Hullo! Here are the titles reviewed in this week’s web-only, freely-accessible Xpress Reviews section. And we have cover images for some of them to stimulate your visual pleasure.

Xpress Reviews for Week of Mar. 20th, 2007

FICTION
Hornby, Simonetta Agnello. The Marchesa. Farrar.

NONFICTION
Barish, Eileen. Bestspasusa: The Guidebook to Luxury Resort, Hotel, and Destination Spas. Bestspasusa.

Glancy, Diane. Asylum in the Grasslands. Univ. of Arizona.

Hauer, Rutger with Patrick Quinlan. All Those Moments: Stories of Heroes, Villains, Replicants, and Blade Runners. HarperEntertainment: HarperCollins.

Healy, Bernadine, M.D. Living Time: Faith and Facts To Transform Your Cancer Journey. Bantam.
Nathan, David G., M.D. The Cancer Treatment Revolution: How Smart Drugs and Other New Therapies Are Renewing Our Hope and Changing the Face of Medicine. Wiley. [composite review]

Leonard, Kendra Preston. The Conservatoire Américain: A History. Scarecrow.

McClanahan, Rue. My First Five Husbands…and the Ones Who Got Away. Broadway.

Marchand, Philip. Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America. Praeger.

Ramin, Cathryn Jakobson. Carved in Sand: When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife. HarperCollins.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Chabot, Jacob. The Mighty Skullboy Army. Dark Horse.

David, Peter (text) & Ryan Sook & Dennis Calero & others (illus.). X-Factor. Vol. 1: The Longest Night. Marvel.

Ellis, Warren (text) & Stuart Immonen (illus.). Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Vol. 1: This Is What They Want. Marvel.

Fujima, Takuya. Free Collars Kingdom. Vol. 1. Del Rey: Ballantine.

Fukushima, Haruka. Kedamono Damono. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Kim, Seyoung. Boy Princess. Vol. 5. Netcomics.

Kirkman, Robert (text) & Charlie Adlard & Cliff Rathburn (illus.). The Walking Dead. Vol. 5: The Best Defense. Image Comics.

Nightow, Yasuhiro. Trigun Maximum. Vol. 11. Dark Horse.

Omote, Sora. Metamo Kiss. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Togashi, Yoshihiro. YuYu Hakusho. Vol. 11. Viz Media.

Togashi, Toshihiro. Hunter x Hunter. Vol. 13. Viz Media.

Ueda, Miwa. Peach Girl: Sae’s Story. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

As our own Michael Rogers reports in today’s book news, “Scholastic Orders Record-Breaking Printing“, the publisher is printing a jaw-dropping 12 million copies of J.K. Rowling’s seventh and final series title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. That’s a lot of paper, 22 million pounds of paper, to be exact. But environmentally concerned Potter fans worried about devastated forests can relax. Reuters reports that Scholastic Corp, in collaboration with the Rainforest Alliance, will ensure that 65 percent of the 16,700 tons of paper used to print the book will be Forest Stewardship Council paper, which comes from socially and environmentally managed forests. To date, this is the largest purchase of FSC-certified paper for a single printing.

Hi folks,

I was felled by the flu last week, thus the double-packed post this week. Here are the titles reviewed our web-only, freely accessible Xpress Reviews section for the last two weeks.

Xpress Reviews for Week of March 13th, 2007

NONFICTION
Fulbright, Yvonne K. Touch Me There!: A Hands-On Guide to Your Orgasmic Hot Spots. Hunter House.

Miller, Arnold with Kristina Chrétien. The Miller Method®: Developing the Capacities of Children on the Autism Spectrum. Jessica Kingsley.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Beasts!: A Pictorial Schedule of Traditional Hidden Creatures from the Interest of 90 Modern Artists. Fantagraphics.

CLAMP. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE. Vol. 12. Del Rey: Ballantine.

Cuneo, John. nEuROTIC: Drawings from the Sketchbook of John Cuneo. Fantagraphics.

Duggan, Gerry & Brian Posehn (text) & Rick Remender, Hilary Barta, & Michelle Madsen (illus.). The Last Christmas. Image Comics.

Emura. W Juliet. Vol. 14. Viz Media.

Hipp, Dan. Gyakushu! Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Kang, E-Jin. Good Luck. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Remender, Rick (text) & Eric Nguyen & others (illus.). Strange Girl. Vol. 2: Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now. Image Comics.

