Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s Anthropology of an American Girl (Spiegel and Grau, $26.00) touched a nerve among readers, who identified with the sexual and intellectual awakening of its heroine, a young woman on the brink of adulthood.  A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann’s first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s. 

Centering on Evie’s fragile relationship with her family and her thwarted love affair with Harrison Rourke, a professional boxer, the novel is both a love story and an exploration of the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world.  As Evie surrenders to the dazzling emotional highs of love and the crippling loneliness of heartbreak, she strives to reconcile her identity with the constraints that all relationships—whether those familial or romantic, uplifting to the spirit or quietly detrimental—inherently place on us. Though she stumbles and strains against social conventions, Evie remains a strong yet sensitive observer of the world around her, often finding beauty and meaning in unexpected places. 

Newly edited and revised since its original publication, Anthropology of an American Girl is an extraordinary piece of writing, original in its vision and thrilling in its execution. 6pm

Jon Scieszka's Spaceheadz is the perfect combination of the age old experience of holding and pouring over a physical book with newest media technology that kids love!

Michael K. just started fifth grade at a new school. As if that wasn't hard
enough, the kids he seems to have made friends with apparently aren't
kids at all. They are aliens. Real aliens who have invaded our planet in
the form of school children and a hamster. They have a mission to
complete: to convince 3,140,001 kids to BE SPHDZ. But with a hamster as
their leader, "kids" who talk like walking advertisements, and Michael K
as their first convert, will the SPHDZ be able to keep their cover and
pull off their assignment?

Jon Scieszka was born in Flint, Michigan on September 8, 1954. It was a Wednesday. Right around lunchtime. He earned his MFA in Fiction from Columbia University in New York in 1980, then painted apartments.Not knowing what he was getting into, Jon applied for a teaching job at an elementary school called The Day School in New York City. Teaching school, Jon re-discovered how smart kids are, and found the best audience for the weird and funny stories he had always liked to read and write. He took a year off from teaching to write stories for kids. He sent these stories around to many publishers, and got rejected by all of them. He kept painting apartments and writing stories.

Through his wife Jeri, who was working in NY as a magazine art director, he met a funny guy named Lane Smith. Lane was painting illustrations for magazine articles, and working on his first children's book. Jon gave Lane his story—A. Wolf's Tale. Lane loved it. Lane drew a few illustrations for the story and took it to show many publishers. He got rejected by all of them. "Too dark," they said. "Too sophisticated," they said. "Don't ever come back here, okay?" they said.Jon and Lane liked A. Wolf's Tale. They kept showing it around. They kept getting rejected. Finally, Regina Hayes, an editor at Viking Books said she thought the story and the illustrations were funny. She said she would publish the book. And she did, in 1989, with the title changed to: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs!.

Jon is now working on a giant pre-school publishing program called Trucktown. It's a world where all of the characters are trucks. And all of the trucks act like real preschoolers—loud and crazy and wild and funny.

In Gourmet Bachelor – Global Flavor, Local Ingredients, Chad Carns brings
exciting global dishes to your home in minutes. Elegantly designed with
vivid photography and slick black pages, The Gourmet Bachelor cookbook
includes simple cooking instructions with basic ingredients found at
your local market. Become the wine expert at your next cocktail party
after you read the essential wine guide. Carns also provides a glossary
of gourmet terms if you are just learning how to sear, chop or sauté!
Learn how to cook mouth watering recipes such as Orange-Scented Ricotta
Pancakes or a Lobster Club stacked with creamy avocado and double-thick
bacon. The Gourmet Bachelor cookbook offers a culinary-roller coaster of
exciting, global recipes for any occasion.

Chad Carns put his award-winning, graphic design career on hold to study
global cuisine and wine at the Institute of Culinary Education. He has
been featured several times on Toni On! NY (WPIX), Marie Claire, The
Villager, Next magazine and has been giving live cooking demos at
culinary destination around the country. Carns currently works as a NYC
private chef for special events and intimate dinner parties.

In Jilliane Hoffman's Pretty Little Things, thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a household that police are already familiar with: her mother works too much and her step-father favors his own blood over another man’s problems—namely, Lainey and her wild older sister, Liza. So when Lainey does not come home from a Friday night out with her friends, it is dismissed by the Coral Springs Police Department as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life.

But Special Agent Bobby Dees, who has headed up the department’s di4cult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure. Nicknamed “The Shepherd” by colleagues, he has an uncanny ability to find the missing and bring them back home—dead or alive. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar up-swell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is no runaway.

A search of Lainey’s computer and a talk with her best friend reveal Lainey was involved in a secret Internet relationship, spawned over a chat room, and nurtured through untraceable instant messages. Bobby fears she may be the victim of an on-line predator, and he fears she may not be the only one.

BEST KNOWN AS THE DIRECTOR of such spectacular films as The Ten Commandments and King of Kings, Cecil B. DeMille lived a life as epic as any of his cinematic masterpieces. As a child DeMille learned the Bible from his father, a theology student and playwright who introduced Cecil and his older brother, William, to the theater. Tutored by impresario David Belasco, DeMille discovered how audiences responded to showmanship: sets, lights, costumes, etc. He took this knowledge with him to Los Angeles in 1913, where he became one of the movie pioneers, in partnership with Jesse Lasky and Lasky’s brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn). Working out of a barn on streets fragrant with orange blossom and pepper trees, the Lasky company turned out a string of successful silents, most of them directed by DeMille, who became one of the biggest names of the silent era. With films such as The Squaw Man, Brewster’s Millions, Joan the Woman, and Don’t Change Your Husband, he was the creative backbone of what would become Paramount Studios. In 1923 he filmed his first version of The Ten Commandments and later a second biblical epic, King of Kings, both enormous box-office successes. Although his reputation rests largely on the biblical epics he made, DeMille’s personal life was no morality tale. He remained married to his wife, Constance, for more than fifty years, but for most of the marriage he had three mistresses simultaneously, all of whom worked for him. He showed great loyalty to a small group of actors who knew his style, but he also discovered some major stars, among them Gloria Swanson, Claudette Colbert, and later, Charlton Heston.

