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Observing the seasons of faith

Feature by Howard Shirley

An early Easter brings the hope of spring and the promise of seasons to come as winter’s shadow slowly recedes. It’s a time of faith, a time to remember and renew, a time to reflect on the promise of Christ.

EMBRACING CHANGE
The cycle of life and the wonder of nature rest at the heart of Christie Purifoy’s Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons. When Purifoy and her family left Florida for Maplehurst, a 19th-century farmhouse in Pennsylvania, they dreamed of experiencing the full spectrum of changing seasons. From the August day they opened the old front door to a year later and a new August day, Purifoy found not only the beauty of the seasons, but also a growing appreciation for God’s gifts, asked for and received, looked for and unexpected—a year of faith as well as a year of nature’s bounty. Roots and Sky is Purifoy’s memoir of striving to make a home and face the ins and outs of life as it moves from one moment to the next. Throughout the year, she sees how God is speaking to her, touching and teaching in every event〞a faith lived in the metaphors of life. 

Purifoy refers to her experience as “a pilgrimage in one place,” which perfectly captures this beautifully written book. Her memoir celebrates ordinary life, but does so with the depth and power of a river, flowing ever onward.

EMBRACING POSSIBILITY
Finding God in everyday life, or despite everyday life, is Logan Wolfram’s mission in Curious Faith: Rediscovering Hope in the God of Possibility. Like Purifoy, she ponders the seasons of life, which offer opportunities for growth and understanding. Every moment lived with God is a moment to discover something new, Wolfram suggests; it’s not a route to a destination, but a path of constant discovery that never ends. In these discoveries, we can find peace from our worries, strength for our trials, celebrations of our triumphs and comfort in our tragedies. Wolfram shares her personal stories of pain and fear, including a time when she suffered several miscarriages, and reveals how she learned to embrace the discovery God has for her.

Insightful and challenging, but filled with encouragement, Curious Faith reaches into the reader’s life, calling for a renewed faith in a God who is trustworthy, faithful and good, the leader on a journey worth the risk and a life worth the search.

CLOSE TO HOME
Renovate: Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are is both a challenge and a call to full involvement in faith and community. For Léonce B. Crump Jr., this call came personally, as he and his wife left a ministry in Tennessee to move to a depressed, neglected neighborhood in downtown Atlanta. Bemoaning the process of gentrification, Crump set out not to change the neighborhood, but instead to honor and uplift the community that was already there. Passionate and uncompromising, Crump doesn’t hold back in either his criticisms or his call to action. His challenge isn’t always comfortable to read, nor may the reader agree with every point, but since when were challenges comfortable, or passion perfect? The point is to be involved where you are, with whomever surrounds you, to be a servant of God not after a drive across town, but right next door.

A BIBLICAL JOURNEY
In Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve, journalist and fiction writer Tom Bissell chronicles his journeys to the tomb sites of Christ and his Apostles. Bissell’s eye for detail shines as he recounts his explorations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. From a Greek Orthodox priest who communicates with broken English and expressive gestures to the startling contrasts of India, Bissell’s memoir is a modern-day pilgrim’s tale of Old World churches and historic sites. Throughout, Bissell presents the history and cultural traditions behind the sites and the Apostles themselves, both in Christian teaching and secular scholarship. Although he grew up Catholic, Bissell reveals in an author’s note that he experienced a “sudden and decisive” loss of faith as a teenager. The book is framed by that perspective, but it’s a fascinating read for believer and nonbeliever alike. Bissell’s sense of place is evocative, vividly casting images in the reader’s mind of the catacombs, ruins and cathedrals he sees, as well as the variety of faith he encounters.

THE GOSPEL TRUTH
A search through the history of Christianity is also the focus of The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ. In the view of skeptics, the Gospels are unreliable tales, altered by numerous hands to suit a constantly changing early theology. These theories hold that the authors of the Gospels are unknown, that the works were written nearly 100 years after the events and that they are not intended to be accurate records of Jesus’ teachings and actions. With skill, logic and exceptional research, Brant Pitre, professor of sacred scripture at Notre Dame Seminary, argues that such theories are based not on scholarship, but on assumption and speculation〞and a lack of understanding of 1st-century Jewish thought. To affirm the Gospels as truthful biographies, not tall tales, Pitre establishes the credibility of the claimed authorships, dates the time the Gospels were written to within 30 years of Jesus’ life and asserts that the four Gospels fundamentally agree on the divinity of Christ. Reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ famous works, The Case for Jesus brings sound historical authority to any discussion on the nature of New Testament scripture and the beliefs of early Christianity.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

An early Easter brings the hope of spring and the promise of seasons to come as winter’s shadow slowly recedes. It’s a time of faith, a time to remember and renew, a time to reflect on the promise of Christ.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Flights of imagination

Feature by Julie Hale

Big adventures are in store for rising readers, as these three picture books celebrate the imagination and its limitless potential. These inspiring tales are all about discovery, exploration and letting your imagination take the lead. Anything is possible!

An independent little girl gets lost in an adventure of her own imagining in R.W. Alley’s Gretchen Over the Beach. With her spiffy new sunhat and toys, Gretchen is ready to spend a day at the seashore with her siblings. But she’s disappointed when they race to the ocean, leaving her alone on the beach. Gretchen plays in the sand until her hat is caught by a gust of wind. She snags it by the tail—a length of red ribbon—and is soon airborne. Flying along with her toys for company, Gretchen zips over the ocean. A ride on the back of a seagull makes her beach day complete. Alley uses ink, pencil and acrylics to create a swirling dreamscape of ocean and sky—the perfect backdrop for the story of Gretchen and her out-of-this-world imagination. 

FACING UP TO FEAR
Danny Parker’s Parachute is the uplifting story of a small boy who confronts a big challenge. Toby is never without his parachute. Folded away in an orange pack, it makes him feel less uneasy about descending from his bunk bed or swinging in the park. It becomes very necessary when Toby is forced to climb up to his treehouse to retrieve Henry, his cat. Using the parachute, Toby sends Henry safely to the ground. But now Toby is stranded. How will he get down? With the help of his imagination, of course! Artist Matt Ottley plays with perspective in ingenious pictures that deliver a sense of Toby’s vertiginous experience. His paint, pastel and pencil illustrations are filled with brilliant details (like the stuffed rabbit that’s strapped to Toby’s pack). This is a triumphant tale about defeating fear that readers of all ages will appreciate.

