The beginning of a new year is a good time to address many of the important issues facing the nation. This month’s selection reflects this while including some other unique, interesting new books.

There continues to be a lot of controversy regarding the Bush administration’s decision to liberate Iraq from its dictator after having freed the Afghanis from the grip of the Taliban. As the President has said many times, the desire for freedom and liberty is everyone’s right and now Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer have written The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny & Terror ($26.95, Public Affairs) reflecting Sharansky’s journey from being a political prisoner for nine years in a Soviet gulag to being a leading Israeli politician. He brings a unique perspective to why the way oppressive governments exercise tyranny and why democracy is not beyond any nation’s reach. Freedom, the authors say is rooted in the right to dissent without fear of punishment and reprisal, arguing that societies that do not protect that right can never be reliable partners for peace. Indeed, they say that the democracy that hates us is much safer than the dictatorship that loves us. Until you can fully understand the difference between a "fear" society and a free society, you can never understand the worldwide struggle taking place. The need to expand democracy throughout the world is the best path toward achieving world peace and this book makes its case persuasively. It is a case for optimism, but more importantly, it is a case for moral clarity. I highly recommend this book.

The nation is a very complicated entity and understanding how the various parts fit can only be achieved by reading what experts have to say. Robert A. Levy, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, has written Shake Down: How Corporations, Government, and Trial Lawyers Abuse the Judicial Process ($22.95, Cato Institute) to explain why, since 1930, litigation costs have grown four times faster than the overall economy. In 2002 alone tort cases cost $233 billion. The judicial system gives many indications of spiraling out of control. Dr. Levy shows why civil justice reform is necessary. He exposes the true nature of the 1998 tobacco settlement that transformed a competitive industry into a cartel and then protected it by keeping out competition. In case after case, whole industries are being targeted, resulting in the rise of the cost of insurance, goods, and services. Suffice it to say this is not light reading, but for anyone trying to understand why this is happening and the cost to the economy, it is compelling reading.

Even more unpleasant revelations are to be found in Inside: A Top G-Man Exposes Spies, Lies, and Bureaucratic Bungling Inside the FBI ($26.99, Nelson Current, Thomas Nelson Co.) by former FBI Special Agent in Charge, I.C. Smith who looks back over a distinguished career and, regrettably, finds much to criticize. Indeed, despite the successes the Federal Bureau of Investigation has had over the years, Smith’s memoir is an indictment of its increasing politicization and its failure to address the need for a broader worldview, especially in response to Islamic terrorism. He relates the failures of agency discipline in the famed cases of Waco and Ruby Ridge. He has no kind words to say of Clinton’s presidency, nor of most of the FBI directors from that era and since. For those of us raised on the myths of the "G-Men", this is a sad recounting of the truth behind the scenes, told by a man whose breadth of experience within the agency suggests that much is needed to improve the caliber of its agents and its ability to meet the demands of the new century. Read this book and you will question the competency of FBI, past, present, and future, and you will do so with good cause. The author has performed yet another service to his nation in writing this book.

As the voters increasingly prefer the conservative message to the liberal one that proved so successful for so many years, the most dramatic rejection of a political figure in recent times has to be the election that removed the former liberal, Democrat Governor of California, Gray Davis, from office and replaced him with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Patrick Mallon has documented why Californians took this dramatic step in California Dictatorship: How Liberal Extremism Destroyed Gray Davis ($31/$24.00 hardcover/soft. Available via Amazon.com and other outlets). As the title suggests, the author is highly critical of the liberal approach to governing, but he backs it up with a clear-eyed look at the way California legislators failed to serve citizens. A classic polemic, this book should be read by every Californian and political junky who wants to understand how the electricity crisis, immigration, the gay agenda, and other social issues undermined the tone-deaf, arrogant Davis and the crony politics that underwrote his administration. Mallon reveals that the largest "party" in California were people who didn’t vote! One result, in Davis’ hands was the destruction of its economy and a huge migration of people out of California. The other result was his recall by a lot of people who decided to vote to save the State.