DeMille was one of the few silent-era directors who made a completely successful transition to sound. In 1952 he won the Academy Award for Best Picture with The Greatest Show on Earth. When he remade The Ten Commandments in 1956, it was an even bigger hit than the silent version. He could act, too: in Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard, DeMille memorably played himself. In the 1930s and 1940s DeMille became a household name thanks to the Lux Radio Theater, which he hosted. But after falling out with a union, he gave up the program, and his politics shifted to the right as he championed loyalty oaths and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist witch hunts.

As Scott Eyman brilliantly demonstrates in Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille (Simon & Schuster, $35.00), this superbly researched biography, which draws on a massive cache of DeMille family papers not available to previous biographers, DeMille was much more than his clichéd image. A gifted director who worked in many genres; a devoted family man and loyal friend with a highly unconventional personal life; a pioneering filmmaker: DeMille comes alive in these pages, a legend whose spectacular career defined an era.

Books & Books is proud to join its neighbors in the Bal Harbour Shops for
a celebration of Fashion’s Night Out, with a portion of proceeds from
our sales that night to benefit Miami Book Fair International. And we’ll be celebrating the opening of The Newsstand by Books & Books in its new location –
upstairs inside our bookshop…

America’s most-read, most-watched, and most­ beloved serial killer—Dexter Morgan—is back with Dexter is Delicious (Doubleday, $25.95). After selling more than one million copies and inspiring the wildly popular #1 Showtime series and top-rated crime drama on pay-cable television, New York Times bestselling author Jeff Lindsay returns with his most hilarious, macabre, and purely entertaining novel yet.

Dexter Morgan has always lived a happy homicidal life. He keeps his
dark urges in check by adhering to one stead­fast rule . . . he only kills very bad people. But
now Dexter is experiencing some major life changes—don’t we all?—and
they’re mostly wrapped up in the eight-pound curiosity that is his
newborn daughter. Family bliss is cut short, however, when Dexter is
summoned to investigate the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old girl
who has been running with a bizarre group of goths who fancy themselves
to be vampires. As Dexter gets closer to the truth of what happened to
the missing girl, he realizes they are not really vampires so much as
cannibals. And, most disturbing . . . these people have decided they
would really like to eat Dexter.

Jeff Lindsay’s bestselling, dark, ironic, and oftentimes
laugh-out-loud hilarious novels about the lovable serial killer with no
soul (but a redeeming desire to kill only people who deserve it) have
gained a legion of fans and assumed a place in our cul­ture.

JEFF LINDSAY is the New York Times bestselling author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter by Design. He lives in South Florida with his wife and three daughters. His novels are the subject of the hit Showtime and CBS series Dexter.

Join bestselling author Michelle Richmond for a workshop in which she'll share her secrets and tricks in crafting vital, mesmerizing flash fiction. With in-depth exploration of samples, writing exercises, and an open discussion not only of fundamentals of fiction but of the broader writing world. Free and open to the public, but space is limited, so please reserve early. RSVP to jalison@miami.edu.

Michelle Richmond (UM MFA ’98) is the author of four books of fiction: The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, Dream of the Blue Room, No One You Know, and the New York Times bestseller The Year of Fog. She received the Hillsdale Award for Fiction from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, the AWP Award, and the Mississippi Review Fiction Prize. Her stories and essays have appeared in Playboy, Glimmer Train, Oxford American, Salon, The Guardian, The Believer, Best American Fantasy, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She also blogs for the San Francisco Chronicle. She has taught creative writing at the University of San Francisco, California College of the Arts, St. Mary’s College of Moraga, and Bowling Green State University. She currently serves on the executive council of The Authors Guild.

He's a great big sauropod.

He's a whole lotta lizard.

And he's . . . lost.

Have you seen his herd?

Help the big guy find his pals—before he becomes lunch for some hungry predators.

Yikes!

Kate and Jim McMullan's I'm Big (Blazer & Bray, $16.99)

Kate McMullan is the author of the easy-to-read books featuring
Fluffy, the Classroom Guinea Pig, and the early chapter book series
Dragon Slayers' Academy.

Jim McMullan is an internationally acclaimed illustrator and poster designer whose work can be seen in The Theater Posters of James McMullan.

Kate and Jim have collaborated on many popular picture books, including I'm Bad!; I'm Dirty!, a Child Magazine Best Book; I'm Mighty!; and I Stink!, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book. The McMullans live in Sag Harbor, New York.

Playful and lighthearted with a subversive twist that is signature Lane Smith, IT’S A BOOK (Roaring Brook Press, $12.99) is a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age. This satisfying, perfectly executed picture book has something to say to readers of all stripes and all ages.

LANE SMITH is the author and illustrator of the bestselling JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & BEN and MADAM PRESIDENT. He has also collaborated with Jon Scieszka on THE TRUE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS, MATH CURSE, and THE STINKY CHEESE MAN, for which he received a Caldecott Honor award. He has also illustrated books by Dr. Seuss, Jack Prelutsky, Florence Parry Heide, and Roald Dahl.

Debut novelist Justin Kramon will conduct a workshop designed to provide resources for writers trying to publish their short stories, find an agent, or place a novel with a
publisher.  It took an embarrassing number of attempts to find the publisher for his novel, so he thought it might be helpful to other beginning writers to compile some of the resources he drew from to get Random House to take pity on him.  While he was writing and selling his debut novel, Finny (Random House, $15), he often wished that all of this information were gathered in one place, so he’s structured this seminar in order to convey concrete and specific information, such as lists of agents and places to submit
fiction, and will also share examples from his own successes
and failures in publishing, such as the query letter he sent to his
current agent.  Please feel free to bring questions about the publishing
process. 6pm

Playwright, actor, and professor Anna Deavere Smith, hailed by Newsweek as “the most exciting individual in American theatre,” will present “The Changing Landscape of Doctor-Patient Relationships”. Deavere Smith is University Professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and is affiliated with the NYU School of Law. She has held appointments at Stanford and at the Yale School of Medicine. She was recently commissioned by the Stanford University Medical School to create a project on diversity in the medical school. She was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius” Fellowship for creating “a new form of theatre — a blend of theatrical art, social commentary, journalism and intimate reverie.”
Smith has a recurring role on the Showtime series Nurse Jackie, played National Security Advisor Nancy McNally on NBC’s The West Wing, and has appeared in such films as Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, and The American President. She is perhaps best known as the author and performer of two one-woman plays about racial tensions in America — Fires in the Mirror (Obie Award-winner and runner-up for the Pulitzer) and Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 (Obie-winner and Tony Award nominee). Interviewing subjects from all walks of life, Smith recreates their words in performance, transforming herself into an astonishing number of characters. Her latest book is Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts (Doubleday, $14.95). Registration is required for Professor Smith’s presentation. Tickets are free of charge. There will be advance registration for the UM Community from August 23rd to September 1st.  Tickets will be available to the public beginning September 2nd.  For further information and to register please visit humanities.miami.edu/programs/lectures/anna-deavere-smith<http://humanities.miami.edu/programs/lectures/anna-deavere-smith>. Event begins at 7pm.

