LOST BUILDINGS Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly previews Lost Buildings: Demolished Destroyed Imagined Reborn, by Jonathan Glancey, coming in November: "Glancey invites readers to “dream about” buildings lost to antiquity, war, acts of God and modernization. Architecture and design editor at the Guardian, Glancey doesn’t dismiss everything new. What he bemoans is the loss of fine old buildings to generic, cheap new construction or even a parking lot, and overall he offers an entertaining if saddening survey of the long-lost and recently disappeared built landscape." Lost Buildings features more than 300 color and b&w illustrations.

Joe Pappalardo's SUNFLOWERS: THE SECRET HISTORY in Popular Mechanics Magazine

Joe Pappalardao, author of Sunflowers: The Secret History, reveals the real truth bhind sunflowers in the current issue of Popular Mechanics. Commonly regarded as the symbol for all things peace, love and happiness, right? Wrong. The truth is that the Helianthus family, with more than 50 species of sunflowers, has a dark side influenced by evolutionary science, archaeology and military history. Pappalardo describes why this bright, friendly icon—usually associated with midwestern farming, environmental friendliness and Little League snacking—is hiding a past that is rich with intrigue, aggression and envy

Booksellers Speak Out for A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS by R.J. Ellory

Sally Brewster and Frazer Dobson of Park Road Books in Charlotte, North Carolina have joined the chorus of voices singing the praises of R.J. Ellory's A Quiet Belief in Angels:

"Every so often, not often enough, a book comes along that makes us say, "Whoa, Nellie!" Shadow of the Wind was one of them. So was Water for Elephants. Let's not forget King of Lies or Serena. Sometimes it just happens. And it has happened again. Meet our new favorite book, which will be yours too.

R. J. Ellory (known to me as Roger; we've exchanged emails) is a proper Englishman who decided rather than follow the edict of "write what you know," decided he'd rather write what interested him. And that just happened to be the American South. His new novel A Quiet Belief in Angels is set in southern Georgia starting at the time World War II is breaking out. Joseph Vaughan is thirteen, and living in the small-town world of Augusta Falls. The calm and sense of community get shattered early on when young girls start turning up murdered. The killer remains a shadowy presence throughout the novel. Joseph becomes obsessed with the murders, and gathers his friends to become the Guardians. Together, they try to keep the girls of Augusta Falls safe.

The past, of course, follows Joseph even when he moves to Brooklyn to be a writer. Faulkner's famous quote "The past is never dead. It's not even past" really applies here. You won't believe what happens, and you won't see the ending coming at all. (Sally claims she did; I have my doubts!)

A Quiet Belief in Angels is simply stunning. The writing is gorgeous and evocative; you'd never believe it was written by a non- Southerner. It's rich and deep, and the prose is positively Conroy-esque in its description. Sally and I both stayed up way too late reading this novel. Read this book. Just read it."

R.J. Ellory, author of A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, Talks about America . . . and the South

R.J. Ellory, author of A Quiet Belief in Angels, on why America…and why the South:

"Last year I did more than one hundred and fifty public events in England and abroad, and the question I am forever asked is, ‘Why, as an Englishman, are you writing books set in the United States?’

For me, the answer couldn’t be easier. Paul Auster, a wonderful New York novelist, said that becoming a writer was not a ‘career decision’ like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You didn’t so much choose it as get chosen, and once you accepted the fact that you were not fit for anything else, you had to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days. And that was the case for me when it came to choosing the subject matter I wanted to write about.

I was orphaned at seven and spent the next nine years living at various schools. I read voraciously. That’s what I did to fill my time. Cross-country running, table tennis and reading. I read everything I could get my hands on. Through Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie to Algernon Blackwood and HP Lovecraft, I read and read and read. And then I came across American literature – Steinbeck, Hemingway, McCullers, Harper Lee and William Faulkner. It was like coming home. There was a rhythm and a timbre and a poetry to this literature that I had never experienced before, and I fell in love.

When I was thirteen I contracted chicken pox. I was quarantined and left to my own devices for a good week or so. It was during this time – sequestered in a twelve-bed dormitory by myself, the locked door giving on to a black-and-white checkerboard-tiled corridor – that I read a book called ‘The Shining’. Half of it I didn’t understand, and the half that I did understand scared the hell out of me. It was then that I really grasped the power of a great novel, the fact that whereas non-fiction had – as its primary purpose – the conveyance of information, fiction had as its primary purpose the evocation of an emotion.

It was – coincidentally – another Stephen King book that propelled me to write. It was November of 1987. I was studying in the south of England, and a fellow student spent all his meal times and breaks reading a book. I happened to ask him what it was. ‘IT’, he said, ‘by Stephen King’. And then he went on to detail how transfixed and captivated he was by this novel. It was then – in that moment – that a lightbulb went on in my head and I decided that this was what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to write stories that would captivate and transfix readers to the same degree.

Why the South? Why write a book set in Georgia of all places? What is the appeal of this as a setting for a crime novel?’

