NONFICTION

Adland: A Global History of Advertising
Mark Tungate. Kogan Page, $39.95 (278p) ISBN 978-0749448370

In this heady, well-researched gem, British journalist Tungate (Fashion Brands) illustrates the history and globalization of the $400-billion-a-year advertising industry. Tungate begins by simultaneously addressing consumers’ skepticism (or outright disdain) toward the “jargon, psychobabble and double talk of advertising,” and advertisers’ laudable financing of “a free, varied, democratic media,” before hunting down advertising’s birth during the Industrial Revolution. He traces the industry from there through today’s exploding media frontier of new global markets, viral advertising and seemingly infinite bandwidth. Along the way, he looks at trailblazers like Bill Bernbach and David Ogilvy, whose prosperous agencies and their offspring propelled the industry worldwide, and especially in the US, throughout the 20th century. He looks at key players, time periods and hotspots (Madison Avenue in the 1950s, Tokyo’s Dentsu, the Omnicom mega-merger) with snappy storytelling, interviews with bigwigs and buckets full of trivia. Tungate argues effectively that the prevalence and effectiveness of a given country’s advertising is commensurate with that country’s entire economy; media enthusiasts and professionals will find this a handy, entertaining and insightful guide to the past and future of the ad world. (Sept.)

The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
Charles Baxter. Graywolf, $12 paper (190p) ISBN 978-1555974732

Though there are passages where this slim, college-lecture-style volume turns facile or tiresome, novelist Baxter’s analysis of “the implied, the half-visible, and the unspoken” in literature is saved from irrelevance by a keen sense of pacing and a healthy dose of self-awareness (after confidently zooming through seminal works by Herman Melville, John Cheever, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Baxter confesses, “I feel [that] … I am on the verge of what Walt Whitman calls ‘a usual mistake.’ I don’t wish to simplify what is actually intricate”). Indeed, as the brief chapters of this little book build on each other, Baxter’s observations—which initially seem more like interesting rhetorical devices than substantive arguments—gain clarity and momentum, and the accumulation of anecdotal asides about writers’ workshops and former students turn them from annoying interjections into helpful indicators of Baxter’s relationship with literature. Many of the issues raised in this volume are as old as the study of literature itself, but Baxter’s ability to ask unusual and incisive questions of familiar topics (Why is the volatility of Dostoyevsky’s characters so unpleasant? Why is it so difficult—and yet so vital—to describe facial features?) makes this little volume worthwhile for the engaged student of literature. (Aug.)

Blue Sky Thoughts: Colour, Consciousness and Reality
Jamie Carnie. Marion Boyars (Consortium, dist.), $17.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0714531243

Is what we perceive objectively real, or only in our minds? Setting out to answer anew this age-old question, philosopher and software engineer Carnie begins with the philosophy of Descartes (who insisted that what we observe are in fact the real properties of the world) and the experiments of Newton (which imply the world is created in our own minds). From there, Carnie investigates the evidence for and logic behind the synthesis of these ideas: that our senses have a complex relationship (across space) with the objects they perceive. Through a consideration of colors and their perception, by humans and other organisms (From what do colors arise? Why do we perceive them at all?), Carnie presents a series of “thought experiments” that lead up to his “Relational Theory of Sensory Qualities.” This he examines in relationship to the mind, art, and the way people use and abuse the natural world. His ideas are intriguing and his efforts to incorporate both the physical and social sciences are admirable; unfortunately, his writing style is abstruse and often difficult to follow (his direction isn’t clear until Part III, “Colours as Relations”). Still, persistent readers will be rewarded with much exotic food for thought. (Sept.)