There is something particularly refreshing about removing misconceptions one has lived with too long. Nowhere is this more evident in the way history has been taught to countless generations. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas E. Woods, Jr., Ph.D. ($19.95, Regnery Publishing, Inc.) debunks myths ranging from the widely held view that the First Amendment prohibits school prayer to the belief that FDR’s New Deal helped end the Great Depression. From America’s earliest years to the present, in an easily readable fashion that deals in broad strokes, rather than detailed descriptions, this book reveals many popular misconceptions Americans still embrace are not supported by the facts. And it offers a vast bibliography of books for anyone who wants to explore its presentation in greater detail. While shedding notions embedded in many of the history books and lessons taught in our schools for the last half century or more, you will find yourself both entertained and enlightened. For those who would prefer a longer, more detailed text, there’s A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror ($29.95, Sentinel, an imprint of the Penguin Group) by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen. To put it bluntly, much of what today’s history textbooks teach students is deliberately skewed to present an ugly picture of the Founding Fathers and major events that shaped our nation. This book, just published, reveals how early American beliefs in personal and public virtue, and the essential element of liberty, the right to own private property, contributed to the break with England and the creation, first of the Articles of Confederation, and then the Constitution. The latter exists to protect property and rights the Founders believed were granted by God, not man. From their early vision, through the Jacksonians, onto Lincoln, the rise of the great industrialists, the trial of the Great Depression, the World Wars, and the Cold War, right through to Ronald Reagan’s renewed vision of America, this is a first class work that any parent would want his child to read and any lover of history would want to as well.

Have you ever read the U.S. Constitution? Too many Americans have not and even more have no idea about the ideas and history that led to its creation. Michael Badnarik remedies that in his book, Good to be King: The Foundation of our Constitutional Freedom ($21.95, The Writers’ Collective, Cranston, RI). It will surprise you in many ways and frighten you in others. The rights Americans believe a guaranteed or granted by the Constitution, for existence, pre-existed it. The document exists to insure that neither the federal, nor state government can take them away from you. The author shows how the Constitution has, particularly in the latter half of the last century, been ignored and distorted. The existence of The Patriot Act, notes the author, represents a real threat to liberty. This is an excellent book of scholarship that would have benefited from not including a very brief allusion to some conspiracy theories. For an understanding of the Constitution, this book represents a clear, concise review of its content and intent. The title references the Constitution’s basis in property rights, giving any citizen the powers once only held by the British crown and other monarchs.

A friend of mine, William Penn Fallin, is a talented writer, who spent much of his adult life as president of three US manufacturing companies before moving to Taiwan, to organize a joint venture company. While there he began writing for the China Post, an English language newspaper in Taipei. Now retired, he has written for 14 years; his commentaries being published in a number of small weeklies. In 2000 he set up an Internet political discussion board that is visited by more than 1,400 people from more than 130 nations. Bill has written A ‘Flying’ Tiger’s Tale ($26.95, Author House, available from Amazon.com) a biography of T.C, Koo, a man whose life is so filled with adventure and achievement that fiction pales beside it. Born in Washington, DC in 1916, while Koo’s father was a diplomat in the Chinese delegation, he would live into his 80s. His maternal grandfather, Tong Shao-Yi, was premier of China and his father would follow in his footsteps. When war came to Asia, T.C. served in the Chinese Air Force during World War II as part of General Claire Chennault’s famed "Flying Tigers." He would later serve on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur during the early stages of the Allied occupation of Japan. Eventually, he would follow Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek to Taiwan after the nationalists lost China to the Communists. Told in the form of interviews with him before he died, the biography becomes an intriguing personal experience of a man whose life reflected the great turmoil of the last century, bridging two cultures. To get an autographed copy, send $25.00 to Bill Fallin,1313 SW Troon Circle, Palm City, FL 34990.

