On the wildly popular show Iron Chef America, Cat Cora uses her instincts to transform random ingredients into exciting creations on a moment's notice. In Cat Cora's Classics with a Twist (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30) , she turns her eye to some of our most popular dishes to make them faster, fresher, and lighter. These are the swift meals that Cat relies on when she comes home from work to cook for her own family: Greek-Style Nachos, Grilled Chili-Lime Flank Steak Soft Tacos, Crispy Baked Fish Stix with Mustard Dipping Sauce, Quick Chicken Curry with Peas, and Sour-Cherry-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes. In dishes like Baked "Fried" Calamari with Marinara Dipping Sauce and Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole, Cat puts a new spin on old favorites. She updates others, tossing chipotle-spiced croutons into a Caesar salad, or replacing the usual beef in stroganoff with chicken and adding fresh tarragon. Each recipe illustrates Cat's motto: Just because a dish is a classic, that doesn't mean it can't be improved upon.

Like Jeopardy! and Millionaire and Cash Cab all rolled into one – only way more fun – it’s Brain Quest Brain Fest! Join our quiz show with questions from the awesome Brain Quest series (Workman, $10.95 each) . Today’s contestants are kids in the 8-9 and 9-10 age groups. Prizes for the winners. Welcome Bal Harbour Beach Campers!

Like Jeopardy! and Millionaire and Cash Cab all rolled into one – only way more fun – it’s Brain Quest Brain Fest! Join our quiz show with questions from the awesome Brain Quest series (Workman, $10.95 each). Today’s contestants are kids in the 5-6 and 7-8 age groups. Prizes for the winners. Welcome City Trekker Summer Campers!

Brando Skyhorse's first novel gives voice to the Mexican-American community in Echo Park, California: “We slipped into this country like thieves, onto the land that once was ours.” With these words, spoken by an illegal Mexican day laborer, The Madonnas of Echo Park (Free Press, $23) takes us into the unseen world of Los Angeles, following the men and women who cook the meals, clean the homes, and struggle to lose their ethnic identity in the pursuit of the American dream. When a dozen or so girls and mothers gather on an Echo Park street corner to act out a scene from a Madonna music video, they find themselves caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. In the aftermath, Aurora Esperanza grows distant from her mother, Felicia, who as a housekeeper in the Hollywood Hills establishes a unique relationship with a detached housewife. Like the Academy Award–winning film Crash, The Madonnas of Echo Park follows the intersections of its characters and cultures in Los Angeles with an astonishing— and unforgettable—lyrical power.

Medium Raw (Ecco, $26.99) marks the return of the inimitable Anthony Bourdain, author of the blockbuster bestseller Kitchen Confidential and three-time Emmy Award-nominated host of Without Reservations on TV’s Travel Channel. Bourdain calls his book, “A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,” and he is at his entertaining best as he takes aim at some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, Alice Waters, the Top Chef winners and losers, and many more. If Hunter S. Thompson had written a book about the restaurant business, it could have been Medium Raw.

TICKETS are required for this event and are available at all Books & Books locations, while supplies last. Your purchase of Tony Bourdain’s Medium Raw ($26.99 + tax) entitles you to receive (1) one ticket for the event. You must purchase the book in order to receive your ticket: One book/one ticket. This will be a very popular event, so don’t delay. Tony is hot and so are the tickets! 7:30pm

Description

The Red Umbrella is the moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan—an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution.
 
In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her family is being watched.
 
As the revolution's impact becomes more oppressive, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States—on their own.
 
Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl?
 
The Red Umbrella is a moving story of country, culture, family, and the true meaning of home.

About the Author

Christina Diaz Gonzalez based this powerful novel on the experiences of her parents, and of the more than 14,000 other unaccompanied minors who came to the United States through Operation Pedro Pan. This mass exodus of children is a little-known and fascinating piece of history, and Gonzalez has created a story that brings that history vibrantly to life.
 
Gonzalez practiced law for several years before returning to her childhood passion for stories and writing. The Red Umbrella is her first novel.
 
