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Sandra
Dijkstra Literary Agency
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Fax (858) 794-2822
The Dijkstra Agency
Hot List
Summer 2014 – Summer 2015
Sandra Dijkstra
Elise Capron * Jill Marr
Thao Le * Andrea Cavallaro
Roz Foster * Jessica Watterson
www.dijkstraagency.com
NONFICTION
OUTLAWS OF THE ATLANTIC:
Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail
Marcus Rediker
Beacon Press
August 2014
Marcus Rediker, preeminent scholar of maritime history and author
of award winning The Slave Ship, is poised to break new ground in
Outlaws of the Atlantic. Here, Rediker turns maritime history
upside down, exploring the dramatic world of maritime adventure,
not from the perspective of admirals, merchants, and nationstates, but from the point of view of commoners—sailors, slaves,
indentured servants, pirates, and other outlaws—whose seafaring
experiences are brought together for the first time. In these pages,
Rediker shows oceanic history is crucial to understanding
historical processes like the rise of capitalism and the formation of
race and class.
“The three chapters on pirates and the "Middle Passage" slave
trade from West Africa to the American colonies and the
Caribbean shine brightly.” – Wall Street Journal
“A top-notch examination of how indentured servants, privateers, pirates and
slaves affected and even directed human history in the age of sail.... An
outstanding view of the ‘seaman’ as a ‘preeminent worker of the world.’” Kirkus Reviews
“With a keen eye for interesting characters, historian Rediker delivers a brisk
narrative.” - Publishers Weekly
Praise for Rediker’s The Slave Ship: A Human History:
“Masterly." - Adam Hochschild, New York Times Book Review
"I was hardly prepared for the profound emotional impact of The Slave Ship. Reading it established a
transformative and never to be severed bond with my African ancestors who were cargo in slave ships
over a period of four centuries." - Alice Walker
“Spectacularly researched and fluidly composed.” - Publishers Weekly (starred)
"A totally enthralling account of the Amistad rebellion and its place in the broader American story of revolt
against a great threat to liberty." - Booklist (starred)
Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh and the
recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the George Washington Book Prize (2008), the
Organization of American Historians’ Merle Cuti Award (2008), and a National Endowment for the
Humanities fellowship (2005–6). His books include The Many-Headed Hydra (with Peter Linebaugh),
Villains of All Nations, The Slave Ship, and The Amistad Rebellion. He lives in Pittsburg.
Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency - PR List 2014/15
2
MARK TWAIN'S AMERICA:
A Celebration in Words and Images
Harry L. Katz and Library of Congress
Foreword by Lewis Lapham
Little Brown
October 2014
“A richly illustrated life of an American icon. …Written with verve,
Katz's history is distinguished from a trove of Twain biographies by
its 300 illustrations, including photographs, cartoons and artwork,
drawn from the LOC's inestimable collection.” - Kirkus
“[Twain’s] autobiography stands, as does his presence in this book,
as the story of an observant pilgrim heaving the weighted lead of
his comprehensive and comprehending memory into the flow and
stream of time.”
- Lewis Lapham, Editor of Lapham’s Quarterly and former Editor of
Harper’s Magazine, from the Foreword of the book
“Other books on Mark Twain have used materials from the Library of
Congress, but none have reached so deeply into our collections to provide a
portrait of the artist and the country that inspired him. In adding fresh insights
into a man we thought we knew so well, Mark Twain’s America is a salute
from one American institution to another.” - James H. Billington, Librarian of
the United States Congress
"Mark Twain's America reminds us why George Bernard Shaw called Twain
'America's Voltaire.' The man from Hannibal was a powerful voice for social
change who wrote and spoke against the corruption he saw in our
government, a champion of the values he learned as a child on the Missouri
frontier."
- Hal Holbrook, creator of Mark Twain Tonight!
Mark Twain is an American icon. We now know him as the author of classics, but in his day he was a
controversial satirist and public figure who traveled the world and healed post-Civil War America with his
tall tales, witty anecdotes, and humorous but insightful novels and stories. Twain's legacy continues to
flourish over 100 years after his death.
What did Mark Twain see when he opened his door? Harry Katz’s lovely narrative answers this question,
drawing upon spectacular examples of Twain memorabilia and period Americana from the unsurpassed
collections of the Library of Congress: rare illustrations, vintage photographs, popular and fine prints,
period views, caricatures, cartoons, maps, and peppered with excerpts from Twain's writings.
Covering the years between 1850 and 1910, this is an intimate view of Twain's many roles in life. Through
letters, political cartoons, photographs and more, Mark Twain’s America offers an inside look into Twain's
life as well as the literary, social, and political life of America during his time.
Harry L. Katz is former Head Curator in the Library of Congress' Division of Prints and Photographs and
the author of Baseball Americana, a cultural history of baseball, as well as Civil War Sketch Book:
Drawings from the Battlefront, which was featured as part of a cover story for National Geographic.
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THE AMAZONS: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women
Across the Ancient World
Adrienne Mayor
Princeton University Press
October 2014
"Mayor tailors her scholarly work to lay readers, providing a
fascinating exploration into the factual identity underpinning the
fanciful legends surrounding these wondrous Amazons.... Mayor
clears away much of the man-hating myths around these
redoubtable warriors. Thanks to Mayor's scholarship, these
fearsome fighters are attaining their historical respectability."
- Kirkus Reviews
“Nobody brings ancient history and archaeology to life like Mayor.
From the Russian steppes to China, and from Roman Egypt and
Arabia to the Etruscans, she leads the reader on a breathtaking
quest for the real ancient warrior women reflected in myths—their
daring, archery, tattoos, fine horses, and independence from male
control. The book’s rich erudition, communicated in sparkling prose
and beautiful illustrations, makes it a riveting read.” - Edith Hall,
author of Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to
Navigators of the Western Mind
“A great book—at once exhaustive, scholarly, thrilling, and imaginative,
spanning the history, art, and imagination of ancient peoples from Italy to
China.” - John Boardman, University of Oxford
“In this comprehensive account of the Amazons, Adrienne Mayor examines
the subject in a way that no one else has done and presents overwhelming
evidence that they were not entirely fictitious. Only Mayor has looked at the
evidence from all the relevant fields to show how, together, they can solve
what to each of them separately are complete mysteries. This will be the
classic book on the subject for a very long time.” - Elizabeth Wayland Barber,
author of The Dancing Goddesses
“In this fascinating book, which combines flowing prose, a lively and engaging presentation, and
wonderful illustrations, Adrienne Mayor brings the reader into the excitement of discovering the truth
about the Amazons. …Mayor is the first to examine the evidence systematically and in detail and she
makes a concrete and persuasive case.” - William Hansen, author of Classical Mythology: A Guide to the
Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans
Adrienne Mayor is the author of The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s
Deadliest Enemy (Princeton), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, was named one of the
best books of 2009 by the Washington Post, and won the 2010 Gold Medal in Biography from the
Independent Publisher Book Awards, Her other books include Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion
Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (Overlook) and The First Fossil Hunters:
Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton). Her work is often featured on
NPR and BBC, Discovery and History TV channels, and other popular media, including the New York
Times and National Geographic. She is a research scholar in Classics and the History and Philosophy of
Science and Technology Program at Stanford University.
