The single, most important book you will read on why the federal government now controls virtually every aspect of your life can be found in Dependent on DC: The Rise of Federal Control over the Lives of Ordinary Americans by Charlotte A. Twight ($17.95, Palgrave Macmillan, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press). The author reveals why many Americans have serious, well-founded concerns over the future of their Constitutionally guaranteed liberty. Just how much privacy should Americans give up to protect the nation? Will we all be required to carry National ID cards? Why Social Security denies people the opportunity to invest or save their own money? And how the government has taken over our nation’s schools and health system. The book examines questions concerning the expansion of presidential powers and all federal powers, driven by legislation and Supreme Court decisions. A Ph.D. in economics and a lawyer, Twight raises important questions regarding the increasing loss of liberty that most Americans take for granted. This softcover edition will make you wonder if the US is, indeed, still the land of the free.

For those who want to get up to speed quickly on Iraq, there’s Saddam’s Iraq: Face-Off in the Gulf by the journalists of Reuters news service ($19.95, Prentice Hall). The situation is put into perspective by a team of journalists who have covered events in that nation since the last confrontation. Drawing on their experience, they put events in their historical context, provide the US argument for military action, along with the positions of countries in the region, the risks and implications of changing the balance of power, and the most likely outcome of a military attack.

The Middle East has become the focus of US fears and concerns and Shibley Telhami has written The Stakes: America and the Middle East ($24.00, Westview Press, a division of Perseus Publishing). It is subtitled "The consequences of power and the choice for peace." The author is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and frequently called upon by Congress and others to analyze the events occurring there. In this book he provides the historical background to the current situation and some extremely useful insights into the Arab mind. In brief, those in the Middle East today feel severely humiliated and have fixated on Israel and America as the source of all their problems. This may not be rational to the Western mind, but rationality is in short supply in the Middle East. For anyone trying to understand what has led us to this point in time, this book will prove very helpful.

On a comparable topic, there’s The Body and the Blood: The Middle East’s Vanishing Christians and the Possibility of Peace ($18.00, Public Affairs, softcover) by Charles M. Sennott. The European Bureau Chief for the Boston Globe, Sennott has written of the clash of cultures that have been occurring, perhaps most dramatically seen when Palestinian gunmen faced off with the Israeli military for five weeks after having taken over the Church of the Nativity. The author examines the dwindling Christian communities throughout the modern Middle East and asks why Christianity is dying out in the land where it began? What then are the consequences of this trend? It is ironic that in the Holy Land, there is nothing left by hatred, anger and sadness. To gain an important insight to an aspect of the conflict that is not widely reported except for the attacks on Christian churches in Muslim-dominated nations, I highly recommend this book.

Did you miss out on reading Bernard Goldberg’s huge bestselling book, Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News ($13.95, Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) when it first came out? Well, here’s your chance to purchase the softcover edition with a new introduction by the author. It is a real eye-opener for anyone who thinks Dan Rather of CBS or the anchors at NBC and ABC are giving you the news, straight and unadorned by their liberal views of politics and world affairs. As Goldberg points out, the people who put together the evening news are a privileged elite who have no idea what real people think and are always shocked when voters elect Republicans. Every night, however, they shape the news in ways that are subtle and deliberate. This accounts for why they continue to lose viewers who now go over to Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh. Goldberg’s contract was not renewed. His nearly 30 years at CBS came to an end for telling the truth.

Do you remember the rescue last year of nine coal miners saved from a flooded Pennsylvania mine? Coal, whose use provides forty percent of our nation’s electrical energy, is generally taken for granted, as are the men who courageously go down into the mines to extract it. Now, Barbara Freese has put a face on coal mining with her new book, Coal: A Human History ($25.00, Perseus Publishing) and it is a brilliant narrative that begins in the ancient Carboniferous forests where coal first formed 4.5 million years ago, taking us from the early days of the British Royal Navy to the Industrial Revolution, and beyond, showing us how modern civilization has been shaped by this mundane, lowly rock. Like other forms of energy, coal is under attack by environmentalists, but without it, the provision of electricity that we take for granted would not exist.