Takahashi, Kazuki. Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist. Vol. 19: Duel with the Future. Viz Media.

Takahashi, Kazuki. Yu-Gi-Oh!: Millennium World. Vol. 5: Tomb of Shadows. Viz Media.

Toyama, Ema. Pixie Pop: Gokkun Pucho. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Watanabe, Taeko. Kaze Hikaru. Vol. 4. Viz Media.

Watsuki, Nobuhiro. Buso Renkin. Vol. 4. Viz Media.

Wight, Eric. My Dead Girlfriend. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Won, Sooyeon. Let Dai. Vol. 5. Netcomics.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Flower of Life. Vol. 1. Digital Manga.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. The Moon and the Sandals. Vol. 1. Juné: Digital Manga.

Xpress Reviews for Week of March 6th, 2007 (same page as the March 13th; you will have to scroll down past March 13th reviews)

NONFICTION
Allenby-Jaffé, Margaret. National Dance. Crowood, dist. by Trafalgar Square.

Gerstenzang, Sarah. Another Mother: Co-Parenting with the Foster Care System. Vanderbilt Univ.

Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Metropolitan: Holt.

Prashad, Vijay. The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World. New Pr., dist. by Norton.

Shabsigh, Ridwan, M.D. Sensational Sex in 7 Easy Steps: The Proven Plan for Lasting Health and Intimacy. Rodale.

Shook, Robert L. Miracle Medicines: Seven Lifesaving Drugs and the People Who Created Them. Portfolio: Penguin Group (USA).

Tobias, Michael & Jane Gray Morrison. Donkey: The Mystique of Equus Asinus. Council Oak.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Aoyama, Gosho. Case Closed. Vol. 15. Viz Media.

Brubaker, Ed (text) & Trevor Hairsine & Scott Hanna (illus.). X-Men: Deadly Genesis. Marvel.

Dixon, Chuck (text) & Sergio Cariello & Flint Henry (illus.). The Iron Ghost. Image Comics.

Hamme, J. Van & Ben Avery (text) & W. Vance (illus.). XIII. Vol. 1: The Day of the Black Sun. Dabel Brothers: Marvel.

Kaishaku. Key Princess Story: Eternal Alice Rondo. Vol. 1. DrMaster Publns.

Kawai, Toko. Loveholic. Vol. 1. Juné: Digital Manga.

Lasko-Gross, Miss. Escape from “Special.” Fantagraphics.

Lee, Jae. Hellshock. Image Comics.

Moore, B. Clay (text) & Steven Griffin & Nick Derington (illus.). Hawaiian Dick. Vol. 2: The Last Resort. Image Comics.

Murakami, Maki. Gravitation EX. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Oh! Great. Air Gear. Vol. 3. Del Rey: Ballantine.

Park, Jin-Hwan. Archlord. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Sala, Richard. The Grave Robber’s Daughter. Fantagraphics.

Tenzen, Momoko. Seven. Juné: Digital Manga.

Trondheim, Lewis. Mister i. Nantier Beall Minoustchine.

Vinton, Will & Andrew Wiese (text) & Fabio Laguna (illus.). Jack Hightower. Dark Horse.

Yoshinaga, Fumi. Solfege. Juné: Digital Manga.

At the beginning of my minibreak from reviewing (”mini” because it will last only until I find something intriguing in the bookroom or find an editor that needs a last-minute review of something I dig or know a little bit about) I am excited to get back to the three books I’ve left unfinished, along with loads of magazines.  

I was reminded to return to Danielle Trussoni’s memoir, Falling Through the Earth, as I was reading the books section of this week’s New York magazine. The favorable review of The Father of All Things reads, “Remarkably, Bissel comes at the subject [Vietnam] with a fresh perspective”: his father is a Vietnam War vet, and he travels there to find out more about his father’s defining experience.  What of Trussoni’s similar venture?  Her book, just out in paperback, made the Time’s “10 Best Books of 2006″ just 3 months ago. Perhaps along with roundups on arts and China (forthcoming), we’ll soon need one on memoirs by children of Vietnam veterans.

In the rest of my unfinished collection, I have The Little Prince and Volume 2 of the first graphic novel series I’ve read, Fables.  I’d recommend the latter to any adult looking for an entertaining introduction to the genre. (Download issue #1 or a sneak peak from DC’s web site.) However, it doesn’t even begin to represent the subgenres; check out the latest GN reviews coming in the March 15 issue, and read new ones nearly every week as Xpress Reviews.