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YOUR ATOMIC SELF:
How the Atoms of Your Body Connect You to the World
Curt Stager
St. Martin’s Press
October 2014
"Stager is the finest and most entertaining explainer I've ever come
across. Read this book and I guarantee you that the world--and your
own darned self--will look very different to you in the future."
- Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home
“Curt Stager takes us on a ride into Wonderland, exploring in an
intimate way how different atoms and molecules are essential to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. After reading Your Atomic Self,
you won’t take even the most basic elements of natural life for
granted anymore."
- Neil F. Comins, author of What if the Earth had Two Moons?
"Stager's book is nothing short of a tour-de-force through modern
science, viewed through the lens of the chemical elements. Best of
all, he succeeds in being scientifically accurate and entertaining at
the same time."
- Eric Scerri, author of A Tale of Seven Elements
"Delightful alchemy: Curt Stager transforms atomic science into lustrous,
golden stories about the hidden connections that unite us all."
- David George Haskell, author of The Forest Unseen
Your Atomic Self presents a new way to look at our bodies, and shows how
each molecule of which we are made is mirrored in the world around us.
Indeed, we are what we eat, drink, and breathe. Using simple terminology,
clear concepts, vivid imagery, and practical examples from daily life, Stager
makes sense of the reality that each of us is a “pile of atoms”, showing how this
reality shapes us, and our view of the universe.
Praise for Stager’s previous book, Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth:
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
“Amid all the ranting, confusing, and contradicting books on climate change, at last here's one that does
something truly useful: Clearly and engagingly, scientist Curt Stager guides us back into the atmosphere's
history, letting us compare it to the present and draw informed ideas about what to expect in the future.
It's heartening to know that he expects us to have one.” - Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
Curt Stager is an ecologist, paleoclimatologist, and science writer. He has published more than three
dozen climate- and ecology-related articles in major journals, and has written for popular audiences in
periodicals such as National Geographic. He teaches at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondack
Mountains and holds a research associate post at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute. He
is the author of Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth (Thomas Dunne Books, 2011).
Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency - PR List 2014/15
5
THE THIRTEENTH TURN: A History of the Noose
Jack Shuler
PublicAffairs
September 2014
“The potency of the noose—as device, spectacle and ritual—laid raw and
bare. …Shuler makes the hangman’s knot and death by hanging transfixing
but agonizing reading. …A panoramic, unforgettable rendering of ‘the long
fade of strangulation’.” – Kirkus Reviews
The hangman's knot is a simple thing to tie, just a rope carefully coiled around
itself up to thirteen times. But in those thirteen turns lie a powerful symbol, one
of the most powerful in history, and particularly in America, whose relationship
to the noose is all too deep and complicated. Jack Shuler, a professor of
American literature and black studies, explores, era by era, the history of this powerful tool and symbol,
revealing its impact on society. His travels take him across America—and not just the South—uncovering
our deep secrets and searching for meaning.
Pat Conroy on Shuler’s previous book, Blood and Bone: Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town:
"One of the best books ever written on a southern small town. The people we meet in these pages are
wonderful and the final chapter is spectacular."
Jack Shuler is the John and Christine Warner professor and associate professor of English at Denison
University where he teaches American literature and Black Studies. He is the author of two books on the
nexus of race and violence in America, Calling Out Liberty and Blood and Bone. Shuler’s criticism,
interviews, reviews, and poems have appeared in a wide range of publications. He lives in Ohio.
AFTER WE KILL YOU, WE WILL WELCOME YOU BACK AS HONORED
GUESTS: Unembedded in Afghanistan
Ted Rall
Hill and Wang
September 2014
“Some of the best reporting from Afghanistan by an American journalist.”
- The Nation
An unflinching account—in words and pictures—of America’s longest war by
our most outspoken graphic journalist.
Ted Rall traveled deep into Afghanistan—without embedding himself with U.S.
soldiers, without insulating himself with flak jackets and armored SUVs—where no one else would go
(except, of course, Afghans). He made two long trips: the first in the wake of 9/11, and the next ten years
later to see what a decade of U.S. occupation had wrought. The result of this intrepid reporting is a
singular account of one determined journalist’s effort to bring the realities of life in 21st Century
Afghanistan to the world in the best way he knows how: a mix of travelogue, photography, and awardwinning comics.
Ted Rall is a nationally syndicated political cartoonist (including being chief political cartoonish for the Los
Angeles Times), graphic novelist, author and occasional war correspondent. Twice the winner of the RFK
Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Rall is the author and illustrator of graphic novels and
books of political criticism and travel writing, including Silk Road to Ruin, and The Book of Obama: How
We Went from Hope and Change to the Age of Revolt.
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THE THIEF TAKER HANGINGS: How Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Wild, and
Jack Sheppard Captivated London and Created Scandal Journalism
Aaron Skirboll
Lyons
September 2014
“Skirboll masterfully weaves the captivating stories of three Englishmen and
how one’s newspaper coverage of the other two “birthed a genre.” Most
readers will recognize Daniel Defoe as the author of Robinson Crusoe, but he
also started one of the first newspapers in England and was deemed the father
of literary journalism. Skirboll details Defoe’s early life, including how he ended
up in prison and how that influenced his writing of Moll Flanders and gave him
credibility as an interviewer. As the targets of Defoe’s journalistic endeavors,
the burglar Jack Sheppard caught the romantic attention of the public during a
manhunt for him, while Jonathan Wild, the veritable inventor of organized crime, fell from having the
underworld of London (and sometimes the establishment) in the palm of his hand to swinging from the
gallows. In the course of his storytelling, Skirboll also covers the early history of publishing, runs through
the grisly details of the English justice system of the early 18th century, and details how brutish life could
be for the average person of the time. A rollicking romp through London’s underbelly, Skirboll’s rich,
multilayered account reveals the birth of society’s fascination with criminals.” – Publishers Weekly
Aaron Skirboll is the author of The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the
Fall for Major League Baseball which was called “can’t put down’ reading” by Spitball: The Literary
Baseball Magazine and “fascinating” by Booklist. He has written about America’s first professional
songwriter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Ernest Hemingway’s last days for American Way magazine,
and the history of the phone booth and cell phone etiquette for The Morning News.
WHY WE LOVE SERIAL KILLERS:
The Curious Appeal of the World's Most Savage Murderers
Dr. Scott Bonn
Skyhorse Press
October 2014
“Considered one of the world’s top experts on criminal behavior, Scott Bonn has
delivered a book which is so powerful and provocative, you cannot put it down.
Indeed, through his diligent work and unparalleled access to these infamous
killers who’ve committed some of the most horrific crimes of our day, he
provides chilling and critical insight into these deviant and pathological criminal
minds . . . and reveals the truth behind the headlines.”
