, Getting the Gossip, and Selling my Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting
Marlise Elizabeth Kast. Running, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 9780762429707
Kast's story of her three years as a tabloid reporter is a walk on the wild, seamy side of workaday journalism in the mid-1990s. At age 21, recent college graduate Kast-a minister's daughter who "wanted to be Katie Couric"-was sucked in by the glitter and glitz of Hollywood tabloid reporting and soon found herself "prepared to jeopardize my morals, abandon the voice of ethics, [and] embrace perilous risks" for her job. As a reporter for the Globe, Kast was willing to do almost anything for a story, with a pat justification close by at all times ("I don't make celebrities do what they do - I just report it"). Kast is eager to recount many of the big stories she reeled in; unfortunately, a majority of her dishes are stale leftovers-remember Tanya Harding and her brawl with boyfriend Darren Silver, or Rick Rockwell and Darva Conger's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire romance?-and she's strangely spare with dates, perhaps silently acknowledging that a decade in tabloid-time might as well be a lifetime. While Kast's exploits are imaginative and daring, uneven writing and a pervasive feeling of distance make for a disappointing read. (May)
TEARING DOWN THE WALL OF SOUND: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
Mick Brown. Knopf, $26.95 (512p) ISBN 9781400042197
THE UPSIDE: How to Turn Your Greatest Threat into Your Biggest Opportunity
Adrian J. Slywotzky with Karl Weber. Crown Business, $27.50 (288p) ISBN 9780307351012
In his latest, business writer and consulting firm director Slywotzsky (The Profit Zone) seeks a formula for managing risk as neat as a calculator equation and as powerful as, say, Steve Jobs turning an iMac design flaw (no CD burner) into perhaps the biggest consumer success of the digital age-the iPod. To do this, Slywotzky partitions the uncertainty of doing business into seven risk categories: project failure, customer drift, transition failure, competition, brand errosion, industry slippage and corporate stagnation. Using timely real-world examples (Toyota's Prius turnaround, Samsung's refurbished image), Slywotzky shows how confronting threats directly-from market competition to personal fear-can turn them into stepping stones to success. Slywotzky's project autopsies can prove enlightening, but the author muddies his case with spurious attempts at mathematic precision, assigning an entirely hypothetical probability of success to each stage of a project (i.e., Toyota's cautious moves reduced the Prius's probability of failure from 95% to 20%). Though largely useful as a guide to common business threats, Slywotsky's attempts to quantify the unknowable parameters of risk may lead readers to conclude, paradoxically, that success depends on irrational factors like chance and paranoia just as much as any other. (May)
WHERE THE BLIND HORSE SINGS: Love and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary
Kathy Stevens. Sterling, $22.95 (206p) ISBN 9781602390553
Giving up a thriving 11-year teaching career, Stevens bought a disastrously rundown farm on a vast number of acres, and with sheer determination, boundless compassion and limited funds turned it into an acclaimed haven for abused livestock, the Catskills Animal Sanctuary. In her first book, Stevens, though she humbly claims "our job was to love and nurture them without expectation," presents the heartening story of the difficult work that has gone into saving more than 1,100 lives since the sanctuary's 2001 founding. The blind horse of the title appears among an eclectic company of pigs, sheep, cows, ducks and other animals with improbably Broadway-sized personalities-personalities revealed as the bond between people and animals strengthens, and the distinctions between them narrow. The anecdotes are fascinating, sometimes miraculous, and their power is undeniable: "I would not have believed that a rooster would so crave physical closeness that he'd demand to get in bed with me or that as he was dying, a gentle old steer named Samson would lick my face over and over until he took his last breath. But this stuff happens all the time." Though sentimentality in this case is de rigeur (how could a book about love for animals avoid it?), the ideas behind Stevens's stories-such as the inherent equality and nobility of all species-are affecting and thought-provoking. (May)
LIFESTYLE
BLUE RIBBON USA: Prizewinning Recipes from State and County Fairs
Georgia Orcutt and John Margolies. Chronicle, $16.95 (128p) ISBN 9780811854849
