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Volume 265 October 1, Advertisement Number 40 2018 ISSN 0000-0019 “The story is thrillingly original and will enthrall fans of alternate histories.” —Publishers Weekly

F EATURES 18 Fiction at Warp Speed Binge culture is making passionate fandoms hungrier and even harder to satisfy. Authors and publishers of science fiction and fantasy are adapting.

38 Staying Hopeful In Almost Everything, Anne Lamott reflects on the difficulty of holding on to hope in challenging times. 1–24 Texas Book Festival The Texas Book Festival will run October 27–28 in Austin, and we’ve got interviews with authors appearing there, including Pete Souza, Alexander Chee, and others.  The Black

N EWS God’s Drums P. Djèlí Clark. 4 Riggio Ready to Lead B&N Through Holidays Tor.com, $3.99 e-book (112p) Though the CEO acknowledges there is work to be done, he sees ISBN 978-1-25029-470-8 lots of opportunities. 5 Indie Booksellers Warm to Indie Authors ”””””””” The relationship between self-published authors and independent bookstores has evolved, and numerous booksellers are now willing to stock self-published titles—especially those by local authors. Clark masterfully rewrites history in this spellbinding post–Civil War fantasy. America is 6 Print-Unit Sales Down in Mid-September 15 years past an armistice between the Union, Total sales of print units in the week ended September 23 were where slavery is illegal, and the Confederacy, down 1% compared to the similar week last year, due to soft fiction where it still reigns, and New Orleans remains the sales in the adult and juvenile segments. only free and neutral port in all the land. Thirteen- year-old Creeper is an orphan surviving on the 7 Deals margins of New Orleans whose fortunes change FSG preempts a novel about four Renaissance queens, S&S nabs when she uncovers a Confederate plot to recreate an epistolary novel about an underemployed millennial, and more. the titular otherworldly weapon, which ensured devastating victory for Haitian revolutionaries, 8 A New Kind of Comics Publisher and use it against the Union. With help from Ann- Launched in 2012 as a digital startup, St. Louis–based comics Marie St. Augustine, an airship captain who could publisher Lion Forge is a rapidly growing house focused on bringing be Creeper’s ticket out of New Orleans, and the its diverse list to the book trade and the direct market. goddess Oya, Creeper must prevent Confederate soldiers from unleashing the wrath of a furious god upon a city and a nation that will not see it coming. Clark employs fervent, emotive prose to VISIT US ONLINE FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS, construct an elaborate world populated by diverse, REVIEWS, BESTSELLERS & FEATURES. complex people. The story is thrillingly original and will enthrall fans of alternate histories. (Aug.)

publishersweekly.com —Publishers Weekly June 25, 2018 twitter.com/PublishersWkly http://www.tor.com facebook.com/pubweekly

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 1 Contents

D EPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 15 Books in Spanish We round up Spanish-language titles publishing in October. 64 Soapbox by Lila Quintero Weaver An author finds solace in her characters’ strength.

B ESTSELLERS

● Adult Hardcovers 11 ● Adult Paperbacks 12 ● Children’s 13 ● Apple Books 14

R EVIEWS

Fiction Nonfiction 40 General Fiction 52 General Nonfiction 43 Mystery/Thriller 55 Lifestyle 47 SF/Fantasy/Horror 48 Romance/Erotica Children’s 51 Comics 58 Picture Books 62 Fiction 63 Comics 63 Nonfiction

41 Q&A with Tom Barbash 54 Q&A with David Kipen

43 Boxed Review 60–61 We Cast a Shadow Reviews Roundup Children’s books celebrate pioneering women

PW Publishers Weekly USPS 763-080 (ISSN 0000-0019) is published weekly, except for the last week in December. Published by PWxyz LLC, 71 West 23rd Street, Suite 1608, New York, NY 10010. George Slowik Jr., President; Cevin Bryerman, Publisher. Circulation records are maintained at ESP, 12444 Victory Boulevard, 4th Floor, North Hollywood, CA 91606. Phone: (800) 278-2991 or +001 (818) 487-2069 from outside the U.S. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y. and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Publishers Weekly, P.O. Box 16957, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6957. PW PUBLISHERS WEEKLY copyright 2018 by PWxyz LLC. Rates for one-year subscriptions in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. bank: U.S. $289.99, Canada: $339.99, all other countries: $439.99. Except for special issues where price changes are indicated, single copies are available for $9.99 US; $16.99 for Announcement issues. Extra postage applied for non-U.S. shipping addresses. Please address all subscription mail to Publishers Weekly, P.O. Box 16957, North Hollywood, CA 91615-6957. PW PUBLISHERS WEEKLY is a (registered) trademark of PWxyz LLC. Canadian Publications Mail Agreement No. 42025028. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: IMS, 3390 Rand Road, South Plainfield, NJ 07080 E-mail: [email protected]. PRINTED IN THE USA.

2 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 ONLINE & ON-AIR

From the Podcasts Blogs Newsletters Week Ahead ShelfTalker Tip Sheet PW senior writer Andrew Albanese looks at A bookseller reects on Banned Books how the digital landscape is changing in Week. Sara Batkie, author of Better Times, picks Europe and the U.S. ahead of this year’s publishersweekly.com/bannedbooks 10 under-the-radar collections by women. Frankfurt Book Fair. publishersweekly.com/sarabatkie publishersweekly.com/weekahead Children’s Bookshelf More to Come PW Insider Scholastic has launched a new The MTC crew previews the upcoming New line, Acorn, aimed at ages four York Comic Con. Plus, there’s a new to seven. episode of Star Gazing with PW graphic publishersweekly.com/acorn novel reviews editor Meg Lemke. publishersweekly.com/moretocome Global Rights Report Last week’s hot properties included a novel LitCast about Venezuela that sold to a new Harper- Dan Koboldt talks about editing the Harry Potter debuted Collins imprint and a Finnish parody of adult collection Putting Science in Fiction. in the U.S. 20 years coloring books. publishersweekly.com/dankoboldt publishersweekly.com/finnishparody ago. We talk with Arthur A. Levine KidsCast about acquiring the series, with Rachel BookLife Report Jonathan Auxier tells listeners Coun about introducing it to American As selected by PW reviewers, 66 books about his new middle grade readers, and with PW’s Jim Milliot from six genres advanced to the quarterinal historical fantasy, Sweep. round of the 2018 BookLife Prize. publishersweekly.com/ about its impact on the industry. publishersweekly.com/booklifequarterfinal jonathanauxier publishersweekly.com/pwinsider3

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Riggio Ready to Lead B&N Through the Holidays Though the CEO acknowledges there is work to be done, he sees lots of opportunities

n April 2016, Barnes & Noble founder and chairman Len Riggio announced his intention to retire that September. That plan fell apart four months later, when Riggio returned to the © graphiccredit B&NI helm after CEO Ron Boire was ired following the poor results for the quarter ended July 30, 2016, which were attributed in part to mistakes by Boire, including unprecedented inventory reductions and cut- ting retail loor personnel. In 2017 when Demos Parneros was promoted from chief operating officer to CEO, Riggio stepped aside as CEO once again, only to return in July 2018 when Parneros was fired. “I wasn’t happy about coming back the first time,” Riggio said in a recent interview at Barnes & Noble’s New York City headquarters. “But this time I am very happy to be here. We have a lot of work that needs to get done, and I think I bring the An interior shot of Barnes & Noble’s newest prototype store, which it opened in necessary leadership.” Columbia, Md., on September 19. Riggio said that he, and the board, have full confidence in the shoppers. He noted that Reputation Institute recently ranked management team, despite assertions made in a lawsuit filed by B&N as the country’s most reputable retailer (with Amazon Parneros seeking severance payments. Given the approaching ranked second). So though nonbook items are important to holiday season and the recent distractions caused by Parneros’s B&N, Riggio said he doesn’t want to do anything that will take termination, Riggio said now is not the right time to bring in away from the company’s reputation as a premier bookseller. a new CEO. He disputed the notion that B&N has been hurt by (Several times in the past, Riggio has rejected the suggestion instability over the past few years, noting that, in addition to that B&N should become more like Canada’s Indigo, which sees himself, a number of executives have been with the company for itself as a cultural department store. He said that type of move a long period—and, more importantly, a large number of store “is not in our DNA.”) managers are B&N veterans. After the holidays, B&N’s focus will be creating the store of Riggio admitted that the sales shortfall in the most recent the future. The company opened its first prototype store in quarter, which ended July 29, was “unnerving,” but added, Columbia, Md., on September 19, and three more are set to open “People have been rising to the challenge” to prepare for what in 2018: the outlet in Melody Farms, Ill., will open October 3; he admits is a very important holiday season. During the confer- a B&N in Hackensack, N.J., will open on or about November ence call discussing the results for the quarter, CFO Allen 7; and a store in Staten Island, N.Y., is set to open around Lindstrom said B&N expects to post an increase in comparable November 14. store sales in the holiday quarter, following a string of declines. The Columbia store is 17,000 sq. ft. and will stock 35,000 Riggio remains confident B&N will achieve that goal, noting titles; it features contemporary design touches, including warm- that comparable store sales continue to rise for toys and games hued oak bookshelves and USB and electricity ports at tables in and a remade gifts section, and that he expects to see better the café area. At the center of the store are two large “book results from B&N’s cafés. theaters,” which offer customers a 360-degree in-the-round But B&N remains a bookstore at heart, Riggio said, and he browsing experience. Booksellers at the store will be equipped believes better merchandising, coherent pricing, and better use with tablet computers to facilitate customer service. The store of BN.com will create an improved retail experience for B&N will also feature self-service kiosks that assist customers with

4 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 News

locating books. digital reading device can remain part of expansion of B&N’s physical footprint Riggio said B&N expects to learn the company, noting that it is important will be up to someone else. He has a something new from each outlet, and he to many of B&N’s customers. He said somewhat open mind when it comes to hopes to have a final prototype ready in that when e-book sales started to take off, choosing the next boss, although he 12–18 months. The current prototypes he was convinced “everything would be doesn’t agree with those in the pub- will vary in size depending on location. digital.” He had an idea to put books, lishing industry who believe that the Riggio speculated that stores in urban video games (he owned GameStop at the next CEO must have book experience. areas—where rents are high—will be time), and educational materials (via “The essential requirement for a suc- approximately 14,000–17,000 sq. ft. B&N College Stores) on the same plat- cessful retailer is to be able to identify the size, but that outlets in suburban and form, but the company didn’t have the right locations for the company’s stores,” rural areas could very well be closer to resources to carry that out. Riggio said. Who that next CEO ought 26,000 sq. ft. The smaller the store, the After B&N settles on the right store to be will become apparent over time, higher the ratio of books to other prod- prototype, it will likely be the responsi- but for right now, he added, “I am the ucts in the inventory mix, he added. bility of the next CEO to determine how one in the chair.” And for all the problems that getting new stores are rolled out. “I am only —Jim Milliot involved with the Nook has caused speaking now about creating the proto- 8QLWHG6WDWHV3RVWDO6HUYLFH6WDWHPHQWRI2ZQHUVKLS B&N, Riggio said he thinks that the type,” Riggio said, indicating that the 0DQDJHPHQWDQG&LUFXODWLRQ $OO3HULRGLFDOV3XEOLFDWLRQV([FHSW5HTXHVWHU3XEOLFDWLRQV  5HTXLUHG E\  86&    3XEOLFDWLRQ 7LWOH 3XEOLVKHUV :HHNO\  3XEOLFDWLRQ1XPEHU8636)LOLQJ'DWH2FWREHU Retail ,VVXH)UHTXHQF\:HHNO\H[FHSWIRUODVWZHHNLQ'HFHPEHU1XPEHU RI LVVXHV 3XEOLVKHG $QQXDOO\   $QQXDO 6XEVFULSWLRQ 3ULFH 86 &RPSOHWH0DLOLQJ$GGUHVVRI.QRZQ2IILFHRI3XEOLFDWLRQ  :HVW UG 6W 6XLWH  1HZ

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 5 News

The Weekly Scorecard Soft Fiction Sales Result in Decline in Mid-September

With fiction sales falling in both the adult and juvenile segments, total sales of print units slipped 1% in the week ended Sept. 23, 2018, compared to the similar week in 2017, at outlets that report to NPD BookScan. Adult nonfiction had the strongest week, with units up 3% over the week ended Sept. 24, 2017. Fear by Bob Woodward kept its place atop the overall bestseller list, selling more than 342,000 copies in the week, but a host of new books made strong debuts. Reese Witherspoon’s Whiskey in a Teacup landed at #2 on the adult nonfiction list, with nearly 62,000 copies At Bookbound in Ann Arbor, Mich., some self-published books are bestsellers, though many others don’t sell a single copy. sold. Cravings by Chrissy Teigen was in third place, with more than 57,000 copies sold, and Sally Field’s much-anticipated memoir, In Pieces, sold more than 42,000 copies, putting it in fifth place on Megan Waterman, owner of the Book Nook in Canby, Ore., the list. Unit sales rose 1% over 2017 in juvenile nonfiction, helped has been running her store for less than a year and has just begun by the release of The Atlas Obscura Guide for the World’s Most incorporating local indie authors into the mix. Her process Adventurous Kid by Dylan Thuras and Rosemary Mosco, which starts with them signing a contract. “Basically, we agree to carry sold more than 6,000 copies in its first week—good enough for second place on the category list. Adult fiction unit sales dropped their book for a set amount of time and we keep a percentage of 6% in the week due to overall softness among the top 100 best- the sales,” she wrote. “We ask them to advertise on social media sellers. In 2017, the top 100 titles sold a total of 722,000 copies; and [post on] their website that the books can be found here. in the most recent week in 2018, that number fell 20%, to 577,000 Some authors are better at that than others. If the books don’t copies. The top seller for the week ended Sept. 23 was Lethal sell, they are responsible for picking up their inventory from us White by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling), which sold more in a timely manner.” than 33,000 copies in its first week. Cindi Whittemore of Ink Spell Books in Half Moon Bay,

Editor’s note: Sales for the week ended Sept. 23, 2018, do not include data for the Calif., said she appreciates self-published authors who under- Christian bookstore chain Lifeway. stand their role in the process. “Just because you wrote a book doesn’t mean you are done,” she wrote. “There is still a lot more UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY CHANNEL (in thousands) work to do; the marketing is up to you. I’ll do what I can, but SEPT. 24, SEPT. 23, CHGECHGE that’s only so much, since I have 100,000 other titles that also 2017 2018 WEEK YTD need my attention. Look at me, the bookseller, as your partner, Total 11,989 11,835-1% 2% not your employee.” Retail & Club 10,412 10,367 -0.4% 2% Claire Benedict, co-owner of Bear Pond Books in Montpelier, Mass Merh./Others 1,578 1,468 -7%-0.7% Vt., noted, “We have started to hold ‘How to Self-Publish Successfully’ educational events for authors. They’ve been very UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY CATEGORY (in thousands) popular. Generally, we will carry a self-published book by a local SEPT. 24, SEPT. 23, CHGECHGE author if its looks professional on consignment. For authors with 2017 2018 WEEK YTD a track record, we will buy them outright.” Adult Nonfiction 5,128 5,279 3% 3% One word of advice several booksellers shared for self-pub- Adult Fiction 2,471 2,310 -6% -3% lished authors: do not mention Amazon. Bear Pond’s Benedict Juvenile Nonfiction 934 944 1% 6% wrote, “We do not carry Amazon-published books in our store, even for locals.” Juvenile Fiction 3,090 2,982 -3% 2% Unorthodox book design was another no-no for booksellers. Emily Portwood, of Bob’s Beach Books in Lincoln City, Ore., UNIT SALES OF PRINT BOOKS BY FORMAT (in thousands) wrote, “We get a ridiculous number of books that have nothing MAR. 24, MAR. 23, CHGE CHGE 2017 2018 WEEK YTD printed on the spine, text printed the wrong direction, or words that are illegible. We get books that are much larger Hardcover 3,319 3,594 8% 5% than the standard book size that won’t fit on the shelf.” Trade Paperba 6,638 6,295 -5%0.2% Like nearly all the booksellers surveyed, Portwood said she Mass Market Paperba 970 919 -5% -2% genuinely wants to help indie authors and finds it difficult to Board Books 690 658 -5% 7% reject them outright—especially when it has to be done face- Audio 62 41 -41%-30% to-face. “If their books are not ready for prime time, we encourage them to rethink and try again in the future,” she wrote. —Ed Nawotka SOURCE: NPD BOOKSCAN AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. NPD’S U.S. CONSUMER MARKET PANEL COV ERS APPROXIMATELY 80% OF THE PRINT BOOK MARKET AND CONTINUES TO GROW. News

Deals By Rachel Deahl

■ Chang Takes ‘Queens’ to FSG The novel, which Bloomsbury acquired Callahan at Scout Press. Callahan took Farrar, Straus and Giroux editor-in-chief in the U.K., is, Putnam said, “a seductive world English rights to the novel from Eric Chinski preempted North American and thrilling coming-of-age novel about Grace A. Ross at Regal Hoffmann & rights to Leah Redmond Chang’s Young obsession and deceit on a college cam- Associates. Ross said she pitched the Queens. The novel, per pus, in which a shocking love triangle title as “Mark Haddon meets Graeme Chang’s agent, Jill and a heartbreaking betrayal will fuel Simsion,” and that it follows “an out-of- Grinberg at Jill one woman’s search for the truth.” the-ordinary heroine who dreams of Grinberg Literary becoming a real-life Viking.” Elaborat- Management, is ■ The Experiment Nabs ing, Ross said the heroine then “launches about four royals of Book on Fear a quest to find independence and auton- Chang the Renaissance: After an auction, the Experiment’s omy in a world that refuses to see her as Catherine de Medici, Mary Stuart, Eliza- Nicholas Cizek won U.S. rights to Eva an adult.” beth Tudor, and Elisabeth de Valois. Holland’s Shake It Off: A Personal Journey Grinberg said the work follows the Through the Science of Facing Our Fears. ■ Skyhorse Buys Collection of queens, “who, as girls, adolescents, and Holland, a long-form journalist, was Jacqueline L. Jackson Letters young women, navigated revolutions and represented by Jen- For Skyhorse Publishing, Cal Barksdale the rise and fall of dynasties—but learned nifer Weltz at Jean V. took world rights to Jacqueline L. Jack- that, for women, power always came with Naggar Literary son’s Loving You, Thinking of You, Don’t a price.” A number of foreign sales have Associates, who said Forget to Pray: Letters to My Son in Prison. also closed on the book, with deals final- she pitched the non- The author is the wife of Jesse L. Jackson ized in the U.K. and Italy. fiction title as “a mix Sr., and the book is a compilation of letters Holland of Mary Roach and she sent to her son, Jesse L. Jackson Jr., ■ Hunter Closes Double Cheryl Strayed.” The book, Weltz during 30 days when he was in prison. Allison Hunter of Janklow & Nesbit, in explained, explores the “universal human (Jackson Jr., a former Congressman, was the first of two deals that she closed this questions” of how and why we feel fear, charged with pilfering from his cam- week, sold Mary Pauline Lowry’s The and seeks to answer whether there is a paign funds and tax evasion in 2013.) Roxy Letters to Chris- “cure” for our fears that can be found in The book, Skyhorse said, explores “the tine Pride at Simon facing them. Concurrent with the U.S. ongoing conversation about our broken & Schuster. Pride pre- deal, the title was acquired by Penguin criminal justice system and offers a blue- © mari hoskins empted world rights Canada. print for families across the country to to the epistolary novel support loved ones who are incarcerated about a millennial ■ ‘Vikings’ Sail to Scout Press or isolated.” The book, set for February Lowry working at a Whole When We Were Vikings by Andrew 2019, was sold by April Smith at the Foods in Austin, Tex. Hunter compared MacDonald was preempted by Alison KinZac Group. the novel to Where’d You Go Bernadette and Bridget Jones’ Diary, and explained that the “underemployed heroine, who is Exchanging NEIBA Notes sexually frustrated and looking for love At the author reception on the in all the wrong places, becomes outraged opening night of the New England by the gentrification that is slowly chang- Independent Booksellers Association ing her beloved city and decides to take trade show, (l. to r.) Courtney action when a corporation selling $100 Flynn, Trident Booksellers and Café yoga pants moves in.” in Boston; Rachel Cass, Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass.; In a second deal, Hunter sold Kate Wendy Hudson, Nantucket Weinberg’s The Truants to Helen Rich- Bookworks in Nantucket, Mass.; ard at Putnam, in a preempt, on behalf of and Gillian Kohli, Wellesley Books Claire Conrad at Janklow & Nesbit UK. in Wellesley, Mass., compare notes. photo by judith rosen

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 7 News

A New Kind of Comics Publisher

aunched in 2012 as a digital the dearth of comics shops and startup, St. Louis–based comics access to comics, as well as a Lpublisher Lion Forge is a rapidly lack of diversity in comics. growing house organized around an edito- Both believe that the North rial vision that looks to take advantage of American comics market offers demographic changes in the North new opportunities to reach American comics marketplace. In a recent current fans as well as to create interview, Lion Forge cofounders David new comics readers. Thus, Steward II and Carl Reed talked of Lion Forge was born. “We Lion Forge CEO and cofounder David Steward II. building a new kind of comics publishing wanted to broaden access to house that relects a new and diverse gen- comics,” Reed said. “If you talk to a tives of women, people of color, and eration of fans and creators. Trump supporter or to a black kid, they LGBTQ communities. The publisher’s Both men launched businesses and will both tell you they love comics, but lists are also produced and promoted by a worked in the movie industry in L.A. where do you go to find them?” diverse editorial and marketing staff. before returning to St. Louis. The two Lion Forge’s answer is to offer readers a The Lion Forge business model is explained that their vision of a publishing list of graphic novels and periodical focused on publishing for the book trade company was driven by a mutual love of comics in a variety of genres, in addition as well as for the comics shop market (aka comics and a mutual dissatisfaction with to the more prevalent superhero comics, the direct market). The company has a the comics marketplace—namely with with selections that embrace the perspec- line with multiple imprints for adults and young readers for the general bookstore market. It has also launched a multicul- tural superhero imprint called Catalyst Prime, whose books are aimed primarily (though not exclusively) at the comics In Loving Memory shop market. Catalyst Prime is organized around a cast of characters that includes women, nonwhites, members of the LGBTQ community, and those with dis- abilities, all of whom are featured in a complex and interlocking fictional universe. Steward acknowledged that the book market is generating more growth in sales of graphics novels than the direct market, but he’s not giving up on the comics shop market. The direct market continues to be dominated by superhero comic books from Marvel and DC, a monthly comic book format that is in decline, and an aging fan base. “The gen- 1954–2018 eral public only knows Marvel and DC when they talk about comics,” Steward said. “Why are other companies only playing in half the pool? We think it’s important to have a leg in each market, although the book trade is where the readers are, and where the big growth is going on in middle grade books.”

8 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 News

By 2016, Lion Forge began to aggres- diversity for the long term.” sively ramp up its hiring, jumping from Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime superhero about 10 employees to about 60 today. line features such creators as David President George Slowik Jr. The staff is based mostly in St. Louis, Walker, a highly regarded black comics Publisher Cevin Bryerman Editorial Director Jim Milliot with additional offices in New York and writer who has worked on many of the V-P, Business Development Carl Pritzkat Children’s Book Editor Diane Roback Portland, Ore., and “with more hiring to iconic characters in the DC and Marvel Executive Editor Jonathan Segura come,” Steward said. This year, Lion lineup. There’s also newcomer Sheena Associate Publisher Joe Murray Art Director Clive Chiu Forge will publish about 130 titles across Howard, an African-American academic Managing Editor Daniel Berchenko all its children’s and adult imprints. who has researched and written on issues News Director Rachel Deahl Senior News Editor Calvin Reid Among those hired with a focus on the around comics, gender, and black iden- Associate News and Digital Editor John Maher book trade is Rich Johnson, Yen Press tity, and who is now a first-time super- Features Editor Carolyn Juris Deputy Reviews Editor Gabe Habash cofounder and a former v-p of trade book hero comics writer working with Walker. Senior Editors Peter Cannon, Mark Rotella sales at DC, who was brought on as Lion The two cowrite Superb, a Catalyst Senior Reviews Editor Rose Fox Reviews Editors Alex Crowley, Forge’s v-p of sales, marketing, and busi- Prime series featuring an unusual super- Everett Jones, Hannah Kushnick, ness development. Andrea Colvin, former hero duo: a black teenage girl and her Meg Lemke, Seth Satterlee Children’s Reviews Editor Amanda Bruns v-p of content in the Andrew McMeel partner, a white teenage boy with Down BookLife Editor Adam Boretz Senior Writer Andrew R. Albanese book division, was hired to oversee Lion syndrome. Bookselling & International Editor Ed Nawotka Forge’s kids publishing and was recently On the book trade side, this year the Religion Editor Emma Koonse Wenner Associate Editor, Children’s Books Emma Kantor promoted to v-p, editor in chief, over- house will publish Upgrade Soul by Ezra Associate Children’s Reviews Editor Matia Burnett seeing the house’s CubHouse (early Claytan Daniels. Originally released as an Assistant Editor Drucilla Shultz Associate Art Director Nicole Cadavid readers), Caracal (middle grade), and app-based digital work, Upgrade Soul won Copy Editor Robby Ritacco Roar (YA) imprints. And with an eye to the 2016 Dwayne McDuffie Diversity Senior Marketing Director Krista Rafanello Marketing & Events Director Bryan Kinney developing Lion Forge’s relationship with Award and is being publishing in a print Sales Coordinator Deena Ali the library and educational market, the edition for the first time this month. Marketing/Licensing Director Christi Cassidy Director of Special Editorial Projects Craig Morgan Teicher company hired Jill Gerber, a teacher and There’s also Quillion, a newly launched Director of Strategic Development Seth Dellon Digital Media Coordinator Michael Morris longtime advocate for the use of comics Lion Forge imprint that will combine Audience Development Coordinator Marian Amo in the classroom, for a newly created posi- comics with tabletop gaming. The V-P, Operations Patrick Turner Business Manager Esther Reid tion: director of education outreach and Quillion imprint is launching Rolled & Director of Operations Ryk Hsieh collections. Told, a monthly magazine with comics, Editor at Large Louisa Ermelino Correspondents: Also in 2016, Lion Forge acquired illustration, articles about gaming, and New England Alex Green 781-405-5066 Magnetic Press, an independent graphic RPG adventures. The line will begin pro- Midwest Claire Kirch 218-310-1867 West Coast Jason Boog 917-577-6332 novel publisher specializing in English- ducing book-based tabletop games in Asia Teri Tan ([email protected]) language editions of European graphic 2019. Contributing Editors Aída Bardales, Peter Brantley, Michael Coffey, Sue Corbett, Lynn Garrett, novels, principally aimed at the book Lion Forge has even ventured into jour- Liz Hartman, Brian Kenney, Daniel Lefferts, trade for adults and children. Magnetic nalism. In late 2017 it acquired The Beat: Sally Lodge, Heidi MacDonald, Shannon Maughan, Marcia Z. Nelson, Diane Patrick, Karen Raugust, Press is now an imprint under its founder The News Blog of Comics Culture, a pio- Sonia Jaffe Robbins, Judith Rosen, Wendy Smith, Sybil Steinberg, Clare Swanson and publisher, Mike Kennedy. neering comics and graphic novel blog Production/Manufacturing Publishing Experts On the comics shop side of the company, founded by Heidi MacDonald, a long- Circulation Director Next Steps Marketing Web Engineering Mediapolis Lion Forge has hired acclaimed comics time comics journalist and former PW IT Support ACS Int’l writer Gail Simone, who’s written for just graphic novel reviews editor. Interns Gilcy Aquino, Kelsey Hogan, Joshua Lemay, about every major character at DC and Steward said he has ambitious goals for Kristoff Ramsamujh HOW TO REACH US Marvel, to oversee the Catalyst Prime Lion Forge: “I want to be in the top five 71 W. 23rd St., Suite 1608, New York, NY 10010 superhero line and write a new series for it. of comics publishers in the book market, Phone: 212-377-5500; fax: 212-377-2733; email: [email protected] Steward believes the success of Lion and in the top three in the direct market. To subscribe, change an address, report delivery problems, Forge’s publishing program in both the The comics market has shifted and we or inquire about back issues, call 800-278-2991 or 818-487-2069, or fax 818-487-4550. book and comics market will be driven by need to be nimble and take advantage of For inquiries about reprints & permissions, demographic changes in comics readership opportunities as they happen. We’re not email [email protected] and what readers want to see. “You have bogged down by our history like older ADVERTISING Cevin Bryerman 212-377-5703 two big, slow-moving publishing crea- companies. You need to be diverse in this Mark Abbott 702-499-1999 tures in DC and Marvel, and it’s hard for market. We don’t have to start a diversity Ian Littauer 212-377-5706 Julia Molino 212-377-5709 them to change,” he said. “They constantly division or create a black imprint. This Joseph Murray 212-377-5708 flunk on diversity. It’s not about using stuff is in our DNA.” Shaina Yahr 212-377-2691 Classifieds/online inquiries: diversity for headlines; it’s about embracing —Calvin Reid Cevin Bryerman 212-377-5703

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 9 Behind the Bestsellers SEPT. 17– 23, 2018 BY CAROLYN JURIS Leading the Way Work It A pair of historians have new books about these A trio of authors who made United States. their names in other creative At #6 in hardcover nonfiction, #8 overall, Leadership arenas debut with three of the by Doris Kearns Goodwin is, our starred review said, a top 10 books in the country. “thoughtful revisiting of the lives of four presidents to #2 Whiskey in a Teacup, a whom she has previously dedicated individual books,” lifestyle title, is Academy Award–win- examining how Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, ning actor and Emmy Award–winning Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson handled “the producer Reese Witherspoon’s first major challenges that confronted them as presidents.” book, though she’s made her presence In These Truths, #8 in hardcover nonfiction, New felt across publishing thanks to her Yorker writer Jill Lepore offers a “probing political history popular Instagram book club. of the United States,” our review said, putting forth #3 Cravings: Hungry for More “evenhanded assessments of latter-day partisan wrangles.” follows up model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook debut, 2016’s Cravings. That title has sold Wild Ride 434K print copies, and its sales for YA author Marie Lu completes her Warcross duology with Wildcard, the most recent week are up 255% #4 in children’s frontlist fiction, which our starred review called an compared to the week before. “action-packed escapade with a thoughtful, emotion-driven core,” #5 In Pieces is two-time Academy one that’s “sure to inspire even deeper devotion among Lu’s fans.” Award winner and three-time Emmy First-week print unit sales are better than Lu’s seen since the final book Award winner Sally Field’s memoir. in her career-launching Legend trilogy, 2013’s Champion. The actor told PW, in a pre-BookExpo 2018 interview, that she began writ- Select First-Week Print Unit Sales for Marie Lu

ing it in 2011, when her mother died: “I 14,687 didn’t know what needed resolving, so I just started writing.”

