All Features

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.
Fiction

Hidden turns of Jewish history

Feature by Lauren Bufferd

What would you do if you discovered a lost masterpiece that revealed the artist’s extreme prejudice? Or survived a war only to find yourself participating in political violence?

Ethical dilemmas and twists and turns of Jewish history are at the core of two new novels by Lauren Belfer and Stewart O’Nan. 

Belfer’s sprawling novel And After the Fire spans two continents and several centuries and concerns a fictional music manuscript. It opens as an American soldier in Weimar grabs some sheet music to take home as a souvenir. After his death decades later, his niece, Susanna Kessler, discovers a cryptic note and what appears to be an unknown Bach cantata: one with lyrics influenced by an anti-Semitic sermon. Susanna must weigh the pros and cons of publicizing a work whose contents, by any standard, are offensive. Her epic search for the manuscript’s original owners leads her from New York’s rare book libraries to present-day Germany. She also encounters two historians who vie for the manuscript—as well as her romantic attentions.

Susanna’s journey is interspersed with the history of the manuscript itself. Originally a gift from Bach’s son Wilhelm Friedrich to his most talented pupil, Sara Itzig Levy, the cantata remained in the Levy family’s hands over many turbulent decades. Though the manuscript is a fiction, Levy is not: The daughter of a prominent Jewish banker, she was the aunt of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn and at the forefront of salon culture during the Enlightenment.

And After the Fire is sprinkled with other real-life historical figures, and Belfer is adept at revealing the complex politics and sentiments, including the religious biases, of 18th-century Europe. The important questions Belfer poses regarding the ethical complexities of art are engrossing, though her characters never come fully to life. 

Stewart O’Nan’s gripping City of Secrets is also a moral thriller, but on a much different scale. It is tightly focused in time and place; the action takes place over the winter of 1946 and follows a handful of post-World War II refugees fighting for the creation of Israel against both Arab attack and Britain’s mandates. Recalling the novels of Graham Greene and Joseph Conrad, City of Secrets has a taut, noir-like flavor. Like O’Nan’s earlier novels, it features a displaced hero who, despite everything, still believes his life has purpose. 

City of Secrets follows Brand, a Latvian whose mechanical skills allowed him to survive the death camps, though he lost everything else. Brand slipped easily into Jerusalem, his new identity and job provided by the Jewish underground. Spending his days as a taxi driver taking tourists to religious sites, he remains loyal to the members of his Haganah cell, accepting missions that grow ever more dangerous under the cell’s elusive leader, Asher. By the time Brand realizes what’s at stake, it is almost too late. 

These compelling stories use history as a lens to examine issues that are still with us today.

 

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

What would you do if you discovered a lost masterpiece that revealed the artist’s extreme prejudice? Or survived a war only to find yourself participating in political violence?
Children's & YAPicture Book

Better than a bouquet

Feature by Julie Hale

This year, forget the flowers! Celebrate Mom with a story instead. Filled with humor, poetry and plenty of love, these fresh picture books pay tribute to mothers and their special magic.

PREPARING FOR MOTHERHOOD
Laura Krauss Melmed delivers a beautiful salute to the bond that exists between mother and child in Before We Met. Jing Jing Tsong’s breathtaking digital collage illustrations feature an evocative palette of violets, purples and blues—the deep hues of a night sky—to create a magical backdrop for a mother’s musings. The phrase “before we met” serves as a refrain in the book’s rhymed lines, turning the text into a lullaby: “Before we met, I dreamt I felt the beating of your heart. Before we met, I promised you I’d love you from the start,” the mother tells her newborn. Soon night gives way to day and a sun-drenched gardenscape filled with flitting birds and blooming flowers. This celebratory scene, signifying birth, is the perfect endnote for Melmed’s gorgeous, impressionistic story-poem. 

MOM ON A MISSION
Emma Levey’s delightful Hattie Peck features a one-of-a-kind mom—a broody chicken who longs for a family all her own. The only egg Hattie ever laid failed to hatch! She dreams of having eggs—lots and lots of them—and so she sets out on a quest. Her goal: round up all the abandoned eggs she can find and hatch them, “every last one!” Beginning this madcap mission in a rowboat, Hattie plumbs oceans, braves caves and climbs mountains, collecting a “colossal clutch” along the way. Back at home, she sits atop a pile of eggs and waits for the cracking to commence. Soon Hattie has hatched a veritable zoo that includes alligators, snakes, a penguin and a peacock. With so many critters to care for, Hattie is happy at last. Featuring colors that pop, Levey’s bold illustrations make this an extra-special story for families of every breed.

