All Features

Less stress (and more exercise) in 2012

Feature by Deanna Larson

New books on healthy living emphasize workouts and eating plans for different lifestyles and goals—whether you want to lose inches fast, make better choices at the drive-thru or simply minimize stress.

SHORT, EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS
Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines are known for their bold design, clean layouts and solid information. The Women’s Health Big Book of 15 Minute Workouts and The Men’s Health Big Book of 15 Minute Workouts are chunky little powerhouses that feature those same elements while promising “433 ultra-effective exercises, 1 hard body: yours!” Recent research shows that brief workouts can be just as effective as pounding away at the treadmill or spin class for hours at a time; these books are packed with 85 super-fast workouts and hundreds of exercises that banish boredom and maximize results. Each exercise is clearly described with step-by-step photos that make it easy to achieve good form. From the Super-Fast Weight Loss System Workout and  Cardio Interval Training to exercises for Healing, Sports Training and Better Sex, these books target every possible fitness goal a man (see: Iron Glute, Deltoid Definer, Six-Pack Abs, The Flat Butt Fix workouts) or woman (see: Hourglass Body, Pushup Bra, Belly Pooch, Michelle Obama Arms workouts) could ever desire.

BETTER EATING ON THE GO
The influential Eat This, Not That! franchise introduced readers to the nutritional disasters hidden in supermarket aisles and behind restaurant menus, and the small swaps that promote better health and lower calories without dieting. The updated and expanded 2012 edition of Eat This, Not That! The No-Diet Weight Loss Solution features still-shocking entries in the Not That category (The Cheesecake Factory’s sautéed spinach side has the fat equivalent of 14 strips of bacon). However, it also includes new Eat This items offered by restaurants, thanks to shaming and pressure from anti-obesity crusader David Zinczenko, who co-authors the books with Matt Goulding. Back are the compact, color-coded spreads with product and menu-item comparisons in categories like fast food, chain restaurant and supermarket foods. Also included are Holidays and Special Occasions; foods marketed to kids; and an excellent Cook This section, with recipes for healthier versions of restaurant favorites. Zinczenko also shares Eat This success stories and a list of America’s 20 Worst Foods. While the best approach to eating healthfully is cooking from scratch, the book arms a typical American—who grabs breakfast from the drive-thru, lunch at a chain restaurant and dinner from the freezer most days of the week—with vital information they can use to find the health bonanzas and bombs.

GOOD STRESS AND BAD
Dr. Mehmet Oz and his sidekick Dr. Michael Roizen, authors of the best-selling You series (You on a Diet, You Staying Young) are back with You: Stress Less. This brief, useful and easily digestible book looks at good stress and bad stress—and provides tips beyond chocolate and bubble baths to minimize its destructive effects so you can live a happy, healthy life. Starting with the science behind stress, the docs take readers through healthy lifestyle basics including recipes for delicious healthy food, or “nature’s best medicine.” Stress management techniques are covered in sections on activity, relationships, pain management, good communication, managing anger, workplace stresses and the “Big Picture” of spirituality and giving, ending with a guide for developing your own stress plan—making this slim volume a mini-doctorate in preventative health care.

A SPUR TO GET ACTIVE
Working Out Sucks! (And Why It Doesn’t Have To): The Only 21-Day Kick-Start Plan for Total Health and Fitness You’ll Ever Need is an audacious approach to the challenges that keep people from getting fit. “Working out is a chore that ranks somewhere behind window washing, gutter cleaning and dog poop scooping,” writes author Chuck Runyon, CEO of Anytime Fitness, a chain of 1,600 health clubs across America. Aided by colleagues Brian Zehetner, a registered dietitian, and Rebecca A. DeRossett, executive coach and owner of Stillwater Psychological Associates, Runyon lays out the connection between good health and exercise, and the reasons the average person should develop fitness goals. Less a workout book and more an entertaining, kick-in-the-backside companion, Runyon “deprograms” fitness “brainwashing” of bad information, destructive attitudes and habits. His good-natured rants are followed by a section on changing defeatist attitudes, plus a 21-day kick-start plan including daily meal and workout suggestions. “While vanity may provide the initial motivation,” Runyon writes, “it’s the internal reward—the regular dose of accomplishment and pride—that turns regular people into fitness addicts.”

DANCE-INSPIRED FITNESS
The Physique 57® Solution isn’t for sissies, but the subtitle does promise “A Groundbreaking 2-Week Plan for a Lean, Beautiful Body.” Authors and dancers Tanya Becker and Jennifer Maanavi were devotees of the Lotte Berk Method, a strengthening and stretching technique created by Russian ballerina Lotte Berk. After her studio closed, the pair adapted her methods as Physique 57®, a combination of interval training, isometric exercises and orthopedic stretches that aims to lengthen and sculpt muscles for a lean body. Aimed at women with a promise to help them “lose up to 10 inches fast,” the regimen uses a process called “Interval Overload” to bring muscles to the point of fatigue—“where it starts to burn and shake”—to provide “the greatest possible stimulus” for greater results with fewer reps. The book’s 57-minute workouts are illustrated with black and white photographs, and the exercises are followed by a “kitchen diva” section with nutrition tips and recipes for a “macro-nutrient-rich approach to weight loss.” Those familiar with Pilates and other dancer-inspired workouts won’t shy away from this challenging path to an enviable body.

New books on healthy living emphasize workouts and eating plans for different lifestyles and goals—whether you want to lose inches fast, make better choices at the drive-thru or simply minimize stress.

SHORT, EFFECTIVE WORKOUTS
Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines are known for their…

Staying fit and confident as we age

Feature by Martin Brady

With the nation’s population aging at an unprecedented rate, three new books help seniors (and near-seniors) get a jump on the physical and emotional challenges of growing older.