Christina Diaz Gonzalez lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband and two sons. You can visit her on the Web at www.christinagonzalez.com

If we are what we eat, Americans are hot dogs. We ate them on the way to the moon and served them to the king of England. We name a Hot Dog- Eating Champ! Garnished with hilarious illustrations and amazing "foodie" facts, this kid-friendly, globespanning history of our favorite fast-food meal offers unique insight into America's multicultural heritage. From a hobo's franks-and-beans to astronaut food, there's more to the wiener--and what's for dinner--than you think. (Dutton Juvenile, $16.99) 

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner comes a fast-paced and astonishing scientific adventure story: has the long-sought secret of eternal youth at last been found? In recent years, the dream of eternal youth has started to look like more than just a dream. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy increased by more than thirty years—almost as much time as humans have gained in the whole span of human existence. Today a motley array of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs believe that another, bigger leap is at hand—that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. Is there genius or folly in the dreams of these charismatic but eccentric thinkers? In Long for This World (Ecco, $27.99), Weiner, a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter with a gift for making cutting-edge science understandable, takes the reader on a whirlwind intellectual quest to find out. A rollicking scientific adventure story in the grand manner of Oliver Sacks, Long for This World is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could...would we want to? 6pm

Join us for a walk down memory lane with Lucie Arnaz as she celebrates her father, Desi Arnaz’ extraordinary musical legacy and the major role he played in planting the first seeds of the Latin music explosion in this country. Tonight, Lucie will share stories of her extraordinary family and their impact on popular American culture.  She will also sign copies of her latest CD recording, Latin Roots. One can almost imagine the pride that Desi Arnaz would feel upon hearing this music. From the Other Side, he could be saying: “That’s my daughter! She’s amazing, hey” Yes, Mr. Arnaz. Lucie Arnaz is just that amazing. Latin Roots tells why. The Emmy Award-winning actress is the creator, producer and director of BABALU, a new musical tribute to her father, which premieres at the Adrienne Arsht Center, Knight Concert Hall on Thursday, July 8 and runs through Sunday, July 11. The show features Desi Arnaz’s greatest hits, including the hip-swiveling “Cuban Pete,” his signature conga “Babalu,” and the beloved theme from “I Love Lucy,” plus some of the greatest Latin and Broadway hits in this one-of-a-kind tribute to the most glamorous music of the ‘40s and ‘50s. SPECIAL for Books & Books: At the event tonight, you can enter a drawing to win a FREE pair of tickets to BABALU at the Adrienne Arsht Center. You must be present to win. 7pm

The invasion and occupation of Iraq wasn't just a tragic mistake. It was a crime.

From the planning of aggression in 2002 through years of hostile military occupation, the United States systematically violated the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions and virtually every principle of international law and order.

America's crimes against the people of Iraq were shielded from public scrutiny by what senior U.S. military officers called the "quiet, disguised, media-free approach" developed in Central America in the 1980s. The echo chamber of the Western corporate media fleshed out the Pentagon's propaganda to create a virtual Iraq in the minds of the public, feeding a political discourse that bore no relation to the real war it was waging, the country it was destroying or the lives of its inhabitants.

In an easily readable and flowing narrative, Nicolas Davies has carefully taken apart the wall of propaganda surrounding one of history's most significant military disasters and most serious international crimes: non-existent WMDs; the equally fictitious "centuries-old sectarian blood feud" in Iraq; and the secrecy of the dirty war waged by American-led death squads. Unlike other writers, Davies has firmly placed each aspect of the war within a coherent context of illegal aggression, hostile military occupation and popular resistance, to uncover the brutal reality of a war that has probably killed at least a million people.

"A clear, intelligent and accurate description of how we are involved in aggression in Iraq. Congratulations!" - Benjamin B. Ferencz, former Chief Prosecutor, U.S. War Crimes Tribunal, Nuremberg.

"If the Iraq occupation lasts another 50 years, it's doubtful a better account of it will be produced than this one." - David Swanson, Author of Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.

I Don’t Kiss (White Lake Press, $14.95) tells the story of a theatre performer’s first and very early romance with a World War II veteran. His theatre career spirals upwards to a surprising resolution. This is a romantic yet real story.