- Rita Cosby, Emmy Award-winning television host and bestselling author
“Powerful and a must-read! Dr. Bonn examines the serial killer, as depicted in fact and fiction, as a
timeless cultural imperative. . . . Insightful, compelling, and an excellent source of myth-busting
information for laymen and professionals alike.” - Burl Barer, award-winning crime author and radio host
“For those of you that are interested in serial killers—why they do what they do—and want to go the extra
mile and delve into their disturbed minds, this book is a must-read. Author Scott Bonn explains how their
evil minds work and also takes on the challenge of debunking myths that go along with them.”
- Victoria Redstall, author and investigative journalist
Dr. Scott Bonn is a professor of criminology at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. His expert
commentary has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, Headline News Network, and more.
Dr. Bonn hosts a weekly college radio show and has recently appeared as an expert analyst in the A&E
documentary The Long Island Serial Killer. The author resides in Manhattan, New York.
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GATEWAY TO FREEDOM: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad
Eric Foner
Norton
January 2015
“Gateway to Freedom liberates the history of the underground railroad from the
twin plagues of mythology and cynicism. The big picture is here, along with
telling details from previously untapped sources. With lucid prose and careful
analysis, Foner tells a story that is at once unsparing and inspiring. For anyone
who still wonders what was at stake in the Civil War, there is no better place to
begin than Gateway to Freedom.”
- James Oakes, author of Freedom National
More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of
America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning
historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom.
Slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the
American Revolution. New York City was home to slaves as well as the North’s largest free black
community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge, in addition to slave kidnappers, who
seized free blacks--often children--and sent them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight
kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the network that would
become known as the Underground Railroad. Operating in secrecy, the group helped more than 3,000
fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830-60. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown.
Building on fresh evidence, Foner elevates the Underground Railroad from folklore to sweeping and
inspiring history. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of
the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition," person by person, family by family.
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. His Reconstruction: America's
Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 won the Bancroft, Parkman, and Los Angeles Times Book prizes and
remains the standard history of the period. He has served as president of the Organization of American
Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Society of American Historians.
CREATURES OF A DAY: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Irvin Yalom
Basic
February 2015
“Poignant and beautiful insights from a wise therapist looking back on a career,
a therapist who happens to be a writer I greatly admire – Creatures of a Day is
just what the Doctor ordered!”
- Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
In his long career, eminent psychotherapist and author Irvin Yalom has pressed
his patients and readers to grapple with life's two greatest challenges: that we all
must die, and that each of us is responsible for leading a life worth living. In
Creatures of a Day, he and his patients confront the difficulty of these
challenges. Although these people have come to Yalom seeking relief, recognition, or meaning, together
they discover that such things are rarely found in the places where we think to look.
Irvin D. Yalom is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University and a psychiatrist in private
practice in San Francisco. He is the author of many internationally bestselling nonfiction psychiatry texts,
novels, and stories, including Love's Executioner, The Gift of Therapy, When Nietzsche Wept, The
Spinoza Problem, and more.
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WHY LIBERALS WIN:
Religion in America's Culture Wars from Jefferson to Obama
Stephen Prothero
HarperCollins
April 2015
Cover not yet available
Praise for God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World:
“Enormously timely, thoughtful and balanced.” - Los Angeles Times
“2010’s must-read for anyone religiously illiterate….Don’t know much about the
world’s faiths? Get a copy now.” - The Daily Beast
Stephen Prothero is the New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and God Is Not One, a
Professor of Religion at Boston University, and a senior fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of
American History in Washington, D.C. His work has been featured on the cover of Time Magazine, The
Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, National Public Radio, and other top national
media outlets. He blogs for CNN's Belief Blog and writes for the New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, The Washington Post, and other publications.
RAIN: A Natural and Cultural History
Cynthia Barnett
Crown
April 2015
It is elemental, mysterious, precious, destructive. It is the subject of countless
poems and paintings; the top of the weather report; the source of all the world's
water. Yet this is the first book to tell the story of rain.
Cynthia Barnett's Rain begins four billion years ago with the torrents that filled
the oceans, and builds to the storms of climate change. It weaves together
science—the true shape of a raindrop, the origins of black or red rains—with the
human story of our attempts to control rain, from ancient rain gods to the 2,203
miles of levees that attempt to straitjacket the Mississippi River. It offers a
glimpse of our “founding forecaster,” Thomas Jefferson, who measured every
drizzle long before modern meteorology. Two centuries later, rainy skies helped inspire Morrissey’s
mopes and Kurt Cobain’s grunge. Rain is also a travelogue, taking readers to Scotland to tell the
surprising story of the mackintosh raincoat, and to India, where villagers extract the scent of rain from the
monsoon-drenched earth and turn it into perfume.
Now, after thousands of years spent praying for rain or worshiping it; burning witches at the stake to stop
rain or sacrificing small children to bring it; mocking rain with irrigated agriculture and cities built in
floodplains; even trying to blast rain out of the sky with mortars meant for war, humanity has finally
managed to change the rain. Only not in ways we intended. As climate change upends rainfall patterns
and unleashes increasingly severe storms and drought, Barnett shows rain to be a unifying force in a
crazy-quilt world. Too much and not nearly enough, rain is a conversation we share, and this is a book for
everyone who has ever experienced it.
Cynthia Barnett is a long-time environmental and science journalist who has reported on water from the
Suwannee River to Singapore. She is the author of Mirage, which won the gold medal for best nonfiction
in the Florida Book Awards, and Blue Revolution, which was named by the Boston Globe as one of the
top 10 science books of 2011. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and their two children.
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BIG SCIENCE:
Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Changed the Course of History
Michael Hiltzik
Simon & Schuster
Summer 2015
Big Science tells the story of the transformation of science around the world,
from a private to public and now a corporate enterprise. One brilliant and
entrepreneurial physicist, Ernest Law, played the indispensable role leading the
revolution which gave us the atom and hydrogen bombs, and a new
understanding of the natural world.
The result: A research landscape in which only those institutions with hundreds
of millions of dollars to spend can compete, but it has produced spectacular
achievements such as the discovery of the Higgs Boson by the Large Hadron Collider (the offspring of
Lawrence's own cyclotron). However, now we are saddled with a world in which government and industry
control what is studied, and how much of it the public is allowed to know.
Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology,
and public policy for the Los Angeles Times for twenty years. In that time he has served as a financial and
political writer, an investigative reporter, and as a foreign correspondent in Africa and Russia. He
currently serves as the Times business columnist.
CHASING DREAMS:
A History of Asian Americans from 1492 to the Present
Erika Lee
Simon & Schuster
June 2015
Cover not yet available
Award-winning author, historian, professor, and Director of the Immigration
History Research Center at the University of Minnesota Erika Lee’s Chasing
Dreams: A History of Asian Americans from 1492 to the Present is the first book
to tell why and how, over the past four-and-a-half centuries, Asian immigrants
have crossed the Pacific in search of new beginnings and how they have helped
shape life in the Americas.