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT
Flying bovines and a friendly dragon—there’s plenty to love about Gemma Merino’s The Cow Who Climbed a Tree. Tina the cow is often teased about her inquisitive mind by her sisters, a complacent trio whose thoughts rarely stray beyond their stomachs. In the woods one day, on a whim, Tina climbs a tree, where a surprise awaits her: a winged dragon! The two trade stories and become fast friends. At home, Tina tells her sisters about the dragon, but they don’t believe her. When she disappears the next day, they make their very first venture into the forest in hopes of finding her. The sisters soon learn that the woods are full of wonder, a place where their wildest dreams can take flight. Merino’s delightful illustrations feature simple lines and bold washes of color. Her story is sure to ignite the spirit of discovery in young readers.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Big adventures are in store for rising readers, as these three picture books celebrate the imagination and its limitless potential. These inspiring tales are all about discovery, exploration and letting your imagination take the lead. Anything is possible!
Fiction

Women who made their mark

Feature by Lauren Bufferd

Two events with a lasting effect on American culture are celebrating a centenary in 2016: the founding of Planned Parenthood and Georgia O’Keeffe’s fateful meeting with Alfred Stieglitz. The women at the center of these events are at the heart of two new works of historical fiction.

With the mission of Planned Parenthood being questioned almost as much today as it was at its inception, the timing is eerily apt for Terrible Virtue, Ellen Feldman’s powerful novel about the organization’s founder, Margaret Sanger. Sanger, whose personal life was as tumultuous as her political and social convictions, remains a controversial figure, held to current standards of ethical correctness just as she was held to impossible models of femininity during her lifetime. 

Watching her own mother succumb to an early death after bearing 13 children led Sanger to advocate for family planning, despite a limited formal education. Her desire to make a difference in the lives of poor and working-class women led her to Europe, where ideas about contraception were more progressive. After her return to the United States, she opened a clinic in Brooklyn—and was jailed for it.  

Feldman lets Sanger tell her own story, but separates the chapters with sections narrated by Sanger’s two husbands, her sister and her children. The voices of those who suffered under the singularity of Sanger’s purpose offer depth to Feldman’s vision of this complex figure—a reminder of what was gained, but also what was sacrificed.

A different kind of sacrifice was made by Georgia O’Keeffe in Dawn Tripp’s gorgeous novel, Georgia, which focuses on the years O’Keeffe spent with photographer Alfred Stieglitz. 

The love story of O’Keeffe and Stieglitz is well known. Their passionate affair and his incredible photographs of her, both clothed and nude, caused a sensation at the time and are still considered seminal in the history of photography. But Tripp suggests that O’Keeffe paid a price for that notoriety. The battle that rose between her and Stieglitz was ultimately about her work as an artist, especially her early abstractions, which she believed were overshadowed by the obvious eroticism of his photographs. O’Keeffe’s iron grip on her legacy and her need to reinvent herself in the Southwest is a key part of this exquisitely told story. 

Like Terrible Virtue, Georgia relies on a first-person narrative, but in this novel, there is no other voice but O’Keeffe’s. Though the novel opens and closes in 1979 in New Mexico, it quickly plunges into the years just before World War I. The arrival of the young art teacher at Stieglitz’s gallery in New York, the expansive family home on the shores of Lake George and O’Keeffe’s first glimpses of what would become the major inspiration for the second half of her life, are all beautifully told. 

Terrible Virtue and Georgia remind us that the ongoing culture wars are nothing new, but that life can be changed for the better with bravery, dedication and vision.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Two events with a lasting effect on American culture are celebrating a centenary in 2016: the founding of Planned Parenthood and Georgia O’Keeffe’s fateful meeting with Alfred Stieglitz. The women at the center of these events are at the heart of two new works of historical fiction.
Romance

Hearts gone rogue

Feature by Lois Dyer

Romances set during England’s Regency period have long been a favorite of readers. Tales spun by the likes of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer are perfect examples of the allure of the Regency era, and this month, we’re highlighting three new titles that capture the draw of that dashing, scandalous Regency hero: the rogue.

THE SWORDMASTER AND THE LADY
USA Today bestselling author Katharine Ashe debuts her new Devil’s Duke series with The Rogue. Lady Constance Read, the daughter of a duke, has avoided renowned swordsman Evan Saint-André Sterling for six years. Their first meeting, when she was 18, was magical, but when he learned she was a noblewoman, they parted ways. Now Saint is rich and renowned as the best swordsman in England. He’s still passionately attracted to Constance, and given the heat that swirls between them, he’s unwilling to agree to her father’s request that he instruct her in fencing. However, when he realizes that she is afraid for her safety, he agrees. Despite their mutual determination to remain uninvolved, they’re forced to spend time training together, and it’s quickly apparent that passion threatens their ability to remain aloof. When Constance moves to solve a mystery and expose dangerous people, Saint make the only choice he can to keep her safe. She needs a warrior and a lover, and despite her noble birth, the lady is his.

This novel bridges Ashe’s new series with her wildly successful earlier series, The Falcon Club. Constance is the only female operative in The Falcon Club, and the author meshes these two worlds with marvelous ease. The mystery plotline is intriguing, the looming danger gripping, but the romance between Saint and Constance is truly stellar. Readers will thoroughly enjoy watching these two smart, wary characters set aside past hurts and find their way back to trust and love.

