Next Week in the Bookstore: Questions of Love for Michael Jackson, Frank McCourt and Alex Cross

COMPELLING
There may be only four new books this week, but at least one is a new Frank McCourt. With the Diane Dimond tome on the Michael Jackson Trial, and a new Alex Cross novel, there's still plenty to generate excitement. The sleeper is Po Bronson's latest effort, a far distance from The Nudist on the Late Shift. Enjoy!

Monday, November 14
Alex Cross is back! Mary, Mary by James Patterson pits the brilliant FBI forensic psychologist against a movie star-obsessed serial killer who calls herself "Mary Smith." "Cross is sucked into the case full time, jeopardizing the outcome of the custody battle he's involved in over his youngest son. As Cross studies the e-mails and patterns of the killer, he realizes he can't be certain of anything, even the gender of Mary Smith. The thrills in Patterson's latest lead to a truly unexpected, electrifying climax." —Kristine Huntley, Booklist

Tuesday, November 15
Teacher Man: A Memoir by Frank McCourt ends the trilogy that began with Angela's Ashes with a "warming and enlightening" account of his 30-year teaching career in New York City's public high schools. His "easily embraceable" tale is told with McCourt's "trademark charm, wit, and unself-conscious self-effacement... flashbacks of his dreadful days growing up in extreme deprivation in Ireland don't sink the narrative in self-pity. Remembrances of his struggling days in college in New York ('dozing years') provide informative foundation for the real point of the book: relating his development into the kind of teacher he became..." —Brad Hooper, Booklist

Po Bronson's Why Do I Love These People?, subtitled The Miraculous Journeys of Twenty-First-Century Families, takes us on an extraordinary journey, in which every step — and every family — is real. "Bronson's is an unromantic view of family life; its foundations, he believes, are not soul-mate bonding or dramatic emotional catharses, but steady habits of hard work and compromise, realistic expectations and the occasional willingness to sever a relationship that's beyond repair... usually he offers a probing, clear-eyed, hopeful narrative of familial problems that many readers will recognize." —Publishers Weekly

Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case, by Diane Dimond, is an account of the pop-star's much-hyped court case by the reporter who first broke the story of the young boy who accused Jackson of molestation. "The ladies of Court TV strike again... Diane Dimond takes us inside the Michael Jackson trial. And who better to tell [this] story than Dimond? Having covered Jackson's movements and courtroom antics for nearly 15 years, Dimond has a wealth of knowledge second only to Jackson himself..." —Barnes & Noble review

Now in the Bookstore for Holiday Gifting:
American Presidents Eminent Lives: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, a Boxed Set of Presidential biographies by Christopher Hitchens and Paul Johnson. "In the brief-biography arena, essayist Hitchens' Jefferson vies with historian Joyce Appleby's Thomas Jefferson (2003) for the loyalty of the time-challenged reader." —Gilbert Taylor, Booklist "Johnson doesn't have Americans' natural inclination to deify Washington, but he does have a great deal of respect for his subject, delineating the man's merits and deficiencies." —Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes holds within its slipcase four classic Sherlockian tales (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear), plus "clear definitions of obscure terms, pithy discussions of some of the issues that have puzzled and delighted Holmes fans for generations (where exactly was Watson wounded?) and lucid essays (which legend inspired The Hound of the Baskervilles?). Klinger manages the difficult feat of appealing both to those new to the world of Sherlockian scholarship and to those who can quote the stories like gospel. Ample use of illustrations, some from the novels' original appearances, adds to the enjoyment." —Publishers Weekly

Jefferson and His Time, in a special "slipcover edition", is the complete, six-volume, illustrated Pulitzer-Prize-winning biography, available for the first time in a handsome boxed set. "Malone is the giant on whose shoulders every subsequent scholar of Jefferson stands.... [This] is simply a great read." —Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson.

The World of Wine: The Boxed Set includes both Hugh Johnson's The Story of Wine and The World Atlas of Wine, together in a slipcover case. Sure to be a hit with the oenophile on your gift list! "This luxury box-set includes two of the world’s most successful and best-selling wine books by the two foremost wine writers on the subject." (Publisher's release notes)

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in paperback editions: "The first five books in Alexander McCall Smith's beloved bestselling series, featuring Mma Precious Ramotswe, the traditionally built, eminently sensible, and cunning proprietor of the only ladies' detective agency in Botswana, are now available in a beautifully designed boxed set, including a special preview chapter of Blue Shoes and Happiness." —Barnes & Noble listing
0743270916,031615976X,0743243773,1400062373,
0060844760,039305800X,0813923549,1845331656.0767906039,
B000BHA3WW,0684865742,0316159778,


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