NEW & NOTABLE 8,193 LETHAL WHITE Robert Galbraith #1 Hardcover Fiction, #7 overall 6,754 5,811 5,800

The author otherwise known 5,047 as J.K. Rowling “impressively sustains suspense over the 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 course of a lengthy mystery in her fourth outing for London PI Cormoran TOP 10 OVERALL Strike and his partner, Robin Ellacott,” our RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT UNITS starred review said. 1 Fear Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster 342,035 2 Whiskey in a Teacup Reese Witherspoon Touchstone 61,998 MY STRUGGLE: BOOK SIX 3 Cravings: Hungry for More Chrissy Teigen Clarkson Potter 57,383 Karl Ove Knausgaard #15 Hardcover Fiction 4 Girl, Wash Your Face Rachel Hollis Nelson 49,716 “The final book of Knausgaard’s 5 Lord of the Fleas (Dog Man #5) Dav Pilkey Graphix 43,654 six-volume masterpiece,” our 6 In Pieces Sally Field Grand Central 42,137 starred review said, “goes 7 Lethal White Robert Galbraith Mulholland 33,057 maximalist and metatextual, examining the 8 Leadership Doris Kearns Goodwin Simon & Schuster 29,369 impact that the autobiographical series 9 Juror #3 Patterson/Allen Little, Brown 24,806 has had on the author’s life and the lives 10 Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan Anchor 21,632 of those around him.” INFORMATION SUPPLIED BY NPD BOOKSCAN. COPYRIGHT © 2018 THE NPD GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PRINT UNIT SALES PER NPD BOOKSCAN EXCEPT WHERE NOTED EDITOR’S NOTE: SALES FOR THE WEEK ENDED SEPT. 23, 2018 DO NOT INCLUDE DATA FROM THE CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE CHAIN LIFEWAY. 10 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Information supplied by NPD BookScan. Copyright © 2018 Adult Bestsellers | SEPT. 17–23, 2018 The NPD Group. All rights reserved. Hardcover Frontlist Fiction RANK LW TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS

1 – Lethal White Robert Galbraith Mulholland 9780316422734 33,057 2 1 Juror #3 Patterson/Allen Little, Brown 9780316474122 24,806 3 – Time’s Convert Deborah Harkness Viking 9780399564512 13,967 4 2 Shadow Tyrants Cussler/Morrison Putnam 9780735219069 10,613 5 3 In His Father’s Footsteps Danielle Steel Delacorte 9780399179266 9,516 6 4 Leverage in Death J.D. Robb St. Martin’s 9781250161567 8,855 7 – Sea Prayer Khaled Hosseini Riverhead 9780525539094 8,441 8 6 Texas Ranger Patterson/Bourelle Little, Brown 9780316556668 7,182 9 8 Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Putnam 9780735219090 6,309 10 5 The Forbidden Door Dean Koontz Bantam 9780525483700 6,001 11 7 The President Is Missing Clinton/Patterson Little, Brown/Knopf 9780316412698 5,439 12 9 The Outsider Stephen King Scribner 9781501180989 5,273 13 10 The Fall of Gondolin J.R.R. Tolkien HMH 9781328613042 4,465 14 12 Tailspin Sandra Brown Grand Central 9781455572168 3,386 15 – My Struggle: Book Six Karl Ove Knausgaard Archipelago 9780914671992 3,363 16 – The Labyrinth of the Spirits Carlos Ruiz Zafón Harper 9780062668691 3,339 17 14 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng Penguin Press 9780735224292 3,154 18 – A Willing Murder Jude Deveraux Mira 9780778369295 2,834 19 17 The Woman in the Window A.J. Finn Morrow 9780062678416 2,822 20 – Anatomy of a Metahuman Perry/Manning/Doyle Insight Editions 9781608875016 2,806 Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction RANK LW TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS

1 1 Fear Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster 9781501175510 342,035 2 – Whiskey in a Teacup Reese Witherspoon Touchstone 9781501166273 61,998 3 – Cravings: Hungry for More Chrissy Teigen Clarkson Potter 9781524759728 57,383 4 2 Girl, Wash Your Face Rachel Hollis Nelson 9781400201655 49,716 5 – In Pieces Sally Field Grand Central 9781538763025 42,137 6 – Leadership Doris Kearns Goodwin Simon & Schuster 9781476795928 29,369 7 – The Deep State Jason Chaffetz Broadside 9780062851567 15,334 8 – These Truths Jill Lepore Norton 9780393635249 14,001 9 – D&D Waterdeep Dragon Heist – Wizards of the Coast 9780786966257 11,383 10 4 Magnolia Table Joanna Gaines Morrow 9780062820150 10,499 11 6 Educated Tara Westover Random House 9780399590504 9,969 12 – Addicted to Outrage Glenn Beck Threshold 9781476798868 8,776 13 9 12 Rules for Life Jordan B. Peterson Random House Canada 9780345816023 8,402 14 7 The Russia Hoax Gregg Jarrett Broadside 9780062872746 8,253 15 11 Liars, Leakers, and Liberals Jeanine Pirro Center Street 9781546083429 7,051 16 8 21 Lessons for the 21st Century Yuval Noah Harari Random/Spiegel & Grau 9780525512172 6,697 17 13 Healing the Soul of a Woman Joyce Meyer FaithWords 9781455560240 5,477 18 10 Accessory to War Tyson/Lang Norton 9780393064445 5,381 19 – Earth’s Last Empire John Hagee Worthy 9781683972761 4,792 20 12 Every Day Is Extra John Kerry Simon & Schuster 9781501178955 4,586

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WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 11 Information supplied by NPD BookScan. Copyright © 2018 Adult Bestsellers | SEPT. 17–23, 2018 The NPD Group. All rights reserved. Mass Market Frontlist RANK LW TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS

1 – Why Not Tonight Susan Mallery HQN 9781335474605 10,913 2 – Vampires Like It Hot Lynsay Sands Avon 9780062855138 10,171 3 2 Haunted Patterson/Born Grand Central 9781538745489 7,823 4 1 The Romanov Ransom Cussler/Burcell Putnam 9780399575563 7,682 5 – Echoes of Evil Heather Graham Mira 9780778359999 7,270 6 3 Origin Dan Brown Anchor 9780525563709 6,717 7 5 The Crooked Staircase Dean Koontz Bantam 9780525483694 5,722 8 4 Vince Flynn: Enemy of the State Kyle Mills Pocket 9781476783536 5,663 9 7 The Rooster Bar John Grisham Dell 9781101967706 5,408 10 6 Springtime in Salt River RaeAnne Thayne Harlequin 9781335144928 5,040 11 9 A Simple Favor (movie tie-in) Darcey Bell Harper 9780062883490 4,714 12 8 You Will Pay Lisa Jackson Zebra 9781420135985 4,672 13 46 The Amish Christmas Cowboy Jo Ann Brown Love Inspired 9781335509765 4,665 14 – An Amish Holiday Wedding Carrie Lighte Love Inspired 9781335509772 4,546 15 47 Rogue Gunslinger B.J. Daniels Harlequin Intrigue 9781335526649 4,464 16 10 1022 Evergreen Place Debbie Macomber Mira 9780778360001 4,291 17 14 Past Perfect Danielle Steel Dell 9781101883990 4,171 18 – Wyoming Christmas Quadruplets Jill Kemerer Love Inspired 9781335509802 4,077 19 29 Keeping Secrets Lisa Jackson Harlequin 9781335017970 3,935 20 12 Only You Nora Roberts Silhouette 9781335090461 3,925 Trade Paperback Frontlist RANK LW TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS

1 1 The Fallen David Baldacci Grand Central 9781538761380 13,797 2 2 The Tattooist of Auschwitz Heather Morris Harper 9780062797155 12,997 3 4 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman Penguin Books 9780735220690 9,808 4 3 Rich People Problems Kevin Kwan Anchor 9780525432371 9,051 5 7 Less Andrew Sean Greer Back Bay 9780316316132 7,732 6 6 A Simple Favor (movie tie-in) Darcey Bell Harper 9780062878649 7,153 7 5 The Winner David Baldacci Grand Central 9781538711798 6,697 8 9 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari Harper Perennial 9780062316110 6,280 9 10 Instant Pot Miracle – HMH 9781328851055 6,249 10 8 The Dutch Wife Ellen Keith Park Row 9780778369769 5,930 11 11 Grit Angela Duckworth Scribner 9781501111112 5,840 12 14 Pachinko Min Jin Lee Grand Central 9781455563920 5,064 13 15 The Sun and Her Flowers Rupi Kaur Andrews McMeel 9781449486792 5,016 14 17 Letters to the Church Francis Chan David C. Cook 9780830776580 4,878 15 13 Crazy Rich Asians (movie tie-in) Kevin Kwan Anchor 9780525563761 4,566 16 – Birnbaum’s 2019 Walt Disney World – Disney Editions 9781368019330 4,491 17 18 Uncommon Type Tom Hanks Vintage 9781101911945 4,475 18 16 Everybody, Always Bob Goff Nelson 9780718078133 4,465 19 – Sleeping Beauties King/King Gallery 9781501163418 4,276 20 29 The Easy 5Ingredient Ketogenic Diet Cookbook Jen Fisch Rockridge 9781939754448 3,753

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12 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Information supplied by NPD BookScan. Copyright © 2018 Children’s Bestsellers |SEPT. 17–23, 2018 The NPD Group. All rights reserved. Children’s Frontlist Fiction RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS 1 Lord of the Fleas (Dog Man #5) Dav Pilkey Graphix 9780545935173 43,654 2 The Last Kids on Earth and the Cosmic Beyond Brallier/Holgate Viking 9780425292082 9,721 3 Dog Man and Cat Kid (Dog Man #4) Dav Pilkey Graphix 9780545935180 8,472 4 Wildcard Marie Lu Putnam 9780399547997 8,193 5 Always and Forever, Lara Jean Jenny Han Simon & Schuster 9781481430494 6,785 6 Big Nate Goes Bananas! Lincoln Peirce Andrews McMeel 9781449489953 6,143 7 Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices) Cassandra Clare McElderry 9781534432307 5,774 8 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (movie tie-in) Jenny Han Simon & Schuster 9781534438378 5,502 9 Kristy’s Big Day (Baby-Sitters Club #6) Martin/Galligan Graphix 9781338067613 5,330 10 The House with a Clock in Its Walls (movie tie-in) Bellairs/Gorey Puffin 9780451481283 4,924 11 The Getaway (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #12) Jeff Kinney Abrams 9781419725456 4,331 12 The Hate U Give (movie tie-in) Angie Thomas HC/Balzer + Bray 9780062871350 4,282 13 Escaping from Houdini Kerri Maniscalco LB/Patterson 9780316551700 3,817 14 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Rowling/Selznick Scholastic/Levine 9781338299144 3,200 15 The Hate U Give (collector’s edition) Angie Thomas HC/Balzer + Bray 9780062872340 3,185 16 The Bad Guys in Do-You-Think-He-Saurus?! Aaron Blabey Scholastic 9781338189612 2,875 17 Hocus Pocus and the All-New Sequel A.W. Jantha Freeform 9781368020039 2,838 18 Children of Blood and Bone Tomi Adeyemi Holt 9781250170972 2,618 19 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Rowling/Selznick Scholastic/Levine 9780545791342 2,494 20 Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle... Dav Pilkey Scholastic 9781338271492 2,477 21 The Storm Runner J.C. Cervantes Hyperion/Riordan 9781368016346 2,409 22 Two Dark Reigns Kendare Blake HarperTeen 9780062686145 2,119 23 Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked... Dav Pilkey Scholastic 9781338216233 1,952 24 PopularMMOs Presents A Hole New World PopularMMOs/Jones HarperCollins 9780062790873 1,924 25 Dear Martin Nic Stone Ember 9781101939529 1,827

Children’s Picture Books RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN UNITS 1 Goodnight Goon Michael Rex Putnam 9780399245343 11,807 2 Pete the Cat: Trick or Pete Dean/Dean HarperFestival 9780062198709 11,319 3 Little Blue Truck’s Halloween Schertle/McElmurry HMH 9780544772533 10,496 4 Room on the Broom Donaldson/Scheffler Puffin 9780142501122 9,151 5 Princesses Save the World Guthrie/Oppenheim/Byrne Abrams 9781419731716 8,424 6 First 100 Words Roger Priddy Priddy 9780312510787 8,344 7 Goodnight Moon Brown/Hurd HarperFestival 9780694003617 7,697 8 The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle Philomel 9780399226908 7,027 9 Room on the Broom (board book) Donaldson/Scheffler Dial 9780803738416 6,893 10 Giraffes Can’t Dance Andreae/Parker-Rees Cartwheel 9780545392556 6,273 11 The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide... Thuras /Mosco/Ang Workman 9781523503544 6,255 12 Love You Forever Robert Munsch Firefly 9780920668375 5,792 13 Spooky Pookie Sandra Boynton Little Simon 9781481497671 5,468 14 Happy Halloween, Daniel Tiger! Santomero/Fruchter Simon Spotlight 9781481404297 5,453 15 You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie Natalie Marshal Silver Dolphin 9781684124343 5,270 16 Dr. Seuss’s ABC Dr. Seuss Random House 9780679882817 5,216 17 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Martin/Carle Holt 9780805047905 5,027 18 Princesses Wear Pants Guthrie/Oppenheim/Byrne Abrams 9781419726033 4,968 19 Little Blue Truck Schertle/McElmurry HMH 9780544568037 4,812 20 Pete the Cat: Five Little Pumpkins James Dean HarperCollins 9780062304186 4,782 21 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 9780679805274 4,415 22 The Pout-Pout Fish Diesen/Hanna FSG 9780374360979 4,363 23 The Berenstain Bears Go on a Ghost Walk Berenstain/Berenstain HarperFestival 9780060573836 4,286 24 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Martin/Archambault Little Simon 9781442450707 4,269 25 There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! Colandro/Lee Cartwheel 9780439737661 4,164

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 13 Charts supplied by Apple Inc., copyright 2018 Apple Inc. All Apple Books Bestsellers | SEPT. 17–23, 2018 rights reserved. Apple Books is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Fiction & Literature

RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN 1 Lethal White Robert Galbraith Mulholland 9780316422741 2 Where the Crawdads Sing Delia Owens Putnam 9780735219113 3 The Silent Wife Kerry Fisher Bookouture 9781786811264 4 China Rich Girlfriend Kevin Kwan Anchor 9780385539098 5 Rich People Problems Kevin Kwan Anchor 9780385542241 5 You Can’t Iron a Wrinkled Birthday Suit Sharon Phennah BQB 9781937084158 7 The Lost Vintage Ann Mah Morrow 9780062823335 8 In His Father’s Footsteps Danielle Steel Dell 9780399179273 9 Shadow Tyrants Cussler/Morrison Putnam 9780735219076 10 Before We Were Yours Lisa Wingate Ballantine 9780425284698 11 Diary of an Oxygen Thief Anonymous Gallery 9781501157868 12 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine Gail Honeyman Penguin Books 9780735220706 13 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng Penguin Press 9780735224308 14 The Great Alone Kristin Hannah St. Martin’s 9781250165619 15 The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood HMH 9780547345666 16 The Bone Clocks David Mitchell Random House 9780812994735 17 Nantucket Nights Elin Hilderbrand St. Martin’s 9781429905466 18 Five Unforgivable Things Vivien Brown HarperImpulse 9780008252151 19 The Left Hand of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin Ace 9781101665398 20 Across Oceans Collection Clare Flynn Cranbrook 9781386237457

Biographies & Memoirs

RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN 1 In Pieces Sally Field Grand Central 9781538763049 2 Educated Tara Westover Random House 9780399590511 3 Identical Strangers Schein/Bernstein Random House 9781588366443 4 Redemption Lannert/Kemp Crown 9780307592156 5 Deconstructing Sammy Matt Birkbeck HarperCollins 9780061982415 6 Full Disclosure Stormy Daniels St. Martin’s 9781250205575 7 Unsinkable Reynolds/Hannaway Morrow 9780062213679 8 The Three Lives of James Madison Noah Feldman Random House 9780679643845 9 Fierce Patriot Robert L. O’Connell Random House 9780679604693 10 Becoming Michelle Obama Crown 9781524763152

Romance

RANK TITLE AUTHOR IMPRINT ISBN 1 Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan Anchor 9780385536981 2 Night Moves Nora Roberts Silhouette 9781488034749 3 Guilty as Sin Meghan March Red Dress 9781943796175 4 Wicked Wedding Sawyer Bennett Big Dog – 5 His Mistress with Two Secrets Dani Collins Harlequin 9781459292840 6 A Christmas Miracle for Daisy Jane Porter Tule 9781943963607 7 Richer Than Sin Meghan March Red Dress 9781943796144 8 Reveling in Sin Meghan March Red Dress 9781943796182 9 Why Not Tonight Susan Mallery HQN 9781488096822 10 Obsession Helen Hardt Waterhouse 9781943893188

14 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Department|BOOKS IN SPANISH

Select October Spanish-Language Titles

COMPILED BY AÍDA BARDALES, WITH DESCRIPTIONS PROVIDED BY PUBLISHERS Aída Bardales

FICTION Cuentos completos (Complete Stories) Roberto Bolaño Vintage Español ISBN 978-0-525-43551-8 This volume gathers Bolaño’s short stories. The author, who died in 2003, was one of the most important igures of con- temporary Spanish literature. Gabriel García Márquez 20 years. The author examines current La fruta del borrachero Vintage Español changes in several fields and contrasts (Fruit from the Forbidden Tree) ISBN 978-0-525-56671-7 the perspectives of “techno-optimists” Ingrid Rojas Contreras Márquez was one of the titans of 20th- with those of “techno-negativists.” Vintage Español century literature, and this book features ISBN 978-0-525-56401-0 a selection of his journalism from the late CHILDREN’S/YA Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister 1940s to the mid-’80s. Cero se repite siempre enjoy carefree lives in their gated com- (Zero Repeats Forever) munity in Bogotá, but the threat of kid- El tiempo de las emociones Gabrielle S. Prendergast napping, car bombs, and assassinations (The Time of Emotions) Océano hovers just outside the neighborhood Guillermo García Arias ISBN 978-607-527-462-1 walls, where Pablo Escobar continues to Ediciones Lea This is a novel about an invasion of mur- elude authorities and capture the atten- ISBN 978-987-718-529-4 derous creatures, and one girl fighting tion of the nation. The author walks the readers through his for her life at the end of the world. own passions, doubts, and convictions Leyendas de todo México about how to live a better life. Diario de Anne Frank. (Legends of All Mexico) Novela gráfica Tere Remolina & Becky Rubinstein Las guerras ocultas del narco (Diary of Anne Frank: The Graphic Novel) Sélector (dist. by Spanish Publishers) (The Drug Lord’s Hidden Wars) Anne Frank ISBN 978-607-453-334-7 Juan Alberto Cedillo Vintage Español The legends gathered here are simple stories Grijalbo ISBN 978-0-525-56450-8 about Mexico’s desires, fears, and dreams. ISBN 978-607-31-6734-5 This graphic novel adaptation of Frank’s Cedillo investigates the hidden brutality Diary of a Young Girl is aimed at a young NONFICTION of the war on drugs. readership and features quotes from the Breve historia del arte diary. (Short History of Art) ¡Sálvese quien pueda! Susie Hodge (Save Yourself!) El proyecto de Wendy Blume Andrés Oppenheimer (The Wendy Project) ISBN 978-84-16965-02-1 Vintage Español Veronica Fish & Melissa Jane Styled as a pocket guide, this book is a new ISBN 978-0-525-56487-4 Osborne and innovative overview of art. It demysti- According to the experts Océano fies artistic jargon to provide readers a Oppenheimer interviewed, ISBN 978-607-527-114-9 chance to understand and enjoy art. 47% of jobs are at risk of Through colorful illustra- becoming automated or ren- tions, this graphic novel rein- El escándalo del siglo dered obsolete by techno- vents the Peter Pan story for (The Scandal of the Century) logical changes in the next modern readers, featuring a

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 15 Department|BOOKS IN SPANISH

Yo no soy tu perfecta hija Mexicana (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter) Erika L. Sánchez strong female protagonist who confronts Proyecto Galileo Vintage Español grief. (The Galileo Project) ISBN 978-0-525-56432-4 Joan Català Julia is not the perfect Mexican daughter. La perrita detective Bambú That was her sister Olga’s role—she (The Detective Dog) ISBN 978-84-8343-531-1 stayed home to take care of their parents. Julia Donaldson & Sara Ogilvie In the year 2052, a few high school kids But one mistake leaves Olga dead, and Blume sneak onto a Mars expedition, where Julia is left behind to cope with the after- ISBN 978-84-9801-956-8 they must learn to work together to save math. Julia soon discovers that Olga may A rhyming picture book about a dog who some explorers, and maybe even Earth have had secrets, too. Was Olga really uses her amazing sense of smell to solve itself. what she seemed, or was there more to her mysteries. sister’s story? ■

NOW AVAILABLE from Fiona Basile Simple yet profound truths to help children listen to their hearts.

We are all loved by God and were created with a spark of God’s love in our hearts. Using gentle repetition, Shhh…God Is in the Silence reminds us of this and helps us silence our minds to better hear our hearts.

English: PB | 9780829446579 | $8.95 Bilingual: PB | 9780829446968 | $8.95

To learn more and order your copy of Shhh…God Is in the Silence Visit www.GodIsintheSilence.com or call 800.621.1008.

16 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018

FICTION AT WA R P SPEED

Binge culture is making passionate fandoms hungrier and even harder to satisfy; here’s how authors and publishers of science fiction and fantasy are adapting

BY BETSY O’DONOVAN

enre publishers know a thing or two about voracious fans. “When Jim Butcher releases a book, two days later it’s like, When’s the next one coming out?” says Anne Sowards, executive editor at Ace. “Even though readers Gknow intellectually that it takes a while to write a book, they don’t neces- sarily want to wait.” These stepped-up expectations may be thanks, in part, to the pace of other media, such as podcasts and streaming services that drop complete seasons of episodes in a single day. Emil Steiner, an assistant professor at Rowan University, studies binge consumption and the emotional relationships that audiences build with the media they consume. He sees an opportunity for book publishing to thrive where television was caught flat-footed. “The broadcast companies really slept” on the idea that audiences might want something other than their favorite shows delivered on a weekly schedule, Steiner says. Enter Netflix, the subject of much of his research. Many networks initially saw it as a sort of video store, then a kind of internet cable channel, and missed the threat as Netflix collected massive amounts of user data, listened to the signals that audiences gave, and grew into an entertainment powerhouse. “Binge watching changes the industry—not just the money side but the kinds of shows that are being produced, and the role of the viewers,” Steiner says. He sees the streaming phenomenon as more than just consumers adopting new delivery methods and platforms. Audiences, he says, have been trained to expect vivid, thoroughly imagined worlds that are constantly available and expanding at the speed of their appetites. It isn’t hard to see the implications for publishing, particularly in the realm of science fiction and fantasy, where readers have always been eager to immerse themselves in

ALL PRINT UNIT SALES PER NPD BOOKSCAN EXCEPT WHERE NOTED.

new stories, mythologies, and worlds. Authors and publishers are experi- menting with new ways of telling and delivering stories, and with using digital tools to bring new readers into the fold and keep longtime fans coming back. Hungry for More Binge delivery is one force affecting audience expectations. Another could be called the George R.R. Martin effect, and its influence is being felt keenly in publishing circles. “I’ve observed this desire to wait for the end of a series before you start it,” says Adrienne Procaccini, senior editor at Amazon’s 47North and Skyscape imprints. “It’s comforting to pick up a book and know you can have a complete story all at once.” Steiner’s research echoes the observa- tion: viewers’ sense of satisfaction increased dramatically when they were able to binge on a complete, high- quality series. At the other end of the spectrum is the frustration familiar to fans of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series or Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire—the worry that an author won’t finish what he’s started. “This is a growing concern,” says Angela James, editorial director at Carina Press, a digital-first Harlequin imprint that publishes SFF among other genres. “I think this is a result of digital publishing broadly, and self-publishing on a micro level. With the sheer influx of authors, books, and availability, readers are feeling more wary of investing time” and are protecting themselves from getting attached to story arcs that may never be completed. James, a “huge Robert Jordan fan,” says she has refused to start Martin’s series until it’s completed, and she knows she’s not an anomaly, nor is the phenomenon unique to A Song of Ice and Fire. “A lot of readers are saying it’s harder to wait in between installments, and they want to be able to get through the content. We’re hearing more readers say they’re waiting—they might be collecting the books, buying and storing them, but they’re not reading them until it’s complete.” One example: after the 2016 publication of Phase Shift, the final book in Jenn Burke and Kelly Jensen’s Chaos Station series, James says, the authors heard from excited readers who’d waited to pull the trigger until they could buy all five books and binge. Kensington executive editor Tara Gavin considers series one of the most powerful author development tools. “Having a fabulous standalone book will always be an option,” she says, but “an author’s name has to be built strategically.” She adds, “Series are a very effective way to do that quickly.” Rebel Base, Kensington’s digital-first SFF imprint, released Shattered Roads, the first of Alice Henderson’s Skyfire Saga, in April and set an aggressive, 18-month publishing schedule for the trilogy. The final novel, Shattered Skies, will pub in October 2019. At Tor.com, shorter fiction lends itself to a quicker pace. Martha Wells’s the Murderbot Diaries, associate editor Carl Engle-Laird says, is a “perfect illustration of Science Fiction & Fantasy

the pleasures of reading binges.” The Strategy due out in October. Fans will series, about a misanthropic robot who’d need to wait longer for the first rather binge watch TV than deal with Murderbot novel, tentatively scheduled people, launched in May 2017 with All for early 2020. Systems Red, which was a Hugo finalist “You have to prioritize a bottom line, and Nebula winner for best novella. A but you want to prioritize the health of a year later, three follow-up novellas were series,” says Miriam Weinberg, senior scheduled in rapid succession, with Exit editor at sister imprint Tor. “Most authors

spend a year to five writing their first novel, and get six to nine months to write their next one. So I’ve started talking to people about if they can turn in two books at once. It’s one of those entirely insane things to say to someone, but then you don’t get a gap on the publishing side.” Curtis C. Chen’s first SF novel, Waypoint Kangaroo (St. Martin’s/Dunn), pubbed in 2016; the sequel, Kangaroo Too, followed a year later, and a third book is underway. Readers who won’t start incomplete story arcs “certainly influenced my decision to write the Kangaroo series as mostly standalone adventures with some back- ground continuity,” he says. “I’ve heard from quite a few readers who don’t want to start a series until all the books are out, which is at odds with publishers wanting to see how the first books do before com- mitting to more in the series. And, of course, authors get caught in the middle.” Middle grade author Robin LaFevers learned a hard lesson about reader expec- tations when one of her series lacked suf- ficient sales to extend past the first four books; it remains unfinished. “I still get angry letters from parents who want it to be completed,” she says. “I feel really bad about that, too.” The experience stayed with LaFevers when she moved into the YA category. His Fair Assassin, a fantasy trilogy that HMH published between 2012 and 2014, follows a convent of deadly nuns in 14th-century France. When she finished Mortal Heart, the third install- ment, “It was over as far as I was con- cerned. But my next book is set in that

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Science Fiction & Fantasy

world because my readers kept asking what happened to them. were able to release one every couple of months” before the I don’t think 20 years ago an author would have that much fourth book came out in January 2018, Sowards says. “That input from readers, but it affects what you write.” helped to establish the series. It’s one of our most popular con- Courting Darkness (HMH, Feb. 2019) expands the His Fair vention sellers.” (See “The Art of the Con,” p. 27.) Assassin universe with a duology that will let her complete a Editors with an eye on completist readers are also capitalizing narrative arc, build more of the world, and leave room for on the marketing possibilities for finished series. “Publishing expansion. is so often concerned with the new and next, but a finished series offers a whole new opportunity for true bingeing,” Weinberg Backlist to the Future says. She cites Daniel Abraham’s fantasy epic The Long Price Editors aren’t entirely sure what to do with wait-and-see Quartet as an example: Tor published one installment a year readers, who present an obvious challenge. “It’s a little sad from from 2006–2009, and will release a single-volume omnibus our perspective,” Ace’s Sowards says. “Because all we have are edition in November. the numbers—if people aren’t buying the book, it seems as Procaccini says that she’s been filling her list with writers though readers don’t like it. We don’t have a way of knowing— who have developed an audience with consistent self-pub- there could be 5 million people waiting until a series is lishing. “Independent authors tend to be savvy about their complete.” readers and about binge consumption, and a lot of them can One solution? Acquiring authors with an existing catalog of write faster than a publisher can publish.” titles. Such was the case with Genevieve Cogdon’s Invisible For those writers, completist readers are more of an opportu- Library series, about time-traveling librarian spies, which nity than a problem, particularly for publishing houses that already had three books in print and strong reviews in the are prepared to move at a rapid clip. Shannon Mayer (Oracle’s United Kingdom when Ace acquired it in 2015. The fifth book Haunt, Hijinks Ink, Nov.) had built a readership around five in the series, The Mortal Word, will be released in the U.S. and series of urban fantasies in seven years when 47North acquired the U.K. in November. her Venom trilogy, which it pubbed from November 2016 to “We wanted to catch up to the British publication date and March 2017. “We saw that some readers were waiting to pick Rock Manning Goes for Broke Charlie Jane Anders “Disaffected young-adult fi lmmakers who specialize in escapist stunt comedy Z are caught in a propaganda war in Stunning new Anders’ sharp, absurdist novella…” —BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW) novella by Nebula Award-winning “Hugo and Nebula winner Anders author of All the (All the Birds in the Sky) glances sideways at current political and Birds in the Sky social issues in this jittery, vigorous Z science fi ction novella set in a near-future United States… At times hilarious, at times brutal, this is an extremely personal look at how one person tries to survive constant tragedy.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY “An astute capsule of that moment of overload when you can’t decide whether to laugh or cry.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS

ISBN: 978-1-59606-878-0 subterraneanpress.com Deluxe Hardcover Edition: $40

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Science Fiction & Fantasy

up the books in that trilogy until they were all released,” Procaccini says, “maybe because they were confident that they would come out quickly.” Immersive Content Steiner, in his binge consumption research, talks about two kinds of completeness. There’s the idea of finishing the arc of a story and resolving all of the tension that good narrative builds, but there’s another kind of completeness, too—the idea of a world so vividly imagined and expansive that fans can stay in it and will demand more ways to do so. Building an all-encompassing universe may take the work of several creators, formal and informal. Baen Books has been honing that strategy for years—“Science fiction and fantasy are such genres of ideas, they naturally encourage collabora- tion,” says publisher Toni Weisskopf—with several long- running series anchored by a founding author. Eric Flint (1635: The Polish Maelstrom, Baen, Mar. 2019) began his Ring of Fire series in 2000 as a standalone alternate history called 1632, but, Weisskopf says, Flint’s research introduced him to specialists who wanted to add their own landscapes to his world. Flint now coauthors many of the novels in the series with various contributors and coordinates short story anthol- ogies and role-playing game guides that others have written. There’s a thin line between constantly thinking about an immersive world and beginning to imagine new stories for it. Crossing that line is part of the immersive experience for fans, like the ones on the Ring of Fire universe’s active mes- sage boards—and, sometimes, for writers. “Shared worlds is a spectrum, if we think of some fantasies as Tolkien fan-fic, or if you think about licensed novels around properties, or you think about the theory that Homer was actually a bunch of people who told stories,” says Malka Older, a Campbell Award finalist for 2016’s Infomocracy. That book launched her Centenal Cycle trilogy, which fin- ished with the recently released State Tectonics (Tor.com); now, she’s leading a team of four writers, including Chen, in writing a future-state police procedural, Ninth Step Station (SerialBox, Jan. 2019). SerialBox’s team model rests somewhere between licensed novels and anthologies, and seems to owe something to TV, where the pace of production has always demanded writing teams. As cocreators working at a fast pace for digital-only releases, Older says, they are all coming up with details, characters, and arcs that none of them would have built alone. New Launch Pads Some writers and houses are experimenting with other ways to connect to readers who have always lived in a world of on-demand media. It echoes the attention that binge- strategy TV shows have adopted, crossing platforms and shifting into new devices and media—basically, trying to keep and capture an audience’s imagination. For television, “It’s not so much getting someone to watch the show itself,” Steiner says, “but getting them into the ecosystem of the story and wanting to be immersed in that. Whether that’s through online groups or various games built around it, or fan fiction or whatever it is, that makes them want to be part of this world.” Harper Voyager is experimenting with a time-tested form of immersion: serving content in a steady drip of serial stories. In this case, that means working with mobile