Dr. Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., with Robert A. McNally, have written Voyages of the Pyramid Builders: The True Origins of the Pyramids From Lost Egypt to Ancient America ($24.95, Tarcher, division of Penguin Putnam). Have you ever wondered why pyramids are found all over the world? Well, Boston University professor Schoch, a noted geologist, has developed an interesting theory. It may have the same impact on anthropologists as did the famed Kon-Tiki that proved Polynesians were able to travel vast distances across the Pacific. Dr. Schoch argues that the many far-flung pyramids represent a primordial pyramid-building civilization that once navigated the seas and spread its way of life around the globe. To this end, the book reveals that the Egyptian pyramids at Giza may actually be older than believed and that there were striking similarities between pyramid cultures in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

The future is the topic of 20:21 Vision: Twentieth Century Lessons for the Twenty-first Century by Bill Emmott, Editor in Chief of The Economist ($25.00, Farrar, Straus & Giroux). The author says there are two questions that need to be answers regarding this new century; will the United States maintain world leadership and continue to keep the peace? And will capitalism prevail and spread? There can hardly be two more important questions and the author brings an international perspective to bear on them. This is not light reading, but Emmott’s insights are such that they are well worth reading. In the end, he is cautiously optimistic. We are all gazing into very foggy crystal balls these days and the author’s expertise helps shine some clarity on the challenges facing the world.

There’s an interesting program on the Animal Planet channel, The Future is Wild: A Natural History of the Future ($35.00/$24.95, hardcover and soft, Firefly Books) that is available as a book. Its text and extraordinary illustrations looks ahead to what kind of creatures would exist on Earth in five, a hundred, two hundred and more million years in the future. Just as the 4.5 billion-year-old Earth has passed through the age of dinosaurs and an Ice Age, the likelihood is that it shall do so again and without the presence of human beings. Thirteen eminent scientists put their knowledge and imaginations to work to predict what will occur. The book, however, will appeal to anyone, no matter what level of scientific knowledge they possess. Hats off to Dougal Dixon and John Adams, the authors who put this project together.

When They Won’t Quit by Bruce Cotter ($19.95, Holly Hill Publishing, PO Box 309, Hunt Valley, MD 21030) probably won’t get the massive press rollout and publicity it deserves, but it is the kind of book that should. It is a book about the how’s and why’s of intervention to help people who are alcohol or drug-addicted. It is a call to action for families, friends, and employers of these people who wreak havoc on their own lives and those of everyone around them. Alcoholics, in particular, are unable to self-diagnose their illness and thus unable to help themselves and chemically-dependent people do not get clean and sober without some form of intervention and help. If you know someone who needs help, get this book and learn how to provide it.

There have been a growing number of political biographies and autobiographies in recent months, so let’s look at a few.

Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency by Peter J. Wallison ($27.00, Westview Press, member of the Perseus Book Group) is written around the single theme of Reagan’s belief in certain fundamental truths about the economy, domestic, and foreign relations, and the way he steadfastly stuck with them even when advised against it. The result was the economic turnaround from a terrible recession and the beginning of the 1990’s economic boom. In addition, Reagan is credited with speeding the downfall of the Soviet Union, as well as building up the nation’s military power. The book’s central problem is not that this is not well documented, but rather that the book would have been better as a long magazine article. After the first few chapters the point has been made and made again. Admirers of Reagan will enjoy the book, even if it tests their patience a bit.

Katherine Harris became famous as Florida’s secretary of state responsible for determining who won the 2000 election. She has since been elected to the House of Representatives. Her book, Katherine Harris: Center of the Storm: Practicing Principled Leadership in Times of Crisis ($22.99, WND Books, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers) tells the story of how she was subjected to every criticism that could be thrown at her by Democrats and the media. It is an analysis of the remarkable dead-heat election that turned on a few hundred Florida votes and reveals what she learned about life and leadership when the storm broke around here on November 7, 2000. It is also a story of how she drew on her moral reserves and convictions in order to cope. The book grinds no axes. Instead it is important for the way it reveals the depths to which modern politics has sunk in the quest for power. Everyone interested in politics today will enjoy this book. 

