(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 2)

Leonard launches three characters from previous novels on a collision course in this seemingly effortless performance. After prison buddy Cundo Rey (last seen in LaBrava) drops a bundle on a shark attorney, celebrity bank robber Jack Foley (from Out of Sight) gets his 30-year prison sentence reduced to 30 months. Jack’s quickly back in the world, living large in one of Cundo’s two multimillion-dollar houses in Venice, Calif., juggling a fast seduction with fortune-teller (from Riding the Rap) Dawn Navarro (who is now Cundo’s lady) and the untoward attention of rogue FBI agent Lou Adams, who’s waiting for Foley to rob another bank. While Dawn tries to enlist Foley in a scheme to steal Cundo’s off-the-books fortune, Cundo surprises them with an early release. Betrayal simmers while Foley considers going semi-straight—with the help of a widowed starlet—Dawn hatches a plan that could get her rich and rid her of all her problems, and Cundo’s associates and neighborhood toughs get sucked into the fray. The plot isn’t as tight as it could be, but Leonard’s singular way with words is reason enough to read it. (May)

Order your signed copy of Elmore Leonard’s Road Dogs from www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 23)

After exploring the lives of cereal king Kellogg (The Road to Wellville) and sex researcher Kinsey (The Inner Circle), Boyle turns his attention to Frankly Lloyd Wright, whose story is told through the experiences of the four women who loved him. The author’s cross-country tour winds up March 1 in Santa Barbara, where he lives in the George C. Stewart house, Wright’s first private residence in California.  Publisher’s Weekly starred review called the novel “a lush, dense and hyperliterate book - in other words, vintage Boyle.”  After four printings, Viking has shipped close to 55,000 copies.

Order your signed first edition of The Women by T.C. Boyle from www.vjbooks.com

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(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 23)

William Monahan, who won an Oscar and an Edgar for his film adaptation of 2006’s The Departed, has been signed by Paramount to adapt The Associate as a star vehicle for Shia LaBeouf.  Monahan’s most recent writing credit was last year’s Body of Lies, which starred Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe.

Order your signed copy of The Associate by John Grisham at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 23)

Simmons kicked off an eight-city tour in Denver, his hometown, on Feb. 16; he’ll end up on Feb. 25.  Film rights to Drood have been sold to Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth).  According to Publisher’s Weekly starred review, “Despite the book’s length, readers will race through the pages, drawn by the intricate plot and the proliferation of intriguing psychological puzzles, which will remind many of the work of Charles Palliser and Michael Cox.”

Order your signed first edition copy of Drood by Dan Simmons at www.vjbooks.com

Today we are promoting nearly a dozen titles that for some reason got overlooked . . . either we missed giving them the attention they deserved, or perhaps, you didn’t see the newsletter.  We thought we’d give them another chance, and we are cutting the price on each of them by five bucks.   All eleven titles are exciting and merit another look, but please give your special attention to three of them.

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 16, Carlisle Webber)

Persuading adults to read YA literature

Overheard in a library: “This is a teen novel? I don’t want it then. I just want regular James Patterson.” The patron was holding the copy of Maximum Ride that she had requested.

Among a blog’s comments: “I’m an adult who loves YA fiction, but I always feel so embarrassed by looking through the YA section of the local library.”

Every day, those of us who advocate for young adult literature hear statements like these, which not only devalue the genre but show us that too many adults believe that YA is either junk or best appreciated by 10-year-olds. We roll our eyes when yet another media outlet writes about this newfangled genre of literature, one that consists solely of Harry Potter, Gossip Girl and the Twilight saga (and maybe some other vampire books if (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 9, Michael Coffey)

Updike didn’t just believe in the power of prose; he believed in print

Much has been written in the two weeks since John Updike’s death on January 27—about the wonderful precision of his prose and, as Charles McGrath put it, his “unswerving belief in the power of words to faithfully record experience.” But what has not been noted—and understandably, given all there is to note about a man who published 27 novels, 13 collections of stories, nine volumes of poetry and 10 collections of nonfiction—is that Updike was more than a great writer who believed in the power of prose; he was a believer in print.

On two occasions that I can recall, Updike delivered impassioned pleas on behalf of the book qua book. Today, as our industry struggles to leverage its storied yesterdays into viable tomorrows, the book as we have long known it, the one Updike loved since he was a child lost in the stacks at the Reading, Pa., public library, is in peril. Cloth over board, quarter-bound in (more…)

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 16)

At the start of bestseller Stone’s formulaic third thriller to feature CIA “cleaner” Micah Dalton (after The Orpheus Deception), Dalton takes revenge late one night outside Venice’s Piazza San Marco on one of the Serbian thugs responsible for the death of his lover, Cora Vasari. Dalton’s actions result in his becoming involved in the search for a high-level traitor in the CIA’s ranks, who’s believed to be behind the brutal murder of elderly Mildred Durant, an unofficial adviser to an NSA decryption team known as the Glass Cutters, in her London home. Durant worked on the Venona Project, the interception of Soviet cable traffic, during the cold war. It appears Stalin “had a source close to Roosevelt who was never exposed.” While no one will mistake Stone for John le Carré, series fans are sure to root for the unstoppable Dalton, compared at one point to “the newly risen Christ, only blond and not quite so loving, with a bullet scar on one cheek and no intention at all of turning the other.” (Apr.)

Order your signed copy of Venetian Judgment by David Stone at www.vjbooks.com

(Publisher’s Weekly, Feb. 9)

Bova’s cautionary medical thriller, the uncut version of his 1996 novel Brothers, explores the political, social and religious ramifications of what could be humankind’s greatest medical breakthrough—organ regeneration. When biotech lab director Arthur Marshak discovers a way to grow replacement organs and limbs within a patient’s own body, the uproar from religious extremists, conservative politicians and sensationalized media coverage threatens to derail the project. When Marshak decides to let a “science court” in Washington, D.C., rule on the validity of human organ regeneration, the subsequent travesty of a tribunal not only imperils his career but also his tempestuous relationship with his estranged brother, who happens to be married to Arthur’s ex-fiancée. Even an implausible love triangle and a cast of two-dimensional characters can’t dim the forcefulness of Bova’s message: the singular significance of science in modern-day society. (Apr.)

Order your signed copy of The Immortality Factor by Ben Bova at www.vjbooks.com today!