Editor’s Choice
The Spanish Game, by Charles Cumming, $24.95. Notable for its heightened psychological cat-and- mouse play, this second Milius title (after “A Spy by Nature”) will build Cumming’s reputation as a literary spymaster to reckon with. Comparing him to early John le Carre is not out of line. An added bonus is the masterly description of Madrid and Basque country complete with wine and dine notes. Library Journal
FICTION
“Tis the Season, by Lorna Landvik, $22. Just in time for Christmas, Landvik gets into the head of a Paris Hilton-like celebuditz in this lively “novel” propelled by e-mails, tabloid gossip and letters primarily written by, about or to young celebrity bad girl Caroline “Caro” Dixon. Publishers Weekly
Peripheral Vision, by Patricia Ferguson, $24.95. The aftermath of a child’s injury leaves a trail of love, loss and mystery around generations of women in British author-and former nurse-Ferguson’s finely wrought American debut. Publishers Weekly
NONFICTION
Call Me Ted, by Ted Turner, $30. “I don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the past or thinking about myself,” Turner claims, but the media tycoon turns out to have a pretty good memory — except for certain events. There’s little to challenge Turner’s provocative reputation, but his reflections reveal the depth of calculation behind his career as a so-called loose cannon. Publishers Weekly
Whisper of Fear: The True Story of the Prosecutor Who Stalks the Stalkers, by Rhonda B. Saunders, $25.95. Prosecutor Saunders is an authority on her subject: the founder of the Stalking and Threat Assessment Team in Los Angeles wrote and toughened California’s stalking law. Here she engrossingly explores the menacing crime of stalking as she relates the story of her more than two decades of work in the courtroom. Publishers Weekly
Utopia’s Debris, by Gary Indiana, $28.95. (The author) seems to take perverse pleasure in sectioning the underbellies of the world’s most sacred cows. None escape his scandalous, sobering, satirical pen in this new collection. Indiana’s thorough and balanced research coagulates into a convincing argument that the ills of the world are not natural occurrences like glaciation; There is accountability, and these people are responsible. A polychrome pastiche that soars with delicious insights. Kirkus
PAPERBACKS
The Clothes on Their Backs, by Linda Grant, $14. We are what we wear because clothes reveal our personalities but, as Grant makes clear as she guides us through a dizzying ethical maze, they also conceal them…. In this meticulously textured and complex novel, beneath Grant’s surface dressing, what she is talking about is more than skin deep. The Sunday Times
Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch’s Assault on America’s Fundamental Rights, by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, $15. With her characteristic acerbic humor, the late Molly Ivins and colleague Lou Dubose (“Shrub,” “Bushwhacked”) dissect the myriad attacks the Bush administration has made on the Bill of Rights and how ordinary citizens have fought back.” Booklist
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, $16. This Afghan-American author follows his debut (“The Kite Runner”) with a fine risk-taking novel about two victimized but courageous Afghan women. Kirkus
COMING UP
The Stranger, by Max Frei, $29.95. Frei’s novels have become something of a sensation in Russia. Part fantasy, part horror, part dark comedy, the novel is set in a parallel world where magic is a daily practice. (April)
