LITERARY
CRITICISM & ESSAYS
BOYDELL & BREWER
Voices in the Past: English Literature and Archaeology (Mar., $75) by John Hines aims to link archeology with the critical reading of literature.
CATHOLIC UNIV. OF AMERICA PRESS
Representing the Troubles in Irish Short Fiction (Apr., $64.95) by Michael L. Storey examines 20th-century short stories about Ireland's conflict with England.
COLUMBIA UNIV. PRESS
Humanism and Democratic Criticism (May, $19.95) by Edward Said presents an impassioned argument for humanism's place in today's world.
CONTINUUM
Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture (Apr., $27.95) by Will Brooker analyzes the impact of Alice in Wonderland and its creator, Lewis Carroll, on popular culture.
COUNTERPOINT
The Merry Recluse: A Life in Essays (May, $24) by Caroline Knapp compiles essays written over 15 years by the late author of Drinking: A Love Story and Appetites: Why Women Want. 60,000 first printing. Advertising.
DOUBLEDAY
Stranger than Fiction: True Stories (June, $23.95) by Chuck Palahniuk collects essays and magazine pieces about odd but true stories.
FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX
The Letters of Robert Lowell (July, $40), edited by Saskia Hamilton, features the poet's personal correspondence with noted writers and thinkers of the 20th century.
FOURTH ESTATE
Mortification (June, $19.95) by Robin Robertson. Writers confess their worst public humiliations. 35,000 first printing.
LITTLE, BROWN
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim: Essays (June, $24.95) by David Sedaris offer the humorist's slant on the divide between hope and deed. Ad/promo. 25-city author tour.
NEW PRESS
Hatchet Jobs: Cutting Through Contemporary Literature (June, $23.95) by Dale Peck. A novelist and critic takes a swipe at today's fiction in this collection of reviews.
OVERLOOK PRESS
On Being Born and Other Difficulties (June, $23.95) by F. Gonzales-Crussi blames the trauma of birth for a millennium of misunderstanding.
PANTHEON
Vermeer in Bosnia (July, $25) by Lawrence Weschler. The subjects in more than 20 essays range from a furniture designer with Parkinson's disease to David Hockney's experiments with photography. Advertising. Author tour.
RANDOM HOUSE
Loud and Clear (Apr., $24.95) by Anna Quindlen offers the Pulitzer Prize—winning author's essays on current events and modern life. Ad/promo.
LYNNE RIENNER
Another Life: Fully Annotated (Mar., $55) by Derek Walcott enhances the accessibility of Walcott's history and poetry for the general reader.
TEXAS CHRISTIAN UNIV. PRESS
Texas Literary Outlaws: Six Writers in the Sixties and Beyond (June, $39.95) by Steven L. Davis studies the rebellious lives and sometimes rebellious work of Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Peter Gent, Dan Jenkins, Larry L. King and Edwin "Bud" Shrake.
THAMES & HUDSON
James Joyce's Dublin: A Topographical Guide to the Dublin ofUlysses (June, $45) by Ian Gunn and Clive Hart looks for the physical basis of Ulysses in more than 100 maps and photographs.
UNIV. OF VIRGINIA PRESS
Beloved Boy: Letters to Hendrik C. Andersen, 1899—1915 (Apr., $24.95) by Henry James, edited by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi, collects letters tracing James's fascination with and devotion to a young Norwegian-American artist.
ZONE BOOKS
In Praise of Blandness: Proceeding from Chinese Thought and Aesthetics (Mar., $26) by François Jullien, trans. by Paula M. Varsano, considers the classical Chinese notion of "blandness," not as the absence of defining qualities but as the harmonious union of all potential values.