Alzheimer’s disease is undoubtedly the affliction of aging that scares people the most. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center, offers a proactive approach to dealing with this concern in The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program: Keep Your Brain Healthy for the Rest of Your Life, co-written with his wife Gigi Vorgan. The text offers an overview of Alzheimer’s research and the physiology of the disease. Yet the main focus is on physical regimens and mental exercises designed to promote good overall health, to reduce stress and, most critically, to strengthen memory and reinforce mental acuity in ways that might help to stave off the Alzheimer’s threat. The book also includes diet recommendations, tips about drug interaction and handy health-related Q&As. According to the authors, “this program will . . . help you feel better and delay Alzheimer’s disease longer.” Given the stakes, it’s certainly worth a try.

A potential companion volume for the age-conscious is The Baby Boomer Diet: Body Ecology’s Guide to Growing Younger. Nutritional consultant Donna Gates aims to combine the best ideas from conventional medicine with alternative therapies, and in this ample guidebook she tailors her already established Body Ecology Diet to the needs of older folks. The coverage is inclusive, with information on everything from teas, wines and water to cancer-fighting grains and “healing” condiments. Gates also addresses issues such as cooked foods versus raw, the dangers of fat, the truth about iodine and the importance of certain fruits as anti-oxidants. Overall, Gates’ recommendations encourage restorative effects on the digestive, immune and endocrine systems, though sticking with the program would be a timely (and costly) pursuit for the average person. A pertinent shopping list is included, with recommendations of specific brand-name products.

For social worker Wendy Lustbader, the glass is half-full where aging is concerned. Her Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older is a sensitively written collection that stresses the liberating aspects of aging. Lustbader’s observations are divided into sections—loss, spirituality, courage, etc.—and each anecdote illustrates a perspective on living enhanced by the passage of time. Lustbader’s goal is to present aging as a challenging and invigorating adventure, and she succeeds in inspiring seniors to move forward with confidence.

With the nation’s population aging at an unprecedented rate, three new books help seniors (and near-seniors) get a jump on the physical and emotional challenges of growing older.

Alzheimer’s disease is undoubtedly the affliction of aging that scares people the most. Gary Small, director…

Small changes yield big results

Feature by bookpagedev

With the excess of the holiday season behind us, many of us are now resolving to get our lives back on track and more in line with who we want to be. No matter your goal this year, the variety of approaches in the following books will help you become the best version of yourself.

With the excess of the holiday season behind us, many of us are now resolving to get our lives back on track and more in line with who we want to be. No matter your goal this year, the variety of approaches in the following…

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

Best children’s books of 2011

Feature by bookpagedev

At last, our editors have made their choices for the best children's books of the year, from picture books to middle grade to young adult titles. It wasn't easy to decide, but after we roared our terrible roars, and gnashed our terrible teeth, we settled down long enough to agree on 30 excellent books.

Best Children's Books of 2011

 

Picture Books

Middle Grade

Young Adult

What are your favorite children's books of the year? Chime in on our blog. And don't miss the rest of our Best of 2011 coverage.

At last, our editors have made their choices for the best children's books of the year, from picture books to middle grade to young adult titles. It wasn't easy to decide, but after we roared our terrible roars, and gnashed our terrible teeth, we settled…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Let the snow days begin!

Feature by Alice Cary

By March my friends are usually ready to shoot me, because I never get tired of snow. There's so much fun to be had, as these new picture books confirm.

PLAYGROUND BATTLES
Barbara Reid’s Perfect Snow does just what its title suggests, by beautifully capturing the joyful rush of newly fallen snow. Reid’s sharply written text begins with the utter glee of kids waking up to snow, and their growing excitement as recess approaches.

Reid’s unique artistic approach adds a three-dimensional quality to her illustrations that makes readers feel as though they, too, are out amid the icy drifts. She molds figures out of Plasticine, a modeling clay, and combines these creations with ink and watercolor panels. The resulting scenes are colorful and lively, such as a bird’s-eye view of a schoolyard filled with kids, and the words, “The recess bell set off a stampede. Kids swarmed the snow like ants on a dropped ice cream cone.”

This playground becomes the scene of possible conflict: Jim is determined to build a “totally massive, indestructible Snow Fortress of Doom,” while Scott labors to make a team of snowmen. Happily, when Jim’s resulting “blizzard of destruction” threatens to destroy Scott’s creation, Jim deftly steps in and saves the day.

ALONG FOR THE RIDE
Preschoolers will enjoy Lita Judge’s Red Sled, the story of a little girl who lives in a mountain cabin and leaves her red sled out on her front porch. A curious bear approaches one night and decides to take the sled for a joy ride, and soon finds himself zooming with wild abandon down the snowy slopes. Before long the bear is joined by a menagerie that includes a rabbit, moose, possum, porcupine and mouse.

Judge deftly illustrates the fun as the animals bask in their growing speed. Her text is nearly wordless except for onomatopoeic words that parallel the animals’ adventures: “alley-oop,” “gadung gadung,” “whoa,” and finally, upon landing, “fluoomp……ft.” Parents and kids will enjoy this sweet, energy-filled tale, and will be amused to see what happens once the little girl discovers that her sled has been “borrowed.”

SAYING GOODBYE
The fun always comes to an end, and Alison McGhee’s Making a Friend addresses the inevitable cycle of falling and melting snow. A little boy carefully makes a snowman, but later wonders where his beloved friend goes after it melts. As spring arrives, the boy observes, “Look. He is in the falling water / and the rain upon the ocean.”

In what becomes a gentle meditation not only on snow, but on the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life, the text repeats the message, “What you love will always be with you.” The boy enjoys summer and fall, and finally, winter returns, as does his snowman. Marc Rosenthal’s illustrations add resonance to the book’s message, managing to be wistful, meditative and yet concrete, focusing on the transforming elements of this youngster’s world.

After a cold winter’s day, grab one of these books, a steaming cup of cocoa, and let it snow!

