Look on the fiction shelves for Nebula and Hugo awards-winner Orson Scott Card’s latest, “Magic Street.” In nonfiction, unwilling war correspondent Chris Ayers talks about his time covering the Iraq war in “War Reporting for Cowards.” Pete Dexter never disappoints and his take on the Wild West featuring Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane in “Deadwood” is out in paperback. Looking ahead, you can expect “Trail of Feathers,” the true story of a newspaper editor who goes on the trail of a reporter missing in Mexico.
FICTION
“Magic Street,” by Orson Scott Card, Ballantine, 397 pages, $24.95|Set in downtown L.A., this urban fantasy is about the mysterious young Mack Street and the extraordinary world in which he finds himself.
“The Road to Esmeralda,” by Joy Nicholson, St. Martin’s, 346 pages, $24.95|A couple fed up with their lives in America move to Mexico, where their naivete lands them in trouble.
“The Architect,” by Keith Ablow, St. Martin’s, 289 pages, $24.95|The fifth entry in the author’s series about FBI forensic psychologist Frank Clevenger and his hunt for an architect who is out to murder members of the president’s family.
NONFICTION
“War Reporting for Cowards,” by Chris Ayers, Atlantic Monthly, 280 pages, $23|Ayers, a reporter for the London Times who really wanted to cover pop culture, is sent to cover the Iraq war instead. Here he recounts his time spent in Iraq.
“The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication and Glamour,” by Joan DeJean, Free Press, 303 pages, $25|The author, a cultural historian, takes us back to the reign of Louis XIV to explain how the French determined what we now consider the ultimate in sophistication.
“The Great American Jobs Scam: Corporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation,” by Greg LeRoy, Berrett Koehler, 290 pages, $24.95|LeRoy discusses case after case of how corporation promises of good jobs and higher tax revenues coming in return for tax subsidies either don’t come true or are greatly exaggerated.
PAPERBACK
“Deadwood,” by Pete Dexter, Vintage, 365 pages, $14|Dexter, whose novel “Paris Trout” won the National Book Award, is in fine form with this tale of some of the wildest names in the history of the American West.
“Hard Line: Life and Death on the U.S.-Mexico Border,” Ken Ellingwood, Vintage, 256 pages, $14|The author, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, documents the stories of illegal immigrants and the border agents who track them.
“D.B.,” by Elwood Reid, Anchor, 368 pages, $14.95|D.B. Cooper hijacked a flight, got his money and jumped out of the airplane, never to be seen again. Here is the author’s fictionalized account of the famous incident.
COMING UP
“Trail of Feathers: Searching for Philip True,” by Robert Rivard, PublicAffairs, 411 pages, $27.50, November|San Antonio Express-News reporter Philip True vanished in Mexico. Rivard, his editor, joined a small search party that found his body. He had been murdered. This is the story of the search.
“Faith for Beginners,” by Aaron Hamburger, Random House, 356 pages, $23.95, October|This debut novel is set during the summer of 2000 when an American family’s vacation to Jerusalem goes terribly wrong.
“I’ll Never Be Long Gone,” by Thomas Christopher Greene, HarperCollins, 320 pages, $24.95, October|This is the touching story of two brothers whose lives are altered after their father commits a tragic act.
