Recordpub.com - One for the Books: Queens, First and Last

Some of the most intense, emotional, adventurous, passion-filled stories come from the lives of royalty, whether factual or fictionalized. Where do you think we got the term "drama queen"?

Let's start with "The First Queen of England: The Myth of 'Bloody Mary' " by Linda Porter. This well-researched biography is written in an easy, readable style. It tells the life of Mary Tudor, the daughter of England's King Henry VIII (the one with the six wives) and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Katherine, by the way, was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, the same duo who financed Christopher Columbus' trips to discover a passage to Central Ohio -- or was it India? Anyway, I digress.

With some nice background on the king's marriage and the birth of Princess Mary in 1516, the author goes on to tell us about Mary's younger years, her education and how she was brought up to be the future queen: "She was expected to dress superbly and wear gorgeous jewels, to symbolise power and magnificence in a way that all her father's subjects, from the highest to the lowest in the land, would understand. ... Her life was privileged, comfortable and predictable. Much was expected of her."

The court intrigues during the reign of Henry VIII are some of the most dramatic in all of British history, and this book also serves as a partial biography of the king from Mary's perspective. Henry decided to divorce Katherine because she didn't bear him a son, but the pope wouldn't sanction the divorce, so the king started his own religion, declared the marriage null and void, and made himself the head of the church in England. This schism between England and the Roman church is explained well in the book. Henry went on to marry the "other woman," Anne Boleyn, and Mary was sent away, was proclaimed "illegitimate," was not allowed to visit her mother, and was banned from seeing her father. Mary had to endure humiliation, duress, and "ruthless psychological abuse" because she refused to give up her beloved Catholic faith. Later, when she became queen, she tried to re-establish the Catholic church in England. She had an estimated 300 non-Catholics proclaimed heretics and executed, thereby earning the nickname "Bloody Mary." Says the author, "Chillingly, in our own time, the idea of religious terrorism has, once again, become familiar. The belief that those who hold a different faith should suffer a horrible death sits deep in the human psyche. It is nothing new." It certainly makes one appreciate having freedom of religion!

Porter's history includes the brief reigns of Mary's brother, Edward, and of Lady Jane Grey, and always in the background there was Mary's rival, her half-sister, Elizabeth. The author portrays the colorful personalities and political machinations well and describes some of the daily life in the 1500s, the economic conditions, and the world inside the queen's household. As for Mary Tudor, "She is still the most maligned and misunderstood of English monarchs," says the author. But, whatever else she did, Mary paved the way for her half-sister to take the throne by proving that a woman could rule England. The book contains an extensive bibliography and notes and two sections of photographs.

From the first, let's move on to "The Last Queen" by C.W. Gortner. This historical novel, set in Spain in the late 1490s and early 1500s, is a fictionalized account of the life of Juana of Spain, "infanta of Castile and the Indies." Juana was 13 in 1492, when her parents, Ferdinand and Isabella, sent Columbus to the New World. That's right: Juana was the sister of Katherine of Aragon and the aunt of "Bloody Mary" Tudor. (Incidentally, many of the names are spelled differently in the two books. For example, Katherine is called Catalina in Spain.) Juana's been promised to Philip, the archduke of Burgundy and Flanders, since she was 3 years old. Once she turns 16, it's time for her to marry the 17-year-old, whom she's never met.

The book starts out slowly, but once she heads for Flanders, the adventure really takes off. She describes leaving Spain: "As the sun melted in a ball of scarlet fire into the horizon, my armada lumbered out to sea propelled by vast billowing sails. The waters transformed from murky emerald to diamond azure; foam sprayed up against the prows as the ships plunged forward." When she arrives, Juana, who's used to hot, dry, mountainous Spain, is overwhelmed by what she sees: "Flanders looked like a garden bowl, green and inverted and soaking wet. There was water everywhere, a permanent presence sitting turgid in marshes, babbling in rivers, or flowing through canals; water dripping from the sky and water sloshing underfoot. ... Flanders teemed with abundance, a veritable heaven on earth." And the book picks up steam -- lots of steam -- when she meets her husband-to-be and finds to her surprise that he's a gorgeous hunk. The arranged marriage turns into a passionate love-match, consummated in a pretty sexy love scene. Whew! Meanwhile, her family members start dying off, one by one, until she's the only one left in line for the Spanish throne.