I have known Dr. Jan Yager, Ph.D. for many years and have been pleased to recommend her many excellent books on friendship and other relationships. Her new book, 125 Ways to Meet the Love of Your Life ($19.95, Hannacroix Creek Books) is a great way to start the new year if you are searching for someone special with whom to spend your life. Jan met her husband Fred through a personal ad she placed in New York magazine. She called him immediately, met him, and they fell in love, marrying 23 days later. That was 19 years ago! So Jan knows love can occur swiftly and knows how to sustain it. Based on extensive original research that included dozens of interviews with people who found their life mate, as well as looking at singles clubs, online dating and matchmaking services. This book will prepare the reader to get ready for the search and increase the likelihood you will have a happy relationship result.

A fun, self-help book is Larry A. Thompson’s Shine ($19.95, McGraw-Hill). An acclaimed firm producer and personal manager to more than 200 stars, Thompson lays out a game plan for everyone, showing how they can tap their talents, focus on success, assemble a good team of mentors and motivators, and then—yes—get lucky! You will enjoy his stories about the various stars with whom he’s worked and whose careers he guided. Phillip J. Milano started a website, yforum.com, some years ago on which people could ask all those politically incorrect questions about race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, physical disabilities, and other topics that you’re not supposed to ask out loud. It became a big success. Now he’s out with a book, I Can’t Believe You Asked That! ($14.95, Perigee, Berkley Publishing Group) that is filled with real answers to real questions posted by real people. It makes for some very interesting, provocative reading. Dan Voohees has written Why Do Donuts Have Holes? (12.95, Kensington Publishing Corp) subtitled "Fascinating Facts About What We Eat and Drink." For anyone who loves cooking and baking, there’s a world of wonderful trivia in this book ranging from who wrote the first cookbook to what vegetable has been cultivated for more than 9,000 years. Lots of people organize their own book clubs and now there’s a book, Recipe for a Book Club, by Mary O’Hare and Rose Storey ($19.95, Capital Books) that will help anyone who wants to start a club built around monthly themes, combined with recommendations of what to serve when everyone gets together. As the authors, sisters, say, "Reading a good book provides as much mental nourishment as eating a good meal." I have to agree!

The name Emily Post is synonymous with etiquette, the glue that keeps society functioning smoothly and which creates good relationships. The 17^th edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette: The Definitive Guide to Manners ($39.95, Harper Resource) by Peggy Post is now off the press and is a whopping 870-plus pages of excellent advice on everything from caring for elderly parents, what to do if you’re a new neighbor, coming of age events, formal invitations, manners in cyberspace, weddings, funerals, and everything else that calls for some protocol to get one through the event. This book is just extraordinary.

Are you one of the thousands who have become hooked watching poker on television? If so, you will enjoy Bad Bets and Lucky Draws: Poker Strategies, Winning hands, and stories from the Professional Poker Tour by Phil Hellmuth, Jr. ($14.95, Harper Resource), nine-time World Series of Poker Champion. This is strictly for the fan of the game and the players who have now become celebrities thanks to the televised tournaments. Hellmuth provides a professional’s insights regarding the art of the bluff, reading other players, and such. For animal lovers, there’s a delightful book, Orangutans: Wizards of the Rainforest ($24.95, Firefly Books Ltd) by Anne E. Russon. It is filled with many delightful color photos and an excellent text about the author’s studies in Borneo which, along with Sumatra, is the only home of these creatures. To learn about these human-like animals, this book is a winner. By far the strangest book I’ve seen of late is New York: The Photo Atlas, An Aerial Tour of All Five Boroughs and More ($60.00, Harper Resource), a huge book with page after page of photos that depict every single road, structure, park and other inch of space in New York. This is the kind of book anyone planning either a terrorist attack or a bank robbery getaway plan would love to have. I frankly have no idea why anyone else would buy this book. The most interesting aspect is the way so many trees manage to survive there.