TRUE LOVE NEVER DIES
Once a high school English teacher in Houston’s inner city, bestselling author Shana Galen now writes wonderful historical romances. Her latest is I Kissed A Rogue, the third in the Covent Gardens Cubs series. The younger son of an earl, Sir Brook Derring is England’s best investigator. When Lady Lillian-Anne Lennox is kidnapped, her father, the Duke of Lennox, asks Brook to find her. Seven years earlier, Lila spurned Brook and broke his heart, and he bitterly resents both her and her father. Despite their past association, however, Brook instantly agrees to help. Brook expects to rescue the beautiful Lila and return her to her family before leaving, hoping never to see her again. However, what he couldn’t have anticipated was that the two of them would be forced to remain together. As Brook attempts to keep Lila safe from her escaped captor, it doesn’t take long for Brook to realize that Lila isn’t the spoiled, young debutante he remembers. Indeed, she’s grown into a kind, passionate woman that he cannot resist.

This endearing story of second chances, pride and prejudice, and two people clearly meant for each other is a delight. The action, adventure, sensuality and surprising twist at the end are all icing on a perfectly lovely cake.

SECRETS OF SEDUCTION   
Tennessee English professor and author Anna Harrington delivers a tale of danger and seduction in Along Came A Rogue, the second novel in The Secret Life of Scoundrels Series. The notorious lothario Major Nathaniel Grey once kissed Emily, his best friend Thomas’ little sister, and the repercussions changed her life forever. Now Thomas is critically wounded, and he wants his sister at his side. Nathaniel must fetch the young widow home to London, but what should have been a swift trip to the country becomes something else entirely when he’s met with bullets and a clearly frightened Emily. She insists he leave without her. He insists she return to London with him, and he can’t understand why she refuses. However, when the house is set afire and they barely escape with their lives, Nathaniel knows Emily has reason to be afraid. Even returning to Emily to her father’s home in London isn’t enough to keep her safe, for Emily has a secret, and someone wants her permanently silenced.

In this thoroughly entertaining story, seduction and adventure take center stage. Nathaniel is far more honorable than he will admit, and Emily far braver than she ever imagined. Together, they form a formidable pair that readers are certain to love.

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

This month, we’re highlighting three new titles that capture the draw of that dashing, scandalous Regency hero: the rogue.
Children's & YA

Countdown to Lemony Snicket fun!

Feature by Beth Allen

The months are whizzing by, bringing readers ever closer to getting their hands on a new book in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. For diehard fans who can't bear the wait until September when Book The Eleventh: The Grim Grotto will appear we're helping to pass the time with a recap of the first 10 books in this wonderfully original and wildly popular series.

Just how popular is Lemony Snicket? Books from the series recently held seven of the 10 slots on the New York Times bestseller list for children's chapter books. Despite Mr. Snicket's dire warnings that his books are "extremely unpleasant," more than 18 million readers worldwide have been daring enough to jump on Lemony's bandwagon. If you'd like to join the fun (or should we say the misery and woe?) of reading about the Baudelaire orphans, connect with our countdown and sample all the books in this special series.

This month, we're focusing on Book the Fourth: The Miserable Mill and Book the Fifth: The Austere Academy, where Lemony (aka Daniel Handler) really hits his stride. As Book Four opens, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire are on the move once again, this time to the town of Paltryville, deep in the Finite Forest. The orphans are put to work in the Lucky Smells lumber mill and, as always, must fend off the evil Count Olaf, who is frighteningly eager to get his hands on their vast inheritance. In The Austere Academy, the Baudelaires are shipped off to Prufrock Prep School, where they befriend fellow orphans Duncan and Isadora Quagmire. Unfortunately, Count Olaf (disguised as the school's coach) has plans for this unlucky duo and it doesn't involve playing kickball.

Join us next month as the Lemony countdown continues!

The months are whizzing by, bringing readers ever closer to getting their hands on a new book in Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. For diehard fans who can't bear the wait until September when Book The Eleventh: The Grim Grotto will appear we're helping to pass the time with a recap of the first 10 books in this wonderfully original and wildly popular series.

Children's & YA

Freddy the Pig makes it big

Feature by Michael Sims

"Let joy be unconfined!" cries Charles the rooster in the children's book Freddy the Detective. Fans of the Freddy the Pig books, by Walter R. Brooks, are echoing Charles' exclamation. In 1997 Overlook Press began reissuing the much-loved but long unavailable series. Thirteen are now back in print, with several more per year coming in the near future. Soon the entire series will be restored to its proper status in the pantheon of immortal children's books. Everyone from the New York Times to USA Today has hailed the resurrection of the literate and witty Freddy books. Recently even CBS News taped material for an upcoming broadcast.

In Freddy the Detective, poor henpecked Charles has been appointed judge of the animals on Bean Farm. To escape his sharp-tongued wife Henrietta, Charles sentences himself to jail time, claiming he feels guilty about a secret past offense. Freddy applies his best detective skills to searching for Charles only to find the rooster in Freddy's own makeshift jail, leading a dance with the above-quoted exclamation.

This is a typical occurrence in the world of Walter R. Brooks. Imagine Charlotte's Web meets Animal Farm; throw in an ensemble cast and affectionately satirical tone worthy of The Andy Griffith Show; and spice with adventures that would impress Indiana Jones. "Some pig," a spider named Charlotte once wrote of Wilbur. She would have said the same of Freddy. Poet, newspaper publisher, detective, pilot, politician, Freddy is, as the New York Times once noted, a "Renaissance pig." Walter R. Brooks has the distinction of having invented two of the 20th century's enduring animal characters. He also created Mr. Ed, the talking horse who first appeared in a short story Brooks wrote for The Saturday Evening Post. Freddy, and his comrades at the Bean Farm in upstate New York, first appeared in a novel published in 1927. Twenty-five more volumes followed before the author's death in 1958.

Brooks had a wonderfully unfettered imagination. Take, for example, the adventures in Freddy the Pilot. A villainous comic book publisher named Watson P. Condiment is terrorizing Mr. Boomschmidt's Stupendous and Unexcelled Circus. To help, Freddy must learn to fly a plane. Along the way he also disguises himself in a woman's garden party dress and a veil, and speaks with a high-pitched Spanish accent. The dialogue is pure Walter Brooks when the famously multisyllabic hotel owner discovers Freddy under the veil and says, "Well now ain't this an unanticipated gratification! And these modish habiliments! Well, well; command me, duchess." Not that most of the characters speak that way. That's why Freddy replies, "I wish I had time to swap polysyllables with you, Mr. Groper, but I've got a lot to do." Walter R. Brooks loved words.