Ambition, malice, deception, rape, kidnap, cowardice, gallantry, pestilence, greed, brutality, treachery, humiliation, murder: What more will she have to face? Can she trust the people she loves the most? Will she be able to escape her prison? Can she fulfill her destiny to become the last queen of Spanish blood to inherit her country's throne? This complex character portrait is a real page-turner and a completely enjoyable read.

For another royal biography, "The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter" by Matthew Dennison is a fact-filled work in a more scholarly style than "The First Queen." It details the life of the last child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore, born in 1857. Beatrice was destined to be her mother's constant companion, especially after the death of Albert, and she became her mother's secretary. She was a carrier of hemophilia, which she tragically passed on to her offspring. The book has two sections of photographs, and there are some nicely diagrammed royal family trees printed in the front.

For a list of best-sellers and other book news, go to www.recordpub.com, click on "Lifetimes," and check out "One for the Books" online. Send news to Books@recordpub.com.
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BOOK NOTES,
One for the Books Extra Online Exclusives:

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LOCAL BOOK CLUBS:

The Book Discussion Group at the Randolph Library meets the first Monday of the month, except August, at 6:30 p.m. in the Randolph Senior Center. The group is open to everyone, and new members are always welcome. The library will stock copies of the books each month. Call the library at 330-325-7003.

October 6: The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
November 3: City of Fallen Angels by John Berendt
December 1: Manhunt by James Swanson

Pierce-Streetsboro Library's Book Discussion Group meets regularly on the second Monday of each month at 6:45 p.m. in the library's meeting room. New members are always welcome to attend and participate in the discussion. The library is located at 8990 Kirby Lane in Streetsboro, next to the administrative offices of the Streetsboro City Schools. For more information, call the library at 330-626-4458. Here is the schedule of meeting dates and books to be discussed:

Oct. 20: (third Monday, due to Columbus Day holiday): The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (nonfiction)
Nov. 10: Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury (fiction)
Dec. 8: Where Angels Go by Debbie Macomber (fiction)

The Adult Book Discussion Group at the Reed Memorial Library in Ravenna meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Call the library at 330-296-2827.

September: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
October: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
November: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alesxander Fuller
December: Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives and Inspiration by Michael Shapiro

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The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2008 has been announced.

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/stories/1134

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After a dry summer with no new book to read, Oprah's Book Club will have a new book -- finally. Oprah is set to announce it on Friday, Sept. 19.
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new from Indiana University Press

The Writer Uprooted: Contemporary Exile Jewish Literature.
Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, professor of English and Jewish Studies at IU Bloomington, The Writer Uprooted is the first book to examine the emergence of a new generation of Jewish immigrant writers in America. Rosenfeld, the founder and former director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at IU, writes in the introduction that some scholars believed the "absorptive powers of Americanization" would exhaust the tradition of Jewish literary creativity exemplified by Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Philip Roth. But the new generation of writers, most of them from formerly communist countries of Eastern Europe, has challenged that assumption. "It is still too soon to know," Rosenfeld writes, "but as they continue to explore the bafflements and enticements of a life that moves between two countries, two cultures and two or more languages, one senses that this emerging generation of foreign-born Jewish novelists, short-story writers and poets may contribute some new and especially interesting dimensions to American literature in the years ahead." Writers represented in The Writer Uprooted, an Indiana University Press book, include three IU faculty members: Matei Calinescu, professor emeritus of Comparative Literature and West European Studies; Dov-Ber Kerler (pen name Boris Karloff), the Dr. Alice Field Cohn, chair in Yiddish Studies; and Bronislava Volkova, professor of Slavic Languages and Literature and director of the Czech Program.
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I never realized that Holly Hobbie was a real person! The author and illustrator who drew her namesake in a big bonnet has come up with a new character, according to Publishers Weekly. "Fanny" will debut soon in a book by that title.
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Religious publisher Zondervan is going to publish a new biography of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to be released Oct. 10.

