The Marrying of Chani KaufmanEve Harris. Grove/Black Cat, $16 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-0-8021-2273-5
This impressive debut provides entry to a London kehilla, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, where the lives of a young, betrothed couple and a rabbi and rebbetzin are gracefully intertwined. In Harris's world, life is lived religiously and compliantly, ritual to ritual, Shabbat to Shabbat. Given t... Continue reading »
The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth CenturyDavid Reynolds. Norton, $32.50 (560p) ISBN 978-0-393-08863-2
Reynolds, Cambridge University historian and Wolfson Prize winner for In Command of History, proposes “to shift our view of the Great War out of the trenches” and establish the 1920s and ’30s as postwar years, rather than an interwar preliminary to a greater conflict. The war “undermined ci... Continue reading »
Jim Curious: A Voyage to the Heart of the Sea in 3-D VisionMatthias Picard. Abrams, $19.95 (52p) ISBN 978-1-4197-1043-8
Who needs 3D IMAX technology? Originally published in France, this near-wordless picture book ensures an incredible journey without ever leaving the sofa. Packaged with two pairs of classic red-and-blue 3D glasses, the story follows young Jim out the front door and into the depths of the ocean. Ther... Continue reading »
Danette Joy Crawford. Destiny Image, $15.99 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-7684-0408-1
According to Crawford (Don't Quit in the Pit), a "total turnaround"—a major change in outlook and circumstances—is usually a process. The turnaround she refers to isn't the type one can see through from beginning to end. This turnaround doesn't happen on a human time schedule; one ca... Continue reading »
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? A MemoirRoz Chast. Bloomsbury, $28 (240p) ISBN 978-1-60819-806-1
“Something more pleasant” than the certainty of old age and death is what Chast’s parents would prefer to talk about, in this poignant and funny text-and-cartoon memoir of their final years. (In one cartoon, the Grim Reaper declares, “The Chasts are talking about me? Why, I’ll show them!”) Chast, a ... Continue reading »
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1Edward Gibbon, read by David Timson. Naxos AudioBooks, unabridged, 18 CDs, 22.75 hrs., $107.98 ISBN 978-1-84379-715-9
This first installment in Naxos’s ambitious audio edition of Gibbon’s classic history of the Roman Empire boasts a standout performance from veteran narrator Timson. Beginning in 14 C.E. during the time of Augustus, this volume covers everything up to 324 C.E. when Constantine the Great becomes empe... Continue reading »
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Children's Books for Spring 2014: All Our Coverage
Welcome to our spring 2014 children’s announcements issue, in which we examine the state of the industry from several angles. more...PW KidsCast: A Conversation with Jennifer E. Smith
Jennifer E. Smith, whose new YA novel is "The Geography of You and Me," talks about fate, serendipity, long-distance relationships, and the magic of New York City during a blackout. more...
'The Silent History' by Horiwitz, Derby & Moffett
Form follows, explores, and transforms function in this novel, originally written as an iPhone/iPad app and now being published, and holding its own, on the printed page. more...
