Just as we must remember the lessons of Pearl Harbor, we must now recall the memory of September 11, 2001, the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, our architectural celebration of free trade in a free world. One way to do that is with September 11, 2001: A Collection of Newspaper Front Pages selected by the Poynter Institute ($14.95, Andrews McMeel Publishing). It is a collection of 150 front pages and the net profits from this impressive softcover book will be donated to a special fund administered by the United Way. In the introduction, Max Frankel, a noted journalist, writes, "Here lies a souvenir of horror, a blazing obituary of American innocence." We are a free nation because we have a free press. "News is the enemy of certainty, and therefore of tyranny." The price for freedom remains eternal vigilance.

Another kind of history is The History of Mystery by Max Allen Collins ($45.00, Collectors Press). Gloriously illustrated, it brings alive the pulp fiction, the comic strips, the novels of the great detectives ranging from Dick Tracy to Sam Space, Phillip Marlowe and their English counterparts, Sherlock Holmes, Mrs. Marple, and Hercule Poirot. The author has provided a lavish panoply of a century’s worth of great detective fiction, including the new generation of women writers, Sara Peretsky, Marcia Miller and Patricia Cornwall whose detectives have entered the genre. It is filled with fascinating facts, dramatic stories, and useful information about men like Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Mickey Spillane, among many others. This one’s a "keeper."

The popularity of the Harry Potter books and the new films such as "The Lord of the Rings", based upon another fine book, has evoked a new interest about wizards and witches. The Way of Wizards ($34.95, Andrews McMeel Publishing) by Tom Cross would be worth its price if only for the author’s extraordinary illustrations. Each page is a delightful eyeful. However, the book also explores and explains the world of these mysterious folk that is spellbinding in its own way. It is a book filled with elves, mermaids, fairy princesses, and witches, as well as the tools of the trade, the hats, the staffs, the apprentices. It is a magic world captured in a magical book.

Collectors of Batman memorabilia will enjoy Batman Collected ($29.95, Watson Guptill) by Chip Kidd who credits his parents "who never made me throw anything away." The character, so ingrained in American culture, began in 1939 in the pages of Detective Comics #27. The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, the character has spawned a world of collectibles and this book, beautifully written and designed, is instantly a collectible in itself.

History is served well in Eli Sagan’s Citizens & Cannibals: The French Revolution, the Struggle for Modernity, and the Origins of Ideological Terror ($35.00, Rowman & Littlefield). Though not part of the school curricula these days, the French Revolution had a tremendous effect, not just on that nation’s history, but that of Europe and, to a degree that Americans took note of its ugly excesses, on ours as well. The question the author asks is why did otherwise moral citizens become addicted to the guillotine as an instrument of political change? The French Revolution became a time of pure terror and resulted ultimately in Napoleon’s rise to power. The French wanted to rid themselves of the ruling aristocracy, botched that badly, and he ultimately proclaimed himself their new emperor. Sagan provides worthy insights into the revolutionary and evolutionary processes unleashed when nations take the wrong path to democracy. If you enjoy reading history, you will want to read this book.

Another kind of history is found in Straight Up or on the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail by William Grimes, a restaurant critic for The New York Times ($20.00, North Point Press). From the first Mint Julep in the 1780’s to the golden age of the cocktail from 1880 to 1920, Grimes serves up an entertaining, informative look at this element of American culture and society.

Thinking of buying a new car this year? If you really want to approach this as an informed consumer, invest $29.95 (Firefly Books) and pick up a copy of Jacques Duval’s and Denis Dequet’s guide, The Auto Guide 2002. It provides all the comparative stats and facts on more than 160 vehicles, shown in more than a thousand full color photos. They’re all in this book, the compacts, the sport luxury sedans and other sports cars, convertibles, roadsters, minivans, GTs, SUVs, and the car of the year. For the lover of cars, this book will provide hours of enjoyment.

For those who have the good fortune to live in the Garden State, home to the Sopranos, I am happy to report that the 9^th edition of New Jersey Day Trips by Barbara Hudgins ($14, The Woodmont Press, PO Box 108, Green Village, NJ 07935) is now available and jammed packed with all kinds of walking tours, places where Washington slept, ate and fought, homes of the rich and famous, wonderfully restored colonial and victorian villages, farms, and homes. There are, of course, dozens of museums, plus theme parks, zoos, wineries, et cetera. This is a State where you can ski in the winter and go to "the shore" in the summer. Make all the jokes you want, New Jersey is loaded with things to do and close enough for day trips to New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware too!

