Thursday, January 10, 2013

A New Year, a New Paperback Roundup


With the holiday season in the not-so-distant past and the new year just beginning, there is no better time to consider a fresh start. Whether it's a New Year's resolution to smile more often or spend more time with the family, this is the perfect chance to make those modifications that you've been contemplating doing since last New Years. And just in case you've resolved to alter your reading material, Overlook is here to help, with six great new paperbacks on sale this month. Whether it's Cemetery John, the startling page-turner about the Lindbergh kidnapping, Finding Merlin, a fascinating study on the origin of the famous wizard, or Grandfather and the Wolves, a thrilling children's story about a young girl and her adventure, there is certainly something for everyone.


Per Olov Enquist
On Sale 1/29/2013

Fascinating and dream-like, this compelling tale for children by international bestselling author Per Olov Enquist tells the story of Mina, who wakes up one night to find that a crocodile has bitten her on the bottom. Her tired parents don't recognize the seriousness of the situation, but Mina's Grandpa knows what to do. He takes Mina, her sister, and their cousins on a dangerous journey up Three Cave Mountain. What they find there will leave them changed forever. Offering a sweet and original glimpse into the mind of a perky and irrepressible child, Grandfather and the Wolves thrills younger and older readers alike.


Robert Zorn
On Sale 1/29/2013

For seventy-five years, the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son has gone unsolved. Evidence, opinion, and logic have discredited the notion that Bruno Richard Hauptmann—electrocuted in 1936—acted alone. In this meticulous and authoritative account of the crime, the trial, and the times of the Lindbergh kidnapping, Robert Zorn clears away decades of ungrounded speculation surrounding the case. Inspired by his father’s relationship with the actual accomplices—including the mastermind—he presents the clearest ever picture of a criminal partnership, which would shake every class and culture of American society.

Using personal possessions and documents, never-before-seen photographs, new forensic evidence, and extensive research, Robert Zorn has written a shocking and captivating account of the crime and the original “Trial of the Century.”

From the ecstatic riots that followed the Spirit of St. Louis on either side of the Atlantic, to the tragic night that would shake America’s sense of security, to the horror of the New Jersey morgue where Lindbergh insisted on verifying the identity of his son, Zorn’s skillful treatment meets this larger-than-life story and gives it defi nitive shape—revealing for the first time the true story behind the crime.

Jeremy Paxman
On Sale 1/29/2013

Not so long ago, everybody knew who the English were. They were polite, unexcitable, reserved, and had hot-water bottles instead of a sex life. As the dominant culture in a country that dominated an empire that dominated the world, they had little need to examine themselves and ask who they were. But something has happened.

A new self-confidence seems to have taken hold in Wales and Scotland, while others try to forge a new relationship with Europe. The English are being forced to ask what it is that makes them who they are. Is there such a thing as an English race? Witty, surprising, affectionate, and incisive, Jeremy Paxman traces the invention of Englishness to its current crisis and concludes that, for all their characteristic gloom about themselves, the English may have developed a form of nationalism for the twenty-first century.


“Stimulating, adventurous and witty.” —The Times (London) 


Adam Ardrey
On Sale 1/29/2013

Merlin: the very name summons up images of the wizard of Camelot—magician, prophet, and counselor to Arthur. The legend is famous but the truth is less well known: Merlin was a real historical figure, a champion of the old way of the Druids, a British man who hailed not from England or Wales, as traditional wisdom would have it, but from Scotland.

Adam Ardrey, who stumbled upon some of the hidden sources of Merlin’s life while researching the history of a Scottish clan, offers compelling evidence that links a very real Merlin figure into the histories of other real and prominent sixth century figures. Finding Merlin uncovers new evidence and reexamines the old. The places where Merlin was born, lived, died, and was buried are identified, as are the people surrounding him—his nemesis, the fanatic Mungo, and his friend, the hero Arthur. In this impressively researched and accessibly written book, Merlin leaps from the pages of legend into history.


Mark Derr
On Sale 1/29/2013

That the dog evolved from the wolf is an accepted fact of evolution and history, but the question of how wolf became dog has remained a mystery, obscured by myth and legend. How the Dog Became the Dog posits that dog was an evolutionary inevitability in the nature of the wolf and its human soul mate. The natural temperament and social structure of humans and wolves are so similar that as soon as they met on the trail they recognized themselves in each other.

How the Dog Became the Dog adeptly and engrossingly examines this singular relationship. Combining the most recent scientific research with Mark Derr’s original insights, this book shows that dogs made us human just as humans affected the evolution of dogs. 


“Intriguing . . . Derr’s book seeks to get at the existential mystery of that ancient linkbetween people and dogs.”—Los Angeles Times


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