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August 09 Newsletter
Dear Bookworks Bookworm
It's hot out there. Very, very hot. This is the time of the year I start praying for October so I don't have to think about keeping the weeds at bay and the flowers flowering. But I haven't given up on the idea that grabbing a book and stretching out under a shade tree is the way to go. I am hopeful pictures of people doing just that will inspire the same action on your part.
Speaking of what's hot and what's not, Dan Brown's latest book, The Lost Symbol, is in the literary news. Robert Langdon reappears once again as the unforgettable protagonist. Jason Kaufman, VP and Executive Editor at Doubleday has said: "Nothing ever is as it first appears in a Dan Brown novel. This book's narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, Dan's readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Robert Langdon through a masterful and unexpected new landscape. The Lost Symbol is full of surprises." (Knopf $29.95)
Knowing how wildly successful the Di Vinci Code was, we at Bookworks are encouraging you to reserve your copy now. We cannot offer it before the 15th of September which is the release date, but we can take names and numbers to make sure you are among the first to get a first edition copy.
The What's On Your Nightstand contributor is Elizabeth DuFrane. Liz moved to NM to be near her son, who was a UNM PhD candidate at the time. (He's now running the mass spectrometer lab at the U of Alberta in Edmonton). She is a READER, has overfilled bookcases, stacks of books by her bed and in several rooms proving that she has that "gentle madness." She is a retired RN living in Placitas in a home where she watches wild horses every day from her windows. Liz has lived all over the U.S. and in some European places following her late husband's career. All in all, she is quite happy in NM, has been capitvated by our history and thus is presently devoting her attention to several local authors.
I have added both Astrid and Veronika by Linda Olsson and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout to my must read list based on Liz's reviews. I know you will feel the same as I do after reading what she has to say.
I need a contributor for next month's What On Your Nightstand! Please, one of you let me know what you are reading! This is a real opportunity to share your thoughts with people who understand and appreciate the value of a good book. E-mail me at ladymatz@comcast.net. Thanks!
Joanne Matzenbacher
Editor
South of Broad (Hardcover)
$29.95
ISBN-13: 9780385413053Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Nan A. Talese, 08/01/2009
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes an ever-widening circle of friends whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, and Charleston's dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for South of Broad is Pat Conroy at his finest; a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.
A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog (Hardcover)
$24.99
ISBN-13: 9781401323523Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Hyperion Books, 08/01/2009
DEAN KOONTZ thought he had everything he needed. A successful novelist with more than twenty #1 New York Times bestsellers to his credit, Dean had forged a career out of industry and imagination. He had been married to his high school sweetheart, Gerda, since the age of twenty, and together they had made a happy life for themselves in their Southern California home. It was the picture of peace and contentment. Then along came Trixie.
Dean had always wanted a dog-had even written several books in which dogs were featured. But not until Trixie was he truly open to the change that such a beautiful creature could bring about in him. Trixie had intelligence, a lack of vanity, and an uncanny knack for living in the present. And because she was joyful and direct as all dogs are, she put her heart into everything-from chasing tennis balls, to playing practical jokes, to protecting those she loved.
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder (Hardcover)
$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780060175313Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper, 07/01/2009
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily's life set in Wells's expanding fictional Louisiana landscape. In the small river town of La Luna, Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for. Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood-until it is cut short. Her mother, M'Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of "fixing hair." At her mother's side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul. It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encounters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.
Keeper and Kid (Paperback)
$13.99
ISBN-13: 9780312573768Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: St. Martin's Griffin, 08/01/2009
Three years after his divorce, James Keeper is enjoying his new job selling antiques at a quirky shop. His new love, Leah, is intriguing and passionate. Business is steady and Keeper's friends always turn up for Card Night. But one phone call from his former mother-in-law changes it all. Days later, Keeper comes away with a son he never knew he had. Immediately, life takes on a new meaning. As he and Leo adjust to the shock of each other and their suddenly altered lives, Keeper begins to let in the people in his life-by turns strange and heartwarming; funny and painful. A coming of age story for the guy who thought he had already grown up, this novel is a sharp and witty account of what we do for love.