A friend of mine is a distinguished psychoanalyst and matriarch of a family whose husband was a famed actor, one son was co-founder of a leading advertising agency, a daughter with a Ph.D., and then there is the anomaly, the son who was a manic-depressive. A Prophet Operating at a Loss is the story of Zane P. Bond, co-written with Lucy Freeman ($14.95, iUniverse, available by writing to Zane care of Box 531, New York City, 10159). If you know someone who is experiencing manic depression or may be on the cusp, this is a sweet, funny, poignant story of Zane’s trip to Hell and back again to the real world. It is an intensely personal story, but you will be drawn to its inherent sweetness and hope.

A trip to another kind of Hell is divorce. It is never easy and often made worse because most people enter into it with unrealistic expectations about both the legal realities and the financial outcome. Aftermarriage: The Myth of Divorce by Anita Wyzanski Robboy ($16.95, Alpha Books) looks at the process through the lives of five divorcing couples who discover that their relationship continues despite a divorce and merely transitions into a phase the author refers to as "aftermarriage." This book has been called "a must read" by a leading jurist. The author is an attorney and a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Contemplating a divorce? Know someone who is? This book will prove extraordinarily helpful.

A writer by trade for my whole life, I always welcome books that are useful for today’s writers. My friends, Tom and Marilyn Ross know the publishing business inside and out. The new, expanded and revised fourth edition of their book, The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing ($19.99, Writer’s Digest Books) is just out and is one, big, fat compendium of information that I would recommend anyone contemplating self-publishing read before taking that leap. I know of far too many who have self-published only to discover they haven’t a clue how to promote or sell their book. This book tells you how to avoid that fate.

Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That? ($14.95, Quill Driver Books) by Marc McCutcheon points out that there are more 50,000 books published every year and only about 3,500 are fiction. That means publishers need at least 46,000 non-fiction manuscripts every year to stay in business. Some of these books turn into big moneymakers for both publisher and author. This former literary agent tells you how ordinary people are making extraordinary amounts of money by writing all kinds of non-fiction books on every imaginable topic and how you can as well. And, talking about agents, it’s a very good idea to pick up the 2002 Guide to Literary Agents ($22.99, Writer’s Digest Books) because, while self-publishing has its appeal, the serious, professional writer ultimately needs a literary agent to insure that their work reaches the right editor at the right publishing house. Thereafter, one needs an agent to protect one’s literary rights and to negotiate the deal they are not likely to get if they try to do it themselves.

In recent years the Boy Scouts of America have come under attack for policies to which the gay community objects. Putting aside this segment of society, however, the BSA has been responsible for turning out young men with just the values needed today. Many leaders of today’s society learned those values as a Scout, so I was pleased to received The Scouting Way: A Daily Guide to Living with Scout Values by Sandra and Jeff Schwartz ($14.95, Scouting Way Press, 2602 Calle Onice, San Clemente, CA 92673). This book’s audience is current and former Scouts and leaders. With more than 50 million members in the US, the brotherhood of Scouting represents a large affiliate group. Among the contributors to the book are Arnold Palmer, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Frank Keating, Charlton Heston, and many other distinguished Americans. This is the right book at the right time.

Let’s end on a happy note with Nursery Rhymes for Baby Boomers and Beyond ($16.95, BaBoom Press, 79 Woodchester Drive, Newton, MA 02467). At first glance this looks like a typical illustrated children’s book. It is the sly, clever work of Sydney Altman who has transformed Mother Goose into issues of middle age such as "Where, oh where, has my estrogen gone?" or "What are aging boys made of?" For the birthday boy or girl who crosses the line from blissful youth to a more savvy time of life, this is the book to give.

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We all think we are up to the challenge of parenting because we all had parents and were once kids ourselves. Some are. Most aren’t. That’s why I can enthusiastically recommend John Rosemond’s New Parent Power! ($24.95, Andrews McMeel) by the author of nine best selling books whose new one is specific to new parents and those who need new ideas about how to successfully parent their children. All those problems from toilet training to bed wetting to picky eating get addressed in this fat compendium of advice. This is a real game plan for new parents and will greatly ease all those early concerns.