In their initial outing, first published under the uninspired title of To and Again (and later republished as you'll find it in the new reprints, as Freddy Goes to Florida), the characters decide to be the first farm animals to migrate. Naturally they have wonderful adventures on their way southward. In the second book, Freddy Goes to the North Pole, the ever-entrepreneurial pig launches a travel service for animals. The Bean Farm gang heads northward.

Later adventures include Freddy the Detective (one of the best in the series, full of nonstop adventure), Freddy the Pilot (also just about perfect, and one of the funniest children's books around) and Freddy the Politician (which preceded Orwell's Animal Farm by several years in its satire of political chicanery). Incidentally, unlike Orwell's characters, the animals of Bean Farm never have to revolt and overthrow Mr. Bean. That broad-minded farmer has the sense to permit his extraordinary animals great freedom, and they respond with affection and loyalty. One of the triumphs of the series is the way human beings are only mildly surprised to find that the animals speak. Mr. and Mrs. Bean accept that their pig not only talks and walks upright, but also prints a newspaper, learns to fly a plane and becomes famous for his many adventures.

The jacket and interior artwork of recent children's books have metamorphosed Tom Sawyer into a millennial brat and recreated Alice as a blonde moppet in sneakers. Overlook Press understands that the ageless Freddy requires no such cosmetic surgery. They have brought back our porcine hero exactly as he was in his prime. No small part of the series' charm comes from the witty illustrations by Kurt Wiese. Seldom do authors find such a perfect match. The illustrator of everything from Bambi to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Wiese was especially fond of the Freddy books. He was to Walter Brooks what Garth Williams was to the children's books of E. B. White, or what Ernest H. Shepard was to Pooh. Apparently the facsimile reprints were also a labor of love. The jackets look and feel exactly right. The lovely old two-color endpapers have been precisely recreated. The cloth (not cardboard) bindings are stamped with charming illustrations. Text is printed in its original friendly Baskerville typeface, a look that almost brings a tear to the eye of the bookish child that lurks inside many bookish adults.

If you were a Freddyphile in your youth, these lovingly resurrected books will make you curl up on the sofa with Freddy and renounce the adult world's shallow distractions. There is also a brand-new volume to add to your Freddy shelf. No, Overlook Press hasn't stooped to farming out new adventures. They have wisely limited themselves to fashioning an anthology of greatest witticisms from the famously epigrammatical canon, supplemented with many amusing Wiese drawings. The collaboration of several editors, some of them quite young, The Wit and Wisdom of Freddy the Pig and His Friends distills the best remarks of the characters Mrs. Wiggins, the modestly commonsensical cow who both runs for president and becomes Freddy's partner in the detective business; Jinx, the skeptical cat; Charles, the vain rooster; and of course Freddy himself and many others. A second new volume, a collection of Freddy's delightful poetry and songs, is in the works.

Most of all, the books are about friendship. "Why should we have to put up with his nonsense," Jinx asks Freddy of one character, "just because you think that way down inside him there's some good qualities?" And the good-hearted and (usually) patient Freddy explains: "It's like digging for buried treasure." Not that Freddy is perfect. He is lazy, vain and occasionally short-tempered. But he is also courageous, inventive and devoted to his comrades. As a result, he and his friends have wonderful adventures adventures that finally are available to a new generation of readers.

A total of 13 Freddy titles are now available from Overlook Press. Each one is $23.95.
Freddy and the Bean Home News
Freddy Goes to the North Pole
Freddy and the Space Ship
Freddy and the Flying Saucer Plans
Freddy and the Baseball Team From Mars
Freddy and the Dragon
Freddy the Politician
Freddy Goes to Florida
Freddy the Detective
Freddy and the Ignormus
Freddy and Mr. Camphor
Freddy the Pilot
The Wit and Wisdom of Freddy and His Friends

 

Michael Sims writes about animals both real and fictional, but few mean as much to him as Freddy.

"Let joy be unconfined!" cries Charles the rooster in the children's book Freddy the Detective. Fans of the Freddy the Pig books, by Walter R. Brooks, are echoing Charles' exclamation. In 1997 Overlook Press began reissuing the much-loved but long unavailable series. Thirteen are now…

Celebrating 20 years of Poetry Month

Feature by Julie Hale

This year marks an important literary milestone: the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. Established by the Academy of American Poets, the annual event has blossomed into a worldwide celebration. We’re joining in the festivities by highlighting three terrific new collections. 

THE POLITICAL AND THE WHIMSICAL
Last year, Ohio appointed its first Poet Laureate, Amit Majmudar, who, despite his literary success, hasn’t quit his day job as a diagnostic nuclear radiologist. The son of Indian immigrants, Majmudar grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and in the innovative yet accessible poems collected in his superb new book, Dothead: Poems, he explores the experience of growing up as a cultural outsider among mostly white classmates and how his heritage shapes his everyday adult life. “It happens every trip, / at LaGuardia, Logan, and Washington Dulles, / the customary strip / is never enough for a young brown male,” he writes in “T.S.A.” This painful prejudice rears its head again in “The Star-Spangled Turban”: “Any towel, / any shawl will . . . mark me off as / not quite level- / headed. . . .” Along with his pointed cultural critique are stark, electrifying pieces like “Ode to a Drone” and inventive, playful poems like his celebratory ode to grammar in the sly “His Love of Semicolons” (“The comma is comely, the period, peerless, / but stack them one atop / the other, and I am in love”). Majmudar finds poetry in the modern world where we least expect it. 

