More Fine New Arrivals!

If it’s Tuesday, it must be street-date for new books! And we received some. First is David Halberstam’s final book, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War (Hyperion $35.00). One cool thing happening around this book, is that in certain cities, Halberstam’s friends are standing in his stead for readings. Coming in at over 700 pages, it will prove to the most exhaustive histories of that war. Last year’s phenomenal Suite Francaise prompts more of Irene Nemirovsky’s work to be rediscovered. Fire in the Blood (Knopf $22.00) is her short novel about village life in France before the Second World War. Run (Harper $25.95) is Ann Pratchett’s first novel since Bel Canto. The events of the novel take place over the course of one day and the plot involves the Mayor of Boston who wants his sons to enter the political arena, a thing they don’t want. The work examines the intersections of the well-to-do and the poverty stricken. Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls, returns to small town New York life in his Bridge of Sighs (Knopf $26.95), a saga of intertwined families.

And good stuff in paperback reissues as well! Erik Larson’s chronicle of the unlikely murderer, Hawley Crippen and Guglielm Marconi, the inventor of wireless communication, Thuderstruck (Three Rivers $14.95) evokes the dynamic early years of the 20th Century. Henning Mankell’s The Man Who Smiled (Vintage Crime$13.95) is the latest Kurt Wallender mystery. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (Broadway Books $14.95) is Bill Bryson’s story of growing up in the 1950’s. Fans of Alice McDermott should enjoy her latest novel After This (Dial Press $14.00). Finally, Carolyn See’s There Will Never Be Another You (Ballantine $13.95) is a multi-generational novel, involving family reconciliation.