Published in late 2002, Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator by Orrin Hatch ($25.00, Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group) tells the story of this widely known and respected legislator, a US Senator from Utah. It is, of course, his biography, but it provides an insider’s look at a wide range of political milestones that include the debate on stem cell research, the Clinton impeachment hearings, and, for a Republican, his political and personal relationships with Sen. Ted Kennedy and others from the other side of the aisle. Sen. Hatch uses self-deprecating humor that is a relief from so many of these memoirs that exist only for self-engrandizement. It makes for a consistently interesting personal and political memoir. In a similar fashion, Nader: Crusader, Spoiler, Icon by Justin Martin ($26.00, Perseus Publishing) is a biography of a man many people either hate or love. After gaining fame as a consumer advocate, Nader went on to become a political figure, running for president on behalf of the Green Party USA, costing Al Gore his bid to become president in 2000. The book is a balanced view of the man and that campaign. Previously, Martin had authored Greenspan, a biography that was very well received and I think this book, too, will be as well. Nader has enriched himself as a man whose public persona does not match his private one. This book will interest anyone who has watched his public life for the past decades.

One of the most interesting, politically-oriented biographies has been penned by retiring Congressman, J.C. Watts, the first African-American to be elected to a Republican leadership post. What Color Is A Conservative? ($24.95, HarperCollins) is inspiring because it describes how the values of faith, family, hard work, and personal responsibility contributed to his rise to high office. He issues a challenge to the current crop of so-called Black leaders to reject race baiting and victim mentality. His story puts the lie to the current assertions that the Republican Party is racist and it is told by a true insider. For anyone who enjoys politics, this is a book that tells the story of his journey from Eufaula, Oklahoma to the halls of Congress. With six children to raise, one can understand his desire to forego Congress for the life of a private citizen, but no one should doubt that we will hear more from this remarkable American.

Politics, too, was the driving force in the life of Winston Churchill, one of the great heroes of World War II and Churchill: A Biography by Roy Jenkins ($18.00, Plume, a division of Penguin Putnam) is now happily available in softcover. It is a comprehensive portrait of Churchill from his childhood to the critical WWII period, and the years that followed. As a member of the House of Lords, Jenkins combines an unparalleled command of British political history and his own high-level government experience in an excellent narrative, filled with anecdotes and the great themes of Churchill’s life. When first published, the book garnered raves and here is an opportunity to enjoy it at an affordable price.

The US space program consists of the station where astronauts do science experiments, but in its early years, it riveted the attention of Americans and one of its great heroes was Scott Carpenter. The spacecraft Aurora 7 carried him into space on May 24, 1962 and For Spacious Skies: An Uncommon Journey of Mercury Astronaut ($26.00, Harcourt) is Carpenter’s autobiography, written with his daughter, Kris Stoever. It is also the story of the Carpenters of Colorado, an early pioneer family and of his unique childhood. It is an American story of how grit and opportunity combine to permit a man to rise above life’s challenges to become a genuine hero. He was among those original men who had "the right stuff", the fourth to ride beyond the Earth. His story will prove interesting to everyone who lived through those years of exploration, especially Project Mercury, and anyone who still looks at the skies and dreams of going into space.

James Watson’s name will forever be linked to his discovery of DNA. Victor K. McElheny, a distinguished science writer, worked with Watson at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for four years and has known him for forty years. Now he has written Watson and DNA: Making a Scientific Revolution ($27.50, Perseus Publishing) published to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Watson’s discovery and to tell the story of the man behind it. Watson has written his own memoirs, portraying himself as "biology’s bad boy", both in the lab and with the ladies, but McElheny reveals a complicated, mercurial man, while chronicling his contributions to science, not the least of which was his role as a gadfly and critic of flimsy science, and as a person with a gift for spotting talent and nurturing it. This is a fascinating story of a fascinating man.

Those who love to read also frequently enjoy reading about the lives of authors.

For them there’s The Letters of Robertson Davies: For Your Eyes Only ($16.00, Penguin). Davies had three successive careers, first as an actor with the Old Vic Company in England, then as a publisher of the Peterborough Examiner, and finally as a university professor at the University of Toronto, retiring in 1980. He gained fame as distinguished novelist, dying in 1995. Judith Skelton Grant selected his many letters, written with care, zest and his distinctive voice. If you’re a fan of his, you will enjoy this book. Another famed novelist, Graham Greene, was an inveterate traveler, out of which came the settings for many of his novels, Argentina and Vietnam on the brink of war, Mexico, and Cuba just before the revolution there. Julia Llewellyn Smith has written Traveling on the Edge: Journeys in the Footsteps of Graham Greene (14.95, St. Martins Press) following in his footsteps in order to understand the influence these places and others had on his writing. It is more a travelogue than literary critique, but one that is filled with fun and insights.