As far as Warren Richey knew, his life was on course. A reporter with a beautiful wife and talented son, Richey couldn't imagine how it could be any better....Then his marriage falls apart and he can't imagine how it could be any worse. The divorce leaves Richey questioning everything, while struggling to find a way forward. To get his bearings, he enters the first Ultimate Florida Challenge, an all-out twelve-hundred-mile kayak race around Florida. The UFC is less of a race than it is a dare or a threat. The thirty-day deadline sets a grueling, twenty-four-hour-a-day pace through shark-, alligator-, and even python-infested waters. But those twelve hundred miles are only a fraction of a journey that pulls Richey back to when he was embedded with troops in Iraq, reporting on missing children, and hiking the mountains of Montana with his son, and shows him where he went wrong, where he went right, and how to do it better the second time around. Warren Richey's memoir Without a Paddle is a remarkable physical and emotional journey that cuts to the heart of what it means to be a man, a husband, and a father. (St. Martin's Press, $24.99)

More information to come...

The inside story of Facebook, told with the full, exclusive cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg and the company's other leaders. (Simon & Schuster, $26)

Because of a health concern, Alan Furst has been forced to postpone his event until Friday, July 23, 6pm at our Westhampton Beach store. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to seeing you on July 23. 

Declared “an incomparable expert at his game” by The New York Times, Alan Furst outdoes even his own finest novels in this thrilling new book, Spies of the Balkans (Random House, $26). With extraordinary authenticity, a superb cast of characters, and heart-stopping tension as it moves from Salonika to Paris to Berlin and back, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to right—in many small ways—the world’s evil. In the ancient port of Salonika, Greece, in 1940, the invasion is coming, it’s only a matter of time, and the people of Salonika can only watch and wait. At the center of this drama is Costa Zannis, a senior police official, head of an office that handles special “political” cases. As war approaches, the spies begin to circle, from the Turkish legation to the German secret service. And Zannis is soon in the game, securing an escape route—from Berlin to Salonika, and then to a tenuous safety in Turkey, a route protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters. And hunted by the Gestapo. Meanwhile, as war threatens, the erotic life of the city grows passionate. For Zannis, that means a British expatriate who owns the local ballet academy, a woman from the dark side of Salonika society, and the wife of a local shipping magnate.

 A family emergency will prevent Ms. Andrews from visiting on Sunday, May 23, as had been planned originially. Instead, the event has been rescheduled to Sunday, July 11, 2pm. If you purchased tickets for the May 23 event, your tickets are all still valid for the autographing.  We are still planning to distribute the books at the July 11 event. Please let us know if you have any questions. We are currently sold out of tickets for this event.

This event is an autographing only. TICKETS are required for this event and are available at all Books & Books locations, while supplies last. Your purchase of The Very Fairy Princess ($16.99 + tax) entitles you to receive one (1) ticket for the autographing line. Your book may be redeemed at the event and you must show your ticket and attached receipt in order to enter the signing line. This is an autographing only and only copies of The Very Fairy Princess will be signed. Ms. Andrews will not be able to personalize or sign memorabilia. Photos and video will not be permitted, so please leave your cameras at home.

Julie Andrews Edwards is one of the most recognized and beloved figures in the entertainment industry. Her legendary career encompasses the Broadway and London stages, blockbuster Hollywood films, award-winning television shows, multiple album releases and concert tours and the world of children's publishing.

Andrews' dedication to children has been steadfast throughout her career. She began writing books for young readers over thirty-five years ago and her first two novels - Mandy and The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles - remain in print and in high demand. Her other books include the Little Bo series, and an additional 15 picture books, novels and Early Readers co-authored with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, including the best-selling Dumpy the Dump Truck series, Simeon’s Gift, Dragon: Hound of Honor, The Great American Musical and Thanks to You: Wisdom from Mother and Child.

Together the best-selling mother-daughter team head-up "The Julie Andrews Collection" publishing program, formerly with HarperCollins Publishers and now with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, dedicated to publishing "quality children's books which nurture the imagination and cultivate a sense of wonder."

The main character in their newest collaboration, The Very Fairy Princess, is Geraldine. While her friends and family may not believe in fairies, Geraldine knows, deep down, that she is a VERY fairy princess. From morning to night, Gerry does everything that fairy princesses do: she dresses in her royal attire, practices her flying skills, and she is always on the lookout for problems to solve. But it isn't all twirls and tiaras - as every fairy princess knows, dirty fingernails and scabby knees are just the price you pay for a perfect day!

This new picture book features the joyful illustrations of Christine Davenier, and is sure to inspire that sparkly feeling within the hearts of readers young and old.