In light of today’s rapid technological advances, the future of the printed book is constantly debated. But think about those poor medieval monks whose beloved illuminated scrolls were replaced by those new-fangled books. How did you open those damn things? Check out the hilarious results at http://youtube.com/watch?v=aX0-nqRmtos .  And anyone who has called their company’s IT department for assistance in turning on their new computer can relate.

As you  know by now, the steamy novel about baseball great Mickey Mantle that led to publisher Judith Regan’s downfall has found new life and a new home. On April 3 Lyons Press plans to publish Peter Golenbock’s controversial  7: The Mickey Mantle Novel, which was cancelled by HarperCollins after it fired Regan and disbanded her imprint. With an initial print run of 250,000 copies, Lyons obviously has high hopes, although judging from all the negative hoopla when the book was first announced, one wonders.

At least I don’t have to worry about assigning this book for review again. When HarperCollins killed the novel in January, we were put in the embarrassing position of running a review that too late for us to pull from our February 1 issue. But now you can re-read our review and judge for yourself whether to order 7 for your patrons.

If 7 is not your cup of tea, coming out this month is another novel featuring a rookie ball player also named Mickey. Published by Kent State University Press, James T. Farrell’s Dreaming Baseball revolves around the infamous 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. (Look for our review in the March 15 issue of Library Journal.)  

The author of the classic Studs Lonigan trilogy was a passionate baseball fan, longing to play second base for his beloved Chicago White Sox. HIs 1957 My Baseball Diary is considered one of the very best fan books ever written. At the same time, Farrell was unable to find a publisher for his novel, and the work remained unpublished for more than 50 years, until editors Ron Briley, Margaret Davidson, and James Barbour joined forces with Farrell’s family  to bring the book into print. The trio were careful not to tamper with Farrell’s words except to correct typos and to change Farrell’s fictional names to the historical names of the players involved. The foreword is written by Eliot Asinof, who in 1960 consulted with Farrell when he began his reseach on what is now the classic history of the scandal, Eight Men Out. 

This coming May marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of author Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book Silent Spring alerted the public to the dangers of pesticides and helped lay the groundwork for the modern U.S. environmental movement.

Carson began her writing and science career in 1936 at the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (today the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). In honor of the Service’s most famous employee, the Friends of the National Conservation Training Center is launching the Rachel Carson Online Book Club. Starting March 1 and running through November 2007, participants will study Carson’s life and works. Each month features a guest moderator who will also offer his or her own comments on the text under discussion. Moderators include Carson biographer Linda Lear (Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature), Houghton Mifflin executive editor Deanne Urmy, and Cindy Van Dover, marine biologist and director of the Duke Marine Laboratory.

Besides Silent Spring, other Carson books to be discussed include Under the Sea-Wind, The Sea Around Us, A Sense of Wonder, and Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, as well as a forthcoming anthology edited by Peter Matthiessen, Courage for the Earth: Writers, Scientists, and Activists Celebrate the Life and Writing of Rachel Carson (Houghton Mifflin, April 2007).

And if you want more Carson-related books to consider for a reading display or a book club, check out Priscilla Coit Murphy’s What a Book Can Do: The Publication and Reception of “Silent Spring“, Jim Lynch’s novel The Highest Tide, and The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement, a new biography by Mark H. Lytle. Both Lynch and Lytle will be moderators on the online book club.

Fiction, nonfiction, and a slew of graphic novels this week in our web-only, freely-accessible Xpress Reviews section. Here’s the list of titles reviewed.

Xpress Reviews for Week of Feb. 27th, 2007

FICTION
Jenoff, Pam. The Kommandant’s Girl. Mira: Harlequin.

Rentschler, Linda Ann. Mother. Madison Square Pr.

NONFICTION
Lindvall, Terry. Sanctuary Cinema: Origins of the Christian Film Industry. New York Univ.

Spivak, Alice with Robert Blumenfeld. How To Rehearse When There Is No Rehearsal: Acting and the Media. Limelight Editions.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Benjamin, Paul (text) & Steven Cummings & Megumi Cummings (illus.). Pantheon High. Vol. 1: Demigods & Debutantes. Tokyopop.

Casey, Joe & Tom Scioli (text & illus.). Godland. Vol. 2: Another Sunny Delight. Image Comics.

Ennis, Garth (text) & Clayton Crain (illus.). Ghost Rider: The Road to Damnation. Marvel.