The Best American Crime Reporting 2007
Edited by Linda Fairstein. Harper Perennial, $14.95 paper (384p) ISBN 978-0060815530

Fans of crime reporting will devour this diverse collection, featuring 15 of the year’s best crime stories, written by noted journalists such as Tom Junod (Esquire magazine), Sean Flynn (GQ) and Steve Fishman (New York). Articles (and the crimes they detail) vary widely, one of the book’s chief strengths; covering the darkest, most unspeakable crimes is not one of the entry qualifications (though they’re certainly represented). One of the brightest pieces, by the Boston Globe Magazine’s Neil Swidey, covers the astonishing embezzlement of nearly $9 million by a construction company temp. Several articles examine the possibility of reformation and redemption: Atlanta magazine’s Steve Fennessy reports on the perpetrator of a horrifying kidnapping who is now a physician dedicated to helping the underserved, and the late-coming faith of David Berkowitz—the infamous Son of Sam—is cunningly but compassionately examined by Fishman. The uniform quality of research and writing in this collection is startling; stories are so fully fleshed and detail is so rich it’s often hard to believe they’re non-fiction. For example, Douglas Preston’s article for The Atlantic Monthly catches the revealing moments of his subject (“The Monster of Florence”) like a gem catching light: “He sketched his thoughts—I later learned it was a habit of his—the pencil cutting and darting across the paper, making arrows and circles and boxes and dotted lines.” Fans of true crime will want to make this book last, but will likely have trouble putting it aside for even a moment. (Sept.)

New Theories of Everything
John D. Barrow. Oxford Univ., $29.95 (272p) ISBN 978-0192807212

In 1991, mathematician and astronomer Barrow released Theories of Everything, a look at science’s search for a single model that explains the mechanics of the entire universe. Even though science is not much closer to attaining its Holy Grail, the intervening 16 years have seen enough developments to warrant a thorough revision. Dubious that one formula can ever “deliver all truth”—or that such a theory would even be desirable—Barrow demonstrates that the quest itself is what’s important, providing a framework for probing the deepest questions of science, including the role of mankind in the universe; each of these questions is looked at in turn under broad chapters on “Laws,” “Initial conditions,” “Constants of nature,” “Broken symmetries” and others. Each topic yields surprises; for instance, Barrow executes a startling reversal of Copernicus’s fundamental principle, that the Earth is not the center of the universe, by pointing out that the physical laws governing our universe are necessarily bound to the conditions that account “for the living observers within it.” Though Barrow succeeds in making the scope and wealth of his knowledge accessible and relevant, his book proves more demanding than other “popular” science titles; fortunately, this one is worth the effort. 25 line illustrations. (Aug.)

The Search for Meaning: A Short History
Dennis Ford. Univ. of Calif., $24.95 (318p) ISBN 978-0520253001

Ford’s ambitious, underperforming history of mankind’s search for purpose is predicated on the belief that comparative typology is a “technique for liberation from a myopic vision that says that meaning can be found in only one way.” Sadly, most of Ford’s book reads like an over-simplified how-to guide to finding your guiding philosophy rather than an original comparative treatise on the subject; as such, it falls into a familiar trap, sacrificing depth to cover a huge range of topics. Though perhaps useful for those entirely unfamiliar with the field (a reader interested in finding meaning but lacking any knowledge of the differences among postmodernism, pragmatism and mythology), most readers will find statements like “Philosophy is black-and-white photography in contrast to the sensual Technicolor of Myth” and “most of us, most of the time, live comfortably and unselfconsciously” less than intriguing: over-generalized at best, insulting at worst. (Sept.)