Unfortunately, our rescheduled event with Jennifer Lopez for Monday, July 12, has now been cancelled. The event will not be rescheduled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have already purchased a ticket for the signing, you can redeem it for a copy of Amigas #1: Fifteen Candles with Jennifer Lopez’s autograph at our Coral Gables bookstore beginning next week. Or you can receive a store credit or a refund at any of our South Florida stores when you show your ticket and receipt.

Author Todd Kliman sets out on an epic quest to unravel the mystery behind Norton, a grape used to make a Missouri wine that claimed a prestigious gold medal at an international exhibition in Vienna in 1873. At a time when the vineyards of France were being ravaged by phylloxera, this grape seemed to promise a bright future for a truly American brand of wine-making, earthy and wild. And then Norton all but vanished. What happened? The narrative begins more than a hundred years before California wines were thought to have put America on the map as a wine-making nation and weaves together the lives of a fascinating cast of renegades.

We encounter the suicidal Dr. Daniel Norton, tinkering in his experimental garden in 1820s Richmond, Virginia. Half on purpose and half by chance, he creates a hybrid grape that can withstand the harsh New World climate and produce good, drinkable wine, thus succeeding where so many others had failed so fantastically before, from the Jamestown colonists to Thomas Jefferson himself. Thanks to an influential Long Island, New York, seed catalog, the grape moves west, where it is picked up in Missouri by German immigrants who craft the historic 1873 bottling. Prohibition sees these vineyards burned to the ground by government order, but bootleggers keep the grape alive in hidden backwoods plots. Generations later, retired Air Force pilot Dennis Horton, who grew up playing in the abandoned wine caves of the very winery that produced the 1873 Norton, brings cuttings of the grape back home to Virginia. Here, dot-com-millionaire-turned-vintner Jenni McCloud, on an improbable journey of her own, becomes Norton’s ultimate champion, deciding, against all odds, to stake her entire reputation on the outsider grape. Brilliant and provocative, The Wild Vine (Clarkson Potter, $25) shares with readers a great American secret, resuscitating the Norton grape and its elusive, inky drink and forever changing the way we look at wine, America, and long-cherished notions of identity and reinvention.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner comes a fast-paced and astonishing scientific adventure story: has the long-sought secret of eternal youth at last been found? In recent years, the dream of eternal youth has started to look like more than just a dream. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy increased by more than thirty years—almost as much time as humans have gained in the whole span of human existence. Today a motley array of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs believe that another, bigger leap is at hand—that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. Is there genius or folly in the dreams of these charismatic but eccentric thinkers? In Long for This World (Ecco, $27.99), Jonathan Weiner, a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter with a gift for making cutting-edge science understandable, takes the reader on a whirlwind intellectual quest to find out.

From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's tomb in Ravenna, Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the mind-blowing science behind the latest research. He traces the centuries-old, fascinating history of the quest for longevity in art, science, and literature, from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare, Doctor Faustus to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." And he tells the dramatic story of how aging could be conquered once and for all, focusing on the ideas of those who believe aging is a curable disease. Chief among them is the extraordinary Aubrey de Grey, a garrulous Englishman who bears more than a passing resemblance to Methuselah (at 969 years, the oldest man in the Bible) and who is perhaps immortality's most radical and engaging true believer. A rollicking scientific adventure story in the grand manner of Oliver Sacks, Long for This World is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could...would we want to?

Always on the cutting edge, Juan Montoya's work exudes refinement and simplicity. Each of his designs features an exquisite juxtaposition of textures, colors, and volumes; an attention to scale, lighting, and spatial qualities; and objects that reflect an interest in a variety of cultures. In addition to creating beautiful, eclectic rooms, these underlying principles have strongly influenced contemporary design. 
 
A truly original thinker, Montoya is not wedded to a particular style or period. With a background in architecture, he has developed a remarkable understanding of space and how best to fill it; he believes the careful placement of objects can, and should, enhance a room's space and scale. 
 
This oversized volume features twenty-five recent projects, all illustrated with striking color photographs. Sumptuous interiors range from a yacht to apartments and houses in New York, Florida, Connecticut, and Paris to showhouses and commercial interiors.