2015 will mark the 450th anniversary of when trading ships brought the first Asians to the New World, as
well as the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Immigration Act of 1965 which opened up the country to the more
recent generations of Asian immigrants.
Erika Lee is the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History and Director of the Immigration History
Research Center at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of two award-winning books, including
Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (Oxford University Press, 2010, co-authored with Judy
Yung), which won the Adult Non-Fiction Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and At America's
Gates: Chinese Immigration During the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (University of North Carolina Press,
2003).
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OUR AMERICA TOO:
The Story of the Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights
Lillian Faderman
Simon & Schuster
June 2015
Award-winning cultural historian and author of the classics Odd Girls and
Twilight Lovers, Gay LA, and nine other books (two of which were named as
"Notable Books of the Year” by the The New York Times) writes her biggest
book yet. Modeled on Taylor Branch, this is a sweeping novelistic history of
this important movement, filled with evocative stories of pioneers, the
conquered and the conquerors, creating an unforgettable mosaic of the striving
to have “our America too”. In many ways, Our America Too creates a book-end
to Faderman’s acclaimed Surpassing the Love of Men, and defines her as the
pre-eminent author in this field, as do her many prizes and accolades.
Lillian Faderman is an internationally known scholar of lesbian history and literature, as well as ethnic
history and literature. The New York Times named two of her classic books, Surpassing the Love of Men:
Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present and Odd Girls and
Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America "Notable Books of the Year".
Among her many honors are six Lambda Literary Awards, two American Library Association Awards, and
several lifetime achievement awards for scholarship, including Yale University's James Brudner Award,
the Monette/Horwitz Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives
Culture Hero Award, and the American Association of University Women's Distinguished Senior Scholar
Award. Her work has been translated into numerous languages, including German, Spanish, Italian,
Japanese, Turkish, Czech, and Slovenian. Her most recent book is My Mother’s Wars (Beacon Press,
2013).
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FICTION
CHINA DOLLS
Lisa See
Random House
June 2014
“Stellar… Each woman’s voice [is] strong and dynamic, developing
a multilayered richness as it progresses. The depth of See’s
characters and her winning prose makes this book a wonderful
journey through love and loss.” – Publishers Weekly (starred)
“In her impeccably researched and distinctive historical saga of
desire and ambition, betrayal and revenge set amid the glitz and
debauchery of burlesque entertainment on the “chop suey circuit,”
See again lavishly explores the thorny intricacies of female
friendships.” - Booklist
“China Dolls mines a fascinating part of our cultural history with a
trio of women who become a complex constant in each other’s
lives even as the world serves up painful transformation. Lisa See
gets so much just right, here. You’ll want to dive right in.”
- Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
The New York Times bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,
Peony in Love, and Shanghai Girls has garnered international acclaim for her
immersive storytelling gifts and skill at rendering the layered, intricate
relationships of women as they encounter the forces of history and fate. Now
comes Lisa See’s highly anticipated new novel, China Dolls.
Set in San Francisco 1938 as the World’s Fair opens on Treasure Island, a
war brewing overseas, and the City is alive with possibilities. Grace, Helen,
and Ruby--three young women from very different backgrounds--meet by
chance at the exclusive and glamorous Forbidden City nightclub. Grace Lee,
an American-born Chinese girl, has fled the Midwest and her father with
nothing but heartache, talent, and a pair of dancing shoes. Helen Fong lives
with her extended family in Chinatown, where her traditional parents insist
that she guard her reputation like a piece of jade. And sexy Ruby Tom challenges the boundaries of
convention at every turn with her defiant attitude and no-holds-barred ambition.
As “China dolls”, embarking on dancing careers at the clubs, the girls become fast friends, relying on one
another to get through unexpected challenges and shifting fortunes. When their dark secrets are
exposed, the invisible thread of fate binds them even more tightly, they find the strength and resilience to
reach for their dreams. But after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, paranoia and suspicion threaten to
destroy their lives, and a shocking act of betrayal changes everything, love and friendship not always
being on the same dance card.
Lisa See is the New York Times bestselling author of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Shanghai Girls,
Dreams of Joy, Peony in Love, Flower Net (an Edgar Award nominee), The Interior, and Dragon
Bones, as well as the critically acclaimed memoir On Gold Mountain. The Organization of Chinese
American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.
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THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT (paperback)
Amy Tan
Ecco
July 2014 (paperback edition)
“Here are strong women struggling to survive all that life has thrown
at them, created by a writer skilled at evoking the roil of emotions
and made exploits they experience when they follow their hearts.”
- New York Times Book Review
“[Tan] sweeps you up in the wildly changing fortunes of a whipsmart courtesan.” - Entertainment Weekly
“With The Valley of Amazement, Amy Tan reaffirms her reputation
as a master storyteller, creating intriguing settings, unforgettable
characters, and twisty plotlines.” - O Magazine
“[A] novel that grabs your soul.” - San Francisco Chronicle
“Fans will recognize signature Tan themes: mother-daughter
relationships, clashes between cultures… threads of humor and
emotional insight make Violet’s struggle to survive, and ultimately forgive, a
journey worth sharing.” - People
“Amy Tan is one of our blackest-belted scriveners, and this is her
masterwork.” - Mary Karr, author of the New York Times bestsellers The
Liars' Club, Cherry, and Lit
Spanning fifty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement is a tale
of three women, connected by personal rebellion, betrayal, and a mysterious
painting called "The Valley of Amazement." As with all of Tan's novels, we
are swept into the emotional turmoil of mothers and daughters, heritage and
individuality, race and culture, and the damaging residue of secrets that lead
to misunderstandings, from one generation to the next. Lulu, Violet, and
Flora, each of a different racial mix and status, question what is fated from
birth, where they belong, and what they can still change.
Opening in 1905 in a first-class courtesan house in Shanghai, which is run by an American woman with
Yankee ingenuity and an unknown past, The Valley of Amazement follows the tumultuous life of the
courtesan madam’s daughter, Violet, who is kidnapped and sold into a house of low repute. Though she
initially resists her fate, Violet flourishes with business cunning. She matches her illusions to each man's
romantic sense of himself, while avoiding the greatest peril a courtesan faces: believing that the illusion of
love she has created is real.
Ultimately, this is a story of the many hard facets of love that underlie fragile hope and the near
impossibility of forgiveness--territory that Tan hones with characteristic humor, insight, and poignant
understanding.
Amy Tan is the author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The
Bonesetter's Daughter, The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, Saving Fish from Drowning,
and two children's books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, which was adapted into a PBS Kids production.
Tan was also a co-producer and co-screenwriter of the film version of The Joy Luck Club. Her essays and
stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, and her work has been translated into
thirty-five languages. She lives with her husband in San Francisco and New York.
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LAND OF LOVE AND DROWNING
Tiphanie Yanique
Riverhead
July 2014
Publishers Weekly “Best Summer Books of 2014” pick
“14 to Watch in 2014” - BookPage
Magazine coverage has included O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Marie
Claire, Elle, Ebony, and more.