Smoot’s Ear: The Measure of Humanity
Robert Tavernor. Yale Univ., $25 (250p) ISBN 978-0300124927

An exciting preface gets this history of measurement underway, describing how a 1958 fraternity initiation ritual at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the construction industry’s adoption of the Smoot, a length equal to Oliver Smoot’s 5’7” body, which was used to measure the length of the Harvard Bridge (360 “Smoots” plus the length of his ear). Following this, London School of Economics professor Tavernor too often gets bogged down in a long-winded defense of his contention that measurement has been dehumanized, “culturally removed from the mainstream experience of society,” losing focus and momentum as he does. To buttress this argument, Tavernor takes a broad swipe at history, beginning in the sixth century B.C., which picks up steam with France’s invention, in the aftermath of the Revolution, of the metric system. A long chapter on defining the meter makes a compelling account—every locality had its own standards, wreaking havoc on commerce throughout France—and leads Tavernor into interesting discussions of the system’s influence on culture (especially architecture), the “Anglo-Saxon resistance” with which the system was met and the evolving philosophy of measurement. An interesting but diffuse look at the unexpected controversies of measurement, Tavernor’s volume is best for patient students of history and architecture. (Sept.)

Walking the Gobi: A 1,600-Mile Trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair
Helen Thayer. Mountaineers, $21.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1594850646

The Gobi Desert is a barren stretch of Mongolia that runs north of China, south of Russia and far from everything; not an ideal place to visit, except by book. Fortunately, the daring Thayer, age 63, fights nature and common sense for us, giving readers a fascinating account of her 1,600 mile journey with her husband, Bill, 74. The aging adventurers lace up their boots, load two borrowed camels with supplies, and set out to survive an 80-day trek through temperatures in excess of 120 degrees while wolves, scorpions and the Chinese border patrol stalk them. Encounters with smugglers and nomads add shades of character and culture; one hospitable nomad family enthusiastically serves them such uninviting fare as sour horse milk. The adventure ramps up when an angry camel rolls over their water containers, setting off a desperate search for hydration. Frightening skirmishes with heatstroke, sandstorms and wildlife take their toll, but the greater enemy is mental, which Thayer knows well (having skied to the North Pole with just her dog for company): “At all costs we had to avoid the mental trap of losing focus,” a slippery step toward becoming “emotionally paralyzed.” Despite the hardship, Thayer (Polar Dream) is a sure and steady guide; this harrowing travelogue reads like a nail-biting adventure, sure to enthrall fans of Jon Krakauer and Bill Bryson. (Sept.)

LIFESTYLE

50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn In School
Charles J. Sykes. St. Martin’s, $19.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0312360382

Expanded from an original list of 14 first broadcast on his Milwaukee, Wis., radio talk show, the latest book from Sykes (Dumbing Down our Kids) equips parents to help tween- or teenage children find success in life beyond school. Taking on the education system’s “modern bubble-wrap mentality” of “no losing, no disappointments, no harsh reality checks,” Sykes takes a hard-line but humorous approach to instilling the discipline, morals and good sense that keep kids from becoming “sulky, self-centered, spoiled brats.” Consider Rule 19: “It’s not your parent’s fault. If you screw up, you are responsible”; or Rule 14: “Looking like a slut does not empower you.” Rules are largely rooted in common sense (“Change the oil”), traditional values (“Don’t forget to say thank you”) and the wisdom that only time can bring (“Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them. We all could”), and get fleshed out in punchy, chuckle-worthy commentary. Though he can be harsh (“You are not a victim. So stop whining”), Sykes helpfully points out that “Grown-ups forget how scary it is to be your age,” and also that “You are not perfect, and you don’t have to be” (illustrated in an amusing story about Mother Teresa misapplying a bandage); parents will appreciate Syke’s no-nonsense style, but teenage readers may find him condescending (see Rule 21: “You’re offended? So what? No, really. So what?”). (Aug.)