Author Todd Kliman sets out on an epic quest to unravel the mystery behind Norton, a grape used to make a Missouri wine that claimed a prestigious gold medal at an international exhibition in Vienna in 1873. At a time when the vineyards of France were being ravaged by phylloxera, this grape seemed to promise a bright future for a truly American brand of wine-making, earthy and wild. And then Norton all but vanished. What happened? The narrative begins more than a hundred years before California wines were thought to have put America on the map as a wine-making nation and weaves together the lives of a fascinating cast of renegades.

We encounter the suicidal Dr. Daniel Norton, tinkering in his experimental garden in 1820s Richmond, Virginia. Half on purpose and half by chance, he creates a hybrid grape that can withstand the harsh New World climate and produce good, drinkable wine, thus succeeding where so many others had failed so fantastically before, from the Jamestown colonists to Thomas Jefferson himself. Thanks to an influential Long Island, New York, seed catalog, the grape moves west, where it is picked up in Missouri by German immigrants who craft the historic 1873 bottling. Prohibition sees these vineyards burned to the ground by government order, but bootleggers keep the grape alive in hidden backwoods plots. Generations later, retired Air Force pilot Dennis Horton, who grew up playing in the abandoned wine caves of the very winery that produced the 1873 Norton, brings cuttings of the grape back home to Virginia. Here, dot-com-millionaire-turned-vintner Jenni McCloud, on an improbable journey of her own, becomes Norton’s ultimate champion, deciding, against all odds, to stake her entire reputation on the outsider grape. Brilliant and provocative, The Wild Vine (Clarkson Potter, $25) shares with readers a great American secret, resuscitating the Norton grape and its elusive, inky drink and forever changing the way we look at wine, America, and long-cherished notions of identity and reinvention.

Does baseball boggle your mind? Is football completely confusing? She’s Got Game: The Woman’s Guide to Loving Sports (or Just How to Fake It) (St. Martin’s Press, $14.99) is the perfect resource for women who have it all together but just don’t understand the rules—when it comes to professional and college sports, that is. You’re the kind of woman who can adapt to every situation. You know just what to wear and what to say. Nothing flusters you--except going to a game. Sporting events raise so many questions. What is March Madness all about? What on earth is a pop fly? If they just had the fourth down, then why is it the first down now and not the fifth? What’s a down anyway? What do I wear? Will I wipe out if I wear heels? Should I wear makeup? And how do you say that player’s name? Don’t you wish you had a smart girlfriend who could explain it all without making you feel like an idiot? Now you do. Melissa Malamut brings a lifelong love of sports, a girly-girl’s sensibility, and insight from fashion editors, friends and her own experiences to She’s Got Game. In this incredibly well-researched and engaging book, Melissa gives you everything you need to feel at ease and fall in love with sports.

Dubbed "the hostess with the mostest" by Zagats, Donatella Arpaia is a ubiquitous and striking presence on the national food scene. Literally raised in the business, she knows precisely what makes a guest feel welcome, whether in one of her wildly popular restaurants or one-on-one in her home. Yet every day she meets would-be home cooks—sophisticated, confident, successful women with discriminating palates—whose confidence evaporates at the kitchen door. For these discerning diners, Donatella has written Donatella Cooks (Rodale, $32.50), a sassy, spirited guide to cooking and entertaining with flair. Writing with humor, wit, and practicality, she covers every element of a great evening, from super simple yet delectable food to the perfect music, drinks, and décor. Her foolproof recipes are brimming with bold flavor yet so easy to prepare even novice cooks can pull them off without breaking a sweat. Whether it's a romantic dinner for two or a cocktail gala for dozens,Donatella Cooks has the winning formula for the perfect evening. 8pm

“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.” With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in Rogues' Gallery (Broadway, $16.99). In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park (Broadway, $16.95), Gross pulls back the shades of secrecy that have long shrouded the upper class’s cultural and philanthropic ambitions and maneuvers. And he paints a revealing portrait of a previously hidden face of American wealth and power.

740 Park: The last great building to go up along New York’s Gold Coast, construction on 740 Park finished in 1930. Since then, 740 has been home to an ever-evolving cadre of our wealthiest and most powerful families, some of America’s (and the world’s) oldest money—the kind attached to names like Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Bouvier, Chrysler, Niarchos, Houghton, and Harkness—and some whose names evoke the excesses of today’s monied elite: Kravis, Koch, Bronfman, Perelman, Steinberg, and Schwarzman. All along, the building has housed titans of industry, political power brokers, international royalty, fabulous scam-artists, and even the lowest scoundrels.