By March my friends are usually ready to shoot me, because I never get tired of snow. There's so much fun to be had, as these new picture books confirm.

PLAYGROUND BATTLES
Barbara Reid’s Perfect Snow does just what its title suggests, by beautifully capturing the…

Romance

Swoon-worthy new series

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Every reader knows the feeling: You turn the last page in a book, and sadness sets in. As Avon executive editor Erika Tsang says, “Readers don’t want to let go of characters they’ve come to love. We want to know what happens next.”

Luckily, with many romance stories, you don’t have to say goodbye. “With series we get to return, time and again, to a place and a cast of characters that have become like family to us,”explains Amy Pierpont, editorial director of Forever, Grand Central’s romance imprint. Here, we’ve highlighted three new series from debut authors that will give you what Dianne Moggy, Harlequin’s vice president of series editorial and subrights, calls “happiness hits,” the kind of romance novels that “give us permission to escape from the day-to-day reality of our lives.”

FIRELIGHT
Take Beauty and the Beast, make the costumes skimpier and add some demons and a quest for eternal life, and you’ll have the first book in Kristen Callihan’s Darkest London series. Set in Victorian England, Firelight draws readers in with the many secrets of Miranda, a pistol of a woman with special abilities, and Lord Benjamin Archer, the masked man she must marry. Murder, a secret society and overwhelming desire keep Archer and Miranda on their toes—and keep readers turning pages.

CHEMISTRY INDEX: Medium-high. The couple’s frequent quarreling (hot as it is) can sometimes get in the way of the good stuff.
SIZZLE-O-METER: Read with a cold shower nearby!
FAVORITE LINES: “Does watching me eat entertain you?” she murmured when she felt his eyes upon her.
“Yes. You do so with such hedonistic abandon.” His gaze went hot. “It is rather stirring. Perhaps I should bid you to forego the silverware, if only to see how you use your hands.”

—CAT D. ACREE

VENGEANCE BORN
In the first book of Kylie Griffin’s Novels of the Light Blade series, Annika, the half-human daughter of a demon king, helps Kalan, a Light Blade warrior, escape from her father’s dungeons. Annika was conceived as an act of revenge, and she’s been tormented beyond endurance. Kalan alone holds the key to her future. This unlikely couple will enthrall readers as they take a stand against hatred and bigotry—all in the name of love.

CHEMISTRY INDEX: Hero and heroine are like moths to the flame.
SIZZLE-O-METER: In spite of the constant danger that surrounds Annika and Kalan, sparks ignite—and a slow burn turns into an eternal fire.
FAVORITE LINE: “You’re aroused.”

—KAREN ELLEY

A TOWN CALLED VALENTINE
In Valentine Valley, a Colorado town that’s famous for romance, Emily Murphy meets Nate Thalberg, a sweet and sexy rancher. Emily’s in town to fix up her family’s building and sell it, quick, so she can go back to college. Nate helps her with the renovations . . . and teaches Emily a thing or two about love.

CHEMISTRY INDEX: Electric. Nate and Emily feel an immediate attraction, but then she backs off, thanks to her rocky romantic history. As they get to know each other better, the slow-and-steady build feels realistic and true.
SIZZLE-O-METER: Hot and heavy.
FAVORITE LINE: “But then his eyes locked on her, and suddenly she was back?in the bar, his mouth on hers, his hands making her feel like a woman once again.”

—ELIZA BORNÉ

Visit The Book Case to read about more new romance series and trends.

Every reader knows the feeling: You turn the last page in a book, and sadness sets in. As Avon executive editor Erika Tsang says, “Readers don’t want to let go of characters they’ve come to love. We want to know what happens next.”

Luckily, with many…

Nonfiction

Partners in love and life

Feature by bookpagedev

Looking for a Valentine’s Day gift that’s not candy or flowers? Three new books offer fresh insight on modern love—along with a healthy dose of humor.

BETTER? YOU BET
After nearly 10 years of marriage to her husband Dan, Elizabeth Weil still felt “proud, nearly giddy” about being his wife. She also worried: “Because just as I believed that marriages formed slowly over time, I also believed they broke that way.” Armed with a goal-oriented mindset, Weil decided she and Dan would embark on a year-long marriage improvement project and proactively address things that weren’t such a big deal at the moment—e.g., their laissez-faire approach to money management, differing marital role models—but might become problems later. From religion (should they raise their daughters Jewish?) to food (he brings home and cooks entire animals, she’s not thrilled) to partnership (they swim in a punishing race from Alcatraz to San Francisco), No Cheating, No Dying explores the ways in which two people can form and strengthen bonds—or accept some things just the way they are. This is an eminently enjoyable tale of a committed, kooky couple and an excellent resource for doing a relationship tune-up of your own.

100 SIMPLE RULES
Clinical psychologist Harriet Lerner is perhaps best known for her bestseller The Dance of Anger, but she’s also written books on motherhood, fear, sex and more. In ­Marriage Rules, she offers rules for long-term relationships. There are 100, but not to worry: They’re straightforward, brief and organized by subject matter, so readers can turn right to sections like “How To Connect with a Distant Partner” and “Forget About Normal Sex.” Lerner’s not trying to be heavy-handed; she suggests readers regard rules “as pretty good ideas to consider. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of our own common sense.” Her list of 100 should do the trick, and anecdotes about all manner of couples, including herself and her husband, demonstrate how the rules can be helpful, when gracefully applied.

THE HILARITY OF LOVE
If it’s by The Onion, it’s gotta be irreverent and funny with a good hit of raunchy, and Love, Sex and Other Natural Disasters doesn’t disappoint. This compendium of “relationship reporting” has hilarious entries galore, from news briefs like “New Girlfriend Bears Disturbing Resemblance to Old Girlfriend” to a report about “Voyeur Concerned About Lack of Sex in Neighbors’ Marriage.” There are dating tips, too, such as: “Do not bathe for several days prior to a date to get your pheromones good and strong,” and “Please, for the love of God, just stop doing that weird chewing thing with your mouth.” With its trademark combination of silly and spot-on, The Onion brain trust has created another laugh-out-loud volume of articles, photos and infographics that will perk up Valentine’s Day for sure.