Two well-known authors of child-raising books, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan, have come together to write The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish ($14.00, Perseus). Combining their years of clinical experience and research, these authors propose a blueprint for childcare in this new era, discussing seven fundamental requirements of a healthy childhood, while offering their views on how parents, teachers, policy-makers and politicians are doing as they attempt to meet these basic needs. In the process, they ask and answer whether this nation is failing to do the right thing by its children. Dr. Greenspan has independently authored The Four Thirds Solution: Solving the Childcare Crisis in America today with Jacqueline Salmon ($26.00, Perseus) that addresses questions about daycare. For any parent faced with the decision of whether to put their child into daycare, this is must reading because, as the author notes, more than 90% of daycare is not considered to be of high quality. Moreover, children in fulltime daycare tend to show more problem behaviors and aggression by the time they reach kindergarten.

"You’re Grounded Till You’re Thirty" by Dr. Judi Craig, Ph.D. ($14.00, Good Housekeeping) examines the tumultuous time of adolescence for both teens and their parents. In the process, she offers a lot of practical guidance in an accessible "problem/solution" format that will prove very useful in dealing with everything from messy rooms, phone or computer marathons, homework hassles, and more serious issues such as sexuality, depression and substance abuse. Sex & Sensibility: The Thinking Parent’s Guide to Talking Sense About Sex by Deborah M. Roffman ($16.00, Perseus) reveals that most parents feel that sex education classes lack vital information and want schools to give their children more detailed guidance. Most counsel abstinence, touch on sexually transmitted diseases, and cover little else. Maybe this isn’t the school’s job? Maybe a parent has to take more responsibility in this area? If you feel this way, this book offers advice on how to communicate with children at any age about sexual topics.

There is plenty to be unhappy about with today’s schools and if this is a concern of yours, you might want to read John Merrow’s Choosing Excellence ($15.95, Scarecrow Education Book, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD 20706). Based on the PBS series, The Merrow Report, the author’s view is that "good enough" is not good enough for most schools and advises on how to identify the best schools and teachers. Another useful book on this topic is Extraordinary Teachers: The Essence of Excellent Teaching by Dr. Fred Stephenson, Ph.D. ($22.95, Andrews McMeel). As the author notes, the public is deluged with reminders and examples of shortcomings in our educational system deluge the public these days. Parents are worried and frustrated; they demand improvements in our public schools. The author believes the key is the implementation of reform in the way we produce competent, dedicated, and caring teachers. If this topic interests or concerns you, this is an excellent book on the topic.

Finally, let’s acknowledge there are, indeed, some very fine teachers. Photographer Gary Firstenberg and writer John Yow have combined to profile those who encourage, enlighten, and inspire their students in a splendid book, Teachers: A Tribute to the Enlightened, the Exceptional, the Extraordinary ($27.95, Andrews McMeel). They traveled more than 50,000 miles over four and a half months through 40 states to capture the essence of the spirit of the nation’s best teachers and found them everywhere. This is an inspiring book.

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We begin 2002 in the first recession of the past decade with lots of people looking for answers to keep their business going and expanding. Others are seeking to learn the secrets of success in their careers or how to manage others more effectively. The problem is not that there aren’t answers, but that there are so many. The number of business related books is now at full flood stage.

Let’s start on a light note. If you enjoy Dilbert, you will enjoy When Did Ignorance Become A Point of View? This is the 18^th collection ($10.95, Andrew McMeel) involving Dilbert and the many characters from Hell that occupy his work world, exemplifying idiotic management, cubicle confinement, and his misadventures in corporate America. Laughter is guaranteed.

How did Warren Buffett become one of the most successful investors of the modern era? You can learn how by reading The Warren Buffet, CEO by Robert P. Miles ($25.95, Wiley) who reveals how Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Warren Buffett are legendary. Miles takes one behind the scenes to see how the hands-off management style of Berkshire Hathaway allows its acquisitions to grow exponentially. He interviewed the CEOs of the companies in which Buffet invested and shows how he meshed their different styles with his own. This is very interesting reading because it’s about real people solving real problems to achieve real success.

The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book by Paul Falcone ($18.95, Amacom) addresses all the basic issues of how to attract, interview and select the right people for critical jobs without encountering any unwanted problems. Though geared for the human resources professional, it is filled with lots of good advice anyone building an organization can use. Taking it up a notch, there’s Hiring the Best and the Brightest: A Roadmap to MBA Recruiting by Sherrie Gong Taguchi ($27.95, Amacom) that addresses the need for top firms to attract and keep the highest caliber employees, particularly those with newly-minted MBAs.