The most interesting part of this slender volume is not the collection of odd prizewinning recipes (Five-Minute Crock-Pot Burritos, anyone?), but rather the illustrations, anecdotes and ephemera that come out of the 150-year history of the state fair. Tales of prize-winning livestock and oversized vegetables abound; the authors deem fairs "a rare opportunity…[to] be recognized for an astounding array of superlatives: the perfect pie…the sweetest fudge, the farthest-spit watermelon seed." The superlative recipes selected for this volume, one from each state, prove hit-or-miss. Take Korean Oven-Roasted Turkey SPAM Stir-Fry, winner of the New Mexico State Fair's "Best SPAM Recipe competition"; it's an intrepid mix of soy sauce, cornstarch, snow peas and canned meat that ends up tasting like Chinese take-out-not necessarily a bad thing in the wake of Oregon's Bacon Cheeseburger Potato Salad. More appealing is Marjorie Johnson's Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake, winner at the Minnesota State Fair (perhaps because it contains two sticks of butter and three kinds of sugar). Don's Peach Pie, out of Ohio, is another winning dessert perfect for summertime. Surprisingly, Maine's Common Ground County Fair produced a simple recipe for New York-Style Half-Sour Pickles that gives its Empire State forbearers a run for their money. More curiosity than cookbook, this whimsical volume is sure to please fairgoers, even if they never set foot in a kitchen. (May)
THE PROBIOTICS REVOLUTION: The Definitive Guide to Safe, Natural Health Solutions Using Probiotic and Prebiotic Foods and Supplements
Gary B. Huffnagle with Sarah Wernick. Bantam Dell, $24 (416p) ISBN 9780553804928
Holding antibiotics and poor diet responsible for any number of autoimmune disorders-allergies, asthma, skin problems and chronic inflammation-renowned immunology specialist Huffnagle presents, with infectious enthusiasm, the cure for a trigger-happy immune system: probiotics, the good microbes found in fermented foods like yogurt, aged cheese, kefir and kimchi. Once probiotics are introduced to the system, they begin killing off potentially harmful bugs by competing for resources; the resulting balance, Huffnagle shows, will restore proper immunologic function. Huffnagle covers a wide range of territory-including a thorough breakdown both of the immune system and antibiotics-in plenty of detail, but never crosses into textbook-style droning thanks to freelance writer Wernick, who keeps Huffnagle's research friendly and condescension-free. Quizzes, illustrations and personal testimony break up Huffnagle's assertions and the scientific studies that support it, and numerous charts on sources, supplements and substitutions make the shift to a probiotic-rich diet simple. There's no wonder product touted here, just good honest food, some of which-like yogurt, miso and sauerkraut-have likely been used for thousands of years to maintain proper health. Demystifying the digestive and immune systems, the authors present a convincing health plan that's easy to understand and to follow. (June)
THE THREE-MARTINI FAMILY VACATION: A Field Guide to Intrepid Parenting
Christie Mellor. Chronicle, $12.95 paper (144p) ISBN 9780811857338
In her latest guide to parenting under the influence (following The Three-Martini Playdate), Mellor delivers another clever, tongue-in-cheek self-help that scoots deliciously close to the edge of offensive while delivering laughs and lessons for the beleagured mom and dad. Typical suggestions are both smarmy and smart: "You should be running the vacuum cleaner, turning the volume up on the radio, and having a dance party when your infants are napping, so that they won't startle awake when they hear a dog barking in the next county." She also warns of "ornate décor made exclusively for children," and what exactly to expect from a babysitter: "You will be lucky if the sitter is able to feed [your child] reheated pizza before putting him to bed with his clothes on." Another sharp bit of advice: get those kids reading books as soon as possible; it'll pay dividends in countless waiting rooms, cars and airports. And addressing the topic of the day, Mellor enthuses, "It's amazing how many ideal holiday destinations are…a ten-minute to a three-hour drive from home," provided "a little flexibility in one's definition of 'ideal.' " Furthertips are set aside for plane travel, theme parks, holidays ("Santa moves in mysterious ways"), mealtimes and, of course, hosting a cocktail party ("Actually for Grown-Ups!"). (May)
ILLUSTRATED
THE ART OF NEW MEXICO: How the West is One
Joseph Traugott. Museum of New Mexico Press, $55 (276p) ISBN 9780890134979