History is the stuff of biography and a book by Deborah Cadbury, The Lost King of France, ($24.95, St. Martin’s Press) evokes the drama and violence of the French Revolution and its aftermath while tracing a 200-year-old mystery. It is the story of a young boy who inherited the hostility of revolutionary France and endured solitary confinement and brutal abuse, eventually to perish in silence. He was the ten-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette who died alone in Temple prison in Paris. It is a compelling piece of history that is well worth reading. An interesting little book, Uncommon Women, Unmarked Trails by Dr. Suzanne H. Schrems, Ph.D. ($15.95, Horse Creek Publications, 4500 Highland Hills Drive, Norman, OK 73026) tells the story of Catholic nuns who migrated to the Montana in 1864 to build convents and schools, bringing education and their faith to Native American children. This is the story of the Ursulines who established their convent in Miles City and several mission schools, including one in Alaska. We read of the famous names in history, but people like these nuns whose lives were devoted to helping others made real history. One is amazed by their courage and inspired by their dedication.

More modern history is revealed in John A. Fahey’s Licensed to Spy ($25.95, Naval Institute), a memoir of his years as a US naval officer in East Germany during the Cold War and a must-read for anyone who enjoys true-life spy stories. Fahey engaged in overt reconnaissance, high-speed car chases, shootings and detentions during his two years following a little-known 1947 agreement between the US and the Soviet forces that permitted him to perform surveillance in East Germany following WWII. This is an absorbing reminder of how brutal life under Communism really was.

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How many babies will be born this year? I have no idea, but each holds the promise of a better future. Some will leave their mark on history and others will just be good people who keep everything moving along smoothly, marrying, and having babies of their own. That’s why there will always be new books about having and raising babies.

Two interesting books on pregnancy have been published. Carrying a Little Extra: A Guide to Healthy Pregnancy for the Plus-Size Woman ($12.95, Berkley Publishing, a division of Penguin Putnam) is the first book of its kind, providing information on weight-related implications for fertility, postpartum weight maintenance, and other important topics for women who are overweight and "expecting." Outsmarting the Female Fat Cell After Pregnancy by Debra Waterhouse, M.P.H., R.D, ($12.95, Hyperion) is a guide to shaping up, slimming down, and staying sane after the baby arrives. Here’s how to shed those partpartum pounds safely and effectively.

Perseus Publishing is offering three compact softcover books by Dr. Joshua D. Sparrow, MD, a colleague of Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, to help new parents deal with common problems. They are Sleep: The Brazelton Way, Calming Your Fussy Baby, and Discipline: The Brazelton Way. Each priced at $9.95 (A Merloyd Lawrence Book/Perseus Publishing). As their titles suggest, each addresses the best way to deal with babies who exhibit various kinds of behavior. Dr. Brazelton was joined by Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan, all of whom provided introductions to Winnicott On the Child by D.W. Winnicott ($18.00, Perseus Publishing). The author was a famed pediatrician and psychoanalyst who influenced several generations in the fields of child psychiatry, social work, and child development until his passing in 1974. His insights into the world of the child remain valid today and have been brought together in this new volume.

Here’s a book that was first published 40 years ago. It’s How to Teach Your Baby to Read ($16.95, The Gentle Revolution Press, Towson, MD) and it still works today. It’s the work of Glenn and Janet Doman, his daughter, who demonstrate that even very young children are far more capable of learning than we imagine. The book has been published in 22 languages and its basic mission continues to be teaching parents simple and effective methods to enable parents to teach, and children to learn. When something has proven its worth for this length of time, it is well worth learning and using.