Well, that question has a very simple answer as well. I went to visit a friend of mine in Austria, and while I was there I came across a copy of Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’. Though I had read ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and ‘Other Voices, Other Rooms’ I had not read Capote’s non-fiction novel masterpiece. I devoured it. I read it a second time, and then became very, very interested in Capote, how the book came about, who he was etc etc. I read his published works again, some articles about him, saw the film ‘Capote’ starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and I came to the conclusion that here was a writer who gave his life for a book. The book 'In Cold Blood' made him very rich, very respected, the most famous author in America for many, many years, but ultimately it killed him. Afterwards he never really published another word, and certainly never completed another novel, and he drank himself to death. So there was the thing: A book could save someone's life, but it could also kill them. The other aspect of it was the fact that Capote left Monroeville, Alabama as a child and went to New York. The 'In Cold Blood' research (which he undertook with his childhood friend and neighbor Harper Lee) took him from New York back to smalltown, mid-west America, namely Holcomb, Kansas. So there was the other interesting idea: the juxtaposition of two worlds - smalltown mid-west America and bigtown New York. Those were the basic threads of inspiration that started me thinking about writing the book. And I wanted to write something that would (hopefully!) make people feel the way I had felt when I read such things as To Kill a Mockingbird, In Cold Blood, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter etc etc. A Southern drama. A sweaty, sticky, intense, almost claustrophobic drama that dealt with the seeming indomitability of the human spirit against all odds. I didn't want to write a book where a Police investigation resulted in the apprehension of a killer, the three pages of psychological revelation about why the killer did what he did, the jealousy, the mother complex, the desperate attempts to kill someone who represented some other significant figure in the killer's earlier life etc. I didn't want the story to be about the killer, but the effect that the killer's actions had - not on those he killed - but on the people whose lives he touched, both directly and indirectly.

There is yet another question about fiction, and that is how much of a writer’s work is autobiographical. Yes, I did lose my parents very early in my life, as did my central character. Yes, I did go to prison (though I went for poaching, not for murder!), and yes, I suppose I always did want to be a writer. But that’s where the similarity ends. A Quiet Belief In Angels was written out of a love for the south, a love of great literature, a passion for language and prose and perplexing mysteries! It was not written to exorcise personal demons, though I can say something about this book that makes it special to me. I think it was Hemingway who talked about losing things. He said that if you lost something bad, then the hole it left behind just filled up naturally with the good experiences of life. However, if you lost something or someone good, then the hole it left behind…well, you had to work hard to fill it up. With every other book I have written I came away feeling that I had added something to myself, that I now knew something more about a subject, that my perspective and experience was somehow enhanced. With A Quiet Belief In Angels it was quite different. When I finished the book I really felt like I’d left something of myself behind. And that – whatever it might be – is what I hope you find when you read it."

Starred Review in Booklist for A DANGEROUS LIAISON: A Revelatory Biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre

Booklist gives top ratings for Carole Seymour-Jones' new biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre, A Dangerous Liaison, coming next month: "While they were young students at the Sorbonne, Sartre proposed marriage to Beauvoir, in contradiction to his philosophy of freedom from society’s conventions. She refused but acquiesced to a bond, an “essential love” that lasted 50 years through the tumult of career ambitions, family frictions, wars, and various and sundry affairs as they changed the literary, philosophical, and cultural scene in Europe and around the world. Seymour-Jones draws on interviews with lovers and colleagues of Sartre and Beauvoir as well as previously unpublished papers to deliver a tour-de-force account of their famously creative relationship. They had a kind of twinship that made them prolific in their work, feeding off each other’s intellectual hunger and personal frailties. Their lives, centered in Paris but lived across continents, were full of contradictions: preaching free love but fighting jealousies as some lovers (her affair with Nelson Algren, his with an American journalist and later a Russian interpreter) threatened their bond; his eventual close association with the Resistance when self-absorption and accommodations with the Nazis kept him on the sidelines a long time; their deliberate blindness that made them complicit with Russian communism; her eventual iconic status as a feminist despite having spent much of her life procuring young women lovers for Sartre, seducing them herself first. Extremely detailed, well researched, and completely absorbing."

THE DARDANELLES DISASTER: Winston Churchill's Greatest Failure Reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly looks at Dan Van der Vat's riveting account of Winston Churchill's greatest-and almost career-ending-defeat in 1915 as the British Navy's made a disastrous attempt to pass through the Dardanelles to Constantinople. Widely regarded as a turning point in the history of World War I, acclaimed naval military expert Van der Vat argues that the disaster at the Dardanelles prolonged the war by two years, led to the Russian Revolution, forced Britain to the brink of starvation, and contributed to the destabilization of the Middle East.

