More Praise for Jid Lee's Korean Memoir TO KILL A TIGER

Maria Browning reviews To Kill a Tiger by Jid Lee in Chapter 16, the online book review home of the Tennessee Humanities Commission: "Jid Lee's To Kill a Tiger: A Memoir of Korea begins with a gruesome family myth told to six-year-old Lee by her grandmother. A beautiful, virtuous ancestor, so the story goes, was guaranteed the eternal good will of the gods toward all her descendants. There was one condition: that she let herself be eaten alive by a tiger. In the West such a tale would likely end with a last-minute reprieve or a miraculous escape from the tiger's belly—but in the Korea of Lee's childhood, happy endings weren't so simple. The story concludes with the ancestor's kin finding "one of her breasts, half-eaten, under a tall oak tree, and a hand with three fingers on the grass near the trail." But her descendants do happily prosper, at least until a less virtuous male of the family spoils the deal, and Lee's grandmother drives home the moral of the story: "Women in your clan have all been so brave and firm. They never hesitated to do anything for the good of the family, just like the tiger woman. They were warriors. You, my dear, are going to be a fighter, following them.

To Kill a Tiger is the story of how Lee did get out, eventually emigrating to the United States and becoming a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Beyond this narrative of liberation, it's the account of a young woman's attempt to resolve her feelings about a family that is loving and in many ways supportive of her dreams but also repressive, demeaning, and violent. Lee was born in South Korea in 1955, and as the subtitle suggests, her book is also a remembrance of that country in the decades after the post-WWII bifurcation, when memories of the North-South conflict between 1950 and 1953, as well as the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, were still fresh in the minds of Koreans.

The backdrop to Lee's troubled childhood is Korea's turbulent political history, which she describes in some depth—partly in order to explain her father's predicament and partly to present an alternative to the standard pro-American version of the country's history. Lee sees the U.S. as a bad actor in the Korean conflict, quashing a genuine democratic reform movement in the South and installing the rabidly anti-communist dictatorship that imprisoned and tortured her father. . .In the final chapter of the book, she writes of a dream in which she comes to realize that her image of America was an impossible ideal, "a place where everything was perfect and nothing could survive." Making peace with the reality of America's possibilities, she also acknowledges its flaws.

This reconciliation is mirrored in her relationship with her family and the culture that shaped it. During her years in America, Lee comes to see the many ways her family showed love for her, in spite of their harshness. She comes to appreciate her father's unyielding sense of principle, seeing that his example gave her the strength to challenge her traditional role. Speaking of her younger sister, who is a prominent Korean journalist, Lee says, "Two—not just one—very strong-minded feminists were born and raised in one relentlessly patriarchal family, and this ironic outcome proves to me what a great family it was." She has resolved the dilemma presented in her grandmother's story and defeated the tiger with courage, perseverance, and insight. It seems like a very Korean happy ending."

Overlook Preview: FROM AWAY by David Carkeet

Coming in March is a new novel - and the Overlook debut -from acclaimed novelist David Carkeet. From Away is a splendidly entertaining comic novel that is also a finely wrought mystery. Here's a sampling of the early praise:

"Anyone who doesn't laugh out loud at David Carkeet's writing needs to have their pulse checked. He's a very clever fellow, and this is a deftly funny book."--Carl Hiaasen

“If Alfred Hitchcock could remake Fargo, it might feel something like David Carkeet's comic-absurd latest.” – Publishers Weekly

“What a unique and engaging voice has David Carkeet. From Away is humanely funny, mysterious, and most unpredictable. It’s filled with unexpected delights, most of which come courtesy of his wise-cracking, edge-seeking protagonist Denny Braintree. I’m not sure how Carkeet does it, but I’m glad he does. Fresh and unafraid. Enjoyment guaranteed.” -T. Jefferson Parker

“Imagine Preston Sturges and Ruth Rendell collaborating and you’ve got From Away. Beautifully plotted, emotional resonant and, most of all, hilarious.” - Jonathan Kellerman

