ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL SPRING / SUMMER 2011 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill FRONTLIST BACKLIST Water for Elephants 1 Nonfiction What You See in the Dark 2 Birds and Birding 28 Cardboard Gods 3 Biography and Memoir 28–30 When Tito Loved Clara 4 Contemporary Issues 30 Lincoln on War 5 Education 31 The Nature Principle 6–7 Food and Wine 31–32 Something for Nothing 8 Gardening 32–33 Man with a Pan 9 Gift Books 33–34 Silver Sparrow 10 History/African American 34 The Watery Part of the World 11 History/Maritime 34 Wicked Bugs 12–13 History/WWII 34 Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger 14 Jewish Interest 35 Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs 15 Language and Writing 35 I Thought You Were Dead 16 Music 35 The Frozen Rabbi 17 Nature Writing 36 Julia Alvarez Paperbacks 18–19 Parenting 36 Pets and Animals 36–37 Algonquin Book Club 20–21 Poetry 37 Book Group Picks/New in Paperback 23–25 Popular Culture 37 Recent Fiction 26 Popular Science 37 Recent Nonfiction 27 Reference 38 Spirituality 38 Sports 38–39 Follow Algonquin Books Travel and Adventure 39–40 Blog: www.algonquinbooksblog.com True Crime 40 Facebook: facebook.com/algonquinbooks Weather 40 Twitter: twitter.com/AlgonquinBooks Web Site: www.algonquin.com Women’s Studies 40 A complete online catalog, downloadable author photos, WWII/Memoir 40 tour schedules, and promotional materials are available. We regularly update our site with national media reports, seasonal promotions, special author features, exclusive Paperback Fiction, by Author 41–43 content, and contest giveaways. Hardcover Fiction, by Author 43–44 Index, by Title 45–46 PUBLICITY CONTACTS Index, by Author 46–47 Online media requests: Michael Taeckens, Ordering Information 48 Online & Paperback Marketing Director [email protected] All other media requests: Kelly Bowen, Publicity Manager Credits [email protected] Cover: Thomas Baril/Getty Images; page 1: Lynne Harty; page 2: Stuart Bernstein; page 3: Jenny wilker; page 4: Brad Newman; page 5: MARKETING CONTACT Don Pollard; page 7: Robert Burroughs; page 8: Erin Anthony; Craig Popelars, Marketing Director: page 9: Peter Vadnai; Page 10: Amilcar; page 11: Julie Babler; page 13: K. C. Kratt; page 14: Roger Haile; page 15: Joanna Jeanne Lende; [email protected] page 16: Doug Matthewson; page 17: Sabrina Jones; page 19: Bill Eichner Algonquin Books Announces 2 Movie Tie-in Editions Trade paperback movie tie-in: $14.95 Mass market movie tie-in: $7.99 NO. 73070 ISBN 978-1-61620-070-1 NO. 73071 ISBN 978-1-61620-071-8 NO. 26372 12-copy trade paperback MTI fl oor display: $179.40 • ISBN 978-0-7611-6372-5 On-Sale Date: MARCH 1, 2011 Also available in original hardcover and trade paper editions, and on HighBridge Audio CD NO. 72499 Hardcover: $23.95 ISBN 978-1-56512-499-8 ! NO. 72560 Trade paper: $14.95 ISBN 978-1-56512-560-5 NO. 24736 12-copy trade paperback fl oor display: $179.40 ISBN 978-0-7611-4736-7 ABCH_SPRING11.3PP.indd 1 11/5/10 6:23 PM MNL A UE MUÑOZ JOSH WILKER W HAT YOU SEE in the DARK CARDBOARD GODS A NOVEL AN All-american tale I n this cinematic debut novel, desire turns deadly in a small California town “ A ‘baseball-loving loner’ deciphers his complicated childhood through his old where scenes of Psycho are being filmed. box of trading cards . Wilker’s book is as nostalgically intoxicating as the gum that sweetened his card-collecting youth.” —Entertainment Weekly akersfield, California, in the late 1950s is a dusty, quiet town too far from Los Angeles to share that he 1970s was a decade marked by Vietnam, Watergate, Bcity’s energy yet close enough to Hollywood to fill counterculture, sexual liberation, and stadium rock. its citizens with the kinds of dreams they discover in the TFor author Josh Wilker, it was a time spent navigat- darkness of the movie theater. For Teresa, a young, aspiring ing a challenging childhood in which only his prized baseball singer who works at a shoe store, dreams lie in the music card collection could give him unfailing faith that a winning her mother shared with her, plaintive songs of love and season would one day present itself. longing. In Dan Watson, the most desirable young man in Wilker shares his heartbreakingly comic childhood, set Bakersfield, she believes she has found someone to help her adrift by hippie parents harboring utopian dreams, an- realize those dreams. chored by brotherly love, and buoyed by an obsession with When a famous actress arrives from Hollywood with a our national pastime. In pitch-perfect prose, Wilker tells great and already legendary director, local gossip about Teresa his unconventional story through the cards he collected, and Dan gives way to speculation about the celebrated visi- whose full-color images—of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Tom