Looking for a Valentine’s Day gift that’s not candy or flowers? Three new books offer fresh insight on modern love—along with a healthy dose of humor.

BETTER? YOU BET
After nearly 10 years of marriage to her husband Dan, Elizabeth Weil still felt “proud,…

Fiction

Spotlight: Short stories

Feature by Harvey Freedenberg

It’s an embarrassment of riches to have new collections by short story masters Nathan Englander and Dan Chaon released on the same day (Feb. 7). After publishing novels in 2007 and 2009, respectively, they’ve returned to a form that showcases their talents at fashioning sturdily constructed, memorable tales.

Englander caused a stir in 1999 with his first collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, which offered unorthodox glimpses into the world of Orthodox Judaism. He stays close to his roots here, echoing the art of Jewish short fiction masters from Isaac Bashevis Singer to Philip Roth in tales that are both contemporary and timeless.

Most of the Jewish characters that populate the stories in What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank are survivors (literally so, for the several who endured the Holocaust). Nowhere is that more dramatically demonstrated than in the novelistic “Sister Hills,” set in the northern portion of the territory captured by Israel in 1967. The story spans decades, and focuses on Rena and Yehudit, settlers who occupy two desolate settlements on “empty mountains that God had long ago given Israel but that Israel had long ago forgotten.” With its mythic overtones, it’s a stunning narrative achievement.

Englander is intrigued by the difficulty of moral choices, as displayed in stories like “Camp Sundown,” when a group of Holocaust survivors at an elderhostel camp decide to take revenge on a man they believe was a Nazi guard at a concentration camp. And the title story, evoking a classic Raymond Carver tale, follows two couples—one, assimilated South Floridians; the other, friends who have abandoned America for an ultra-Orthodox life in Israel—as they debate which of them would shelter the other in a new Holocaust.

As serious as some of Englander’s themes may be, he displays an equally potent gift for comedy, most notably in “How We Avenged the Blums,” recounting the fumbling efforts of a group of Long Island Jewish boys and their dubious Russian martial arts teacher to retaliate against an iconic bully, “the Anti-Semite.”

Several of the stories in Dan ­Chaon’s Stay Awake have the same enigmatic aura as his 2009 novel, Await Your Reply, an intricate exploration of identity in the cyber-age. From the opener, “The Bees,” in which a recovering alcoholic is haunted by his decision to abandon his wife and young son, a chill descends on Chaon’s world.

The mostly male protagonists  are stunted, both economically and emotionally. The employed ones work as supermarket clerks or UPS drivers, and the most accomplished, a former college professor in the story “Long Delayed, Always Expected,” has been brain damaged in an automobile accident.

Death is another thread that unites Chaon’s stories. Two moving examples are the title story, in which a child is born with a “parasitic” twin head with an underdeveloped body attached to hers, and “Thinking of You in Your Time of Sorrow,” where a teenager and his “former future wife” struggle after their newborn’s death.

Though their subject matter could not differ more dramatically, in their moral seriousness and literary craftsmanship Nathan Englander and Dan Chaon deliver some of the best of what contemporary short fiction has to offer.

It’s an embarrassment of riches to have new collections by short story masters Nathan Englander and Dan Chaon released on the same day (Feb. 7). After publishing novels in 2007 and 2009, respectively, they’ve returned to a form that showcases their talents at fashioning sturdily…

Children's & YAPicture Book

African-American tales of triumph

Feature by Julie Hale

Black History Month is a special period of celebration and commemoration—a time for looking back at the individuals and events that made progress possible. In honor of this special time, BookPage has rounded up a group of new picture books that chronicle some of the highlights of the African-American legacy.

MAKING SPIRITS SOAR
In Touch the Sky: Alice Coachman, Olympic High Jumper, Ann Malaspina revisits a thrilling chapter in American sports—the story of the first black woman to win an Olympic gold medal. Born in Albany, Georgia, to impoverished parents, Alice Coachman seems destined to defy gravity. Leaping over tree roots and shooting baskets with towering boys, practicing the high jump with a crossbar made of branches and rags, Alice, as depicted in Eric Velasquez’s dynamic paintings, seems always to be airborne. Her father disapproves of her tomboyish behavior, but when she’s invited to join the Tuskegee Institute’s famous Golden Tigerettes track team, Alice develops skills that take her to the 1948 London Olympics. There she soars farther than she ever imagined, setting a new Olympic high jump record. Malaspina employs a spirited prose style to tell the story of Alice’s extraordinary career.

A LEADER GETS HIS START
Proving that knowledge really is power, Lesa Cline-Ransome’s Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass recounts the rise of one of America’s greatest orators. Frederick Douglass spends his early childhood on a Maryland plantation where slaves caught reading are severely punished. When he’s transferred to the home of the Auld family in Baltimore, Frederick gets his first taste of formal education. Kind-hearted Missus Auld gives him lessons in the alphabet, and Frederick is soon obsessed, practicing in secret with a brick and chalk. At the age of 12, he buys his first newspaper and encounters words like “abolition” and “liberty.” Against all odds, Frederick educates himself and—later on, at great risk—his fellow slaves. By unlocking the secrets of language, he arms himself for the future. Featuring beautifully nuanced pictures by the author’s husband, James E. Ransome, this moving book comes with a clear message: Education is the key to success.