TWO OF A KIND
You Made Me a Mother captures the sense of nervous anticipation that precedes a baby’s arrival. Laurenne Sala’s buoyant story follows an excited mom-to-be as she prepares for her big day, studying baby guides and puzzling over new furniture for the nursery. When the tot finally arrives, the young mom naturally adjusts to her new role, making lovely discoveries about herself along the way: “I realized that I would spend my life doing things to make you happy. And that would make me happy,” she tells her little one. Over time, through trips to the playground and walks in the rain, mother and child learn from each other and grow together. Robin Preiss Glasser’s detailed ink-and-watercolor drawings are just right for this moving tribute to a mother’s unique capacity for love.

 

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

This year, forget the flowers! Celebrate Mom with a story instead. Filled with humor, poetry and plenty of love, these fresh picture books pay tribute to mothers and their special magic.
NonfictionFood & Drink

Hitting the rowdy road

Feature by Lynn Green

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! 

With summer fast approaching, it’s time to make plans for that great American tradition: the family road trip. Three new books will help you plan your itinerary for an unforgettable adventure.

PARK IT
What better place to spend a family vacation than one of our grand and glorious national parks? This year marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park System, a centennial that’s being celebrated with several new books, including Lonely Planet’s National Parks of America. From Acadia to Zion, this beautifully illustrated volume includes a multipage section on each of the 59 national parks, with “toolbox” tips on the best time to go, where to stay and what to see and do. Stunning photographs—from molten lava in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to Giant Sequoia trees in Kings Canyon—offer readers a before-you-go glimpse of the scenic wonders they’ll encounter. This is an excellent introduction to our priceless park system and might be best used as a first step in deciding which parks grab the imaginations of the young travelers in your family.

PLACES THAT MATTER
If your goal is planning a trip that’s educational as well as fun, consider the destinations in 50 Great American Places by Brent D. Glass, director emeritus of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. This well-written and carefully curated guide to our country’s “Essential Historic Sites” includes fascinating historical details about tried-and-true stops such as Boston’s Freedom Trail and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. But Glass also ventures further afield with unexpected choices like Willa Cather’s childhood home near Red Cloud, Nebraska, where the author soaked up impressions of the prairie that would color her acclaimed novels. In the book’s foreword, historian David McCullough recalls how early visits to historic sites influenced his career choice (“the experience opened my mind and imagination to history as nothing yet had”) and later provided lasting memories for his own children.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Music may soothe the savage beast, but nothing silences a car full of restless kids (and weary adults) like something good to eat. Great American Eating Experiences aims to acquaint readers with “delicious fare originating from across the 50 states, in small towns and city neighborhoods where tradition, creativity, and inspiration have created foods found nowhere else.” Organized by region and state, this colorful and mouthwatering guide catalogs the best local delicacies in each area and where to find them, with entries on such specialties as whoopie pie in Maine and the Juicy Lucy burger in Minnesota. You’ll also find pointers to food festivals, soda fountains, diners and more.

 

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

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! With summer fast approaching, it’s time to make plans for that great American tradition: the family road trip. Three new books will help you plan your itinerary for an unforgettable adventure.
Romance

Booking it to the altar

Feature by Lois Dyer

Every wedding season, starry-eyed brides wed their handsome grooms amid fairy-tale summer celebrations. But what happens during the months and days leading up to the magical day, you ask? Staggering emotional highs and terrifying, jumping-off-cliff lows, that’s what! We’ve picked three titles this month to immerse you in the ups and downs of saying “I do.”

CAROLINA COAST CELEBRATION
New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe returns to Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, and the Muir family in A Lowcountry Wedding, the final novel in her Lowcountry Summer series. Marietta “Mamaw” Muir, matriarch of the clan and grandmother to half-sisters Harper, Carson and Dora, welcomes the excitement of Carson and Harper’s upcoming weddings on the island.

Behind the scenes, however, all three sisters are confronted with potentially life-changing complications: Harper has a secret that will shock everyone; Carson struggles to deal with career and commitment issues; and, after enduring a difficult divorce, Dora isn’t convinced she’s truly ready to be in the serious relationship she’s found herself in. Fortunately, each sister is deeply in love with her partner, and as the couples confront their problems, it becomes increasingly clear that their hearts have chosen strong, wise and honorable men.