Science Fiction & Fantasy

app Radish “to connect to a YA demographic we he knew it was a novel—but he also knew that he hadn’t been able to reach before—readers who seem would need to find a new, and perhaps nerdier, to want quick, digestible content sent directly to audience. So he started a serial fiction podcast to see their phones,” says executive editor David whether he could capitalize on the immersive Pomerico. This lets publishers push the content power of audio storytelling. And it worked. with notifications and reminders rather than “I’m getting a huge contingent of younger waiting for readers to pull it from a shelf, virtual or readers or listeners coming in who react to the otherwise. world electronically and expect the world to talk to The first two books of Amy S. Foster’s Rift them a little more and go after it more than a reader Uprising trilogy pubbed in hardcover in 2016 and does,” Klavan says. “It’s exciting when people who 2017, and were serialized in the app over the course have not experienced fiction are taking it in.” of summer 2018. App users will get a head start on To support the book, and to help podcast audi- the final book, The Rift Coda, with early sections serialized in the ences cross the bridge between earbuds and page, Turner has app before the hardcover release in October. developed a companion site with games, art, a prequel, and Authors are also using podcasts as a springboard to novels. other material to help readers build out the world. “It’s a really Jason Fink and Jeffrey Cranor’s first novel, Welcome to Night Vale interesting new take on what fiction is,” Klavan says. “It’s (Harper Perennial, 2015), for instance, grew out of their pod- unspooling in front of us.” cast of the same name and has sold 112,000 copies in But, as he and others note, the goal isn’t new platforms, hardcover. devices, or ways of working. Readers want more from the Andrew Klavan approached the medium from a different writers and worlds they love, but ultimately, that’s not a by- angle. He began his career in crime fiction and built a solid list product of technology. It’s what happens when there’s a great of sales in that genre. When he imagined Another Kingdom story to tell. (Turner, Mar. 2019), the story of a screenwriter shifting back and forth between a noir Los Angeles and a medieval kingdom, Betsy O’Donovan is an assistant professor at Western Washington University. When The World Collapses, Mankind’s Salvation Lies In The Hands Of The Emissary

“A stirring first installment in a sprawling fantasy epic” —Kirkus Reviews

Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio $16.95 US/$21.99 Canada ISBN 978-1947637726 Waterside Productions www.waterside.com Distributed by Two Rivers Distribution, an Ingram Brand www.onegreatyear.com Science Fiction & Fantasy

THE ART OF THE CON

Conventions can introduce SFF authors to a whole new market; the trick is getting their books to stand out

hen G. Willow Wilson is on the convention circuit in the coming months, there will be huge, passionate fandoms who know her Wcharacters inside and out waiting for the merest hints about Wilson’s plans. The hard part will be getting those people to read her next book. Wilson, a longtime comics creator who won a Hugo for Ms. Marvel and whose first Wonder Woman arc launches in November, is tasked with luring comics readers to cross over for another strong woman fighting a host of enemies: the heroine of her novel The Bird King (Grove, Mar. 2019). After the release of her first novel, 2013’s Alif the Unseen, she observed that going to San Diego Comic-Con and other major events “is quite different” as a novelist. “Will they follow you from one medium to another?” Wilson asks. “The answer is not always yes. The real trick, if you can figure it out, is enticing those readers who’ve come along with you on your comics journey to pick up a book that they’re buying from a different place, with a different community, without a backstory. There’s a lower threshold for comics, whereas you have to do the legwork for each novel.” For authors without Wilson’s broad readership, the conven- tion circuit presents an even more complex balance of chal- lenges and opportunities, and publishers have developed a range of strategies to launch new works, cement relationships

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 27 Science Fiction & Fantasy

Amazon Publishing’s Adrienne Procaccini frequents cons both as an editor (above r., with 47North author Scott Meyer at New York Comic Con 2017) and, off-hours, as a Jedi.

with readers, and get books directly into people’s hands. Harper Voyager treats cons as the intersection of a core group of fans, “who might not specifically think of them- selves as readers,” and “power readers,” who come to meet authors. James S. Murray (The Brink, June 2019), R.A. Salvatore (Timeless, out now), and J. Michael Straczynski (Becoming Superman, July 2019) will all launch books before the end of 2019, and “we specifically planned around cer- tain cons, knowing these are people who are able to con- nect with readers on a one-to-one level,” says Harper Voyager executive editor David Pomerico. Del Rey editorial director Tricia Narwani cites a few factors Del Rey considers when taking titles to conven- tions, including geography (“We want to cover the whole country”) and publishing schedules, which are sometimes built to capitalize on the convention circuit. Narwani’s personal launch into the con circuit came when she was working on a manga list for Random House and attended Anime Expo in Anaheim, Calif. That’s where she started learning the rules of success at the mushrooming list of cons that invite publishers to exhibit each year. For instance, she says, “Give the first in a series away. Give incentives to review. Have activities to connect fans to the right book. And give them a chance to meet their favorite author.” Also, pair newcomers at dual sign- ings with established authors who write similar books, to maximize the chance of discovery. And focus on freshly launched books. Anne Sowards, executive editor at Ace, has attended SDCC since 2004 and would add “have a breathtaking cover” to that list. “You want to give people a reason to buy at a con—they have to carry it around,” she says, noting that a high-investment cover signals that a house really believes in the book. “When a friend recommends it, the cover is less important, because you have that recommendation, but if you’re looking for a book to buy yourself, the cover’s important.”

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At San Diego Comic-Con 2018, Penguin Publishing Group showcased titles by numerous SFF authors.

Sowards also thinks about which titles are the best use of precious booth space, which has bled into the imprint’s acquisitions strategy: “Books with a high con- cept, books you can describe in one line, and books that are being made into TV shows or movies. Alice by Christina Henry (2015), a dark reimagining of the Alice in Wonderland tale, almost sells itself.” One other critical piece of strategy? Setting priorities in order to deal with the sheer number of conventions. Adrienne Procaccini, senior editor at “STRAP ON YOUR SEATBELTS, IT’S QUITE THE RIDE!” Amazon Publishing’s 47North and Skyscape imprints, has an insider’s ARTHUR SLADE, AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING MISSION CLOCKWORK SERIES grasp of passionate fandoms: “In her spare time,” according to her bio, “she performs as a Jedi with an international Robin is trapped lightsaber choreography troupe to support a wide range of charities.” behind enemy lines, Despite the retail giant’s storied data with only her wits collection and analysis, Procaccini says, participation in specific conventions is and a mysterious more a matter of editorial judgment rocketpack. Her than a data-driven sales strategy. New York Comic Con, she says, is especially arch-nemesis is valuable, because the city is “publishing of ering to help her forward,” so face time with readers and get home on one showcasing authors on panels has a strong payoff. condition — she has There’s one more reason that cons to take him with her. won’t be leaving the publishing calendar anytime soon. “We hear from fans who met one of our authors and got a free book,” Narwani says. “They come back a year later and say, ‘It’s now my favorite author and series, and I’ve read every- thing!’ I love to see those beautiful moments like that.”

Science Fiction & Fantasy FANTASY’S FAR HORIZON

Diverse voices continue to expand the geography of the genre

t is—some authors and publishers would say it finally Martin as executive producer. And in August, Native American is—a good time to be writing fantasy beyond the bound- author Rebecca Roanhorse became only the second writer to aries of Northern Europe and Middle-earth. N.K. win both Hugo and Nebula awards (for the short story IJemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, which offers a subtle inter- “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”) and a rogation of race as a social construct, just earned its third Campbell Award for best new author in the same year. consecutive Hugo Award for best novel for the concluding “I think more writers are writing out of their own cultures volume, The Stone Sky (Orbit, 2017), a reckoning between the and own experiences instead of feeling obliged to follow,” says magically gifted mother and daughter of an enslaved caste and Tricia Narwani, the editorial director at Del Rey. “Fantasy a collapsing world. Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death, which doesn’t just have to be Western European, inspired by the Norse follows a woman’s pilgrimage across post-apocalyptic Sudan to sagas and Tolkien.” confront the genocidal sorcerer who fathered her, has been Even authors who are working with purely fictional geography, picked up by HBO, with Game of Thrones creator George R.R. like Jemisin, are more explicitly identifying their protagonists

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as people of color. In The Priory of the Orange Tree About the ‘Rise’ of African Science Fiction,” he (Bloomsbury, Feb. 2019), Samantha Shannon crafts wrote that such genre narratives are not new but a high fantasy that evokes the cultural cloister of have fallen victim to the “amnesia that fogs things imperial Japan, albeit one that’s bracing against an up until the next big budget event like, say, Black invasion of dragons. Shannon makes clear that sev- Panther II: Vibranium Boogaloo.” eral of her protagonists are people of color, with a Thomspon, whose essay addresses African and range of hair, skin, and body types. African-American SFF specifically, notes that But the hallmark of many of these titles isn’t just writers in those traditions have been steadily at that they are led by characters of color, or that they work since at least the 1930s and don’t vanish explore myth structures and landscapes outside of when critical attention shifts to other books or the Western canon’s boundaries. It’s that they do groups of writers. both while reaping commercial and critical suc- Like Thomspon, Tor senior editor Miriam cess, and across a range of cultures both real and Weinberg argues that “the rise of” stories veer too imagined. The question is whether publishers have made, or close to treating huge swathes of science fiction and fantasy as will make, the kinds of institutional changes that would turn a novelty. Weinberg draws a sharp line between what’s treated the recent success of those stories into a sustained, long-awaited as an ephemeral trend, and true course corrections that make transition for the genre. the genre more inclusive. She cites the boom in female-fronted adult fantasy novels in the 1990s—when support for those It Was There All Along books waned, she said, authors including Rae Carson shifted Tade Thompson, author of the 2017 Campbell Award finalist into the YA market, where female protagonists are regarded as Rosewater, an aliens-among-us mystery set in Nigeria, under- a fixture. stands that readers and writers are interested in stories that defy “Fiction is going to be very lucky that Black Panther was the SFF tropes exemplified by Tolkien and H.G. Wells. In a made, because it’s going to allow promotional money to filter recent essay for the website Lit Hub titled, “Please Stop Talking into where it always should have been,” Weinberg says. She

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worries, however, that it could develop into “a trend of things that can be compared to Wakanda—and things that don’t look like that won’t sell. I want there to be the space for the things we don’t already know about.” Beyond Comparison Weinberg’s concern points to the remedial challenge for authors writing outside of the familiar fantasy landscape: getting a fair hearing for books that can’t be compared to the books dominating the market. For Ashok K. Banker’s Upon a Burning Throne (HMH/ Adams, Apr. 2019), which will be his first U.S. publica- tion in years, the author queried “several hundred agents,” he says, and submitted to dozens of publishers and edi- tors in the U.S.; he landed with John Joseph Adams three years ago. Banker, whose story draws on Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, India’s Mughal empire, and other “…the stunning third book influences, has published more than 60 books, all written of Trisha McNary’s Xeno in English, which HMH says have been translated into Relations series, Bonded in 21 languages and sold in 61 countries. Space,…will keep you on “There aren’t enough people like us in gatekeeper spaces,” Banker says, noting the edge of your seat.” that many editors have “the one” on their list in categories that, for example, might be a single South Asian, or a single author working on Afrofuturism—the not- SAN FRANCISCO Tolkienists in a house full of Eurocentric sagas. “That is so sad and so wrong. I’m BOOK REVIEW not writing in reaction to a tradition; I’m writing from a tradition which is genu- inely different.” Lands of Opportunity When editors like Narwani and Weinberg say they feel a tipping point of talent, power, and eager audiences that could shift the genre’s familiar geography, they point to the commercial and critical suc- cess of fantasy writers such as Jemisin, Okorafor, and Roanhorse (Storm of Locusts, Saga, Apr. 2019). They’re also watching writers like Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, who is crossing over into fantasy. His trilogy-launching Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Riverhead, Feb. 2019) begins with a bounty hunter and a shapeshifter tracking a missing child through ancient African cities. Which is not to say that Europe is off limits. In The Bird King (Grove, Mar. 2019), G. Willow Wilson, a Muslim writer whose previous work roams from New Jersey to Cairo to Themyscira, extends fantasy’s European borderlands to the south, as a Muslim concubine and an uncannily gifted cartographer scramble to evade the Spanish Inquisition’s grip on the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century—djinns aplenty, but not an elf in sight. “The unasked question is, Does science fiction and fantasy still have something to teach us?” she says. “To answer that, people are really going way outside that classic, done-to-death medieval European fantasy.” ■

36 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Advertisement Science Fiction & Fantasy “These 25 distinguished short SF stories from the 1920s to the 1960s evince the important early contributions made to the genre by women authors.…” Bestselling Frontlist —Publishers Weekly SFF Titles, Year to Date In any given month, when PW looks at BookScan’s top SFF titles, backlist books by familiar names (Adams, Herbert, Martin, Rothfuss) dominate. So, here, we highlight the top-selling new releases of the past year, excluding tie-ins and other paperback reprints. These include the #1 new SFF title for the year so far, Naomi Alderman’s The Power, which received considerable mainstream attention (and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction); Artemis, Andy Weir’s follow-up to his megaseller The Martian; and The Future Is Spinning Silver by Nebula Award–winner Naomi Novik.  Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin Edited by Lisa Yaszek. Library of America, $27.95 (475p) ISBN 978-1-59853-580-8

”””””””” 1 The Power Naomi Alderman Little, Brown These 25 distinguished short SF 2 Artemis Andy Weir Crown stories from the 1920s to the 1960s evince the important early contributions 3 Year One Nora Roberts St. Martin’s made to the genre by women authors, 4 Iron Gold Pierce Brown Del Rey who were intrigued by its openness to hitherto unexplored experiences. 5 The Fall of Gondolin J.R.R. Tolkien HMH According to editor Yaszek, women made three major literary contributions to pulp 6 The Last Jedi Jason Fry Del Rey and space-age SF: depth and complexity 7 Brief Cases Jim Butcher Ace of emotion, revised gender roles, and sympathetic treatment of alien characters. 8 Oathbringer Brandon Sanderson Tor A concentration on character development appears in Clare Winger Harris’s “The 9 Thrawn: Alliances Timothy Zahn Del Rey Miracle of the Lily” (1928), a thoughtful 10 Serpentine Laurell K. Hamilton Berkley depiction of a human-alien encounter, and continues throughout the collection, 11 Before the Storm Christie Golden Del Rey notably in Zenna Henderson’s touching and perceptive “Ararat” (1952), which explores 12 Burn Bright Patricia Briggs Ace “intuition and empathy.” Men and women 13 How to Stop Time Matt Haig Viking are often shown in reversed stereotypical roles, as in Doris Pitkin Buck’s stinging 14 Spinning Silver Naomi Novik Del Rey “Birth of a Gardener” (1961), presaging later feminist work portraying the damage 15 Last Shot Daniel José Older Del Rey stereotypes can cause to both sexes. Valuable short biographical sketches of the authors, some household names and others no longer familiar (including some who wrote under masculine pseudonyms), round out this educational, enjoyable, and signicant retrospective of science ction’s foremothers. (Oct.). —Publishers Weekly August 20, 2018 http://womensf.loa.org

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 37 Staying Hopeful

In Almost Everything, Anne Lamott reflects on the difficulty of holding on to hope in challenging times

BY HANNAH PRITCHETT ©sam lamott

riving up a lane of graceful cypress trees as I tion to having written seven novels and 11 works of nonfiction, arrive at Anne Lamott’s colorful home in she is a regular public speaker, teacher, activist, and Sunday school Marin County, Calif., the first thing I see is a teacher. paper flyer posted on a tree near the door: Lamott is known to some as a religious writer—for her books “LOST KITTY,” it reads. “Gringo. Grey and on prayer (Help, Thanks, Wow), mercy (Hallelujah Anyway), and whiteD with a pink nose. Call Annie.” faith (Traveling Mercies; Plan B; Grace, Eventually)—but this isn’t When I knock, Lamott opens the door, flanked by two dogs, how she characterizes herself. She comes from a heavy spiritual and before I get a chance to commiserate about her cat, she place, she says, not a heavy religious place, with an “unsophisti- brings it up. Ushering me in, she says that he’s been missing for cated theology” that is rooted in humanism over Christianity. several days now, but she’s hopeful; someone will find him, or Still, Lamott is vocal about her love for Jesus, even, she says, he’ll find his way home again—she’s sure of it. when it’s sometimes “mortifying” to be seen as a Christian due to Sitting at a long wooden table in her spacious, light-filled the religious Right. She learned long ago to shrug off what people house, Lamott, 64, is at ease and readily opens up, speaking in think of her, and, in embracing authenticity, she’s found her audi- fluent full paragraphs and answering some of my questions ence. “People are starved to hear about real stuff,” she says. And before I get to them; she’s a practiced interviewee, since, in addi- she aims to offer truth—in all its complications and paradoxes.

38 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Author Profile

Almost Everything: Notes on Hope (Riverhead, Oct.), Lamott’s daunting. Instead, as an essayist, she writes in focused increments latest collection of essays, distills wisdom she obtained of two or three hours, expressing what’s “on her heart” at the time. throughout her eventful life. The concept started as a letter to I ask if it’s difficult, as a writer, for Lamott to share this much her grandson and her teenage niece, trying to ground them at a of her heart. Does she worry about what her readers will think? time when, she says, “everybody’s scared, everybody’s damaged.” Through her personal essays over the years, she has chronicled She writes what she, as a reader, would want to encounter, and her journey to sobriety, her religious conversion, her family life, right now, in 2018, she wants someone to tell her not to give and her anxieties and insecurities; she’s maintained a steady, up hope. She wants someone to help her keep her sense of humor, honest engagement with the tough questions of life, seemingly and she wants someone to tell her that the truth is precious and without the fear of criticism holding her back. “If you bog down worth seeking. on how your thighs are at 64, you don’t get to swim in warm Almost Everything features the philosophy found in many of water,” she says. “And how awful will you feel at 75, not Lamott’s other essays, exploring the truths around which she swimming?” has built her life and writing. Its title is taken from the intro- Lamott doesn’t hold herself back in person, either. She’s as duction, in which she promises to share with the reader “almost warm and active as the tone of her books, welcoming me with everything I know.” Chapter by chapter, she a cup of tea, inquiring about my five-month- doles out good advice—be kind to your old son, and even indulging me by cooing body; try not to hate others; love your over a photo. She lights up when I ask what family, even when it’s hard; don’t fear aging books she recommends, and beyond her and death—with brevity, clarity, and her first answer—a brief directive to “read trademark wit. (Death may not be the poetry”—even sends me an email right enemy, according to this book, but snakes then and there to ensure I remember some are, and so is cheese.) Reading Almost titles. (The Mad Farmer’s Manifesto by Everything is like sitting down with a good Wendell Berry and If You Want to Write by friend—one who is open and vulnerable as Brenda Ueland.) I owe her forever now, she well as wise. jokes. As I leave, she greets a neighbor With its intimate tone and engagement who’s working in his garden and mentions with the good life, practical and spiritual, to me that she’s been tutoring his daughter Almost Everything is in keeping with the in poetry. other essay collections Lamott has produced Happily swimming in the deep waters of in the past 10 years. She doesn’t plan to take community and connection, Lamott is a on the topics covered in her books, she says, woman in her element, and yet she’s clearly but comes upon ideas accidentally, based on familiar with the darker sides of life and the what’s happening in her world. Some current political climate. Almost Everything Assembly Required, her favorite of her recent skirts around the topic of contemporary works, was written with her son and chronicles the first year of politics, never mentioning any situation or person by name— her grandson’s life. Help, Thanks, Wow, a short meditation on deliberately, as merely invoking names gives them more power prayer, came to life after a publisher liked what Lamott had to to draw attention—but clearly espousing a spirit of resistance. say about faith during a book tour. Small Victories was an attempt Embracing her maxim that all truth is paradox, Lamott says to work out what to tell her Sunday school class about Sandy that radical self-care is also an act of rebellion—a type of “che- Hook that might be meaningful in the face of what she calls motherapy for the fatal and progressing thing we call life.” “abject, darkest, evil sorrow.” Sitting in her living room with the warm California sun shining Lamott, whose father was a writer, started her literary life through the window, she outlines the small everyday acts of rest young: she was a talented storyteller as a child, and chapter and fun that bring her hope: meditation, hiking, going to books were her salvation, she says. She learned disciplined church, spending time with her grandson and with friends, writing habits from her father, who woke up at 5:30 a.m. to reading People, eating full-fat yogurt with honey. “I try to realize write each day. She’s never in the mood to write, she says, and what I can do something about,” she says. it always goes badly, but she does it anyway. Lamott cannot will her cat into coming back, but she can stay Lamott started her career as a novelist but says that novels hopeful. As she says this, the phone rings and she jumps up. She require a profound focus that she doesn’t have the stamina for has to take this, she says, because it might be someone calling anymore, what with her life being full of friends and neighbors about her cat. ■ and grandchildren and pets barging in continually. She adds that as much as she loved the process of writing her most recent Hannah Pritchett is a writer who lives with her husband and son in the novel, Imperfect Birds, she finds the idea of writing another San Francisco Bay Area.

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 39 One focuses on the training phase of man- kind’s chosen savior, 13-year-old Fallon Reviews Swift. After most of the world’s popula- ©bruce wilder tion dies from a virus known as The Doom, people called Uncannys develop magical powers and separate into good Fiction and evil factions. Fallon’s mother, Lana, is told by a man named Mallick that Fallon Willa & Hesper is destined to train with him for two Amy Feltman. Grand Central, $25 (304p) years, beginning on her 13th birthday, to ISBN 978-1-5387-1254-2 prepare for her role. Fallon decides to In this thoughtful and fascinating leave her family and moves with Mallick debut from Feltman, two students in to an undisclosed location to hone her Columbia’s MFA program in 2016 spiral magic and fighting skills. While this isn’t into a romance—and just as quickly spiral particularly new territory—a reluctant out. When Hesper strikes up a conversation heroine butting heads with her square with Willa in a diner in Williamsburg, mentor, a series of quests to prove the Nora Roberts’s Of Blood and Bone is the fun, Brooklyn, their attraction is undeniable; fast-paced sequel to Year One (reviewed on this heroine worthy, a meet-cute with a boy Hesper is enchanting and adventurous, page). who will obviously play a greater role in and Willa is endearingly attentive. The her life—Roberts is a natural storyteller, two begin to tentatively navigate the 19-year-old Hedwig “Hedy” Keisler, of and the narrative is consistently enjoyable. unfamiliar territory of dating women (the Jewish heritage, is performing in a stage Fallon’s training culminates with her first such experience for both of them), production in Vienna when she catches attempts to raise an army, and an opportu- narrating alternating chapters. But the eye of military munitions manufacturer nity for her to save her mother’s old pals Willa’s intensity soon gets under Hesper’s Friedrich Mandl. His wealth and influence and their kids in the colony of New Hope, skin; she seems to love Hesper too much, in the face of threats to Austria’s precarious which is targeted by evil Uncannys. and Hesper can’t shake the certainty she independence lead Hedy’s parents to Though it’s the middle book in a planned will push Willa away. Both reeling from a encourage a union. Mandl is a controlling, trilogy, this can be read on its own and break-up conversation that the reader abusive husband, but the keenly intelligent will appeal to fans of fast-paced dystopian never fully sees, Willa and Hesper fly Hedy—whose intellectual curiosity was tales with a strong heroine. 1,000,000- from their pain: Hesper travels to Tbilisi, always encouraged by her father—absorbs copy announced first printing. (Dec.) Georgia, on a quest to learn about her every word of her husband’s meetings grandfather’s past; Willa’s roommate with high-level political and military The Dakota Winters signs her up for an “Inspiring Jewish operatives, hiding her growing horror at Tom Barbash. Ecco, $26.99 (336p) ISBN 978- Survivor Trip!” to Germany and, to her her husband’s willingness to offer con- 0-06-225819-9 own surprise, Willa goes. Feltman slices cessions to fascist influences. In 1937, Barbash’s spirited latest revolves directly to the core of heartbreak’s ugliest Hedy escapes his hold and heads to Los around a family that lives in the Dakota, moments: the temptation to fall back into Angeles, where she takes the screen name the Upper West Side apartment building patterns, to keep running from intimacy of Lamarr and strikes a lucrative contract where Rosemary’s Baby was set and outside and risks. She evocatively captures the with MGM. As her career blossoms and of which John Lennon was assassinated. tension between aching to move on and war wages in Europe, Hedy, learning of Here, in 1980, 23-year-old Anton Winter not give up, and how the shattering of one Hitler’s treatment of Jews, sets out to is just back from a stint with the Peace relationship fractures others. Feltman create something that could change the Corps in Africa, where he contracted stays away from happy ending conven- stakes in the Allied effort: a radio-guided malaria. While recovering, he works for tions and skillfully weaves glimmers of torpedo system far superior to the one Teddy Kennedy’s presidential campaign hope and healing throughout, making for already in use. Benedict paints a shining (Anton’s mother is friends with Teddy’s a keenly perceptive novel. (Feb.) portrait of a complicated woman who wife); goes sailing with his neighbor, John knows the astonishing power of her Lennon; gets a job as a busboy at a restau- The Only Woman in the Room beauty but longs to be recognized for her rant in Central Park; romances an English Marie Benedict. Sourcebooks Landmark, sharp intellect. Readers will be journalist; and—most importantly— $25.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4926-6686-8 enthralled. Agent: Laura Dail, Laura Dail helps his father, Buddy Winter, a famous In her rousing historical novel, Literary Agency. (Jan.) TV talk show host (think Dick Cavett) Benedict (Carnegie’s Maid) imagines lesser who had a nervous breakdown two years known aspects of Hedy Lamarr’s life— Of Blood and Bone ago and walked off his show, attempt a before she took the film world by storm in Nora Roberts. St. Martin’s, $28.99 (464p) comeback. Barbash (The Last Good Chance) the ’40s, and her later efforts as a hobbyist ISBN 978-1-250-12299-5 seamlessly mixes real-life celebrities into inventor during her acting years. In 1933, Roberts’s fun follow-up to 2017’s Year his fictitious narrative. All the backstage

40 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION show business details ring true, as do the author’s exhaustingly encyclopedic cul- [Q&A] tural references for 1980. Though the cen- PW tral relationship between Anton and his Talks with Tom Barbash father barely strikes any sparks, the book is packed with diverting anecdotes and a If the Beatles Got Back Together beguiling cast, making for an immensely Barbash’s novel The Dakota Winters (Ecco, Dec.; reviewed on p. 40) entertaining novel. (Dec.) is about a family living in the storied Dakota building in the days leading up to the assassination of John Lennon. The Accidental Beauty Queen Teri Wilson. Gallery, $16 trade paper (304p) Why a novel about a talk show host interiors. You can feel the history, and ISBN 978-1-5011-9760-4 living in the Dakota in 1980? easily imagine all the fascinating lives In this lively novel from Wilson I grew up five blocks from the Dakota that have passed through. (Unleashing Mr. Darcy), twins switch at a time when the Upper West Side places to compete in a beauty pageant, was still pretty dicey. We had a wel- Buddy Winter is a contemporary of leading to a transformation much deeper fare hotel on my block where a serial Johnny Carson. What do you think he than makeup. When Charlotte Gorman killer murdered seven women. We would make of today’s roster of late travels to Florida to support her twin also had Philip Roth living a few night hosts? sister, Ginny, in a beauty pageant, she buildings away. I wanted also to In Buddy’s day, you’d have an hour expects nothing more than a vacation. explore the year leading up to the and a half, and you could ask more The librarian with a love for Harry Potter assassination—1980—when so much provocative questions and head off on doesn’t put much stock in the pageants happened. A talk show host like the intriguing side paths. Now, because of her sister has devoted her life to. But, after novel’s protagonist, time constraints, the con- Ginny suffers a competition-ending Buddy Winter, seemed versations tend to be more allergic reaction, Charlotte reluctantly like the right lens superficial than Buddy steps in for her during the preliminary through which to do would probably like. I rounds. As Charlotte gets her footing (lit- that. © sen wiederholt think he’d admire the erally, in the case of the platform heels she crisp and often very funny has to wear), she strikes up a romance with John Lennon is a major monologues of Stephen one of the judges, creating a web of secrets character in your novel. Colbert and Jimmy that she fears might result in her sister Was it daunting to Kimmel, and the raw being disqualified. Within the fun attempt to create a debates on Bill Maher. premise, Wilson embeds a touching story plausible version of him? about women supporting women as Sure, in part because he F. Scott Fitzgerald Ginny begins to understand her own changed so much from famously said, “There are former uncaring behavior by seeing year to year. He went through a long no second acts in American lives.” In Charlotte take her place in the pageant. trajectory in a short period of time. I light of what Buddy, John Lennon, As the competition progresses through read biographies and the memoirs of and Teddy Kennedy are attempting the bikini and talent sections, Ginny people close to him, his writings and to accomplish in your book, do you helps Charlotte behind the scenes, coaching his collected letters, and I watched think this is a valid statement? her successfully through the stages. While over and over his interviews on Oh, I think there are second acts, and Charlotte’s outsider perspective begins as YouTube to get the sound of his voice third ones sometimes. And Buddy, a critical look at the world of pageantry, in my head. John, and Teddy are all proof. Teddy she finds a lot of goodness and talent Kennedy became one of the most within the insular community. Wilson’s You describe the Dakota in such beau- important senators in U.S. history, engaging novel weaves a forbidden tiful detail. Did you have access to it? and I think John’s trip to Bermuda romance around Charlotte and Ginny’s During the writing of the book I got was the opening scene of his second authentic camaraderie, making for an act. Who knows what would have affecting tale of sisterly love. (Dec.) to visit twice and walk the hallways, especially the eighth and ninth floors, happened had he lived? I like to think Trying which I found so amazing—that there the Beatles would have gotten back Emily Phillips. Hodder & Stoughton, $26.99 was a separate world up there. I sat in together again, even if it was only for (384p) ISBN 978-1-4736-6380-0 the living rooms of two separate one show, one glorious night. Why Eight years after a cinematic meet-cute apartments gazing up at the high ceil- the heck not? sparked a passionate romance, Liv and ings, the grand old doors, the elegant —Ken Salikof Felix’s marriage begins to crack under the strain of trying (and failing) to procreate