Using the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., curator Traugott explores the rich and varied history of art in New Mexico and its place in the national canon. Since its founding in 1917, the museum's leadership has been deliberate in its curatorial choices and generous in its documentary urges, and so Traugott has a great deal to work with, from debates about architecture and interior design to decisions on the nature of each round of acquisitions, offering a surprisingly complete record of the institution's growth and development. As such, it should find a broad audience: art lovers will relish the ample plates explained in straightforward, concise prose; art historians will appreciate the wealth of details about artists, movements and the museum; and history buffs will appreciate the story of the region as revealed through its art. As the title suggests, Traugott aims to find the unity in New Mexico's diverse artistic heritage, which at times results in generalizations and backpedaling, especially in sometimes-breezy treatment of colonialism. Readers seeking a more critical consideration of the political issues involved (U.S. treatment of Native Americans and Mexicans, the stereotyped image of the "native") should look elsewhere; those who come for the art won't be disappointed. (May)
THE LEISURE ARCHITECTURE OF WAYNE MCALLISTER
Chris Nichols. Gibbs Smith, $19.95 paper (160p) ISBN 9781586856991
Ebullient and breezy, this retrospective on the multi-generation career of commercial architect Wayne McAllister is the perfect vehicle for the architect who defined the southern California look and, according the New York Times, "elevated commercial structures like the drive-in restaurant…to art forms." Needless to say, the look he gave birth to has become so ingrained in popular American culture that it's largely taken for granted; McAllister's overwhelming influence and sizable output get some deserved recognition in this volume, thick with photos and illustrations, that has the feel of a lovingly assembled collage. Historic preservationist Nichols, a Los Angeles native, shows a deep knowledge and passion for his home state, and displays his architectural chops in simple, unpretentious and occasionally cheeky writing that susses out the idealism and everyday glamour of McAllister projects like the Melody Lane restaurant (which graces the cover) and the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. Academics and serious architecture buffs may be frustrated by a lack of new insight or research, but less demanding fans of mid-20th century commercial architecture, and many fans of American pop culture in general, will find this volume as fun and welcoming as the oversized figure of Bob's Big Boy adorning McAllister-designed drive-ins all along the western seaboard. (Apr.)
TEXAS POLITICAL MEMORABILIA: Buttons, Bumper Stickers, and Broadsides
Chuck Bailey with Bill Crawford. Univ. of Texas, $34.95 (218p) ISBN 9780292716254
Political archivist Bailey began his collection of Texas political ephemera in 1960, when his father gave him a sack of Kennedy-Johnson buttons (one of which can be found on page four). Since then, Bailey has collected all the Texas political ephemera he can get his hands on, from senate and presidential races to county elections; that collection is lovingly displayed in this well-organized, obsessively detailed book. In addition to buttons and pamphlets, Bailey has accumulated everything from 19th century William McKinley stereo cards (the first photographic technique for creating 3-D images) to Alvis Owsley thimbles to Jake Pickle's "squeaky plastic pickles." Covering everything from the late 1800s to the present day (Kinky Friendman "made a bid for governor in 2006 on the platform, 'How hard could it be?' "), Bailey provides succinct captions and explanations for each object, along with brief background information on the candidates they promoted. Each of the 100-plus full-color plates is crisp and clear, giving an appropriately archival look to Bailey's museum-worthy collection. Those interested in Texas' rich political history and collectors of political memorabilia will find this work dazzling. (May)
FICTION
COLD CACHE
Tim Champlin. Five Star, $25.95 (226p) ISBN 9781594144974
Champlin (The Blaze of Noon; Devil's Domain; etc.) explores a frontier feud in this fast-paced tale set in 1890 Missouri and New Mexico. After eight years as a Canadian Mountie, Kent Rasmussen is re-routed on his way home to Minnesota when a mysterious woman, Nellie Newburn, hires him to protect her and the $250,000 she is carrying from her estranged husband Johnny Clayton. Rasmussen finds himself enmeshed in a bitter feud between the Newburns and the Claytons and a hunt for $3 million-gold that Nellie's grandfather, a Confederate sympathizer, plans to use "to finance the establishment of a new country." Distrusted by both families, Rasmussen joins with an eccentric hermit to protect Nellie and recover the treasure. All parties converge on the high desert for a final showdown. Champlin brings the Old West to life with engaging characters, an inventive plot, and a genuine respect for disparate frontier cultures. (May)
EASTSIDE
Caleb Alexander. Atria/Strebor, $13 paper (336p) ISBN 9781593091200