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Business Books for Success in 2005

Peter F. Drucker has achieved iconic fame as a business guru. A great way to access his wisdom is The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation ($19.95, Harper Business, imprint of HarperCollins). You can start with January and work your way through his thoughts on all aspects of business, management, ethics and much more, or you can just open it anywhere and enjoy brief selections from his many earlier writings that will help you achieve success.

The New Workforce by Harriet Hankin ($27.95, Amacom) is subtitled "Five Sweeping Trends that will Shape Your Company’s Future." Among those trends is an increasingly older workplace population, a more diverse workplace, the decline of the nuclear family, and the need to finding meaning and a higher purpose in the workplace. The time when getting a job meant being fairly sure you would keep it and move up the ladder belongs to an earlier era, so How Hard Are You Knocking? The Job Seeker’s Guide to Opening Career Doors by Timothy Augustine with Rana Curcio ($12.95, Oakhill Press, Winchester, VA) provides many helpful hints on how to set your career goals, target specific companies that match them, develop a marketing strategy, craft an effective resume, and many other steps to get you to and through the interview that will land a new job. You can listen to You’re Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life by Bill Rancic ($29.95, Harper Audio). Having achieved great success as an entrepreneur, Rancic could not resist the competition of the famed TV show "The Apprentice" where the prize was working side by side with Donald Trump. In fact, Trump provides the forward to this audiobook. Rancic became an overnight celebrity, but his strategies had been developed long before. Now you can learn what they are and apply them to your own life.

A clever book along the same lines is Louder Than Thunder by Carol Dunitz, Ph.D. ($19.95, Canterbury & Parkside, Ann Arbor, MI). This book addresses the psychological side of making yourself a better worker through a parable about a CEO who calls in three vice presidents to say she’s stepping down and her job will go to the one who comes back with the best answer to the riddle: What is louder than thunder, as highly charged as lightning, and more powerful than the fierce North Wind? Some valuable lessons are to be learned from this interesting book. Tell Me How I’m Doing: A Fable About the Importance of Giving Feedback ($19.95, Amacom) by Richard L. Williams, Ph.D. If you have been told you are not providing feedback at work or at home, this book provides some excellent advice on how to develop and hone this vital skill. For the mom’s who work at home, there’s I Love My Life! A Mom’s Guide to Working from Home by Kristie Tamsevicius ($14.95, Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, Inc., Deadwood, OR). This book provides lots of tested advice on how to start your own business and take charge of your life. There are some unique skills that are needed for such an enterprise and they require energy, confidence, and passion. It also requires being computer literate. How to blend motherhood and a rewarding work life is spelled out in specific terms. The rewards are being able to schedule your work around your life and leave the daily rat race behind you. The Big Sister’s Guide to the World of Work: The Inside Rules Every Working Girl Must Know ($14.00, Fireside Original/Simon & Schuster) is one of those titles that tells you everything about the book by Marcelle DiFalco and Jocelyn Greenky Herz. These "entry level nobodies" made it to the top and now share their experience and knowledge with other women in the working world. A lot of myths get trashed in the process.

Enjoy reading about the giants of the business world? Then check out The Watson Dynasty by Richard S. Tedlow ($15.95, Harper Business) that looks aback over an extraordinary 57-year period when the chief executives of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) were Thomas J. Watson, father and son of the same name. The company bears the imprint of both men and also the consequences of a family that was in near-constant conflict. Ironically, the ideas that make Big Blue the bluest of blue chip stock also sowed the seeds for IBM’s disasters in the late 1980s and early 90s. For both a family and a business history, this makes for some compelling reader. Dick Martin takes you behind the scenes at AT&T in Tough Calls: AT&T and the Hard Lessons Learned from the Telecom Wars (24.95, Amacom). Martin began working for "the phone company" fresh out of grad school in 1970. During his last six years on the payrolls, he was the head of AT&T’s public relations and thus privy to many controversial, costly, and widely criticized decisions. He literally had a seat at the table and his book provides an instructive corporate history that hones in on a brief, but extremely tumultuous period that included a staggering downsizing of 40,000 jobs. This is a riveting book for anyone who wants to know what happened and why. You can listen to Ford Tough by David Magee ($28.95, Penton Audio) as he tells the inspiring story of Bill Ford, scion of one of America’s most celebrated dynasties, and his heroic battle to revive and reshape Fort Motor Company. This is an interest behind-the-scenes story and how the young executive’s personal qualities played a role in the company’s turnaround. The second edition of The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom ($24.95, John Wiley & Sons) is available, the first edition having sold more than a million copies. For any investor, this should be mandatory reading. How Buffett became a billionaire is a fascinating story.