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 41 Review_FICTION

With his family’s farm lost to the bank, ★ The Day the Sun Died and nothing else to live for, Jack teams up with his friend from jail, Reverend Yan Lianke, trans. from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas. Grove, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-0-8021- 2853-9 Rattles, once they are out, to begin a bank-robbing crusade against the “vested an (The Years, Months, Days) trains his fantastical, interests” across America that will turn satiric eye on China’s policy of forced cremation in Jack “Jesse James” Carpenter into the this chilling novel about the “great somnambulism” people’s hero, a wanted felon, and eventu- Y ally, a dead man. Jack is filled with a that seizes a rural town. Horrified to learn that the bodies cremated by his brother-in-law in accordance ceaseless stubbornness and the kind of with the mandate to “save farmland” from being wasted commitment to bad ideas that makes for on graves leaves behind residual “corpse oil,” a funerary rollicking fun. Herder’s humor gradually gives way to the bloody end apparent shop owner named Tianbao agrees to buy and hide the from the start. This is smart, heartfelt, oil rather than let it be shipped to factories ignorant of and rambunctious from start to finish. its origin. His son, Niannian, helps with this grim task, (BookLife) considering himself “like a tree that had grown up at the entrance of the underworld.” That threshold is breached one midsummer Small Secrets night, when the townspeople begin “dreamwalking.” Reports arrive of accidental Joan Jacobson. Words and Pages, $12.99 drownings involving the dreamwalkers, then of a murder with an iron rod. trade paper (366p) ISBN 978-0-692-97645-6 Looting and violence spread as more people begin dreamwalking, until the town Jacobson’s debut is a vividly detailed is “engulfed in the sounds of screams and murderous beatings.” The interweaving mystery with authentic, relatable characters of politics and delusion creates a powerful resonance that is amplified by Tianbao’s and a sprinkling of romance. Growing up borderline mythical plan for how to “drive away the darkness,” leading to an on a farm in central Minnesota, Raki unforgettable ending. This is a riveting, powerful reading experience. Agent: Pederson has her life planned out: she’ll Laura Susijn, the Susijn Agency. (Dec.) graduate high school, then open her own bakery. But after she gets pregnant and is kicked out of her house after she refuses to in Phillips’s mixed if bittersweet debut. a film Liv’s making that never materialize reveal the father, she must rely solely on the The couple moved to the London suburbs into anything. The attempts at comedy kindness of strangers to survive. Now, years with their two cats, assuming that a baby don’t always land, often coming across as later, Raki is a former journalist in her mid- was just around the corner. A year and a more sad than funny. Still, Liv’s voice is 40s enjoying her retirement. As she pre- half later, their friends have had their own refreshing and her character believably pares to bury her mentor, Dolores Richter, child and are at work on the second, but flawed, which compensates for the story’s Raki discovers a secret from Dolores’s past Liv and Felix are trapped in a monotonous less successful elements. Agent: Imogen that leads her to wonder: why did Dolores routine of dull sex and monthly disappoint- Pelham, Marjacq. (Dec.) quit law school and go to France for a year? ment. The perfect life Liv had always Raki is determined to uncover the truth imagined now appears unattainable as she The Second Coming of Jesse James before revealing to her daughter, Joey, the struggles to balance her absent husband, Mark Herder. Bison Blues Press, $10.93 identity of her father. As Raki, Joey, and her overbearing mother, her demanding trade paper (294p) ISBN 978-1-5005-7533-5 Raki’s sister, Lija, sift through Dolores’s job, and her sexy new boss. On top of it Herder celebrates a Depression-era belongings, they slowly begin to piece all, Liv finds time to meet with doctors, scoundrel in a tale that’s equally delightful together the mystery of a broken romance. fertility specialists, and even an acupunc- and haunting. Jack Carpenter quickly Each of the three main characters are well- turist, though eventually her resolve starts matures from farm boy to rakish moon- rounded, and Raki’s internal struggle to flag. Ultimately, she must decide how shiner. His days are spent chasing women emerges organically as she works to piece she really feels about a baby and her mar- and smuggling whiskey through together the puzzle of Dolores’s past. riage, and their potential for making her Newkonska County, Mo. Jack relies on Jacobson’s enjoyable story demonstrates happy. Cluttering the narrative are luck and charm to get by, but his luck runs how secrets are never safe for long—even screenshots of iPhone notes, lengthy email out when a brush with the law lands him in those taken to the grave. (BookLife) and text conversations, and interviews for jail and his girl marries his best friend. ▲ Our Reviewers Danny Adams Jessica Daitch Daphne Grab Sally Lodge Julie Naughton Lorraine Savage Chris Barsanti Kate De Groot Sara Grochowski Alice A. McMurtry Dai Newman Antonia Saxon Vicki Borah Bloom Nora E. Derrington Zina Hutton Kelley Mathews Dave Ortega Erin Talbert Lisa Butts Bryan Dumas K.A. Jagai Sheri Melnick Gwyn Plummer Marta Tandori Donna Chavez Tom Frank Mary M. Jones Manish Melwani Emily Poore Tonia Thompson Stephan Coleson Donna Freitas Frances Katz Ro Moore Roger Reynolds Julia Tilford Lynda Brill Comerford Shaenon Garrity Diane Langhorst Elizabeth Morse Holly Rice Kathy Weeks

42 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION Advertisement

★ We Cast A Shadow Maurice Carlos Ruffin. One World, $27 (336p) ISBN 978-0-525-50906-6

uffin’s brilliant, semisatirical debut stars an unnamed narrator who’s all but consumed by his R blackness. Forced to become the “committed to diversity” face of his law firm and the pawn of an insidious ad campaign headed by powerful, flirtatious shareholder Octavia Whitmore, the narrator suffers through one indignity after another. He endures a routinely racist police stop and learns that Octavia “fantasized about wearing blackface” and then there’s The Marvelous the historical revisionism at the school his mixed-race teenage son Nigel attends, where teachers insist that Orange Tree “every schoolboy knows the Civil War didn’t start Betsy L. Howell. because of slavery.” The narrator only wants Nigel to be spared the dread of Rainforest Press, $15.99 trade being young and black in America. In fact, he’s been forcing Nigel to apply paper (434p) skin-lightening cream over the objections of his wife, Penny, and is planning to ISBN 978-0-9792716-4-9 submit Nigel to an experimental plastic surgery procedure that he hopes will visibly erase his heritage and break the long chain of prisons, prejudice, and ”””””””” limited career options that characterize the narrator’s own forebears (his father is incarcerated, a fact that brings the narrator nothing but shame). And yet this is only the setup for a story that suddenly incorporates the violent interventions Deception is bold and prominent of a militarized cell of protesters, and hastens the narrator, Nigel, Penny, and in this heartfelt and often gritty Civil Octavia toward a set of separate fates that are both harrowing and inevitable. War saga, in which the lives of a Union Though Ruffin’s novel is in the vein of satires like Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and Army private and a tomboy intersect. the film Get Out, it is more bracingly realistic in rendering the divisive policies of In 1863, Robert Taylor, 20, is part contemporary America, making for a singular and unforgettable work of political of Grant’s siege of the Confederate art. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Jan.) stronghold in Vicksburg, Miss.; he experiences both the carnage of battle and deep, enduring friendships forged under desperate conditions. Jennie about their past. Abundant action, Edwards is a boisterous teenager M T unexpected twists, and a kaleidoscopic ystery/ hriller who prefers trousers to dresses, loves narrative keep the pace brisk and the roughhousing with her two brothers, Liars’ Paradox tension high. Stevens takes too long to and is learning magic tricks from Taylor Stevens. Kensington, $26 (320p) develop her point-of-view characters, Owl, a magician, in her idyllic Illinois ISBN 978-1-4967-1863-1 which undermines the story’s drama and prairie home. After her brothers join This high-octane series launch from lessens its emotional heft, but the cinematic the Union Army, and her mother goes Stevens (The Mask) introduces twins plot entertains, and a nail-biting conclusion away to get her depression treated, Jonathan and Julia Smith, aka Jack and gratifies while raising the stakes for book Jennie, disguised as a boy, becomes Jill. Starting at age five, the siblings lived two. Agent: Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins a soldier and ends up at the battle of like spies, constantly changing names and & Assoc. (Jan.) Vicksburg. After she returns from the moving from country to country while war, Jennie is plagued by wartime learning guerilla and psychological warfare ★ Hearts of the Missing visions and prolonged blackouts; she from their mother, Clare. As teenagers, Carol Potenza. Minotaur, $27.99 (368p) has also fallen in love with Marie, her they came to suspect that their mother ISBN 978-1-250-17828-2 best friend, creating an “impossible” was mentally ill, so when the now- Potenza’s outstanding debut and series situation that eventually leads her to Chicago and, under the tutelage of estranged 26-year-olds receive an urgent launch is sure to please fans of mysteries Owl, performing magic tricks on stage. maternal summons, they assume that that respectfully depict Native American Howell cleverly weaves in Robert’s Clare is in the grips of yet another paranoid culture and beliefs. Sgt. Monique “Nicky” story and keeps the pages turning. delusion—until her off-the-grid Texas Matthews works for the Fire-Sky Pueblo Readers will be captivated in particular compound explodes. With Clare missing police on New Mexico’s Tsiba’ashi D’yini by the coming-of-age of Jennie, who and mercenaries swarming the property, reservation. When a missing person case makes this story a pleasure to read. Jack and Jill go on the run, determined to is resolved as a suicide, the deceased’s rela- (BookLife) locate their mother and learn the truth tives and Nicky’s own mysterious visions

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 43 Review_FICTION

lead her to sus- Hunting Annabelle priority placed on the Wade case at the pect murder. Wendy Heard. Mira, $16.99 trade paper expense of solving a homeless man’s Despite resis- (304p) ISBN 978-0-7783-6934-9 murder. Gemma’s case seems to be going tance from her The troubled life of diagnosed schizo- nowhere until she discovers evidence hostile captain, phrenic Sean Suh, the 23-year-old narrator that proves Sterling and the homeless Nicky and her of Heard’s suspenseful if contrived debut, man were killed with the same murder intriguing—but turns nightmarish when Annabelle weapon. Burdened by too many subplots, possibly untrust- Callaghan, the bewitching medical student the story never gathers much steam and worthy—new who has unaccountably chosen to hang struggles to find its way. Agent: Daniel colleague, Frank out with him at the Austin, Tex., amuse- Lazar, Writers House. (Dec.) Martin, investi- ment park where he spends his days gate a connection sketching, is apparently abducted right ★ Storm Rising to a pair of unsolved killings from two in front of him. To the dismay of Sean’s Sara Driscoll. Kensington, $26 (304p) ISBN 978- years earlier. Their search puts them into neurosurgeon mother, who has relocated 1-4967-0445-0 conflict with a powerful casino magnate them from San Francisco for a fresh start Driscoll’s exceptional third FBI K-9 and brings an old flame back into Nicky’s following his release a year earlier from novel (after 2017’s Before It’s Too Late) life with unpredictable consequences. court-ordered psychiatric confinement, takes Meg Jennings of the FBI’s Forensic Nicky, a strong, nuanced lead, inhabits a Sean feels such an intense connection to Canine Unit and her Labrador, Hawk, from world populated by well-developed sup- the missing woman that, despite the fog their Arlington, Va., base to Virginia Beach porting characters. Another plus is Potenza’s of his medications, he scrambles to solve on a mission to rescue victims of a recent vivid portrayal of the desert landscape. the puzzle of her disappearance. But the hurricane. Accompanying the pair is Lt. Readers will look forward to seeing a lot deeper he digs, reawakening both a pur- Todd Webb, a firefighter/paramedic and more of Nicky and her friends. (Dec.) posefulness and violent impulses long potential love interest for Meg with whom blunted by psychotropic drugs, the she worked on a Bryant & May: Hall of Mirrors; murkier the mystery becomes—as does previous case. A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery the character of Annabelle herself. Heard Inside a sub- Christopher Fowler. Bantam, $27 (432p) hooks readers with her intriguing premise merged SUV ISBN 978-1-101-88709-7 and complex protagonist, but stumbles Todd spots in Set in 1969, Fowler’s solid 15th during the final third of the book with a the Elizabeth Peculiar Crimes Unit mystery (after dizzying series of unbelievable plot twists. River, they find 2017’s Bryant & May: Wild Chamber) lacks Still, fans of psychological thrillers will be two dead girls the series’ usual bizarre elements but in curious to see what she comes up with bound to their compensation offers a scenario right out of next. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada US seats by an Agatha Christie novel. When the efforts Literary. (Dec.) buckles—Meg of eccentric detectives Arthur Bryant and estimates one John May to apprehend someone they Into the Night to be 13, the other a little younger. Their believe to be an escaped murderer ends up Sarah Bailey. Grand Central, $26 (416p) investigation soon turns into a hunt for sinking a ship, they’re taken off regular ISBN 978-1-5387-5995-0 other girls who may have survived and duties and assigned to watch over whistle- The stabbing murder of Sterling Wade, escaped the vehicle. Clues suggest that blower Monty Hatton-Jones, a company a promising young actor, on a Melbourne one such girl headed for the dangerous director who’s scheduled to testify against movie set kick-starts Australian author Great Dismal Swamp. Finding the girl is Sir Charles Chamberlain. Chamberlain, a Bailey’s disappointing sequel to 2017’s merely the prelude to the efforts of Meg wealthy London housing developer, has The Dark Lake. Det. Sgt. Gemma and her allies to try to bring down the been charged with bribery. A few days Woodstock digs into Sterling’s compli- men behind a human trafficking ring. before the trial, Bryant and May accom- cated life and unearths several suspects: The descriptions of the teamwork pany Hatton-Jones to Tavistock Hall, a Brodie Kent, Sterling’s roommate and between dog and human are detailed and country house where their charge is same sex lover; Lizzie Short, Sterling’s dramatic, and the interactions between spending the weekend. Tavistock Hall fiancée; Riley Cartwright, Sterling’s Meg and Todd as their relationship ends up cut off from the outside world drug-addicted director; and Sterling’s develops are convincing. Readers will because of some military exercises mistak- parents—who are on the brink of hope this series has a long run. Agent: enly scheduled for the area, an unfortu- declaring bankruptcy and set to inherit Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Dec.) nate circumstance that creates a closed his fortune. Meanwhile, Gemma struggles circle of suspects after a grisly murder is with her hot and cold relationship with A Baker Street Wedding committed. Fowler evokes the period as partner Nick Fleet, and with her recent Michael Robertson. Minotaur, $26.99 (304p) neatly as he crafts the plot. Agent: Howard gut-wrenching decision to leave her ISBN 978-1-250-06007-5 Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Dec.) school-age son with his father and move Robertson’s weak sixth Baker Street to the city. She’s also troubled by the high mystery (after 2016’s The Baker Street Jurors)

44 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION lacks the humor and original plotting of its The Warriors makes the whole less than believable. predecessors. A prologue set 20 years in Paul Batista. Oceanview, $26.95 (336p) Still, fans of TV commentator Batista the past at a boarding school dance in ISBN 978-1-60809-318-2 won’t want to miss this one. (Dec.) Bodfyn, Cornwall, focuses on an ungainly Last seen in 2016’s The Borzoi Killings, teenager, cruelly nicknamed Potty Bobby, defense attorney Raquel Rematti defends Death by Dragonfly: who gets a moment of respite from his Sen. Angelina Baldesteri, the widow of A Grace Street Mystery classmates’ taunts when Laura Penobscott assassinated President Jimmy Young, Jane Tesh. Poisoned Pen, $26.95 (286p) invites him to dance. In the present, the against charges of money laundering, ISBN 978-1-4642-1112-6; $15.95 trade paper celebrated actress known as Laura Rankin, perjury, bribery, and obstruction of ISBN 978-1-4642-1052-5 formerly Laura Penobscott, is preparing to justice, in Batista’s twisty, fast-moving At the outset of Tesh’s winsome and marry Reggie Heath, one of the 221B legal thriller. Raquel is trying to do her amusing sixth Grace Street mystery (after Baker Street lawyers who are legally best, but she must fight not only the case 2017’s Baby, Take a Bow), Leo Pierson, an required to respond to correspondence presented by the prosecutor but also the actor who looks like “the guy who always sent to Sherlock Holmes at that address. senator’s need to do things her way. The plays the kings and generals,” hires PI When the ceremony is disrupted by situation rapidly deteriorates in the David Randall, who lives and works at a paparazzi sent by Lord Buxton, a wealthy courtroom, as witnesses are caught lying boarding house on Grace St. in Parkland, man smitten with Laura, the newlyweds and someone bribes a juror with sex, N.C., to recover several valuable items flee to Cornwall, ending up in Bodfyn. drugs, and money to hold out for not stolen from his Art Nouveau collection, The death in an apparent hiking accident guilty. Outside the courtroom lurks notably an exquisite—and possibly of an actress slated to appear in a local maniacal drug lord Oscar Caliente. To cursed—glass dragonfly. Shortly after production of Macbeth provides both a complicate matters, Raquel’s lover, TV Pierson leaves the boarding house, Jordan mystery to solve and a chance for Laura to news anchor Hayes Smith, is murdered Finley of the Parkland PD shows up and help out by taking over the victim’s role. while on assignment, and somebody may tells Randall that Pierson is a suspect in a Unsurprising reveals display none of the be gunning for Raquel. Powerful court- possible murder case. Finley warns Randall author’s usual ingenuity. (Dec.) room scenes and well-drawn characters to stay away from Pierson, but Randall are pluses, but the omniscience and forges ahead with the robbery investigation, Three Marys barely motivated malice of the villains aided by his friend and landlord, Camden, Glenn Cooper. Severn, $28.99 (288p) ISBN 978- 0-7278-8821-1 The pope once again calls on Cal Donovan, Harvard professor of religious history and biblical archeology, to investigate a series of possible miracles in this fanciful sequel to Sign of the Cross. Three teenagers, each named Maria or Mary, all virgins, have become pregnant. Word of these events has caused what might be “the greatest schism in the history of the Catholic Church,” with George Pole, an American cardinal, threatening an “open display of opposition if the Church doesn’t affirm them as miraculous.” Cal flies to the Philippines to visit the first candidate, and then heads to Peru to question the second. He sends Irish priest Joseph Murphy, who’s also on the Harvard faculty, to visit the Irish Mary. All three describe similar experiences: a bright light, a voice saying “you have been chosen,” followed by a state of confusion. The investigation spins out of control when Murphy is kidnapped, and the three Marys go missing. Fans of Da Vince Code knockoffs will have fun. Agent: Sarah Perillo, Curtis Brown (U.S.). (Dec.)

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who has “considerable and erratic psychic twice. Flash unsettling psychological thriller from ability.” Soon, people on the detective’s back to 1942 Clifford (Broken Ground and three other suspect list start turning up dead. The and a Nazi plot Jay Porter novels), travels from New York mystery plot is convincing and motives to manipulate City to her hometown of Reine, N.Y., to abound, but the vivid characters are the Britain’s cur- be interviewed by Noah Lee, a 19-year-old main draw, in particular the wryly obser- rency, as well as reporter for the local college newspaper, vant Randall, who narrates the story a conspiracy about Kira Shanks, who went missing five with verve. Fans of cozies with a para- involving “cor- years earlier when the girl was 18 and is normal twist will be rewarded. (Dec.) rupt Vichy poli- now presumed dead. Seven years before ticians making Kira’s abduction, Alex, then 17, was the ★ Mr. Campion’s War personal profits sole survivor of a killing spree in Reine in Mike Ripley. Severn, $28.99 (256p) ISBN 978- out of govern- which six other girls were kidnapped. 0-7278-8809-9 ment supply contracts, and the well- Noah believes there’s a link between Ripley has never been better at dem- established Marseilles underworld.” The Kira’s case and Alex’s, even though two onstrating his ability to plausibly espionage plot line predominates, but separate men were convicted and sent to extrapolate from Margery Allingham’s there’s an act of violence at the prison for the respective crimes. The Campion novels than in his fourth outing Dorchester whose perpetrator must be second convicted killer, Benny Brudzienski, for her gentleman sleuth (after 2017’s Mr. detected. Ripley matches his faithful may be innocent. When Alex investigates, Campion’s Abdication). On May 20, 1970, a characterizations with witty prose (a she’s nearly killed in the hotel room where black-tie dinner is held at the Dorchester major has a “rather plummy voice, rather Benny allegedly murdered Kira. A string hotel in London, to celebrate Albert like a northern rep actor trying to do of macabre clues leads Alex to a slew of Campion’s 70th birthday. The guests Shakespeare at short notice”). Allingham suspects, all with hidden agendas. This include L.C. Corkran, a retired British aficionados will be enthralled. (Dec.) seething story of small-town noir should intelligence officer, and German Robert appeal to fans of Jeffery Deaver’s The Bone von Ringer, a contemporary of Campion’s The One That Got Away Collector. (Dec.) at Cambridge University, intriguingly Joe Clifford. Down & Out, $17.99 trade paper described as someone who, during WWII, (278p) ISBN 978-1-948235-42-6 The Arsenal Stadium Mystery tried to kill the birthday boy at least Alex Salerno, the heroine of this Leonard Gribble. Poisoned Pen, $12.95 trade paper (254p) ISBN 978-1-4642-1083-9 In this entertaining golden age who- ★ Nighttown: dunit, originally published in 1939, thousands are on hand in London’s A Junior Bender Mystery Highbury Stadium for a historic football Timothy Hallinan. Soho Crime, $26.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-61695-748-3 match pitting league champion Arsenal (whose real team members appear as themselves) against the Trojans, an ama- dgar finalist Hallinan’s suspenseful, well-crafted teur team comprised of “carpenters and seventh Junior Bender mystery (after 2016’s Fields electricians, chemists and insurance Where They Lay) finds the L.A. burglar/investigator, E brokers, clerks and salesmen,” assembled who has worked on the wrong side of the law for to demonstrate that such a squad could more than 20 years, desperate for money to help his compete against the best of the profes- girlfriend, Ronnie Bigelow. Ronnie’s two-year-old son, sionals. The hard-fought match is marred, Eric, has been taken from her by the boy’s father, “a however, when John Doyce, the most New Jersey mob doctor,” and Junior needs major funds recent addition to the Trojans, collapses on to pull off his plan to reunite Eric with his mother. In the field for no apparent reason. Doyce dies desperation, he agrees to break into a house last occupied soon afterward, and Scotland Yard, in the by the late Daisy Horton, a nonagenarian known as the form of the redoubtable Inspector Slade, “Cruella de Vil of fading Los Angeles gentility,” to retrieve finds evidence that he was poisoned by a doll for an unidentified client. Junior comes up empty, as does the rival seeking something in a package delivered to him the same item he encounters in the creepy Horton house. Junior’s lack of success, in the dressing room at halftime. Those combined with the murder of the other burglar shortly after she leaves the premises, who appreciate solid prose, masterful leads Junior to seek the truth behind his commission and its connection with pacing, and authors who play fair with what he did find—rare first editions, including an autographed copy of Conan their readers will hope to see more reissues Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Hallinan’s top-notch prose and plotting from the undeservedly obscure Gribble are reminiscent of Lawrence Block and Elmore Leonard. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Bob (1908–1985) in the British Library Crime Mecoy Literary. (Nov.) Classics series. (Dec.)

46 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION

The Second Goodbye: tion of a political rival. Maybe, once Ryan “walls” between realities. If the tropes A Pacific Homicide Novel has finished his term in office and can do inherent in crossing parallel dimensions Patricia Smiley. Midnight Ink, $15.99 trade more than sit resolute behind a desk, he are overly familiar, Powers (Alternate paper (312p) ISBN 978-0-7387-5236-5 will again excite readers. Agent: Jennifer Routes) puts his own small twists on them, A couple of cold cases preoccupy Rudolph Walsh, WME. (Nov.) keeping readers guessing about how he’s spunky LAPD Det. Davie Richards in going to clean up the mess—though some Smiley’s action-packed third Pacific The Science of Paul messes may not be cleanable. This quick Homicide novel (after 2017’s Outside the Aaron Philip Clark. Shotgun Honey, $14.95 tale is recommended for lovers of short Wire). Davie efficiently nails the killer in trade paper (238p) ISBN 978-1-948235-00-6 fiction that tramples genre boundaries. the first case, the stabbing murder of a Fans of gritty, uncompromising noir Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh drug dealer, but the second one—the sus- will welcome Clark’s promising debut, set Literary. (Mar.) picious death of 34-year-old Sara on the mean streets of Philadelphia, “a Montaine—is less straightforward. Sara blue-collar town, with a blue-collar way Bayou Born appears to have shot herself shortly after of killing you.” Paul Little, an ex-con who Hailey Edwards. Piatkus, $13.99 trade paper walking into a gun store and examining a killed a mother and her son while driving (336p) ISBN 978-0-349-41706-6 gun while the store’s owner took a phone drunk, has been fortunate enough to find A mysterious girl and lovestruck call in the back room. A photo that Davie a woman who loves him in Tammy demons combine to odd effect in a story examines shows Sara affixing a signature Delgado. But in the wake of the death of that begins as a crime novel and then veers with her left hand, and the gun was found the grandfather who reared him, and with into dark urban fantasy. Edwards (the by her right hand where her body lay on his term of probation about to end, Paul Black Dog series) introduces Luce the floor. Other evidence suggests it decides to move on, convinced that he’s Boudreau, who, as a child, was found in wasn’t a suicide. Davie displays her supe- not good enough for Tammy. Almost the bayou with no memories of her early rior detective skills as she delves into broke, Paul is tempted to make some easy life. She follows in her adoptive father’s Sara’s puzzling past, her family, and her money from businessman Harlin footsteps and becomes a cop in Canton, interests. The suspense rises when an Washington, who offers him a job. When Miss. When a young girl is found floating unknown party, fearful that Davie is his decision to earn $1,000 from delivering in the swamps bearing the same metallic learning too much, hires a hit man to a package for Washington leads to tragedy, markings on her arms that Luce has, Luce follow her. A possible romance for Davie Paul again considers himself a blight on believes that this nameless girl is the key adds to the book’s appeal. Fans of realistic others’ lives. Though the contours of the to unlocking the mystery of her past—but police procedurals with strong female plot—including betrayals, corruption, she quickly learns some secrets should be leads will be satisfied. (Dec.) and more bloodshed—are familiar, Clark left alone. Cole Heaton, head of White makes the darkness of the City of Horse Security, is retained by Luce’s father Tom Clancy: Oath of Office Brotherly Love palpable and his wounded, to protect both the foundling child and Marc Cameron. Putnam, $29.95 (432p) Hume-reading lead plausible. (BookLife) Luce. A topsy-turvy romance forms between ISBN 978-0-735-21595-5 Luce and Cole, though he rebuffs all of Cameron’s so-so second contribution to Luce’s advances—for surprising reasons Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan franchise (after SF/Fantasy/Horror related to demons, dragons, and the four 2017’s Tom Clancy: Power and Empire) cen- horses of the apocalypse. By the end of the ters on an insurgency movement in Iran. More Walls Broken book, FBI investigations coexist uneasily Erik Dovzhenko, a reluctant Russian spy Tim Powers. Subterranean, $25 (136p) with human-demon mergers. Though the stationed in Tehran, chooses to defect ISBN 978-1-59606-886-5 ending leaves much unresolved, fans of when his dissident lover, Maryam Farhad, Three professors fumble their way snarky heroines and creepy atmospheres is killed by Revolutionary Guards. Erik through opening gates to increasing will still find the story enjoyable. Agent: escapes to Afghanistan to warn Maryam’s disaster in Powers’s enjoyable novella. Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Jan.) friend Ysabel Kashani, who in turn con- Young Clive Cobb and his two elder col- tacts her former lover, Jack Ryan Jr., the leagues at California State University’s The Mortal Word U.S. president’s son. Jack Jr. travels to consciousness research department Genevieve Cogman. Ace, $15 trade paper Iran, where he meets Erik and Ysabel— attempt to raise the ghost of their col- (448p) ISBN 978-0-399-58744-3 and seeks to intercept two hijacked league Professor Vitrielli using a device Following on the heels of The Lost Plot, Russian nuclear missiles, which he and his Vitrielli invented. But they punch Cogman’s exciting fifth Invisible Library compatriots from the Campus, a covert through to somewhere entirely wrong, adventure finds Librarian Irene Winters, antiterrorism organization, have been bringing across someone else who is who travels through time rescuing rare tracking. The main action builds to an frighteningly familiar. Powers manages to and dangerous books and hiding them in extremely clever twist. Meanwhile, in pull off exquisite comic timing even when the interdimensional Library, called to a random interludes, President Ryan deals little that’s funny is happening. He like- version of Paris where peace talks between with an attack on the American embassy wise weaves in dark humor amid the pro- dragons and Fae have been interrupted in Cameroon and the attempted assassina- fessors’ nerve-racking attempts to fix the by the murder of one of the principals in

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the dragon delegation. Also summoned to but there’s little emotional punch in this order to learn about human culture. She investigate is Peregrine Vale, “the nemesis tissue-thin scenario. (Dec.) sees Armstrong Knight, a Secret Service of criminals across Great Britain,” and agent, rescue a woman from would-be rap- rounding out the team are Mu Dan for the ★ Empire of Sand: ists and decides he’s worth getting to dragons and Lord Silver for the Fae. As The Books of Ambha, Book 1 know. As they form a friendship, Kya and keepers of the balance between the chaos Tasha Suri. Orbit, $15.99 trade paper (480p) Armstrong are attacked by the Circle of generated by the Fae and the order pro- ISBN 978-0-316-44971-7 Drayke, a human organization interested mulgated by the dragons, the Librarians Dark secrets lurk at an empire’s heart in in capturing dragons in an attempt to have been brought in as arbitrators, but this complex, affecting epic fantasy from gain power. Jones’s innovations include the deceased mentioned “a mysterious debut author Suri. In a land inspired by humans knowing scraps about dragon book,” leading some to suspect the Mughal India, Mehr is a young noble- culture—the powerful, long-lived Librarians of the murder. There are also woman of ambiguous status: her father is dragons guard their privacy well, but rumors that the powerful and malevolent a governor from a powerful Ambhan often intervene in human affairs and even Blood Countess is involved, and Irene sees family, the most privileged group in the appear on TV—and all the dragons connections with the death that she and Ambhan Empire, but Mehr is an illegiti- having dark skin in their human form. the dragon prince Kai investigated in The mate child, and her exiled mother is one This is a fascinating, enticing beginning Lost Plot. Cogman ably combines of the outcast Amrithi. Her mother’s to a very promising series. (BookLife) sleuthing with politics, magic, and a bit people claim descent from the daiva, of romance for a satisfying tale. Agent: strange, djinnlike creatures that roam the Literature® Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Dec.) desert, gathering around magical storms Guillermo Stitch. Nineveh Editions, $2.99 said to be the sleeping gods’ dreams. e-book (102p) ASIN B07D6YK614 The Malaise Mehr’s latent magical abilities draw the In this zippy debut, Stitch chronicles a David Turton. Cosmic Egg, $19.95 trade paper attention of the empire’s spiritual leader day in the life of Billy Stringer, a bored (304p) ISBN 978-1-78535-902-6 and his mystical coven, including a young sports journalist living in a far-future Turton’s flimsy debut sketches an Amrithi man named Amun who possesses Earth city where reading and writing fic- implausible zombie apocalypse and what similar abilities. Alongside the fantasy tion is illegal. Billy is recruited by the comes after. The world in 2038 runs on setting’s courtly intrigue and magic, megacorporation Gripping Tails, the only RazorVision, the next iteration of adver- Suri explores deeper questions of power, approved fiction producer left. Its latest tising-fueled technological innovation. love, and the human cost of prosperity technology is powered by cognition drives It’s controlled by its charismatic (but and order. That cost falls heavily on the whose fuel is the synaptic activity gener- “modest and shy”) inventor, Rick Razor. subjugated Amrithi, who are “the kin- ated by writing carefully controlled fiction. Prof. Mike Pilkington, star intellect of dling wood that [feed] the fire of the Before Billy can accept the job, he tries to Windermere University, thinks this is Empire’s strength”; on women, whose stash his supply of contraband books, but great until 2.1 billion people view one complex relationships with one another the corporation will stop at nothing to get psychedelic video on the network and are brilliantly portrayed; and on the the books from Billy before he can off- society explodes in mindless murder/ young people unwillingly caught up in load them, including threatening to suicide. Many who don’t die are left in a the Ambhan arranged marriage system. murder Billy and his loved ones. Billy “feral and miserable altered state.” A Intricate worldbuilding, heartrending begins as an unlikable and bland main handful of survivors, including Mike and emotional stakes, and Suri’s well-wrought character, but as he morphs into a reluctant his infant daughter, gather in New prose (“Dreamfire bled across the sky, hero, he becomes more sympathetic. His Windermere; it seems no one else is left. A swift as spilled ink on paper, its jewelled race to warn those who matter most to him, mash-up of Swiss Family Robinson and Ayn edges tinged with darkness”) make this a and safeguard his books, will keep readers Rand ensues as Mike and his mostly white worthy addition to any epic fantasy fan’s turning pages. (BookLife) compatriots recapitulate 1950s social and bookshelf. Agent: Laura Crockett, Triada political structures; they only seek out U.S. (Nov.) other people 16 years later, a search Romance/Erotica leading them to predictable answers about ★ Stones of Dracontias the video’s source. A dearth of research, or N.D. Jones. Kuumba, $1.99 e-book (171p) Trailblazer even common sense, pervades the thin ASIN B07CNHVWST Anna Schmidt. Sourcebooks Casablanca, worldbuilding. For example, Cassie Spanning 21 years, this delectable $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926- Cuthbert—a mother of four and physical paranormal romance novella from Jones 6704-9 education teacher in a tiny enclave where (the Death and Destiny trilogy) puts an Schmidt (the Last Chance Cowboys everyone must exert maximum effort to unusual spin on dragon shapeshifters series) builds this middling romantic survive—has “rippling muscles,” but this while mixing romantic connection with western around strong and plucky farm is credited not to her incredible workload high-stakes intrigue. Kya, a young dragon girl Grace Rogers, who travels to New but to a “daily exercise routine in the gym.” whose skull cradles a magical healing gem, Mexico to become a Harvey Girl, one of The horror aspect is enthusiastically gory, is sent to explore Washington, D.C., in the first waitresses of the Old West. On