Brian Lutz is the author of Knoll (Rizzoli, $75.00) the first full monograph on the furniture of the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen

The history of Knoll is the history of modern design. Founded in 1938 by
Hans Knoll and joined by his wife, Florence Knoll, the company is
credited for bringing European modern design to America, then nurturing
the best homegrown talents at mid-century to build the most successful
and prestigious high-end furniture company in the world. Throughout its
history Knoll has been at the forefront of cutting-edge and chic
design, the first company to produce Mies van der Rohe’s and Marcel
Breuer’s tubular furniture for a receptive domestic market, making
Bauhaus ideals a reality to an American audience. Knoll also leveraged
America’s newfound economic and cultural status after World War II by
commissioning now-iconic furniture pieces, such as Eero Saarinen’s Tulip
chair and Harry Bertoia’s Wire chairs. More recently Knoll has produced
instant classics from Frank Gehry and Richard Meier. Equally
significant is Knoll’s pioneering foray into office planning, which
resulted in Florence Knoll’s iconic furniture and later one of the first
office systems. Knoll also fully integrated graphic design into its
program, with photography and advertising by masters such as Herbert
Matter and Massimo Vignelli. Comprehensive in narrative and scope, this
monograph will be a classic in its own right with images and texts on
furniture, furnishings, systems, graphics, and unique insight into the
modern world that is Knoll.

Monthly Art table lecture and discussion.  More information to come...

In Belly Laughs, Jenny McCarthy told you what you could really expect when you're expecting; in Baby Laughs and Life Laughs, she gave you the unfiltered ups and downs of motherhood and marriage. Now in Love, Lust, and Faking It, the inveterate truth-teller turns the lights on for a funny, often wise, and no-holds-barred look at the essence of relationships: love and sex.

McCarthy talks about finding first love and dealing with heartbreak; the importance of playing doctor and other nice and naughty fantasies; becoming a Playboy Miss October; why women are master manipulators; the virtues of sex with the lights off; the power of a "loving no," and so much more.

Love, Lust, and Faking It takes on a subject the sex symbol, mother, television star, comedian, and divorcÉe can be trusted to examine with nothing but unvarnished honesty and outrageous humor.

Despite their mostly happy marriage, when their son Ricky's girlfriend vanishes, Maggie and Jones find themselves at odds—Maggie is positive Ricky had nothing to do with Charlene's disappearance, while Jones isn't as sure. With Charlene gone, the memory of another young girl who went missing some twenty years ago is haunting the town. That story didn't have a happy ending, and almost everyone has an unrevealed reason to keep the horror of it firmly in the past.

As Jones and the police turn their focus on Ricky, Maggie must find out the truth about what happened all those years ago. In order to save her son and the young woman whose life hangs in the balance, she'll test the bonds of her community—and find out just how fragile they can be. (Shaye Areheart Books, $24)

Robert Landori's Havana Harvest (Emerald Book Co., $15.95) follows the maneuvers of two adversarial intelligence services in their attempts to inflict maximum damage on each other as they move through a maze of high-tension suspense. In Cuba, General Patricio Casas must decide whether to support the revolution he has defended for so many years or do what is good for his people and challenge the selfish authoritarianism of the Castroite regime.
Meanwhile, CIA operative Robert Lonsdale is tasked with determining why a
captain in Fidel s army who recently arrived in Miami with a suitcase
full of money seeks U.S. protection from a Colombian drug cartel and the
Cuban secret police. Lonsdale is quickly drawn into a maelstrom of
intrigue and murder from which there seems to be no escape unless he can
convince General Casas to help. Apparently double-crossed by his
colleagues and a self-serving Agency director, Lonsdale struggles on
alone in an attempt to outfox the shadowy tormentors who intend to
silence him forever.

With Come to Win, Venus Williams, the multiple Grand Slam tennis champion and entrepreneur, along with an esteemed group of business leaders, politicians, and acclaimed artists, serves up a book of wisdom that shows how to turn a competitive spirit and athletic background into success off the playing field.

Combining talent, drive, and hard work, Venus Williams has mastered the game of tennis. How will that drive serve her off the court in her post-tennis career? For inspiration, Venus turned to nearly fifty business leaders, politicians, doctors, and artists, all of whom previously played competitive sports and who are now at the top of their professions, and asked them the essential questions: What principles that inspired you toward success as an athlete are helpful in life? In business?

Here an A-list group of visionaries, including eBay's former CEO Meg Whitman, Nike's co-founder Philip Knight, stateswoman Condoleezza Rice, entrepreneur and former NBA player Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and designer Vera Wang, respond with a useful array of tips woven through anecdotes from their athletic past that have been instrumental in their post–sports life success. Whether it's visualizing a course of action before it happens, turning losses into learning tools, figuring out who best plays what position in a team environment, or remembering that there is no substitute for preparation, the advice in Come to Win is knowledge every manager and aspiring professional will want to read. It's also an indispensable tool for parents and coaches looking to build confidence and discipline in their children.

Venus also reflects on what she has learned from her own coaches, including her father and mother, and how their wisdom contributes to her own remarkable achievements, from her history-making tennis career to the launch of her own businesses—V-Starr Interiors, an interior design firm, and EleVen, an athletic clothing line.

You must purchase a copy of Come to Win from Books & Books to enter the signing line. Venus will only sign her book COME TO WIN, not memorabilia. There is no limit on the number of books that she will sign. Venus will sign her name but will not have time to personalize. She will not pose for pictures, but pictures can be taken from the line. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Tess Livingston met Ian Ritter at a roadside stop high in the Andes, waiting for a bus to the mysterious town of Esperanza.