However, when a stranger knocks on Marietta’s door, she quickly realizes her family will be changed forever in unexpected ways. But with all the emotional stress of the weddings already upon them, will her granddaughters decide that the changes are good, or disastrous?

Sumptuously layered with authentic emotions and contemporary issues, this novel is rich in Southern charm. The lush setting of Charleston’s lowcountry is a palpable presence, while multigenerational characters add depth to the story. Fans and new readers alike will be enthralled with this complex and endearing story.

NEVER A BRIDE?
Former children’s book editor and journalist Lindsey Kelk delivers a witty and heartwarming read with Always the Bridesmaid. London event planner Maddie Fraser is 31 and single since her ex-boyfriend moved out two years earlier. She wants to move on and find a significant other, but it seems the only thing moving on is time. Then her work-centered, boring life explodes when one best friend plans to throw a wedding in an insane three months, her other best friend unexpectedly faces divorce, and Maddie’s boss is clearly determined to destroy any chance of Maddie winning a promotion. Oh, and Maddie meets a gorgeous guy and begins a passionate affair.

All of the above should have Maddie shouting “Stop!” but she can’t seem to say no when people need her help. The stress of planning Lauren’s wedding and supporting Sarah through the grief of divorce, along with the pressure of unreasonable demands at her job, strain Maddie’s multitasking abilities to the max. Fortunately, she has Will, the handsome new boyfriend who is wild about her. Or is he?

Maddie is warm, wonderful, smart and the best kind of friend. This delightful tale of the enduring value of friendship, self-discovery and life as a single woman in urban London will have readers laughing out loud.

KENTUCKY IS FOR LOVERS
USA Today bestselling author LuAnn McLane heads to the small town of Cricket Creek, Kentucky, in Wish Upon a Wedding, where upcoming nuptials draw two friends into an unexpected romance.

Beautician and makeup artist Sophia Gordon has been attracted to handsome Avery Dean for months. Avery, however, appears to still be getting over a broken engagement, and Sophia settles for a casual friendship. All of this changes when Avery’s sister plans her wedding with his ex-fiancée as her maid of honor and Avery as the best man. He’s aware that his ex, Ashley, wants him back, but she cheated on him, and Avery isn’t interested. He can’t hurt his sister by refusing to be part of her wedding, but he clearly needs a plan to deflect the determined Ashley.

The snarl of family and wedding issues couldn’t come at a worse time, because contrary to Sophia’s belief, Avery is definitely over Ashley, and he’s interested in dating Sophia. He catches a bit of luck when Sophia suggests they pretend she’s his girlfriend to throw Ashley off his trail. Sophia thinks they’re playing to the crowd, but the kisses they share seem all too real. She’s in danger of losing her heart to this sincere, charming man. Is there any chance he feels the same, or will family entanglements tear them apart?

The secondary romance between an older couple adds extra charm to this novel, which is filled with small-town characters and humor. Fans will thoroughly enjoy this tenth entry in the Cricket Creek series and eagerly anticipate the next installment.

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

Every wedding season, starry-eyed brides wed their handsome grooms amid fairytale summer celebrations. But what happens during the months and days leading up to the magical day, you ask? Staggering emotional highs and terrifying jumping-off-cliff lows, that’s what! We’ve picked three titles this month to immerse you in the romance, ups and downs of saying “I do.”
Romance

Boys and their toys

Feature by Lois Dyer

There’s something breathtakingly sexy about a hot guy who can fly a fighter jet, ride a motorcycle or drive a fast car. We’re highlighting three titles that feature all of the above, plus lots of wonderfully steamy romance. Sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride.

ACE-HIGH STRAIGHT
Attorney and author Chanel Cleeton launches her Wild Aces series with Fly With Me. When 31-year-old Jordan Callahan lands in Las Vegas for her sister’s bachelorette party, she isn’t expecting to meet the love of her life. But then F-16 fighter pilot Noah Miller asks her to dance, and she quickly realizes he’s not like any other guy she’s dated. He’s handsome, sexy, smart and intense. They spend their few vacation days wrapped up in each other, but all too soon, they must return to normal life—Jordan to Florida and her successful boutique, Noah to the Oklahoma Air Force Base where he’s stationed.