Indigo: I never asked to be famous--or infamous. Such is my fate for briefly dating (and dumping) Adam Spade. Yes, the Adam from the indie rock band who wrote "Indigo Blues"--the song that gave the band overnight success, propelled them to New York City, and stole my precious anonymity. Now I'm pawed by fans, stalked by reporters, and pegged as a vicious heartbreaker. And Adam is still calling me. Doesn't he have better things to do?

Adam: With a hit single and a promising career, I should be on top of the world. People on the street are beginning to recognize me, which is cool. And scary. The band is counting on me to write another hit, but I can't stop thinking about Indigo. Why won't she answer the phone? (Flux, $9.95) 

More information to come...

Please note: This event is an autographing only. You must purchase a copy of uncharted terriTORI at Books & Books in order to join the signing line. Ms. Spelling will be happy to personalize and photos will be allowed in passing. No posed photograghs.

Welcome to Los Angeles, birthplace and residence of Tori Spelling.

It's not every Hollywood starlet whose name greets you on a Virgin Airways flight into la-la land. But Tori Spelling has come to accept that her life is a spectacle. Her name is her brand, and business is booming. Too bad when your job is to be yourself, you can't exactly take a break.

Tori finally has everything she thought she wanted—a loving family and a successful career—but trying to live a normal life in Hollywood is a little weird. With the irresistible wit, attitude, and humor that fans have come to love, the New York Times bestselling author of sTORI telling and Mommywood is back with more hilarious, heartwarming, and candid stories of juggling work, marriage, motherhood, and reality television cameras.

Tori comes clean about doing her time on jury duty, stalking herself on Twitter, discovering her former 90210 castmates' "I Hate Tori" club, contracting swine flu, and contacting Farrah Fawcett from the dead. Like many mothers, she struggles to find balance (Stars, they're just like us!)—only most women don't have to battle it out with paparazzi at the grocery store. She talks openly about the darker side of life in the spotlight: media scrutiny over her weight and her marriage to Dean McDermott, her controversial relationship with Dean's ex-wife, and her unfolding reconciliation with her mother.

Having it all isn't always easy—especially when you're a perfectionist—but with the help of her unconventional family and friends, an underwear-clad spiritual cleansing or two, and faith in herself, she's learning to find her happy ending. Because when you're Tori Spelling, every day brings uncharted terriTORI.

More information to come...

Call her superficial, but Susie B. Anthony Rabinowitz Gersten assumed her marriage was great -- and why not? Jonah Gersten, M.D., a Park Avenue plastic surgeon, clearly adored her. He was handsome, successful, and a doting dad to their four-year-old triplets Dashiell, Evan, and Mason. But when Jonah is found in the Upper East Side apartment of second-rate "escort" Dorinda Dillon, Susie is overwhelmed with questions left unanswered. It's bad enough to know your husband's been murdered, but even worse when you're universally pitied (and quietly mocked) because of the sleaze factor. None of it makes sense to Susie -- not a sexual liaison with someone like Dorinda, not the "better not to discuss it" response from Jonah's partners. With help from her toughtalking, high-style Grandma Ethel who flies in from Miami, she takes on her snooty in-laws, her husband's partners, the NYPD, and the DA (is the person arrested for the homicide the actual perp, or just an easy mark for a prosecutor who hates the word "unsolved"?), as she tries to prove that her wonderful life with Jonah was no lie. Susan Isaacs brilliantly turns the conventions of the mystery on end as Susie Gersten, suburban mom, floral designer, and fashion plate, searches not so much for answers to her husband's death as for answers to her own life. (Scribner, $25)

Declared “an incomparable expert at his game” by The New York Times, Alan Furst outdoes even his own finest novels in this thrilling new book, Spies of the Balkans (Random House, $26). With extraordinary authenticity, a superb cast of characters, and heart-stopping tension as it moves from Salonika to Paris to Berlin and back, Spies of the Balkans is a stunning novel about a man who risks everything to right—in many small ways—the world’s evil. In the ancient port of Salonika, Greece, in 1940, the invasion is coming, it’s only a matter of time, and the people of Salonika can only watch and wait. At the center of this drama is Costa Zannis, a senior police official, head of an office that handles special “political” cases. As war approaches, the spies begin to circle, from the Turkish legation to the German secret service. And Zannis is soon in the game, securing an escape route—from Berlin to Salonika, and then to a tenuous safety in Turkey, a route protected by German lawyers, Balkan detectives, and Hungarian gangsters. And hunted by the Gestapo. Meanwhile, as war threatens, the erotic life of the city grows passionate. For Zannis, that means a British expatriate who owns the local ballet academy, a woman from the dark side of Salonika society, and the wife of a local shipping magnate.