Adventures Of An Italian Food Lover
Faith Heller Willinger. Clarkson Potter, $32.50 (256p) ISBN 978-0307346391

It’s one thing to enjoy a masterfully prepared Italian meal, but something else entirely to experience it in a small trattoria nestled in the canyons near Bologna, and author Willinger (Eating in Italy) knows the difference; conveying the sensory splendor of her 30 years living, shopping and eating in Italy, Willinger makes a warm personal guide to her favorite shops, markets and vineyards, and the often colorful characters who operate them (aided throughout by Suzanne Heller’s clever watercolors). Willinger introduces grocers like Salvatore de Gennaro and Anna Maria Cuomo, who stock artisan cheeses and salumi homemade by Salvatore’s dad; and winemakers like Silvia Imparato, owner of Montevetrano, “one of the most exciting wineries in southern Italy.” Each entry is followed by a recipe: Tuscan bakers Francesco and Elisabeth Pandolfini offer Brutto-Buoni, a traditional cookie laden with almonds and pine nuts, while Dario Cecchini, Italy’s most famous butcher (featured in Bill Buford’s Heat), gives tips on choosing and preparing steaks. Other standouts include artisan grappa, Amedei chocolateir in Tuscany and custom perfumier Lorenzo Villoresi in Florence. Culinarians will delight in her stories and recipes, though the book functions better as a guidebook for travelers; included are web sites, hours of operation and contact information that make arranging a personal visit easy. (July)

The All-Natural Diabetes Cookbook: The Whole Food Approach to Great Taste and Healthy Eating
Jackie Newgent. American Diabetes Association, $18.95 paper (324p) ISBN 978-1580402750

Operating under the premise that “fresh is best,” registered dietician Newgent offers a wealth of terrific, healthy ideas for diners of all stripes. With an emphasis on the classics, Newgent offers ingenious tips to cut fat and cholesterol, like using silken tofu to emulsify the Hollandaise sauce for her Eggs Benedict, or using cottage cheese in lieu of butter to keep lean burgers moist. She dispels the myth that healthy eating has to be bland, evidenced in her Tequila-Lime Chicken with Fettucine in Creamy Jalapeno Sauce, Moroccan Turkey Burger and Beer-Brewed Sloppy Joes. Common dishes like Chef Salad get a zesty burst of flavor from a tarragon-laced balsamic dressing, and a fingerling potato salad is dressed in a lowfat sour cream sauce loaded with dill, chives and Creole mustard. Newgent makes it easy to stick to one’s diet, including tips on doubling many of the recipes as well as make-ahead tips, online resources and trivia. Exchange information is included for each dish, as well as a substitution guide for common ingredients like sour cream, cheese and sugar. (Sept.)

Dominique’s Tropical Latitudes
Dominique Macquet and John DeMers. Bright Sky, $29.95 (160p) ISBN 978-1933979014

Chef Macquet (Dominique’s Fresh Flavors) grew up on the tiny Indian Ocean island of Maruitius with the kaleidoscopic sights and smells of tropical cooking. Now firmly ensconced in New Orleans with a namesake restaurant, Macquet hasn’t lost sight or taste for tropical cooking despite travels in South Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. He artfully incorporates all his influences here, blending low country cooking with fine dining to produce innovative tropical fare. More straightforward dishes include the classic Caribbean stew Pepperpot, and a thoroughly Cajun treatment of sautéed crawfish, tossed in a spicy remoulade and served atop fried green tomatoes. Others, such as Breadfruit Soup with Truffles and Foie Gras, or Sugarcane-Skewered Sweetbreads, are anything but peasant food. Most dishes, such as Key Lime Crème Brulee, Jerk-Marinated Roast Leg of Lamb and Braised Short Ribs with Debris Cakes are easy enough to recreate, though his Trio of Lamb (terrine, sausage and roasted rack of lamb) and Ultimate Meat and Potatoes (shredded beef brisket topped with malanga puree, seared foie gras and a fresh quail egg) call for culinary fortitude. Making the most out of regional staples such as mirlitons, conch and breadfruit both sets the book apart and makes it frustrating for cooks unable to source these crucial ingredients. That said, those with a soft spot for tropical cooking are sure to find this collection inspiring. (Aug.)