Tess is an FBI agent who remembers being on the track of a group of international counterfeiters. But she doesn’t remember booking a trip to Esperanza. Ian is a journalist who was planning to vacation to the Galapagos Islands. He, too, isn’t quite sure why he has a ticket to Esperanza. 

Their meeting will change their lives forever. For they have been brought together because they hold the key in a mystical war between the kind spirits of the dead who guard humanity, and the hungry ghosts who exist only to possess living human bodies, and return however briefly to life.

In the midst of this war, Tess and Ian will find a love that can transcend time, and a cause that not even death will overcome.

TRISH J. MACGREGOR is an astrologer and student of metaphysics. She was raised in Caracas, Venezuela, near the South American setting of Esperanza. She now lives in Florida, where she writes the Sidney Omarr Day-By-Day Astrology Guides. 

A new collection of evocative and defiant poetry from one of Zimbabwe's
leading literary and political writers. The poems reflect on the plight
of the individual citizen and the state of Zimbabwe, the poet's
birthplace and spiritual home. They convey empathy for those who suffer
anonymous deaths at the expense of tyrannical power, and yearning for a
more peaceful world and spirit of common destiny; their intention being
in his words' to persuade the heart and the soul and human body to be
together and to gently cry out to the world'.

Encountering Revolution (John Hopkins University Press, $63.25) looks afresh at the profound impact of the Haitian Revolution on the early United States. The first book on the subject in more than two decades, it redefines our understanding of the relationship between republicanism and slavery at a foundational moment in American history.

For postrevolutionary Americans, the Haitian uprising laid bare the contradiction between democratic principles and the practice of slavery. For thirteen years, between 1791 and 1804, slaves and free people of color in Saint-Domingue battled for equal rights in the manner of the French Revolution. As white and mixed-race refugees escaped to the safety of U.S. cities, Americans were forced to confront the paradox of being a slaveholding republic, recognizing their own possible destiny in the predicament of the Haitian slaveholders.

Historian Ashli White examines the ways Americans -- black and white, northern and southern, Federalist and Democratic Republican, pro- and antislavery -- pondered the implications of the Haitian Revolution.

Encountering Revolution convincingly situates the formation of the United States in a broader Atlantic context. It shows how the very presence of Saint-Dominguan refugees stirred in Americans as many questions about themselves as about the future of slaveholding, stimulating some of the earliest debates about nationalism in the early republic.

Hannibal Travis’ Genocide in the Middle East (Carolina Academic Press, $70) describes the genocide of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; of the Kurds and other persons living under Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq in the late 1980s; and of the Dinka, Nuba, Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa peoples of Sudan from the 1970s to the present. The field of genocide studies has grown rapidly in recent years, fueled by interest in the Armenian genocide, the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq, and the widespread massacres in southern Sudan and Darfur. While several comparative studies of the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and other genocides have been published, none of them focuses on genocide in the Middle East and North Africa since the nineteenth century. This book provides a comprehensive history of genocide in the broader Islamic world, with a particular focus on the twentieth century. It is of interest to general readers, undergraduates, graduate students, academics, journalists, and legal professionals, and will be useful as a text for courses on International Law, International Criminal Law, Law and Religion, Middle East Studies, International Relations, Public Policy, Criminal Justice, or World History. Presented in collaboration with School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. 6pm

One sunny morning in 1969, near the end of her first trip to Miami,
twenty-six-year-old Frances Ellerby finds herself in a place called
Stiltsville, a community of houses built on pilings in the middle of
Biscayne Bay.

It's the first time the Atlanta native has been out on the open
water, and she's captivated. On the dock of a stilt house, with the
dazzling skyline in the distance and the unknowable ocean beneath her,
she meets the house's owner, Dennis DuVal—and a new future reveals
itself.

Turning away from her quiet, predictable life back home, Frances
moves to Miami to be with Dennis. Over time, she earns the confidence of
his wild-at-heart sister and wins the approval of his oldest friend.
Frances and Dennis marry and have a child—but rather than growing
complacent about their good fortune, they continue to face the
challenges of intimacy and the complicated city they call home.

Stiltsville is the family's island oasis—until suddenly it's gone,
and Frances is forced to figure out how to make her family work on dry
land. Against a backdrop of lush tropical beauty, Frances and Dennis
struggle with the mutability of love and Florida's weather, as well as
temptation, chaos, and disappointment. But just when Frances thinks
she's reached some semblance of higher ground, she must confront an
obstacle so great that even the lessons she's learned about navigating
the uncharted waters of family life can't keep them afloat.

With Stiltsville (Harper, $24.99), Susanna Daniel weaves the beauty, violence,
and humanity of Miami's coming-of-age with an enduring story of a
marriage's beginning, maturity, and heartbreaking demise

The acclaimed author of Remainder, which Zadie Smith hailed as “one of the great English novels of the past ten years,”gives us his most spectacularly inventive novel yet.

Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C (Knopf, $26.95) is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.

After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, Serge serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, Serge is taken to a German prison camp, from which he escapes. Back in London, he’s recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain. All of which eventually carries Serge to a fitful—and perhaps fateful—climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb . . .

Only a writer like Tom McCarthy could pull off a story with this effortless historical breadth, psychological insight, and postmodern originality. He is known in the art world for the reports, manifestos, and media interventions he has made as General Secretary of the International Necronautical Society (INS), a semi-fictitious avant-garde network. His previous books are Remainder and Tintin and the Secret of Literature.

In 1962, eleven-year-old Eduardo Neyra fled Cuba without his parents as part of the clandestine Operation Pedro Pan, an underground network that helped airlift over 14,000 Cuban children to safety in the United States. Suddenly a foreigner thrust into a new world and faced with new customs and a new language, it would be years before Ed saw his mother and father again. Cuba Lost and Found (Clerisy Press, $24) is a moving and insightful true-life narrative capturing the political and cultural upheaval before and after Castro’s Revolution, from Ed’s carefree early years on the white sand of Varadero Beach, through his struggles to find a place in his new country, to his hard-won achievement of the American Dream. At the heart of this life is a powerful Horatio Alger story but also a soul-seeking journey of personal identity.