48 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION her way there, she meets Nick Hopkins, a (the Romancing the Rules series) shows older men but scorns the reverse, handsome rancher. Harvey Girls aren’t how Mina’s tender heart and Nick’s Elizabeth nonetheless refuses Colin’s allowed to be married, and Grace wants to admiration for her talents lead them into proposal, and they seek other partners. send money home to her family, but the a solid, real-feeling romance based on But their agreement to dance one waltz promise of romance tempts her all the same. genuine affinity. Fans of historical at any ball they attend allows their feel- Descriptions of Grace’s job are the novel’s romance will adore these characters and ings to grow and eventually precipitates a high points, and readers who have worked eagerly anticipate the next installment in challenging choice. Amid the battle in restaurants will be able to connect with the series. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon between love and social convention, her plights, such as fending off rude cus- Literary. (Dec.) Balogh addresses family tensions and tomers and having to learn the job on the trauma: Colin’s bizarre, semi-estranged fly. Though the romantic plot has a bit of Cowboy Wolf Trouble mother provides both comic relief and a a lackluster start, it develops well. Readers Kait Ballenger. Sourcebooks Casablanca, hint of darkness, while Elizabeth must may have to suspend their disbelief when $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926- deal with painful memories of her alcoholic, the story acquires a third layer involving 7076-6 abusive late husband. The balance attempted rape and murder, and Grace’s Ballenger (the Execution Underground between sweet and bitter produces a career falls somewhat by the wayside, but Series) launches the Seven Range Shifters complex and winning love story. Agent: it’s easy to identify with Grace’s yearning paranormal western romance series with a Maria Carvainis, Maria Carvainis Agency. for money, happiness, adventure, indepen- predictable but capable mix of action and (Dec. ) dence, and love. Easygoing western steamy sex. While werewolf Wes is romance readers will cheer for this good- chasing his enemies through a farm in You Had Me at Cowboy hearted heroine to achieve all her dreams. wolf form, he gets stuck in a trap. Rancher Jennie Marts. Sourcebooks Casablanca, Agent: Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary. Naomi hears the trap bang closed and $7.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926- (Jan.) heads out with her shotgun to catch 5572-5 what’s after her flock. Wes is forced to Marts’s second Cowboys of Creedence ★ A Duke Changes Everything: break wolf pack law by shifting and contemporary western (after Caught Up in The Duke’s Den, Book 1 showing he’s also human; he further trans- a Cowboy) delivers charismatic, quirky Christy Carlyle. Avon, $7.99 mass market gresses by not killing Naomi to protect characters. Just once, steadfast and (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-285395-0 his secret. Instead, he takes her back to his responsible rancher Mason James would Carlyle’s first Duke’s Den novel is a pack against her will to protect her from like someone to see him as Mason—not as seductive mid-19th-century romance that his enemies and convince his leader to let superstar hockey player Rockford James’s crosses classes and other boundaries with her live. Although they have an imme- brother. Journalist Tessa Kane is barely aplomb. Mina Thorne has been acting as diate attraction, they aren’t allowed to be making ends meet, and then her job is the steward at Enderley Castle since the together, and Naomi may not be able to threatened; her last hope is to deliver an in- death of her father, the former steward. cope with Wes’s violent past and present. depth profile on Rockford and his fiancée, When Nick Lyon, the disfigured owner of The story isn’t especially novel, but Quinn. She braves a party for Rockford a London gambling club, unexpectedly readers looking for some crash-bang and Quinn, trying to score an interview, becomes Duke of Tremayne after his older excitement and lengthy love scenes will but things go unexpected ways. Mason brother dies, Nick returns to Enderley, his not be disappointed. Agent: Nicole certainly doesn’t expect to find his true inheritance and the childhood home Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Jan.) love in a supply closet, where he encounters where he was abused by his father. Nick’s Tessa trying to change her outfit. It’s love arrival at Enderley is fraught with painful Someone to Trust at first sight for Tessa, too, so she accepts memories of physical and emotional Mary Balogh. Berkley, $7.99 mass market his request to be his wedding-weekend trauma. These tragic recollections are (384p) ISBN 978-0-399-58610-1 date, but she worries Mason will think she tempered by his attraction to Mina; most Balogh’s emotionally rich fifth only wants access to Rockford. Some of people are put off by his facial scars and Westcott Regency (after Someone to Care) is Tessa’s grandmother’s antics strain credu- cool demeanor, the best installment yet. Colin Handrich, lity, but readers will cherish the scorching but Mina sees Baron Hodges, joins the Westcott family sex, snappy dialogue, well-paced plot, and the good in for Christmas, where he renews his friend- the appeal of the small Colorado town set- him. Though ship with Elizabeth, the widowed Lady ting. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. the attraction Overfield. Caught up in the magic that (Dec.) between Nick only an unexpected Christmas snowfall and Mina can create, both begin to realize that their Pleasured by You builds, he sticks affection for each other has deepened into Elle Wright. Dafina, $7.99 mass market to his plan to attraction and even love. But Elizabeth (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-1604-0 lease Enderley is 35 years old and Colin is a mere 26. Wright continues the Wellspring and return to Acknowledging the societal double contemporary romance series (after London. Carlyle standard that sees women marry much Enticed by You) with a rich and vivid tale

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of family drama and righted wrongs. Earl to the Rescue Determined to keep her family safe, Elena Bryson Wells vowed never to return to Jane Ashford. Sourcebooks Casablanca, refuses to stop hunting for the killer tar- Wellspring, Mich., but when his abusive $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926- geting her sister’s husband, but she father nears death and his older brother, 7432-0 increasingly falters in the air. Soon Elena Parker, reaches out to him, he finds the This revised edition of Regency power- and Raphael realize she’s regressing longing for his siblings too great to ignore. house Ashford’s first novel, originally toward mortality. Singh heightens tension Jordan Clark, Bryson’s childhood best published nearly 40 years ago, is a care- in this spellbinding paranormal romance friend, put her dreams on hold to care for fully arranged, bustling confection of as familial bonds deepen and a heart- her ailing grandfather in Wellspring. Regency-era social politics. Gwendeline breaking mystery unfolds, leading to a She’s startled to run into Bryson, who left Gregory, left destitute by the deaths of her destiny-defying climax certain to stun town—and left her—without a word. profligate absentee parents at the start of fans. This book can be read as a standalone When a night of no-strings-attached pas- her first social season, is rescued by Alex but will lead a new reader to gobble up the sion results in her pregnancy, Bryson is St. Audley, fifth Earl of Merryn, a bach- entire series. Singh is in a class all her own determined to be there for his child. His elor so popular he is nicknamed “the and knows just how to leave readers chivalrous nature is too much for Jordan to Unattainable.” He spirits her to his nov- wanting more. Agent: Nephele Tempest, resist, despite her attempts to “focus on the elist mother’s London home. Gwendeline Knight Agency. (Nov.) baby.” Both lovers have dealt with the pain becomes increasingly dubious of his claims of parental rejection, but Bryson, unlike that her support comes from her late father’s The Clockwork Menagerie Jordan, is ready to move forward with his friends and not Merryn alone, while vil- Elliot Cooper. Elliot Cooper, $2.99 e-book life, and he’s determined to help her do the lainous Mr. Blane threatens her with dev- (40p) ASIN B07DH3K6LG same. The steamy love scenes are enhanced astating information about her family. Cooper’s short tale draws readers into a by tender affection; the siblings are as Gwendeline and Alex’s inevitable engage- charming steampunk world with heart charming as always; and the introduction of ment lacks emotional resonance, the result and personality. Clement Dyer is an Victoria, a half-sibling, is the perfect setup of clearing obstacles rather than blossoming autosmith, manufacturing automatic for the next installment in this delectable love. Ashford’s completist fans will find animals for an elite clientele. When one series. Agent: Sara Camilli, Sara Camilli enough of her characteristic style here to of his customers is unsatisfied with his Agency. (Dec.) make the book worth reading, but the work, his livelihood is threatened. While characters’ motivations are frustratingly he frets over the possibility of losing his My Forever Home immature and shallow, and Ashford’s more job and starting afresh, his competitor Debbie Burns. Sourcebooks Casablanca, recent work is simply better. Agent: Jennifer and ex-lover, Duke Goodwin, taunts $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926- Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (Dec.) him. He thinks Duke is up to no good, 5089-8 but the lingering heat between them The touching third Rescue Me contem- ★ Archangel’s Prophecy hints at other possibilities. In a brief porary (after A New Leash on Love) unites Nalini Singh. Berkley, $7.99 mass market space, Cooper captures the passion two animal lovers from very different (368p) ISBN 978-0-451-49164-0 Clement has for his work, and the intri- walks of life. Tess Grasso is back home in Prophecy and unbending devotion cacies of the world in which he lives. The St. Louis after a backpacking tour of collide in Singh’s game-changing 11th romance comes across clearly and never Europe. She’s eager to embark on her Guild Hunter novel (after Archangel’s feels trite. Cooper’s writing is suffused chosen career as a holistic animal therapist, Viper). Unexpected humor and quick- with atmosphere, and fantasy and steam- but progress is slow. On her way home paced plot shifts expand the setting and punk readers will find it very enjoyable. from yet another rejection by a potential advance the (BookLife) client, she’s caught in a driving rainstorm. action without Nonetheless, she can’t resist retrieving an leaving new A Sinner Without a Saint impish Westie who’s evading a man readers in the Bliss Bennet. Bliss Bennet, $4.99 e-book helplessly holding the dog’s empty leash. dark. Archangel (352p) ASIN B07DZ2CVK9 Tess has no idea the man is Mason Redding, Raphael and his Bennett’s fourth Pennington romance the St. Louis Red Birds’ famous third consort, former introduces complicated gay characters baseman and one of the city’s most eligible mortal Elena, who face down social conventions in 19th- bachelors. He prefers it that way, since he are center stage century England. Incorrigibly glib Sinclair doesn’t like being chased for his fame. Their as the power- “Dulcie” Milne faces extreme pressure to instant mutual attraction leads into a tender enhancing marry well from his father, Lord Milne. He love story. This isn’t the best in the series, Cascade again is goaded into betting that he can woo Polly but chapters from a stray husky mix’s point unsettles the world. Raphael tries to Adler and inherit her grandfather’s of view improve it and will win the hearts contain its unnatural phenomena, such extensive art collection, but his interests of animal fanciers. Agent: Jessica Watterson, as lava sinkholes; master his new abilities; lie elsewhere—with his former schoolmate Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Dec.) and prepare his territory for the return of and artist, Benedict Pennington. Benedict the power-hungry Archangel of Death. engages in a parallel campaign to convince

50 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_FICTION the Adlers to found a public art museum Che: A Revolutionary Life push-pull of Desdee’s compassion for the with their collection. The two men share a Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández, trans. tiny humans enslaved by the kingdom of deep attraction, butting heads as they meet from the Spanish by Megan McDowell. Penguin giants and the wanton royal cruelty of socially and Dulcie canvasses for Benedict’s Press, $35 (421p) ISBN 978-0-7352-2177-2 Emione, who thinks nothing of killing brother’s parliamentary campaign. Impressed A cinematic approach chips away at the and eating a servant over the slightest by the artistic realism of Benedict’s work, myths and misunderstandings that still annoyance. (Petit himself remains some- Dulcie talks Benedict into painting his surround the life of Che Guevara, the famed thing of a blank.) The richly brocaded portrait. The more serious, relationship- doctor turned revolutionary, in this in- backstories, swirling lines, and pinpoint minded Benedict uses their posing ses- depth graphic novel adaptation of detail of the art, along with the dark nar- sions to wear down Dulcie’s flippancy and Anderson’s exhaustive biography. Che is rative sweep of this tragic and violent draw him into a hesitant romance. Several fleshed out as a young man whose frustra- world, will leave readers eager for the twists and turns delay their happy ending. tion with U.S. interference throughout the sequel. (Nov.) This pleasing romance highlights the Western hemisphere aligns him with complications of premodern gay desires, anti-imperialist causes, at first in ★ Piero rounding out its story with precise histor- Guatemala and Mexico, famously in the Edmond Baudoin, trans. from the French by ical flair and genuine feelings. (BookLife) Sierra Maestra mountains of Cuba, fruit- Matt Madden. New York Review Comics, lessly in a campaign in the Congo, and $17.95 (136p) ISBN 978-1-68137-296-9 then tragically in Bolivia, where he was This affecting, Proustian dip into Comics assassinated. Adding warmth to the exhaus- childhood memory follows a relationship tive research drawn from letters, newspa- between two brothers in all its intensity Part of It pers and official documents are Che’s writ- and complexity. Young Edmond, nick- Ariel Schrag. Mariner, $17.99 trade paper ings to his mother—whose own life was named Momon, plays, competes, and draws (160p) ISBN 978-1-328-97244-6 upended by her son’s actions. Hernandez’s with his brother, Piero, who is slightly This inviting collection of Schrag’s art tries to match Che’s iconic steadfast- better than he is at everything. Living in autobiographical short comics combines ness and the weight of the story with pho- the French countryside with only each other old and new works, organized not by the tographic realism, but the overall effect is for company, the brothers grow up slightly order in which they were written but by stiff. Yet the scope of the work meets the out of step with the rest of the world. Their her life’s chronology. This creates a kind author’s aim to inspire renewed reflection shared fantasies of communing with a space of scrapbook of Schrag’s growth from ages on Che’s revolutionary ideas, and—as alien or flying through the air are as real to six to 26, with quick, vivid snapshots when Che denounces the “meddling of a them as their home and parents, and they capturing social and emotional mile- foreign power” in a radio interview— become obsessed with art to the point that stones. Schrag is skilled at immersing the holds renewed relevance as well. Agent: it comes as a reader in her memories in a way that feels Sarah Chalfant, The Wylie Agency (Nov.) shock when they real and unforced, as if her audience were go to school and her teenage friends gossiping in a bedroom Petit: The Ogre Gods, Book 1 discover other or college kids figuring out, collectively, Hubert Boulard and Bertrand Gatignol, trans. kids don’t draw where to stand at a party. Her simple art- from the French by Jeremy Melloul. Lion Forge, all the time. As work, while sketchy in earlier drafted $24.99 (176p) ISBN 978-1-942367-77-2 they get older, pieces, develops into a clean, rounded Despite the art’s fairy tale appearance, the brothers are wide-eyed style reminiscent of Peanuts, this bloody saga of dynastic savagery is tempted away and is similarly accessible. As Schrag’s very much for adult readers, as it follows from creative cartoon self matures from an awkwardly the gruesome disruption caused when the passions by the experimenting grade schooler to a ruth- queen of a royal family of human-eating allure of impressing girls and competing lessly status-obsessed teenager to a neu- giants gives birth to a human-sized son. with rival boys, and they realize that their rotic adult who obsesses over finding the The aptly named Petit barely escapes being parents can afford to indulge only one son perfect pair of hipster glasses, themes eaten by his cannibalistic clan and is in pursuing an artistic career. Baudoin lays develop: discovering her sexuality, testing secreted away in the castle by his mother, pages in loose pen-and-ink, with rounded her social power, and yearning to fit in with Emione. Petit grows into a dashingly figures inhabiting vibrantly sketched set- one group after another. Although the handsome and adventurous prince under tings, which suggest something between amalgamation lacks the depth and density the tutelage of his aunt Desdee, a gentle classical Renaissance cartoons and great of Schrag’s graphic memoirs (Awkward, noncannibal spurned by the rest of the children’s book artists like Maurice Sendak Likewise, etc.), as an encapsulation of the family. Their clan of inbreds is growing and Edward Ardizzone. His evocation of artist’s life, it gets to the heart of the ever smaller and more degenerate. “You childhood, at once dreamlike and intensely struggle that so many young people feel will mate with humans and you will birth vivid, makes the reader inclined to agree to fit in. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers giants,” prophecies Emione to the wide- with the brothers when they say that “it’s House. (Nov.) eyed Petit. “You will save us.” The drama a little dumb to grow up.” (Nov.) of this first installment is built around the

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privacy and anonymity has reasserted Nonfiction itself with new urgency amid the exhibitionism of the technology- The Robots Are Coming! imbued modern world. With many The Future of Jobs in the seeking an “alternative to a life of per- Age of Automation petual display,” she offers a “field guide Andrés Oppenheimer, trans. from the to invisibility,” with examples from Spanish by Ezra E. Fitz. Vintage, $16.95 science, literature, and visual art. The trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-525-56500-0 book draws from J.K. Rowling and Miami Herald columnist Hans Christian Andersen to explore Oppenheimer offers a breezy, superficial how children yearn for the ethereal, and survey of trends in automation that shows how “erasure books,” like those are expected to radically transform of poet Mary Ruefle, create something the workplace in coming decades. new by obscuring the old. Astutely Oppenheimer traveled around the noting the significance of contemporary world to see for himself how autono- language like “ghosting” and mous devices have already begun to “unseeing” things, Busch suggests assume roles traditionally held by absence can become a presence in its people, such as the robots in Japan who own right. Elsewhere, she visits Duke checked him into a hotel, and greeted University’s engineering department to him when he entered a bank. While he experiment with a real-life “cloaking ends up asserting that the “world device” and goes scuba diving to will continue getting better,” despite In Pie Squared, Cathy Barrow shares a recipe for an “become a refugee of the visible world.” some “turbulent times,” Oppenheimer artichoke dip slab pie with a cream cheese crust (reviewed Busch’s exploration of her subject is glosses over reasons to doubt that opti- on p. 55). free-associative, wide-ranging, and mism; for example, he minimizes the poetic in its own right. Her description potential for large-scale social disrup- Cassius, when Penelope was born in 2009. of visiting New York City’s Grand Central tions when entire professions, such as Almost from the start, Penelope was Terminal is particularly striking, as she is truck driving, are eliminated, with no constantly angry, and then, as a three-year- “swept along by the stream of humanity” obvious or easy replacement jobs. And old, told Patterson, “Mama, I’m not a girl. amid the seemingly choreographed he also downplays the limits of some I’m a boy.” While Penelope’s mother, “gorgeous multitude.” Busch offers a path advances, lauding massive open online father, and siblings—a brood that grew to to quiet dignity that is rich and enlight- courses, or MOOCs, without noting that include two additional brothers—accepted ening. Agent: Albert LaFarge, Albert many who enroll never finish them. him without question, neither Patterson LaFarge Literary Agency. (Feb.) Sweeping generalizations (he writes that nor Penelope were exempted from many Asian countries have a “family thoughtlessness and intolerance of others. Liquid Rules: The Delightful culture of education... that simply doesn’t “The story of trans people, to me, was and Dangerous Substances exist in many Western nations”) and factual shaping up to be very similar to the story That Flow Through Our Lives sloppiness (Carrie Fisher didn’t have to be of Black people,” Patterson observes. Mark Miodownik. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, digitally recreated for Star Wars: Rogue One “Stories in which some have tried to $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-544-85019-4 because of her death, which occurred after rewrite people’s identities to serve their In this informative, casual narrative, that film’s release) also lessen the book’s own needs.” A pleasant surprise came when Miodownik (Stuff Matters), a science pro- credibility. The result is a readable but less they explained to Penelope’s religious fessor at University College London, than essential addition to the many volumes Ghanaian grandfather, to refer to Penelope gives a guided tour of the strange, won- already available on this topic. (May) as “he”: “Ayy! It’s no problem at all! In my drous liquids that flow through everyday language of Twi, Jodie, we don’t use life. He compresses myriad science lessons The Bold World: A Memoir of gender pronouns,” he replied. Patterson’s into one transatlantic flight on the theory Family and Transformation raw tour de force illustrates the strength that “there is no better way to illustrate Jodie Patterson. Ballantine, $28 (352p) of a loving and determined mother. (Feb.) the power and delight we gain from con- ISBN 978-0-399-17901-3 trolling liquids than by taking a look at Patterson leaves no emotional stone How to Disappear: those involved in the flight of an airplane unturned in her powerful chronicle of her Notes on Invisibility in and the experience of the passengers experiences being the mother of a trans- a Time of Transparency onboard.” From beverage cart and lava- gender child. Patterson, an activist and Akiko Busch. Penguin, $26 (224p) ISBN 978-1- tory to sky and tarmac, he finds stories former magazine ad executive who grew 101-98041-5 waiting in every conceivable corner. Tea, up in 1970s New York City, was already Essayist Busch (The Incidental Steward) for instance, started its existence as an mother to a daughter, Georgia, and a son, meditates on how the human need for assortment of “shoots on a seemingly

52 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_NONFICTION Advertisement unremarkable evergreen shrub” which The 30-Day Money Cleanse: modern-day humans’ ancestors didn’t Take Control of Your Finances, notice for millennia. Wine is a vessel for Manage Your Spending, and the “dissolved ethanol you’re about to De-Stress Your Money for Good consume.” Overhead air conditioning Ashley Feinstein Gerstley. Sourcebooks, exists thanks to “some of the most dan- $17.99 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-4926- gerous liquids on the planet.” Even the 6536-6 humble ink needed to fill out a customs Gerstley’s frank confession of her own form is a marvel, because flowing and hard-won financial lessons opens her cheery solidifying in the right order, and con- and easy-to-follow guide to creating a sistently and fast, “is much trickier than healthy personal relationship with money. it looks.” This popular science work Outlining simple exercises—guidelines straightforwardly and clearly explains rather than off-putting plans—and strate- “the mysterious properties of liquids and gies that emphasize the pleasure of gaining Walking Each how we have come to rely on them” in a control of one’s finances, Gerstley offers Other Home: novel, engaging manner. (Feb.) encouragement and empathy as the pro- fessional life coach she is. Changing perspec- Conversations on The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, tives and language around financial deci- Loving and Dying a Revolution in Hollywood, and sions is a key part of her program: letting the Making of a Legendary Film go of an expense feels much more positive Ram Dass and Mirabai Bush. W.K. Stratton. Bloomsbury, $28 (352p) than having to give up something. “I have Sounds True, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-63286-212-9 to cut down on my dining expenses” becomes ISBN 978-1-68364-200-8 The process of making a great film is more palatable when reframed as letting often as fascinating as the film itself, a point go of an expense that wasn’t needed in amply illustrated by Stratton (Backyard the first place. The book wraps up with a ”””””””” Brawl) in his behind-the-scenes look at Financial Bliss Checklist to help users stay Sam Peckinpah’s brutal 1969 master- on track and a bibliography of books and piece, The Wild Bunch. Stratton traces articles for readers interested in a deeper eath is a thought” begins the basis for the film, about a band of understanding of how to handle money “D this dreamlike book from spiritual American outlaws fleeing to revolution- well. Gerstley’s book offers a solid first gurus Dass and Bush that uses a era Mexico to escape changing times, not step for those just entering the workforce bedside conversation between two to a professional screenwriter but to or anyone still in need of developing good close friends to explore death as a stuntman Roy Sickner, who came up with financial habits and dealing fearlessly with journey to oneness. Dass muses on his the idea on the set of another film in the personal finances. Agent: Leigh Eisenman, own impending death (he is 87) while early 1960s. Stratton also recounts HSG Agency. (Jan.) Bush, his longtime friend, sits beside Peckinpah’s earlier career, including the him in Maui. As much about opening debacle of his previous film, also a How to Love the Universe: up and living with love and curiosity Mexico-set western, Major Dundee, and A Scientist’s Odes to the Hidden as it is about aging and dying, the book the career revival he enjoyed thanks to Beauty Behind the Visible World also reprints many familiar passages an acclaimed TV version of Katherine Stefan Klein, trans. from the German by Mike from Dass’s Be Here Now. Though Anne Porter’s story “Noon Wine.” For Mitchell. The Experiment, $18.95 trade paper the overall themes are consistent preproduction, Stratton discusses casting (240p) ISBN 978-1-61519-486-5 with that work—live consciously, decisions, notably Peckinpah’s then- Traversing subjects from the earliest identify with the soul, forgiveness is everything—Dass and Bush cover new unusual move to cast almost exclusively moments of the universe to the possibility ground by detailing adventures with Mexican actors (with the exception of of life on other planets, physicist Klein people such as Tim Leary and Aldous Puerto Rican–born Jaime Sánchez) in the (The Science of Happiness) energetically Huxley. They also share stories about film’s Mexican roles. Finally, he suggests invites readers “to let yourself be enthralled their own experiences with friends that, over the course of the shoot, cast and by the reality in which we live.” The and family dying, and their ways of crew came to resemble their own version author breaks his work into 10 chapters exploring death with love and courage. of the Wild Bunch: Hollywood outsiders, suitable for reading straight through or By confronting the idea that death is a up-and-comers, and fading studio vet- dipping into at random. Consideration of mysterious and fearful conclusion to erans trying to find their way in a rapidly the “visible world” introduces the Big life, Dass and Bush encourage readers changing industry. Stratton’s thorough Bang and cosmic expansion. From there, to enter the depths of their fears about research yields a fascinating perspective he invites readers to ponder a question dying and mortality in order to create on how Peckinpah created a western of along with the young Albert Einstein— more solace in their lives. (Sept.) unparalleled realism and intensity. (Feb.) “what would it be like to take a ride on a ray of light.” Klein has a knack for mixing www.soundstrue.com

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complex topics with more mundane images [Q&A] that bring those ideas into sharp focus. A hypothetical robbery investigation, for PW Talks with Daid Kipen example, introduces probability and quantum entanglement. Cosmic inflation Living in La-La Land and warped space, the measurement of time, In Dear Los Angeles (Modern Library, Dec.), Kipen collects passages and the search for dark energy are all exam- from letters and diaries about the wonders and horrors of L.A. ined in thoughtful, accessible language that through the centuries. brings ideas to vivid life. Klein’s latest work encourages readers to think, consider, The letters and diaries you excerpt go found interesting writers that most and give in to scientific fascination. (Dec.) back to the 16th century. Is there any- people have never heard of, like Eric thing that’s quintessentially Los Knight, a British screenwriter who Victory City: Angeles way back then? came out with lavish dreams for movies A History of New York and Well, sure. In early diaries by Spanish as an art form and had a nervous break- New Yorkers During World War II and British explorers, they talk about down. So he went out to the Valley to John Strausbaugh. Twelve, $30 (496p) ISBN 978- the air pollution—the smoke from the farm alfalfa and got a dog—and then 1-4555-6748-5 cook fires of the Indians. The area was wrote Lassie Come Home. From teenagers in zoot suits and bobby even called “The Bay of Smokes.” And socks to New York–bred Soviet moles there’s a wonderful diary entry from You quote Eric Knight describing infiltrating the Manhattan Project and Helen Hunt Jackson, a 19th-century L.A. as “such beauty in such a childish German U-boats lurking off the city’s writer, who wrote a California romance hell-hole.” Why do people think of shoreline, Strausbaugh (City of Sedition: A called Ramona. She describes the L.A. as soulless? History of New York City during the Civil War) [Mexican] Californios on Because they’re homesick, delivers a lively chronicle of New York City horseback in the pueblo of because it’s very different during the 1930s and ’40s. Strausbaugh Los Angeles and how they from where they came highlights New York’s influential role in are as comfortable in the © rick loomis from, and because they the war effort due to its sheer size, defense and auxiliary organizations (among them, saddle as you and I would don’t know what the hell the Brooklyn Navy Yard and USO), and be on foot, recklessly to make of it. What’s fun is political and economic clout—President doing equestrian tricks to watch people change Franklin Roosevelt, a native New Yorker, just for fun and narrowly their minds. There has filled his cabinet and administration with missing one another as they never been any doubt in influential New Yorkers. Entertaining careen around on these dirt my mind that Los Angeles and episodic, Strausbaugh’s work explores streets. She’s writing about has a soul. It’s not till you the cultural changes precipitated by the traffic in Los Angeles. move away—I moved away rise of women in the workforce; the racial for college—that you realize discrimination black service members A lot of creative people come to Los there was something to be missed: the faced in the military and at home that led Angeles for the film industry. Were light, the beauty, the mystique. I came to the 1943 Harlem Riot; the corpora- they a good source for you? to miss it through writing, through tions and banks that hid under a patriotic I found that the best writers about the songs of Tom Waits and the front while investing in Hitler’s regime; Hollywood were screenwriters who writing of Raymond Chandler. It is and the New York Jewish community’s came out from Chicago newsrooms impossible for any lover of Raymond deep divisions over Roosevelt’s slow and and Broadway. I was able to get inter- Chandler to drive around the city and ineffective response to the Holocaust. esting synergies and frictions with not see this stereopticon view of The narrative sweeps in New York City’s industry people. I juxtaposed selec- present and past in parallax. larger-than-life mayor Fiorello La Guardia, tions from a hero of mine, Dalton Nazi spies and saboteurs, atomic scientists, Trumbo, the great blacklisted screen- Why is L. A. better than New York? poets, and gangsters. This well-informed writer, with the diaries of Charlton I lived in New York for two summers, and vibrant history captures a pivotal era Heston. Heston was politically the and I’m very fond of it, but New York in deep detail. (Dec.) opposite of Trumbo, but he has these feels a little written out to me. L.A.’s a wonderful diaries about the shooting teenager—it’s gawky and it’s got zits all 240 Beats Per Minute: of both A Touch of Evil, where he over it, and feels like it’s got more Life with an Unruly Heart writes wonderfully about Orson unwritten chapters yet to be published. Bernard Witholt, with Roger M. Mills. River Welles, and Planet of the Apes. I also —Will Boisert Grove, $15.95 trade paper (254p) ISBN 978-1- 63299-186-7 As biologist Witholt began his 15-year