Fan Fare: A Playbook of Great Recipes for Tailgating or Watching the Game at Home
Debbie Moose. Harvard Common, $14.95 paper (176p) ISBN 978-1558323384

Moose, food editor and reporter for the Raleigh News & Observer and author of Deviled Eggs, tells it like it is when she says, “ all fervent sports fans know, the day truly is won or lost in the tailgate.” Bringing together more than 100 game-day recipes, Moose gives her readers a serious advantage over any challengers. Dishes run the gamut from simple fried onion blossoms (Jo Ann’s Campfire style) to sophisticated Marinated Gamecocks with Polenta to regional staples like Sweet Potato Ham Biscuits, Mint Juleps and brats. It wouldn’t be game day without chicken wings, and Moose offers teriyaki, tandoori and spice-rubbed variations as well as smoky, mustard-dressed wings that can be prepared in a slow cooker. Many recipes can be prepped or made in advance, such as Munchable Marinated Shrimp, four kinds of chili (including a lentil-based vegetarian) and a spicy coleslaw that gets a kick from jalapenos and cayenne. And with desserts like Bourban-Pecan Pie (not to mention three types of Bloody Marys) to pick up a despondent fan, this cookbook will make for a successful season no matter what the home team does on the field. (Sept.)

How to Date Men: Dating Secrets from America’s Top Matchmaker
Janis Spindel. Plume, $14 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0452288676

Even if you can afford to hire dating coach Spindel (a talk-show fixture, she doesn’t come cheap), this fun-to-read guide provides an economical short-cut to finding, courting and keeping a man. With a light touch, Spindel comes across chatty and sympathetic as a good girlfriend, but with the authority of a wise aunt. Debunking dating myths one by one (yes, you should order dessert with dinner), Spindel mercifully dismisses most dating “games” out of hand: Fashionably late? That’s just plain “rude.” Text-messaging on a date? The “best place for your cell phone is in your bag.” Breezy chapters cover, step-by-step, everything from the first flirtation to planning a future together, breaking down what’s going on in his head and hers. Including chapters on romantic getaways and meeting his friends, Spindel graces each stage with ways to “Let Him Down Easy.” Easy ways to maintain space and sanity—for both of you—include keeping shopping trips solo, talking problems through calmly and completely, and prepping the folks before they meet your new beau (“Tell your parents not to talk about marriage”). Spindel’s common sense approach makes it clear that finding love isn’t a matter of hard-and-fast “rules,” but a levelheaded mix of knowledge, awareness, observation and preparation. (Aug.)

POETRY

A Choice Of Shakespeare’s Verse
Edited and introduced by Ted Hughes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $15 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0374122782

Admired since the 1950s for the primal force of his own verse, former British poet laureate Hughes (1930-1998) also won praise in his home country for numerous projects of editing, literary criticism and translation, among them this enlightening selection (first published in 1971) of favorite passages from the Bard’s sonnets, narrative poems, and (especially) his plays. Familiar and unfamiliar sonnets (“Not marble, nor the gilded monuments/ Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme”) mingle with great speeches and lengthy passages, famous and not-so-famous, taken from most of the plays: “Once more into the breach, dear friends” (Henry V), “the great image of authority: a dog’s obey’d in office” (King Lear) and over a hundred more. The reissue preserves both Hughes’ brief 1991 introduction and his far more substantial “Note” (which follows the main text): more argument than simple explanation, this superb afterward is Hughes at his critical best, showing how Shakespeare’s “common language of the highest and the lowest” set forth a “profoundly articulated, esoteric, spiritual vision.” (Hughes pursued such ideas at far greater length in his Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being.) Destined for substantial sales as a gift, this compact volume might also inspire readers who already know some of Shakespeare’s plays quite well to look at the rest with new eyes and ears. (Sept.)