Alexander details the grim socioeconomic conditions that created the wave of violence that rocked San Antonio, Tex., in the early 1990s. When the novel begins, Travon Robinson is still mourning the murder of his brother, Davon, a member of the notorious Wheatley Court Gangsters. Despite Travon's objections, his friend Justin joins the gang, and their falling-out leads to the gang nearly murdering Travon. His mother Elmira, fearing for her son's life, sends him to live with her sister Vera and Vera's sons. As Travon spends more time with his cousins, he gets sucked up into a world of fast cash, fast women and senseless violence before his redemption through Islam and the birth of his twins. Though the action is unrelenting and Alexander is adept at evoking a terrifying time and place, the novel suffers from repetitive exposition, a discordant structure and a surfeit of two-dimensional characters. (July)
EXPOSURE
Kurt Wenzel. Little, Brown, $23.99 (272p) ISBN 9780316093972
A near future glutted with obnoxious animated billboards and digitized celebrities hawking commercial goods serves as the backdrop for this wan satire on Hollywood and media overexposure. Cynical screenwriter Marshall Reed struggles to help his best friend, Colt Reston, a film legend dying of a strange wasting disease that seems to intensify in direct proportion to the amount his image is broadcast. Meanwhile, a cult of technophobes are incited to acts of billboard destruction by The Black Book, an antimedia manifesto penned by an anonymous industry insider. Wenzel (Gotham Tragic) builds momentum up to the unmasking of "Mr. Black" and the revelation of how Colt's illness intertwines with the scheme of an entertainment agent to scrap live actors in favor of digitally manipulated dead screen icons. But every time Wenzel introduces a new character, the lengthy backstory slows things to a crawl. The Hollywood zaniness provokes a few laughs, but not enough to make this more than a routine "what if." (July)
HARPSONG
Rilla Askew. Univ. of Oklahoma, $24.95 (243p) ISBN 9780806138237
Set in Depression-era Oklahoma and drawing inevitable comparison to The Grapes of Wrath, Askew's novel presents the best and worst of humanity in its depiction of hardscrabble lives lived during the Dust Bowl. Sharon Thompson is only 14 when cocksure wanderer Harlan Singer steals her heart and takes her on the road. The pair hop freight trains all around the heartland, earning pennies with Harlan's miraculous and captivating harmonica skills. They encounter both greedy authorities and kind strangers, including a run-in with some railroad police that almost kills Harlan, changing his and Sharon's life forever. Askew's command of language is a pleasure to behold, bringing out the pain and wonder of her story with a bittersweet immediacy. (May)
THE LAST DAYS OF MADAME REY: A Stephan Raszer Investigation
A.W. Hill. Carroll & Graf, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 9780786718818
In Hill's second Stephan Raszer thriller (after 2002's Enoch's Portal), an odd blend of suspense and the supernatural, Raszer, who bases his operations in California, hires himself out to clients seeking the rescue of individuals who have-willingly or not-joined obscure cults and religious sects. When Abel Cohn, senior partner at a prominent Los Angeles law firm, hires Raszer to track down his missing son, Fortis, Raszer crosses paths with the Military Order of Thule, a group of right-wing extremists led by the charismatic but psychotic Bronk Vreeland. Aided by the requisite attractive sidekick, April Blessing, who inevitably is captured by Vreeland and sexually assaulted, Raszer pursues his quarry around the world even as his shadowy allies suggest he probe a link between the Order of Thule and the legend of Lemuria. Labored writing and an indifferent plot make this series a mere shadow of Seabury Quinn's classic Jules de Grandin stories, which likewise feature a supernatural sleuth in over-the-top adventures. (July)
LATE NIGHT TALKING
Leslie Schnur. Atria , $22 (320p) ISBN 9780743288248
A feisty New York radio personality is at the center of Schnur's (The Dog Walker) accomplished second novel. Jeannie Sterling's late-night show with best friend Luce chronicles the daily indignities of urban life. After a spat with a Hummer driver, Jeannie rants about him on-air, unaware that he is Nicholas Moss, a high-profile entrepreneur and one of her listeners. Meanwhile, after an unexpected romantic evening with her college crush and a visit with her estranged father, Jeannie finds her personal life in a tailspin, with even Luce keeping secrets. But soon Moss is back in her life, this time as the station's new owner. Jeannie realizes Moss is more complex than she assumed, and an attraction arises. He creates a television show for Jeannie, causing a rift with Luce, which grows deeper when Luce's secret is revealed. Things come to a head when Jeannie pulls a somewhat unbelievable on-air stunt that has nearly catastrophic results. Jeannie's dilemmas as an imperfect everywoman will resonate with a wide range of readers, while Schnur's meditations on women's friendships make her sophomore effort a humorous but not trivial read. (May)