David Carkeet is the author of six novels, including Double Negative, The Full Catastrophe, and The Error of Our Ways. His memoir, Campus Sexpot, won the Creative Nonfiction Award given by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Among his honors are an Edgar nomination, a James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation, an O. Henry Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His short stories and essays have appeared in American Literature, Carolina Quarterly, Kansas Quarterly, The North American Review, The Oxford American, River Styx, The San Francisco Review of Books, New York Stories, The New York Times Magazine, Poets & Writers, and The Village Voice. For many years, David Carkeet taught linguistics and writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also directed the MFA program there and edited its literary journal, Natural Bridge. He now lives in Vermont with his wife and two children.

Michael Moritz's RETURN TO THE LITTLE KINGDOM Charts the Success of Steve Jobs and Apple

Steve Jobs and Apple are in the news again with today's Ipad announcement. Apple fans who are interested in the history of the company should not miss Return to the Little Kingdom, by Michael Moritz, the definitive biography of Apple and its founders from the very beginning. Moritz follows the fortunes of the company through the mid-1980s, and in new material, tracks the development of Apple to the present and offers an insider’s profile of Jobs, whose genius made Apple the powerhouse it is today.

More Praise for Clarissa Dickson Wright's SPILLING THE BEANS

Another stellar review for Clarissa Dickson Wright's Spilling the Beans: "Clarrisa Dickson Wright is one half of British television’s Two Fat Ladies cooking team. When her autobiography was first published in the UK in 2007, it was met with wide acclaim. It’s not hard to see why.

The first official U.S. edition becomes available this month from Overlook Press and it’s a surprisingly complete book. In a way, Spilling the Beans has everything: fame, celebrity, addiction, heartbreak... and, of course, food. Lots and lots of food.

The only reason I can think of that it’s taken this long for Spilling the Beans to get to this side of the water is the very real possibility that a lot of people in the U.S. have never heard of Two Fat Ladies, or at least, had not until 2008 when the series that ended in 1998 after the death of Dickson Wright’s cooking partner, Jennifer Paterson, was released here.

Spilling the Beans recounts some of that time but the Fat Ladies years are only a small part of Dickson Wright’s journey to date. At its core, Spilling the Beans is a story of redemption. About the little rich girl -- Dickson Wright, of course -- with an abusive, alcoholic father. She grows to be a brilliant young woman (and ends up being the youngest woman in the UK ever called to the bar), a dilettante (she ends up partying away a significant fortune), her recovery through AA, then traveling the English countryside in the sidecar of a motorcycle with the late Paterson.

This is a well told, joyous memoir that, for me, is all about finding your way back. Even those largely unfamiliar with Dickson Wright will enjoy her humor and wit." - Aaron Blanton, January Magazine

Remembering Robert Burns with SCOTLAND: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Rosemary Goring

Tonight is Burns Night, the annual celebration of Robert Burns, Scotland's favorite son, who was born on this day in 1757. Also known as the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard, Burns) is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and his birthday is celebrated worldwide.

Just released in paperback, Rosemary Goring's Scotland: The Autobiography is a vivid, wide-ranging, and engrossing account of Scotland s history, composed of timeless stories by those who experienced it first-hand. From the battlefield to the sports field, this is living, accessible history told by crofters, criminals, servants, housewives, poets, journalists, nurses, politicians, prisoners, comedians, sportsmen, and many more. There several excerpts about Robert Burns, including a fascinating review by Henry Mackenzie in 1786.

Interview with Harry Sidebottom, author of FIRE IN THE EAST: Volume One in THE WARRIOR OF ROME Series

Rachael Hannan of 50Connect recently posted this interview with novelist and historian Harry Sidebottom: "Fire in the East is set in AD255 and follows the life of a Roman officer called Marcus Clodius Ballista, who is sent east to defend the city of Arete from attack by religious fundamentalists, the Sassanid Persians. It is an adventure thriller brimming with action, intrigue, love, and betrayal, set in the period known by historians as the 'Crisis of the Roman Empire.’ The novel also raises important contemporary questions about individual political and religious loyalties, and the realities of defending freedom.