Here's the PW review of The Dardanelles Disaster: Winston Churchill's Greatest Failure: "Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty is the central figure in naval historian van Der Vat's (The Ship that Changed the World) account of a disaster that prolonged the Great War by two years and laid the groundwork for the collapse of the czarist and Ottoman empires. The plan to take the Dardanelles strait was Churchillian in its conception: the boldest strategic concept of WWI, designed to simultaneously outflank a deadlocked Western Front and open a supply route to Russia. Its promise was thwarted by incompetent execution—beginning with Churchill's insistence on the navy forcing the Dardanelles alone, without ground troop support. The Royal Navy's predictable inability to push its battleships past the guns and minefields defending the Dardanelles forts in March 1915 followed the Allies' failure to intercept the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau before they reached Turkish waters and triggered the German-Ottoman alliance. An improvised land campaign undertaken with poorly trained troops whose senior commanders set unsurpassed standards of ineptitude ensued. General readers will find enlightening this extended demonstration of the contributions command can make to catastrophe."

Susan Hill's THE VOWS OF SILENCE in Booklist

The fourth installment of Susan Hill's magnificent series of novels featuring Simon Serrallier is coming in November from The Overlook Press. Booklist offers an early appraisal of The Vows of Silence in the September issue: "Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler is certain the murders taking place in the quiet English community of Laffterton are linked, but neither he nor the members of his investigative team are sure about the common element. In the meantime, the murderer remains on the loose, and he is more than happy to fill in the rationale behind his killing spree (if readers haven’t already guessed it) in occasional chapters that venture into his deluded mind. Complicating matters is an upcoming wedding at the local cathedral with guests of honor to include the Prince of Wales. Individuals familiar with Hill’s three previous books about laidback Chief Inspector Serrailler are the best audience for this fourth series entry, as familiarity with the characters will help sort out the family relationships (Simon’s as well as those of other characters in the town) that play a huge part in the story, constantly drawing on Simon’s attention as he looks for the killer. Fortunately, Hill does a good job balancing the interpersonal stories with the mystery, while adding to the mix a surprising, very credible overlay of deep emotion." -— Stephanie Zvirin

Dr. Irene Levine Explores the Myths of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER in New Book

ForeWord magazine reviews Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend, by Irene S. Levine , Ph.D. in the current issue: "Many women are brought up to believe that they should have one special friend in their lives, a BFF—Best Friend Forever. Unfortunately, this belief often leads to heartbreak, since friends are rarely forever. As people grow and change, so do the dynamics of their friendships, and many friendships lose their initial intimacy or fizzle out altogether. Levine, a psychologist and professor at New York University Medical School, guides women through the myths that set up unrealistic expectations of friendship. She discusses the various reasons a friendship can fail, offers suggestions for saving those worth saving, and tips on bowing gracefully out of those that are no longer working. “Most women relish being the chosen one, the best friend,” Levine writes about the BFF myth. However, chances are slim that one person can fill every niche in another’s life. It is more practical to think of having a close friend for different aspects of one’s life, she says, such as a mom-friend for play dates with the kids, a philosophical friend for intellectual conversations, and an outgoing friend who can introduce you to new people and experiences.

This book is of interest to all women. While much of it focuses on what can go wrong in a friendship and how to deal with endings, there is also great advice on how to make friends and keep them. Forgiveness, avoiding ruts, and apologizing when warranted are some of the ways to save a worthwhile friendship. After all, friendships are important even if they don’t last forever, and a BFF is a wonderful asset. As one woman put it, “Your best friend isn’t the person you call when you are in jail; most likely, she is sitting in the cell beside you.” - Christine Canfield

Meet Amy S. Foster, Author of WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES, at PNBA in Portland on September 11

Amy S. Foster, author of When Autumn Leaves, will appear at the Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Association Trade Show on September 10-11 in Portland, Oregon. Amy will appear at the Author's Feast event on Friday, September 11 and autograph advance copies of her new novel.

Born in Victoria, Canada to singer B.J. Cook and legendary record producer David Foster, Amy S. Foster originally opted out of a career in music and chose international business instead. While going to American University in Washington DC, she took a course in creative writing with renowned poet Ann Darr that would change the direction of her life. After graduating, Amy moved to London to hone her literary skills, determined to get a collection of her own poetry published. It was there that she met producer Martin Terefe (KT Tunstall, Jason Mraz, Cat Stevens) who asked her if she wanted him to put some music to her poetry. The two made a ground breaking spoken word record which turned Amy’s focus entirely to music and from there, the progression to becoming a lyricist was natural. Since then, artists have sought out Amy’s easy, conversational style of writing and her uncanny ability to help them tell their own stories. She has penned two number one hits with Michael Buble (Home and Everything), and has worked with artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Destiny’s Child, Solange Knowles, Eric Benet, Diana Krall, Josh Groban, One Flew South, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, John Paul White, RyanDan, The Three Graces and Brooke White.

The premiere installment of the Jaen Saga, When Autumn Leaves, Amy’s first work of fiction is being published by Overlook Press in October 2009.

New in Paperback: Christopher Rush's WILL

New in paperback this month is Will, a delightful novel that catapults us into the vivid world of William Shakespeare. It is March 1616. The Bard is dying. His lawyer at his bedside, he will attempt to dictate his will. But how can a man put his affairs in on order before he's come to terms with past. Author Christopher Rush has taught Shakespeare for thirty years, and is the author of twelve critically acclaimed works of fiction, memoir, and poetry.