When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. In Nicholas Spark's Safe Haven (Grand Central Publishing , $25.99) a beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

More information to come.

With Come to Win, Venus Williams, the multiple Grand Slam
tennis champion and entrepreneur, along with an esteemed group of
business leaders, politicians, and acclaimed artists, serves up a book
of wisdom that shows how to turn a competitive spirit and athletic
background into success off the playing field.

Combining talent, drive, and hard work, Venus Williams has mastered
the game of tennis. How will that drive serve her off the court in her
post-tennis career? For inspiration, Venus turned to nearly fifty
business leaders, politicians, doctors, and artists, all of whom
previously played competitive sports and who are now at the top of their
professions, and asked them the essential questions: What principles
that inspired you toward success as an athlete are helpful in life? In
business?

Here an A-list group of visionaries, including eBay's former CEO Meg
Whitman, Nike's co-founder Philip Knight, stateswoman Condoleezza Rice, entrepreneur and former NBA player Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and designer Vera Wang, respond with a useful array of tips woven through anecdotes from their athletic past that have been instrumental in their
post–sports life success. Whether it's visualizing a course of action
before it happens, turning losses into learning tools, figuring out who
best plays what position in a team environment, or remembering that
there is no substitute for preparation, the advice in Come to Win
is knowledge every manager and aspiring professional will want to read.
It's also an indispensable tool for parents and coaches looking to
build confidence and discipline in their children.

Venus also reflects on what she has learned from her own coaches,
including her father and mother, and how their wisdom contributes to her
own remarkable achievements, from her history-making tennis career to
the launch of her own businesses—V-Starr Interiors, an interior design
firm, and EleVen, an athletic clothing line.

You must purchase a copy of Come to Win from Books & Books to enter the signing line. Venus will only sign her book COME TO WIN, not memorabilia. There is no limit on the number of books that she will sign. Venus will sign her name but will not have time to personalize. She will not pose for pictures, but pictures can be taken from the line. Thanks for your cooperation. 

One sunny morning in 1969, near the end of her first trip to Miami,
twenty-six-year-old Frances Ellerby finds herself in a place called
Stiltsville, a community of houses built on pilings in the middle of
Biscayne Bay.

It's the first time the Atlanta native has been out on the open
water, and she's captivated. On the dock of a stilt house, with the
dazzling skyline in the distance and the unknowable ocean beneath her,
she meets the house's owner, Dennis DuVal—and a new future reveals
itself.

Turning away from her quiet, predictable life back home, Frances
moves to Miami to be with Dennis. Over time, she earns the confidence of
his wild-at-heart sister and wins the approval of his oldest friend.
Frances and Dennis marry and have a child—but rather than growing
complacent about their good fortune, they continue to face the
challenges of intimacy and the complicated city they call home.

Stiltsville is the family's island oasis—until suddenly it's gone,
and Frances is forced to figure out how to make her family work on dry
land. Against a backdrop of lush tropical beauty, Frances and Dennis
struggle with the mutability of love and Florida's weather, as well as
temptation, chaos, and disappointment. But just when Frances thinks
she's reached some semblance of higher ground, she must confront an
obstacle so great that even the lessons she's learned about navigating
the uncharted waters of family life can't keep them afloat.

With Stiltsville (Harper, $24.99), Susanna Daniel weaves the beauty, violence,
and humanity of Miami's coming-of-age with an enduring story of a
marriage's beginning, maturity, and heartbreaking demise

What would you do if the love of your life, and all your memories, were lost- only to reappear, but with such shocking revelations that you wish you had never remembered...

Emmett Conn is an old man, near the end of his life. A World War I veteran, he's been affected by memory loss since being injured during the war. To those around him, he's simply a confused man, fading in and out of senility. But what they don't know is that Emmett has been beset by memories, of events he and others have denied or purposely forgotten.

In Emmett's dreams he's a gendarme, escorting Armenians from Turkey. A young woman among them, Araxie, captivates and enthralls him. But then the trek ends, the war separates them. He is injured. Seven decades later, as his grasp on the boundaries between past and present begins to break down, Emmett sets out on a final journey, to find Araxie and beg her forgiveness.

Mark Mustian has written a remarkable novel about the power of memory-and the ability of people, individually and collectively, to forget. Depicting how love can transcend nationalities, politics, and religion, how racism creates divisions where none truly exist, and how the human spirit fights to survive even in the face of hopelessness, The Gendarme (Putnam, $25.95) is a transcendent novel.

THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD: TWELFTH GRADE KILLS by Heather Brewer (Dutton, $16.99) is the blood-chilling final book in the New York Times bestselling series about an unpopular teenage vampire. Inspired by Heather Brewer’s own high school experiences, THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD series is a darkly humorous take on the daily perils of high school for an outsider. With spot-on dialogue and a snarky sense of humor, this acclaimed series is perfect for reluctant boy readers.

As a teenage vampire, Vladimir Tod has spent the last four years trying to handle the pressures of high school while sidestepping a slayer out for his blood. Now he’s a senior, and it looks like things have gotten even suckier. The Elysian Council has given him weeks to live, and that’s if the Slayer Society doesn’t kill him – along with all the citizens of Bathory – first.  Then there’s the issue of Vlad’s father, who may or may not still be alive after all these years, and oh yeah, that tiny little detail in the Pravus prophecy about Vlad enslaving Vampirekind and the human race.  So much for college applications!

In this epic finale to Heather Brewer’s game-changing series THE CHRONICLES OF VLADIMIR TOD dark secrets will be revealed, old friends will become enemies, and warm blood will run cold.  High school bites, but it doesn’t last forever. 

Heather Brewer was not your typical teen growing up, and she’s certainly not your typical adult now. She believes that teens are the answer to the world’s problems, that spiderwebs are things of beauty, and that every occasion calls for black nail polish. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children. 

In Patricia Engel's Vida (Grove Press, Black Cat, $14.00) Sabina navigates her shifting identity as a daughter of the Colombian diaspora and struggles to find her place within and beyond the net of her strong, protective, but embattled family.