A lovely gift for any expectant mother or one with young children is The Mommy Journal: Letters to Your Child by Tracy Broy ($14.95, Andrews McMeel Publishing) filled with empty pages on which mother can record special moments spent with their children. It is designed for busy mothers who want to be able to recall their earliest days. Beautifully illustrated, it will become a precious keepsake of memories. Of course, child rearing is not all roses. Dr. Dan Kindlon, Ph.D. has written Too Much of a Good Thing ($13.00, Miramax Books), a follow-up to his 1999 bestseller, Raising Cain, in which he addresses the fact that too many parents are too indulgent, not providing their children with a structure that includes doing chores, too much protection from the normal disappoints of life, and too many toys and stuff. The result has been an increase in depression among children. Based on a study, Parenting Practices at the Millennium, the author argues for those things that produce an emotionally mature adult, learning to delay gratification, to learn from failure and move on, to accept flaws, and face the consequences of their acts when they’ve done something wrong. Every concerned parent should read this excellent book.

More advice can be found in The Privilege of Parenting: How to Raise Great Kids in the 21^st Century by James B. Levine, Ph.D. ($15.95, Unwindology Publishing, PO Box 61009, Honolulu, HI 96822-1455. The author addresses many of the problems modern parents face such as less time and more use of substitute parenting by nannies and others. In essence, the author says that parenting should not be delegated to others and in this I completely concur. The author provides lots of good, essential insights that are needed for good parenting such as unconditional love and taking the time to carefully research children’s services and products. For first time parents, this book will prove very helpful. Another interesting book on parenting is The Five Minute Parent: Fun & Fast Activities for You and Your Little Ones by Deborah Shelton ($12.95, Bayou Publishing). The author found herself saying "Maybe this weekend" or "Maybe later" too often even though she was home schooling her kids. An active member of the Association for Play Therapy, she knew she could come up with lots of ideas to entertain (and sometimes teach) children that both parent and child could enjoy together. The result is her book with 115 fun activities in eleven categories. For the busy parent, this book will prove a godsend.

I consider myself fortunate to have known my grandparents and they most certainly played a role in my early life. Grandparents: A New Look at the Supporting Generation ($21.00, Prometheus Books) by Gerhard and Ursula Adler Falk was published in November. A sociologist and psychotherapist, respectively, the Falks provide an illuminating overview of the many facets of being a grandparent in today’s society. They discuss the evolution of the role of grandparents and the growing fact that many are forced to take over child rearing when their children are unable to carry out this responsibility.

We weren’t really on our way to creating a civilization until man invented writing. Today, literature is a keystone of any society, any nation, and group of people.

I was reminded of this while perusing Irish Classics by Declan Kiberd ($17.95, Harvard University Press, softcover) published last October. It is a big, thick book that is a tribute to the genius of Irish authors extending all the way back to the 17^th century’s bardic tradition and up to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. If you’re Irish or of Irish descent, you will want to add this to your personal library and, if you just love literature and its history, you will want to do so as well. Hats off to the Gaelic poets, the modern day novelists, and the geniuses the Emerald Island produced.

For hours of fun, there’s Edward Lear: The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense ($16.00, Penguin Books), also published last October. This master of the very silly was born in Highgate, England, in 1812. He published his first book of nonsense in 1846 and, in time, gained great fame. He wrote poems, stories, songs and whimsy-filled letters. Vivien Noakes, the author of an acclaimed biography of Lear, edited this book. If you haven’t read his work, you should. It will cheer you immensely.

With Pen in Hand…The Healing Power of Writing ($15.95, Perseus Publishing) us more self-help and psychology, as well as the craft of writing. Writing is a wonderful form of therapy and I frequently use it myself in this fashion. Through beautiful stories of pain and perseverance, the author, Henriette Klauser shows how people of all ages have written their way through trying situations. She describes various styles of writing, stream of consciousness, writing in real time, or journal entries, to demonstrate the ways one can employ words to express oneself and discover the path through grief.

On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language by Ilan Stavans ($15.00, Penguin) tells the story of a man’s journey in life through the use of several languages. Stavans is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Latino literature in the United States. As such, he employs both Spanish and English, with a sprinkling of Hebrew and Yiddish, each of which, at various points in his life, have been his primary language. His family’s immigrant experiences took them from Eastern Europe to the Jewish ghetto of Mexico City, which he abandoned for Israel, and finally the United States. This is one of those offbeat books that deserves lots of readers simply because it is just so good.

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Every new year brings new novels, so let’s take a look at some of those to entertain you.