Emma Caldridge is on mile thirty-six of the fifty-five-mile Comrades ultramarathon in South Africa when a roadside car bomb explodes. Dazed and disoriented, she regains consciousness after the blast to find a man standing over her with a white plastic injector. She feels the prick of a needle and the rush of medication under her skin, but before she can make a sound, the man is gone. Shaken by the event and unsure of what substance was pumped into her, Emma calls the one person who can help her figure things out: Edward Banner of the security company Darkview. But Banner has his hands full with another emergency: Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden have attacked a cruise ship, and Darkview has been hired to assist with the rescue. However, according to intelligence sources, the ship is carrying cargo far more valuable than wealthy passengers—something that could be a new weapon of unknown origin. Suspecting the weapon may be chemical in nature, Banner asks Emma to infiltrate the ship and use her professional expertise to identify it. Emma knows it's a risky job, one that she might not survive. But when she learns that special agent Cameron Sumner—a man who has saved her life in the past—is among the hostages, nothing will stop her from getting onboard, no matter what the cost. (William Morrow, $24.99)

It has been six months since Gabriel's showdown with Ivan Kharkov. Now, having severed his ties with the Office, Gabriel has retreated to the Cornish coast with only one thing in mind: healing his wife, Chiara, after her encounter with evil. But an unspeakable act of violence once again draws Gabriel into a world of danger when an art restorer is brutally murdered and the newly discovered Rembrandt on which he is working taken. Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to trace the painting and those responsible for the crimes; but, as he investigates, he discovers there are terrible secrets connected to the painting, and terrible men behind them. Before he is done, he will have undertaken a journey through some of the twentieth century's darkest history-and come face-to-face with some of the same darkness within himself. (Putnam Adult, $26.95) 

Renovating a home is an expensive undertaking even when things go right. When things go wrong, unexpected costs and delays can be financially devastating. “We’ve all heard the horror stories,” says Kia Ricchi, a Florida-based contractor and author of the new book, Avoiding the Con in Construction. “But there are steps homeowners can take to ensure that a construction project goes smoothly.” In her book, Ricchi teaches homeowners how to use state websites to ensure that a contractor is properly licensed, insured and of sound character. Ricchi also explains the permitting and inspection process, and how it protects the homeowner. Pitfalls such as liens, jobsite injuries, and cost overruns are explained as well as the methods to avoid them. Hurricanes are like houseguests from out of state—whether we like them or not, we can expect them to visit every year. Ricchi explains that hurricanes can cause a shortage of qualified contractors because of the abundance of repair work that must be performed. As a result, what Ricchi calls “CONtractors” show up en masse to target desperate homeowners. “Sometimes the con artist disappears with the (deposit) money and other times the repairs are worse than the damage itself,” Ricchi says. 8pm

On Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard prepares for a Category 5 hurricane that has entered the Gulf of Mexico. When the air crew patrols the waterways, they spot a huge fishing cooler about a mile offshore. Drug traffickers have been known to dump coolers with smuggled product to avoid detection and pay fishermen to retrieve them. But when the crew open this cooler, they’re shocked by what they find: body parts tightly wrapped in plastic. Though she is putting herself in the projected path of the hurricane, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is sent to investigate.

Eventually, she’s able to trace the torso in the cooler back to a man who mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier after a hurricane hit Port St. Lucie, Florida. Only Port St. Lucie is on the Atlantic side. How did his body end up six hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico? Cliffhanger chapters, behind-the-scenes forensic details, colorful characters, and satisfying twists have become the trademarks of Alex Kava’s psychological thrillers. In Damaged (Doubleday, $24.95), she ratchets up the suspense a notch by sending Maggie into the eye of an impending monster hurricane to track down a killer.