“Between the pop culture and politics of our time, we have become accustomed to language that does not clarify, but clouds. This is why Patricia Engel’s work, with its taut focus, its pained illumination, is so important. In Vida, as much as we come to know her narrator, Sabina, we come to know more fully the inside of our own hearts.”—Asha Bandele, author of The Prisoner’s Wife

No one has done more to introduce the world to the authentic, flavorful cuisines of Mexico than Diana Kennedy. Acclaimed as the Julia Child of Mexican cooking, Kennedy has been an intrepid, indefatigable student of Mexican foodways for more than fifty years and has published several classic books on the subject, including The Cuisines of Mexico (now available in The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, a compilation of her first three books), The Art of Mexican Cooking, My Mexico, and From My Mexican Kitchen. Her uncompromising insistence on using the proper local ingredients and preparation techniques has taught generations of cooks how to prepare--and savor--the delicious, subtle, and varied tastes of Mexico.

In Oaxaca al Gusto, Kennedy takes us on an amazing journey into one of the most outstanding and colorful cuisines in the world. The state of Oaxaca is one of the most diverse in Mexico, with many different cultural and linguistic groups, often living in areas difficult to access. Each group has its own distinctive cuisine, and Diana Kennedy has spent many years traveling the length and breadth of Oaxaca to record in words and photographs "these little-known foods, both wild and cultivated, the way they were prepared, and the part they play in the daily or festive life of the communities I visited." Oaxaca al Gusto is the fruit of these labors--and the culmination of Diana Kennedy's life's work.

Organized by regions, Oaxaca al Gusto presents some three hundred recipes--most from home cooks--for traditional Oaxacan dishes. Kennedy accompanies each recipe with fascinating notes about the ingredients, cooking techniques, and the food's place in family and communal life. Lovely color photographs illustrate the food and its preparation. A special feature of the book is a chapter devoted to the three pillars of the Oaxacan regional cuisines--chocolate, corn, and chiles. Notes to the cook, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index complete the volume.

An irreplaceable record of the infinite world of Oaxacan gastronomy, Oaxaca al Gusto belongs on the shelf of everyone who treasures the world's traditional regional cuisines.

HEADS: A Neurosurgeon's Memoir tells the story of several rather spectacular years in the life of world-class neurosurgeon, Bernard R. Lerner, M.D. An iconoclast to the core, a product of a liberal generation, Doctor Lerner’s surgical skills are in full bloom when his carefully constructed world crashes around him in the decade of decadence, the 1980s.
    His humanitarian pursuits and a confrontational streak, with less competent and caring surgeons, create a poisonous envy in colleagues, which is exasperated in the political climate at Northwestern University Hospital. Complicating matters, a renegade Federal agent is hot on his trail. Encouraged by the FBI, Doctor Lerner becomes involved in an undercover sting. Accustomed to intense pressure, the good doctor chooses to continue “cutting”, obsessed as he is with saving lives. Ignoring the chaos around him, he is indicted on suspicious drug felony charges. The trial that follows is a farce and he’s sentenced to three and a half years in a Federal Prison Camp.
    Running the scales, from the top of his game to the depths of despair, it becomes increasingly difficult to control his de-famed career as he traverses the spectrum of emotion and geography in a roguish manner, mitigated only by the presence of his female counter- part, doncha. This aspect of the story unfolds an atypical and passionate love story.
    As the tale progresses we get an in depth look at the daily life of those inside the federal prison system, housing white-collar felons, Club Feds. At this particular institution, .the meat of the memoir, we witness a further twist - Doctor Lerner’s fellow inmates become his intimate friends and patients, revealing their colorful, albeit socially unacceptable, stories.           
     After more than a year of incarceration, what Doctor Lerner thought all along is proven true - he shouldn’t be there, it was all a mistake. The discovery of an “error” in his legal papers releases him from an illegitimate prison term.
    It is true that the Doctor has been stripped of his hard earned medical vocation; a monumental injustice to be sure, but through it all he was a man of substance and a healer to the core.  

Miami Architecture grew out of the Miami Architecture Project, a community-based, nonprofit association that organized more than a dozen local forums to develop deeper appreciation of architecture and the role of architecture in community revitalization.

Ideal for residents, professionals, vacationers, and day-trippers, this authoritative guidebook provides a broad, accessible architectural overview of the notable buildings that can be found in the core of downtown Miami, Miami Beach, and Coconut Grove.

Randall C. Robinson Jr. is former executive director of the North Beach Development Council and coauthor of MiMo: Miami Modern Revealed. He works for the City of Fort Lauderdale Planning & Zoning Department. Allan T. Shulman is founding principal of Shulman + Associates and assistant professor of architecture at the University of Miami. He is editor and co-author of Miami Modern Metropolis: Paradise and Paradox in Midcentury Architecture and Planning. James F. Donnelly is chair of the City of Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board and a contributor to Tourist Nation. 

Carolina Garcia-Aguilera is a unique figure in the mystery-writing world.  In addition to being an award-winning author, Garcia-Aguilera has taken on the roles of private investigator, historical researcher, wife and mother, and invested each with her own indomitable spirit and infectious enthusiasm. She is the Cuban-born author of the popular Lupe Solano Series (three murders per book or your money back), featuring Lupe Solano, a wealthy, sultry and quick-witted Cuban-American private investigator who lives and works in Miami. Now, Garcia-Aguilera returns with BLOODY TWIST (Miramar Publishing,$12.95), her highly-anticipated new book in the series, the first since Bitter Sugar was published in 2001.

