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 It's not too soon to start stocking up on a selection of wonderful new books that are coming out between now and June. Many would make excellent gifts as well for Dads, grads, teachers and others. Stop by the store, email us or give us a call and let us help you select books for travel, your student's summer reading list, or your own reading pleasure. Remember, our motto is, "Large Enough to Serve You, Small Enough to Know You!" So sit back, relax, and enjoy a safe, happy, healthy, and book-filled summer from your friends at Village Books!!
Hardcover Fiction Beach Reads
 The Beach House, by Jane Green (Viking, June 17, 2008, $24.95). Aging widow Nan Powell’s family has inhabited the glorious Nantucket beach house, Windermere, for generations. When Nan realizes that all of her investments have tanked and she is out of cash, she decides to let out rooms. A breath of fresh air enters the somewhat musty home when Nan welcomes her boarders. The combination of Nan’s meddling and Windermere’s magic brings unexpected romance. A lovely, romantic diversion.
 Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos (Morrow, April 2008, $24.95). Devoted city dweller Cornelia Brown, heroine of Love Walked In, and her husband Ted have moved to suburban Philadelphia. Cornelia approaches her new life with trepidation and struggles to forge friendships in her new home. Piper Truitt lives across the street and considers herself the arbiter of style and local propriety (the embodiment of everything Cornelia feared she would find in suburbia). Add to the mix waitress Lake who recently moved to the town with her son Dev. The story is told from the three women’s points of view and as their individual stories unfold, the women become entangled in a web of trust, betrayal, love and loss.
 Certain Girls, by Jennifer Weiner (Atria, May 2008, $26.95). Cannie Shapiro of Good in Bed is back! Now 42 and married to “Doctor Peter” for more than ten years, the sequel follows Cannie as she navigates the adolescent rebellion of her about-to-be bat-mitzvahed daughter, Joy, and juggles her writing career; her relationship with her husband; her ongoing weight struggles; and the occasional impasse with Joy’s biological father. One reviewer noted “..Certain Girls is like literary cotton candy – it’s light, fun and sweet, yet sticks with you long after it’s gone. Label it a beach season must.”
 The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation, by Elizabeth Berg (Random House, April 2008, $23). Delightful stories of women facing everyday challenges and occasionally rebelling by committing a small act of liberation. For example, in the title story, an unnamed narrator flees a Weight Watchers meeting and allows herself to indulge in her most fattening food cravings. These readable treats remind us of the surprises and delights of everyday life.
 The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton (Atria, April 2008, $24.95). An atmospheric, page-turning noel set in England between the wars. It’s the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who, at age 14, left home to work at Riverton as a maid and witnessed it all and kept secrets for more than 50 years. Fans of The 13th Tale and Rebecca will enjoy this!
 Imagine Me & You, by Billy Mernit (Shaye Areheart Books, April 2008, $23). When screenwriter Jordan Moore’s exotic and tempestuous wife leaves him and returns to her native Rome, Jordan decides that he must seize upon her jealous nature and date another woman to get her to come back. Only he can’t imagine actually dating someone else, so he makes up “Naomi”, based on one of his very attractive, very French former students. The problem is Naomi takes on a life of her own and shows up everywhere – though only Jordan can see her! Charming and slightly psychotic!
 Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child (Delacorte, June 3, 2008, $27). In this 12th Jack Reacher novel, the ex-military policeman hitchhikes into Colorado, where he finds himself crossing the physical and metaphorical line that divides the small towns of Hope and Despair. When he stops in Despair for a cup of coffee and instead is attacked, thrown in jail and kicked out of town, Reacher goes back and discovers (with the help of a good-looking lady cop from Hope) that a nearby metal processing plant is part of a plan that involves the war in Iraq and an apocalyptic sect. A real thriller!!