THE O. HENRY PRIZE STORIES 2007: The Best Stories of the Year
Edited and with an Introduction by Laura Furman. Anchor, $14.95 paper (432p) ISBN 9780307276889
Culled from dozens of the most prestigious literary magazines throughout America and Canada, the 20 stories included in this year's O. Henry Prize collection make an impressive and eclectic crop, including seasoned vets (Alice Munro), rising stars (Tony D'Souza) and virtual unknowns (Jan Ellison, with her first published story). Each richly developed story is as captivating as its predecessor, whether the subject is Vietnam, American exile, traveling alone or domestic violence. William Trevor's unnerving "The Room" features a woman in the throws of a meaningless affair-her feeble attempt at dealing with her husband's indiscretions nine years prior. Adam Haslett delicately prods at a young man's trembling entree into the homosexual life of "The City." A bewildered daughter witnesses her aging father lose control of his linguistic faculties in Brian Evenson's immensely frightening "Mudder Tongue." Readers will want to relish each of these stories at its own well-deserved pace; a collection this good deserves savoring. Also included are essays written by the three jurors (Charles D'Ambrosio, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Lily Tuck) on their personal favorites, as well as thoughts from each writer on inspiration and the writing life. (May)
THE OAK LEAVES
Maureen Lang. Tyndale, $12.99 paper (401p) ISBN 9781414313450
After Talie Ingram finds an old family journal while helping clean her mother's house, she enthusiastically settles down to read about the life of her ancestress Cosima Escott Hamilton, whose diary dates as far back as 1849. From the very beginning, Lang, a romance novelist and author of Pieces of Silver, deftly navigates back and forth in history between Cosima's 19th-century confessions about the strange circumstances surrounding her family and betrothal to Sir Reginald Hale and Talie's growing, present-day fears about her heritage and its potential impact on her beloved son, Ben. With each passing day, Ben shows more signs of struggle with tasks that even the smallest toddlers usually have mastered; waving goodbye, chewing food, and crawling are beyond his grasp. This causes Talie to wonder if the family "curse" Cosima writes about-that the women on her father's side only produce "slow-witted children"-is more than mere legend. The bulk of this tale is really Cosima's, centering on the complications that ensue regarding her postponed marriage to Sir Reginald and the deep feelings she develops for another man. And it's Cosima's lingering voice-her determination and faith-that inspires Talie to reconcile her son's diagnosis of fragile X syndrome (a disability Lang's own son suffers from) with her belief that God is merciful. (May)
TUVALU
Andrew O'Connor. Allen & Unwin, $14.95 paper (336p) ISBN 9781741148718
Winner of the Australia Vogel Literary Award, O'Connor's sordid debut follows Noah Tuttle, who ditches Australia and university to teach English in Tokyo. Noah drifts in and out of jobs, loses money and descends into the seedy nightlife while living in a hostel with girlfriend Tilly. When Tilly returns to Australia for a few weeks, Noah meets a Japanese socialite who nudges him down a path filled with deception, stealing and drugs. As Noah's downward spiral deepens, he isolates himself from his surroundings and becomes more entangled in his love and lust for both women before finally, brutally bottoming out. A rollercoaster plot and crisp, raw prose add a manic tone to this stark picture of Japanese society's underbelly. (May)
THE ULTIMATUM
Dan Graziano. Avon, $13.95 paper (304p) ISBN 9780060847975
The age-old marriage conundrum receives an engaging but overwritten treatment in the second novel from Newark Star-Ledger sportswriter Graziano. The reader trap is nicely baited when young New Jersey lawyer Layla Starling celebrates her sixth anniversary with writer-boyfriend Henry by giving him an ultimatum: within a week, either propose or leave. The author sends Henry through a gauntlet of laughably inept advisers-five-times-married golf buddy John, divorce-ravaged brother Jake, manboy Pete Gresham-but any hope of a sportswriterly rebuttal to chick lit conventions are dashed by Henry's overanalysis. Other irritations are Henry's requisite writer's block and Graziano's constant restating of the situation. The female side rolls along more smoothly and features a running debate between Layla's friends, hard-nosed Gloria and sweet naïf Susan, along with distractions from on-deck beau Ben and dictator-boss Jessica Standridge. The conflicts between Henry and Layla are realistic and involving, and the last-minute race to the reception a blitz of delight, but even within the final sure-fire chapters, the author oversells his wares. There is a charming story within these pages, but Graziano often stands in its way. (July)