John Lescroart has written thirteen novels previously and his newest is The First Law ($25.95, Dutton). Along the way he created a private investigator, Dismas Hardy, who has become his well known attorney-hero and Lt. Abe Glitsky of the San Francisco police department. This is a man who was born to write novels, despite an early career as a musician and the many odd jobs he held while he pursued and polished his art. This novel, published last month, begins with Glitsky recovering from a near-fatal gunshot wound. Assigned to payroll instead of his old job in homicide. When his father’s closest friend is killed in a downtown pawnshop, he asks to get involved, but the brass tells him no way. Plots within plots makes this a fascinating reading experience, so if you like suspense, you will get your fill with this excellent novel.

A very different story is told in Domino ($26.00, Walker & Company) by Ross King. Set in the boudoirs and ballrooms of 18^th century London and Milan, the story follows George Cautley, a young and ambitious artist who sets out to make his fortune as a portraitist of London’s elite. While painting Lady Beauclair, she tells him the tragic story of Tristano, a castrato singer in Handel's opera company fifty years earlier. The story intrigues him and as he pursues it, he is drawn into the secret-filled world of Milan’s opera houses while suspecting that the London he has come to know is more sinister than he could ever have imagined. With a fine eye for detail, this book will be enjoyed by anyone who also enjoys history. For lovers of fantasy, there’s the Legacy of the Drow by R.S. Salvatore ($19.95, Wizards of the Coast). It’s a collector’s edition published by what is arguably the leading publisher of fantasy. Brought together in one, fat, softcover volume, it is the author’s saga of the battles of the dread Spider Queen Lolth and her vicious drow followers as they pit themselves against Drizzt Do’Urden, a true hero. The book includes The legacy, Starless Night, Seige of Darkness and Passages to Dawn.

In March, Warner Books will publish Penelope Williamson whose Wages of Sin ($19.95) takes the reader back to the Jazz Age in New Orleans where, even in that often sinful city, a murder occurs that shocks the locals with its brutality. Damon Rourke, a hard-nosed detective who was introduced to readers in the author’s previous book, Mortal Sins (available in a Warner paperback, $7.50), is assigned to the case in which a beloved local priest has been killed and found crucified in an abandoned waterfront warehouse. The fact that the priest turns out to have been a woman masquerading as a man is just the beginning of the surprises this book holds. As you are carried back to the 1920s, you will be gripped by the suspense and taut action of this excellent novel. Coming in April is Robert Bailey’s second novel, Dying Embers ($21.95, M. Evans & Co.) Here, too, is a detective novel, but one that has enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. Art Hardin who first appeared in Private Heat is back again. A retired counter intelligence officer who pays the bills as a private investigator, most of his cases are catching cheating spouses or chasing fraudulent insurance claims, but when he’s hired to find an old flame of a wealth industrialist, she turns up dead. And his client is charged with murder. Then Hardin’s PI license is revoked. To get it back and clear his name, Hardin must play a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Good novels take you to times and places you might never otherwise visit. The Thirty-Third Hour by Mitchell Chefitz ($13.95, St. Martin’s Press) does that when Rabbi Greenberg, the leader of the largest synagogue in Miami, has thirty-three hours to investigate a sex ethics charge brought against one of his colleagues. The leader of an experimental family education program at the synagogue, Moshe Katan, has been accused by an attractive widow. A disastrous scandal is brewing and the reader becomes judge and jury as Greenberg seeks to find the truth. It helps if you are interested in Jewish studies, but it is not necessary to enjoy this intriguing story. It helps, too, that the author is the rabbi of Temple Israel of Greater Miami and an authority on the subject he explores.

Epitaph by James Seigel ($12.95, Mysterious Press) is an evocative murder mystery. At age 75, William Riskin, a former private detective, is waiting for his life to end, reading obituaries to pass the time. When he reads of the death of one of his ex-partners, a concentration camp survivor, he attends the funeral. He learns that he was in the midst of the biggest case of his life when he died. Intrigued, Riskin picks up the trail with a list of twelve elderly men and women who are all missing. His sleuthing takes him to Miami and elsewhere. This novel will take you along for an excellent story that will have you rooting for the old detective. From the same publisher comes a new Hamish Macbeth mystery, Death of a Village by M.C. Beaton. This is number 19 of a successful series starring an eccentric Scottish sleuth. Imagine his surprise when he visits a seaside village on a Monday and finds most of its residents in church? The investigation that follows proves very intriguing. A six-part BBC television series may make its way over here and, when it does, a lot of people will discover Hamish Macbeth. Don’t wait for it, though, read the book.