OVATION FOR A LEGEND
With Jazz Age Josephine, Jonah Winter offers an irresistible homage to a groundbreaking performer. Born dirt poor in St. Louis, Missouri, young Josephine Baker spends part of her childhood in the city slums, where she’s taunted by other kids. Using theatrics as a survival tactic—clowning and dancing to hide her hurt—she makes a little money and eventually joins a traveling show as a dancer, but the blues follow. At one point, she’s so broke, a bench in Central Park serves as her bed. At the age of 19, Josephine takes off for Paris, where she finds her artistic footing and gets a taste of what liberation is like. Embracing her race and blossoming as a performer, she hits the heights of fame but never forgets her St. Louis roots. Winter’s blues-inflected writing style is perfectly complemented by Marjorie Priceman’s bright, impressionistic visuals. Brimming with infectious energy, Winter’s book is a showstopper from start to finish.

HOME RUN HERO
Showing how team spirit in sports helped break down racial barriers, Chris Crowe’s Just as Good: How Larry Doby Changed America’s Game is a wonderful depiction of the brotherhood of baseball. It’s the fall of 1948, and the city of Cleveland is humming with anticipation for game four of the World Series—a contest between the city’s own Indians and the Boston Braves. An African-American boy named Homer narrates the events of the big day, as he and his parents gather around the radio to listen to the game. Homer’s hero, Larry Doby, the first black player in the American League, will be stepping up to the plate. When Doby hits a home run in the third inning, he makes history, becoming the first African-American ballplayer to do so in the World Series. Mike Benny depicts Homer’s wide-eyed excitement through luminous illustrations, while Crowe seamlessly weaves facts and stats from the actual game into the storyline.

VERSES OF FREEDOM
Ntozake Shange is a beloved African-American playwright, poet and novelist. With Freedom’s
a-Callin’ Me, she delivers a timeless collection of verse inspired by the Underground Railroad—dramatic and impassioned poems about slaves dreaming of escape, the white folks who help them and the trackers who trail them. Shange writes with wonderful authenticity and an ear for syntax, conjuring up a group of unforgettable narrators who experience hope, danger and loss on the road to a better life. The book’s title poem eloquently describes one man’s plan to flee, to “mix myself way low in the cotton . . . wind myself like a snake / till ah can swim ’cross the stream.” The poems are filled with arresting imagery—slave hunters leading ferocious hounds, overseers wielding their whips—which Rod Brown brings to life in his sensitively rendered paintings. Throughout the book, Shange offers different perspectives and stories to create a multifaceted look at the secret system that changed so many lives. This is a wonderful introduction to an important chapter in African-American history—and to the narrative possibilities of poetry.

A REMARKABLE DAY
Written and illustrated by acclaimed author Shane W. ­Evans, We March is a stirring account of a history-making event as seen through the eyes of one African-American family. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people came together for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an episode forever inscribed on the American memory thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Evans’ tale brings the momentous day down to a personal level, as the family prepares to march, painting signs, praying and joining the procession to the Lincoln Memorial. Evans’ brief, poetic lines have a simple majesty that reflects the significance of the occasion. His vibrantly illustrated story gives readers a sense of what it might have been like to join the crowd taking crucial steps on the road to freedom.

Black History Month is a special period of celebration and commemoration—a time for looking back at the individuals and events that made progress possible. In honor of this special time, BookPage has rounded up a group of new picture books that chronicle some of the…

Romance

Romantic delights for Valentine’s Day

Feature by Lois Dyer

February has arrived: the month of hearts, cupids and romance. What better way to celebrate than with a romance novel? Fortunately for readers, the month brings four exceptionally stellar romance novels. Indulge. Enjoy. Viva la romance!

A STUNNING FINALE TO A HEROIC TRILOGY

Best-selling author Stephanie Laurens returns readers to Regency England and the ranks of her beloved Cynster family with The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae, the third title in the Searching For A Hero trilogy. At last, readers will learn why a mysterious Scottish lord has dared to kidnap two ladies of the British ton. And these are not just any ladies—they’re sisters and members of the Cynster family. The powerful family had been told that the man behind the kidnappings had fallen to his death. But now Angelica Cynster, the youngest of the three sisters, has become his third target.

When Angelica Cynster sees a tall, dark, handsome lord across a ballroom, she’s intrigued and determined to meet him. She has no idea that Dominic Guisachan, the Earl of Glencrae, is the man responsible for the earlier kidnappings of her two older sisters. Before the night is over, Dominic explains the reason behind the mysterious kidnappings and asks for her help. After considering the Earl’s tale, Angelica takes the biggest gamble of her life and agrees to join forces with him to save his highland clan. When Dominic leaves London for Scotland, Angelica goes with him. He knew their escape from London would be fraught with danger, but Dominic hadn’t anticipated the threat Angelica would pose to his heart. As an honorable lord of the realm, he’s fully aware that taking her with him means they must marry. She, however, insists on postponing a decision as to whether she will wed until they’ve resolved the threat to his clan.

The journey is fraught with danger but at last they reach Mheadhoin Castle. Despite Dominic’s warnings, Angelica finds the mystery and danger swirling about his castle even more ominous than she’d expected. Old enmities, long-held grudges, and dangerous secrets threaten violence and harm to both her and Dominic. Fortunately, the long trip from London to Scotland has forged a deep, passionate bond between them. They will need all their faith and determination to defeat the evil forces bent on destroying Dominic’s clan from within.

The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae is a wonderfully satisfying conclusion to this series. No question is left unanswered, no plot thread left dangling as Ms. Laurens deftly wraps up the trilogy while giving readers a fully developed, intriguing story that stands on its own. Longtime readers will delight in appearances by Cynster family members and new fans will be charmed to meet characters from prior books. As always in a Laurens’ story, the novel’s Regency setting is brilliantly detailed and the romance heated and passionate.

SECRETS, SIZZLE AND PSI-CODES

Seattle author Jayne Ann Krentz launches the Dark Legacy series with Copper Beach, a contemporary paranormal mystery set in the Pacific Northwest.