Two years after having been shot in Bitter Sugar, fiery heroine Lupe Solano is back on the job. Tommy MacDonald, Miami’s premiere criminal defense attorney and Lupe Solano's sometime lover, needs help with a case involving his new client, the mysterious Madeline Marie Meadows. Twenty-two-year-old Ms. Meadows is Miami’s highest paid call girl (her rate: $5,000 per hour). She is expensive, for sure, especially in light of the fact that she is a virgin. Although Ms. Meadows has not been charged with any crime, she hires MacDonald. Ms. Meadows reports that she has been interviewed by Miami Homicide Detective Maxwell Anderson in relation to the murders of two men she knows well: Dr. Steinberg, the ob-gyn who verifies that she is a virgin, and Mr. Robinson, a wealthy developer who is her steady client. Although Tommy is drawn to Ms. Meadows, who is gorgeous, with a natural blond beauty not often seen in Miami’s plastic surgery happy town, he is skeptical of her story and asks Lupe to begin an investigation.
Lupe meets with Ms. Meadows at her office and has some serious doubts about her story. She instructs Leonardo, her cousin, who serves as her office manager, administrative assistant and spiritual advisor, to conduct a background check. Complicating matters is the fact that Detective Anderson, Lupe’s former lover, is the investigating officer on the case. The next morning, Detective Anderson informs her that another murder has been committed and that her client has been charged with three murders.  This time, the deceased is Ricardo Melendez, the client’s ex-fianceé.  
BLOODY TWIST draws readers into a fast-paced race against time with Lupe, as she finds herself conducting two investigations: figuring out who murdered three men; and discovering the "real" Madeline Marie Meadows. Along the way, Lupe has to contend with Ms. Meadow’s killer Chihuahuas, Napoleon and Josephine, as well as the Loredo twins, Ms. Meadows’ pimps and marketing geniuses who thought up the hook of labeling her as "Miami’s highest paid call girl who is a virgin."  Lupe enlists the help of her friend, Sweet Suzanne, the well-known Miami madam, and Nestor, the crack investigator, to achieve that goal.  
BLOODY TWIST's cast of colorful characters, exotic action and masterful story-telling is quintessential Garcia-Aguilera. It is an irresistible page-turner, teeming with unforgettable characters.  Her loyal readers may have waited many years for this book, but surely they will agree that it was well worth the wait.

More information to come...

Lip Service is true stories out loud.  Every Quarter Books & Books in Coral Gables hosts the most popular literary event in Miami.  Eight people, eight stories, eight minutes each. The stories are hilarious, heartbreaking, poignant, embarrassing, inspiring, and all true.

Lip Service lets you become a voyeur. It's like reading a person's diary, or better, having that person read his or her diary to you.  Lip Service is a mix of theater and literature.  The stories are editied and rehearsed, but you never really know what you're going to get until you get it. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll cringe. And you are guaranteed to feel inspired to tell your own story. Come early- It's standing room only!

In Jon and Pam Voelkel's Middle World (EgmontUSA, $8.99), fourteen-year-old Max Murphy is looking forward to a family vacation. But his parents, both archaeologists and Maya experts, announce a change in plan. They must leave immediately for a dig in the tiny Central American country of San Xavier. Max will go to summer camp. Max is furious. When he's mysteriously summoned to San Xavier, he thinks they've had a change of heart.

Upon his arrival, Max's wild adventure in the tropical rainforests of San Xavier begins. During his journey, he will unlock ancient secrets and meet strangers who are connected to him in ways he could never have imagined. For fate has delivered a challenge of epic proportions to this pampered teenager. Can Max rescue his parents from the Maya Underworld and save the world from the Lords of Death, who now control the power of the Jaguar Stones in their villainous hands? The scene is set for a roller-coaster ride of suspense and terror, as the good guys and the bad guys face off against a background of haunted temples, zombie armies, and even human sacrifice!

A startling, seductive literary novel that entwines suspense,
science fiction, adventure, romance and history into an intoxicating new
genre.

1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place
of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds
and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice.

But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qaartsiluni,
"the time when something is about to explode in the dark." Local
"poletics" are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city,
with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug
round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the
Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen
are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt.

Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city's most
prominent figures. But as the Gentlemen of the Night tighten the net
around him, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love
that compels him to act.

What transpires is a literary adventure novel unlike anything you've
ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose,
thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and
intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books set
in New Venice-and the launch of an astonishing new writer. Jean-Christophe Valtat Aurorarama (Melville House, $25.95).

An enraged man abducts his estranged wife and child, holes up in a secluded mountain cabin, threatening to kill them both. A right wing survivalist amasses a cache of weapons and resists calls to surrender. A drug trafficker barricades himself and his family in a railroad car, and begins shooting. A cult leader in Waco, Texas faces the FBI in an armed stand-off that leaves many dead in a fiery blaze. A sniper, claiming to be God, terrorizes the DC metropolitan area. For most of us, these are events we hear about on the news. For Gary Noesner, head of the FBI’s groundbreaking Crisis Negotiation Unit, it was just another day on the job.

In Stalling for Time (Random House, $26.00), Noesner takes readers on a heart-pounding tour through many of the most famous hostage crises of the past thirty years. Specially trained in non-violent confrontation and communication techniques, Noesner’s unit successfully defused many potentially volatile standoffs, but perhaps their most hard-won victory was earning the recognition and respect of their law enforcement peers.

Noesner pursued his dream of joining the FBI all the way to Quantico, where he not only became a Special Agent, but also—in the course of a distinguished thirty-year career—the FBI’s Chief Negotiator. Gaining respect for the fledgling art of crisis negotiation in the hard-boiled culture of The Bureau, where the shadow of J. Edgar Hoover still loomed large, was an uphill battle, educating FBI and law enforcement leaders on the job at an incident, and advocating the use of  psychology rather than force whenever possible. Noesner’s many bloodless victories rarely garnered as much media attention as the notorious incident management blunders like the Branch Davidian disaster in Waco and the Ruby Ridge tragedy. 

Noesner offers a candid as well as fascinating look back at his years as a rebel in the ranks and a pioneer on the front lines. Whether vividly recounting showdowns with the radical Republic of Texas militia, the terrorist hijackers of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and self-styled messiah David Koresh, or clashes with colleagues and superiors that expose the internal politics and power-plays of America’s premier law enforcement agency, Stalling for Time crackles with breathtaking suspense and insight in equal measure. Case by case, minute by minute, it’s a behind the scenes view of a visionary crime-fighter in action.

Jennifer Fosberry visits with her book My Name is Not Isabella: Just How Big Can a Little Girl Dream?, a colorful story about little Isabella’s exploration of the
groundbreaking women who changed the world. Learn about strength and
science, history and honor, and the importance of being yourself through
the accomplishments of women such as Sally Ride, Annie Oakley, Rosa
Parks, Marie Curie, and Elizabeth Blackwell.