Warren Buffett has said of Bull! A History of the Boom and Bust, 1982-2004 ($16.95, Harper Business) that it is "Well reported and well written. Bull! Is a book investors can learn much from." Maggie Mahar explores what happened and provides a valuable insight regarding what 2lst century investors need to know about financial cycles. The bull market that marked so much of the end of the last century and beginning of the new one is also a colorful cast of characters who came to dominate the market news. She makes financial risk interesting in ways that may business writers do not.

Business history is well served with three interesting books. Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon ($25.95, Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins) by Charles Slack. Hetty Green was the most successful female financier of the early 20^th century and yet many have never heard of her. She was brilliant, avaricious, and a very complicated woman who accumulated vast wealth. As such, her life provides for some entertaining reading. Two Wall Street Journal reporters, Rebecca Smith and John R. Emshwiller, uncovered the lies that ripped the mask off Enron, revealing how corrupt that corporate giant had become. 24 Days ($14.95, Harper Business) is a fast-paced, gripping narrative of how they exposed the truth and set in motion a chain of events that shook the public’s trust in Big Business, Wall Street, and the accounting profession. As always, non-fiction—the truth—is almost always more compelling than anything a novelist can invent.

Want to make your millions on eBay? Well, you better pick up the second edition of eBay Business: The Smart Way by Joseph T. Sinclair ($24.95, Amacom) that is subtitled "Maximize Your Profits on the Web’s #1 Auction Site." This completely updated edition covers hundreds of crucial issues such as building credibility, accounting, inventory management, shipping, taxes, liability, and creating a storefront Web site. It is virtually the bible on how to succeed via this unique Web outlet. If you can get through its detailed, nearly 450, pages, you can move onto success on eBay. Good luck!

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Health, Diets, Et Cetera

Not long ago, I was advised to consider taking a drug to reduce my cholesterol. I am generally drug-averse, preferring a regime of vitamins each morning. The Essential Guide to Prescription Drugs 2005: Everything You Need to Know for Safe Drug Use by James J. Rybacki ($55.95/$20.95, hard and softcover, Harper Resource) provides detailed profiles of more than 300 drugs encompassing more than 2,000 brands, including hundreds of herbal and prescription combinations you must avoid. In these days when so many depend on proscription drugs of every description, having a book like this can literally save one’s life. I checked out the drug recommended to me and concluded it had enough unpleasant side affects to avoid.

For those who need are on medications there’s Tracking Your Medicine: How to Keep it Simple and Safe by Laurel Zien ($8.95, Boomerview Press, Richmond, CA). It’s a short book designed to assist adult children of aging parents, seniors, partners and caregivers. Many older folk take multiple medications or have more than one doctor. Using this guide will help family members known the medicines being taken in case there is an emergency, plus offering lots of good advice such as how to create a schedule for taking medications, centralizing a medical history, plus emergency phone numbers, and much more. Living Well With Epilepsy and Other Seizure Disorders by Dr. Carl W. Bazil, MD ($14.95, Harper Resource) will prove a very helpful book as nearly one out of every hundred Americans must deal with these neurological diseases. The author takes the mystery out of them—people used to think it was demonic possession. Written for anyone to understand, this is one of those special books for people with special problems.