“Bubbling with talent and ambition, this novel is a head-spinning Caribbean
cocktail.” – Kirkus, starred
"Through the voices and lives of its native people, Yanique offers an affecting narrative of the Virgin
Islands that pulses with life, vitality, and a haunting evocation of place." - Publishers Weekly, starred
"A few years ago, Yanique wowed us with her phenomenal story collection, How to Escape from a Leper
Colony. Now she brings us this astonishing and wondrous novel. Multilayered, multigenerational and epic
in both talent and scope, this is a stunning first novel about family, history, home and much more.
Yanique's tremendous talents and incredible storytelling will astound you and leave you breathless.”
- Edwidge Danticat
Tiphanie Yanique is the author of the story collection How to Escape from a Leper Colony, she is a 2010
Rona Jaffe Writers Award winner and was named by the National Book Awards as one of 2011’s “5
Under 35.” She teaches at the New School and lives in Brooklyn and Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.
I DID NOT KILL MY HUSBAND
Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin
Skyhorse
September 2014
Having sold over 1.2 million copies in China, Liu Zhenyun’s I Did Not Kill My
Husband is a devastating yet hilarious satire of contemporary China. Liu's
politically charged, commercial plot is absurd and hilarious, softening what
moves from a harsh indictment of China’s one-child law to a head-on critique of
China’s corrupt judicial system and its bureaucracy. Ultimately it presents a
hopeful, almost utopian image of what one person can accomplish in bringing
the vast machinery of the State to a halt.
Liu Zhenyun is the author of six novels. His fiction has won numerous prizes,
and has been translated into many languages. Immensely popular in his native China, several films have
been made from his novels, including the blockbuster Cell Phone, directed by China's hottest director,
Feng Xiaogang.
Howard Goldblatt translated works by 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Mo Yan. Guggenheim
fellow, Goldblatt taught modern Chinese literature and culture for more than a quarter of a century. He is
the foremost translator of modern and contemporary Chinese literature in the West.
Sylvia Li-chun Lin is a full time translator and writer. Her co-translations into English include prizewinning works by Chu T'ien-wen, Alai, and up-and-coming Chinese novelist Bi Feiyu.
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THE DEEP ZOO
Rikki Ducornet
Coffee House Press
January 2015
The Deep Zoo is a reverie on the necessary and profoundly human experience
of Eros as exemplified by the creative imagination. Ducornet says, “to write a
text is to propose a reading of the world and to reveal its potencies.” Her
reading is one where imagination, violence, dreams, and fairy tales represent
the deep zoo at the core of humanity. These essays are, then, a gathering of
alchemies where the unknown becomes visible through the medium of art, be
they Borges’s tigers and Cortazar’s lions, desire, mystery, or the grotesque.
Praise for Rikki Ducornet:
"A novelist whose vocabulary sweats with a kind of lyrical heat." - The New York Times
"Linguistically explosive . . . one of the most interesting American writers around." - The Nation
Rikki Ducornet is the author of eight novels as well as collections of short stories, essays, and poems,
has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, honored twice by the Lannan Foundation,
and the recipient of Academy Award in Literature. She lives in Washington state.
FROG
Mo Yan, translated by Howard Goldblatt
Penguin
January 2015
China’s most revered and controversial novelist and author of Red Sorghum
returns with his first major novel since winning the Nobel Prize.
In 2012, the Nobel committee confirmed Mo Yan’s position as one of the most
important writers of our time. In his much-anticipated new novel, the author
chronicles the sweeping history of modern China through the lens of the
nation’s controversial one-child policy.
Frog opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole who plans to write about his
aunt. In her youth, Gugu—the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist—is revered
for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu’s own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She
decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of
children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant.
In sharply personal prose, Mo Yan depicts a world of desperate families, illegal surrogates, forced
abortions, and the guilt of those who must enforce the policy. At once illuminating and devastating, it
shines a light into the heart of communist China.
Mo Yan is a native of Shandong. He has written ten novels, a number of novellas, and many short
stories. He lives in China.
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THE COOK, THE CROOK, AND THE REAL ESTATE TYCOON:
A Novel of Contemporary China
Liu Zhenyun, translated by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin
Skyhorse
Spring 2015
Cover not yet available
With the same black humor of his earlier novel I Didn’t Kill My Husband, prizewinning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun paints a microcosm of contemporary
China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super-rich and the migrant
workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption.
In The Cook, the Crook and the Real Estate Tycoon, Liu Yuejin, is a work site
cook and small-time thief whose bag is stolen. In searching for it, he stumbles
upon another bag, which contains a flash disk that chronicles high-level corruption, setting off a
convoluted chase. There are no heroes in this scathing, and highly readable critique of the dark side of
China’s predatory capitalism, corruption, and the plight of the underclasses.
Liu Zhenyun is the author of six novels. His fiction has won numerous prizes, and has been translated
into many languages. Immensely popular in his native China, several films have been made from his
novels.
MYSTERY / THRILLER / SUSPENSE
AMERICAN WOMAN
Robert Pobi
Thomas & Mercer
May 2014
“Cold-blooded, sadistic serial killings plague New York City’s Upper East Side
in this gripping standalone from Pobi. …[Readers] will be spellbound.”
– Publishers Weekly
Not for the faint of heart—American Woman is a relentless ride that takes you
through the fractured world of a nascent killer. You will never feel safe again.
A stifling heat wave rolls into New York City, amplifying the already critical
level of tension in the fragile concrete ecosystem. The air tastes of electricity—
the negative charge of bad things to come—but everyone hopes it’s just the
temperature. Then, on the morning homicide detective Alexandra “Hemi” Hemingway finds out she’s
pregnant, a twisted serial killer makes his debut. And the heat goes up.
Robert Pobi is the international bestselling author of Bloodman, a novel that earned a spot on the 2012
Summer Reading List for O, The Oprah Magazine. It was published in more than a dozen countries and
became an international bestseller, garnering comparisons to “Thomas Harris in his prime” by Sarah
Weinman of the National Post. Pobi’s other novels include the classic tale Manheim Rex and the
disquieting thriller Deselected (coming January 2015).
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EYES ON YOU: A Novel of Suspense
Kate White
Harper
June 2014
“With pop culture references and attention to fashion detail, White keeps the
story both timely and engaging. It’s her devious mind, however, that puts the
thrill in this thriller.” – Publishers Weekly
“Her most compelling and snappiest stand-alone yet.” - Booklist
Someone is out to get you. Really get you. But you have absolutely no idea
who it is. After losing her on-air job two years ago, television host Robin
Trainer has fought her way back and now she’s hotter than ever. But
suddenly, things begin to go wrong. Small incidents at first, but the obnoxious quickly becomes
threatening when the foundation the makeup artist uses burns Robin’s face. It wasn’t an accident—
someone had deliberately doctored with the product. The clues point to someone she works with every
day. While she frantically tries to put the pieces together and unmask this hidden foe, it becomes
terrifyingly clear that the person responsible isn’t going to stop until Robin loses everything that matters to
her…including her life.