Bookpage offers a review: "What does it feel like to be seized body and soul by sudden fear or desire? To steal power, submit to power, relinquish power? To tumble for the first time with the love of your life? To mourn a father? Lose a child? Betray someone's trust, or have yours betrayed? Or, finally, to be able to acknowledge your own hunger, your own mortality, your insatiable lust for living?

William Shakespeare answers these questions again and again, in play after play, always with stupendous insight. The Bard shows us the human being exactly as it lives and suffers and rejoices, under ever-familiar circumstances, however dramatically enhanced. To be so well-versed in humanity, Shakespeare must have been one hell of a human being--or not, but such a contradiction would only intensify the mystery. That's why it's so tantalizing to have so few scraps of evidence about what sort of person dear old Will really was.

To British author Christopher Rush, these scraps--along with the plays and poems themselves, which he taught for 30 years--are all the stuff he needs to perform his own feat of Shakespearean magic. Just as Will summons into thrilling reality hunchbacked Richard, ill-used Othello and fat Falstaff, Rush brings to startling life Shakespeare himself--or rather, "brings to death," for the pages of Will are spoken by Will himself, on his deathbed, consigning his final will to his lawyer. Above all, it is the sheer chutzpah of Rush's enterprise--the detailing of Shakespeare's life and work from Shakespeare's own mouth, from before the cradle to beyond the grave--that elevates his story into its authentic globe, where the ultimate human heart is revealed.

Here's the rare rendering of an artist in which art is not reduced by biography, but enlarged by it; where sex and death are not the caricatured obsessions of the poet, but his boundless and worthy themes. But take warning, reader: the London of the Elizabethan Age is rough trade, the theatre lying hard by the whorehouse and execution ground. Christopher Rush gives it all to us with uncensored glee and unfeigned horror."

Penny Vincenzi's WINDFALL in Booklist

Booklist takes note of Penny Vincenzi's Windfall: "Cassia Tallow, the independent, only child of a suffragette, wants to be a doctor, but given that she comes of age at the close of World War I, the closest she gets is marrying one. Cassia lives a quiet, pleasant life in West Sussex with her husband and their three children. Until the day she inherits half a million pounds from her sophisticated, slightly eccentric godmother. Suddenly everything is changed; everything is within reach; doors are open to her, and she can do whatever she likes. So Cassia moves to London and splurges on clothes, cars, and anything else she covets that she couldn’t afford before. But while she’s busy jetsetting around London, hanging out with glamorous people, and trying to restart her medical studies, she realizes that she’s hurting her husband and family in more ways than one. Then she begins to wonder where exactly the money she inherited came from. Another stirring novel with an ensemble cast from the prolific and entertaining Vincenzi."

Rachel DeWoskin's REPEAT AFTER ME Reviewed in Critical Pages

Margaret Black of Critical Pages review's Rachel DeWoskin's debut novel Repeat After Me: "Four years ago, Rachel DeWoskin bounced onto the literary scene with a funny, insightful memoir about a time just out of college when she worked for a PR firm in Beijing. Much to her surprise and delight, she was cast to play the part of an American temptress in what became a wildly popular Chinese TV soap opera called Foreign Babes in Beijing. While DeWoskin’s book touched on many serious subjects, the plot of the soap opera and her hilarious experiences while filming were what swept readers along.

In Repeat After Me, DeWoskin has boldly sought to transmute her knowledge of China and her very considerable writing talent into fiction, this time by confecting a cross-cultural love story between Aysha Silvermintz, a very troubled young American English teacher in New York City, and Da Ge, an an irritable, volatile young pupil, whose father has sent him away from Beijing to protect him from the fallout of the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989.

DeWoskin has down pat the many confusions and surprises of cross- cultural difference and misunderstanding, but she also succeeds in making them individual. The author has assembled a rich collection of characters, most of them beautifully realized. More than a love story about a man and a woman, Repeat After Me is really a paeon to friendship among women and to an ideal of family ties, manifest in this story between Aysha, her mother, her daughter, and Da Ge’s father. The novel may lack the humor of Foreign Babes, and it avoids all the political threat that was just under the surface of that memoir, but it’s a well-told complex story of interesting people."

Justin Allen's THE YEAR OF THE HORSE in Publishers Weekly

Justin Allen's The Year of the Horse in Publishers Weekly: "Allen, author of the historical fantasy Slaves of the Shinar, plots a supernatural wild west adventure in his sophomore outing that should hold appeal for younger readers. Chinese-American teenager Tzu-lu finds his life upended when his grandparents send him on an expedition west with famous gunslinger Jack Straw and his rag-tag crew of mercenaries. Exploring anew the tropes of the cowboy western—Indians, polygamous cultists, “Ghost Riders” and the perils of the open desert—Allen follows the gang to Silver City, the very edge of settled America, to reclaim a treasure stolen by a mysterious man known as “the Yankee,” and perhaps illuminate the fate of Tzu-lu's dead father. With a few playful nods to Washington Irving, Allen mixes western and fantasy into a high adventure coming-of-age, keeping his world's more outré elements grounded with a surfeit of dead-on historical details. "