Publisher Epicenter Press is scrambling to meet demand for copies of its "Sarah: How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down" by Kaylene Johnson.

New bios available on the Amazon Kindle include Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America by Alicia Colon, and Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change by Elizabeth Lightfoot.
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The Library of Congress will honor 93-year-old Herman Wouk, author of The Caine Mutiny and The Winds of War, as the first recipient of a new award for lifetime achievement in the writing of fiction.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091003879.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

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Gregory Mcdonald, author of the "Fletch" mysteries, has died at the age of 71.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/10/AR2008091003879.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

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According to Shelf Awareness, the opera based on Amy Tan's "The Bonesetter's Daughter" will have its world premiere on Sept. 13. Stewart Wallace's work was commissioned by the San Francisco Opera.
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I know you've all been waiting impatiently. Well, finally, the memoir by Brittney Spears' mother is scheduled to be published Sept. 16. It's called "Through the Storm: A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World." I'm sure she'll be on all the talk shows promoting it. Don't miss it if you can.
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Jumpstart's Read for the Record on Oct. 2 hopes everybody will take some time out during the day to read the book "Corduroy" to a child. "Read with a child in your life - before work, during your lunch break, when you get home, or anytime on October 2, 2008."

http://www.readfortherecord.org/site/PageServer

If you buy a special edition copy of "Corduroy," 100 percent of the proceeds will support Jumpstart's program.
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The shortlist for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize has been announced.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/sep/08/roald.dahl.funny.prize.shortlist?gusrc=rss&feed=books

According to the Guardian, children's laureate Michael Rosen "founded the prize to boost the profile of humorous books as part of his campaign to put the fun back into children's reading."
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She's feisty and popular and seems likeable -- but when she was mayor, Sarah Palin asked how to go about banning books at the library -- and fired the librarian.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837918,00.html

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/09/05/palin_book_banning.html

http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html

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The New York Times writes about gloriously bad writing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/nyregion/02nyc.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

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The NCR Book Club online has added a new book review:

RENDER UNTO CAESAR: SERVING THE NATION BY LIVING OUR CATHOLIC BELIEFS IN POLITICAL LIFE, by Archbishop Charles Chaput

http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/1760

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from Shelf Awareness:

"HarperStudio, the HarperCollins imprint founded earlier this year by Bob Miller, former head of Hyperion, has announced its first list. The initial title is Who Is Mark Twain, a collection of some 22 previously unpublished works by the titan of American writing, which will be published April 21, the 99th anniversary of Twain's death."
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "Dark Curse" by Christine Feehan (Berkley)
2. "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central)
3. "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
4. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
5. "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs (Scribner)
6. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (Dial)
7. "The Gypsy Morph" by Terry Brooks (Del Rey)
8. "Silks" by Dick and Felix Francis (Putnam)
9. "Smoke Screen" by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster)
10. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
11. "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Sanction" by Eric Van Lustbader (Grand Central)
12. "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" by Sean Williams (Del Rey)
13. "Off Season" by Anne Rivers Siddons (Grand Central)
14. "Home" by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
15. "Sweetheart" by Chelsea Cain (St. Martin's Minotaur)

NONFICTION/GENERAL
1. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)
2. "Stori Telling" by Tori Spelling (Simon Spotlight)
3. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books/Beyond Words)
4. "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)
5. "The Obama Nation" by Jerome R. Corsi (Threshold Editions)
6. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris (Little, Brown)
7. "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate" by David Freddoso (Regnery)
8. "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate" by David Freddoso (Regnery)
9. "Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, The Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It" by Dick Morris, Eileen McGann (Harper)
10. "Faith of My Fathers" by John McCain with Mark Salter (Random House)
11. "The Limits of Power" by Andrew J. Bacevich (Metropolitan Books)
12. "You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty" by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press)
13. "StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press)
14. "The First Billion is the Hardest:Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future" by T. Boone Picken (Crown Business)
15. "The Post-American World" by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton)