Neither are ready to say goodbye for good, however, and Jordan flies to spend weekends in Oklahoma as often as she can. The Air Force is a mistress that rules Noah’s life, while Jordan can’t give up her beloved shop and Florida hometown. With their lives and careers so far apart, being together is complicated. They want to find a way to plan a shared future, but when Noah receives unexpected orders, their plans may go up in smoke. They are still struggling to resolve deployment issues when disaster strikes, sending them both reeling. Now Jordan will have to decide how much she’s willing to surrender to stay with Noah, while he must weigh the cost of their love.

The details of military life create an intriguing setting for this romance that begins with off-the-charts sexual attraction and progresses to an equally intense emotional connection. Starring a sexy, smart heroine and her match in a gorgeous, hot hero, fans of contemporary romance are going to love this novel.

SAVED BY A BIKER
New York Times bestselling author Laura Kaye delivers the first novel in a spinoff from her popular Hard Ink series with Ride Hard. Haven Randall has fled her abusive father and found sanctuary with the Raven Riders, a motorcycle club that protects the vulnerable. Haven had been a virtual prisoner in her father’s home, and as a result, she's not only emotionally wounded but also astonishingly innocent.

The Rider’s club president, Dare Kenyon, knows he’s far too jaded for Haven, but the attraction between them is instant and hot enough to singe each time they’re together. Falling in love isn’t something either of them planned, but they’re drawn together like lodestones. Protecting Haven may mean Dare has to let her go, however, and finding a way to a happy ending might prove impossible, especially when her father is willing to kill to reclaim her.

This is a riveting tale of the true meaning of family, loyalty and bravery. The well-written sexual tension enhances the romance, and fans will be delighted with this stellar beginning to the author’s latest series.

BODY SHOP BAD BOYS
Bestselling Oregon writer Marie Harte lures readers to Seattle in Test Drive, the first in a hot new contemporary series. Handsome and charming, mechanic Johnny Devlin fell hard for beautiful Lara Valley the first time he saw her pouring drinks behind the local bar. He immediately asked her out, but she won’t say yes to a date, even though he asks again each time he sees her.

Full-time nursing student and part-time bartender Lara knows a playboy when she sees him, and she won’t say yes to Johnny, despite being crazy attracted to him. Besides, she doesn’t have time to date, what with school, her job and her role helping her divorced sister with her two adorable kids. Lara barely has time to breathe, let alone chance dating a guy she instinctively knows could rock her world.

Then Lara is assaulted late one night at the bar, and Johnny comes to her rescue. Lara can no longer deny him or their attraction, and when she finally says yes to dating, she discovers there’s much more to Johnny than facile charm and compliments. In fact, she’s teetering on the brink of falling in love with the warm, caring, funny, intelligent guy beneath the sexy exterior. But the path to love is strewn with obstacles, and before Johnny and Lara can plan a future together, they’ll each have to face their own fears and insecurities.

This charming, sexy tale of two people falling backwards into love is pure fun. The love scenes are steamy, the family interactions endearing,and their struggles to mesh busy lives intriguing.

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington

There’s something breathtakingly sexy about a hot guy who can fly a fighter jet, ride a motorcycle or drive a fast car. We’re highlighting three titles that feature all of the above, plus lots of wonderfully steamy romance. Sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Audio

Bringing a book to life with the magic of the spoken word

Feature by Adriana Trigiani

Someone once told me that the only difference between a child who grows up to make it in life and one who doesn’t is that the successful adult was read to—that’s right, someone curled up at bedtime and read aloud to her, filling her head with images, ideas and stories before she went off to dreamland and schemed her own. 

There’s a craze in the world of books right now that no one predicted: Adults are buying coloring books. They buy sleeves of colored pencils and fill in complex line drawings making their own grown-up works of art, Pre-K style. It would only stand to reason that the audiobook, sometimes called the audible, would be surging, too. We like the hands-free reading experience. We enjoy listening to a story interpreted by a skilled actor. It’s soothing, comforting, entertaining and can even be educational. And if you’re someone who has less time than chores, you can elevate your mind while you paint your house, clean your closet or make that long commute. 


Adriana Trigiani

 

Authors take the production values and narrator of the audio version of their books seriously. When your novel is edited, and around the time you are polishing the bells and testing the whistles, the subject of the selection of the narrator of the audio version of your book comes up. Through the years I’ve had some glittering stars, including my honorary brother Mario Cantone, who took the novel Rococo and turned it into his own personal opus, with the female voices conjured by him from the MGM leading lady roster during the golden age of Hollywood. 

