April 15 is also the release date for a whole raft of new and exciting titles - fiction, nonfiction, thrillers, and new books for 9-12 and 12-17 year-old readers...even a great graduation gift idea!! Stop by Village Books or give us a call at 310-454-4063 to have yours put aside!!

Fans of Harlen Coben, a master of page turning thrillers, have a real treat to look forward to this week.  Hold Tight (Dutton, $26.95) examines suburbia and is sure to put all parents of teenagers on edge (as if they aren’t already!).  Along with a fast moving plot, Coben raises serious issues such as single parenting; career vs. family; marital honesty and how much information you should share with a child at what age.


On a lighter note, the ninth installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency debuts this week.  The Miracle at Speedy Motors, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, $22.95) is garnering extraordinary reviews as the “Miss Marple of Botswana” entertains and charms us once again.

Nonfiction readers may be interested in Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, by Kevin Phillips (Viking, $25.95).  The author of American Theocracy reveals how the U.S. financial sector has hijacked the economy and put America’s global future at risk.

California’s First Lady, Maria Shriver, affirms that its not just “what” we want to be but “who” we are that is important at every stage of our lives in Just Who Will You Be?: Big Question. Little Book. Answer Within (Hyperion, $14.95).  Perfect for the grad in your life or your best friend turning 30, 40, 50….you get the idea!!

For readers in the 9-12 bracket, don’t miss the latest by Blue Baillett, Calder Game (Scholastic, $17.99).  The author of the delightful Chasing Vermeer and The Wright Three returns with the newest installment.  Calder Pillay travels with his father to a remote village in England and is inexplicably drawn to a sculpture of Alexander Calder. Both the boy and the sculpture seem out of place…then they both disappear!!  Petra and Tommy must help Calder’s father find him. 

Older readers (12-17) may be interested in Sunrise Over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic, $17.99).  Instead of heading to college as his father wishes, Robin leaves Harlem and joins the Army to stand up for his country after 9/11.  While stationed in Iraq, he begins writing letters home to his parents and to his Uncle Richie, the main character from Myers’ acclaimed Vietnam War novel, Fallen Angels (Scholastic, 1988).