Among the latest hardcover books are three that take readers out of this world and one that is more down to earth.
Two new science-fiction titles and two new nonfiction ones travel to other planets or simply around this one.
These books are among hardcovers that also include new fiction by Edward Rutherfurd, Danielle Steel and Jodi Picoult; and nonfiction that chronicle one teenage boy’s dangerous mission, one woman’s quest for self-discovery, and one of sports’ most ardent rivalries.
Outer space is the stage for “Judas Unchained” (Del Rey), Peter F. Hamilton’s hefty sequel to “Pandora’s Star.” In this 24th-century epic, war rages on between the peace-loving humans of the Intersolar Commonwealth and the programmed-to-kill aliens of the Prime.
Ben Bova sets “Titan” (Tor) in the relatively near future – 2095 – when a giant colony ship carrying 10,000 people in search of new beginnings achieves orbit around Saturn. Its mission is to explore Titan, Saturn’s moon, as a possible settlement. But the explorer vessel launched by the colony ship fails to reach Titan, creating serious problems for the mission’s participants.
A gray-green fist-size rock is “The Rock From Mars” (Random House) by Kathy Sawyer, former science writer for The Washington Post. The rock became dislodged from Mars 16 million years ago and was discovered in 1984 at the South Pole. For years, it was a stone left unturned until scientists claimed it might bear evidence of ancient Martian microbes, making it the subject of scientific doubt, debate and delight.
More earthly delights are offered in Frances Mayes’ “A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller” (Broadway Books). Mayes (“Under the Tuscan Sun”) reports on 12 places she visited, including Iberia, Turkey, the south of Italy, the Greek islands and North Africa. She lived and shopped among the natives and frequently wandered off the beaten path, exploring Fez in Morocco, taking in gardens in England and Scotland, and visiting archaeological sites in Turkey.
In “The Rebels of Ireland” (Doubleday), Rutherfurd offers an 800-page conclusion to “The Dublin Saga,” his fictional account of Ireland’s history. “Rebels” begins in the 16th century as England finalizes its conquest of Ireland and continues into the 20th century and Irish freedom. The story follows the lives of several fictional Dublin families, Catholic and Protestant, from various economic and social levels, which Rutherfurd modeled after the personalities and lives of actual people.
Steel’s 66th novel, “The House” (Delacorte), tells the story of Sarah Anderson, a conservative and sensible estate attorney who does something daring with her generous inheritance: She buys a dilapidated, long-vacant mansion on a hill overlooking San Francisco and decides to restore it. Sarah enlists the help of an architect who shares her passion for the project and, eventually, their passion for each other.
Pages from a graphic novel permeate the plot in Picoult’s 13th novel, “The Tenth Circle” (Atria). Daniel Stone, a comic-book artist and stay-at-home dad, has to face the violent and troubled past he’d rather forget when his teenage daughter, Trixie, is date-raped and flees to Stone’s childhood home in Alaska. Meanwhile, Stone is working on a graphic novel whose story parallels his and Trixie’s.
The adventures of a Honduran teenager determined to reunite with his mother in the U.S. unfold in “Enrique’s Journey” (Random House), Sonia Nazario’s book based on her Pulitzer Prize-winning series in the Los Angeles Times. With no money and only his mother’s North Carolina phone number, Enrique embarked upon his mission, traveling on the tops and sides of freight cars through regions of Mexico fraught with bandits, gangsters and corrupt officials. Nazario went to Honduras and followed Enrique’s route, boxcar tops and all, interviewing people Enrique met.
A less dangerous journey was undertaken by Elizabeth Gilbert, who chronicles her adventure in “Eat, Pray, Love” (Viking). At 30, Gilbert had all the trappings of success and happiness but still felt unfulfilled. So she quit her job, dumped her possessions, bid her loved ones adieu and set off, alone, on a yearlong search for self-discovery. Her goal: to examine one aspect of her nature in a culture known for that aspect. She accomplished it in Italy (eat), India (pray) and Indonesia (love).
Love is hardly an issue in “To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever” (HarperCollins), Will Blythe’s look at the fierce basketball rivalry between Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Blythe offers a history of the grudge, one of the strongest in organized sports, and examines how otherwise normal adults become maniacal fans who not only live and die with their team but flat-out hate the other guys.
Other new fiction
In “Second Honeymoon” (Bloomsbury) by Joanna Trollope, a couple’s empty nest becomes crowded when their grown children begin moving back home for various reasons.
“The Amalgamation Polka” (Knopf) is Stephen Wright’s Civil War tale told through the adventures of Liberty Fish, whose family includes abolitionists on his father’s side and slave owners on his mother’s.
In “Magic Hour” (Ballantine) by Kristin Hannah, a child psychiatrist is summoned by her estranged sister, a small-town police chief, when she finds a mute 6-year-old girl who has emerged from the deep woods.
The discovery of a cancer cure excites a lab’s fame-and-fortune-seeking scientists until one of them begins to suspect fraud in Allegra Goodman’s “Intuition” (The Dial Press).
In “The Doctor’s Daughter” (Ballantine) by Hilma Wolitzer, an editor’s inexplicable feeling of dread begins to make sense when she discovers a machinist who’s a promising writer.
Other new nonfiction
World affairs are discussed in “Cobra II” (Pantheon) by Michael Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, who explain the planning, execution, strategy and diplomacy involved in the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq; and in “Menace in Europe” (Crown Forum), Claire Berlinski’s observations on the political and cultural deterioration of Europe and how it affects the United States.
An appreciation for the arts is found in “A Temple of Texts” by William H. Gass, with 25 essays about the nature and value of writing; and in “Conversations With the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age,” edited by George Stevens Jr. and including interviews with Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Wise and other notable filmmakers (both Knopf).
Also on the menu are “The Big Oyster” (Ballantine), Mark Kurlansky’s look at that delicacy’s influence on New York’s economy, ecology and gastronomy; and “A Piece of Cake” (Crown), a memoir about the wild and stormy youth of San Francisco lawyer Cupcake Brown.
In “Better for All the World” (Knopf), Harry Bruinius traces the history of eugenics in America, which sought to promote social and moral purity through forced sterilization and the prevention of “hereditary defectives.”
“Fragile Innocence” (Harmony) is James Reston Jr.’s memoir of his 24-year-old daughter’s mysterious debilitating illness, which she contracted as a toddler.
“The Dead Beat” (HarperCollins) is Marilyn Johnson’s look at the history, popularity and “perverse pleasures” of the newspaper obituary.
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