Plume and Penguin Books continues to publish affordable and interesting novels in softcover. Here’s to You, Jesusa! By Elena Poniatowska ($14.00) takes you into the working-class life of a Mexican woman. Translated and based on the life of real person whose life spanned the seminal events in early 20^th century Mexico, you come along for the ride when she joins a cavalry unit during the Mexican Revolution, ending up in Mexico City, far from her native Oaxaca; abandoned by her husband, and working at menial jobs. She will become a hero to you as you read this combination of documentary and novel. A Penguin paperback, The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri ($5.99) introduces another foreign writer to US readers. Camilleri is an Italian publishing phenomenon and his Inspector Montalbano mystery series are enormously popular throughout Europe. If you like a good mystery, you will enjoy his novel and cast of characters as the Inspector suspects foul play amidst the effort to close a case as quickly as possible.

Three interesting novels from Plume include Snow Island by Katherine Towler ($13.00), Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper by Harriet Scott Chessman ($13.00), and Baroque-A-Nova by Kevin Chong ($13.00). Suffice it to say each is very different from the other. The first is about a 16-year-old who takes on the responsibility of running the family store while attending the one-room schoolhouse on an island off the coast of New England. There’s a romance and a cast of characters ideal to read about in front of a fireplace with some logs burning gently. The second novel is based on the sister of famed impressionist artist, Mary Cassatt, who sat for a number of her portraits. If you are interested in the lives of this American artist and her sister (and even you are not) you will be drawn into their world in Paris peopled with the other artists who also gained fame. Finally, Kevin Chong’s book is as clever a novel about teenaged angst as has been written in a long time. It was well received by all the critics, including this one, when it first was published. This pop-culture story deftly tells of dysfunctional families, celebrities past their prime, and those who circle them.

There are, of course, tons of paperbacks everywhere, but that’s another way of saying there are tons of very affordable editions of novels that cost a lot more when they were first published.

Two masters of suspense, Robert Ludlum and Stephen J. Cannell, have two of their excellent novels available from St. Martin’s Press. They are, respectively, The Sigma Protocol ($7.99) and The Viking Funeral ($6.99). The Ludlum’s story is an international thriller in which an American investment banker and a US government agent are brought together to uncover the secrets long-buried under the code name "Sigma", an OSS file. I think Cannell must have read Ludlum because he has the same fast-paced plotting of the late master. In his story, the main character is driving on the freeway and sees his oldest friend and former LAPD colleague. He is surprised because it’s been two years since he blew his brains out. Only he didn’t. Neither are five other cops dead. Sent into deep undercover to bust a criminal network, they have all gone bad. St. Martin’s also offers up romance in Robin Pilcher’s Starting Over ($6.99) in which 37-year-old Liz Dewhurst must, indeed, start over after a broken marriage and while battling a company that wants her family’s land for a golf course. Slowly she begins to stir the emotional embers of her soul to renew her life.

From Kensington Books, the latest releases include Maid For Murder by Barbara Colley ($5.99). Set in New Orleans’s historic Garden District, the head of a successful cleaning service turns amateur sleuth to solve the murder of one of her wealthy clients. It’s a fast-paced, entertaining story. P.J. Parrish is best known for his darker mysteries and his latest, Thicker Than Water ($6.99, Pinnacle) will please old fans and new as his sleuth, Louis Kincaid, must solve a brutal rape and murder that takes place on a hot summer night in Florida. Turns out, the new case connects to one that occurred decades earlier. From bestselling author, William W. Johnstone, comes two "Mountain Man" novels. Preacher’s Peace ($5.99) begins a series based on a mountain man character, a fur trader on the wild frontier of America. Trek of the Mountain Man ($5.99) continues the story whose theme is survival. A Zebra Historical Romance that’s sure to please is Shannon Drake’s The Lion in Glory ($6.99) set in the days of knights in battle. When a Scot seeks to reclaim land ruled by the English, he takes hostage of beautiful woman who takes his heart hostage. Another romance is Joe Beverley’s Tempting Fortune ($6.99) that begins in 1761 when the heroine’s virtue is to be auctioned in one of London’s most notorious brothels.