54 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_NONFICTION struggle with recurrent ventricular baker to bake, as caring for her 11 children Searing Inspiration: tachycardia in 1999, he began recording made baking in her home kitchen impos- Fast, Adaptable Entrees his experience in scientific terms; this sible. Recipes are provided for several flat- and Fresh Pan Sauces book represents that record, combined breads, including one layered with zaatar, Susan Volland. Norton, $29.95 (240p) with thoughtful italicized commentary sumac, and onion. Desserts include car- ISBN 978-0-39329-241-1 from his lifelong friend, physician Mills away pudding (traditionally served to In this exuberant outing, Volland (Nesiritide: The Rise and Fall of Scios). nursing mothers) and a sesame cake black- (Mastering Sauces) instructs home cooks on Witholt first knew something was wrong ened with nigella seeds. The only off-key how to create easy dishes with flavorful when his pulse rate shot up to 240 beats note is represented by the “fusion” offer- sauces cooked in the same pan as the per minute. He initially resisted the ings; there is so much here in Palestinian entrees. She focuses on techniques, such common treatment, an implantable cardio- cooking that has previously gone unex- as searing and deglazing, and starts with verter-defibrillator, or ICD, which has the plored (including milk infused with tur- three fundamentals: mise en place, tem- unpleasant effect of delivering “a shock... meric and cardamom) that it’s jarring to perature recommendations, and sauce directly inside your heart,” but eventually come upon fish-out-of-water items like making. Throughout, she offers invaluable acquiesced in early 2000. Happily, as ceviche and éclairs. Nevertheless, Kalla’s tips on everything from avoiding nonstick Witholt became accustomed to the ICD, excellent recipes wonderfully evoke culi- pans and trimming chicken to basting he was able to return to his beloved pursuit nary Palestine. (Nov.) steaks and deciding whether to flambé. of rowing. Mills, also a rower, affectionately Fish and seafood dishes such as classic sole echoes and emphasizes his friend’s paeans ★ Cooking in Iran: Regional meunière and “campground” trout with to the sport: “Bernie’s almost lyric Recipes & Cooking Secrets sweet onions and bacon drippings are description of his Saturday mornings Najmieh Batmanglij. Mage, $65 (728p) appetizing and straightforward, as are went far beyond science; he loved life.” ISBN 978-1-933823-95-9 such poultry entrees as chicken piccata However, Mills also shares frustrations Batmanglij (Joon: Persian Cooking Made and chicken with garlic, greens, and salty with how reluctant his friend could be to Simple), who grew up in Iran and has cheese. Volland also shares tempting seek necessary medical care, recalling, “I written extensively of the country’s cuisine, meat choices such as steak with a simple was his friend, not his physician.... I find offers a massive and thorough guide to red wine and herb sauce, and pork chops it an impossible situation.” Culminating Persian cuisine. Batmanglij spent three with sour cream and sauerkraut sauce. in Witholt’s death due to pancreatic years traversing the country, stopping in Vegetables and eggs are also well repre- cancer in 2015, this book serves as an all of its regions, and in this collection of sented in crispy tofu with peanut and red endearing elegy from a devoted friend more than 250 recipes she shares an curry sauce; charred broccoli with chili, and, fittingly, includes three of Witholt’s assortment of kebabs was well as osh, a garlic, and lemon oil; and basted eggs essays, intended to illustrate his devotion traditional porridge-like soup made with with asparagus brown butter sauce and and love for teaching. (BookLife) butternut squash or carrot and bulgar. shaved Parmesan. All dishes include Highlights abound: Azerbaijani dumpling searing instructions in addition to recipes soup, featuring dumplings stuffed with for sauces and sides. Insightful and Lifestyle ground meat in a spicy tomato broth; enticing, this collection provides home saffroned almond and pistachio baklava; cooks with a new repertoire of choices to Food & Drink walnut and sumac meatballs (made with create novel dishes and enhance old Baladi: Palestine—A Celebration lamb or turkey thigh); a savory mushroom favorites. (Nov.) of Food from Land and Sea pie, similar to the Russian pirozhki; and Joudie Kalla. Interlink, $35 (256p) ISBN 978-1- pistachio cake. Batmanglij fills the book Pie Squared: Irresistibly Easy, 62371-981-4 with photos of vendors, farmers, and Sweet, and Savory Slab Pies Caterer Kalla follows up Palestine on a ancient ruins, and offers history lessons Cathy Barrow. Grand Central Life & Style, $28 Plate with this celebratory collection of and bits of trivia (“The oldest archeolog- (336p) ISBN 978-1-5387-2914-4 soulful recipes from the baladi, or home- ical evidence of pistachios was found in Barrow (Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Practical land, her family fled in 1948. A chapter Jarmo”). Stories of intimate family dinners Pantry) devotes an entire, glorious book on vegetable and grain dishes offers up shared on her journey and recipes she dis- to the subject of slab pies, which are made purslane salad with pomegranate seeds; covered talking with the locals—such as in a half-sheet pan. Barrow pushes the but- while a chapter on meats suggests a string sweet and sour patties with chicken, mint, tery, crusty envelope with her tempting of tempting lamb recipes including one and turmeric, and almond paste with saf- recipes—both savory and sweet options for cored carrots stuffed with rice and fron (a friend’s mother would “spread the for every meal of the day, whether it’s ground lamb, and another that calls for almonds on a clean sheet and cover them breakfast (Good Morning Cheese Danish rolling chard leaves around ground meat with pussy willow flowers”)—lend the Slab Pie); lunch (a reuben slab pie with and then using them to form a patty atop feel of flipping through a scrapbook with rye crust); dinner (Moroccan shepherd’s lamb cutlets. A chapter on bread and savory a friend. This is a terrific, reverential, and pie); or dessert (a banana pudding pie pastries begins with a story of Kalla’s accessible cookbook. (Nov.) with vanilla wafer crust). Barrow innovates grandmother bringing dough to the town with each recipe, whether it’s carbonara

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and zucchini-noodle slab pie; blackberry, alike will delight in McBride’s outstanding combination of creole and Italian classics: sweet corn, and basil pie; or one with recipe collection. (Oct.) red gravy, crawfish étouffée, tiramisu, and raspberry and rugelach. Creative recipes seafood gumbo bolstered by a dark roux can feed crowds at the holidays, too, such ★ The Noma Guide to with filé powder and okra. Culinary as After-Thanksgiving Turkey Slab Pie Fermentation mashups include chicken and crab napo- and Christmas in London (a kind of French- René Redzepi and David Zilber. Artisan, $40 leon; prosciutto, peppers, and shrimp Canadian tourtière). There are nontradi- (456p) ISBN 978-1-57965-718-5 with bowtie pasta in a vodka sauce; tional pie crusts options as well, such as Frequently lauded as one of the world’s Manale’s creamy grits, which incorporate smoked fish with a caramelized onion crust, best restaurants and recipient of two green onions and Romano cheese; and the eggs florentine in a hash brown crust; and Michelin stars, Copenhagen’s Noma is restaurant’s famous meatballs, made fried green tomatoes with a Ritz cracker known worldwide for the creativity and with hot sauce. While some of Manale’s crust. The most challenging part of this resourcefulness of head chef René Redzepi signature dishes remain a secret, such as fun and inviting cookbook will be (Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine) barbecue shrimp, Tooker offers enticing choosing which recipe to make first. (Nov.) and his staff. Here, Redzepi and Zilber, approximations. This books makes for a Noma’s head of fermentation, share their worthy addition to one’s cajun cookbook ★ Martina’s Kitchen Mix: insights in a wildly practical and fasci- library. (Oct.) My Recipe Playlist for Real Life nating examination of one of the world’s Martina McBride. Oxmoor, $30 trade paper oldest methods of food preservation. ★ Revolutionary Recipes: Ground- (272p) ISBN 978-0-84875-763-2 Beginning with simple lacto-fermented breaking Techniques, Compelling Country music singer McBride (Around recipes (just add salt) using plums, blue- Voices, One-of-a-Kind Recipes the Table) offers up a stellar collection of berries, and porcini mushrooms, the Editors at America’s Test Kitchen. Cook’s personal and family recipes. She starts chefs gradually up the fermentation ante, Illustrated, $45 (576p) ISBN 978-1-945256-47-9 with a series of tasty breakfast options, culminating with the highly concentrated This dense and satisfying volume many of which can be made a day ahead, and wildly funky garum, an umami-packed commemorating the 25th anniversary of including cranberry-orange-almond gra- cousin to fish sauce; the Noma crew also Cook’s Illustrated is packed with the col- nola, cheddar biscuits with bacon, and makes a beef-based version. Practical lective results of kitchen experiments— grandma’s cinnamon rolls. She also applications abound, such as DIY lemon each of which lasted six weeks in the test includes a superb cocktail and appetizer verbena kombucha, whiskey vinegar, and kitchen. Chatty, informed contributors chapter, which shoyu-buttermilk fried chicken (add shoyu offer advice on everything from hard- highlights a to buttermilk for the marinade). Recipes boiling an egg that one can peel cleanly luscious are clearly written and accompanied by to crafting a brownie with the dense whipped feta more than 500 photos. Whether readers chew of one’s beloved box-mix squares of crostini with opt for a DIY fermentation chamber using childhood. Recipes are classics: pulled roasted garlic, a restaurant speed rack or a basic Styrofoam pork (with instructions on cooking both tomatoes, and cooler, if they follow the instructions to the Texas-style and Mexican), pad thai (with herbs; tangy letter, including cleanliness (“remember, tamarind and DIY dried shrimp), and vodka limeade you’re playing with live ammo,” the chocolate chip cookies (use one tray, not coolers; and a authors caution), they’re bound to wind two, for even baking). Each recipe surprisingly appealing recipe for bacon- up with not just a new culinary skill but includes the original issue date and an wrapped olives. Salads are simple and a deeper appreciation for this ancient empathetic narrative (“Serving pumpkin unfussy but still top-notch, such as romaine technique. (Oct.) pie at Thanksgiving is an exercise in salad with buttermilk dressing, and kale futility,” one begins) about how and why Caesar salad with quinoa and chicken. In Pascal’s Manale Cookbook the recipe was developed. Additionally, addition to numerous soups and sand- Poppy Tooker. Pelican, $34.95 (224p) there are illustrated tips galore for wiches, she offers up hearty main dishes, ISBN 978-1-4556-2408-9 chores like breaking down chicken including chicken and potatoes with Pascal’s Manale is New Orleans’s wings (cut them into drumettes, mid- roasted lemon and rosemary sauce; pot second-oldest continuously operating sections, and wingtips) and folding foil roast with gravy; and pan-roasted halibut. family restaurant, and Tooker, host of the packets. All aspects of cooking are Side dishes are plentiful and comforting: Louisiana Eats! radio program, gives the explored, and the exactitude is com- roasted asparagus with lemon, Parmesan, legendary restaurant its due in this solid forting and never fussy. (The editors, for and garlic; roasted summer vegetables collection. Tooker begins with an overview instance, use a respirometer and a balloon with herbs; sautéed spinach; and creamy of the restaurant’s legacy (the Manale to measure the effects of temperature on garlic pasta with Parmesan. She ends on a family emigrated from Sicily and opened yeast.) This volume is sure to be a popular sweet note with an amazing collection of their restaurant in 1913), complete with choice as a gift for college grads and desserts, including chocolate-cherry cheese- historical photos of the restaurant, meals, others just starting to make their way in cakes with Biscoff crust and pistachio and the celebrities and local politicians the kitchen. (Oct.) lemon-drop cookies. Fans and home cooks who have dined there. The recipes are a

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The Ritz London: The Cookbook use of thick, chunky yarns in items such as ONLINE John Williams, with James Steen. Mitchell pillows and blankets. However, both the NOW www.publishersweekly.com Beazley, $40 (240p) ISBN 978-1-78472-496-2 patterns and finished products appear Williams, executive chef at the Ritz uninspired and slapdash rather than stylish FICTION London (established in 1906), hails from a and up-to-date. The Simple Stockinette Four Hundred and Forty Steps to the Sea humble background, but cooks haute cui- Cocoon Blanket looks like an appealing Sara Alexander. Kensington, ISBN 978-1-4967- sine. In this distinctive cookbook, he writes and easy project to take on, but on closer 1548-7, Sept. that he disavows the phrase “fine dining,” inspection, the combination of awkward In Search of Jimmy Buffett: A Key West in an introduction that ranges from pattern writing, bland color choices, and Revival Ashley Oliphant. Warren, ISBN 978-1- Auguste Escoffier to Williams’s upbringing confusing finishing instructions make it a 943258-91-8, Oct. as one of six children and the Sunday meat- no-go for even the quickest knitter looking Love in Catalina Cove Brenda Jackson. HQN, and-potato lunches he helped prep. It’s a for an easy project. Moreover, this collection ISBN 978-1-335-00564-9, Nov. long way from mint sauce made in a employs a muted palette with pastel accents chipped bowl to tomato elixir with that make projects like the Simple A Postmodern Love Nick Totem. Lucen Geist, Parmesan foam, but Williams’s down-to- Stockinette Basket bag look like items ISBN 978-1-943564-06-4, Nov. earth touch allows him to bridge the gap, crafted from leftover yarn. Also disap- A Rising Moon Stephen Leigh. DAW, ISBN 978- as with an “aromatic nage” of langoustines pointing are the curious pattern instructions 0-75641-120-6, Nov. that brings back memories of the bags of that eschew commonly used abbreviations fish his fisherman father lugged home. Still, and seem included almost as an after- Sleeping with the Monster Anya Martin. Lethe, ISBN 978-1-59021-700-9, Nov. readers are unlikely to attempt a decon- thought. While many knitters of all skill structed trifle with seven different compo- levels might want to try knitting some POETRY nents. Williams contributes essays on the home decor items, this isn’t the best place ★ Be With Forrest Gander. New Directions, ISBN 978-0-8112-2605-9, Aug. likes of crafting a proper sauce for, say the to start. (Nov.) poached veal cheek in a blanquette sauce Black Queer Hoe Britteney Black Rose Kapri. (“We taste first with our eyes. The sauce ★ The Knitter’s Dictionary: Haymarket, ISBN 978-1-60846-952-9, Sept. should be shiny and glossy, with a sheen Knitting Know-How from A to Z that glows”), and he shares thoughts from Kate Atherley. Interweave, $19.99 (126p) Citizen Illegal José Olivarez. Haymarket, ISBN 978-1-60846-954-3, Sept. his staff throughout: the director of food ISBN 978-1-63250-638-2 and beverage discusses carving meat This slim, elegant reference work from ★ Cruel Fiction Wendy Trevino. Commune, (“Good posture at the carving board leads to Atherley (Knit Mitts), lead technical editor ISBN 978-1-934639-25-2, Sept. good carving”) and the head hall porter for Knitty magazine, is a combination ★ I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the shares memories of nearly 50 years at the dictionary of knitting terms and intro- Blood Tiana Clark. Univ. of Pittsburgh, ISBN 978- hotel (the Queen Mother rested her “royal duction to knitting tools and techniques. 0-8229-6558-9, Sept. feet” on a stool when she came for lunch). Whether one is double-checking how to When Rap Spoke Straight to God Erica As for the recipes themselves, Williams do a yarnover or how to master the art of Dawson. Tin House, ISBN 978-1-947793-03-3, Sept. includes such restaurant favorites as the sea magic loop (a way of making seamless NONFICTION bass en croute, roasted guinea fowl, and the garments using circular or double-pointed Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow Mont Blanc for dessert. Canapés, items for needles), the entries and drawings give Gunnar Decker, trans. from the German by Peter afternoon tea, petits fours, and even some short, clear explanations, intended to help Lewis. Harvard Univ., ISBN 978-0-674-73788-4, Nov. breakfast food, like kedgeree, are worked experienced knitters with works already The Best American Science and Nature in. This upscale offering is wholly in keeping in progress. Atherley is thoughtful enough Writing 2018, edited by Sam Kean. Mariner, with its subject: elegant, carefully studied, to provide explanations of knitting tools ISBN 978-1-328-98780-8, Oct. and more aspirational than practical. (Oct.) and terms most self-taught or even grand- On Life: A Critical Edition Leo Tolstoy, edited mother-taught knitters might not know, by Inessa Medzhibovskaya, trans. from the Russian Hobbies & Crafts such as understanding all the complicated by Michael Denner and Inessa Medzhibovskaya. Designer Knit Home: 24 Room-by- information contained on yarn labels, the Northwestern Univ., ISBN 978-0-8101-3803-2, Oct. Room Coordinated Knits to Create reason for different types of increases (added ★ The Rise of Andrew Jackson: Myth, a Look You’ll Love to Live In stitches), and knitter slang like “frogging,” Manipulation, and the Making of Modern Erin Eileen Black. Stackpole, $24.95 trade as well as an extremely useful aid for Politics David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. Basic, ISBN 978-0-465-09756-2, Oct. paper (128p) ISBN 978-0-8117-1971-1 selecting and using various types of yarn. This disappointing pattern collection Unlike many knitting books, the diagrams ★ Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and from debut author Black, who runs an and drawings included here are clearly Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry Imani Perry. online shop selling her knitting and cro- drawn and easy to decipher. The book is Beacon, ISBN 978-0-8070-6449-8, Sept. cheting patterns, has an intriguing premise, small but filled with enough useful infor- To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope but fails to deliver. As her introduction mation to make it a go-to reference in any Jeanne Marie Laskas. Random House, ISBN 978- states, the book is intended as a take on knitting library. (Nov.) 0-52550-938-7, Sept. recent home decor trends, particularly the

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Children’s/YA would approve. Ages 3–7. (Nov.) The Mukluk Ball Katharine Johnson, illus. by Alicia Schwab. Picture Books Minnesota Historical Society, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-68134-116-3 The Poesy Ring: A Love Story Karhu, a bear resident of a Northwoods- Bob Graham. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) like community, is determined to attend ISBN 978-0-7636-9884-3 the titular celebration at town hall. He’s Graham (Home in the Rain) takes as his not bucking the system—bears and people subject a gold poesy ring, “given for friend- are on equal footing in these pages—but ship and love,” with the words “Love never it’s up to him to put all the pieces in place. dies” inscribed on its inner face. The opening He needs a pair of mukluks (a soft lace-up endpaper bears an image of a woman on a boot), dancing lessons and plenty of prac- Learning to read proves a dull business in I Do rearing horse and the tantalizing words tice, and a wake-up call so he doesn’t Not Like Books Anymore! (reviewed on this “County Kerry... 1830./ Bitter tears were page). hibernate through the big January event. shed,/ and a ring was thrown.” Lovely, By dint of blueberry (and bear hug) sales sweeping views take in all that happens to a plan that can only backfire, as pizza fans and an owl alarm clock, his careful plan the golden ring after it lands in a seaside well know. Set against bright backdrops, culminates with his becoming the belle of meadow. A nearby acorn becomes an oak; animated slices by Burgerman (Rhyme the ball: “ ‘Conga time!’ Everyone lined the ring gets wedged in a fawn’s hoof, Crime) amplify the narrative’s goofy humor, up behind Karhu. They all shimmied and nabbed by a starling, then swallowed by a which juggles the characters’ small-font shook.” Dramatic tension is all but missing fish. A fisherman recovers it and sells it at asides and dramatic, large-type exclama- in debut author Johnson’s story, but the a New York City pawn shop, where, in tions, making for a tangy, chucklesome mix. sweetly forthright tribute to Karhu’s exec- 1967, a street musician buys it and slides Ages 3–5. (Nov.) utive function and capacity for delayed it onto his partner’s finger before the two gratification should resonate with younger walk the city in the snow. Graham focuses ★ I Do Not Like Books Anymore! readers testing the waters of independence. on the passing of time and the slow action Daisy Hirst. Candlewick, $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978- Illustrations by Schwab (Good Grief), ren- of the natural world; in contrast to the 1-5362-0334-9 dered in thick applications of rich color, sweet, pudgy human figures, softly tinted In this follow-up to Alphonse, That Is Not have the crafty feel of artwork on the walls landscapes are airy and graceful. And the OK to Do!, siblings Natalie and Alphonse of a cozy woods vacation cabin. Ages 3–7. ring’s survival through space and time is a have become heavily invested in the pros- (Nov.) powerful symbol for the enduring force of pect of Natalie learning how to read. Both love. Ages 2–5. (Dec.) already avidly consume and make stories. Harold Loves His Woolly Hat For Natalie, reading independently Vern Kousky. Random/Schwartz & Wade, How to Eat Pizza means having “all the stories in the world, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5247-6467-8 Jon Burgerman. Dial, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978- whenever I want them” (she enviously Harold, a stumpy bear with light amber 0-7352-2885-6 eyes subway riders with reading material), fur and quizzical eyebrows, wears his red- “The first thing you need to do is choose while Alphonse looks forward to sharing and-yellow hat everywhere, “even in the a slice,” explains the unseen narrator of this the bounty as Natalie’s readaloud audi- summertime... even when he takes his culinary how-to spoof, who then admits, ence. But even with help from her teacher, monthly bath.” The hat, Kousky (The Blue “I always pick the biggest!” Removed from Natalie struggles (“The words looked Songbird) explains, helps Harold know the cheesy pie, the googly eyed pizza slice like prickles or birds’ feet”), and what she that he is special—“different from all the sprouts arms and legs and comments good- can read is a big snooze (“The book was other bears.” Then a crow flies off with it. naturedly as it is sprinkled with chili flakes about a cat. The cat could sit”). She’s “How will anyone know that I am a very (“Ha-ha-ha. Hey, I’m ticklish!”) and topped ready to chuck it all when a remark from special bear?” Harold proffers worms and with a basil leaf (“Cute!”). But its chirpy Alphonse—whose matter-of-factness berries and shiny objects to trade, which tone melts away after it realizes what is to makes him a terrific counterpart—opens the crow promptly confiscates (“Cawcaw!”). come. The fast-talking slice points to its a pathway back into narrative and print. The views of the crow flying off with Harold’s crusty bottom (“No one likes the crust!”) Straightforward, empathic prose and treats provide moments of drama, but and lists the remaining pieces’ virtues: screen-printed vignettes of biomorphic despite Harold’s wee cuteness, he’s no one knows karate, another is musical, yet family life (red Natalie is amphibious- shrinking violet. Not even the loneliness another is a perfect isosceles. But none is looking; Alphonse resembles a chunky of the forest, whose tall, stately trees are willing to be eaten, so they band together blue rabbit) by Hirst (The Girl With the painted in stark browns and grays, deters in an attempt to change the menu, extol- Parrot on Her Head) reassure while giving him, and he shouts at the crow in big, ling the merits of vegetables (mushrooms, an emotionally fraught subject its full, upper-case letters. Only when Harold broccoli, peppers, etc.) and fruit (pineapple), unsentimental due. Natalie and Alphonse climbs the crow’s tree does he discover the

58 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_CHILDREN’S

Princess Redux

Princesses break the mold in these two outings.

The Truly Brave Princesses ★ Power to the Princess: Dolores Brown, illus. by Sonja Wimmer. NubeOcho, $17.95 (44p) 15 Favorite Fairytales Retold with Girl Power ISBN 978-84-17123-38-3 Vita Murrow, illus. by Julia Bereciartu. Lincoln Children’s, $19.99 Real princesses are all around us, Brown suggests, they just (96p) ISBN 978-1-78603-203-4 don’t always wear their crowns: “Maybe she’s a neighbor, Murrow opens this fairy tale collection with a tongue-in- maybe a schoolmate, maybe the cashier at your supermarket.” cheek note explaining that these stories arose from her These royal subjects run the gamut of ages, backgrounds, interviews with 15 fairy tale princesses who were fed up with and abilities, and they embrace eclectic hearing untruths about themselves. While the stories follow interests and professions: Princess Neyla, the classic stories’ general narrative arc, they a 39-year-old architect, loves “scuba stray early and playfully from more rigid diving and underwater photography,” storylines, infusing them with a thoroughly while 11-year-old Princess Rita loves modern sensibility. In “The Little Mermaid,” “wearing a clown nose and surprising Princess Marisha, who wears a tuxedo-style people on the street.” Princess Beatrix is suit jacket over her mermaid tail, joins land a single mother and hairdresser in fairy wings, and 23-year- princess Melody: “The princesses shared not old Princess Caroline “has Down Syndrome. She works in an only a vision for the future of their kingdoms, but also a vision office, and in her spare time she likes to play volleyball.” for their lives together.” In “Little Red Riding Hood,” both the Wimmer’s illustrations offer the princesses a balletic grace, titular character and her grandmother grow concerned that the and their distinctive clothing styles and environments— wolves are starving, because they “really shouldn’t have a taste from the subway to, in the case of pink-haired astronaut for human food,” and the princess goes on to protect the wel- Princess Zoe, outer space—offer eye-catching details on fare of wolves and their environment. Bereciartu illustrates in every page. If at times unsubtle in its delivery, Brown’s a gentle, wry style that fully display the diverse princesses’ inclusive message is nevertheless full-hearted and genuine. resourcefulness, confidence, and irreverence. Murrow strikes a Also available in a Spanish-language edition. Ages 4–8. tone that is both earnest and good-humored as these royals (Oct.) audaciously rewrite the rules. Ages 5–8. (Sept.) crucial use to which the hat has been put. series of wonderfully expressive, humorous learns to love a new dog, a girl gazes out What really changes things for him isn’t cartoons that mix full-page and spot art, her apartment window on a rainy day the discovery of his hat’s fate but the sudden Aria imagines encountering underwater and spots something below. A page turn appearance of companionship and a sense creatures, forest animals, and even aliens reveals what she sees: a puppy wading of feeling needed. Ages 3–7. Agent: Elana who reach for her curls while cooing, miserably through a puddle. As the girl Roth Parker, Laura Dail Literary. (Dec.) “How do you get it so big?” She contem- brings it inside, she pauses to gaze at a plates hiding; she loses her temper bedside photo that shows her hugging ★ Don’t Touch My Hair! (“That’s it. That’s enough. DON’T another dog; a “Missing” poster on her Sharee Miller. Little, Brown, $17.99 (40p) TOUCH MY HAIR!”). Then she bulletin board reveals that dog’s destiny. ISBN 978-0-316-56258-4 resolves to set limits, and, in speaking Despite a tough moment when the new Aria is an African-American girl who’s up for herself, she begins to feel free, hound takes up her lost dog’s red ball, proud of her showstopping hair “that grows respected, and in charge of her own body she shares an existing dog bed and food up toward the sun like a flower.” But again. Storytelling by Miller (Princess Hair) dish with the newcomer—only to find, people keep confusing admiration with is frank, funny, and revelatory, with a on a trip to the pet shop, that this pup is acquiescence: strangers, she laments, “are beleaguered but never beaten protagonist “Missing,” too. The girl not only allows so curious about with whom readers will instantly connect. herself to love but also understands that my hair that they And her book embraces audiences of all her love isn’t as important as what this try to touch it backgrounds, nudging them, in different pup needs most. The pair’s all-too-brief without even ways, to a new level of understanding. idyll is gently and memorably drawn, asking for per- Ages 4–8. (Nov.) and the girl’s independence in a big mission!” It feels city—there are no parents in sight— like the entire ★ Found allows focus on her interior journey and universe has lost Jeff Newman, illus. by Larry Day. Simon & genuinely noble decision. Ages 4–8. its sense of Schuster, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1006-0 (Nov.) boundaries. In a In this wordless tale about a child who continued on p. 62

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Wonder Wo en

Books celebrate pioneering women and seek to empower future voices.