The author, Dr. Harry Sidebottom, is a fellow of Ancient History at Oxford University. His interest in all things classical was sparked whilst in his first year of A-levels, when his godfather gave him a copy of Robin Lane Fox’s biography of Alexander the Great.

“I loved it and I decided I wanted to write books like it,” he says.

An enduring fan of historical adventure fiction, he says that it seemed a natural progression to combine two of his life long passions and experiment with literary techniques in a novel - something forbidden in academic historical texts. The history of Rome is very well-documented by the Romans themselves, however, Fire In The East is set in the 3rd Century, a period we know significantly less about, and the period Harry specialises in with his academic research.

“I picked the 3rd century because this is what is referred to by academics, in a rather a Freudian way as the dark tunnel, because there are less records. I picked it quite deliberately because it is a mini Roman Dark Age. The second and fourth centuries are very well known, but the third century isn’t and it was that relative lack of documentation that made me choose it, because it gave me more freedom to make up the stories.”

“The stories in the series of three books are fiction, but the stories rest on a historical background as real as I can make it. “What I have taken as my literary model is the work of Patrick O’Brien and Mary Renault. Apart form the fact they were superb historians and wrote incredibly well, they also had the courage to dare to let their character’s be different from modern people. “Too many novelists have a modern person with modern values dressed up in a toga or a centurion’s outfit. I wanted to get away form that and make my characters think and feel differently in different circumstances from the way we would today. "So I hope a reader who reads it and knows nothing about Rome will have painlessly learnt a lot by the end, and I hope a reader who knows a lot about Roman history will be provoked into questioning some of the things they thought they knew or took as a given.”

SUSAN BOYLE: DREAMS CAN COME TRUE in USA Today

USA Today takes note of next week's release of Susan Boyle: Dreams Come True: "Susan Boyle fans can read a biography by Alice Montgomery to be published Feb. 2 by The Overlook Press. Susan Boyle: Dreams Can Come True ($21.95) will cover the life story of the Britain's Got Talent singer whose performance off "I Dreamed a Dream" in her first appearance on the show in April became an online sensation." OK! Magazine also reports: "A Susan Boyle biography titled Susan Boyle: Dreams Can Come True is headed to bookstores near you! Now the story about the life behind the voice that’s an inspiration to so many will be told. After stunning judges Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent and becoming an overnight household name less than a year ago, Susan gave hope to the world that dreams actually can come true — with the help of reality TV. Her album "I Dreamed a Dream" is the biggest female debut album of all time and has already sold up to 8 million copies. Now for the first time, the life behind the singer will be told by biographer Alice Montgomery who charted Susan’s life in careful detail and outlined the setbacks and triumphs that led to her worldwide celebrity. The Overlook Press will publish 150,000 copies in the first printing of Susan Boyle: Dreams Can Come True on Feb. 2 for $21.95 in hardcover."
‘

New in Paperback: Charles Freeman's A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

New in paperback this month is A.D. 381 by acclaimed historian Charles Freeman, author of The Closing of the Western Mind. In this groundbreaking book published by Overlook last Fall, Freeman argues that A.D. 381 was a pivotal turning point in the history of the Christian church.

It was AD 381 when Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of God; all other interpretations were now declared heretical. It was the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilization free thought was unambiguously suppressed. Freeman argues that Theodosius's edict and the subsequent suppression of paganism not only brought an end to the diversity of religious and philosophical beliefs throughout the empire, but created numerous theological problems for the Church, which have remained unsolved. The year AD 381, as Freeman puts it, was a turning point which time forgot.