A CAREER-CLOSING VOLUME
Larry Levis was only 49 when he died of a heart attack two decades ago, but his reputation as a rare and compassionate poet was already well established. The award-winning author of five collections of verse, Levis casts a long shadow over the poetry world, which makes the appearance of The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems a cause for celebration. Edited by poet David St. John, this never-before-published volume features expansive works constructed from long, Whitmanesque lines and a cast of marginal characters that were a recurring thread in Levis’ verse. In “Elegy for the Infinite Wrapped in Tinfoil,” a drug-addled boy sets his girlfriend’s house on fire and goes walking “past eaves & lawns that flowed / Beside him then as if he’d loosened them / From every mooring but brimming moonlight.” A sense of the poet as a vulnerable figure searching for meaning in a tumultuous world permeates these works, including “The Space,” in which “The Self sounds like a guy raking leaves / Off his walk. It sounds like the scrape of the rake. / The soul is just a story the scraping tells.” This collection moves between poetic modes to reveal Levis’ breadth of vision. The Darkening Trapeze serves as a poignant final statement from a poet whose voice remains vital. 

NEWLY DISCOVERED NERUDA
Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda is a true treasure: a new group of poems by Nobel Prize-winning Chilean author and statesman Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), thoughtfully translated by American poet Forrest Gander. Discovered by the Pablo Neruda Foundation, these previously unseen works were written between the 1950s and the early 1970s. The 21 pieces—image-saturated, sensuous, earthy yet elegant—highlight Neruda’s unselfconscious ease as he explores themes that loomed large in his life: home, nature, exile, art. Ardency for nature enlivens “Poem 2,” which conjures “the corollas / of giant sunflowers, defeated / by their very fullness.” “Poem 10,” with its celebratory opening lines—“Marvelous ear, / double / butterfly, / hear / your praise”—brings to mind Neruda’s famous odes to other body parts (eye, liver, skull). Of poetry itself, Neruda writes, “All my life it’s coursed through my body / like my own blood.” Indeed, these beautifully unaffected poems serve as yet another testament to the fluency of Neruda’s genius. Photographs of his handwritten drafts are included throughout, lending an archival air to this essential collection.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

This year marks an important literary milestone: the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. Established by the Academy of American Poets, the annual event has blossomed into a worldwide celebration. We’re joining in the festivities by highlighting three terrific new collections.
Nonfiction

The big business of our national pastime

Feature by John C. Williams

Baseball players are commodities. Many are high-priced commodities, to be sure. Stars and solid regulars are routinely traded in high-profile deals and signed to lucrative contracts. Meanwhile, bushers and journeymen toil in the minors and must seek new buyers when they are inevitably cut. This business aspect of the game—so easy to forget in the glow of Opening Day or in the heat of a pennant chase—rises to the surface in several new baseball books. 

THE RISE OF THE PITCHER
With every new season comes another tome touted as the next Moneyball, Michael Lewis’ influential story of baseball’s statistical revolution. Usually these books are just Lewis lite. Jeff Passan’s The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports is the real deal—a book that’s both readable as hell and that has something meaningful to say about the way the game works. Passan’s subject is the pitcher, more specifically the pitcher’s elbow. The past few years have seen an uptick in injuries to the ulnar collateral ligament, or UCL, the string that binds the upper and lower arm. The use of Tommy John surgery, the corrective procedure developed 40 years ago and named after the pitcher who pioneered it, has skyrocketed. Passan sets out to learn why this epidemic has stricken the game, how it has affected players and whether it can be stopped—an especially urgent question given the money teams spend on top wings. His quest is exhaustive. He talks with the country’s best surgeons; he visits America’s elite youth tournaments, where 13-year-olds are scouted and ranked; he travels to Japan, where youths throw hundreds of pitches a day; and he observes work at labs for the study of pitching mechanics. The next analytics revolution in baseball, Passan suggests, is focused on understanding and preventing pitching injuries. Most memorably, Passan follows Daniel Hudson and Todd Coffey, the first an up-and-coming starter, the second a 30-something middle reliever, as they try to bounce back from their second Tommy John. This human element lends the book its propulsive quality, but every part is fascinating. The Arm is a must-read.

THE RISE OF FREE AGENCY
Krister Swanson examines the game’s broader labor market in Baseball’s Power Shift: How the Players Union, the Fans, and the Media Changed American Sports Culture. The book is a tight study of how professional players fought against management to ensure better treatment and fair compensation. Swanson brings us all the way back to 1885, when John Montgomery Ward formed baseball’s first union, the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players. The union’s primary target was the reserve clause, the feature of the standard contract that blocked players from signing with other clubs and deflated their pay. The Brotherhood failed. So did other attempts at unionization, until Marvin Miller—the most important baseball figure not in the Hall of Fame—became head of the Major League Baseball Players Association. Under Miller’s tenure, the union ended the reserve clause and ensured the system of free agency and salary arbitration that’s in place today. Swanson deftly shows how the media influenced these changes. Much of the battle was fought in the papers, where writers wed to romantic (and often paternal) notions of the game argued with those who saw the MLB as the big business it is. At the same time, the explosion of television revenues made significant salaries possible for the utility man as well as for the star. One is left wishing that Swanson’s study had covered 1994, when a work stoppage cancelled the World Series. Still, Baseball’s Power Shift is an essential primer for anyone who wants to understand the sport’s labor dynamics. 

HOME RUN DEAL
Of course, even the most famous name can be traded or sold, and in the early 20th century there was no bigger sale than the one that sent Babe Ruth from the Red Sox to the Yankees. Glenn Stout covers the deal in The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend. By 1919, Ruth was a star pitcher with a spark in his bat—he had hit 49 homers with the Sox in five dead-ball seasons—but he was also ungovernable. In hindsight, the sale looks idiotic, but in the moment, Ruth was hardly a sure bet. What’s more, the deal made a lot of financial sense for Harry Frazee, the Red Sox owner, who got full ownership of Fenway Park. Stout occasionally plows through the details, but that’s the price of a brisk portrait of Babe on the brink. 

