Highlights Newsletter

  The weekly newsletter, now available each week on this page, brings complete information on upcoming author events, coming attractions for future months, new signed first editions, and other features, such as announcements of our monthly 'Signed & Selected' picks.
  To order any book or inquire about an event, simply email the store, or telephone during business hours (store info at bottom of this page).
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  To review one of our previous newsletters, click on the date: Highlights Newsletter April 28, 2008 / Highlights Newsletter April 21, 2008 / Highlights Newsletter April 15, 2008 / Highlights Newsletter April 7, 2008

LOUISE ERDRICH will drop by at approximately 1:00 PM to sign The Plague of Doves (Harper, $25.95). Publishers Weekly starred: "Erdrich's 13th novel, a multigenerational tour de force of sin, redemption, murder and vengeance, finds its roots in the 1911 slaughter of a farming family near Pluto, North Dakota... And Kirkus said: "The magic lies in the details of Erdrich's ever-replenishing mythology, whether of a lost stamp collection or a boy's salvation. A lush, multilayered book." The New York Times called it "masterly ... her storytelling here is supple and assured, easily navigating the wavering line between a recognizable, psychological world and the more arcane world of legend and fable... With The Plague of Doves, she has written what is arguably her most ambitious -- and in many ways, her most deeply affecting -- work yet."

JANE CLELAND will appear at 7:00 PM to talk about and sign Antiques to Die For (St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95). "In Cleland's engaging third Josie Prescott mystery to feature the New Hampshire antiques dealer (after 2007's Deadly Appraisal), Josie is stunned to learn that her fun-loving friend, Rosalie Chaffee, has been found, drowned, on the Rocky Point shore. When it becomes clear Rosalie was a victim of foul play, suspicion falls on Rosalie's boss at Heyer's Modular Furniture, his scheming wife and Rosalie's gorgeous volunteer fireman boyfriend... Aided by a large support group of well-drawn characters headed by her police chief boyfriend, Josie follows such clues as an old diary, an artist's palette and a misplaced tote bag. Among other antique lore, readers will learn the difference between a highboy and a tallboy in this cleverly crafted cozy," said Publishers Weekly.

This WEDNESDAY the 7th, we have a drop-by from ALEKSANDAR HEMON, who will sign The Lazarus Project (Riverhead, $24.95). "A profoundly moving novel that finds striking parallels between the America of a hundred years ago and now, as an immigrant Bosnian author, straining to come to terms with his identity, returns to his troubled homeland... A literary page-turner that combines narrative momentum with meditations on identity and mortality," said Kirkus. And Publishers Weekly said: "MacArthur genius Hemon in his third book (after Nowhere Man) intelligently unpacks 100 years' worth of immigrant disillusion, displacement and desperation. As fears of the anarchist movement roil 1908 Chicago, the chief of police guns down Lazarus Averbuch, an eastern European immigrant Jew who showed up at the chief's doorstep to deliver a note. Almost a century later, Bosnian-American writer Vladimir Brik secures a coveted grant and begins working on a book about Lazarus..."

SATURDAY the 10th at 2:00 PM at San Mateo Main Library: TOBIAS WOLFF will talk about and sign Our Story Begins (Knopf, $26.95). He will be introduced and interviewed by Oscar Villalon, Editor, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review. Publishers Weekly starred: "Wolff's first story collection, In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981), was a major salvo in the short story renaissance that included Raymond Carver. The 10 spare, elegant new stories here, collected with 21 stories from Wolff's three previous collections, are as good as anything Wolff has done... Wolff expertly uses irony and empathy to explore facets of contemporary life." And the San Francisco Chronicle said: "For more than three decades, Tobias Wolff has honed the craft of making sublime art out of the short-story form... Wolff’s alchemy in these stories is oddly and deeply transformative. They inevitably rise above their ostensible subject into some universal terrain [with] intelligence, compassion and a radical openness to life’s unfathomable surprises."

Next MONDAY the 12th at 7:00 PM, ROBERT K. TANENBAUM will talk about and sign Escape (Vanguard, $25.95). In this twentieth in the bestselling series, Manhattan D. A. Roger "Butch" Karp and his crime-fighting crew must race against the clock to stop a malicious terrorist plot that could change the course of history. In a riveting trial of garish courtroom confrontations, newly elected New York District Attorney Karp battles the "insanity of the insanity defense," as he tries to make Jessica Campbell, a rabble-rousing political science professor at NYU, pay for the murder of her three children. "...a fast paced, provocative legal thriller that Tanenbaum almost has a copyright on," said Vincent Bugliosi, former Los Angeles District Attorney and author of Helter Skelter. -- ALSO: Absolute Rage (Atria, 2002, $11.00) SIGNED, F/F.