Praise for A.D. 381

"Exceptional. Of the many excellences in Freeman s book, not least are the eloquence, grace, and subtlety of argument with which he presents his case. Invaluable."- Library Journal

"Clearly written, well organized, and compellingly argued, A.D. 381 provides an absorbing window into one of the most important moments in the history of European thought." - Houston Chronicle

R.J. Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS Nominated for Dilys Award

R. J. Elllory's A Quiet Belief in Angels has been nominated for the Dilys Award, named for Dilys Winn (the founder of Murder Ink) and given out annually by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association to “the mystery title of the year which the member booksellers have most enjoyed selling.” The contenders for books published in 2009 are:

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)
• A Quiet Belief in Angels, by R.J. Ellory (Overlook)
• The Dark Horse, by Craig Johnson (Viking)
• The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Steig Larsson (Knopf)
• The Ghosts of Belfast, by Stuart Neville (Soho)
• The Brutal Telling, by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
• The Shanghai Moon, by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

The winner will be announced during this year’s Left Coast Crime convention in Los Angeles, March 11-14.

Clarissa Dickson Wright's SPILLING THE BEANS in Dallas Morning News

The irrepressible Clarissa Dickson Wright shot to fame as one half of The Two Fat Ladies, an enormously popular cooking show broadcast in both the UK and the U.S. Her new memoir is reviewed by Michelle Jones in the Dallas Morning News: "Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson became famous for traipsing around the United Kingdom in motorcycle and sidecar, cooking multicourse traditional English meals and showing bits of gorgeous scenery along the way. Their wry comments drew legions of fans to Two Fat Ladies, even those who didn't cook. Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright escaped life's problems traveling the English countryside in search of great food and high adventure.

The same irreverence and wit so loved in TFL, as the TV series was fondly called, is also found in Clarissa Dickson Wright's memoir, Spilling the Beans. The book reached the top spot on British book charts and is now being released on this side of the Pond. Before TFL, which was translated into 11 languages and shown around the world, including on the Food Network, Wright's life had all the ups and downs required for a juicy memoir: abuse, addiction, the loss of a great love and-or large sums of money, and subsequent recovery. Despite all that personal history to cover, Wright's book manages to transcend its genre and enter the realm of cultural history, offering insight into the British aristocracy (Wright's background) and legal community (her former profession) as well as London in the 1960s and 1970s.

She recalls meeting Queen Mary (the current monarch's grandmother) and going to Paddington Station to see the coffin of George VI (QEII's father). Her family home was filled with politicians, entertainers, artists and other fashionable people. Wright's father was a distinguished surgeon descended from a formidable medical family. Ancestors had found cures for malaria and hung out with Arthur Conan Doyle (and, Wright suspects, supplied him with cocaine). Her father attended the Queen Mother and developed a procedure for treating varicose veins. The family also had a darker side. Her father's drunken abuse of Wright and her mother hung over her childhood and adolescence. She writes matter-of-factly about the attacks; the worst part, she says, was the wearying, crushing anticipation of the next episode, of having to be on constant alert. She chose a profession mainly to spite her father, but it also suited her. "It was 1969 and life was brilliant," she writes. Paul and Linda McCartney lived next door, and Cherie and Tony Blair were fellow law students. Wright began to unravel upon the sudden death of her mother, but did so with humor and panache. She was "rich, good-looking and kept the pain at bay on a wave of champagne ..." Her downfall was a whirl of parties and a surprising amount of good food.

Food plays an integral role in Spilling the Beans, whether Wright is preparing meals, railing against supermarkets or remembering delicious salmon sandwiches. Food also helps her recover once she's spent her inheritance, gotten disbarred and become homeless. Reading about co-star Jennifer Paterson and various behind-the-scenes tales are, of course, a treat for any Two Fat Ladies fan.

Paterson was 20 years older, an avid motorcyclist and a heavy drinker with no intention of getting sober. She was brusque but also enormously protective of Wright. Spilling the Beans is less compelling after Paterson's death and the end of the TV show; the author's passion and campaigning for the English countryside holds less interest than the dramatic events of the first part of the book. But that's life. For the most part, Spilling the Beans is wonderful, written very much in Wright's unique and fascinating voice.