AN INFLUENTIAL MANAGER
The historian Maury Klein takes a more meticulous approach in Stealing Games: How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the 1911 New York Giants. The subtitle contains a bit of overselling, as these Giants don’t really appear to have changed baseball. Sure, this team stole a lot of bases—347, the most in the modern game—but so did the 1912 and 1913 squads (319 and 296, respectively). The 1911 campaign seems more a convenient framing device, as a third of the material covers previous Giants seasons. Really, this book is more about McGraw, who managed the Giants for 30 years, starting in 1902. Never one to shy from trading a player if he could find a better fit for his speed-based schemes, McGraw was perhaps the greatest manager in the history of early baseball. There’s a lot of blow-by-blow here—perhaps too much—but Klein provides a robust portrait of what the sport was like during the dead-ball era.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Baseball players are commodities. Many are high-priced commodities, to be sure. Stars and solid regulars are routinely traded in high-profile deals and signed to lucrative contracts. Meanwhile, bushers and journeymen toil in the minors and must seek new buyers when they are inevitably cut. This business aspect of the game—so easy to forget in the glow of Opening Day or in the heat of a pennant chase—rises to the surface in several new baseball books.
Fiction

A Brontë bicentennial

Feature by Stephenie Harrison

It’s hard to name a novel more beloved than Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Billed as one of the first feminist love stories, it has inspired countless sighs from lovers of literature over the centuries.

April 21, 2016, marks the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth, and two timely new releases honor Charlotte and her family’s enduring legacy. Though these two books have very different tones and approaches, their shared affection for the Brontës unites them. 

The setup of Catherine Lowell’s debut novel, The Madwoman Upstairs, is an English major’s fantasy come true. Heroine Samantha Whipple is an awkward bookworm who heads off to Oxford University to read literature—and just happens to be the Brontës’ last living descendent. As she butts heads with her brooding-yet-irresistible tutor, a mysterious package from her deceased father arrives. Suddenly Sam is on a scavenger hunt that promises to lead her to her inheritance: items belonging to the Brontë estate that Sam has always considered nothing but a rumor . . . until now. 

Crammed with myriad allusions to the entire Brontë clan’s canon, Lowell’s novel will appeal not only to Brontë megafans, but also to readers who like a healthy helping of literary criticism alongside their fiction. When Sam isn’t off solving her father’s cryptic clues, she’s arguing with her professor about how to correctly read literature in general—and the Brontës’ works in particular. 

Filled with hyperlexic ripostes and an academic heroine who is the dictionary definition of quirky, this is a story that will please readers of Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics.

Lyndsay Faye’s Jane Steele is a very different form of tribute. Just a few pages in, Faye’s Jane utters the line, “Reader, I murdered him,” which tells you exactly the kind of book you are in for. A somewhat satirical riff on Jane Eyre, the novel reimagines Brontë’s iconic heroine with not only a will of iron but also the heart of a hot-blooded killer. This Jane embraces her “wicked” side and isn’t afraid to avenge herself against those who do her wrong. (Watch out, teachers at Lowood.)

Readers worried that Jane Steele is simply a retread of Jane Eyre with more blood and gore, à la Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, fear not. Just when you think you know what is coming next, Jane Steele takes things in a completely different direction. Faye is also the author of four acclaimed historical mysteries, and she juxtaposes a textured Victorian setting with more modern (and thus, more ambiguous) morality. Jane Steele is equal parts irreverent and refreshing. It’s also, remarkably, no less of a page-turner than the classic to which it pays homage.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

April 21, 2016, marks the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth, and two timely new releases honor Charlotte and her family’s enduring legacy. Though these two books have very different tones and approaches, their shared affection for the Brontës unites them.
NonfictionNature

Take your reading to new heights

Feature by Lynn Green

Spring has arrived, and along with it comes a flock of books about our feathered friends. Here are three new titles that bird watchers will find especially intriguing.

Jennifer Ackerman, longtime nature writer and contributor to Scientific American, thinks it’s time to ditch the term “bird brain.” In The Genius of Birds, she offers compelling evidence that birds are far smarter than we previously thought. In fact, she writes, new research has found “bird species capable of mental feats comparable to those [of] primates.” Birds can recognize human faces, use geometry to navigate, learn new skills from one another (like how to open milk bottles) and even work puzzles. The author travels from the South Pacific—home of the world’s smartest bird, the New -Caledonian crow—to rural China as she explores the surprising cognitive abilities of birds. Ackerman is a pro at parsing scientific concepts in an accessible style, and her lyrical writing underscores her appreciation for the beauty and adaptability of birds.

NATURE’S CREATION
While bird brains are the focus of many new studies, there’s nothing more beautiful or delicate than a brightly colored bird’s egg. In The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg, ornithologist Tim Birkhead deconstructs every part of the egg to reveal how these small survival pods are “perfect in so many different ways.” From the shell (composed of upright crystals “packed against each other like a stack of fence posts”) to the albumen (the “absolutely remarkable, mysterious stuff” that most of us call the white part), the elements are described here in exquisite detail. Like a bird watcher who spots a rare specimen, the author shows palpable (and charming) excitement for his subject throughout, never losing his sense of wonder and admiration for nature’s “ingenious construction” of the egg.

IN THE NEST
A contributing editor of Bird Watcher’s Digest, Julie Zickefoose has a particular fascination with baby birds and enjoys painting these scrawny, screeching creatures from the moment they hatch to the day they leave the nest as fledglings. Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest offers a rare and meticulously chronicled portrait of baby birds’ day-to-day development, with the author’s lovely watercolor paintings adding a vivid visual dimension. In her introduction, Zickefoose describes Baby Birds as “an odd sort of book, like a Victorian-era curiosity.” Fans of the rediscovered 1970s bestseller The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady will happily agree.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Spring has arrived, and along with it comes a flock of books about our feathered friends. Here are three new titles that bird watchers will find especially intriguing.
NonfictionChildren's & YACookbooks

Great gift books for kids

Feature by Joanna Brichetto

Making history

If the working portcullis on the cover doesn't convince you, the gorgeous pop – up castle, cathedral and medieval bridge will: A Knight's City by Philip Steele is one nifty book of knights. Guided by Sir Hugo, readers ages six and up are privy to the sights, smells, sounds and sensibilities of Northern Europe in the year 1325. Labeled color illustrations, illuminated manuscripts and photographs of contemporary tools, games, weapons and wares complete the "you are there" depiction of a journey to knighthood.