Dilip Hiro's INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA in N+1

Isaac Scarborough takes a long look at Dilip Hiro's Inside Central Asia in the current issue of N+1: "Hiro’s account provides a fast-moving and well-sourced genealogy of the Central Asian republics’ political and economic trajectories, focusing on the post-Stalinist period up to the present day. It is unlikely that more comprehensive analysis of this period in Central Asia has been written, and it serves as a valuable update to Hiro’s earlier Between Marx and Muhammad: the Changing Face of Central Asia). It quickly becomes clear moreover, that much as in his previous work, Hiro rejects the supposed choice between the Turkish and Iranian models—especially given the ascendancy of the openly Islamic, if not Islamist, Justice and Development Party in Turkey and the elevation of Abdullah Gul to the presidency, which, Hiro says, broke “the secular establishment’s eighty-four year grip on power.” If there is a choice facing Central Asia, it may be which of two histories to return to: pre-Soviet Islam or the authoritarianism bequeathed to the republics by the Soviets, and under which they lived for the greater part of a century."

A DANGEROUS LIASION by Caroline Seymour-Jones in Library Journal

Library Journal takes at A Dangerous Liaison: A Revelatory New Biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre by Carole Seymour-Jones: "Much has been written about the famous literary couple de Beauvoir and Sartre. Having gained access to their private journals and letters after their deaths, scholars have been reassessing their lives and their relationship. Drawing from primary and secondary sources, Seymour-Jones creates an absorbing and not always positive dual biography of these two complicated individuals. Her work spans their lives from childhood through their war, postwar, and twilight years. The author often underscores the major discrepancies between their memoirs/interviews and what they wrote privately in journals and letters. Like characters in Laclos's eponymous novel, Sartre and de Beauvoir callously played with people's lives; de Beauvoir would choose women for Sartre to seduce and then cruelly reject. Initially, this couple was apathetic about politics and expressed little resistance to the German occupation during World War II despite their later leftist tendencies. An important contribution to the study of de Beauvoir and Sartre that will be appreciated both by general readers and by scholars of French literature and culture and women's studies."—Erica Swenson Danowitz.

P.F. Kluge's EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS and Those Wild Summer Nights

Jeff Schwachter of Atlantic City Weekly has written a wonderful article on the 25th anniversary of the classic rock and roll film Eddie and The Cruisers, based on the novel by P.F. Kluge. Here's a brief excerpt about the book behind the film:

"Many things inspired novelist, freelance writer (Rolling Stone, Life) and northern New Jersey native Kluge to pen the 1980 novel. "Two or three things came together," says Kluge from his office at Ohio's Kenyon College where he has been a teacher for more than a decade. "I always loved early rock 'n' roll ... doo-wop groups basically. ... Those songs just kind of worked their way into me and I've never lost them. I carry them with me [and] the way that they could come back to you all through the rest of your life and haunt you intrigued me. And the second thing was wondering about what happens to the survivors of a group after its star, its leader, perishes."
"[Eddie] is about some tapes that were supposedly made way back when [and] going back into the past to retrieve something, to consider what happened to other people, and what has happened to you and what might have been," says Kluge.

Another inspiration for Kluge's book was southern New Jersey, a landscape the young writer caught only a glimpse of one summer, long ago. "In the summer of 1962, I worked as a reporter -- a sort of summer job -- on the Vineland Times Journal," says Kluge. "And this acquainted me with a New Jersey that was quite different from the New Jersey I knew. Because the northern part of the state is sort of within the field of force of New York City. ... the southern part was entirely different. It was rural. It was eccentric. It was a little mysterious to me: the diners, the traffic circles, the little crossroad towns, the odd pockets of ethnic groups."

"I always liked the fact that the filmmakers did two things," says Kluge. "They stuck with the flashback structure [of the novel] -- so you're cutting back and forth between the present time, where Frank Ridgeway, the Wordman, is a high-school teacher in early middle-age, and going back to the summer on the Jersey Shore maybe two decades or so before. ... I like that they had the integrity to stay with that so that the past and present could play off each other.
"The other thing is [they] could have made it about a surf group in California and they made it in New Jersey," says Kluge. "That pleased me." Kluge always wanted his main character to be from South Jersey. "I think when I sat down to write Eddie in 1980, I realized that I didn't want him to be a suburban kid who was going into Greenwich Village on weekends," says Kluge. "I wanted him to be from that New Jersey 'down south.' And I thought Vineland was a good town for him to be from."

Early Praise for Amy S. Foster's WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES

Foreword Magazine takes a sneak preview of When Autumn Leaves, a new novel by Amy S. Foster that will be published in October:

"When Autumn Leaves, the title of Amy Foster's debut novel, refers not to Johnny Mercer's song of lost love, but to the gentle and wise witch Autumn Avening, who has been notified of a promotion and has to select her successor from a list of thirteen names. It's no easy task, for each person on that list holds a special power, which may or may not benefit the town. Autumn decides to hold a contest for an apprentice and choose her disciple.