Susan Boyle Biography DREAMS CAN COME TRUE in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly reports on the new Susan Boyle biography, Dreams Can Come True, which is set for release on February 9: "Overlook has acquired the first biography of British reality TV singing sensation Susan Boyle, Dreams Can Come True. Written by Alice Montgomery, the book, which is slated for February 9 and will be simultaneously published in England by Penguin UK, will trace Boyle's arc from a reclusive Scottish spinster to her headline-grabbing appearance singing "I Dreamed A Dream"on the English reality show, Britain's Got Talent. Boyle's debut album, also called "I Dreamed A Dream," has sold more than 5 million copies, making it the biggest-selling female debut album of all time. The acquisition looks to be something of a coup for Overlook, which is going to press for an initial 100,000 copies. Overlook publisher Peter Mayer acquired the book last month at auction."

Lucy Moore's ANYTHING GOES Celebrates the America in the Roaring Twenties

Coming in March 2010 is a sparkling new social history of America in the 1920s, Anything Goes, by Lucy Moore. Kirkus Reviews offers a sneak preview: "Author Lucy Moore delivers a fast-paced portrait of the 20th-century's fizziest decade, replete with gangsters, flappers, speakeasies and jazz. The author's breezy style synchs nicely with her subject matter, and her focus on the personalities behind the history keeps the narrative engaging. Rather than presenting her material as an extended survey of the period, Moore focuses on a single Jazz Age trope per chapter, resulting in easily digestible takes on prohibition and the high-spirited criminal culture it engendered; the explosion in popularity of jazz music; the evolution of the flapper; the emergence of Hollywood as creator of a national cultural consciousness; the financial scandals of the Harding presidency; the Sacco/Vanzetti and Scopes trials; the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan; the Algonquin round table and the founding of the New Yorker; Charles Lindbergh's historic trans-Atlantic flight; the spectacular boxing career of Jack Dempsey; and the financial devastation of the Wall Street crash that ended the party and ushered in the Great Depression. The author writes more like a novelist than a historian, richly delineating her characters and their milieu. Harding is revealed as a hapless, good-time Charlie hopelessly out of his element as president; Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, beautiful and damned, drink their way across Europe; blues legend Bessie Smith lives large and brooks no fools; and communist anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti emerge as principled, quietly noble figures, unrepentant in the face of a likely gross miscarriage of justice. Moore draws some fairly obvious parallels between the '20s and our contemporary moment—the Wall Street crash, Bush as Harding redux, the gap between emerging technologies and social structures, the cult of celebrity—but the point isn't labored and the fizzing pace never flags. A snappy, vivid account of America's most glittering decade."

Susan Hill Speaks About Her Simon Serrailler Crime Novels

Susan Hill takes a few minutes to discuss her acclaimed series of mysteries featuring the enigmatic detective Simon Serrailler and the catherdral town of Lafferton, England:

"I had never thought of writing crime novels because to me those had always meant ‘detective stories’ and although I enjoyed reading them, I knew I would be no good at the problem-solving sort of story with a series of dropped clues and a surprise ending. But the crime novel has become a serious literary genre over the last few decades and I realised that it presented the sort of challenge I wanted.

My aim was to look at issues in the world around me and contemporary life – which I have not done in my novels before. I also wanted to know not ‘who dunnit’ but much more importantly, WHY? What motivates a criminal? Why does someone murder and perhaps not only once?

Various real crimes interested me, I talked to psychiatrists, police, doctors and gradually worked my way towards the first book.

I also wanted to make sure that the victim or victims is someone about whom the reader can care. The ‘body in the library’ at the beginning of a story is just that – a body, not a real character. But if we have got to know the victims, even a little, then we find their murder more moving, distressing, involving - we care about them, as readers.

I wanted to follow the successful formula of many contemporary crime writers of having one main detective – and some other regular characters – and also to anchor the stories in one place, even if other places are visited during the course of one book.

So, Lafferton, a Cathedral city somewhere in the South of England, came into being. I am often asked if it is based on a real place. No, but if you think of places like Exeter or Salisbury you are on the right lines.