tors, there to work on what will become an iconic, ground- Seaver, Wade Boggs, and many lesser-known players—open breaking film of madness and murder at a roadside motel. each chapter and become the means for expressing all the No one anticipates how the ill-fated love affair between Dan fears, hopes, bewilderment, passions, and dreams of child- and Teresa will soon rival anything the director could ever hood. Cardboard Gods announces the arrival of a talented put on the screen. new voice in the stadium of big-league memoirs. This thoroughly original work is intense and fascinating in its juxtapositions of tenderness and menace, violence and “ Poignant and vivid . If you love the writing of Dave Eggers MARCH or Augusten Burroughs, you just may love Cardboard Gods, regret, played out in a town on the brink of change. FICTION too. I did.” —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed 272 pages, 5 ½" x 8 ¼" PR AISE FOR MANUEL MUÑOZ’S WORK: ISBN 978-1-56512-533-9 “ Wilker connects baseball cards to more pop culture references $23.95 HARDCOVER “ Moving and tender . Muñoz writes elegantly and sympatheti- than a season of Family Guy — everything from Louis L’Amour NO. 72533 westerns to Jack Kerouac to Elvis Costello . You’ll love this US/can/om cally . A softly glowing, melancholy beauty that . makes [his stories] universal.” —The New York Times Book Review book.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune • National publicity “ I couldn’t put it down . In much the same way Doris Kearns • Debut fiction promotional excerpt “ Muñoz has created a wholly authentic vision . A gifted and sensitive writer.” — Los Angeles Times Goodwin’s Wait Till Next Year is as much about growing up in • 10-city author tour the 1950s as her being a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Wilker, • Promotional book trailer MANUEL MUÑOZ is the author of two short story collections, too, uses baseball as a backdrop in writing about the ’70s.” • Online marketing and advertising the most recent of which, The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, was a —The Boston Herald • Author Spotlight feature on Algonquin finalist for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. Web site He teaches creative writing at the University of Arizona in Tucson, JOSH WILKER writes about his life and his childhood base- • National advertising, including ball cards at www.cardboardgods.net. Since his first posting in the New York Times Book Review is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellow ship, and in 2008 was awarded the prestigious Whiting 2006, his site has been featured in the New York Times and the THE FAITH HEALER OF OLIVE AVENUE Writers’ Award. Find him online at www.manuel-munoz.com. Chicago Sun-Times and on ESPN.com. He is a winner of the ISBN 978-1-56512-532-5 Howard Frank Mosher Prize for Short Fiction and has an MFA NO. 72532 from Vermont College. He lives with his wife in Chicago. 2 | SPRING/SUMMER 2011 ALGONQUIN BOOKS ALGONQUIN BOOKS SPRING/SUMMER 2011 | 3 ABCH_SPRING11.3PP.indd 2 11/5/10 6:23 PM JOSH WILKER CARDBOARD GODS AL N AL -AMERICAN tale “ A ‘baseball-loving loner’ deciphers his complicated childhood through his old box of trading cards . Wilker’s book is as nostalgically intoxicating as the gum A that sweetened his card-collecting youth.” —Entertainment Weekly L G he 1970s was a decade marked by Vietnam, Watergate, O counterculture, sexual liberation, and stadium rock. N For author Josh Wilker, it was a time spent navigat- T Q ing a challenging childhood in which only his prized baseball card collection could give him unfailing faith that a winning U season would one day present itself. I Wilker shares his heartbreakingly comic childhood, set N adrift by hippie parents harboring utopian dreams, an- chored by brotherly love, and buoyed by an obsession with P our national pastime. In pitch-perfect prose, Wilker tells A his unconventional story through the cards he collected, P whose full-color images—of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Tom E Seaver, Wade Boggs, and many lesser-known players—open R each chapter and become the means for expressing all the B fears, hopes, bewilderment, passions, and dreams of child- A hood. Cardboard Gods announces the arrival of a talented new voice in the stadium of big-league memoirs. C K “ Poignant and vivid . If you love the writing of Dave Eggers or Augusten Burroughs, you just may love Cardboard Gods, MHARCRC too. I did.” —Wally Lamb, author of The Hour I First Believed MEMMOOIIR/R/SPSORTSPORTS 256 pages,pages, 6" 6" x 9"x 9" “ Wilker connects baseball cards to more pop culture references ISBN4-color 978-1-61620-069-5 throughout than a season of Family Guy — everything from Louis L’Amour $15.95ISBN 978-1-61620-069-5 TRADE PAPER with flaps westerns to Jack Kerouac to Elvis Costello .