Kate White has been the editor-in-chief of five major national magazines, including Cosmopolitan (which
she ran for 14 years), and is the New York Times bestselling author of six Bailey Weggins mysteries and
three suspense novels. Her books have been covered everyplace from The Today Show to The New
York Times. Her first Bailey Weggins mystery, If Looks Could Kill, was named as the premier Reading
with Rippa selection and hit #1 on Amazon. White is also the author of several popular career books,
including I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: How to Ask for the Money, Snag the Promotion, and Create the
Career You Deserve, and Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead but Gutsy Girls Do.
MOVING DAY
Jonathan Stone
Thomas & Mercer
June 2014
“A spellbinding tale…” - Library Journal (starred)
“Crisp, elegant prose distinguishes this exceptional crime thriller. Nick, an
accomplished grifter, preys on the elderly, but he grossly underestimates 72year-old Stanley Peke, who plans to move to Santa Barbara with his wife after
40 years in Westchester, N.Y. The day before the real moving men are due,
Nick and his team arrive at the Pekes’ house ‘in crisp green uniforms, an
immense white truck behind them’. The physically robust Stanley has started
to forget little things, like where he puts his keys or his wallet, so he assumes
he has the date wrong. After packing up and loading the Pekes’ possessions in the white truck, Nick and
crew head for Montana. This betrayal brings back memories of Stanley’s horrific boyhood in Poland
escaping the Nazis. With steely resolve, he sets out on a cross-country road trip to retrieve his stolen
property. Readers will cheer this unlikely hero every step of the way.” - Publishers Weekly (starred)
Jonathan Stone has created campaigns for high-level brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and
Mitsubishi. His first mystery-thriller series, the Julian Palmer books, won critical acclaim. The New York
Times called his novel The Cold Truth “bone-chilling.” Stone is a graduate of Yale, where he was a
Scholar of the House in fiction writing.
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RIVER OF GLASS
Jaden Terrell
Permanent Press
October 2014
“This third Jared McKean mystery is a worthy successor to Racing the Devil
and A Cup Full of Midnight, both 2012, with a tough yet sympathetic
protagonist who goes to all ends for friends and family. Solid plotting and welldrawn characters make this a series to add to any hardboiled-mystery reader’s
list.” - Booklist
SHAMUS-nominated Jaden Terrrell is back with the third in her Jared McKean
series. Nashville private detective, McKean, has spent most of his thirty-six
years trying to live up to the memory of the father he barely knew. One day,
the body of a young Vietnamese woman is found in Jared's office dumpster
clutching a yellowed photo of Jared's father. A few days later, another Vietnamese woman, Khanh,
appears on Jared's doorstep, claiming to be his half-sister and begging him to help find her missing
daughter, Tuyet. Still reeling from the revelation of his father's secret life, Jared reluctantly agrees. It's
clear that Tuyet's path must have crossed the dead girl's, but when and how? While the police have their
hands full with a renegade bomber, Jared and Khanh form an uneasy alliance, following the trail into the
violent world of human trafficking - a world that few who enter ever leave.
Jaden Terrell’s first Jared McKean novel, Racing the Devil (2012), was a finalist for the prestigious
Shamus Award. Her second in this series, A Cup Full of Midnight, was published later that year. She is
also the Executive Director for Killer Nashville, one of the major mystery groups, which holds national
conferences every August.
GARBO’S LAST STAND
Jon Miller
Fiery Seas
December 2014
James Main, a television documentary researcher, uncovers lost footage of
enigmatic screen star, Greta Garbo, boarding an ocean liner just days before
the ship was sunk at the outbreak of World War II. His quest leads him to an
elderly paparazzo Seth Moseley, who promises to give James the exclusive of
the never-before told story of how a love-sick Seth followed the starlet aboard
an ocean liner bound for Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II. In return,
James discovers the reason why Seth has never told of Garbo’s secret quest
to prevent a world war by assassinating her biggest fan – Adolf Hitler. In the
process, both men learn how the redemptive power of love, once created, can
never be destroyed. Told with true cinematic flair and packed with an amazing amount of warmth and
heart, Garbo’s Last Stand is a terrific blend of fact and fiction.
Jon James Miller won Grand Prize of the AAA Screenplay Contest sponsored by Creative Screenwriting
Magazine for his original screenplay, Garbo’s Last Stand, in 2008.
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THE DROWNING GOD
James Kendley
Harper Voyager Impulse
May 2015
Cover not yet available
A paranormal thriller set in modern Japan.
Detective Tohru Takuda faces his tragic past when he returns to his childhood
village to investigate a foiled abduction. The villagers and the local police force
both shut him out, but slowly Takuda digs into the water accidents and
uncovers a cult worshipping the Kappa, a monstrous living relic of Japan’s
pagan prehistory. Joined by his junior officer and a Buddhist priest, Takuda
discovers that the deaths relating to the river are all connected to the deadly Kappa, the creature that
could very well be the one responsible for the drowning of Takuda’s own son years earlier.
James Kendley has written and edited professionally for more than 30 years, first as a newspaper
reporter and editor, then as a copy editor and translator in Japan (where he taught for eight years at
private colleges and universities), and currently as an educational software content wrangler living in
Charlottesville, Va.
BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT
Neal Griffin
Thomas and Mercer
June 2015
“[A] unique and suspenseful debut novel by a cop-turned-author who knows
the turf. The story moves at warp speed.”
- Joseph Wambaugh, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Benefit of the Doubt needs none—there is no doubt that this fine debut novel
is the sure-handed work of an exciting new author.”
- Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of Savages
“A taut and cleverly-plotted page-turner! Griffin is a terrific story-teller, and this
compelling tale will keep you guessing from the first chilling line to the unpredictable and completely
surprising last page.”—Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark, Anthony, and Agatha Award-winning
author
A gripping thriller that exposes the dark underbelly of policing in small-town American, where local police
departments now deal with big-city crimes and corruption.
Ben Sawyer was a big-city cop, until he nearly killed a helpless suspect in public. Now a detective in the
tiny Wisconsin town where he and his wife grew up, Ben suspects that higher-ups are taking payoffs from
local drug lords. Before long, Ben is off the force. His wife is accused of murder. His only ally is another
outcast, a Latina rookie cop. Worse, a killer has escaped from jail with vengeance on his mind, and
Newburg—and Ben Sawyer—in his sights.
Neal Griffin grew up in the kind of town he writes about. For many years he has been part of a police
force in southern California. He often speaks about law enforcement issues to civilians and fellow cops.
Griffin has participated in special training at FBI headquarters. Benefit of the Doubt is his first novel.
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THE TELLER
Jonathan Stone
Thomas & Mercer
June 2015
Cover not yet available
Elaine Kelly – a sweet-natured, financially struggling young bank teller at a
branch in Queens, NY – has a regular customer named Antonio Desirio –an old
man who’s all alone in the world – it’s just him and his savings. When he’s hit by
a truck while crossing the busy street in front of the bank (before his latest
deposit even clears) she impulsively switches his savings to her own account.