Fukuyama, Ryoko. Nosatsu Junkie. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Kang, Kyungok. In the Starlight. Vol. 1. Netcomics.

Kim, June. 12 Days. Tokyopop.

Kimjin. Lethe. Netcomics.

Kubo, Tite. Bleach. Vol. 17: Rosa Rubicundior, Lilio Candidior. Viz Media.

Linsner, Joseph Michael. Angry Christ Comix. Image Comics.

Melbourne, Drew (text) & Yvel Guichet & Joe Rubinstein (illus.). Archenemies. Vol. 1: Sinners and Saints. Dark Horse.

Morris, Steve. Blessed Thistle. Dark Horse.

Oshimizu, Sachi. Twin Signal. Vol. 1. AnimeWorks: Media Blasters.

Otsuichi (text) & Setsuri Tsuzuki (illus.). Calling You. Tokyopop.

Pope, Paul (text & illus.) & Jose Villarrubia (illus.). Batman Year 100. DC Comics.

Powell, Nate. Sounds of Your Name. reprint. Microcosm, dist. by AK Pr. & Dist.

Tennohji, Mio. The Sky over My Spectacles. 801 Media: Digital Manga.

Tanaka, Meca. Pearl Pink. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Way, Daniel (text) & Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira (illus.). Wolverine: Origins & Endings. Marvel.

Yamada, Norie (text) & Kumichi Yoshizuki (illus.). Someday’s Dreamers: Spellbound. Tokyopop.

Yuiga, Satol. E’S. Vol. 1. Broccoli Bks.

“The world’s forgotten boy”—that is, Iggy Pop, born James Osterberg in Muskegon, MI, in 1947—has finally gotten a biography on par with his musical achievements and brain-blowing stage antics. For Iggy Pop: Open Up and Bleed (April, Broadway Books), British journalist Paul Trynka worked his contacts like a Russian masseuse to produce what our reviewer Matthew Moyer calls “a complete portrait of the man and his work—from mayhem in Detroit with the Stooges to making albums with David Bowie in Berlin.”

As if Matthew’s impassioned assessment of the book isn’t enough (for the full monty, see the April 1 issue), his illuminating interview with Trynka will appear in the same issue, about a month after the release of Iggy and Stooges’ first studio album in decades.

For Iggy-related books, see our reviews of Martin Roach’s Morphing the Blues: The White Stripes and the Strange Relevance of Detroit and Roger Crimlis and Alwyn Turner’s Cult Rock Posters. And this just in from Arts & Humanities Editor Mirela Roncevic: although then pushing 60, a few years ago Iggy posed, often in the buck, for a serious of striking photos collected in Gavin Evans’s Biopic. Too nude and rude for the pages of LJ, but we’re still punk rock.

Hello everyone,

Here are this week’s titles in our web-only, freely accessible Xpress Reviews for the Week of Feb. 20th, 2007.

NONFICTION
Sellers, John. Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life. S. & S.

Stepp, Laura Sessions. Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both. Riverhead: Putnam.

Tellington-Jones, Linda with Bobbie Lieberman. The Ultimate Horse Behavior and Training Book: Enlightened and Revolutionary Solutions for the 21st Century. Trafalgar Square.

Thyre, Sarah. Dark at the Roots: A Memoir. Counterpoint: Perseus.

GRAPHIC NOVELS
Bergting, Peter. The Portent. Vol. 1: Duende. Image Comics.

Cogan, Adam (text) & Ryan Cody (illus.). Villains. Vol. 1. Viper Comics. 

Goodwin, Archie (text) & John Byrne (illus.). Wolverine Classic. Vol. 4. Marvel.

Konomi, Takeshi. The Prince of Tennis. Vol. 18. Viz Media.

Kusanagi, Mizujo. Mugen Spiral. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Lee, Youjung. Let’s Be Perverts. Vol. 1. Netcomics.

Maeda, Jun (text) & Rei Idumi (illus.). Hibiki’s Magic. Vol. 1. Tokyopop.

Ridley, John (text) & Georges Jeanty & Karl Story (illus.). The American Way. Wildstorm: DC Comics.

Sakurakoji, Kanoko. Backstage Prince. Vol. 1. Viz Media.

Schaffer, Dan. The Scribbler. Image Comics.

Tsuda, Mikiyo. Princess Princess. Vol. 2. Digital Manga.

Ultimate Annuals. Vol. 2. Marvel.

Yamazaki, Housui. Mail. Vol. 1. Dark Horse.