Every business owner needs to know 25 Essential Lessons for Employee Management: How to Protect Your Business ($22.95, Facts on Demand Press) by Dennis L. DeMay. This is a book that addresses problems exacerbated by the Recession, such as compensation fraud, employee theft, as well as violence in the workplace, alcohol-abuse and other personnel problems. The numbers involved are staggering as businesses lose billions each year from these common problems. This book can help greatly to avoid trouble. There’s another kind of problem that everyone seems to encounter in the workplace, co-workers that make life on the job a nightmare. It Takes More Than a Carrot and a Stick by Wess Roberts ($16.95, Andrews McMeel) discusses how to effectively cope with blowhards and perpetual victims, goof-offs and others who can make the workday a real trial. His suggestions and advice for making work more enjoyable will contribute to decreasing the typical workplace struggles while increasing worker efficiency. An excellent new book is The End of Office Politics as Usual by Lawrence B. MacGregor Serven ($24.95, Amacom) that looks at the way office politics regularly drives away good workers, drives up costs, and drives down productivity. As a result, companies are looking for ways to eliminate politics as usual. The author spent two years conducting focus groups aimed at gauging the true costs of office politics and what he calls "the enemy within", a worker who sabotages everyone around him or her. The author offers a blueprint to identify the problem and root it out.

Demonstrating that leadership occurs at all levels within the work environment, Leading Up: How to Lead your Boss so you Both Win by Michael Useem ($25.95, Crown Business) looks at ways to get results by learning how to get along with the boss on a day-to-day basis. He argues that rather than undermining authority or seizing power from superiors, "leading up" is the way to step in when the boss needs help and support that benefits everyone. While occasionally risky, this approach can also have great rewards.

The essence of all business is marketing. If you can’t sell it, you’re out of business and, of course, that is changing too as new technologies transform the process. Let’s start with the basics. To avoid outdated mistakes, pick up a copy of the third edition of The Marketing Plan: How to Prepare and Implement it by William M. Luther ($19.95, Amacom). It is filled with parables and the paradoxes of contemporary marketing. More than 95% new, it describes how to determine what your customers want, how to sell it, and how to compete with it. This excellent book covers all the bases from advertising to couponing to price strategies, trade shows, and how to crunch the numbers so they add up to a profit. Likewise, Hope Is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale, just published this month, is Rick Page’s guide ($24.95, Nautilus Press) to becoming a sales super star. I always marvel at the way these folks who get big bucks for the consulting skills and knowledge all seem compelled to put it into a book and virtually give it away, but you will be the beneficiary if you dream of that multi-million dollar deal. This is a business-to-business guide that says the time-honored methods that once made for successful salespeople and managers just don’t apply today.

Gonzo Marketing by Chris Locke ($25.00, Perseus) has evoked a lot of interests and buzz as the author explores how companies can interact more effectively with online audiences, explaining why online advertising doesn’t work, whereas if you can break through and tear down the barriers between them and their customers, they can tap into many emerging micromarkets. This has the look breakthrough thinking you may not find anywhere else. Two other books look at other aspects of marketing. They are Loyalty-Based Selling by Tim Smith ($17.95, Amacom) and How to Mind-Read your Customers by David P. Snyder ($17.95, Amacom). The former book by Smith will prove very help to the sales professional who wants to guarantee customer loyalty, making friends of customers, turning around angry customers, make a great start with new ones. The latter by Snyder will help any salesperson establish excellent customer relationships because, while you may know your product or service, the customer to whom you’re pitching it, is initially a complete mystery. This book will be helpful to salesmen using the phone, in a networking event, or setting up a meeting. It’s all about rapport.

Likewise, Seth Godin says stop marketing at people and turn them into customers who will be so enthusiastic they will do your marketing for you. Unleashing the Ideavirus ($14.00, Hyperion) tosses traditional marketing aside to tap into the world of customers who feel invaded by constant, invasive advertising. He discusses how companies have created or revitalized markets with totally new approaches. In a similar vein, Bruce Kasanoff has written Making it Personal: How to Profit from Personalization without Invading Privacy ($26.00, Perseus). The author explains how companies today need to harness the power of personalization techniques to survive in today’s corporate world because now they have the capacity to record and store the personal data of customers and potential customers in their databases. It can make customers extremely loyal. There is a downside because there is a backlash against the manipulation of an individual’s private information at the same time that customers are demanding that companies remember more about their preferences for quicker, easier service in the future.

Sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and others will enjoy and benefit from Dan Seidman’s The Death of 20^th Century Selling ($18.95, Sales Autopsy Press, 190 E. Dundee Road, Barrington, IL 60010) that looks at fifty sales blunders and how you can profit by avoiding them! Just published this month, this is a great, no-nonsense guide to why salespeople fail and how to fix the problem, what new tools can be used to insure greater sales success, and much more. This is straight talk about what no longer works and what does!

The Internet has, of course, transformed business and there are a number of books that address aspects of this. Creating Web-Based Training ($39.95, Amacom) looks at the world of online employee training at leading corporations, noting that it has usually been the domain, not of training professionals or educators, but expensive consultants. Companies turn to web-based training to cut costs, save time, and reduce employee travel. For those who need to implement WBT, this is one, big fat book plus CD-ROM that provides a sure-fire way for companies of all sizes and types to develop their own programs quickly and without laying out big bucks.

According to IBM’s Internet guru, John Patrick, we’ve only tapped into about three percent of what the Internet can offer. Net Attitude by Patrick ($26.00, Perseus Publishing) discusses what it is, how to get it, and, he says, why your company can’t survive without it. The author believes that the era of the PC as the center for the Net is over and the next one is mobile phones, kiosks, pagers, and other technologies that will make the Net "so pervasive, reliable, and transparent that we will take it for granted." His book tells businesses how to be part of the revolution. Under the Radar by Arnold Kling ($26.00, Perseus) advises the reader on how to start a Net business without venture capital. Kling should know. He sold his Internet company for $85 million and now he shares his knowledge with you because he believes the Net is still filled with opportunity. His book is filled with good nuts-and-bolts information. For hardcore Netizens, there’s I-Operations: The Impact of the Internet on Operating Models by Gary Daichendt and Brett Johnson ($24/95, The Institute Press, 4535 W. Sahara Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89102) that defines a cohesive framework for an Internet-enabled operating model. This is, frankly, way beyond my comprehension, but if you know what this is about, you will problem want to read this forward-thinking book on the subject.

Let’s finish up with a number of books devoted to the nitty-gritty of succeeding individually in the world of business and finance. Two books are directed specifically to Black Americans. Robert L. Wallace has written an excellent book, Soul Food: 52 Principles for Black Entrepreneurial Success ($16.00, Perseus) now available in softcover. Wallace notes that Black entrepreneurs face obstacles that are unique to them, whether it’s confronting social prejudice, unfair business practices, or countless other economic roadblocks. He analyzes 52 individual stories of success and breaks their success down into four strategic categories. Pay Yourself First: The African American Guide to Financial Success and Security by Jesse B. Brown ($14.95, Wiley) is written for Blacks who earn less than $30,000 a year, showing how to increase wealth and take control of one’s life, diversifying funds and offering investment strategies that can work for them and their children’s futures.

Women will benefit from Power Tools for Women in Business by Aliza Sherman ($24.95, Entrepreneur Press) who notes that, for many women, their professional and personal lives are intimately entwined. The author shows how to leverage this holistic approach to a woman’s best advantage, offering ten techniques she calls "power tools." This is a carefully researched book that offers a lot of valuable information and insight, all of which can lead to greater success.

An interesting book by Eileen Shapiro is Tutoring as a Successful Business ($18.95, plus $4 shipping, Nateen Publishing, 730 North Naomi Street, PO Box 1916, Burbank, CA 91505). The author has tutored more than 6,000 students from elementary school through college on a wide range of subjects. She’s had 28 years of success in this field and her book covers everything about starting up and promoting a part-time or full-time professional tutoring business.

Lastly, if you are contemplating getting into real estate development, building construction, and renovation, or if you are already in this business, you would do well to pick up a copy of Mark Noe’s Go/No Go ($27.95, Remark Publishing, PO Box 2056, Sonoma, CA 95476-2056). Now in its revised third edition, this book reflects the author’s long experience in field. He has authored many books on all aspects of real estate. The book provides non-nonsense advice that leads up to the decision whether to proceed with a construction project or not. It is a comprehensive tool for builders and developers with information on the many resources available for today’s marketplace. Chapters such as "project feasibility" and "making the deal work" are invaluable. This book is real blueprint for success.