Fast-forward to the Dakota grasslands during the 1870s for The Story of Yellow Leaf: Journal of a Sioux Girl by Gavin Mortimer, illustrated by Tony Morris. The date is no accident: Yellow Leaf's intimate account of her ordinary life coincides with the extraordinary disruption of Sioux tradition by white prospectors, settlers and soldiers. Presented as an illustrated journal, the story flows around detailed watercolors, pop – ups and flaps showing scenes of Sioux home life, ceremony, hunting and eventual war. For readers eight years and up, this is an appealing introduction to an important chapter in American history.

For more chapters of American history, try yet another personal journal: America: The Making of a Nation. Imaginatively presented as the scrapbook of an anonymous, patriotic history freak (and a veteran, to boot), the book takes readers of any age through a tour of America from Independence Hall in 1776 to the present day. Maps, illustrations, facsimile souvenirs, song lyrics and memorabilia practically spill off of every page, and countless flaps, pull-outs, inserts and other paper tricks just keep coming. A must for any kid studying American history in school, or for any history-minded household.

Anatomy lessons

Two body books in one gift roundup? Yes, because this reviewer could not be induced to ignore either one. The first, The Way We Work: Getting to Know the Human Body is by David Macaulay. This in itself is reason enough to run out and buy it. Macaulay is a master of bringing intricate structures to vivid life, and he is no less suited to expose the human body than the buildings and machines he is famous for. Peppy, brilliant and oh-so-fun, Macaulay's latest ensures that kids (and grown-ups) finally stand a darn good chance of understanding this stuff for real.

Dr. Frankenstein's Human Body Book: The Monstrous Truth About How Your Body Works by Richard Walker is just as informative, but worlds apart in presentation. The Dr. Frankenstein connection compels even a reluctant learner to peep inside various body parts, but once there, classic DK style takes over: attractive, busy, organized and clear as a bell.

Visual treats

Now, really, can anyone get excited about a new dictionary? Yes, if it's Merriam-Webster's Compact Visual Dictionary. The key word here is "visual." Many dictionaries have the odd illustration here or there, but in this one, every single word gets a glorious color illustration bristling with captions and details. The thematic arrangement is practical for specific queries, but it also makes browsing fun: Universe and Earth, Sports and Games, Animal Kingdom, and so on. Any book with in – depth info on wildly disparate entries like the greenhouse effect, locking pliers, a kumquat, a mitochondrion and a deep fat fryer is supremely satisfying.

The Food Network's reigning queen whips up Paula Deen's My First Cookbook for the very young. Though sprinkled with Deen family lore and photos, this is a solid beginner's cookbook full of kid-friendly recipes and treats. The artwork is particularly cute, and goes a long way toward making each recipe look fun and doable. Each ingredient is illustrated, so even non – readers can see at a glance what to collect. The list of Good Manners is a priceless addition, and just what you'd expect from an icon of Southern hospitality.

Classics retold

Anthologies of children's stories are typically good bets for gifts, and The Kingfisher Book of Classic Animal Stories is a fine example for kids ages six through 10. Selected with care by children's author Sally Grindley, the stories are an inventive mix of favorite classics. Aesop's Fables and Just So Stories make an appearance, as do self – contained excerpts from Farmer Boy, The Wind in the Willows, Born Free, The Cricket in Times Square and more. To round out the treat, each of the 16 stories is paired with new illustrations from a different contemporary artist.

Fifteen years in the making, The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry was worth the wait. Each of these 200 poems was hand – picked by much – loved and much – missed children's author Bill Martin Jr., who hoped to share his love for words and poetry with children of all ages. Mother Goose, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Christina Rossetti and Jack Prelutsky are just a few of the selected authors in this dream of a collection. Plus, many of the artists Martin loved best have contributed all-new artwork, which makes this anthology a visual and verbal delight.

If your kids already know these nursery stories by heart, or, heaven forbid, think they're too old for nursery stories at all, whip out There's a Wolf at the Door: Five Classic Tales by Zoe B. Alley.

The best best friends

Writer James Marshall gave us a lifetime of characters who will never stop being funny, dear and spectacularly spot – on. The Stupids, the Cut – Ups, Eugene, Fox, Portly McSwine and Space Case are just a few from his more than 75 books, and don't forget his hysterical renderings of fairy tales like The Three Little Pigs and Hansel and Gretel. To rank them in order of wit and wonder would be an impossible task. However, too much can never be made of the particularly perfect duo of George and Martha. Marshall, who died in 1992, wrote and illustrated seven George and Martha books – 35 stories altogether – and all are collected in George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends. The adventures of the two hippos range from mild to outrageous, but always involve some kind of insight into the ups and downs and sideways of real friendship. The stories are super short – indeed, that is part of their charm – and always leave readers and listeners wanting more. The best reviews come from the little experts who sit on laps and hear these stories for the first or 500th time. George and Martha are, quite simply, tons of fun.

Making history

If the working portcullis on the cover doesn't convince you, the gorgeous pop - up castle, cathedral and medieval bridge will: A Knight's City by Philip Steele is one nifty book of knights. Guided by Sir Hugo, readers ages six and up are privy to…

Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle Grade

Vibrant introductions to poetry and wordplay

Feature by Hilli Levin

Spring into April with a new batch of children’s poetry books, just in time for the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. From a “wow”-worthy batch of concrete poems that dance across the page to a poetic guessing game and a touching trip through the seasons, three new collections make for accessible and thoroughly modern introductions to an enduring art.

POEMS THAT POP
Bob Raczka’s newest book, Wet Cement: A Mix of Concrete Poems, “uses words like colors to paint pictures.” This playful collection of 21 poems takes inspiration from single words, similar to 2013’s Lemonade, and in the visually arresting style of classic concrete poets like E.E. Cummings or Carl Andre, brings his simple verse to life. Words slash the page in the shape of an electric bolt in “Lightning”; letters seem to thaw and drip into readers’ hands in “Icicles”; and the letters of “Hopscotch” skip across the page in the game’s instantly recognizable layout. But Raczka’s poems aren’t all whimsy. There are plenty of quiet moments where a sense of childlike awe shines through, as in wonderful “Dipper”: “Up here in the sky, / I’m a vessel of stars / my brim overflowing with night.” In today’s highly visual world, Raczka’s poems are a fantastic gateway into the genre.