Next TUESDAY the 13th at 7:00 PM we welcome back STEVEN SAYLOR for the Launch Party of his tour for The Triumph of Caesar (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95). "At the start of bestseller Saylor's stellar 10th novel in his Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder (after 2004's The Judgment of Caesar), Gordianus is at first reluctant to accept a commission from Julius Caesar's wife, Calpurnia, to discover which of the general's many enemies may be plotting her husband's assassination soon after his victory in the Roman civil war. When Calpurnia reveals that the first man she'd hired for the job, Hieronymous, was murdered, the sleuth agrees to help because Hieronymous was an old friend of his... The convincing backdrop of daily life in ancient Rome helps make this compelling whodunit a triumph," said Publishers Weekly.

STEPHEN ANABLE: The Fisher Boy (Poisoned Pen, $24.95) SIGNED. "Ingenious plotting and witty prose lift Anable's distinctive debut, set mainly on Cape Cod. Soon after Bostonian Mark Winslow and his comedy improv troupe arrive in Provincetown for the summer season to play the club scene, someone leaves a dead dog on a prominent socialite's doorstep, which may be a veiled warning to the resort's gay population. Meanwhile, members of a homophobic religious sect known as Christian Soldiers flood the town during an exhibition of the work of (fictional) painter Thomas Royall, whose 1916 nude portrait, The Fisher Boy, has fascinated Mark since childhood... A profusion of diverting red herrings and a clever twist involving Mark's parentage help keep the suspense high through to the surprising conclusion," said Publishers Weekly.

WILLIAM DIETRICH: The Rosetta Key (HarperCollins, $25.95) SIGNED. Publishers Weekly said: "Last seen in Dietrich's Napoleon's Pyramids, fleeing the forces of evil in a runaway hot-air balloon over Egypt, Ethan Gage undergoes further life-threatening adventures in this rollicking sequel. Nine months before the balloon incident, Gage arrived in the Holy Land with his benefactor, Napoleon Bonaparte... Ever the incorrigible gambler and all-around scamp, Gage makes an irresistible antihero. The ending promises more volumes in what one hopes will be a long series." And Library Journal concluded: "Historical fiction meets thriller here, with plenty to interest fans of both genres. The action is nearly nonstop, the humor is plentiful, and the intrigue is more than enough to keep the pages turning."

LOREN ESTLEMAN: Frames (Forge, $23.95) SIGNED. "Having appeared in 10 short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, self-described film detective Valentino, who works as a film archivist at U.C.L.A., makes his novel-length debut in the engaging first of a new series from Shamus-winner Estleman. Valentino stumbles on the find of a lifetime when he inspects the Oracle, a decaying 1920s movie theater he's considering purchasing... While the lighthearted tone is far removed from the gritty realism of the author's Amos Walker series (American Detective, etc.), the versatile Estleman has crafted yet another intelligent page-turner," said Publishers Weekly. And Library Journal said: "In this new series launch, prolific four-time Shamus Award winner Estleman has scripted yet another wacky comedic mystery that begs to become a feature film. His snappy dialog, feisty characters, Hollywood lore, and gentle romance make this his funniest to date."

SUJATA MASSEY: Shimura Trouble (Severn House, $28.95) SIGNED. "In Agatha-winner Massey's engaging 10th mystery to feature antiques dealer and part-time spy Rei Shimura, Rei and her father, who's recovering from a stroke, travel from California to Hawaii for a family celebration with previously unknown Shimura relatives, who turn out to be involved in a legal battle to recover land stolen from them during WWII... An appealing protagonist and memorable supporting characters blend smoothly with lessons in Hawaiian and Japanese history in a tale sure to win new readers for the series," said Publishers Weekly. And The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has called Massey's series "a mirror on the Japan culture as seen through the eyes of an outsider ... an intuitive view of contrasting societies and a young woman trying to find her place in the world."

MICHAEL NORMAN: Silent Witness (Poisoned Pen, $24.95) SIGNED. "In Norman's solid sequel to his well-received debut, The Commission (2007), cops Sam Kincaid and Kate McConnell try to unsnarl a tangle of crimes in Salt Lake City. First, Kate investigates the brutal murder of one witness to a botched armored car robbery, followed by the disappearance of the other witness. Then Sam, head of 'a unit within the Utah Department of Corrections called the Special Investigations Branch,' gets involved because the gang's mastermind is 'prophet' Walter Bradshaw, a fanatical Mormon polygamist currently awaiting trial for the armored car holdup... Norman isn't an especially slick author, but he has a good grasp of police procedure and writes with the same dogged, decent persistence that Sam displays," said Publishers Weekly.

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