This is the first book in a series about the town of Avening and its magical inhabitants. Foster introduces the main characters that readers can assume will be making their appearances in subsequent books with an expanded storyline. Each one has a whimsical quality that might be seen as personality quirks or traits in mere mortals; these qualities bring a unique twist to Foster's story about the splendor and wonder of everyday life.

Foster captures Avening in delightful prose, putting the reader right in the center of the quaint Northwestern town. Her lyrical imagery brings to life the town and its people; readers can imagine enjoying tea with Autumn in her homey kitchen at Demeter's Grove, and can laugh along with the mischievous Justy, whose shoe-making wizardry can turn a seemingly shy and invisible person into a songbird.

Foster's eccentric characters make readers giggle with their foibles, but there are bittersweet moments, too. Love and betrayal, illness and death all make their appearances. In the second half of the book, for example, readers are introduced to Piper Shigeru, who is dying from a brain tumor. Piper is like many of the town's inhabitants and has mysterious talents. Her special gift is the ability to travel to another dimension. There, she'll spend the rest of her life without physical pain and in peace, but the trade-off is that she'll never see her husband and daughters again.

Primarily known as a songwriter, Foster writes beautiful, narrative prose. While the dialogue can seem a bit forced, the characters and the richness of Foster's material carry the story along. When Autumn Leaves is a sweet fable of life's twists and turns which reminds us of the wonders of life and death, friendship and love, disappointment, and failure." - Rebeca Schiller

THE ALCHEMASTER'S APPRENTICE by Walter Moers in Booklist

The Alchemaster's Apprentice is the new novel from Walter Moers, the world renowned German author of novels and comics. Following in the steps of The 131/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Rumo, and The City of Dreaming Books, The Alchemaster's Apprentice takes readers back to that favorite place: Zamonia.

Booklist offers a preview in the September 1 issue: "In another fascinating fantasy, Moers takes us to Malaisea, the sickest place in all Zamonia. Echo, a crat (much like a cat, except it talks), recently bereft of his mistress and thrown out on the street to fend for himself, makes a deal with Ghoolion the Alchemaster, who terrorizes the city: in exchange for a month of entertainment and delightful food, Ghoolion can kill Echo and render his fat at the next full moon. Despite some false starts, the curious and likable Echo makes a variety of interesting new friends, learns some of the Alchemaster’s best-hidden secrets, and even comes up with a plan to save himself. Among his friends are the revolutionary tuwituwu Theodore T. Theodore and a colony of leathermice named Vlad; both teach Echo valuable lessons in startling ways. Meanwhile, he eats some of the strangest and most delectable food imaginable. Moers has created an absolutely charming world populated by lovable characters, and the well-paced stories he tells about it are informed by fairy-tale morality."

David Crystal, author of WALKING ENGLISH, On Tour in the U.S. This Fall

We are thrilled to announce that David Crystal, author of Walking English, How Language Works, The Story of English, and many other books, will be in the U.S. this Fall on a lecture circuit. New in paperback from Overlook is Walking English: A Journey in Search of Language (previously titled By Hook or By Crook in hardcover).

Professor David Crystal is one of the world's foremost authorities on the English language. He works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer and broadcaster of international repute. He became known chiefly for his research work and academic career in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts.

Here are the confirmed dates - with more on the way.

Wednesday 14 October, Penn State University, USA.
Friday 16 October, Georgetown University.
Monday 19 October, American University, Washington.
Tuesday 20 October, American University, Washington.
Thursday 22 October, UC Berkeley
Friday 23 October, UC Berkeley Language Center
Monday 2 November, 2 pm. Utica NY

Stay tuned to The Winged Elephant or David Crystal's blog for more dates and details!

Meet CEREMONIAL VIOLENCE Author Jonathan Fast at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC on August 26

Jonathan Fast, author of Ceremonial Violence, will join Susan Shapiro and others at the "Speed Shrinking Book Party and Free Head Shrinking" on August 26 at the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe in New York.

Whether you need a shrink, a book, or a book shrink, a line up of brilliant writing gurus will be on hand to meet, greet, and help you get over all your success blocks for free! Celebrate Susan Shapiro’s new novel Speed Shrinking and “speed date” with actual mental health pros— while your regular psychiatrist is away for the summer!

Starring: Writing professor Susan Shapiro, author of SPEED SHRINKING; Psychologist Diana Kirschner, author of LOVE IN 90 DAYS; Sociologist Jonthan Fast, author of CEREMONIAL VIOLENCE; Social worker Sherry Amatenstein, author of LOVE LESSONS FROM BAD BREAKUPS; Diet coach Connie Bennett, author of SUGAR SHOCK; Derner Institute Psychotherapist Jay Crosby; Manuscript doctor Paula Derrow, editor at Self magazine & BEHIND THE BEDROOM DOOR.