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS
1. "8 Sandpiper Way" by Debbie Macomber (Mira)
2. "Book of the Dead" by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley)
3. "Stone Cold" by David Baldacci (Vision)
4. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision)
5. "Protect and Defend" by Vince Flynn (Pocket)
6. "The Edge of Desire" by Stephanie Laurens (Avon)
7. "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham (Dell)
8. "The Edge of Desire" by Stephanie Laurens (Avon)
9. "You've Been Warned" by James Patterson, Howard Roughan (Vision)
10. "Dark Light" by Stephanie Laurens (Avon)
11. "Noah" by Jacquelyn Frank (Zebra)
12. "Sweet Revenge" by Diane Mott Davidson (Avon)
13. "Wild Card" by Lora Leigh (St. Martin's)
14. "Seduction of a Proper Gentleman" by Victoria Alexander (Avon)
15. "Sweet Trouble" by Susan Mallery (HQN)

TRADE PAPERBACKS
1. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media)
2. "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin)
3. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin)
4. "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)
5. "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle (Plume)
6. "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama (Three Rivers)
7. "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen (Algonquin)
8. "Skinny B----" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (Running Press)
9. "Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama (Three Rivers)
10. "Eat This Not That!" by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding (Rodale)
11. "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
12. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage)
13. "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz (Riverhead)
14. "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)
15. "Barefoot" by Elin Hilderbrand (Back Bay Books)
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USA TODAY BEST-SELLERS

Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfiction; H-Hardcover; P-Paperback
1. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown for Young Readers) (F-P)
2. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers) (F-H)
3. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown) (F-H)
4. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media) (F-P)
5. "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown) (F-H)
6. "8 Sandpiper Way" by Debbie Macomber (Mira) (F-P)
7. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) (NF-P)
8. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion) (NF-H)
9. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision) (F-P)
10. "Book of the Dead" by Patricia Cornwell (Berkley) (F-P)
11. "Dark Curse: A Carpathian Novel" by Christine Feehan (Berkley) (F-P)
12. "Stone Cold" by David Baldacci (Vision) (F-P)
13. "Compulsion" by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine) (F-P)
14. "The Edge of Desire: A Bastion Club Novel" by Stephanie Laurens (Avon)(F-P)
15. "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) (F-P)
16. "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham (Dell) (F-P)
17. "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) (NF-P)
18. "Protect and Defend" by Vince Flynn (Pocket) (F-P)
19. "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central Publishing) (F-H)
20. "Warriors: Eclipse" by Erin Hunter (HarperCollins) (F-H)
21. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown) (F-H)
22. "Three Cups Of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) (NF-P)
23. "You've Been Warned" by James Patterson, Howard Roughan (Vision) (F-P)
24. "Naruto, Volume 31" by Masashi Kishimoto (VIZ Media) (F-P)
25. "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press) (NF-P)
26. "Watchmen" by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons (DC Comics) (F-P)
27. "Stori Telling" by Tori Spelling (Simon Spotlight) (NF-H)
28. "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs (Scribner) (F-P)
29. "Seduction of a Proper Gentleman" by Victoria Alexander (Avon) (F-P)
30. "Dark Light" by Jayne Castle (Jove) (F-P)
31. "Skinny B----" by Rory Freedman, Kim Barnouin (Running Press) (NF-P)
32. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books/Beyond Words) (NF-H)
33. "Heart of Stone" by Diana Palmer (Silhouette) (F-P)
34. "Keeping Faith" by Jodi Picoult (Avon) (F-P)
35. "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House) (F-H)
36. "Eat This Not That! for Kids!" by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding (Rodale) (NF-P)
37. "Noah" by Jacquelyn Frank (Zebra) (F-P)
38. "Left To Die" by Lisa Jackson (Zebra) (F-P)
39. "Cold Hearted" by Beverly Barton (Zebra) (F-P)
40. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (Grand Central Publishing) (F-P)
41. "God's Big Idea: Reclaiming God's Original Purpose for Your Life" by Myles Munroe (Destiny Image) (NF-H)
42. "Eat This Not That!" by David Zinczenko, Matt Goulding (Rodale) (NF-H)
43. "Forgotten" by Mariah Stewart (Ballantine) (F-P)
44. "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen (Algonquin) (F-P)
45. "Trunk Music" by Michael Connelly (Grand Central Publishing)(F-P)
46. "StrengthsFinder 2.0" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press) (NF-H)
47. "The Official SAT Study Guide" by College Board (College Board SAT) (NF-P)
48. "Smoke Screen: A Novel" by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster) (F-H)
49. "Play Dirty" by Sandra Brown (Pocket) (F-P)
50. "What to Expect When You're Expecting" by Heidi Murkoff, Sharon Mazel (Workman Publishing Group) (NF-P)
Reporting stores include: Amazon.com, B. Dalton Bookseller, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble Inc., Books-A-Million and Bookland, Booksamillion.com, Borders Books & Music, Bookstar, Bookstop, Brentano's, Davis Kidd Booksellers in Nashville, Jackson, Memphis, Tenn., Doubleday Book Shops, Hudson Booksellers, Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Ky.; Cincinnati, Cleveland), Powell's Books (Portland, Ore.), Powells.com, R.J. Julia Booksellers (Madison, Conn.), Schuler.
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WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST-SELLERS