Rare book locator Abby Radwell has an unusual psychic gift: She can unlock the psi-codes in books sealed by paranormal means. The unique talent brings her to the attention of a dangerous killer who needs her expertise in locating a long-lost lab journal and decoding its secrets. When blackmail notes arrive in her email inbox, Abby realizes someone has discovered that she has a second, rarely-used and powerful, psychic talent. She turns to investigator Sam Coppersmith to stop the threats, keep her safe and expose the blackmailer.

The mysterious, reclusive Sam has his own secrets. He suspects the threats to Abby are linked to a business associate and a decades-old lab book that has recently surfaced. Sam’s father is convinced the information contained in the lab notes has the potential to cause havoc in the world. Sam agrees with his father that some paranormal secrets are too dangerous for man to control.

The moment Sam meets Abby, he reacts to her on every level—sexually, mentally, emotionally—and his responses are heightened by the flare of psychic energy that sizzles between them. Abby feels the same and it’s soon clear that they’re bound together by more than their need to solve the threat to her life.

It’s equally apparent that someone is willing to do whatever it takes, including murder, to gain possession of the rare lab book and compel Abby’s cooperation in unlocking its secrets. Soon, too many people are dying and it will take all of Sam and Abby’s combined mental agility and psychic strengths to stay alive and unveil the killer.

Ms. Krentz continues a long list of excellent paranormal mysteries with Copper Beach. The novel blends paranormal elements with blackmail, murder and romance with seamless ease. There’s a thoroughly satisfying personal arc for Abby, as well, as she resolves long-held issues with difficult members of her blended family. As always with Ms. Krentz, the writing is crisp and clean, the characters well-developed, the setting vivid and the plot details well constructed. All in all, Copper Beach is one terrific read.

ELECTRIC, INEVITABLE ATTRACTION

Author Heather Snow makes her literary debut with Sweet Enemy, a historical romance set in Regency England. Beautiful Liliana Claremont is determined to spend her life pursuing the study of chemistry, botany and other assorted sciences. She has no interest in acquiring a husband. But when she discovers that her father’s death was not caused by burglars but was instead premeditated murder, she’s determined to find out why he was killed. The clues point to a connection with the deceased Earl of Stratford and she agrees to accompany her aunt and cousin to a house party at the Stratford country estate; the opportunity to further her investigation is simply too good to resist.

Indulge in four romantic novels this Valentine's Day.

The current Earl of Stratford, Geoffrey Wentworth, has no interest in marriage, either. He’s tricked into returning to his country estate by an urgent letter from his scheming mother. When he arrives, he learns she’s determined to maneuver him into proposing marriage to one of the eligible ladies she’s gathered for a house party. Furious at being called away from his political labors in London, Geoffrey remains at the estate only because his mother has also invited several powerful men with whom he seeks alliances. Nonetheless, he swears to cede his manipulative mother only minimal cooperation. As to choosing one of the hopeful ladies as his bride? He’s adamantly opposed and has no intention of selecting a future wife from the gathering.

Both Liliana and Geoffrey’s plans go awry on the very first night when Geoffrey bumps into Liliana and literally knocks her into his arms. From then on, their interaction appears inevitable. Fate seems determined to throw them together and their prejudices are gradually erased as they discover that neither is what the other expected. Despite their earlier intentions, both find themselves falling in love, though each struggles to deny the deepening emotion.

As Liliana searches for clues to her father’s murder, she uncovers startling information that threatens the growing connection between herself and Geoffrey. She fears the truth will destroy any hope of a future for them, yet she feels compelled to solve the mystery. Neither Liliana nor Geoffrey could have foreseen the danger that threatens their lives nor the depth of love that will be required to save them.

Sweet Enemy pairs a strong, independent heroine with a compassionate, politically active hero. The heroine’s unique knowledge of chemistry provides for some interesting twists, which combine with a solid plot, well-developed characters and deftly drawn setting to make an excellent first novel. Readers will be delighted to add Ms. Snow to their list of must-read authors.

THRILLS AND CHILLS

Best-selling author Lara Adrian moves to hardcover with Darker After Midnight, a riveting novel that will keep readers mesmerized. This 10th title in the author’s Midnight Breed series stars Sterling Chase, a member of a group of Breed warriors called the Order. The Order is charged with protecting Breeds and maintaining peace with the human world, but Sterling has fallen from grace and is edging much too close to the line dividing sanity and madness.

Beautiful Tavia Fairchild witnesses Sterling in what she thinks is a serious crime, and he takes her captive when he runs from the police. Something about Tavia calls to his deepest instincts, but even Sterling could not have predicted the stunning truth about the beautiful female.

Thrust into a world she never knew existed, Tavia is forced to rely on Sterling and his fellow warriors if she’s to survive— for the ultimate evil, a power-mad vampire named Dragos, is about to detonate chaos on an unsuspecting earth. With the streets awash in blood and death, Sterling and Tavia will have to use all their combined power and cunning to defeat Dragos and save the world.

Legions of paranormal romance readers are addicted to Adrian’s novels, and Darker After Midnight is sure to delight her fans with its thrills, chills and shocking revelations about the world of the Midnight Breeds. If you like romance combined with heart-stopping paranormal suspense, you’re going to love this book.

Lois Faye Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

February has arrived: the month of hearts, cupids and romance. What better way to celebrate than with a romance novel? Fortunately for readers, the month brings four exceptionally stellar romance novels. Indulge. Enjoy. Viva la romance!

A STUNNING FINALE TO A HEROIC TRILOGY

Best-selling author Stephanie…

NonfictionBiography

The lives and times of exceptional women

Feature by Deanna Larson

One day, we won’t need to set aside a month to honor women’s contributions to history, since their accomplishments won’t be considered exceptions. Until then, we’ll wait each year for March to bring new histories and biographies to savor. This year, new books highlight the diverse lives of three exceptional women.

ON MADISON AVENUE . . .