STRANGE TELESCOPES: Daniel Kalder's Anti-Tourism Crusade

Sam Jordison reviews Strange Telescopes in 3AM magazine: "Strange Telescopes is the second instalment in Daniel Kalder’s anti-tourism crusade. Anti-tourism, in case you haven’t been lucky enough to encounter it so far, is a philosophy of travel Kalder claims to have forged in the Shymkent Hotel, Shymkent, Kazakhstan, October 1999. In this auspicious place he also laid down a manifesto the first three points of which are:

1. “As the world has become smaller so its wonders have diminished. There is nothing amazing about the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, or the Pyramids of Egypt. They are as banal and familiar as the face of a Cornflakes Packet.
2. “Consequently the true unknown frontiers lie elsewhere.
3. “The duty of the traveller therefore is to open up new zones of experience. In our over explored world these must of necessity be wastelands, black holes, and grim urban blackspots: all the places which, ordinarily, people choose to avoid.”

The rest is just as interesting and provocative, the final point, especially so: “The anti-tourist loves truth, but he is also partial to lies. Especially his own.” It’s only natural that the man who came up with such a policy document writes good books. His first, Lost Cosmonaut, took him to some of the former USSR’s more obscure ’stans. Dark places on the map ruled by statue-hungry megalomaniacs and – surprisingly – Buddhists. The book was, to use the technical terminology, fucking awesome. The kind of book that makes anyone else (all right, me) with an eye on alternative travel writing and the beauty of ugliness, extremely jealous – but also keen to read more. As much as possible. So I’ve been looking forward to the follow up for a long time – and wasn’t disappointed. It also is fucking awesome. Kalder’s delight in encountering such strangeness is an easily shared pleasure. But he doesn’t just see madness, pointless endeavour and absurdity. He sees the suffering, struggling, yet always hopeful humans behind it. Yes, he laughs at the fools, but this is not a cruel book. He pities them too. The portraits he gives are affectionate and warm and often moving. These strange men and their strange longing for … more… wins Kalder’s sympathy and even admiration – and that of the reader in turn. As Kalder makes us see, these are important people. People who make the world more interesting. Just as this book does. "

Dr. Irene Levine's BEST FRIENDS FOREVER in Midwest Book Review

Midwest Book Review takes a look at Best Friends Forever: How to Survive the Break-Up of Your Best Friend, by Irene S. Levine, Ph.D., coming next month - and just in time for National Friendship Day on September 20: "Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend is an uplifting and honest book for abandoned friends who are seeking advice to alleviate their pain.

Dr. Irene Levine draws from the personal testimonies of thousands of women to provide anecdotes and groundbreaking solutions to this distressing experience. Offering tools for personal assessment, case stories, and actionable advice for saving, ending, or re-evaluating a relationship, Levine shows that breakups are sometimes inevitable - but not unbearable. . . Best Friends Forever is an astute, ground breaking, easily read book, which holds one's interest from beginning to end. It is highly recommended for psychotherapists whose practices are filled with people mourning the loss of their best friends, the mourners themselves, which includes just about everybody at some time or another in their lives, and the families and friends who love them and feel helpless in confronting their pain."

Celebrate Elvis Week 2009 with Adam Victor's THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA

It's Elvis Week in Memphis, and as thousands of fan gather to celebrate the King this week, we have just one bit of advice: All you need to know is in The Elvis Encyclopedia. Published last year by Overlook, Adam Victor's monumental testament to Elvis is an indispensable reference guide. The Elvis Encyclopedia is also a visual compendium of Elvis’s life, offering hundreds of photographs, ranging from never-before-seen unposed moments to the extraordinary iconic images the world has come to love. With this definitive one-stop resource, fans and scholars have easy access to all of the information on Elvis’s life and times, testing what is real against legend. The facts are represented in full—a childhood mired in poverty, his unstoppable rise to the top with over 150 gold, platinum, or multi-platinum albums, 31 feature films, and 14 Grammy awards, his marriage to Priscilla, his early death. Entries cover every significant aspect of Elvis and his world from family members, lovers, benefactors, mentors, agents, directors, co-stars, and coaches.Complete with cross-referencing and a comprehensive bibliography, The Elvis Encyclopedia surpasses everything that has come before it.

Another Rave for Penny Vincenzi's WINDFALL

A great notice in Publishers Weekly for Penny Vincenzi 's Windfall: "The British have coined a term for the kind of novels Vincenzi writes: bonkbusters. Her most recent one to appear stateside is a prime example: fast-paced, well written and full of sex. It’s set in 1930s London, where the very rich drink champagne with Edward VIII and the Mountbattens, while the poor have too many babies, nonexistent health care and can only afford to follow the antics of their royal family on the radio. Cassia Tallow, trained as a doctor but playing wife and mother when we first meet her, inherits a fortune from her glamorous godmother. The windfall thrusts Cassia back into a world of high society, high fashion and old lovers. It also gives her the opportunity to go back to practicing medicine and ministering to working-class women, which her husband has prevented her from doing. But when Cassia begins to suspect that the money may not be rightfully hers, she goes to dangerous lengths to find the truth. Once again, Vincenzi delivers grade-A entertainment."