FICTION
1. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
2. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers)
3. "Dark Curse" by Christine Feehan (Berkley)
4. "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
5. "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer (Grand Central Publishing)
6. "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
7. "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs (Scribner)
8. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows (The Dial Press)
9. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown)
10. "The Gypsy Morph" by Terry Brooks (Del Rey)
11. "Smoke Screen" by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster)
12. "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
13. "Silks" by Dick Francis (Felix Francis Putnam)
14. "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" by Sean Williams (Del Rey)
15. "Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Sanction" by Eric VanLustbader (Grand Central Publishing)

NONFICTION
1. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)
2. "StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Tom Rath (Gallup Press)
3. "Stori Telling" by Tori Spelling (Simon Spotlight)
4. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne (Atria Books/Beyond Words)
5. "The Obama Nation" by Jerome R. Corsi (Threshold Editions)
6. "The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate" by David Freddoso (Regnery)
7. "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Other's Don't" by Jim Collins (Collins)
8. "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris (Little, Brown)
9. "Fleeced" by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann (Harper)
10. "The 29% Solution: 52 Weekly Networking Success Strategies" by Ivan Misner, Michele R. Donovan (Greenleaf Book Group Press)
11. "The Limits of Power" by Andrew Bacevich (Metropolitan Books)
12. "Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)
13. "The First Billion is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future" by T. Boone Pickens (Crown Business)
14. "Faith of my Fathers" by John McCain, Mark Salter (Random House)
15. "You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty" by Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press)
The Wall Street Journal's list reflects nationwide sales of hardcover books during the week ended last Saturday at more than 2,500 Barnes & Noble, B. Dalton, Bookland, Books-a-Million, Books & Co., Bookstar, Bookstop, Borders, Brentano's, Coles, Coopersmith, Doubleday, Scribners and Waldenbooks stores, as well as sales from online retailers Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

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from Shelf Awareness -- new titles published September 8 and 9:

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 by Bob Woodward
America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft and David Ignatius
The Keepsake: A Novel by Tess Gerritsen
The Necklace: Thirteen Women and the Experiment That Transformed Their Lives by Cheryl Jarvis
Bob Schieffer's America by Bob Schieffer
Fine Just the Way It Is by Annie Proulx
Straight from the Source: An Expose from the Former Editor in Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible by Kim Osorio
Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness by Suzanne Somers
The Secret War with Iran: The 30-Year Clandestine Struggle Against the World's Most Dangerous Terrorist Power by Ronen Bergman