Epistles
Mark Jarman. Sarabande (Consortium, dist.), $21.95 (112p) ISBN 978-1932511529; $13.95 paper ISBN -36

Known in the 1980s as a New Formalist—a crusader for traditional rhymes and meters—the prolific and thoughtful Jarman now attracts more attention as a poet of Christian belief. That belief, its relevance to everyday life, and its implications for a literary style, become the constant topic for this set of thirty gentle prose poems, their interests and occasionally their phrasings taken from the Epistles of St. Paul. Jarman searches for connections between the next world and the one all around us, between the ideas he pursues and the life he sees: “There is no formula for bliss,” he says early on, “yet why not pretend there is?” Welcoming paragraphs and insistent sentences all but invite readers to pray along with Jarman, or at least make clear what he derives from prayer: “at the meeting, the assembly of the lost where we are heading, our heaven will be desert distance, dunes of self-denial.” Anxious (and well-informed) about modern science, always personal if rarely autobiographical, Jarman may imagine this volume not only as a book of prose poetry, but as a meditative religious aid; “the objects of God’s love,” he concludes, “are more numerous than we can ever hope to accept.” Whatever its fate as contemporary poetry, this heartfelt volume could find a substantial following among readers who seek intelligent short essays about their faith. (Oct.)

Failure
Philip Schultz. Harcourt, $23 (128p) ISBN 978-0151015269

The careful, compassionate sixth outing from Schultz (Living in the Past) reverses the plot many poetry books imply. Rather than show an emotional problem (in the first poems) followed by its gradual solution, Schultz begins with warm, even heartwarming, short depictions of love, marriage, fatherhood, and mourning, in which even the elegies find reasons to love life. Schultz addresses the deceased poet David Ignatow: “I didn’t go/ to your funeral, but, late at night, I/ bathe in the beautiful ashes of your words.” As a reader moves through the volume, and especially in “The Wandering Wingless”— the sequence whose 58 segments and 54 pages conclude the book\—Schultz’s gladness gives way to regret and grim fear. Devoted (like several of Schultz’s short poems) to the virtues of dogs and of dog-ownership, and to the horrors of September 11, “Wingless” meanders through the poet’s own depression and his young adult life before settling on his continuing grief for his unstable, suicidal father. “Why/ did Dad own, believe in,/ admit to, understand/ and love nothing?” It is a question no poet could answer, though Schultz sounds brave, and invites sympathy, as he tries. The clear, even flat, free verse suggests Philip Booth, though Schultz’s Jewish immigrant heritage, and his attachment to New York City, place him far from Booth’s usual rural terrain. Few readers will find his language especially varied or inventive; many, however, could see their own travails in his plainly framed, consistently articulated sorrows and joys. (Nov.)

Secret Histories
Craig Watson. Burning Deck (SPD, dist), $14 paper (80p) ISBN 978-1886224834

The four chapbook-like sequences in this tenth volume from terse avant-garde writer Watson (True News) use chains of short, grim, declaratory phrases to test the limits of civilization, barbarism, political understanding, and—in his own words—”collective responsibility.” “Fact: survival trumps admin,” Watson decides; “Fact: words colonize air.” Full of brackets and omissions—organized on the page to resemble transcriptions from ancient Greek potsherds—the 78 stanzas of Watson’s first series, “Steppe Work,” imagine migrations, and religious violence, from the Neolithic to the present. The second, “Pre-Science,” brings its weighty condemnations to bear on the people (perhaps all of us) who know their nation does wrong, and yet do nothing: “Let a thousand blanks bloom./ Beggars can’t be democrats.” Organized around the months of the year, the third of Watson’s series pursues the same theme through lists, chants and quotable sayings: “history measured progress in suffering/ the firmament rotted daily.” The last (“Loose Canons”) uses twelve-line units and short sentences to complete Watson’s studied, always-already-political struggles with the commercialized, flattened language of his money-driven, warlike time. Watson’s small verbal units, confident in their corrosive rejection of everyday life, will seem, to their admirers, a perfect blend of Lorine Niedecker with Noam Chomsky; less charitable readers may wonder what Watson brings, at this late date, to his familiar late-modernist left-wing goals. (Aug.)