Jane Goodall introduction of three girls—Chinese-American Hazel in San Isabel Sánchez Vegara, illus. by Beatrice Cerocchi. Lincoln Children’s. Francisco; Lilya in the English countryside; and Marlene in $14.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-78603-231-7 small-town Russia. They don’t know one another, but they share British primatologist Jane Goodall is the subject of this a common aspiration: to pilot planes. During WWII, Hazel addition to the ongoing Little People, Big Dreams biography joins the Women Airforce Service Pilots; Marlene, the Air series. As a child, Goodall already knew that she wanted to Transport Auxiliary; and Lilya, an all-female combat regiment. learn about animals—especially chimpanzees. Although she Deng’s graphics vary from striking compositions reminiscent didn’t have the resources to attend college, she saved up for a of WWII-era posters to dramatic views of soaring planes under ship passage to Kenya. Once there, Goodall met paleoanthro- enemy fire. Readers may be confused as to the story’s verisimili- pologist Louis Leakey, who needed someone to study chim- tude: an author’s note alludes to real-life pilot Hazel Ying Lee, panzees in the wild, so she headed to Tanzania. Vegara but it’s unclear whether Lilya and Marlene were actual people. describes Goodall’s personalized approach to studying the ani- Nevertheless, the message of women’s empowerment across mals (“Instead of numbering them, as all the other scientists generations is clear. A final spread depicts an array of female did, Jane decided to give every chimpanzee a name”) and service members, astronauts, and pilots, for whom pilots like details Goodall’s discoveries about chimpanzee behavior and Hazel, Lilya, and Marlene blazed the trail. Ages 7–up. (Sept.) efforts to protect their habitat. Cerocchi accompanies the text with accessible artwork in gouache and pastels. Back matter She Did It! includes photographs of Goodall and biographical details. 21 Women Who Changed the Way We Think Additional titles in the series—focusing on Simone de Emily Arnold McCully. Disney-Hyperion, $21.99 (272p) ISBN 978- Beauvoir and L.M. Montgomery—release simultaneously. 136801991-0 Ages 4–7. (Oct.) In a dense and historically detailed volume, Caldecott Medalist McCully profiles 21 women of influence, from ★ Bold and Brave: investigative journalist Ida Minerva Tarbell to scientist Temple Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote Grandin. McCully casts a wide net, featuring familiar fighters Kirsten Gillibrand, illus. by Maira Kalman. Knopf, $18.99 (40p) for women’s suffrage alongside lesser-known figures, including ISBN 978-0-525-57901-4 Barbara Gittings, the “mother of the gay rights movement,” Making her children’s book debut, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and astronomer Vera Rubin, who discovered dark matter. offers a personal history of the strong women in her family McCully describes each individual’s upbringing, early influ- (her roller-skating grandmother, her karate black-belt ences, and legacy, and significant blocks of text place each mother), then introduces 10 notable suffragists spanning eras, woman’s contributions within historical context: “The socioeconomic backgrounds, and profes- American public was ready to listen to Carson’s warnings sions. Familiar suffragists, abolitionists, about the dangers of pesticide. They had seen other examples and black rights activists include Susan B. of substances that had harmed humans,” she writes about Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Rachel Carson. Portraits of each subject, rendered in washes Tubman, and Ida B. Wells, as well as more and finely detailed lines, resemble affectionate caricatures. A obscure figures like Lucy Burns, Alice rich and multilayered celebration of women’s innovation and Paul, and Jovita Idár. Gillibrand describes perseverance. Ages 8–12. (Nov.) the women’s contributions clearly and with context, while Kalman illustrates in distinctive thickly layered gouache, a ★ Herstory: palette of pink tones making their way into each spread. Final 50 Women and Girls Who Shook Up the World spreads focus on today’s activists: Kalman paints a sea of Katherine Halligan, illus. by Sarah Walsh. Simon & Schuster, women in bright pink hats: “Now it’s your turn. You are the $19.99 (112p) ISBN 978-1-5344-3664-0 suffragists of our time,” Gillibrand concludes. End pages Halligan tells the stories of 55 “herstorical” women across mention other significant women: Billie Jean King, Maya the globe with notable personal and professional accomplish- Lin, and iconic characters Rosie the Riveter and Wonder ments. They include artists and writers, political and social Woman. Ages 6–9. (Nov.) leaders, health care workers and healers, scientific innovators, and activists and visionaries. The duo devotes each bustling, Skyward: The Story of Female Pilots in WWII scrapbook collage–style spread to a different subject, layering Sally Deng. Flying Eye, $24 (88p) ISBN 978-1-911171-88-1 biographical details against expressive portraits, photographs, This work of creative nonfiction opens in 1927 with the and ephemera. Halligan makes little distinction between figures

60 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_CHILDREN’S

of the distant past and those more contem- tandem with the images. On end pages, Tinari offers bio- porary, underscoring how change makers graphical information and descriptions of each individual’s throughout time share a common bond. “powerful moment.” While there aren’t as many women of Alongside Empress Wu Zetian of China are color depicted as one might hope, Tinari’s paintings are com- scientist Dian Fossey and artists Frida manding and true to their subjects. Ages 10–up. (Nov.) Kahlo, Coco Chanel, and Billie Holiday. Activists include Malala Yousafzai, Indian secret agent Noor Modern Herstory: Stories of Women and Inayat Khan, and Mayan human rights activist Rigoberta Nonbinary People Rewriting History Menchú. Halligan and Walsh offer approachable educational Blair Imani, illus. by Monique Le. Ten Speed, $17.99 (208p) ISBN 978- content about lesser-known subjects in a warm and vibrant 0-399-58223-3 visual presentation. Ages 8–up. (Sept.) Queer Muslim American activist Imani presents the stories of 70 activists, leaders, and influencers. Imani “deliberately ★ Rebel Voices: The Global Fight for Women’s prioritize[s] the stories of women, people of color, and Equality and the Right to Vote LGBTQ people” included, who range broadly in terms of Eve Lloyd Knight, illus. by Louise Kay Stewart. Crocodile, $18.95 ages, professions, and backgrounds, as well as “abilities, sexual (48p) ISBN 978-1-62371-964-7 orientations, and gender identities.” An opening chapter focuses History’s suffragists were anything but timid, Knight and on such figures as “trailblazing” NASA scientists Katherine Stewart declare in this vividly written and powerfully illustrated Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan, while later volume. The collaborators chronologically present the slow sections highlight performers, writers, and business leaders, progression of women’s suffrage worldwide, beginning with focusing significantly on lesser-known people, among them New Zealand in 1893 and ending with Saudi Arabia in 2015. Feminista Jones, activist and mental health social worker; Each spread focuses on a woman, group of women, or organi- Vilissa Thompson, advocate for people with disabilities; and zation that was pivotal to the suffrage fight in a given nation. Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, founder of Sapelo Square, a resource for Stewart captures the grit and determination of the women black Muslim Americans. The book thoughtfully contextual- through stormy backgrounds, stark design elements, and izes the work of each individual, supplying readers with a vehement facial expressions. Activist and actress Kimura shared vocabulary through which to discuss issues of social Komako has red lips and eyes that reflect the Japanese flag’s activism and women’s liberation. A lively collective portrait of red disc; another spread shows Marguerite Durand with a passionate, pioneering women and nonbinary people. Final art sweeping cape and a pink-tinged lioness (she strolled through not seen by PW. Ages 12–up. (Oct.) Paris with the cat to promote suffrage). The portraits call to mind sorceresses or other fairy tale figures, but through clear, Girls Write Now: Two Decades of True Stories evocative descriptions and useful timelines, Knight emphasizes from Young Female Voices that these heroines were and are very real. Ages 9–up. (Nov.) Tin House, $16.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-947793-05-7 This inspiring anthology shares personal essays from 116 Limitless: 24 Remarkable American Women of participants in Girls Write Now, a writing and mentorship Vision, Grit, and Guts organization for New York City teens. While each contributor’s Leah Tinari. Aladdin, $19.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1855-4 voice is unique, themes emerge: cultural identity, familial Tinari opens this collection of portraits with an explanation conflict, grieving and loss, and combatting prejudice. Laced of the project’s origin. After working on portraits of U.S. pres- with advice from 10 female writers, including Roxane Gay, idents, Tinari’s “resentment began to grow. I had just spent Zadie Smith, and Gloria Steinem, the entries reflect varying, months painting and researching men and only men.” The heartfelt emotions. Lamenting her family members’ dashed death of Carrie Fisher inspired her to create the first portrait aspirations, Danni Green questions, “Who am I supposed of what would become her American Women series. Joining to look up to? Who is supposed to show me how I can make Fisher (whose image graces the cover) are Louisa May Alcott, my dreams real?” On the cusp of starting college, contributor Aretha Franklin, Carol Kaye, Yuri Kochiyama, Lozen, Georgia Luna Rojas writes gratefully of her own accomplishments: “I O’Keeffe, and Dolly Parton (the latter, she says, “wrote some know that I do it for myself as well as my mother—who has of her best songs strumming with fake nails”). Tinari brings a done nothing short of everything to get me here.” This candid decidedly punk rock sensibility to the images, adding vibrant compilation rounds out notes of confusion and resentment splashes of neon color to the subjects’ hair, faces, and clothing; with resilience, hope, and trust in the power of writing. Ages word collages relating to the individuals’ lives work in visual 13–up. (Oct.)

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 61 Review_CHILDREN’S

continued from p. 59 a company The Prophet Calls Fiction looking to turn Melanie Sumrow. Yellow Jacket, $16.99 business around. (288p) ISBN 978-1-4998-0755-4 Astrid the Unstoppable Gray-scale Growing up inside the protective walls Maria Parr, trans. from the Norwegian by Guy illustrations by of Watchful—a polygamous Mormon Puzey. Candlewick, $16.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1- Smith (Town Is offshoot community set in New Mexico’s 5362-0017-1 by the Sea) foothills—13-year-old Gentry strives to At nine years old, free-range Astrid ground readers be an obedient daughter. But Gentry Glimmerdal has the whole wide world (or in the medium loves playing her new violin, and after the at least her tiny Norwegian town) “in front through which incarcerated Prophet prohibits women of her skis.” As the only child around, the Ethan and from leaving the compound during his small songstress (“It is important to sing Inkling com- weekly call, she and her brother sneak out when you’re skiing”) has to get creative municate. Inkling’s evolving abilities to play in a music festival, and her whole about finding friends—her best friend is model a realistic creative arc—the crea- family is severely punished as a result. Her her 74-year-old godfather, Gunnvald— ture mimics its most recent literary meal brother is banished, their food rations are but she’s managed to turn Mr. Hagen, the (“I’M UTTERLY ENRAPTURED” cut, and her father is sent away, stripped of owner of Hagen’s Wellness Retreat who’s follows a stint with L.M. Montgomery) his wives and children, to repent having more fond of quiet than of children, into until it eventually discovers its own “lost control over his family.” Left with a her nemesis. As she speeds toward her 10th voice—even as the other characters work fragmented family and ever-stricter rules, birthday, Astrid discovers that her beloved through grief and find their own stories. Gentry is filled with inner turmoil (“I know Gunnvald has a secret, a daughter she Ages 8-12. (Nov.) what’s right, so why doesn’t it feel right?”) doesn’t know about, that may change about the community leaders’ abuses and her view of the world forever. Imbued with Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl control, among them corporal punishment, a Scandinavian sensibility, this novel by Susan Lubner. Running Press Kids, $16.99 cruelty to a child with Down syndrome, Parr (Adventures with Waffles) presents fun (224p) ISBN 978-0-7624-6502-6 marrying off young women, and demanding alongside concepts such as death, physical Lizzy, 12, lives above her family’s diner, full obedience under another name— distance between friends, and estrange- the Thumbs-Up, in East Thumb, Maine. “keeping sweet.” Though the story clearly ment in an age-appropriate format, and Ever since a car accident two years earlier conveys the dangers of manipulation, it both encourages readers to question new caused her mother to lose the baby she was also sensationalizes the community it por- ideas and offers a fertile foundation for carrying, Lizzy has been watchful for trays, all of which may prove tough for imagination. Fans of Pippi Longstocking signs of things to come: when leaves swirl readers at the younger end of the stated and the Moomins will delight in Parr’s at her feet in the wind, for example, does age range. Ages 10–14. Agent: Rick Richter, indomitable Astrid. Ages 7–10. (Nov.) it signify trouble brewing or an oppor- Aevitas Creative Management. (Nov.) tunity? Lizzy and her best friend, Joss, Inkling volunteer at an animal shelter and are Little White Lies Kenneth Oppel, illus. by Sydney Smith. Knopf, knitting cat sweaters that they hope to sell Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Freeform, $17.99 $17.99 (272p) ISBN 978-1-5247-7281-9 to raise funds. When they follow a stray (400p) ISBN 978-1-368-01413-7 With none but Rickman the cat awake into an abandoned building, they dis- Eighteen-year-old Sawyer—a car to see it, a blob of ink wrenches itself free cover Charlotte, a girl who has run away mechanic and daughter of a single mom from a sketchbook and begins munching to escape trouble at home. After the in the South—is offered a deal she cannot its way through a nearby math textbook, building burns down, Lizzy invites refuse: her estranged maternal grand- “slurp[ing] the ink into itself” and leaving Charlotte to hide in her bedroom, in part mother, Lillian, a wealthy socialite, will a blank, shiny page in its wake. Ethan, the because she sees Charlotte’s temporary give Sawyer half a million dollars if she son of a once-successful graphic novelist, tattoo of a four-leaf clover as a sign of agrees to live with her for one year and discovers the blotch (and its skillful con- good luck for her family’s soon-to-arrive become a debutante. Sawyer accepts in the tribution to his graphic novel assignment) baby. But when Charlotte’s family searches hope of discovering her father’s identity and names it Inkling. As Inkling consumes desperately for her (and it turns out that within her grandmother’s social strata, and print media, expanding and learning with cats don’t care for sweaters), Lizzy must she is soon wooing attractive young men at each absorbed word and image, Ethan and learn to accept uncertainty. Characters are society events and befriending her cousin, his family—especially his sister, Sarah, fully formed, and town details bring the Lily. Lily has plenty of secrets of her own— who has Down syndrome—become more reader into her world. Lizzy’s struggles to secrets that help unspool the mystery at attached to the lovable creature, whose adjust when events don’t go according to this novel’s center, having to do with a upbeat personality provides a distraction plan are easily relatable in this coming- missing girl and a scandalous blogger. from their grief over the loss of Ethan and of-age journey that celebrates embracing Time jumps between chapters and blog Sarah’s mother. But keeping Inkling and the messiness of real life. Ages 8–12. post interstitials may create confusion at using it to make art poses ethical questions Agent: Linda Epstein. (Nov.) the story’s start, but after the structure for Ethan and his father, not to mention for smooths out, the momentum picks up, as

62 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018 Review_CHILDREN’S do the secrets. Though Barnes (The Fixer) is still reeling from her parents’ divorce ONLINE paints Sawyer as an outsider, and the young due to her mother’s scandalous affair with NOW www.publishersweekly.com woman constantly protests the moneyed (and subsequent marriage to) Dennis world into which she is dropped, the ease Jennings, the only African-American PICTURE BOOKS of her assimilation saps tension—she seems man in town. Obsessed with the possi- Max and the Superheroes Rocio Bonilla, illus. by Oriol Malet, trans. from the Spanish by Mara born for this life. Full of gossiping, con- bility of a nuclear war, Laura wins a radio Lethem. Charlesbridge, ISBN 978-1-58089-844-7, niving, and back-stabbing, this breezy read call-in contest for a walk-on role in the Oct. is light on mystery and heavy on made-for- film, but things quickly escalate for ★ We Are All Me Jordan Crane. Toon, ISBN 978- film debutante antics. Ages 12–up. Agent: everyone when what is supposed to be a 1-943145-35-5, Sept. Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (Nov.) scripted nuclear explosion may or may not have been the real thing. Brashear (No FICTION ★ Blended Sharon M. Draper. Atheneum/Dlouhy, The Resolutions Saints in Kansas) sprinkles the novel with ISBN 978-1-4424-9500-5, Oct. Mia García. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99 information about the ’80s, offering a (416p) ISBN 978-0-06-265682-7 nuanced sense of the time and what it ★ Dream Country Shannon Gibney. Dutton, Four best friends in Denver—Nora, felt like to grow up under nuclear threat. ISBN 978-0-7352-3167-2, Sept. Lee, Jess, and Ryan—write New Year’s Footnotes for popular culture references, resolutions for each other, designed to such as Columbia House (“It’s a mail telling and an impressive emotional range make them “do the things [they] always order music club”) give the well-paced make this a notable debut. Ages 6–10. talk about but never do”: open up to new novel some levity while providing impor- (Nov.) experiences and take risks on their passions tant background information. In this and talents. Achieving success, though, moment where what constitutes fact is up strains the bonds of their friendship, even for debate, Brashear’s seemingly nostalgic Nonfiction as their resolutions push them in all the romp is extremely timely. Ages 14–up. ways they were meant to, especially in Agent: John Cusick, Folio Jr./Folio Literary ★ The Eye That Never Sleeps: relationships beyond those with each Management. (Nov.) How Detective Pinkerton Saved other. In third-person prose with chapters President Lincoln that alternate between following the high Marissa Moss, illus. by Jeremy Holmes. school juniors, García (Even if the Sky Comics Abrams, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4197-3064-1 Falls) confidently unspools the unique Moss (Kate Warne, Pinkerton Detective) circumstances of her protagonist’s lives. Tiger vs. Nightmare revisits the Pinkerton National Detective Particularly well developed is Ryan, Emily Tetri. First Second, $17.99 (64p) Agency, deftly folding the story of a whose heartbreak over the loss of his first ISBN 978-1-62672-535-5 thwarted assassination attempt on then- love, Jason, is palpable. But Nora becomes Tiger’s sweet-tempered parents indulge president-elect Abraham Lincoln into the this story’s most engaging anchor as the her talk about the hungry monster who larger tale of the famous agency’s begin- story follows her unending labors at her lives underneath her bed (“It loves curry!” nings. Born in 1819, Allan Pinkerton, a family’s Puerto Rican restaurant and her she tells them). But Monster is real, and poor Scottish immigrant to America, goes rich internal life—her yearnings to open after they play board games and Tiger from barrel maker to Chicago police detec- a pastry shop and desire for an out-of-the- goes to sleep, it earns its dinner by tive to the owner of the most successful closet relationship with her girlfriend, chasing away Tiger’s nightmares. One detective agency in the U.S. by the 1850s. Beth. This slow-moving story explores night, an extra-horrible nightmare with When secessionists conspire to shoot heartbreak, family commitments, dreams, a bleached skull proves too much for Lincoln during his train trip to his inau- friendship, and other familiar adolescent Monster. The next night is no better, nor guration, Pinkerton and his agents foil the challenges with authentic sensitivity. the next. With Monster’s loyal support, plot. Holmes (Secrets of the Dragon Tomb) Ages 13–up. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Tiger confronts the nightmare herself. employs a digital scratchboard technique Greenberg Rostan. (Nov.) It’s a story about fear, both the way it can for a woodcut look; the detailed illustra- paralyze (“Nope,” says Monster, hunched tions invite detectivelike inspection, The Incredibly True Story of the miserably under Tiger’s covers) and the while the limited color palette and multi- Making of the Eve of Destruction way it can be overcome (“You’re in my paneled spreads evoke a graphic novel Amy Brashear. Soho Teen, $18.99 (312p) head! You’re not real!” Tiger yells at the style. Bearded Pinkerton is depicted with ISBN 978-1-61695-903-6 specter). Newcomer Tetri’s pencil-and- orange glasses that cast a spotlight on In 1984, the only interesting thing watercolor panels capture Tiger’s engaging, whatever he eyes. With a narrative that about Griffin Flat, Ark., is that it’s sur- cublike features and daytime world in moves along effortlessly, his history of the rounded by nuclear missile silos. But when warm shades of gold and olive, while the company whose eyeball logo inspired the it’s picked as the filming location for the epic battles that rage at night wash across term “private eye” will keep aspiring adaptation of Boudreaux Beauchamp’s the page in tidal sweeps of gray and blue. sleuths hooked with its intrigue. Ages novella “Eve of Destruction,” everyone is The Jetsons-style sci-fi setting adds another 6–9. (Nov.) ■ excited—even Laura Ratliff. Laura, 16, dimension of fun. Seamless visual story-

WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 63 Soapbox

“A few of the kids in my story develop a case of stubborn defiance.... I saw that they weren’t trying to change the entire world; they merely addressed the injustices in their own environment.”

Gov. Albert Brewer. During the lead-up to the June To the Rescue runoff, the Wallace machinery distributed doctored photos that insinuated cooperation between Brewer In a difficult period, and black militant groups and suggested interracial an author finds solace trysts by members of his family. I was in eighth grade, but I remember it well. in her characters’ strength Drawing on these still-intense emotions, the idea for my children’s book was born in 2012. As I plowed through its many drafts, President By Lila Quintero Weaer Obama’s second term in office slowly ticked by. I loved researching the historical basis for the story,

©paul weaer ©paul using resources like Kerwin Swint’s Mudslingers, On June 2, 1970, while some of my white classmates whooped and calling on memory to fill in psychological realities, as well as in victory, I felt wrecked upon learning that George Wallace, many of the era’s vintage touches. Alabama’s infamously segregationist ex-governor, would serve Then something happened that I could never have foreseen: another term in office. current events began to echo themes and passages from My Year in the Middle, as many of the Trump rallies I caught on television he 1969–1970 school year, the one in which black and bore a chilling resemblance to a Wallace rally featured in the white kids in the small Alabama town of my childhood novel, complete with naked appeals to racism. In my alarm, I T began attending school together for the first time, had find myself in good company. Nationwide, people from all back- already revolutionized my eighth-grade worldview. As a grounds are fighting for a more just and equitable future for all Spanish-speaking immigrant, I held membership in one of the Americans. But though I am buoyed by their activism, it’s hard Deep South’s tiniest minorities, giving me a unique perspective not to feel a sense of despair. How did we allow our nation to slip on desegregation’s watershed moment—and indeed, of several backward? How can one person—or even many—fight against other key events in the civil rights era. In fact, my “otherness” sweeping cultural acceptance of racial injustice? And how is it had prepared me for the radical undoing of the status quo, and possible to maintain a modicum of inner calm at a time like this? unlike many of my white classmates, I was ripe for the collapse Then I had a tiny epiphany, and it originated from the of social barriers between the races. weirdest of places: my own novel’s characters. Although strict I grew up 27 miles from Selma, the site of intense civil rights racial codes mandated that school life should be split down the activism that culminated with Bloody Sunday, one of the middle by race, a few of the kids in my story develop a case of century’s most infamous confrontations between police and stubborn defiance. And now, as I’d never done before, I felt the African-American protestors. My graphic memoir recounts my power of their refusal to accept a divided classroom. I saw that family’s experiences against this monumental backdrop. And they weren’t trying to change the entire world; they merely now, also drawing on personal history, I have written a children’s addressed the injustices in their own environment. But those book, My Year in the Middle, which centers on the blossoming actions counted. And they went further, forming meaningful courage of a Latin-American sixth grader navigating the chal- relationships across the color barrier—and that counted, too. lenges of school integration and the gubernatorial campaign Finally, they didn’t wait helplessly for the broken pieces of their that followed in its wake. racist surroundings to be resolved before giving themselves fully After the battle for voting rights, nothing threatened the to their personal passions. white establishment like public school desegregation. It came In other words, they gave their dreams permission to take in two phases. I was in fourth grade when, during phase one, flight. They opened their hearts to becoming more fully them- my class received its first black classmate. But everybody knew selves, no matter the shape of the world. In their 12-year-old this was only the beginning. Many Alabamians reacted to the wisdom, I found a blueprint for surviving—and thriving— looming change of the next phase—full desegregation—with through these troubling times. ■ fear and revulsion, as evidenced by massive white flight to so- called segregation academies. Lila Quintero Weaver is the author of My Year in the Middle and the author- Taking full advantage of this explosive moment, Wallace illustrator of Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White, a graphic memoir. reentered politics and snatched his party’s nomination from She was born in Argentina and grew up in Alabama, where she lives.

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64 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 1, 2018

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MARY POPE OSBORNE Pete Souza CELEBRATES TEXAS HEROES MEG MEDINA GOES BACK TO Throws Shade MIDDLE SCHOOL At Trump AND MORE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27

Imagination Author Reading Lights, Camera, Create! Becomes Reality 2:30 PM–3:00 PM 3:30 PM–4:15 PM 11:30 AM–12:15 PM Read Me a Story Tent, Next Chapter Tent, Next Chapter Tent, Congress Avenue Congress Avenue Congress Avenue

P h o t o cr ed it: Da Ph s vid hy sla oto tion J Martin photograp Photo by Erik A by Portrait Innova Soman Chainani Roda Ahmed Crystal Allen SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28

Love, When You girl power! Real World Issues, Author Reading Want It Least 11:00 AM–11:45 AM New World Problems 12:00 PM–12:30 PM 11:00 AM–11:45 AM Next Chapter Tent, 12:00 PM–12:45 PM Read Me a Story Tent, YA HQ Tent, Congress Avenue Congress Avenue YA HQ Tent, Congress Avenue Congress Avenue

P Ph ho ons e d oto boi to by ovati Cour zi Le P Bon Credit: Joseph Zo Portrait Inn tesy Macken hoto by Sam Ibi Zoboi Crystal Allen Mackenzi Lee Bethany Hegedus

Friends Forever Author Reading 1:00 PM–1:45 PM 12:30 PM–1:00 PM 11th Street, between Read Me A Story Tent, Brazos & Congress Congress Avenue P Ph Avenue ho ot to n o Cr on Cred erso edit: Kelsey Arringt it: Laurence Kest

Daria Peoples-Riley Erin Entrada Kelly

An Afternoon with the National Book Author Reading Awards 3:30 PM–4:00 PM 2:30 PM–3:15 PM Read Me a Story Tent, State Capitol, Congress Avenue

Ph oto boi rry Capitol Extension Room 2.036 Credit: Joseph Zo Photo by Liz Be Ibi Zoboi Cate Berry

Contents More Festival Highlights Here are a few additional events you might want to The Texas Book Fesi val will be held check out: on Saturday, October 27, and Sunday, FICTION October 28, in Ausi n. Check out these Chloe Benjamin Sunday, 11–11:45 a.m. interviews with some of the amazing Capitol Extension, Room 2.016 fesi val authors. Zombies, Vampires, Robots, Lend Me Your Ears with Ling Ma, Raymond Villarreal, and Martha Wells Sunday, 12–12:45 p.m. 16 HAPPILY EVER AFTER, Capitol Extension, Room 2.030 GUARANTEED Romance writers love happy NONFICTION endings Cecile Richards 17 TEXAN THRILLS AND Saturday, 10–10:45 a.m. CHILLS First United Methodist Church, A trio of Texas crime writers talks 1201 Lavaca Street about life’s darker sides 6 THROWING SHADE Squeezing the Middle Class Obama’s chief photographer has 18 TEXAN HEROES OF THE with Alissa Quart and Sarah been trolling Trump PAST AND PRESENT Smarsh Mary Pope Osborne celebrates the Saturday, 3–3:45 p.m. 8 UNMASKING ERASURE heroes of two Texas hurricans C-Span 2/Book TV Tent, Alexander Chee looks into the Congress Avenue and 11th kaleidoscope of his own identity 19 READING = HOPE × Street CHANGE 10 THE LANGUAGE WARRIOR Jacqueline Woodson is on a mission Texas BBQ: Small Town to Downtown with Wyatt Ngīgë wa Thiong’o believes in the of hope power of art McSpadden, Aaron Franklin, 20 BACK TO MIDDLE and Daniel Vaughn 10 MOTHER LOVE SCHOOL Saturday 3:30–4:15 p.m. Angela Garbes is changing the Meg Medina introduces a resiliant Central Market Cooking Tent, conversation around motherhood sixth grader Congress Avenue and 11th 11 ADDICTION EXAMINED 21 INTO THE DARKDEEP Street Leslie Jamison mixes memoir, Allie Condie and Brenda Reichs reporting, and criticism venture into the unknown CHILDREN’S Drawn Together: Minh Le and 12 ILLUMINATING AMERICA 22 INCREASINGLY PECULIAR Dan Santat Celeste Ng on writing and identity Random Riggs’ world gets bigger, Saturday, 1:30–2:15 p.m. 14 NEW FICTION WRITERS stranger, and more colorful Kirkus Reviews tent We talk with two hot novelists 22 SCRABBLE PALS Yuyi Morales Reads Dreamers In Erin Entrada Kelly’s new novel, a Saturday, 2–2:30 p.m. deep friendship grows over online Read Me a Story tent, Scrabble Congress Avenue

Editorial Director Jim Milliot Associate Publisher Joe Murray Editor Craig Teicher Managing Editor Daniel Berchenko Art Director Lisa M. Kelsey Copy Editor Penelope Cray Contributing Writers Matia Burnett, Natalie Danford, Dianna Dilworth, Elyssa East, Hilary S. Kayle, Corinne Lestch, Sally Lodge, Addie Morfoot, Ingrid Roper, and Matt Seidel Production Manager Michele Piscitelli Sales Coordinator Deena Ali Published by Publishers Weekly Cover: Spring, Everything Changes by Valerie Fowler. Reproduced with the permission of Valerie Fowler and Texas Book Festival

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And still counting ... 4nonfiction Obama’s Chief Photographer Throws Shade at Trump

“I’m a humorist-activist. I’ve gotten less subtle as time has gone on.”

© Patti Lease

6 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018 Did you always intend to make the Since Trump’s posts into a book? I was posting stuf on Instagram while inaugurai on, Pe te I was putting together my fi rst book, a straight documentary look at Obama’s Souza has been two terms. I had no plan to do a book. Then how did it come about? trolling the current I felt strongly that Trump was demeaning the oi ce of the presidency. One day I president on sent an email to my book agent and I said, “I want to go all in on this. Let’s Instagram propose a book.” In your opinion, how is Trump by Dianna Dilworth demeaning the job? The fact that he accused President Obama of tapping his phones on social media. He accused the former president HOTOJOURNALIST of a felony on Twitter. It is like going into and former White a movie theater and yelling fi re. There are House photographer certain things that shouldn’t be allowed. They were similar in the sense that they Pete Souza has And just the way he has tweeted about were both fairly laid back. They both had spent his career the institutions of our democracy, calling very even-keeled dispositions. It would documenting the press the enemy of the people, calling take a lot to get either of them really presidents from our intelligence agencies liars, and telling angry or very riled up. P behind a camera. the justice department what to do in How were the experiences dif erent? Cutting his teeth as a terms of investigations. I was in my twenties when I was working White House staf photographer under How does the Instagram account for Reagan and he was in his seventies. Ronald Reagan, Souza also snapped dif er from the book? I wasn’t the chief photographer, so my photos of politicians for several news On Instagram, I am responding with a access wasn’t quite as good. The times outlets, including for the Chicago Tribune, photo and a comment that is somewhat were dif erent; there was no such thing as during Barack Obama’s term as Illinois snarky or humorous, but I am not telling social media. CNN was new. senator. During Obama’s presidency, people what I am responding to. In the With President Obama, I had already Souza served as chief oi cial White book, I lay it all out; I say, here is the tweet known him for four years before he House photographer, in which capacity or news story that really bothered me. was president. He is a couple of years he had full access to the leader of the free Instagram comments and news younger than me and I knew how the world. stories said that you were throwing White House worked. And the whole In Shade, Souza shares his post- shade, a term you had to look up. aspect of social media had changed Trump journey. What started as some How did Shade became the book things, not in terms of the kind of snarky Instagram posts snowballed into title? pictures I took but in terms of what the a thoughtful photo-essay rich with social At fi rst, I thought it should be Throwing White House did with the photos, which commentary. Souza responds to Trump Shade, but reading comments on my was make a lot of them public. news and tweets using photos from Instagram feed, I saw so many people How has your role transformed from Obama’s presidency, juxtaposing how just use the word shade, so it just became documentarian to activist? each president handled the job. Shade. I’m a humorist-activist. I’ve gotten When you photographed President less subtle as time has gone on. With Why did you decide to respond to Obama, you had access to this book, I bring a little humor to the Trump through images? everything. Was he conscious of critique of the current administration. I A couple of days after the inauguration, being documented? think it is done much more respectfully I saw a picture of the redecorated Oval For anyone, having a guy following you than the way the current president uses Oi ce with those ornate gold curtains. around all day taking pictures takes some his Twitter feed. It looked like a Saudi palace. I posted getting used to. I had this knack of being a picture of President Obama seated around and not really causing a nuisance. at the desk with the red curtains in the People forget I am there; I am just like AN EVENING WITH PETE SOUZA background. I said I kind of like these part of the furniture. Sunday, 6 p.m. curtains better. I was directly responding How were the experiences of working Long Center for the Performing Arts, to the new curtains, but I was also slyly with Reagan and with Obama 701 West Riverside Drive trying to make a point. similar? Ticketed event

OCTOBER 2018 | TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL 7 4nonfiction

cataloguing the stock of a mail-order gay and lesbian bookstore, which, he writes Unmasking Erasure: in the essay “My Parade,” amounted to “a catalogue of the kinds of gay writing that had succeeded and failed—what Alexander Chee the culture allowed and what it did not.” About famous gay writers (such as Gore How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Vidal, Gertrude Stein, James Baldwin, which deals, through many lenses, with Susan Sontag), Chee writes, “How had his art and his identity as a gay, Korean- they managed to survive against whatever American writer. it was that had erased so many others?” Back at Amherst, Chee (who now Erasure is more than a literary teaches at Dartmouth) donned the mask question for Chee. Two of his creative of the famous Mexican wrestler the Blue heroes, artist David Wojnarowicz and Demon. “It felt absolutely insane to do fi lmmaker Derek Jarman, were publicly that,” Chee says. “But it was interesting dying from AIDS in the summer of and useful to think about just what you 1991 and were “facing another, new would have to feel about yourself to be a kind of erasure in the process,” that of superhero.” government inaction around the crisis. In “Girl,” an essay about the time This inaction, Chee says, was “a kind he successfully passed for a Barbie-like of de facto death squad,” resulting in white woman, Chee follows the theme “structural death: a preview of the further. “Sometimes you don’t know who approach conservatives would take for © M. Sharkey you are, Chee writes, “until you put on a the next thirty years.” mask.” “I was born out of While Chee was still it,” Chee says about a teen, his father died this era of protest and of complications from its undeniable urgency, In his i rst a car accident that which How to Write an had left him partially Autobiographical Novel colleci on of essays, paralyzed for three years. helps, in part, to restore Grief followed Chee to collective memory. the acclaimed like a shadow through Having recently created, his college years at with Christine Lee, the novelist looks into Wesleyan and then to Lambda Justin Chin San Francisco, where it Memorial Scholarship, the kaleidoscope of enveloped the entire gay in honor of the gay y community during the Malaysian-American his own ideni AIDS crisis. poet who died in 2016, “A number of these Chee’s activism is by Elyssa East historical events that ongoing. “I want these I tried to write about, other young writers to WHEN ALEXANDER CHEE was which took place in the act,” Chee says. “To do teaching a course on the graphic novel 1990s, really just before we had the more, to write more, to create more work at Amherst College, he gave his students internet, are still weirdly submerged about us.” a powerful exercise: put on a mask and in the culture,” Chee says about the “Of course a novel is also a mask,” wear it as you go about your day. “Now protests he helped orchestrate with ACT Chee writes in “100 Things About that you feel disguised, what do you feel UP and Queer Nation, detailed in the Writing a Novel”: “Not for the novelist. is possible?” Chee asked his students. essays “1989” and “After Peter.” During Not for the reader. But for something This is classic Chee. Author of the the AIDS crisis, if a news outlet failed else the novelist brings in from the back bestselling novel Queen of the Night, to cover a protest, “it was as if it hadn’t of the tent like a lion on a chain.” an elaborate masquerade set in the happened,” says Chee, who with fellow world of Second Empire French opera, activists “started thinking about the THE WRITER’S REAL LIFE and the award-winning Edinburgh, an ways we could create protests that could WITH LESLIE JAMISON AND autobiographical novel about sexual survive that media eraser.” KIESE LAYMON abuse at the hands of a choirmaster, Chee Chee feared that more than protests Saturday, 2:30–3:15 p.m. recently stepped out from behind his own would be erased. In 1991, he moved First United Methodist Church, novelist’s mask in his fi rst book of essays, to New York City and took a job 1201 Lavaca Street