The Detective is Simon Serrailler, a Chief Inspector in the first book, later promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent. Members of his own family also appear in all the books – his parents, both retired doctors, his sister Cat and her husband Chris, both GPs, and their children.

Although the novels follow in chronologoical order, each one can be read independently."

In paperback from Overlook: The Various Haunts of Men, The Pure in Heart, The Risk of Darkness. Just Released in Hardcover: The Vows of Silence.

More Applause for R.J. Ellory's A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS

On the list of FlashlightWorthy's Best Crime Fiction of 2009 is R.J. Ellory's A Quiet Belief in Angels: "There's immense pleasure to be found in a novel that's a touch of class; one that raises the bar. In 2009, the USA struck gold with A Quiet Belief in Angels, the first publication from UK-based R. J. Ellory with The Overlook Press. There’s more to come and indeed a backlist to be read, but A Quiet Belief in Angels is worthy of note.

One sentence in this novel sums it up perfectly, as imparted by its narrator, Joseph Calvin Vaughan: "It was a life, but so distant from what I’d wished."

A Quiet Belief in Angels is the story of the life of Joseph Vaughan and how much of his life is stolen away, how parts of the lives of others are stolen around him, and how lives are taken through the simple act of murder. The story is one superbly told, with great intelligence; the characterization and cultural settings are as deep and rich as a tapestry; the historical context reads as precise as a carefully researched academic tome. But what, above all, keeps you reading? It is the story that Joseph Calvin Vaughan has to tell you. And what a remarkable story it is."

Jid Lee discusses TO KILL A TIGER at WomensMemoirs.com

Overlook author Jid Lee is visiting WomensMemoirs.com this week, so stop by to say hello and to read her guest blog post about the process of writing and editing her new book To Kill A Tiger: A Memoir of Korea. In her post, Lee provides insight into understanding one's self, family, culture and how those factors define us. She also provides a writing prompt to help inspire self-reflection or your own memoir writing process.

Leave a comment at Jid Lee's guest post and Overlook will enter you in a contest to receive a copy of To Kill A Tiger. This remarkable memoir is both a unique autobiography by a Korean-American woman and a rare authentic portrait of 20th century Korea. Grace Cho has said “Lee's accessible and engaging writing style, combined with her authoritative voice on Korean history and politics, makes To Kill a Tiger an invaluable resource to anyone who wants to know more about the divided Korean peninsula and the United States' role in it…The publication of this book is a triumph and a testament to Lee's courage.”

Do you have a question for Jid Lee about what it was like to grow up as a female in South Korea, the consequences her family suffered as a result of the Korean War, or how it felt to write To Kill A Tiger? Please leave your questions at WomensMemoirs.com or you can join editors Kendra Bonnett and Matilda Butler in their live interview with Jid Lee on Thursday January 14th at 8:00pm EST. Just dial 712-432-0600 and entering the access code: 998458#. Aside from your usual long distance charges, there is no cost to participate!

Norman Zollinger's Classic Western RIDERS TO CIBOLA Back in Print

One of the all-time greatest western novels, Riders to Cibola, by Norman Zollinger, is being reissued by Overlook this month in a new paperback edition. Winner of the Golden Spur Award and honored as one of the Top 20 Western novels of the 20th Century by the Western Writers of America, Riders of Cibola was originally published in 1977.

A sweeping saga that spans generations, Riders to Cibola follows the life a young Mexican orphan, Ignacio Cruz, who lives through eras of intense change – revolutionary upheavals, world wars, and the decline of the American west. Modern readers will relate to the cultural struggles faced by Ignacio Cruz as he battles his tempestuous employers, The MacAndrews clan. Widely regarded as the quintessential novel of old New Mexico; both readers and critics alike have marveled at Zollinger’s vivid depiction of the Tularosa Basin and its harsh yet beautiful landscape.

