Editor’s Choice
Salvation in Death, by J.D. Robb, $25.95. Holy communion spells death for Father Miguel Flores, a popular Catholic priest in New York City’s Spanish Harlem, after he swallows wine laced with cyanide during a funeral in best seller Robb’s unusually introspective 27th crime thriller to feature Lt. Eve Dallas (after “Strangers in Death”). Publishers Weekly
FICTION
Isaac’s Torah, by Angel Wagenstein, $23.95. Bulgarian author and screenwriter Wagenstein devotes his powerful novel to an affable Jewish tailor from a small town in Eastern Europe who survives the reigns of Hitler and Stalin. Isaac’s mesmerizing voice charms through every disaster, and engages and delights the reader without distracting from Wagenstein’s profound insights into life’s absurdities. Publishers Weekly
Life After Genius, by M. Ann Jacoby. A boy genius pushed by his mother and terrorized by classmates, Mead heads for college with hopes of freedom and belonging. He quickly learns about academic politics, but not quickly enough about friendship. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Thames: A Biography, by Peter Ackroyd, $40. A meandering journey along the rivers Thames with the eloquent and prolific Ackroyd (“Newton,” etc.). The book is not 1.) a river guidebook; 2.) a John McPhee-like first-person journey featuring interviews with colorful river folk; 3.) a conventional history of the Thames from Big Bang to 2008. It is a cultural history divided into many parts and chapters that wanders around, loops back, floods, trickles, rushes and slows just like, well, a river. Kirkus
Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to staying Fat, Loud, Lazy, and Stupid, by Denis Leary, $25.95. According to Leary, his first book is not for the faint of heart, by which he means Americans: “I am here to debunk and declassify and otherwise hold up a brutally honest mirror to our fat, ugly, lazy American selves.” Publishers Weekly
Sinatra in Hollywood, by Tom Santopietro, $29.95. The king of the saloon singers was a top-notch actor when he cared to be. So argues Santopietro, who proves an ideal guide to Ol’ Blue Eyes’ spotty career as a screen actor. Combining a fan’s ardor and enthusiasm with keen critical insight, he convincingly makes the case for Sinatra as a major acting talent while taking the famously mercurial entertainer to task for wasting his prodigious gifts on frivolous projects. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
Bag of Bones, by Stephen King, $14. Without question, “Bag of Bones” is ambitious. There’s plenty of all-out terror here to satisfy his existing fan base, but there’s also a truly touching love story that will appeal to many readers who have not given King a try since his early pure-horror days. Barnes & Noble reviews
Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, $14. (Lexi’s) doctor tells her she has retrograde amnesia: She’s woken up to a life she doesn’t know, and as a person she doesn’t know, either. Luckily, Kinsella knows exactly who Lexi is, was and will be. The Washington Post
The Lady Elizabeth, by Alison Weir, $15. The experiences of Elizabeth I make for the ultimate royal bedtime story, and Weir’s sophomore fiction offering (after last year’s best-selling “Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey”) about the life of Elizabeth before she ascended to the throne is the finest of these to date. Library Journal
COMING UP
Honeymoon in Tehran: Two Years of Love and Danger in Iran, by Azadeh Moaveni, $26. The author, a longtime Time magazine Middle East correspondent, falls in love with an Iranian while she covers life in Iran, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (February)