When author Rafael Cerrato decided to pay a short visit to the north of Israel in 2006, little did he suspect that it would give rise to a new book.
Passing through the city of Haifa, he was deeply impressed by the buildings and gardens of the Bahá’í World Centre, situated on the slopes of Mount Carmel.
Returning to Spain, the author – who is Roman Catholic and has written extensively about religion – started looking into the history and teachings of the Bahá’í Faith and was fascinated by what he found out.
During his research, Mr. Cerrato also became impressed by “the great faith and steadfastness” that the Bahá’í community of Iran shows in the face of opposition.
He decided to write a book charting the story of the Bahá’í Faith, with an emphasis on the severe oppression its members have experienced at the instigation of the authorities in Iran – the land of the Faith’s birth – since its inception in the middle of the 19th century.
The book, titled Desde el corazón de Irán - Los bahá’ís: La esperanza oprimida (From the Heart of Iran – The Bahá’ís: Oppressed Hope), has recently been published by Erasmus Ediciones. It is the first major work written in Spanish about the persecution of the Bahá’í community of Iran.
Born in Córdoba in 1951, Mr. Cerrato read economics in Malaga before devoting his energy to exploring what he describes as the “great truths not recorded in history but that are key to understanding our present.”
He is also passionate about traveling and immersing himself in the world’s diverse cultures. After carrying out numerous speaking engagements and book signings in Spain, he will be visiting the United States this September to speak about From the Heart of Iran at the prestigious Books and Books store in Miami, Florida.

On 30 January 1933, Alfred Hugenberg's conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) formed a coalition government with the Nazi Party, thus enabling Hitler to accede to the chancellorship. Hermann Beck's The Fateful Alliance (Berghahn Books, $34.44) analyzes in detail the complicated relationship between Conservatives and Nazis and offers a re-interpretation of the Nazi seizure of power - the decisive months between 30 January and 14 July 1933. The Machtergreifung is characterized here as a period of all-pervasive violence and lawlessness with incessant conflicts between Nazis and German Nationals and Nazi attacks on the conservative Burgertum, a far cry from the traditional depiction of the takeover as a relatively bloodless, virtually sterile assumption of power by one vast impersonal apparatus wresting control from another. The author scrutinizes the revolutionary character of the Nazi seizure of power, the Nazis' attacks on the conservative Burgertum and its values, and National Socialism's co-optation of conservative symbols of state power to serve radically new goals, while addressing the issue of why the DNVP was complicit in this and paradoxically participated in eroding the foundations of its very own principles and bases of support.  

A story that garnered national attention, this is the harrowing tale of two men who suffered abuses at a reform school in Florida in the 1950s and 60s, and who banded together fifty years later to confront their attackers.

Michael O’McCarthy and Robert W. Straley were teens when they were termed “incorrigible youth” by authorities and ordered to attend the Florida School for Boys. They discovered in Marianna, the “City of Southern Charm,” an immaculately groomed campus that looked more like an idyllic university than a reform school. But hidden behind the gates of the Florida School for Boys was a hell unlike any they could have imagined. The school’s guards and administrators acted as their jailers and tormentors. The boys allegedly bore witness to assault, rape, and possibly even murder.

For fifty years, both men---and countless others like them---carried their torment in silence. But a series of unlikely events brought O’McCarthy, now a successful rights activist, and Straley together, and they became determined to expose the Florida School for Boys for what they believed it to be: a youth prison with a century-long history of abuse. They embarked upon a campaign that would change their lives and inspire others.

Robin Gaby Fisher, a Pulitzer Prize--winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling After the Fire, collaborates with Straley and O’McCarthy to offer a riveting account of their harrowing ordeal. The Boys of the Dark goes beyond the story of the two men to expose the truth about a century-old institution and a town that adopted a Nuremberg-like code of secrecy and a government that failed to address its own wrongdoing. What emerges is a tale of strength, resolve, and vindication in the face of the kinds of terror few can imagine.

Heidi Durrow's debut novel The Girl who Fell From the Sky tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy.

With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and confronts her identity as a biracial young woman in a world that wants to see her as either black or white.

Meanwhile, a mystery unfolds, revealing the terrible truth about Rachel's last morning on a Chicago rooftop. Interwoven are the voices of Jamie, a neighborhood boy who witnessed the events, and Laronne, a friend of Rachel's mother. Inspired by a true story of a mother's twisted love, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky reveals an unfathomable past and explores issues of identity at a time when many people are asking "Must race confine us and define us?"

In the tradition of Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John,Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street, here is a portrait of a young girl—and society's ideas of race, class, and beauty.

For over three and a half decades, Ricardo Pau-Llosa has
been a prominent figure in the literary and visual arts of South
Florida.  An internationally recognized authority on Latin American
Modernist art, Pau-Llosa has attained equal prominence as a poet  and
essayist.  And he has also been collecting art.  The University of Notre
Dame’s Snite Museum of Art is featuring a major exhibition this fall:
Parallel Currents: Highlights of the Ricardo Pau-Llosa Collection of
Latin American Art (Aug. 29-Nov. 14).  Pau-Llosa will be signing copies
of the superbly designed and printed, full-color book accompanying the
exhibition which includes a penetrating essay, “Art and the Diasporic
Imagination” (published with facing-page translation into Spanish), in
which Pau-Llosa discusses the emergence of the Latin American art scene
in Miami, the role art played in his exile family’s struggles to
establish themselves in America,  and the development of his original
critical model for the interpretation of the region’s art.  Above all,
the catalogue and exhibition are a tribute to how art, ideas, and poetry
have coalesced in the life, home, and work of a celebrated poet.  Also
being presented this evening is the just released book, The Miami of the
Poet (Maker’s Press), with a selection of Pau-Llosa’s South
Florida-inspired works alongside photographs by James Gersing, first in a
series that will pair poets and photographers whose works capture the
spirit of different cities.

More information to come...

If you run into trouble in Santa Fe, Ed Eagle is the man to see.

In Stuart Woods' Santa Fe Edge (Putnam, $25.95), Ed Eagle, the six-feet-six, take-no-prisoners Santa Fe attorney, has recovered from his encounters with Mexican organized crime and-more treacherously-his ex-wife, Barbara. Now a mysterious new client has come his way, one who may shed light into some dark corners of Ed's past...and put him in danger once more.