The process of casting the reader for an audiobook is every bit as serious as casting a major Hollywood film. You are looking for the perfect match in vocal tone, cadence and delivery for the time period and setting of your story. You hope for an actor who can bring the book to life and dramatize the journey of the characters against the backdrop you’ve written. You want to feel the emotions of the characters, their longing and yearning, heartache and grief, and joy and connection. The actor has to make the story clear and lead the listener through the action. All she has is her voice and her ability to connect through that instrument—she has no props, costumes, music or fellow actors. She hasn’t a sleeve of colored pencils, only her own interpretation of the words before her and her particular ability to distill them for the listener.

It’s a one-woman show. Recording an audiobook is a camp-out under a relentless spotlight in a glass box with headphones snapped over her ears and hundreds of double-spaced pages on a music stand, read, interpreted and flipped in near silence as she digs deeply into the text. A director will stop and start the action, keeping an ear on the flow, pace and energy. The director is also looking for colors, shading, electricity in the performance when called for, and smooth endings to chapters, plus big swells to their beginnings.

For the actor, it’s intense work, a lot of consecutive days of staying in the moment, remaining focused, soothing the voice by biting into green apples and downing lemon and honey in warm water. There’s no physical release, as there is in acting onstage. Recording an audiobook is the interpretation through the voice; it’s mental, a soul connection. It’s hard work, but it can never sound like it. The characters have to dance through the air in the imagination of the listener as the actor reads their words aloud. 

When it came time to cast All the Stars in the Heavens, we needed an actor who could play a feast of great actors and actresses of all ages from the early days of American movies. I could only think of one woman who could skate between exchanges between Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young, or David Niven and Clark Gable, and bring a poor nun in a halfway house to life. We needed an actor with scope and range, but one whose voice was both velvet and gingham, who could conjure burlap and old rum. We needed youth and world weary, glorious and shabby, the kind of actor who can play it all, and frankly has. Blair Brown possesses all of these qualities, but she is also original, fresh and unwraps the words with delight. You keep listening because she is invested in the story, and you must know what happens. 

I’m the daughter of a librarian who played story-time records for us when we were children. We heard Danny Kaye read classic fairy tales, my first audiobook on an LP. When I went to college and majored in theater, I went straight to the library when studying the classics and listened to the Shakespeare plays recorded by Nigel Hawthorne and Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Laurence Olivier. I loved listening to plays read aloud. But it wasn’t all academia and serious drama—one of my favorite audiobook memories is picking up Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano’s Story of Life in the Mafia by Peter Maas at the Cracker Barrel on Route 81 in the hills of Virginia. It was read by the great Philip Bosco. I laughed in a car with my dad for eight hours straight as we listened to Mr. Bosco cuss and wheel and deal as only an organized crime rat can do. You see, audiobooks are part of the happy memories with my family. They’re wonderful, and they fill us up as only a good story can. 

A playwright, TV writer/producer and film director, Adriana Trigiani is the author of 16 books, including her beloved debut, Big Stone Gap. Trigiani’s latest novel, All the Stars in the Heavens, is a fictional take on the real-life romance between two stars of Hollywood’s golden age: Loretta Young and Clark Gable.

 

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

Someone once told me that the only difference between a child who grows up to make it in life and one who doesn’t is that the successful adult was read to—that’s right, someone curled up at bedtime and read aloud to her, filling her head with images, ideas and stories before she went off to dreamland and schemed her own.
NonfictionFictionPop CultureMemoirFood & Drink

Solutions to the dilemma of what to get Dad

Feature by Keith Herrell

Dads can be notoriously tough to buy for, so Father’s Day brings a fair amount of angst for gift-giving sons and daughters. Here are five books to spare you from buying a necktie or golf balls and make you a family hero.

KING OF THE COURT
We’ve all said it—especially harried parents torn between workplace and home, with precious little time to themselves: “If only I had the time to practice, I could get really good at (fill in the blank).” 