Praise for Riders to Cibola:

“The raw beauty of New Mexico is the setting of this fine novel which presents a family saga inter-woven with a man’s struggle to exist in two cultures.”
– Rudolphp Anaya,, author of Bless Me, Ultima

“A strong, affecting novel, full of taste and fragrance of the Southwest.”
-Richard Bradfored, author of Red Sky at Morning

“With two Golden Spur Awards, Norman Zollinger has already established himself as a master.”
– Tony Hillerman

Amy S. Foster's WHEN AUTUMN LEAVES is "A Truly Enchanting Read"

Amy S. Foster's magical novel When Autumn Leaves was recently featured in the Nashville Scene by Lacey Galbraith:

"In Amy S. Foster's debut novel, When Autumn Leaves, a female healer catches lightning in a bottle because the island town of Avening, in the Pacific Northwest, is a place where events defy logical explanation. The novel, like its setting, is a cozy one. The citizens of Avening, who long ago grew "to accept the bizarre anomalies as normal," always have a warm cup of peppermint tea at the ready for a visiting neighbor or friend. This is a book about the miraculous, the magical and the vibrantly hopeful, and its charm lingers long after the book is closed. . . Fear not the many references to incense, candles and "earth energy" in this book. The success of the book's magical realism lies in Foster's ability to balance the day-to-day rhythms of small-town life against the fantastic elements of the story. The residents of Avening are a beguiling mix of the eccentric and the everyday.

Foster is a successful songwriter—Josh Groban, Michael Bublé, Diana Krall and Destiny's Child have all recorded her songs, and she has hit the No.1 slot three times so far—but when it comes to prose, Foster's talents as a storyteller stand on their own: Her style is comfortably straightforward, and she navigates with ease a multilayered and well-paced plot. When Autumn Leaves doesn't need to be qualified as good for a first book by songwriter—it's a truly enchanting read."

Daniil Kharms is The Decade's Best

Today I Wrote Nothing, translated by Matvei Yankelevich was included in The Mark’s (CAN) “Ten Best Books of the Aughts” list: “When Daniil Kharms died of hunger in a Soviet asylum in 1942, he was still a young man, an ascending writer who enjoyed a modest popularity in his native Russia as the author of children’s stories. It wasn’t until the 1970s that his work for adults – night-town fairy tales warped in a funhouse mirror – appeared in his home country. Finally, we have an English version. Kharms was a major writer who died too early, but the little he left us is haunting, deeply human, terrifying, and often hilarious.”

In other Daniil Kharms news, on Saturday, January 9th at 8pm, New Yorkers are in for a avant garde treat. The Drama Book Shop (40th St between 7th and 8th Ave) will be hosting a raucous night of theatre including three Daniil Kharms vignettes translated by Matvei Yankelevich.

Also in New York this month, Brooklyn theater trio The Debate Society is performing Kharm’s play "A Thought About Raya" at the 2010 Other Forces Festival.

Can’t get enough of Kharms? Follow him on Facebook!

New in Paperback: 10 BAD DATES WITH DE NIRO

Richard T. Kelly's wacky book of alternative movie lists, 10 Bad Dates with De Niro, has just been released in paperback. This entertaining collection of lists is a symposium and celebration of viewing pleasures, private passions, and cinematic lost causes. Contributors include a stellar cast of critics, filmmakers, and writers ranging from Steven Soderbergh and the Coen brothers to Mike Figgis and George Pelecanos.

"A stimulating, necessary volume - and virtually alone amongst cinematic studies in the wit of its arguments and the seductiveness of its style." - Richard Schickel, Los Angeles Times

Here's a sneak preview of some of the list included in 10 Bad Dates with De Niro:

• Ten Great Uses of Poetry at the Movies
• Top Ten Movie Nightclubs I Wish Were Real
• Ten Great Funerals
• Ten Movies that Made Cigarettes Look Cool
• Ten Remakes That Improve on the Originals
• Ten So-Called "Turkeys" that Are Actually Terrific
• Ten Great Passenger-Plane Moments
• Ten Great Acting Turns by Rock Stars and Other Musicians
• Ten Great Opening-Credit Sequences
• Top Ten Thespian Turns in Drag

The Fat Lady Sings in SPILLING THE BEANS

One half of the Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson-Wright tells her own story in Spilling the Beans, just releasing to bookstores this week. Known all over the world for he role in the hit cooking show with partner Jennifer Paterson, Dickson-Wright's memoir was a number-one bestseller in the U.K. last year. Packed with marvelous anecdotes in an out of the kitchen, Spilling the Beans is a moving tale of an extraordinary life.