FICTION

Beyond Seduction
Stephanie Laurens. Avon, $7.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0060839253

After six unsuccessful months of wife-hunting in London, Gervase Tregarth, earl of Crowhurst and the second-to-last unattached member of the Bastion Club (last seen in series prequel Captain Jack’s Woman), reluctantly agrees to the requests of his three mischievous younger sisters, who would rather their brother find a local lady they can vet and approve. He doesn’t have to look far before he finds Madeline Gascoigne, acting regent of nearby Treleaver Park, a now-independent woman he’s lost touch with over his years abroad. Gervase decides to satisfy his end of the deal by pursuing Madeline, but only “enough to make his declaration of incompatibility credible.” However, it’s harder to win some time with the disciplined woman than Gervase foresees, and soon a cast of supporting characters (including Madeline’s three younger brothers) are scheming to get the couple together. Complicating matters are the continuing machinations of Malcolm Sinclair and a nameless villain who believes Madeline’s brothers know where to find a missing treasure. Though it’s a reliable serving of rogues and romance, Laurens’s latest feels like less of the same; reliant on too many stock plots and situations—not to mention Laurens’s endlessly spiraling euphemisms—it’s ultimately too safe to satisfy. (Sept.)

Like You’d Understand, Anyway
Jim Shepard. Knopf, $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0307265210

Following the novel Project X and Love and Hydrogen: New and Selected Stories, Shepard’s new collection takes in landscapes as diverse as 1986 Chernobyl in “The Zero Meter Diving Team,” to 1840s down under in “The First South Central Australian Expedition.” It’s clear that Shepard has done his research in these 11 first-person tales—be it on Alaskan tidal waves for a story about a man contemplating a vasectomy while reliving a childhood tragedy in “Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay” or Sherpas and the Chang Tang tundra in “Ancestral Legacies”, and his precision gives the poignant longing and human emotion of the stories room to resonate. Save for “Eros 7,” about a lovelorn Soviet Cosmonaut set during the US/Russian space race, all are the stories are told by men, often with few female characters. At the core, each is essentially an exploration of familial relationships between men—be it the ill-fated trio of brothers working at the nuclear reactor or the unhappy adolescent camper calling home to find out about his mentally disturbed younger brother in “Courtesy for Beginners.” Shepard’s far-flung explorations get very close to the male heart. (Sept.)

Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill
Michael Dobbs. Sourcebooks, $14.95 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1402210440

Veteran British novelist Dobbs (Winston’s War), who served as an adviser under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, here follows Winston Churchill through the chaotic Dunkirk days and deeper into WWII, smartly relying on auxiliary plotlines to add detail to the larger-than-life Churchill saga. Among the secondaries, the German émigré historian Ruth Mueller is a Hitler biographer and detractor who plays Churchill’s moral compass and confidante. Ironically, Ruth draws the personal parallels between Churchill and his nemesis Hitler. The CBS radio broadcasts of the blunt William L. Shirer, who assesses both men, air from wartime Berlin. Further off, Donald Chichester, a young British orderly in France, lives down his father’s stinging rebuke over his unwillingness to fight with arms, while closer in, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy emerges as an opportunistic, backstabbing cad who self-destructs by the novel’s end. To Dobbs’ credit, Churchill’s character flaws, particularly his drinking and fits of depression, are portrayed alongside his heroics, climaxed by his rousing “never surrender” speech subsequent to the Dunkirk evacuation. Dobbs’ infuses dramatic tension, inventive plots, and heady pacing in the narration of a British icon’s noblest hours. (Sept.)