In Late to the Ball, Gerald Marzorati recounts how, at age 60, with work and family responsibilities winding down, he fills in the blank with competitive tennis. Marzorati, formerly editor of The New York Times Magazine, knows what he is up against in his quest to make the leap from decent club player to a force on the national senior circuit: lifelong players with extensive backgrounds in the game, many with international experience. But he stubbornly (and at no small expense) makes the effort. There’s the requisite coach along the way (more than one, in fact), but also cameos by a psychotherapist, a biomechanics expert and an ill-fated friend, all of whom have lessons to impart. Marzorati soaks them all in, but in the end—and to the reader’s benefit—appears to succeed just as much in improving his perspective on life as in perfecting his backhand. 

STOPPING THE BOMB
Don’t be surprised if, partway through The Winter Fortress, you get the urge to flip to the back cover and make absolutely sure that it’s a nonfiction book. This tale of a daredevil mission to slow Germany’s World War II progress toward an atomic bomb could only be conjured by a master storyteller. Neal Bascomb’s a master all right, but the events he describes in fly-on-the-wall fashion—working from recently declassified documents, firsthand interviews and previously unseen diaries and letters—are true. In 1942, the Nazis were bent on developing a nuclear capability, and a fortress-like facility in Norway was crucial to their goal. Making incredible sacrifices, commando teams made up largely of Norwegian patriots battled harsh conditions and nearly insurmountable odds in their quest to derail the Germans’ plans. It’s part spy tale, part action-adventure yarn as the saboteurs strap on skis and undertake the mission of a lifetime. We know how it will turn out, but there are plenty of surprises along the way in a book that, once you reach the midpoint, is almost impossible to put down.

BOTTOMS UP
Taking on a subject near to almost any dad’s heart, The United States of Beer: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink is a light, informative read that goes down easily on a hot summer day. Author Dane Huckelbridge clearly loves his subject, and it’s obvious he had fun drinking his way through the necessary (really it is, Dear) research. And you’ll get quite an education as Huckelbridge starts in New England and works his way across the country, with shoutouts to beloved brands such as Iron City, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Anchor Steam Beer. He traces beer’s roots in other cultures, notes that it came over on the Mayflower and describes how, for a time, beer battled with whiskey before emerging as America’s alcoholic beverage of choice. Breweries large and small are toured, and there are numerous history mini-lessons along the way, with such figures as Ben Franklin and George Washington making appearances. And who knew that Gen. George Armstrong Custer unwittingly played a role in the early mass marketing of beer? So it almost goes without saying: Tell Dad to enjoy this book with a glass of beer close by.

SUMMONING THE FORCE
Perhaps you’ve noticed that the world has a few problems. But Cass R. Sunstein is here with The World According to Star Wars to tell you the Force can fix them, along with taking off those extra five pounds and curing the common cold. OK, just kidding on those last two—but Sunstein, a Harvard professor and behavioral economics expert when he’s not geeking out with the Imperial March playing in the background, is a true believer and then some when it comes to the wildly successful Star Wars films. In Sunstein’s view, fortunately written in an un-professorial tone, the movies unify people, connect generations (got that, Dad?) and form a modern myth that exists as a “rousing tribute to human freedom.” And just to seal the Father’s Day deal, there are enough “I am your father” references to sustain a drinking game, and there’s an entire chapter (this book calls them “episodes”) entitled “Fathers and Sons.” So sure, you can just read that one chapter. But trust the Force—you’ll enjoy Sunstein’s musings all the way through.

SECRETS OF THE PAST
The world cannot end in The House of Secrets, because it’s billed as the first in a series. The conspiracy thriller is co-written by Brad Meltzer and Tod Goldberg, with Meltzer getting top billing—that’s understandable, as his credits include multiple bestselling novels, plus graphic novels and children’s books. He also hosts “Brad Meltzer’s Decoded” on the History Channel and “Brad Meltzer’s Lost History” on H2. Novelist Goldberg (the Burn Notice series) is no slouch either, so they have combined for a fast-paced novel that keeps the reader guessing all the way through. After all, how can you go wrong when you start off with a dead body (oops, make that two!) that has a Bible implanted in its chest and is dressed in a Revolutionary War uniform? The task of making sense of all this falls to the daughter of a TV host who’s a lot like, well, Brad Meltzer. And Meltzer (the real one) says the book’s premise is based on fact. So buy it for Dad, but don’t be surprised if you see him acting strangely as he turns the pages.

 

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

Dads can be notoriously tough to buy for, so Father’s Day brings a fair amount of angst for gift-giving sons and daughters. Here are five books to spare you from buying a necktie or golf balls and make you a family hero.

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