Clarissa was born into wealth and privilege, but her father, a brilliant surgeon, was an abusive drunk who forced her to eat carrots with slugs clinging to them. Determined and clever, Clarissa began a career in law and became the youngest woman ever to be called to the bar. But disaster struck when Clarissa s adored mother died suddenly. Clarissa turned to alcohol and partied away her entire inheritance. The road to recovery was long and hard, and Clarissa sought solace in the thing that had always brought her joy cooking. Two Fat Ladies became an international sensation and Clarissa found success, sobriety, and peace. Now, with the honesty and wit millions love her for, Clarissa recounts a life lived to extremes. A vivid and funny story, Spilling the Beans is also a brave and occasionally heartbreaking tale.

David Carkeet's FROM AWAY in Kirkus Reviews

David Carkeet's new novel From Away, coming in March 2010, is reviewed in Kirkus Reviews: "Dennis Braintree's adventures in Vermont begin when his car runs off the road and into a ditch, leading him to hail passersby, "Welcome to my crash site!" He winds up at the Ethan Allen Motel in Montpelier, where blind hostess Betsy, whose rooms have been filled by a legislative session, sticks him first in a windowless cubby, then in the room vacated by Mort Shuler. It's here that he meets good-time girl Marge Plongeur, who makes herself at home in his Jacuzzi, sends him out for cigarettes and condoms and then vanishes after apparently swinging so hard from his chandelier that she brings it crashing down on his bed. Except that Marge hasn't just vanished; according to Nick and Lance, a pair of police officers Denny runs into at the airport, she's been pushed off the balcony by whoever rented the room and left footprints outside in the snow. That person, naturally, is Denny, and his goose would be cooked if Nick hadn't taken Denny for his old friend Homer Dumpling, Betsy's nephew, who spent the last three years in Florida. Denny, recently fired from his job at a magazine aimed at model-railroad buffs, sees no reason that he shouldn't accept the role that's just been handed to him, and Carkeet (The Error of Our Ways) moves heaven and earth to show how he can get away with the masquerade against all odds—mainly because Denny embraces each new obstacle as a challenge and never shows the slightest fear. Sooner or later, of course, this house of cards has to come tumbling down, but Carkeet's Candide is so winning and his plotting so deft that the day of reckoning is as graceful as the moment when the juggler catches all five balls without missing a beat."

Overlook Preview: Jid Lee's TO KILL A TIGER: A MEMOIR OF KOREA

New in bookstores this week is To Kill a Tiger, Jid Lee's powerful memoir of growing up in female in male-dominated Korean culture of the 1960s and ‘70s. Lee’s book borrows its title from a myth that one of her grandmothers – many greats removed – sacrificed herself to be eaten alive by a tiger in exchange for her descendants’ prosperity. Against the backdrop of modern Korea’s violent and tumultuous history, To Kill A Tiger relates not only one woman’s story, but also an ancient people’s journey into the modern, globalized world.

Drawing on Korean legend and myth, as well as an Asian woman’s unique perspective on the United States, Lee has written a searing portrait of a woman and a society in the midst of violent change. Lee weaves her compelling personal narrative with a collective and accessible history of modern Korea, from Japanese colonialism to war-era comfort women, from the genocide of the Korean War to the government persecution and silence of Cold War-era programs. The ritual of storytelling, which the author shares with the women of her family, serves as a window into a five-generation family saga, and it is through storytelling that Lee comes to appreciate the sacrifices of her ancestors and her own now American place in her family and society. This mesmerizing memoir is a revelatory look at war and modernization in Jid Lee's native country, a story of personal growth, and a tribute to the culture that formed her.