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Gean B. Atkinson may have unconsciously made his decision to write Internal Invasion ($24.95, Wyndham House Books) because he works in Oklahoma City, the scene of the terrorist destruction of the Federal courthouse that left Americans wondering how safe they were. Then came September 11, 2001, followed by the Anthrax scare. What does this have to do with his novel? Well, it is a story about a sinister bio-terrorist attack against the United States. It is just recently published and that means it was written before the events that have transformed our lives. A former Marine officer who was decorated in Vietnam, Atkinson was responsible for press operations in the United Arab Emirates during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. From the minute you begin to read this novel, you will be riveted to a work of fiction that reads like today’s headlines.

War is the great transforming event in history and Charles Davis’ Allegiances ($24.95, Merriman Press, Fort Lauderdale, FL), set in 1861, is an ambitious story of love, treason, and high stakes on the high seas. The main characters, Navy Lieutenant Jonathan Wage resigns his U.S. Navy Commission to join the new Confederate Navy, becoming captain of a famous sailing schooner, the yacht, America. This is a story of the dramatic first year of the Confederacy with a whole lot more thrown in. To the degree that the story is densely packed with all manner of nautical and other information, it may try some reader’s patience. The same can be said for The Nautical Chart ($26.00, Harcourt) by Arturo Perez-Reverte. This novel, now translated, was the darling of European literati and gained praise from those here, too, but you have to really want to learn a lot about 18^th century navigation and map making to hang in long enough to follow the story of some contemporary treasure hunting.

Ken Merrell decided to write The Landlord ($21.95, Kay Dee Books, PO Box 970608, Orem, Utah 84097-0608) when he helped an employee deal with an overly curious landlord. Out of that came a thriller about the deaths of five young girls in a small Utah community, all of whom had in common long dark hair. When one of the characters and his 12-year-old daughter move into an apartment thanks to a deal from the landlord he can’t turn down, all he knows is that the previous tenants all moved out in a hurry. Meanwhile a local police officer and his K-9, Sig, are looking for the killer. This is a very frightening story.

Fans of hard-boiled detectives will enjoy Baron R. Birtcher’s Ruby Tuesday ($24.95, Durban House Publishing Co., 7502 Greenville Ave., Suite 500, Dallas, TX 75231). When Mike Travis sails his yacht into the tropical harbor of Kona, Hawaii, he is planning to put his life as a Los Angeles homicide detective behind him. No such luck. He finds his family home ravaged by shotgun blasts, littered with drugs, and the bodies of a dead rock star and his groups. And then it gets worse! The author takes you on a trip into the world of music and high finance where wealth and greed are steeped in sex, vengeance, and murder. Hang on tight when you start to read this one. For pure horror, pick up a copy of Ordinary Horror by David Searcy ($13.00, Plume) a writer with a knack for turning the ordinary into a growing sense of menace. This books marks the debut of an author who may someday challenge Stephen King.

A threesome of mysteries try their hand at entertaining you. There’s Mary Logue’s Glare Ice ($23.95, Walker & Company) that tells the story of the way guy’s liked to drive their pickup trucks on the ice of Lake Pepin, often before it was thick enough. The problem with Buck Owens’ truck, when they found him, was that he was tied to the driver’s seat and that makes it murder. Join with Claire Watkins who knows a bit about Buck’s life and wants to find out who killed him. Perfect reading on a cold winter night. Another Walker title is Lady Vanishes ($8.95) by Carol Lea Benjamin who is the creator of Rachel Alexander, the star of her mystery series. A private investigator, Rachel is asked to find a dog, Dash, used as therapy at a residential treatment center in New York’s Greenwich Village. It turns out that one of the center’s owners dies in a bizarre bicycle accident about two weeks after the dog has vanished. Now, it becomes a matter of finding out if there’s a threat behind these events and you can bet there is.

The Night Men by Keith Snyder ($23.95, Walker) begins on a cold wintery night in New York City when a musician is roused from bed by a friend’s disturbing call. Soon there are three old schoolmates keeping nightly watch for vandals, staying awake by reading from a pulp fiction novel with the same name. Before this gets any more confusing you should be warned that this novel is confusing and this works against otherwise good writing. Good writing is what we have come to expect from Archer Mayor and he does not disappoint with his 12^th book in a series featuring a Vermont cop, Joe Gunther. Tucker’s Peak ($23.95, Mysterious Press) is set in an upscale ski resort where a series of robberies has stumped local authorities. It doesn’t take long for Gunther to discover the most likely thief has vanished, leaving behind a dead girlfriend. Things really get out of hand in a hurry and you will hang in there to find out how it all ends.