WHO IN THE HAIKU?
The art of Japanese haiku and silly riddles collide in Deanna Caswell’s Guess Who, Haiku. Readers will love piecing together the clever clues for each animal and insect as each page asks, “Can you guess who from this haiku?” From a dairy cow—“new day on the farm / muffled mooing announces / a fresh pail of milk”—to a loyal dog— "Sitting for a treat / an eager tail smacks the ground / over and over"— Caswell runs through a cast of common critters, and her engaging bite-sized poems are just right for the preschool crowd. Bob Shea provides illustrations in his bold and lively graphic style, which make the big reveal of each mystery animal a pure delight. Caswell ends the book with a helpful note that breaks down exactly what haiku is, how it’s structured and how readers can recognize syllables, encouraging a deeper understanding of each line. Guess Who, Haiku makes a traditional form of poetry into a guessing game that almost feels like a poetic version of Fisher Price’s classic See ‘N Say toy, which is a sure sign that this could become a read-aloud favorite.

CELEBRATE THE SEASONS
The natural world’s seasonal transformations have been inspiring poets for centuries, and Julie Fogliano adds her own inspired collection to the mix with When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons. Beginning on the first day of spring with a cheerful bird’s song “poking / a tiny hole / through the edge of winter,” readers meet a diverse cast of children that explore, climb, swim and frolic their way through the days of all four seasons, and Fogliano devotes about a dozen reflective poems to each, all titled with a specific month and date. Pencil-and-gouache illustrations from Julie Morstad bring a delightfully vintage feel to scenes where wildflowers seem to blossom endlessly, piles of crisp fall leaves beckon and snow gently drifts outside of a window. From lazy summer days that are “hot and thick like honey” to the messy fun of pumpkin carving and the stillness of winter, this collection is sure to be one that little readers will love to pull off the shelf and flip through again and again.

Spring into April with a new batch of children’s poetry books, just in time for the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month. From a “wow”-worthy batch of concrete poems that dance across the page to a poetic guessing game and a touching trip through the seasons, three new collections make for accessible and thoroughly modern introductions to an enduring art.

Romance

The songs of love

Feature by Lois Dyer

Sexy guys with guitars—there’s a reason romance readers love them, and we’re covering three titles out this month that illustrate why rock stars make readers swoon. Put your hands together for Brennan, Calix and Jake and prepare to fall in love.

ARTISTIC DIFFERENCES
New York Times bestselling author Julia London takes readers to the lakeside resort town of East Beach, New York, for her latest novel, Suddenly In Love. Struggling artist Mia Lassiter reluctantly returns home to East Beach when she loses her job in Manhattan, but fortunately, her aunt offers her a position in her interior design shop. Working on a renovation project at a historic mansion on the shore of Lake Haven is a welcome challenge for Mia’s talents. Unfortunately, the owner’s reclusive son is in residence, and their first meetings are more hostile than friendly.

Guitarist Brennan Yates is stunned when he realizes pretty Mia has no idea that he’s really Everett Alden, lead singer of legendary rock group Tuesday’s End. Mia prefers Bach and rarely listens to rock ’n’ roll. Having a woman treat him no differently than any other guy is refreshing after 10-plus years of stardom, and he puts off telling her who he really is. He’s hiding out at his mother’s new house while he struggles to come to grips with stardom-burnout and a band member’s overdose. All too soon, however, he’s discovered, and the fallout from not being honest with Mia will have repercussions that shake both their worlds.

The sexy, reclusive rock star and passionate artist make a wonderfully romantic pair; both are wary after past disappointments, and both have artistic career choices to make. The bucolic setting of Lake Haven, crazy paparazzi and coping-with-fame moments, plus charming secondary characters, all add to the reading experience. This is the first installment in the Lake Haven series, and readers will surely be impatient for the second.  

COOKING UP TROUBLE
Erika Kelly serves up a delicious romance in Take Me Home Tonight, the third novel in her Rock Star Romance series. The daughter of a well-known restaurant owner, Mimi Romano desperately wants her father to hire her for his elite team of chefs. To prove her worth, she auditions for a spot on a reality-TV cooking competition. While she’s waiting to be accepted—or rejected—she stays with her best friend and works as chef for the rising rock band Blue Fire.

Keyboardist Calix Bourbon knows he should leave Mimi alone, but everything about her draws him like a magnet. She’s talented, intense, compassionate smart, and beautiful. But he has commitments to family that he can’t turn his back on, and he can’t make promises he knows he won’t be able to keep. Still, their mutual attraction in undeniable, and before long, both are swept up in a relationship that’s surely guaranteed to break both their hearts.

Intensely emotional and passionate, this latest entry in the series does not disappoint. Readers will fall in love with this couple as they struggle to deal with family issues and survive the obstacles thrown in their way.

ROCK STAR AND THE RESTAURATEUR 
Music and cooking are mixed together yet again in the first in fan-favorite Kristen Proby’s Fusion series, Listen to Me. Five best friends realize their dream when they open Seduction, a hot new restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The restaurant is beautiful ex-model Addison Wade’s main focus, and she has no time for other interests. But her friends decide to add live music to the restaurant when Jake Keller walks through the door. Addison has always adored Jake’s music, but the instant attraction she feels has her unsure if they should hire him.

Jake doesn’t need the money; he’s a sought after songwriter. He walked away from the glitz, glamour and deadly lifestyle of touring and rock stardom, however, he misses playing his music for a live audience. When he meets Addison, he immediately wants the gig at Seduction—he’ll have a chance to play again, and it will give him an excuse to get to know the beautiful restaurateur. Jake has a past that haunts him, however, and just when he can see a future with Addison, his history drives a wedge between them.

The backdrop of the world of rock music and the restaurant business is engaging, and the heat between Jake and Addison is off the charts, but the emotional connection that binds them is even stronger. 

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

Sexy guys with guitars—there’s a reason romance readers love them, and we’re covering three titles out this month that illustrate why rock stars make readers swoon. Put your hands together for Brennan, Calix and Jake, and prepare to fall in love.

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