On The Road: The Original Scroll
Jack Kerouac. Viking, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0670063550

In introducing the fabled first draft of Kerouac’s autobiographical novel—written on a single giant roll of paper, without breaks in the text, in an amphetamine-fueled marathon—editor Howard Cunnell refers to Allen Ginsberg’s claim that “the published novel is not at all like the wild book Kerouac typed in ‘51.” Characters are identified by their real names (rather than the 1957 version’s apt pseudonyms) and their love affairs are more explicit, giving the book a juicy memoir-like feel, especially where Cassady and Ginsberg are concerned. The plot, however, is identical. Neal Cassady joins Kerouac and Ginsberg’s bohemian circle in New York in the late 1940’s, and inspires and cons them into traveling around the country, “searching for a lost inheritance, for fathers, for family, for home, even for America.” The death of Kerouac’s father plays a larger role in the story than in the 1957 version; and Justin W. Brierly, a teacher who served as mentor to Cassady and has a cameo in the published book, makes a series of recurring appearances in the scroll. The lack of paragraphs or chapters emphasizes the breathless intensity of Kerouac’s prose. The anniversary publicity will introduce this classic to a new generation of readers, and while the scroll probably won’t displace the novel’s more familiar, polished incarnation, it will be of keen interest to beat aficionados and scholars. (Sept.)

Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls
Danielle Wood. MacAdam/Cage, $18.75 paper (275p) ISBN 978-1596922525

Linked anecdotes about the perils of young womanhood from Australian author Wood trendily play off of antediluvian diction and antiquated women’s advice columns, but actually possesses some hard-won wisdom. Divided into themes such as virginity, truth, art, commitment, marriage and loss, the tales treat the predictable muddle of female experience, though in the feisty literary persona of not such a “good girl.” Indeed, the first story, “The Deflowering of Rosie Little,” finds the narrator, at 14, eager to look up Latin words in the dictionary used in sexual relations, losing her virginity in the most demeaning fashion at a party to a coarse lager lout who offers her a popular cocktail for girls called “Rene Pogel” (read it backward). In another wacky tale that goes off the rails into reality, “Rosie Little in the Mother Country,” the narrator, now 17, is sent for a long visit to her childless godparents’ house back in England, where the joyless, emotionally numbed couple finds Rosie’s sexual vivacity unnerving and finally insupportable. Despite corny sidebars on penis sizes, pubic hairstyling, and “Nominative Determinism” (you are what you’re named), Wood addresses real issues: domestic violence, abortion and the desire to be married with children, among others. What emerges is a sense of destiny for Rosie, a woman who works hard—as a newspaper reporter and an assistant purser on an American cruise ship, among other things—and senses intuitively that a life of heartstrings’ unraveling is surely worth a pull or two. (Aug.)

The Secret Life of Josephine
Carolly Erickson. St. Martin’s, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0312367350

Erickson’s third foray into what she calls, in a note to the reader, “historical entertainment” (following The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette and The Last Wife of Henry the VIII) presents a compelling if occasionally fanciful first-person account of Napoleon’s legendary first wife. As a child, the future Empress of France was known as Rose Tascher, a girl of “good breeding but no money” on the island of Martinique. At 15, Rose departs Martinique for Paris and an unhappy arranged marriage to Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais. Several years after their divorce, Rose encounters the “rather odd-looking, dark little officer” who will rechristen her Josephine and eventually make her his reluctant empress. As Madame Bonaparte, Josephine’s public life and private life alike are filled with controversy as she copes with the scrutiny of the public eye, the ire of Bonaparte’s family, and Bonaparte himself, whose feelings for her range from codependency to contempt. As he often did in life, Bonaparte upstages the other characters whenever he appears on the page, and his interactions with Josephine are among the most captivating scenes here. Josephine, however, emerges a dynamic and complicated heroine, and holds her own before and after her short-lived marriage to Bonaparte. While Josphine’s Gone With the Wind-esque escape from her family plantation during Martinique’s civil war and an implausible episode at the tale’s climax may rankle sticklers, Erickson has deft hand with psychological portraiture and historical detail. She strips away the romantic idealism with which the empress’s life is often distorted. (Sept.)