The Lucky Strike-puffing, martini-fueled “mad men” of the glamorous heyday of advertising are sexy again, thanks to the hit TV show. But “mad women” were also making their mark in the testosterone-dominated advertising industry of the 1960s and ’70s, producing sharp copy, courting big clients and making shrewd business moves while the other hand slapped away the pinches and grabs. In Mad Women, advertising exec Jane Maas dishes the juicy details of a long career that began in 1964 as copywriter at the legendary agency Ogilvy & Mather. After rising to O&M creative director and moving on to other storied agencies, eventually running her own shop, Maas capped her award-winning career by directing the famous “I Love New York” campaign (she still works as a consultant for the industry). With zany dashes from tidbit to tangent in sections including Sex in the Office, Get the Money Before They Screw You and The Three-Martini Lunch and Other Vices, Maas is the embodiment of Kay Thompson’s character from Funny Face, a woman who can say, “I was the first woman to wear a pantsuit to the office. It was 1965, and I caused quite a stir,” yet doesn’t hesitate to admit that her husband selected all of her clothes for her. Part respectful homage to a glamorous and golden age, part good gossip over lunch at 21, Mad Women proves that behind every man’s career, another successful woman is pedaling even faster to get where she is today.

. . . AND ON THE FRONT PAGE

Privileged and politically connected men controlled the influential newspaper and magazine businesses of the 19th and early 20th centuries. So it was quite surprising to find a woman at the helm of two major English-language papers. Enter The First Lady of Fleet Street. Rachel Beer’s fascinating story begins as a descendant of the House of Sassoon, a Jewish Indian family that made its fortune in opium and cotton. Born in Bombay in 1858, Rachel Sassoon later moved with her family to England, where they became one of London’s most prominent immigrant families. In “a union of the East and West in flourishing Victorian London,” she married Frederick Beer, whose family came from the Frankfurt ghetto to make their fortune in railroads and telegraphy. Contending with a climate unfriendly to Jews, the families found that “money was a powerful tool for breaking down the barriers of the class system.” Rachel Beer became owner of the Sunday Times and the Observer during the rise of the “so-called New Woman” who emerged on the verge of the 20th century asking for equality and the vote. She ran her papers “with the woman reader in mind,” yet wrote challenging editorials on weighty world affairs—even getting involved in a scandal of the time—while still fitting in a lavish social life and philanthropic work. With The First Lady of Fleet Street, authors Eilat Negev and Yehuda Koren illuminate a small but fascinating period of Jewish and British history.

SCOUTING OUT A NEW PATH

There are few American women who didn’t experience formative times as a Brownie or Girl Scout. In the delightful new biography Juliette Gordon Low, historian Stacy A. Cordery peeks into the life of a cheerful, imaginative, slightly dotty girl who became an accidental reformer, feminist and leader of one of the most influential organizations of the 20th century. Juliette was the daughter of a proud independent mother and rebel soldier father who moved back and forth between Savannah and Chicago during the Civil War. She grew up to make a bad marriage to philandering British/American aristocrat Willy Low, who died before she could divorce him, then remained in Britain, looking for a way “to do good in the world.” Enter the dashing General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, whom she met in 1911 after he left the British army to form the Boy Scouts. His great experiment to teach boys “soldiering” modeled after samurai and chivalry inspired Low to become involved in the British female version, the Girl Guides. She brought the idea home to Savannah the following year, under the name Girl Scouts. Cordery traces how Low’s peripatetic upbringing formed her patriotism, practicality and love of fun, adventure and the outdoors, and her grown-up leadership skills and passion for the potential in all young women made her uniquely poised to embody Scouting values for generations of women around the world.

One day, we won’t need to set aside a month to honor women’s contributions to history, since their accomplishments won’t be considered exceptions. Until then, we’ll wait each year for March to bring new histories and biographies to savor. This year, new books highlight the…

NonfictionFiction

The tragedy that still resonates, a century later

Feature by Heather Seggel

April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and several new books are being published to both mark the centennial and shed new light on the famous disaster. The selections featured here range from straight historical analysis of the event to fiction that uses the sinking ship as a starting place for its characters.

SOULS ON BOARD

Voyagers of the Titanic focuses on the ship’s passengers, from first class and its posh surroundings down to those in steerage, some of whom helped to build the ship. Biographer and historian Richard Davenport-Hines finds stories even in the items recovered from the dead: John Jacob Astor IV, the ship’s wealthiest passenger, died with $4,000 cash on his person, while Greek farmworker Vassilios Katavelas carried just a mirror, comb, 10 cents and a train ticket. A gripping chapter dedicated to plotting out the ship’s collision and sinking is where such attention to detail pays off—having come to know and care about the people on board in a new way makes the poignancy of losing them fresh again.

DISSECTING A DISASTER

Maritime historian John Maxtone-Graham begins Titanic Tragedy with biographical sketches of Guglielmo Marconi and Samuel Morse, whose inventions enabled wireless communication between ships. (They seemingly foresaw instant messaging, too: Busy radio operators would dismiss interruptions with “GTH” rather than type “Go to Hell.”) While there were failings in radio communication during the wreck, without it everyone on board would have perished while awaiting rescue. Maxtone-Graham then shifts focus to bring us inside the shipyard and the building of the ocean liner everyone thought unsinkable, and captures the drama of its untimely end without injecting his opinion. There are no broadly drawn heroes and villains here, just people thrown into a desperate situation for which they are horribly unprepared. He reserves his ire for those who have turned historically relevant sites into tourist attractions or housing developments; those locations contain stories yet untold that may never be known to us.

There are no broadly drawn heroes and villains here, just people thrown into a desperate situation for which they are horribly unprepared.