 Things I Want My Daughters to Know, by Elizabeth Noble (William Morrow, April 2008, $22.95). Before Barbara Forbes, a mother of four, succumbs to terminal cancer, she leaves words of wisdom for her four daughters in the form of letters to each of them. The book follows the four daughters through the year after their mother’s death as they draw strength from her words and from each other, and move forward with their lives. This is a bittersweet, yet ultimately uplifting story of love, family, and the bonds between mothers and daughters and among sisters.
 The Whole Truth, by David Baldacci (Grand Central, April 2008, $26.99). Baldacci masterfully plays on the American paranoia in the wake of the War on Terror in this international thriller. In an author’s note, Baldacci makes an eloquent case for the very real threat of perception management. In the novel, Nicholas Creel, the head of a huge defense contractor, hires a perception management firm to start a second cold war by planting fake news stories on the internet about Russian atrocities. This is a spell binding story that feels all too real, and delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters and fast pacing that readers expect from Balcacci.
Paperback Fiction Beach Reads
Flowers for the Judge (Albert Campion Mystery #7), by Margery Allingham (Felony & Mayhem, May 2008, $14.95). One morning, Tom Barnabas of the publishers Barnabas & Company left his house as usual, then simply vanished. Twenty years later, his cousin Paul, now head of the company, meets an untimely death. To solve Paul’s murder, Campion has to go back two decades and sort through a legacy of treachery to solve a case sure to be his most difficult. Fyi, Margaret Allingham was a prolific writer who sold her first story at age eight and published her first novel before turning 20. She went on to become one of the pre-eminent writers who helped bring the detective story to maturity in the 1920s and 1930s. Thanks to Felony & Mayhem for republishing these treasures!
 The Gatecrasher, by Madelaine Wickham (St. Martins, May 27, 2008, ).The stunning Fleur Daxeny knows the best place to meet a rich widower is at his wife’s funeral. She wastes no time in seducing her latest conquest, the handsome and rich widower Richard Favour, and she swoops into his life like a designer tornado. But she soon finds herself embracing Richard and his lovable family and is contemplating jumping off the gold-digger train for good and enjoying the ride of true love when a long buried secret from her past threatens to destroy her new family. Fyi, author Wickham is the pen name for none other than….Sophie Kinsella, author of the popular Shopaholic books!
 The Infidelity Pact, by Carrie Karasyov (Broadway, June 10, 2008, $12.95). Four housewives, bored or otherwise dissatisfied with their privileged lives, make a pact to each have a yearlong extramarital affair. Husbands are off-limit and the friends agree to confide only in each other, on the theory that dalliances cause trouble only when word leaks out. However, a local gossip learns about the pact and ends up dead! All of the characters stand to benefit from his death, so who did it??? The extra fun part about this book is it is set in Pacific Palisades!! Yep – the characters live on Via de la Paz, Embury Street and Toyopa. They eat at Pearl Dragon, Giorgio Baldi, Terri’s (before it became Mayberry’s!), Caffe Delfini and Vittorios. They shop at Elise Walker (that’s the way its spell it in the book) and one character had a reading of a collection of his Palisades Press columns at none other than Village Books! This isn’t high literature, but it sure is fun following the characters to such familiar places. Pure fun!
 The Last Summer (of You and Me), by Ann Brashares (Riverhead, April 2008, $14). The debut novel from the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series is set primarily on New York’s Fire Island and features a classic love triangle. Twentysomething sisters Alice and Riley and their next door neighbor, Paul, have a shared history going back to their early childhoods. During this fateful summer, external events force them all to grow up. Perceptive and engaging!
 Notting Hell, by Rachel Johnson (Touchstone, April 2008, $14). A tale of the rich behaving badly in one of London’s most exclusive enclaves. Clare, married to an “ecotect” and speeding childlessly toward middle age, is a dilettante who dabbles in feng shui gardening when she isn’t keeping an ovulation diary and minding everyone else’s business on the back garden. Her “enemy”, Mimi, is a 37 year old freelance journalist who is married to Ralph and Mummy to three posh kids and a dog. Gossipy, page-turning fun!