New Orleans has long been one of my favorite cities to visit and Chasing the Devil’s Tail by David Fulmer ($24.95, Poisoned Pen Press, 6962 E. 1^st Ave, No. 103, Scottsdale, AZ 85251) reaffirms why it captures the hearts and imaginations of so many writers. It is 1907 in the Storyville section, a raucous, rowdy red-light district that is home to 2,000 "scarlet women" who ply the world’s oldest trade. The problem is, someone is murdering some of them and marking each killing with a black rose. A Creole detective, Valentin St. Cyr, has to find the killer and, in doing so, he encounters a fascinating cast of characters in a novel steeped in a gumbo of race and class, set against a background of jazz. I really liked this one. It would be nice to say the same about Daniel J. Gatti’s White Knuckle ($24.95, Blackmore & Blackmore Publishing, LLC, 117 NW Trinity Place, Suite A, Portland, OR 97209). It is a novel by an attorney who has now tried to spin a tale of abuse, addiction, degradation, and redemption. Suffice it to say, not everyone can write good fiction or be the next John Grisham. Gatti should keep his day job.

If you’re feeling depressed, take a pass on All Souls Day by Cees Nooteboom, as translated by Susan Massotty ($25, Harcourt), the story of a Dutch documentary filmmaker trying to recover from the accidental death of his wife and child. This is a story of love, loss, grief, and the ways the unexpected shapes our lives. Nooteboom is one of Holland’s most famous and translated writers. This story takes on the "big questions" of life and, if that’s your cup of tea, you will find the novel deeply absorbing. If you’re looking for a rollicking trip taken by a new novelist, Kevin Chong, than Baroque-A-Nova ($23.95, G.P. Putnam's Sons) is just the ticket. Funny and angst-ridden, Chong invites you to a suburban landscape of teenage lust, broken families, marginal celebrities and one 18 year-old’s wish to grab the next bus out of town. Meet Soul St. Pierre, the son of a nearly forgotten 70’s folk-singing sensation. He lives in a Vancouver suburb and the press shows up to tell him his mother, who disappeared in his infancy, has committed suicide in Thailand. And that’s just one of his vicissitudes!

The flood of self-published novels or those published by very, very small publishers is growing daily. Too often, these books are earnest efforts that will only be read by a handful of people and swiftly forgotten by everyone but their authors. Among the latest to arrive are Holy Orders by Rosemary Glenn ($18.95, Xlibris) that explores a priest’s choices of loyalty, to the church or to his country? Set in turn of the century Wales, it tells the story of a young Irish priest and reflects the author’s insight to the inner conflicts of Catholicism and how they are resolved. Jim Phelps has written an amusing satire, The Pecking Order, ($16.95, National Writers Press, 3140 S. Peoria St, Aurora, CO 80014) that requires the people in small town to reveal his or her place in the town’s pecking order. We are introduced to every kind of neighbor you ever met, from bullheaded to selfish, gallant to silly. This is a very creative look at life as it lived out by ordinary folks. What would happen if an Indian tribe returned to claim its land? Wee Dilts poses and answers that question in Return of the Anasazi (1stBooks Library). The Colorado-based writer weaves together history, metaphysics, psychology, and ethology in an intriguing story. Gladys Scheffrin-Falk has written One Summer of Lightning (Xlibris) that explores the relationship between two children, both scorned by their mothers, as they grow into their teens, and beyond. Because she is a skilled writer, you will quickly become part of their lives as they tell their stories.

And then there’s Human by Brian F. McNamee ($13.95, VistaTron Publishing, PO Box 321, Ashland, OH 44805-0321) that’s a scientific thriller. With cloning in the headlines these days, this novel explores the unintended consequences of science. The author has credentials as both a physician and as a lawyer. The story is about an ambitious project to mix the DNA of a dying man with that of a primate to grow and harvest new organs to save his life. When a disgruntled employee tips off the police, the hybrid creature is taken into custody. Is the creature human? Would his death for his organs be murder? You’ll have to read the book!