Now in paperback:

Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise by Barack Obama
Good Design Can Change Your Life: Beautiful Rooms, Inspiring Stories by Ty Pennington
The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

New Books Out September 16:

Indignation by Philip Roth
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, translated by Reg Keeland
Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Bart Gellman
The Other Queen: A Novel by Philippa Gregory
Guinness: World Records 2009
Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
Real Life: Preparing for the 7 Most Challenging Days of Your Life by Dr. Phil McGraw
Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Won't Regret by T.D. Jakes

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from Publishers Weekly:

New books coming out

[c] = children's titles

SEPTEMBER 8

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman
War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 by Bob Woodward

September 9

Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness by Suzanne Somers
[c] Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis, illus by Laura Cornell
[c] The 39 Clues #1: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
Anathem by Neil Stephenson
The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen
Bob Schieffer's America by Bob Schieffer
Fine Just the Way It Is by Annie Proulx
Straight From the Source: An Expose from the Former Editor-in-Chief of the Hip-Hop Bible by Kim Osorio
[c] Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out

September 11

[c] Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett

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Publishers Weekly On-Sale Calendar for Comics, Graphic Novels

September 3 2008
Prince of Persia (First Second)
Dororo Vol. 3 (Vertical)
Hellblazer: The Laughing Magician (DC/ Vertigo)
Slow Storm (First Second)
Counter X Vol. 2: Generation X (Marvel)
Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales (IDW Publishing)
Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 2 (Marvel)
Deitch's Pictorama (Fantagraphics)
Mo and Jo Vol. 1: Fighting Together (Raw Junior)
Mushishi Vol. 4 (Del Ray Manga)
Honey and Clover Vol. 3 (Viz Media)
Mixed Vegetables Vol. 1 (Viz Media)

September 10, 2008
Batman: The Black Glove (DC)
Omega: The Unknown (Marvel)
Goth (Tokyopop)
Burst Angel Vol. 1 (Tokyopop)
Into the Volcano (Scholastic)
Afro Samurai Vol. 1 (Seven Seas Entertainment)
Freak Brothers Omnibus (Knockabout Comics)
Ultimate Power (Marvel)
Dugout (AIT/ PlantLar)
Enigma Cipher (BOOM! Studios)
Nui Vol. 1 (Broccoli International)
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Rosset, Kingston to receive honorary book awards
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) " Barney Rosset, the publisher and First Amendment defender whose battles on behalf of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and other explicit works helped overturn U.S. censorship laws, has won an honorary National Book Award for "Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community."
Maxine Hong Kingston, the Chinese-American author best known for "The Woman Warrior," a fictionalized memoir that became a model for other immigrant writers and is taught on campuses nationwide, was awarded a medal for "Distinguished Contribution to American Letters."
The prizes were announced Wednesday by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that presents the National Book Awards.
"This year's distinguished honorees broke new ground in American literary publishing," foundation executive director Harold Augenbraum said in a statement.
"Kingston exposed the great story of American immigration to a new, rich blend of fiction, memory, folk-tale and political idea. Rosset opened a door to brash concepts about reading in America, letting controversial literary work speak for itself."
Rosset, 86, and Kingston, 67, will collect their prizes Nov. 19 at the 59th annual National Book Awards ceremony. Nominees for competitive categories will be announced Oct. 15 in Chicago by novelist Scott Turow.
Rosset is a Chicago native who in the 1950s and '60s endured arrest and financial hardship to win landmark court decisions and publish the full editions of Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and another erotic text, D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover." A leading advocate of avant-garde and political writings, he also released work by Malcolm X, Che Guevara and Jean-Paul Sartre among others.
Kingston, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in Stockton, Calif., and has written often about her early years and her parents' lives. "Woman Warrior," a debut work published in 1976, won a National Book Critics Circle prize. Five years later, she won a National Book Award for the memoir "China Men." She has also written "The Fifth Book of Peace," "Tripmaster Monkey" and "Through the Black Curtain."
Previous winners of honorary National Book Awards include Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer and Philip Roth.

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