8 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018

10 memoir abouthisimprisonment. Detained: A Diary, Writer’s Prison a revisedU.S. of version Devil,the Wrestling with the NobelPrize, published many for times afavorite year, the 80-year-old Ngũgĩ, theoretical works.this Earlier and response to hisliterary death threats andattacksin multiple hassurvived Ngũgĩ in 1978foroneofhisplays. without Prison trial Security at KamĩtĩMaximum imprisoned Wawas Thiong’o tenant farming pyrethrum, cof tenant farming up village ofKamĩrĩthũ, grew Ngũgĩ native languages. in1938 the Born among Kenya’s peasantsand their Ngũgĩ writes, “to sayandactno to evil.” impulse,”wordthe “resistance”as “the of origins broader a testamenttothe ’sin California. are Ngũgĩ lifeandart for more than 20 years, mostrecently says Ngũgĩ, who has beenlivinginexile of resistanceasameanssurvival,” KENYAN WRITER TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL Warrior: The Language 4 Thiong’o Wrestling with the Devil the Wrestling with Ngũgĩ ’sNgũgĩ locate this impulse writings

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OCTOBER 2018 other childrenshared while working the language, that heand through stories Highlands in the 1920s. from hispeople to createKenya’s White landlords,African hadbeenstolen as achild, owned by white andelite and tea leaves. The landshe tended all marginalized languagesof the all marginalized world.” onbehalfof become alanguage warrior set himonalifelongmission: “I have education.” The experience, hesays, ofmymy beginning lifeand the true as performed “the mostexcitingin Ngaahika ndeenda the sixmonthsduring which updated memoir, describes Ngũgĩ Ngaahika ndeenda in prison was the ultimaterebellion. am stupid” or “I amadonkey.” the wordssign with to weara forced “I anyone caughtspeakingGĩkũyũ was fields. Then camecolonialschool where theater was built. The authors, who also nowworkers lived inshacks, anoutdoor s youth,Ngũgĩ where peasantsand government. president Jomo Kenyatta and the KANU rebukewas of asharp the country’s fi with church the aidof the Christian out fromunderhimpostindependence landbeingstolen ofafarmer’s story wasfi the and the causeofhisimprisonment, Want Capitol Extension, Room 2.014 Sunday, 1:30–2:15p.m. WRESTLING WITHTHEDEVIL Ngũgĩ learned Gĩkũyũ, learned hisnativeNgũgĩ Nonetheless, in the revisedand Turning to hismother tongue while In Kamĩrĩthũ, the stolenlandof ), coauthored with Ngũgĩ wa Mirii, rst play written inGĩkũyũ. play written rst Its authors. its arap Moiimprisoned 30, Vice PresidentDaniel the play. OnDecember government shutdown KANU authoritarian In December, the “their collective strength.” writes,rediscoveredNgũgĩ The peopleofKamĩrĩthũ, were animmediatesuccess. in September1977and opened The performances months perfecting the play. in the show,starred spent was perfectedand ( il ar hn I When Marry I Will rst Motherhood Conversation Around Is Changingthe Angela Garbes motherhood. the conversationand changing around to usaboutfeminism, discrimination, her fi Amazed I Am” went viral andsparked I Learn About BreastMilk, the More away fromit.” Herarticle “The More or producingfood, soIjustcouldn’t get

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A di erent version of this article previously appeared in PW A di erent version of this article previously appeared in PW That was a learning experience forme. That experience was alearning us arereallyjustdoing the best we can. wayright anda wrong way to doit. All of motherhood,regarding thatthere’sa is all there is. We feel, inourchoices takes onis that what’s out there world. The bigmyth this book respect asanyone elsein this level of careandregard that sheisentitled to the same want her up to grow thinking disconnected fromherbody. I learn. Idon’t want her to feel I her to on thethings want daughter, I’ve beenrefl While raisingmy older motherhood? between feminism and What’s therelationship reproductive choices. control over their bodiesand that in2018, women stilldon’t have full really darkplace. It’s shameful to say When that didn’t happen, I went to a we’d mostlikelyhave afemale president. workingstarted on the book, I thought they’re definitely underattack. When I us to standupforourrights, because what’s goingoninourbodiesempowers about knowing andbeinginformed I want to makeexplicit that the fact changes theseconversations? you do ways what In identifi necessarily birth es asa woman. awareness that noteverybody who gives pronouns we use to talk aboutitand the gender areexpanding: regardingboth the around genderandhow ourideasof me. There’s conversation alsoagrowing health-care professional who lookslike 40-year-old woman who’s never hada book—this ismy perspective. I’ma like Isetout anintersectional to write asa experience woman ofcolor. It’s not as they shouldhave, and that’s inmy motherhood have notchangedasmuch The dominantconversations around inclusive? motherhood becoming more against. Are conversations around groups have beendiscriminated Capitol Extension, Room 2.010 Saturday, 1–1:45 p.m. THE TRUTHABOUTMOTHERHOOD and genderthe Your bookaddresses issues ofrace ways v ways ecting hope your book arious

so many admired writers andartists? and-ink mythology” thatsurrounds partly aresponse to the“whiskey- Addiction Unique Lookat Leslie Jamison’s When Igotsober, selfi for very any connectionbetween painand of art. I was lookingnot to debunk that gettingstable was not the enemy mythology, becauseI wanted to believe reasons I wantedto alternatives that

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cult on on gures, richer rather than fl richer andgotmoreacute life sharpened fi there’soften inaddictionmemoirs a as the downward-spiral material. So to beascompelling material recovery throwing down formyself. I wanted the was arealaestheticgauntletI was to say there areother ways. Also, there and what itmeans to makeart—but a profoundconnectionbetween pain creativity—because obviously there’s dangerous alibi to sayaddictiondefi conclusions from those. Yet itcanbea but you’re notdrawing the right it keepshavingnegative consequences disorder,addiction asalearning because Unbroken Brain There’s abookbyMaiaSzalavitzcalled their life.something that isruining works: somebody keepsdoing and paradoxical abouthow addiction There’s alot that isgenuinelyconfusing to new understandings ofaddiction? Did working onthisbookleadyou think ofitinradicallydif been brokenforsolong, and we need to services. Ourapproach to addictionhas the boardisinvested incuttingsocial and usheredin this climate that across elected got response. ThenTrump was the answer rather than apunitive be seenassomething where treatment wasopioid crisis that it to was starting public andgovernmental response to the One of things about the encouraging the treatment for addiction? political climate isa How doyou thinkthecurrent Capitol Extension, Room 2.014 Saturday, 2:30–3:15 p.m. KIESE LAYMON WITH ALEXANDER CHEEAND THE WRITER’SREALLIFE partial truth to it. to truth partial of those were true, oreachhadakindof my insecurity. self, true Probablynone about confrontingmy escaping self, true my own relationship to alcohol. It was dif a thousand all explanation. Experientially, Ifound of responding? would apunitive modelbeagood way reacting to negative consequences, why natureofaddictioninvolvesvery not Instead they’re creating villains. If the nal tepid chapter. For me, itfeltlike |

TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL erent ways to explain in which sheframes atteningout. ecting erent terms. es 11 4fiction

HIS WAS before Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told Yo u made her a literary celebrity. The essay is not a criticism of Tan, whose writing Ng rightfully T admires, but of how Tan and other Chinese- American authors have been received. “Comparing Asian writers mainly to other Asian writers implies that we’re all telling the same story, ” Ng writes. “Worst of all, such comparisons place undue weight on the writer’s ethnicity, suggesting that writers like Tan, Chang, and Kingston are telling fi rst and foremost A Story About Being Chinese, not stories about families, love, loss, or universal human experience.” Now, says Ng, who was only nine years old when Tan’s acclaimed The Joy Luck Club came out in 1989, “I write about issues of race and privilege and identity because I care deeply about them and because they af ect my own personal life daily. I don’t know that I could write a book that didn’t engage with them. I truly believe that most of our confl icts come from a lack of empathy, so I try to extend that both to my characters and to other people.” Back before she was a bestselling Ng accomplishes this empathy through author, Celeste Ng wrote an writing about families and their secrets. Her fi rst book, Everything I Never Told essay i tled “Why I Dont Want to You, delves into the mysterious drowning of the favorite daughter in a multiracial Be the Next Amy Tan” Photography Day © Kevin Chinese-American family. Little Fires Illuminatingby Elyssa East

12 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018 Everywhere tells the story of are fined, there is no such and validating—those of us who haven’t a white American family in thing as unsightly curbside had much representation know how the progressive, bourgeois trash pickup, and the pro- important it is to see yourself on the utopia of Shaker Heights, integration housing policies page or on the screen. At the same Ohio, that is upended when were implemented before time, being highly visible also has its a single mother and her the end of segregation. In downsides. Sometimes, when you’re daughter come to town and Little Fires Everywhere, Ng’s seen prominently, you inadvertently end the custody battle for an character Lexie Richardson up blocking out other people. You’re adopted Chinese-American says, “I mean we’re lucky. often held up as the representative of baby divides the community. No one sees race here.” your group, which is deeply problematic “I’ve always been “Everyone sees race, Lex,” and something that I actively try to interested in the Lexie’s brother Moody counter. I don’t speak for all Asians, relationships between replies. “The only diference or all Asian-American women, or parents and children,” Ng is who pretends not to.” all Chinese-American women, or all says. “So much of who The complications of women—because there are many stories we become is either because of or in being visible as a minority tie Ng’s two within those groups, and mine is not the opposition to the people who raised us.” books together. In an interview with only one. Other people need to be seen, Born in Pittsburg in 1980 to scientist memoirist Nicole Chung, Ng says, “The too, so I try to spread the spotlight where parents who had emigrated from problem is with being seen only as an I can.” China, Ng moved with her family to Asian American writer.” This is how far Shaker Heights when she was 10. Ng the issue Tan faced has progressed, for has spoken broadly about how, when now. WE BELONG TOGETHER she left for Harvard in 1998 (Ng also When asked about the diference WITH CELESTE NG AND FATIMA has an MFA from Michigan), she was between being seen and being visible, FARHEEN MIRZA unaware of Shaker Heights’ deliberate Ng says, “It’s a double-edged sword: on Saturday, 11–11:45 a.m. exceptionalism. In the town, uncut lawns the one hand, being seen is so necessary State Capitol, House Chamber 4fiction New Fiction Writers

We talk with w o hot novelists appearing at this year’s fesi val

© Elena Seibert America,” Moore says. “I barely heard about Liberia outside of my parents’ ef orts, and that absence was resounding. When I realized I wanted to start writing, Liberia was the fi rst place I went to artistically.”

TOMMY ORANGE: URBAN NATIVE AMERICAN BY HILARY S. KAYLE ORANGE, A MEMBER of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, hopes his debut novel, There There, will alter readers’ perceptions of contemporary Native American life. “People equate the © Yoni Levy native experience with this idea of living of the land,” Orange says, “but 70% of native people live in cities now. We need an update in the way we think about native people and the native experience. “I want readers to fall into the world WAYÉTU MOORE: Literature can change the way we think that is the novel and love the experience THE (SUPER)HEROICS OF collectively. This is one way to think about there,” Orange says. “It’s not all easy or NATION BUILDING native people that I hope will serve as an enjoyable, but I love the experience of BY MATT SEIDEL update.” becoming enraptured with a novel and MOORE’S FAMILY fl ed Liberia during There There focuses on 12 Native with the world within it—going through

the country’s civil war when she was fi ve Americans who have various personal the experience from beginning to end PW years old. “My mother, who was in the reasons to attend the Big Oakland and just being enthralled. If there are U.S. at the time, arranged for a network Powwow, where native culture and things along the way that I think people of rebel female soldiers to traditions are should probably know about, that’s a essentially trai c us out,” Moore celebrated. Jacquie bonus, but I really want the novel to says. Her family eventually Red Feather is be enjoyed as a book and as a reading settled in a suburb outside of newly sober and experience.” Houston. trying to make it Ranging across a Virginia back to the family plantation, Jamaica, and she left behind WAYÉTU MOORE Liberia, She Would Be King in shame. Dene ORIGIN STORIES WITH DAVID follows three characters, each Oxendene is pulling BOWLES of whom is blessed with a his life together after Sunday, 1–1:45 p.m. supernatural gift, whose paths his uncle’s death. Capitol Extension, Room 2.010 converge in the burgeoning Through Jacquie and republic. “Liberia was this Dene and the other TOMMY ORANGE beautiful experiment about characters, Orange JUST THE BEGINNING WITH what would happen if you grapples with a TERESE MARIE MAILHOT brought people together from complex and painful Saturday, 1:30–2:15 p.m.

Africa and the Caribbean and history. Capitol Extension, Room 2.026 in appeared of this article previously version erent A di

14 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018

4fiction Happily Ever After,

Guaranteed Sophie © Country Park Portraits Alyssa Cole, Sophie Jordan, and Julia London talk about #MeToo, hope, and the need for happy endings in romance novels by Addie Morfoot

I was telling Portia that she was fi ne and deserved to be happy, I had to accept that for myself too!” SOPHIE JORDAN “STORIES OF STRONG women fi nding Julia agency, love, and happiness against insurmountable odds are addictive and, I women proved challenging. “When I fi rst believe, doing their part, subtly, to bring started reading and writing historical about change,” Jordan says. romance a thousand years ago, the Jordan’s Beautiful Sinner is book fi ve heroines were powerless and relied on in her Devil’s Rock series. It centers on the men to help them or save them,” she reporter Gabriella “Gabby” Rossi and says. “I wanted her to use her wits and © Katana Photography her long-ago high school crush, Cruz succeed,” Alyssa Walsh. In addition to wanting to “The reader is always guaranteed a jump-start her career by reporting on happy ending in a romance novel, full ALYSSA COLE Cruz’s wrongful incarceration, Gabby stop,” London says, echoing her fellow “THE PROMISE OF happily ever after struggles with her body image and an authors. “Characters are redeemable and is a really powerful thing,” Cole says. A overwhelming family. But when Gabby love prevails.” Duke by Default is the second book in her gets locked in a supply closet with Cruz, Reluctant Royals series. The story follows things begin to fall into place. SOPHIE JORDAN Portia Hobbs on her quest to reinvent Jordan agrees with Cole about happy BEYOND BODICE BUSTERS WITH her life by leaving New York for a sword- endings. “Happily ever after,” Jordan ALYSSA COLE, JASMINE GUILLORY, making apprenticeship in Scotland. But says, “is everything.” AND CYDNEY RAX when she meets her new boss, Tavish Saturday, 11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. McKenzie, things heat up and get a bit JULIA LONDON Capitol Extension, Room 2.030 tricky. “WE HAVE BEEN inundated with tales Cole says that while the setting of men, and some women, wielding JULIA LONDON for the romance came to her while power for sex,” London says of the ROMANCE IN TEXAS WITH CATHY reading a 2014 article about a modern #MeToo moment. “Romance novels MAXWELL, PRISCILLA OLIVERAS, sword maker, to craft Portia she drew give us the ideal—characters who aren’t AND CYDNEY RAX inspiration from her own life. “The book perfect but who fall in love and respect Saturday, 2–2:45 p.m. was kind of a reckoning with my own the person they love.” Texas tent, Congress Avenue and 8th sense of being a screwup,” Cole says. Seduced by a Scot marks London’s sixth Street “Portia deals with her sense of constant and fi nal book in the Highland Grooms failure and is diagnosed with ADHD, series, which is set against the backdrop ALYSSA COLE and I was diagnosed shortly before of the formal unifi cation of England and ROMANCE CONVO WITH JASMINE the book came out.” One of the most Scotland in 1707. GUILLORY challenging aspects of writing A Duke by London says that creating a historical Sunday, 1:30–2:15 p.m. Default, Cole says, was “realizing that if female character that appeals to modern Capitol Extension, Room 2.030

16 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018 in Texas

Psychological thrillers by Julia © Leslie Abbott Photography Haeberline, Meg Gardiner, and Jef Jef Abbott revel in life’s darker sides suspense novels, inevitably refl ect reality. “Crime fi ction explores issues of justice and injustice, division and reconciliation,” by Addie Morfoot Gardiner says. “Crime novels can and will be tremendously helpful in clarifying these never seen it portrayed exactly the way I tumultuous days. But novels that don’t have observed—the dark comedy, the cold overtly deal with politics or social issues cruelty, the nonsense, the truths, and the can be a balm. I have plenty of both on ghosts that appear out of nowhere.” my shelves.” MEG GARDINER JEFF ABBOTT THERE IS ANOTHER game of cat TEXAS SERVES AS the setting in and mouse in Gardiner’s Into the Black Abbott’s latest, The Three Beths, which Nowhere. But in Gardiner’s thriller, it’s a follows Mariah, the daughter of Beth chase between rookie FBI agent Caitlin Dunning, a missing woman. During Hendrix and a Ted Bundy–inspired killer. her ef ort to exonerate her father of her “Few criminals have horrifi ed and mother’s disappearance, Mariah discovers fascinated me like Bundy,” Gardiner a connection between her mother’s says. “I’m amazed at how he presented a vanishing and the recent disappearances © Jill Johnson handsome, clean-cut image to the world of two other women named Beth. while carrying out a relentless campaign Abbott got the idea after imagining a Julia of murder. That was my jumping-of young woman seeing her missing mother point. How would a young female FBI across a food court in a crowded mall. JULIA HEABERLIN agent capture a charming, devious killer “I wanted to fi nd out who the characters “MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS are like who blends seamlessly with normal were and how they’d reached this our nightmares and dreams,” Heaberlin society?” moment in their lives,” he says. says. “They allow us to fantasize about the Gardiner’s books, like many mystery and Abbott took longer than usual to write terrible things and then let them go.” The Three Beths. The cause of the delay Heaberlin’s Paper Ghosts portrays was a fi re that destroyed Abbott’s house a game of cat and mouse between a 14 months ago. “Just as I had to let go suspected serial killer-photographer who of all we lost,” says Abbott, “I had to let claims to be suf ering from dementia and go of my initial concept of this novel. I a young woman who believes he knows did a massive rewrite on this book after why her sister disappeared years earlier. the fi re. It was as if the parts that weren’t Two kinds of ghosts inspired Heaberlin to working were burned away as well.” write the book: those of murdered people It’s not lost on Abbott that he got and those that “haunt minds riddled with through a tumultuous time by turning to dementia.” mystery writing. “Mystery and suspense “I’ve been fascinated with dark has always been an escape, whether from photography since I was a little girl,” the bigger issues of the day or our own Heaberlin says. “I used to sneak into my personal anxieties and problems.” grandfather’s basement to look through a book of stark crime scene pictures.” A TRIO OF TEXAS CRIME WRITERS Dementia also tugs at the author’s © Stuart Boreham Sunday, 2–3 p.m. heartstrings. “I personally love someone Texas tent, Congress Avenue and with dementia,” Heaberlin says. “I’ve Meg 8th Street

OCTOBER 2018 | TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL 17 4children’s

and an earthquake. Why so many Texan Heroes of the natural disasters? I prefer to write about a natural rather Past and Present than a human disaster. I want my characters and readers to be able to experience the devastation but feel stronger coming out of it. I want to The newest Magic Tree House book educate readers about the dangers of  om Mary Pope Osborne celebrates natural disasters, but I also want them to realize the healing potential of bad the heroes of the 1900 Galveston situations. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I want my books to empower kids hurricane and Hurricane Harvey and let them know they don’t have to be victims of disasters—they can emerge as by Sally Lodge heroes. In every Magic Tree House book, courage demonstrated by the people Jack and Annie have the opportunity of Galveston, including a nun, Mother to help others, and I try to tie that into Mary Joseph Dallmer, who sheltered their adventure without being didactic. more than 1,000 residents in her convent In Hurricane Heroes in Texas, they know and school. It was such a devastating the hurricane is coming and they have hurricane, but by focusing on the trouble making others believe they are in bravery of the people and their danger, yet they persist. Kids have it in willingness to their nature to be heroes, and I want to help others, I amplify that as much as I can. was able to make Do you ever worry about running out it palpable for of ideas? kids, parents, and Well, I’ve been doing this for 26 years, teachers. and so far, I haven’t run out of ideas. As I was writing Truly, it all starts with the kids. For many © Elena Seibert my fi nal draft years, I went all over the country, visiting of the novel in schools, and I always urged students to September 2017, share their suggestions for book ideas SINCE 1992, Mary Pope Hurricane Harvey and had them vote on their favorites. I’d Osborne’s Magic Tree House struck Texas, and say that the fi rst 28 Magic Tree House series has transported siblings I once again was books were inspired by kids. They’ve Jack and Annie—and young amazed by the spirit taught me a whole lot, and teachers readers—to a wide variety and courage of have also been instrumental, suggesting

of historical eras and locales Texans in the face of subjects that tie into their curricula. PW throughout the globe. In adversity. At the time, Something that brings me great joy Magic Tree House #30: the book had the is meeting former Magic Tree House Hurricane Heroes in Texas, Jack and Annie working title Stormy Time in Texas, but I readers who are young adults and are whisked back to Galveston, Tex., in changed the title so that it highlighted who are very nostalgic about who they 1900. We spoke with Osborne about the the hero angle of the story, and I tweaked were at seven or eight. They share their latest installment of the series and what the plot to emphasize the fact that Jack memories of reading my books, and lies ahead for her intrepid characters. and Annie were there to help—not just usually those memories involve parents, What inspired Jack and Annie’s most to survive. They rescue a toddler and siblings, and favorite teachers. That recent mission? two dogs and stay up all night helping age is such an important and formative I had read several years ago that the Mother Mary Joseph. I wanted to time for readers. The letters kids send biggest natural disaster in American underscore the extraordinary heroism me today are essentially the same as the history was the 1900 hurricane that of the people of Galveston in 1900, and letters I received 26 years ago—they are completely washed over Galveston and to see it happening again 117 years later perennial and universal, and I fi nd that claimed the lives of between 8,000 and during Hurricane Harvey, just as I was very endearing. I feel very blessed.” 12,000 people. I asked kids and adults fi nishing the book, was stunning and very if they knew about the hurricane, and inspiring. MAGIC TREE HOUSE IN TEXAS! no one outside of Texas seemed to Earlier Magic Tree House titles have Saturday, 2:30–3:15 p.m. have heard the story. As I researched sent Jack and Annie into the midst Kirkus Reviews tent, 11th Street,

it, what I found most amazing was the of a twister, a volcano, a tsunami, between Brazos and Congress Avenue in appeared of this article previously version erent A di

18 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018 © Carlos Diaz

Reading = Hope + Change Jacqueline Woodson is on a mission to spread hope through books by Mai a Burnett

TO SAY IT HAS bee n a big year for Despite their dif erent formats and National Book Award–winning author audiences, Woodson’s picture book Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl and novel have thematic similarities. Dreaming) would be an understatement. In Harbor Me, Woodson writes about a To start with, Woodson was named group of students who gather to openly National Ambassador for Young People’s communicate with one another about Literature for 2018–2019. Woodson their lives without the presence of takes her new role very seriously. In adults. “I think, too often, we don’t have fact, she brings to her ambassadorship these safe spaces where we can fully be a unique equation that she coined: ourselves,” Woodson says. “I think the Reading = Hope x Change. To Woodson, question of whether we adequately listen the equation represents “everything. We to what youth have to say is one that read,” Woodson says. “We fi nd hope in every adult should ask themselves.” what we read, and that reading and hope Given today’s climate of political changes us.” and social discord, Woodson’s focus This year, Woodson is also publishing in her work on communication and two new books: The Day You Begin, a understanding is timely. Yet, Woodson picture book illustrated by Rafael López, doesn’t intentionally infuse her stories and Harbor Me, a middle grade novel. with allusions to current events. “I try to Woodson garnered inspiration for The keep my head down while I’m writing,” Day You Begin from a passage in Brown Woodson says. “For Harbor Me, one Girl Dreaming in which she writes about may think it feels very ‘current,’ but her great-great-grandfather’s experience I’m writing about things that have been of being the only child of color among happening for decades. For The Day You white students. She wanted to expand Begin—lifetimes. So the sadness is that that idea in The Day You Begin: “For each so much hasn’t changed. But I do a lot of of us, there comes the point where we self-care around myself and my writing.” enter a space and feel on the outside of it. For the very young, it often happens the fi rst time they enter a classroom.” A CONVERSATION WITH Woodson’s aim in writing the story was JACQUELINE WOODSON to show characters who walk into an Saturday, 12:30–1:15 p.m. unfamiliar space and emerge “more First United Methodist Church, thoughtful, happier, more relaxed.” 1201 Lavaca Street

Into the Darkdeep Friends and collaborators Ally Condie and Brendan Reichs venture into the unknown

PW by Claire Kirch of town; there, they fi nd a Reichs couldn’t portal to another dimension agree more, saying that, with THE DARKDEEP, the fi rst of at the Yallfest literary festival where imaginary things their similar senses of humor, two middle grade books in a in 2014. The two cemented turn into reality. At fi rst, it’s their work comes together duology by Ally Condie and their friendship at Yallwest in spectacular fun, but, as often organically. Whatever comes Brendan Reichs, has been 2015, and the rest is history. happens with magical portals, next for the coauthors, Reichs described by the publisher, The BFFs even went on to circumstances soon turn promises readers that “it will Bloomsbury Children’s attend the Vermont College of menacing. be shocking, interesting, and Books, as “Stranger Things Fine Arts in pursuit of MFA Working in close creative a little weird and that we will meets The Goonies with the degrees in writing for children collaboration is an adventure always pay attention to our heart of Stand by Me.” It’s and young adults. in itself; it can test the bounds characters.” fi tting that Reichs and Condie The authors’ fi rst cowritten of any friendship. But Condie write about tight bonds project, The Darkdeep, is says that having a writing IMAGINATION BECOMES between friends embarking a paranormal mystery set partner is invaluable, “because REALITY WITH SOMAN on wondrous adventures, in Still Cove, a mill town when you have someone who CHAINANI because, as Reichs says, “we in the Pacifi c Northwest. cares about the book as much Saturday, 11:30 a.m – 12:15 are super-duper best friends.” Four children discover a as you do, you have access to p.m, Next Chapter tent,

A di erent version of this article previously appeared in appeared of this article previously version erent A di The coauthors fi rst met hidden island in the middle double the ideas!” Congress Avenue

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Available at NBNbooks.com & Stores Worldwide YouTube Twitter Facebook Instagram 4children’s Ransom Riggs: Increasingly Peculiar

© Laurence Kesterson The world of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children gets bigger, stranger, and more colorful Scrabble Pals in the series’ fourth book by Mai a Burnett In Erin Entrada Kelly’s new novel, a deep  iendship grows peculiar children travel through 20th-century over online Scrabble America, which. I associate by Ingrid Roper with loud, kitschy, square- format Kodachrome color. So it just felt right. IN FEBRUARY of this year, She also decided that her Has Tim Burton’s fi lm author Erin Entrada Kelly protagonists would share infl uenced your writing? received the Newbery Award a love of words. Through I think the for her novel Hello, Universe, the Scrabble app, Ben and movie and the about a group of sixth Charlotte gradually reveal books coexist graders who form unlikely details about their lives: very happily. friendships. Her new book, Charlotte has been betrayed I wondered You Go First, centers on by a friend and her father WITH A Map of whether the friends Charlotte and Ben, is in the hospital; Ben’s Days, Ransom strong images who live in dif erent parts parents are divorcing. As Riggs introduces Tim created of the country and connect their relationship evolves, new elements to would bleed via an online Scrabble game. the novel explores themes the world of the into my writing, The two fi nd comfort and of social isolation, the peculiars, including but they really comradery through their cruelties of bullying, and the a 20th-century didn’t. remote relationship as they friendships formed in online American setting. Why are open up about their worries communities, a topic that Riggs talks about books that and life challenges. Kelly approached gingerly.

the new book, keeping the are unworldly, spooky, or Online friendship, however, “It was very important to me PW peculiar stories fresh, and his macabre so appealing to wasn’t the original impetus that Charlotte and Ben meet ever-enigmatic photographs. readers of all ages? for the novel. Instead, Kelly in a school-sanctioned online The world itself is profoundly began with the image of message board,” Kelly says. How has the world of the macabre, but we spend most Charlotte’s character: “I Kelly hopes that readers peculiars evolved between of our waking hours ignoring thought she was going to will fi nd solace in the novel, fi rst book and the fourth? all the scary stuf because it’s be the youngest National just as Charlotte and Ben The books are told from too much to deal with head- Scrabble Champion.” But the fi nd it in one another. “I hope Jacob Portman’s point of on. It’s easier—and more more Kelly researched the that readers feel they’re not view, and he knew nothing of fun—to process our fears, lives of Scrabble champions, alone in the world,” Kelly the peculiar world when the and our deep curiosity about “the less it felt like something says. “Even just as they’re story began. Now that Jacob the unknown, by reading and Charlotte would be a part reading, I want them to feel knows so much and has made telling stories. of,” Kelly says. that connection.” himself such an integral part Kelly pursued a dif erent of the peculiar community, story line, drawing from FRIENDS FOREVER WITH big, world-shaking things can TWO BIG DEAL AUTHORS her connection to both ANNIE BARROWS happen much more easily. TALK WITH DHONIELLE Philadelphia, where Charlotte Sunday, 1–1:45 p.m. Why did you decide to CLAYTON lives and Kelly grew up, Kirkus Reviews tent, 11th feature color images? Sunday, 3:30–4:15 p.m. and Louisiana, where Ben Street, between Brazos and

In A Map of Days, the YA HQ, Congress Avenue lives and Kelly now resides. Congress Avenue in appeared of this article previously version erent A di

22 TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL | OCTOBER 2018 MEET YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY PUBLISHING AUTHORS AT TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL 2018

MINH LÊ & DAN SANTAT Drawn Together “Compelling.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[A] must-have.” —Booklist (starred review) “[A] showstopper.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[S]peaks profoundly to readers.” —BCCB (starred review) “Magnifi cent.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review) “[P]erfectly paced.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

LIZ GARTON SCANLON Dear Substitute “[J]oyful.” —Booklist (starred review) “[W]armhearted.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[C]apture[s] . . . humor and sympathy.” —The Horn Book (starred review)

DHONIELLE CLAYTON The Belles “[A]n undeniable page-turner.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[C]layton examines the price of beauty.” —Booklist (starred review)

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