The Crying Tree (Hardcover)
$22.95
ISBN-13: 9780767931403Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Broadway, 07/01/2009
Irene and Nate Stanley are living a quiet and contented life with their two children, Bliss and Shep, on their family farm in southern Illinois when Nate suddenly announces he's been offered a job as a deputy sheriff in Oregon. Irene fights her husband. She does not want to uproot her family and has deep misgivings about the move. Nevertheless, the family leaves, and they are just settling into their life in Oregon's high desert when the unthinkable happens. Fifteen-year-old Shep is shot and killed during an apparent robbery in their home. The murderer, a young mechanic with a history of assault, robbery, and drug-related offenses, is caught and sentenced to death. Shep's murder sends the Stanley family into a tailspin, with each member attempting to cope with the tragedy in his or her own way. Irene's approach is to live, week after week, waiting for Daniel Robbin's execution and the justice she feels she and her family deserve. Those weeks turn into months and then years. Ultimately, faced with a growing sense that Robbin's death will not stop her pain, Irene takes the extraordinary effort to reach out to her son's killer. The two forge an unlikely connection that remains a secret from her family and friends. Years later, Irene receives the notice that she had craved for so long-Daniel Robbin has stopped his appeals and will be executed within a month. This announcement shakes the very core of the Stanley family once again. Irene, it turns out, isn't the only one with a secret to hide. As the execution date nears, the Stanleys must face difficult truths and find a way to come to terms with the past. This is an unforgettable story.
The September Society (Paperback)
$13.99
ISBN-13: 9780312564940Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Minotaur Books, 07/01/2009
In the small hours of the morning one fall day in 1866, a frantic widow visits detective Charles Lenox. Lady Annabelle's problem is simple: her beloved son, George, has vanished from his room at Oxford. When Lenox visits his alma mater to investigate he discovers a series of bizarre clues, including a murdered cat and a card cryptically referring to "The September Society." Then, just as Lenox realizes that the case may be deeper than it appears, a student dies, the victim of foul play. What could the September Society have to do with it? What specter, returned from the past, is haunting gentle Oxford? Lenox, with the support of his devoted friends in London's upper crust, must race to discover the truth before it comes searching for him, and dangerously close to home.
The Outlander (Paperback)
$14.99
ISBN-13: 9780061491344Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper Perennial, 07/01/2009
In 1903 a mysterious young woman flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow-and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding to little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness-and into the wilds of her own mind-encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way. With the stunning prose and captivating mood of great works like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain or early Cormac McCarthy, Gil Adamson's intoxicating debut novel weds a brilliant literary style to the gripping tale of one woman's desperate escape.
$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780312368432Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: St. Martin's Press, 07/01/2009
The stuff of history is sometimes the stuff for soap operas and the trials and tribulations of Catherine de Medici would have been a great series had there been TV in 16th century France. Reviled for her role in the civil wars that raged in France after her marriage to Henry the II, Kilogridis asks us to take another look at her place in history. She had dedicated her life to protecting her husband and his reign, struggled personally and physically to produce heirs, and swallowed her courage and pride to become a dutiful mother. Ignored and disregarded in her palace, Kilogridis sets Catherine's story against the intrigue and pageantry of the times. Don't miss this absorbing tale.
$27.00
ISBN-13: 9780151008223Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 08/01/2009
As a young man Frank Oppenheimer followed in his famous brother's footsteps-growing up in a privileged Manhattan household, becoming a physicist, working on the atomic bomb. Tragically, Frank and Robert both had their careers destroyed by the Red Scare. But their paths diverged. While Robert died an almost ruined man, Frank came into his own, emerging from ten years of exile on a Colorado ranch to create not just a multimillion dollar institution but also a revolution that was felt all over the world. His Exploratorium was a "museum of human awareness" that combined art and science while it encouraged play, experimentation, and a sense of joy and wonder; its success inspired a transformation in museums around the globe. In many ways it was Frank's answer to the atom bomb. K. C. Cole-a friend and colleague of Frank's for many years-has drawn from letters, documents, and extensive interviews to write a very personal story of the man whose irrepressible spirit would inspire so many.
$16.95
ISBN-13: 9780809051014Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Hill and Wang, 07/01/2009
Fifty-five years ago, Ray Bradbury, one of America's greatest writers, envisioned one of the world's most unforgettable dystopian futures. Thinking is dangerous; trust only the state; turn in your neighbors; and, most important, burn all books. Artist Tim Hamilton, with Bradbury, has turned this modern masterpiece into a gorgeously imagined graphic novel. The world of Guy Montag, a career fireman for whom kerosene has become perfume, has been translated by Hamilton into unforgettable full-color art that uniquely captures Montag's awakening to the evil of government-controlled thought and the inestimable value of philosophy, theology, and literature. Fully depicting the brilliance and force of Bradbury's canonic and beloved masterwork, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is an exceptional, haunting work of graphic literature.
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