But the truck hitting the old man was no accident. And he wasn’t just some
lonely old man. And Elaine is in a world of trouble. The Teller is about sex,
power, data, ethics, and banks that are just too damn big.
Jonathan Stone has created campaigns for high-level brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and
Mitsubishi. His first mystery-thriller series, the Julian Palmer books, won critical acclaim. The New York
Times called his novel The Cold Truth “bone-chilling.” Stone is a graduate of Yale, where he was a
Scholar of the House in fiction writing.
SELF-HELP
2 WEEKS TO A YOUNGER BRAIN
Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan
Humanix
Spring 2015
Cover not yet available
Misplacing your keys, spacing out someone’s name at a party, or coming home
from the market without the most important item — these are just some of the
many common memory slips we all experience from time to time. But such
cognitive lapses don’t just plague middle-agers and seniors: UCLA studies
indicate that forgetfulness begins much earlier in life. Scientists can detect
subtle changes in the brain that coincide with mental decline by the time we
reach age 40, and new findings show that people as young as 20 already have memory problems.
Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan’s 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain translates the latest brain science into
practical strategies and exercises that yield quick and long-lasting benefits. It will not only improve your
memory, it will also strengthen your physical health by reducing your risk for diabetes, heart disease, and
stroke.
Dr. Gary Small is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the UCLA Longevity Center at the Semel
Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. His research has made headlines in the Wall Street
Journal and New York Times. Scientific American named him one of the world’s leading innovators in
science and technology. He frequently appears on The Today Show, Good Morning America, PBS, and
CNN.
Gigi Vorgan has co-written many bestselling books with Dr. Small, including the New York Times bestseller, The Memory Bible, and, most recently, The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program.
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THE SIMPLICITY CYCLE:
A Field Guide to Making Things Better Without Making Them Worse
Dan Ward
HarperCollins
May 2015
Cover not yet available
Praise for Dan Ward’s FIRE: How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant
Methods Ignite Innovation:
“This thought-provoking book, developed with a military perspective, offers
valuable insight for those striving for innovation in their business activities.”
- Booklist
“This is a simple book about a complex topic, but don’t be fooled. Beneath the simplicity lies a deep and
profound message. Complexity is often necessary, but unnecessary complexity complicates our lives.
How can we strike the proper balance? Ah. Start with this delightful book.” – Don Norman, author of
Living with Complexity and Design of Everyday Things (from his Introduction to the book)
Dan Ward is a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force with three engineering degrees and two decades of
experience researching, developing, and fielding military equipment. His previous assignments include
the Air Force Research Lab, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, and International
Security Assistance Force Headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2012 he received the Bronze Star for
his service in Afghanistan.
BALD IS BETTER WITH EARRINGS:
Your Practical Guide to Getting Through Breast Cancer
Andrea Hutton
Harper Wave
May 2015
Written with warmth and humor, as well as eyes-wide-open practicality, Andrea
Hutton's book is a guiding light to women diagnosed with breast cancer. When
Hutton was diagnosed at 41, she searched for—but couldn't find—no-nonsense
information about how to navigate her new reality. What might she (really)
expect from chemo, radiation, surgery, hair loss, fatigue, nausea, emotional
pitfalls, and support? For the 1-in-8 (or 1-in-5, by some counts) women who will
journey down this path, Hutton offers welcome insights, tips and stories in this indispensable guide.
This is the book you want to give to your friend or your sister. It is filled with useful information coming
from someone who has been through it; the voice is knowing and sympathetic and straight to the point.
Hutton manages to talk about radiation, chemo and surgery without sounding scared or scary. She even
manages to keep a good sense of humor throughout the book.
Andrea Hutton was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. She is now five years cancer-free. A
marketing and management consultant, she lives in Santa Barbara, California.
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PARENTING / HUMOR
MOTHERHOOD SMOTHERHOOD:
Fighting Back Against the Lactivists, Mompetitions, Germophobes,
and So-Called Experts Who Are Driving Us Crazy
JJ Keith
Skyhorse
October 2014
“I love her stuff.” - Jenny Lawson (“The Bloggess”), New York Times
bestselling author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened
“J. J. Keith's writing is exceptionally gutsy, sometimes heartbreaking and
always laugh out loud funny. She’s the queen of finding a fresh angle on every
topic.” - Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, bestselling author of Sippy Cups Are Not for
Chardonnay and Naptime is the New Happy Hour
What's the first thing a woman does when she thinks she might be pregnant? She Googles. And it goes
downhill from there. JJ Keith interweaves discussions of what "it takes a village" really means (hint: a lot
of unwanted advice from elderly strangers who may have grown up in actual villages) and a take-down of
the rising "make your own baby food" movement (just mush a banana with a fork!) with laugh-out-loud
observations about the many mistakes she made as a frantic new mother with too much access to high
speed internet and a lot of questions. Keith cuts to the truth to move conversations about parenting away
from experts espousing blanket truths to amateurs relishing in what a big, messy pile of delight and
trauma having a baby is.
JJ Keith has written about parenting for websites including The Huffington Post, Salon, Babble, xoJane,
The Hairpin, Role/Reboot, Mamamia, iVillage, The Rumpus, and more. Her work has also appeared in
Bitch magazine, The Sunday Morning Herald, and Reader's Digest. She lives in Los Angeles with her
husband and two children, where she parents adequately and eats a lot of mac n' cheese.
MOMMYFESTO: We Solemnly Swear ($%*!)…Because We Have Kids,
A Book about the Reality of Parenting
Leanne Shirtliffe
Skyhorse
November 2014
The goal of parenting is to train your children to have slightly better manners
than a dog. If you've achieved that by the end of day (or even if you've failed
majestically trying), it is important to celebrate the little things. Like bedtime.
And screw-top wine. And with Mommyfesto, by award-winning humor
blogger Leanne Shirtliffe, you'll learn the nitty gritty about what it means to
be a real parent. Without resorting to stereotypical "poo and pee jokes,"
Mommyfesto offers parents the opportunity to laugh at the absurdity of childrearing and to realize there is
no right way to do it. Blank pages in the back of the book encourage moms (and dads, too!) to add their
beliefs--whether bizarre, funny, or even serious--to the book, making this a go-to guide for generations of
crazed parents.
Leanne Shirtliffe’s blog, IronicMom.com, has been a Babble Top 100 blog and won numerous humor
accolades. IronicMom.com has been featured on high-traffic sites such as The Christian Science Monitor,
ProBlogger, Wordpress' home page, Canadian Family, CBC, and the Calgary Herald. Shirtliffe is also the
author of Don't Lick the Minivan: Things I Never Thought I'd Say As a Parent (Skyhorse, 2013) and the
children’s book The Change Your Name Store (Skypony, 2014).