Dilip Hiro's INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA in Literary Review

Jason Burke takes a long look at Dilip Hiro’s Inside Central Asia in the August issue of Literary Review: “Hiro is a prolific author and sometimes disappoints readers by deploying his obvious powers of analysis sparingly. Happily his fine latest work, Inside Central Asia, is littered with perceptive points. . . .This is a useful, well-researched, detailed and intelligent book.” Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Iran is available in bookstores everywhere.

Harry Sidebottom's FIRE IN THE EAST in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly takes a look at the extraordinary new novel Fire in the East, by Harry Sidebottom, Book One in the Warrior of Rome series: "In this blood and guts tale of ancient warfare, Oxford lecturer Sidebottom introduces readers to Marcus Clodius Bastilla, a third-century warrior who has risen through the ranks of the Roman army to achieve citizenship and the honorific of Dux Ripea. Charged by the emperors Valerian and Gallienus with the responsibility of defending the empire’s eastern borders, Bastilla says good-bye to his new wife and sets sail for the East. Once he arrives at the Syrian city of Arete on the banks of the Euphrates, Bastilla organizes his legionaries to defend against the besieging Sassanid Persian army and hold out until reinforcements can arrive. In addition to having his hands full with the invading army, Bastilla must also deal with traitors, saboteurs, assassins and patrician officers who resent obeying the orders of a low-born superior. How the brave and resourceful former barbarian defends himself from forces both within and without the city walls forms the spine of this action-packed and detail-rich narrative. This novel of sharp swords and blunt wit should find an appreciative audience among bloodthirsty battle boys of all ages."

Overlook Preview: BEST FRIENDS FOREVER by Dr. Irene Levine

Coming next month is the much-anticipated Best Friends Forever: Surviving the Break-Up with Your Best Friend, by Irene S. Levine, Ph.D. Known to readers of The Huffington Post and many other publications as the "Friendship Doctor," Levine offers the first guide for women recovering from a breakup of their best friend.

Here's a sampling of the advance praise for Best Friends Forever:

“For anyone who has ever had a friend, but especially for those who’ve ended close relationships, Irene Levine has written a beautiful guide to recovery and healing. It’s a book filled with honest reflections and heartfelt advice.” —Jeffrey Zaslow, New York Times bestselling author of The Girls from Ames and co-author of The Last Lecture

“Finally, a book that helps you get through the other type of breakup.” —Andrea Lavinthal and Jessica Rozler, authors of Friend or Frenemy?

“The end of a friendship is painful and sad, regardless of the circumstances. Dr. Irene Levine explores this difficult subject with insight and heart, plus a look at the latest research. Her guidance is especially interesting and helpful regarding Facebook and other new developments that are changing the meaning of friendship in today’s world.” —Florence Isaacs, author of Toxic Friends/True Friends and What Do You Say When...

“Dr. Irene Levine’s Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend should be every woman’s BFF! Written in a breezy yet thoughtful style and peppered with stories from real-life best friends, this guide shows that female friendships are rich, life-affirming, joyful—but often very complicated too. We women love our friends, but we feel completely alone and confused when those friendships get troubled or even disappear. In her unique self-help guide, Dr Levine gives essential advice and tips for navigating the ups and downs of female friendship.” —Joanne Rendell, author of The Professors’ Wives’ Club and Crossing Washington Square

“Best Friends Forever explodes the myths about female friendships and is a readable, entertaining survival manual filled with practical advice for girls and women of all ages. The book reminds us that it is the nature of relationships to change over time, and helps us understand and cope with those changes. We don't expect to marry our elementary school sweethearts, and it is equally rare for our best friends from childhood to be there for us forever. This book will help you navigate the choppy waters that complicate friendships, advise you on how to salvage the friendships that can and should be saved, and guide you to move on when necessary.” —Diana Zuckerman, PhD, Psychologist, President, National Research Center for Women & Families

“A fractured friendship can be as painful as any other break-up, whether you’ve been jilted by a friend or been the one to do the jilting. Irene S. Levine understands the complications of friendship—the lulls, the obstacles, and yes, the dissolutions, and offers kind, practical and realistic tools to recover from a break-up and emerge strong, healthy and complete.” —Allison Winn Scotch, New York Times bestselling author of Time of My Life

Maureen Freely's ENLIGHTENMENT in NYTBR's "Paperback Row"

Maureen Freely's acclaimed novel Enlightenment was featured in the New York Times Book Review's "Paperback Row" column on Sunday: "In this complex psychological thriller by Orharn Pamuk's American translator, a journalist investigates the disappearance of an American woman who, as a student in Istanbul in the 1970s, was involved with a group of radicals who may have committed a murder. A critique of Turkish politics, it is full of evocative descriptions of the city then and now."

New York in the 70s: Hot Fun in the Summertime

Allan Tannenbaum's New York in the 70s is the perfect summer time capsule for that memorable decade. In this photo, Musicians United for Safe Energy present an Anti-Nuclear Power rally and concert on the Battery Park City landfill opposite the World Trade Center's twin towers in 1979.