 The Rope Walk, by Carrie Brown (Anchor, May 2008, $13.95). “A most beautifully written novel, The Rope Walk tells the story of 10 year old tomboy Alice, motherless but with five older brothers and a caring dad. Set in a small town in Vermont one summer, a young boy named Theo, from New York City, is thrust into her life - and a neighbor’s brother, an older gentleman suffering from AIDS, wants them to read to him as he is losing his eyesight. What transpires is pure magic – a wondrous tale of growing up and learning and friendship and responsibility. I loved this book.” Connie Goetz, Village Books
 The Savage Garden, by Mark Mills (Berkley, April 2008, $14). Set in post-WWII Tuscany, Adam Banting, a Cambridge architecture student, is doing research on a famous Renaissance garden. As he digs into the history and iconography of the garden, he comes to believe that the seemingly tranquil garden is a road map to how the original owner murdered his wife. He also learns more about the family who now owns the garden and follows the trail of a more contemporary murder. High culture mixed with high crime!
 Shoot Him If He Runs, by Stuart Woods (Signet, May 2008, $9.99). Stone Barrington and Holly Barker team up once again in Woods’ newest offering, this time to hunt ex-CIA agent-turned-assassin Teddy Fay at the behest of the director of the CIA, Kate Rule Lee, who also happens to be the wife of President William Lee. Perennial favorite Woods certainly knows how to keep the pages turning!
 Summer Reading, by Hilma Wolitzer (Ballantine, May 20, 2008, $14). The story of three women whose paths cross during a summer in the Hamptons. Lissy Snyder, is uncertain of her place in her husband’s heart and feels intimidated by her stepchildren. To help cement her position in Hamptons’ society, Lissy decides to host a book club for other young socialites and hires an eccentric former English professor to lead the group. The best part is that you can enjoy the characters’ stories as well as the novels the book group is reading, which are interwoven into the protagonists’ lives in an interesting way!
 The Wise Woman, by Phillippa Gregory (Touchstone, May 2008, $16). Originally published after her bestselling debut with the Wideacre trilogy, Gregory takes readers to Henry VIIII’s England, on a journey to the outer reaches of passion, where magic and female power meet. This is a spellbinding mixture of history, romance and the occult.
New Hardcover Fiction
 Careless in Red, by Elizabeth George(Harper, May 2008, $27.95). This is the book that fans of Inspector Lynley have been waiting for ever since George dropped the bombshell at the end of With No One as Witness. The grieving Lynley is filling his days with a long trek in his native Cornwall. During his ramble, he stumbles on the body of a teenager who apparently fell from a cliff, but it soon becomes evident that someone tampered with her climbing gear and Lynley gets caught up in a murder investigation. Once again, George delivers a mystery imbued with psychological suspense and in-depth characterization.
 The Enchantress of Florence, by Salman Rushdie (Random, May 27, 2008, $26). This is the story of two cities, unknown to each other, at the height of their powers – the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant Akbar the Great wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire, and the treachery of his sons; and the equally sensual city of Florence during the High Renaissance, where Niccolo Machiavelli takes a starring role as he learns about the true brutality of power. The connecting link between the two cities and epochs is the magically beautiful hidden princess, Qara Koz, so gorgeous that her uncovered face makes battle-hardened warriors drop to their knees.
 The Girl With No Shadow, by Joanne Harris (Morrow, April 2008, $24.95). Get out your chocolate stash – Harris revisits the characters we met in Chocolat (1999). The novel opens five years after we left Vianne Rocher, daughter Anouk (now a preteen) and charismatic river traveler Roux. Vianne (now Yanne) and Anouk (now Annie) and new daughter Rosette are living in the Montmartre district of Paris when the Halloween winds blow in the exotic Zozie…A sensous tale about the dark arts, dark chocolate, and lives both biter and sweet.