THOSE LEFT BEHIND

Andrew Wilson’s Shadow of the Titanic looks for meaning in the aftermath of the disaster, following up on survivors “after the glare of attention had dimmed.” It’s both dishy and speculative, and as such very entertaining. White Star Lines Captain Bruce Ismay, long despised for taking a seat in a lifeboat rather than going down with the ship (a scenario eerily relived in the recent sinking of the Costa Concordia), is casually labeled a “masochist” on rather scant evidence. The nervous chatter among some first-class passengers while awaiting rescue is parsed for damning evidence of self-involvement among the idle rich. Shadow of the Titanic nevertheless gives us an interesting new view of the tragedy, including the fact that among survivors, some felt the four days aboard the rescue ship Carpathia were more traumatic than the accident that led them there.

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

Shifting gears, we find a novel that sets sail just in time to crash, at which point things really get interesting. In The Dressmaker, novelist Kate Alcott invents a plucky maid for the very real Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, fashion designer and inventor of the runway show. The story opens with Tess Collins spontaneously hiring on with “Madame” and boarding the doomed ocean liner. By the time boat meets iceberg, she’s already attracted two suitors and begun to assume an inappropriate degree of familiarity with her cruel and capricious new boss. The love triangle plays out as public hearings threaten the Duff Gordon name, and Tess quickly trades in her tea tray for needle and thread as she moves up in the rag trade. The historical backdrop includes a look at the burgeoning movement for women’s suffrage, and some of the dialogue from the hearings is lifted verbatim from Lady Duff Gordon’s actual testimony in a British inquiry. The Dressmaker is a Titanic story, but more than that, a finely stitched work about love and loyalty.

April 14, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and several new books are being published to both mark the centennial and shed new light on the famous disaster. The selections featured here range from straight historical analysis of the event…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Making the shift from playtime to bedtime

Feature by Joanna Brichetto

Bedtime books are worth their weight in gold if they work. The good ones—like these five new picture books—can help parents and children ease the tricky transition from day to night, light to dark and together to alone.

IN SHINING ARMOR
Owen Davey’s Night Knight transforms every element of a typical, boring bedtime routine into something fantastical. “For a knight like me, going to bed . . . is a great adventure,” begins the story, with one half of the sentence on the left page accompanying a boy wearing PJs and a colander helmet, and the other half of the sentence over on the right, with the same boy, same yawn, but dressed in full knightly getup. As he heads down the hallway and climbs the stairs, each picture combines the real and the fantastic: a telephone table and a forest, a hall closet and a snow-peaked mountain. The artwork, self-described as “contemporary and nostalgic,” calms in warm, muted brick tones, even as the imagined action busies itself with mythical creatures and noble exertions. Preschool and kindergarten children and parents will dub this daydream royally engaging.

NATURE’S WAY
Sweet Dreams by Rose A. Lewis, illustrated by Jen Corace, is a nature lullaby that works by color-soaked stealth. Although it begins and ends with the same four-line wish for “my precious child” whose “dreams be long and sweet,” thefocus is not so much on the child being put to bed as it is on the nighttime world waking outside the window. Mr. Moon, “who’ll watch you through the night,” also watches owlets in a nest and a tiny mouse family, while moonflower blossoms eclipse spent morning glories. Butterflies trade places with gray moths as crickets, possums, raccoons, frogs and other nocturnal animals “come alive in darkness.” Night, then, is something natural and nothing to fear. Lilting verse and predictable rhymes keep the mood soft but open to interaction. Young children can supply the last word of each page, or succumb entirely (and tiredly) to sleep.

A STUBBORN HOLDOUT
The daughter-father team of Kate and Jules Feiffer has created another winner with No Go Sleep! In a marvelous economy of word and ink, they transform what is one of the most frustrating scenarios of all time—the sleep-resistant baby—into its own delightful antidote. “One night when the stars were out and the moon was bright, a baby said, ‘No go sleep!’ “ Mom, Dad and the rest of the adjacent world, working in a gentle and benevolent conspiracy, try to persuade baby it is really, truly time. The sun, moon and stars weigh in, as do birds, frogs, bunnies, the tree above the house and “a car driving by” (which says, “Beep, beep, sleep, sleep”). Birds, frogs and bunnies reassure baby that he won’t be missing much. The dog, however, is already asleep. Resistance is lovingly futile, and the abrupt ending is a happy one for all concerned.

FAMILY OUTINGS
Good Night, Laila Tov by Laurel Snyder, illustrated by Jui Ishida, uses simple, rhyming verse to describe a family on a camping trip. “Good night, laila tov” is the restful refrain after each day’s adventures in the natural world: A sunset sky sings it, a nighttime road rumbles it, a forest storm shushes it, and ocean waves whisper it. Laila tov happens to be Hebrew for “good night,” just as the sweet family in the luminous illustrations happens to be Jewish. The particular becomes universal with takeaway themes of discovery (and stewardship) of the environment, family time and gratitude. All families should be this lucky: to plant tree seedlings, gather berries, collect treasures in a jar, watch deer in a field and tuck each other into bed so tenderly. The youngest listeners will enjoy guessing the predictable rhyme at the end of each couplet.

IT’S TIME!
Adam Mansbach’s Seriously, Just Go to Sleep is a hoot. Exhausted parents need a chuckle at the end of an impossibly long day, and this G-rated version of the surprise bestseller Go the F**k to Sleep will deliver it. If you were too scandalized to pick up a copy of the adult book, try this one. If you bought the first version and hid it so well that you will never find it, this one is 100 percent safe. Even toddlers will appreciate Ricardo Cortés’ illustrations of cheeky peers wide awake amid sleeping lions, farm animals and all manner of obligingly restful critters. The rhythmic text describes natural, sleepy scenes, but each ends in a plea for the child at hand, the one still awake right now, to join the club already. This insistent change of key is funny on any level: sweet, sarcastic or just plain tired.

Bedtime books are worth their weight in gold if they work. The good ones—like these five new picture books—can help parents and children ease the tricky transition from day to night, light to dark and together to alone.

IN SHINING ARMOR
Owen Davey’s Night…

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