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TEACHING KIDS TO THINK: Raising Confident, Independent, and
Thoughtful Children in an Age of Instant Gratification
Darlene Sweetland and Ron Stolberg
Sourcebooks
March 2015
In an age of instant gratification, children have never before been so
dependent on their parents...or their devices. They are not given the
opportunity to make mistakes, and more importantly, to learn from them. No
matter the geographical area, economic status, or family's structure, children
are missing out on the opportunity to develop problem-solving skills.
Teaching Kids to Think provides professional insight into the social, emotional,
and neurological issues unique to this generation, and offers tip-friendly
solutions for problems relevant to raising children of all ages.
Dr. Sweetland is the co-author of Intellectual Disabilities and Psychiatric Disorders: A Training Manual in
Dual Diagnosis and has presented to thousands of people around the country. Dr. Stolberg has worked
as a psychologist on reality TV shows, such as CBS Survivor, and with high profile professional athletes
around issues of performance and substance abuse, speaking internationally about these topics. Equally
important, they are a married couple facing similar challenges of raising children and teens of this
generation.
NEW ADULT / YOUNG ADULT
ONE LAST SONG
S. K. Falls
Forever Yours
January 2015
A new adult novel that will appeal to fans of New York Times bestsellers Colleen
Hoover and John Green.
Saylor Grayson makes herself sick. Literally. Now, at eighteen, she's been
kicked out of college for abusing laxatives. Her shrinks call it Munchausen
Syndrome, a mental disorder in which a person seeks attention by inducing or
feigning illness, but all Saylor knows is that when she's sick, her normally distant
mother pays attention.
When her new shrink gives her a hospital volunteer assignment, she meets Drew Dean, a young man
with Friedrich’s Ataxia and the leader of a local support group for those with terminal and degenerative
diseases, TIDD for short. Under the guise of Multiple Sclerosis, she's welcomed into a new circle of
friends, who, like Drew, all have illnesses ready to claim their independence or their lives.
As she spends time with Drew and her new friends, Saylor starts to question her warped lifestyle. But just
as Saylor is starting to understand true happiness, the lies she created threaten to destroy all the
precious friendships she has built.
S.K. Falls is a 2014 IPPY award-winning author who believes a degree in psychology qualifies her to
emotionally torture her characters in an authentic fashion. When she isn't writing her twisted love stories,
she can be found gallivanting around Charleston, SC with her family.
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HONEY GIRL
Lisa Freeman
Sky Pony Press
March 2015
The year is 1972. Fifteen year old Haunani “Nani” Grace Nuuhiwa is
transplanted from her home in Hawaii to Santa Monica, California after her
father’s fatal heart attack. Now the proverbial fish-out-of-water, Nani struggles to
adjust to her new life with her alcoholic white (haole) mother and the lineup of
mean girls who rule State Beach.
Following “The Rules”- an unspoken list of do’s and don'ts - Nani makes contact
with Rox, the leader of the lineup. Through a harrowing series of initiations, Nani
not only gets accepted into the lineup, she gains the attention of surf god, Nigel
McBride. But maintaining stardom is harder than achieving it. Nani is keeping several secrets that, if
revealed, could ruin everything she’s worked so hard to achieve. Secret #1: She’s stolen her dad’s ashes
and hidden them from her mom. Secret #2: In order to get in with Rox and her crew, she spied on them
and now knows far more than they could ever let her get away with. And most deadly of all, Secret #3:
She likes girls, and may very well be in love with Rox.
Honey Girl is an edgy coming-of-age story about gender roles and identity, set against a backdrop of
beach music, surf culture, racism, and Vietnam. How does a girl become a surf legend without ever
stepping on a board?
Lisa Freeman started her work as an actor and has been in numerous TV productions and films (Mr.
Mom and Back to the Future I & II, to name a few). She performed at the Comedy Store, which lead to
her writing career in radio. Freeman has a BA in Liberal Studies & Creative Writing, an MFA in Fiction,
and a certificate in Pedagogy in Writing from Antioch University. Honey Girl is her debut novel.
ROMANCE
TRANSCENDENCE
Shay Savage
Savage Publishing
February 2015
Ehd's a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. He's strong and
intelligent, but lonely. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it's
obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn't know where she
came from, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a
headache. Elizabeth doesn't know where she is but there's a caveman hauling
her back to his cave-home. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love
story that transcends language and time.
Shay Savage is a public speaker, and a Distinguished Toastmaster from Toastmasters International. She
holds a degree in psychology and lives in Cincinnati.
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PAPERBACK HIGHLIGHTS – SUMMER 2014 – SUMMER 2015
NON-FICTION
THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON:
Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights
William P. Jones
Norton, August 2014
“This book goes beyond Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, looking at the
role of the labor movement and other networks on civil rights history, and provides a
fresh take on events leading to the 1963 March on Washington.” - Los Angeles Times
WAKING FROM THE DREAM:
The Struggle for Civil Rights in the Shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
David L. Chappell
Random House
January 2015
“Waking from the Dream skillfully traces Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy during the two
decades following his assassination. The previously untold story of continuing struggle
and posthumous inspiration that dominates this compelling and groundbreaking book
will forever change the way civil rights historians view this era.” - Raymond Arsenault,
author of Freedom Riders.
WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from
Primates to Robots
Ian Morris
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
April 2015
"Morris refines [his] theory [about war] provocatively in his audacious book... His
arguments, while startling, are always stimulating. His pace is perfect, his range
dazzling, his phrasemaking fluent, his humor raucous. …Mr. Morris demolishes the
silly self-congratulation of Western analysts who trace their culture's global
ascendancy to a supposedly superior ‘Western way of war’. Morris has written a rattling good book.”
– Wall Street Journal
THE HOMING INSTINCT: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration
Bernd Heinrich
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
April 2015
“[A] delightful, wide-ranging meditation on the pull of home… A special treat for
readers of natural history.” – Kirkus
“A thoroughly engaging book.” – Publishers Weekly
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NON-FICTION continued
FIRE: How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant Methods Ignite Innovation
Dan Ward, with an Introduction by Don Norman
HarperBusiness
April 2015
“Ward blends a maestro’s range of intriguing stories with intensely practical guidance.
Don’t let the references to Mr. Bean, Quantum Leap, and Firefly fool you. FIRE is a
deep and powerful contribution to the innovation literature.”
- Scott Anthony
FICTION
THE FIRST RULE OF SWIMMING
Courtney Brkic
Back Bay Books
July 2014
“The First Rule of Swimming examines lives bruised and twisted by history, like
weather-beaten trees that nevertheless manage to produce the sweetest fruit.”
- New York Times
POETRY
HARD LOVE PROVINCE: Poems
Marilyn Chin
Norton
June 2015
From a poet of "dazzling longing" (Los Angeles Times), a stunning new collection of
haunting elegies and playful quatrains.
YOUNG ADULT
Thorn Jack: A Night and Nothing Novel
Katherine Harbour
Harper Voyager
March 2015
“Fantasy fans will find much to savor in Harbour’s delicate, myth-conscious prose.”
- Publishers Weekly
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