 The Host, by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown, May 2008, $25.99). The author of the bestselling young adult Twilight series delivers her first novel for adults, that is also suitable for teen readers. In this sci-fi thriller, planet-hopping parasites are inserting themselves into human brains, curing cancer, eliminating war and turning Earth into paradise. But some people want Earth back, warts and all, especially Melanie Stryder, who refuses to surrender, even after being captured in Chicago and becoming a host for a soul called Wanderer. Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, The Host is a riveting and unforgettable novel.
 The Miracle at Speedy Motors, by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon, April 2008, $22.95). The ninth installment of the beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series is garnering extraordinary reviews as the “Miss Marple of Botswana” entertains and charms us once again.
 So Brave, Young, and Handsome, by Leif Enger (Atlantic, April 2008, $24). Fans of Peace Like a River will not be disappointed by Enger’s second novel. Set in 1915, the story follows the misadventures of bestselling author Monte Becket, who cannot make his second novel work. He is just about to reclaim his old job at a small town Minnesota post office when he meets Glendon Hale, a former outlaw who is traveling to Mexico to find his estranged wife. Let the adventure begin!
 The Story of a Marriage, by Andrew Sean Greer (F,S & G, April 2008, $22). From the bestselling author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes a love story full of secrets and astonishments set in 1950s San Francisco. “We think we know the ones we love.” So begins Pearlie Cook as she begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship.
 The Ten Year Nap, by Meg Wolizer. The author of The Position and The Wife is back! Here she brings wit and compassion to the contentious divide between mothers who work and mothers who don’t. The cast of primary characters all abandoned promising careers in favor of full-time motherhood. The story picks up 10 years later as they examine their lives and choices.
 The Third Angel, by Alice Hoffman (Shaye Areheart, April 2008, $25). Hoffman’s latest, and one of her best, is an exceptionally well-structured and affecting triptych of catastrophic love stories, anchored to a haunted London hotel. The story examines the lives of three women at different crossroads in their lives, tying their stories together in devastating retrospect.
New Paperback Fiction
 Divisadero, by Michael Ondaatie (Vintage, 2008, $13.95). The latest novel by the author of the beloved The English Patient opens in Northern California in the late 1970’s, with a quiet man who lost his wife in childbirth, raising his two daughters and tending his farm with the assistance of a farm hand. A violent act affects the three main characters and shadows how they lead their lives over the next several years.
 The Gravedigger’s Daughter, by Joyce Carol Oates (Harper, April 2008, $15.95). This is Oates’ 36th novel!! This one tells the story of Rebecca Schwart. Her parents escape from the Nazis in 1936 and settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the only job her father, a former high school teacher, can get is gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family’s own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger’s daughter begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America. Emotionally engaging and intellectually provocative.
 The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones (Mariner, June 2008, $13.95). A recently widowed food writer finds solace and love and the most inspiring food she’s ever encountered during a visit to China. This is a pure delight to read on many levels, and you will definitely want to eat Chinese food after reading this! Don’t miss it!
 Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan (Ballantine, April 2008, $14). In the early 1900’s, married architect Frank Lloyd Wright eloped to Europe with the wife of one of his clients. The scandal rocked the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Years later, Mamah Cheney, the other half of the scandalous couple, was brutally murdered at Wright’s Talliesen retreat. Fact and fiction are blended in this compelling novel that has something for everyone – romance, a history of architecture, and a philosophical and political debate on the role of women.
 The Ministry of Special Cases, by Nathan Englander (Vintage, April 2008, $14.95). The long awaited first novel from the author of the short story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. This is a historical tale set at the start of Argentina’s Dirty War.
 Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (Dial, May 20, 2008, $12). On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind – the eccentric Mr. Watts – who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’ classic Great Expectations. An elegant homage to the power of storytelling and imagination.
 The New Yorkers, by Cathleen Schine (Picador, April 2008, $14). The author of The Love Letter sends a love letter to New Yorkers and the dogs who own them in this ensemble novel set on an Upper West Side street. Schine uses her tail-wagging characters to bring her human beings out of their apartments and onto the street. She captures human joys and sorrows, comedy and drama, beginnings and endings, as the dogs compel their owners to live outside of themselves. A joy for all – give Ms. Schine a biscuit!!
 Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson (Picador, April 2008, $14). Trond Sanders, a man nearing 70, is dwelling in self-imposed exile at the eastern edge of Norway in a primitive cabin. His peaceful existence is interrupted by a meeting with his only neighbor, who seems familiar. The meeting pries loose a memory from a summer day in 1948 when Trond’s friend Jon suggests they go out and steal horses….Petterson is an award winning Norweigian novelist. Booklist review says “The novel’s incidents and lush but precise descriptions of forest and river, rain and snow, sunlight and night skies are on a par with those of Cather, Steinbeck, Berry and Hemingway, and its emotional force and flavor are equivalent to what those authors can deliver, too.” Named by The New York Times as one of the five best works of fiction of 2007.
 The Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid (Harvest, April 2008, $14). The story is presented in the form of a monologue, which would seem to be a difficult format, but is extremely successful here. Set a few years after 9/11, a young Pakistani man relates his American experience (education at Princeton and employment at a prestigious financial firm in NYC) to an American man he meets in a café whose visit to Lahore may or may not have to do with the narrator’s recent anti-American activities. An interesting and thought provoking read.
 The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon (Harper, May 2008, $15.95). The novel begins the same way that Philip Roth launched The Plot Against America - with a fascinating historical footnote: what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed on the eve of WWII, a temporary Jewish settlement had been established on the Alaska panhandle? Into this world arrives our Chandleresque hero, Meyer Landsman, a drunken rogue cop who wakes in his flophouse to discover that one of his neighbors has been murdered. Chabon creates a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940’s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, all in an entirely fictional setting. Fans of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay will not be disappointed.
New Hardcover Nonfiction
 Audition: A Memoir, by Barbara Walters (Knopf, May 2008, $29.95). Walters is surprisingly candid about her life – her older sister’s retardation, her father’s suicide attempt, her midlife affairs, her daughter’s troubled teen years and her acrimonious relationships with co-anchors Frank McGee and Harry Reasoner. She recounts her decision to leave The Today Show after 14 years to become the first female nightly news co-anchor. Alternating between tales of her personal struggles, professional achievements and insider anecdotes about the celebrities and world leaders she’s interviewed, this is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, and always fascinating. Includes photos.
 The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, by Steve Coll (Penguin, April 2008, $35). Two time Pulitzer Prize winner Coll presents the story of the Bin Laden family’s rise to power and privilege. He pays special attention to its two most emblematic members: Patriarch Mohamed’s eldest son, Salem, a caricature of the self-indulgent plutocrat, a flamboyant jet-setter dependent on the Saudi monarchy, obsessed with all things motorized and forever tormenting his entourage with off-key karaoke, and Salem’s half-brother Osama, a shy, austere, devout man who nonetheless shares Salem’s egomania. Other Bin Ladens crowd the narrative with their murky business deals, messy divorces, etc. This is an engrossing portrait of a family torn between tradition and modernity.
 The Downhill Lie: A Hacker’s Return to a Ruinous Sport, by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, May 2008, $22). Hiaason, The Miami Herald columnist and author of hilarious fiction, and an admittedly woeful golfer, recounts his resumption of the game after a 32-year layoff. Why did he take up golf so long after quitting at the age of 20? “I’m one sick bastard” writes Hiassen! He interweaves passages about his return to the game with diary entries covering more than a year and a half on the links. Forget Tiger, Phil and Ernie. If you want to understand the true lure of golf, turn to Hiaasen, who has written an extraordinary book for the ordinary hacker.
 Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - And the Journey of a Generation, by Sheila Weller (Atria, April 2008, $27.95). Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and songs, the coming of age of American girls in the late 1960s. Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women’s intimates, this alternating biography reads like a novel – except its all true!
 Maps and Legends, by Michael Chabon (McSweeney’s Books, April 2008, $24). Chabon’s first work of non-fiction offers 16 essays that are seemingly organized from the least personal to the most personal, and argue the merits of reading, writing, and storytelling, breaking down the barriers between so-called genre writing and “serious” literature. And, its one of the most beautiful books I’ve seen in a long time!
 Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, by Lily Koppel (Harper, April 2008, $23.95). In 2003, Koppel, a novice writer for the New York Times, stumbled upon a decades-old diary of a privileged teenaged Manhattanite penned between 1929 and 1934. Fascinated by entries detailing theater expeditions, shopping sprees, love interests, and grand ambitions, she put her journalistic skills to good use, tracking down the original owner of the diary. 90 year old Florence Wolfson was alive, alert, and eager to share her memories of a bygone time and place. Koppel began interviewing her and interwove the brief diary entries with more detailed personal anecdotes infused with the glamour and sophistication associated with a 1930s romantic comedy. A real treasure!
 The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, by Steve Lopez (Putnam, April 2008, $25.95). One day while heading back to his office, LA Times columnist Steve Lopez was stopped short by the beautiful strains of a violin. Searching for the source of the sound, he found a homeless man with a battered two-string violin. Over the next few days, Lopez discovers that Nathaniel Ayers, the homeless violinist, was once a promising classical bass student at Juilliard, but that various pressures, including being one of a few African-American students and mounting schizophrenia, caused him to drop out. Enlisting the help of doctors, mental health professionals and professional musicians, Lopez attempts to help Nathaniel move off Skid Row, regain his dignity, develop his musical talent and free himself of the demons induced by schizophrenia. Soon to be a major motion picture from DreamWorks.
 A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, by Tony Horwitz (Holt, April 2008, $27.50). On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Horwitz (Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic) realizes that he has mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus’s sail in 1492 to Jamestown’s founding in 16-oh-something. What happened in between? Horwitz intertwines his experiences retracing the early conquistadors, adventurers, and entrepreneurs through such regions as Newfoundland, the Dominican Republic, and the American South, Southwest, and New England with thoroughly researched accounts of the territories themselves, the natives who were historically affected, and the motives of the explorers. A readable and vastly entertaining history/travelog.
 When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris (Little Brown, June 3, 2008, $25.99). This is Sedaris’ sixth essay collection and another masterpiece of comic writing. He proceeds from bizarre conundrums of daily life to the most deeply resonant human truths, culminating in a brilliant account of his venture to Tokyo in order to quit smoking (successful) and learn to speak Japanese (unsuccessful).
 A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father, by Augusten Burroughs (St. Martins, April 2008, $24.95). The author of Running With Scissors turns to his relationship with his father. His earliest years were spent in fear of his biological father, John, an alcoholic with a chilling smile and a black heart. Despite the psychological cruelty, this leaves the message of the redemptive power of hope.
New Paperback Nonfiction
 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, May 2008, $14.95). This book chronicles the year that Barbara Kingsolver, along with her husband and two daughters, made a commitment to become “locavores” – those who eat only locally grown foods. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Kingsolver makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
 Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson (S&S, May 2008, $17.95). Acclaimed biographer Isaacson examines the remarkable life of “science’s preeminent poster boy” Isaacson makes Einsteins’s extraordinary scientific achievements the center of attention, but also covers his subject’s complex and often painful familial relationships, his political interventions and comments, and his remarkable celebrity (for a scientist!).
 Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Free Press, April 2008, $15). Ali is one of Europe’s most controversial political figures and a target for terrorism. She tells her life story, from her traditional Muslim childhood in Somalia to her intellectual awakening in the Netherlands to her life under armed guard in the West. A truly enlightening story.
 The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story, by Frances Keirnan (Norton, May 2008, $15.95). In this enjoyable and flattering biography, former New Yorker editor Frances Kiernan, who knew Mrs Astor personally, describes how, after a disastrous early marriage, Brooke Astor married the notoriously ill-tempered Vincent Astor, who died in 1959. In a highly publicized courtroom battle, Brooke fought off an attempt to break Vincent’s will, which left some $67 million to the Vincent Astor Foundation. As the foundation’s president, Brooke used this money to benefit New York, where the Astor fortune was made. At her 100th birthday, princes and presidents honored her, but after reports that her son was keeping her on a shoestring budget in her Manhattan apartment, a grandson petitioned the courts to have his father removed as Brooke’s guardian. Once again, an Astor court battle became the stuff of headlines.
 Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner (Anchor, May 20, 2008, $16.95). Covering the CIA’s less-than-stellar reputation over its 60-year existence, this work by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans.
 Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression, by Mildred Armstrong Kalish (Bantam, April 2008, $12). A slice of Americana – set during the Great Depression – that shows readers, through the portrait of one high-spirited girl, how the right stuff can make even a time of adversity seem like a good time.
 Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of Seal Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell (Back Bay, May 2008, $15.99). Four U.S. Navy SEALs fought to the death against 150 armed Taliban in the Afghan mountains. Here, the lone SEAL survivor pens this spellbinding, first-hand account, a heartbreaking, yet inspiring story of heroism, courage, and sacrifice. An 8 page black-and-white photo insert is included.
 Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, by Pattie Boyd (Three Rivers, May 27, 2008, $14.95). An iconic figure of the 1960s and ‘70s, Pattie Boyd breaks a forty-year silence and tells the story of how she found herself bound to two of the most addictive, promiscuous musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most famous muse in the history of rock and roll.
 The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, by Saul Friedlander (Harper, April 2008, $19.95). The result of more than 30 years of research and investigation, this important new volume presents a thorough historical study of the events beyond the usual analysis of German policies, decisions, and measures that led this most systematic and sustained of modern genocides.
Look for these in June…
 America, America, by Ethan Canin (Random, June 24, 2008, $27). A powerful story about a great family, a political tragedy, and the impact of fate on history. The story opens in the early 1970s. Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator, Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth.
 Away, by Amy Bloom (Random, June 24, 2008, $14). The epic story of Lilian Leyb, who emigrates to America in 1924 after her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, and then heads away when she receives word that her daughter, Sophie, who she believed was dead, is living in Siberia. This is a sweeping saga of endurance and rebirth, and my only complaint is that I wish it was longer!
 The Lemur, by Benjamin Black (Picador, June 24, 2008, $13). This is a stand alone thriller from Benjamin Black, the pen name for Booker Prize winner John Banville. An Irish journalist in New York finds himself in the center of a murder case that may lead back to his billionaire father-in-law, communications magnate and former CIA agent Big Bill Mulholland. This should hold all of us Quirke fans (from Christine Falls and The Silver Swan) until he returns!
 The Maytrees, by Annie Dilliard (Harper, June 10, 2008, $13.95). Dillard has written eleven books including the memoir of her parents, An American Childhood; the Northwest pioneer epic, The Living; and the nonfiction narrative, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Here, in spare and elegant prose, she traces the Maytrees’ decades of loving and longing on the bare tip of Cape Cod.
 North River, by Pete Hamill (Back Bay, June 2008, $14.99). It is 1934 and New York City is in the icy grip of the Great Depression. Dr. James Finbar Delaney, a wounded vet of WWI, tends to his hurt, sick and poor neighbors, who include gangsters, day laborers, prostitutes and housewives, with enormous compassion. In his own life, he is emotionally numb until he returns home one day to find his three year old grandson on his doorstep, left by his runaway daughter….This is a beautiful novel, rich in detail and ambience, that shows the power of human goodness and how love, in many forms, can prevail in an unfair world.
 On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan ( Anchor, June 10, 2008, $13.95). Despite its short length, this book is anything but small as it explores two of McEwan’s favorite themes- the effect of the cataclysmic moment on personal lives and the tensions inherent in human sexuality. We peer behind the closed doors of a young married couple, both virgins, on their honeymoon night. Their fears about sex and their inability to discuss them form the story’s center. Another masterwork from McEwan.
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