Warning! I know nothing about diets or dieting other than to cut back on the amount of food you eat. That’s why I tend to be wary of recommending diet books. That said, there are always lots of diet books and, in fairness, they cannot be ignored and there is always the possibility one of them may work for you. That is why I liked 100 Best Weight-Loss Tips by Dr. Fred A. Stutman, MD ($29.95/$19.95, hard or softcover, Medical Manor Books, Philadelphia, PA). Dr. Stutman has written a half dozen books on diet and fitness and his latest, due out in March, is recommended by The Physician’s Health Bulletin. For someone who has not dieted before or is on a diet that makes them feel lousy, this book explores things such as why the faddish low-carbohydrate diets can be dangerous to your health. Instead, this book promotes healthy eating habits and a rational permanent weight-loss system. Brian Alman, Ph.D., along with Stephan Montgomery, Ph.D., have written Keep It Off: Your Key to Weight Loss for Life ($14.00, Plume) that addresses the biggest problem dieters have, keeping the weight off once they’ve lost it. This book recommends the use of self-hypnosis as a way to explore the psychological baggage they carry around that leads to eating too much. Frankly, I have no idea if this will work, but I am not prepared to say it won’t.

After giving birth, a lot of mothers want to regain their former shape and Lose Your Mummy Tummy ($18.00, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA) offers the Tupler technique by Julie Tupler, R.D. With plenty of photos and an easy to follow text, the author who is also a certified personal trainer, fitness instructor, and childbirth educator, provides the guide that has helped thousands of moms have faster, easier deliveries and quicker recoveries. Getting rid of the postpartum pouch, the "mummy tummy", is a set of simple exercises that helps flatten the stomach. Supermodel Elle Macpherson believes in the technique so much she wrote the preface to the book.

Two books from Hudson Street Press, New York, would seem to be in conflict with one another. One is The Automatic Diet by Charles Stuart Platkin ($24.95) that offers a "proven 10-step process for breaking your fat pattern." Platkin writes the nationally syndicated column, "The Diet Detective", and, suffice it to say this book is filled with what appears to be good advice for the diet-challenged person looking for answers. By contrast, Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig, an expert on the biochemistry of food and fat, along with Sally Fallon, the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, ($24.95) offers an approach to diet that challenges decades of what the authors call faulty thinking about the role of fat in our diet. The magic bullet of their diet is coconut oil. This book is heavy on medical and scientific data. If one is inclined to want to know more about how the body processes various kinds of fat and foods, this is the book for you.

Wish you had a better complexion? Your skin giving you problems? Then pick up a copy of The Clear Skin Prescription: The Perricone Program to Eliminate Problem Skin ($15.95, Harper Resource) by Dr. Nicholas Perricone, M.D. It is packed with lots of good advice, beginning with what causes problem skin and how to stop it, recipes of nutritious things to eat to clear your skin, information on nutritional supplements, data on topical applications and blemish-fighting products, and much more. This book is also available on CD and cassette from Harper Audio, titled "The Acne Prescription." The author is certified by the American Board of Dermatology and has a slew of other credentials.

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Novels, Novels, Novels!

Sometimes a novel comes along that so mirrors one’s own life that it revives memories of wonderful bygone times. Such is the case with Fred Cicetti’s new novel, Saltwater Taffy: A Summer at the Jersey Shore ($19.95, iUniverse). Fred was a reporter for some of the State’s best newspapers. His byline always signaled an interesting article on someone or some aspect of life. Fred and I shared a youth spent in and around Long Branch, a town near the Jersey shore, famed for its Victorian homes, largely owned in the 1950s by Italians and others who frequently rented out rooms to folks seeking to escape the "big city" for the joys of the beaches and boardwalks. My grandparents lived in nearby Branch Port on the Shrewsbury River. Set in that era, Fred conjures up the era of singers like Johnnie Ray on the jukebox, drinking Coke from six-ounce bottles, and a more discreet approach to romance. His novel delineates love affairs complicated by cultural and age differences during a period between the post-war boom and rock’n roll. I was there! This novel is a joy whether you were or not!

HarperCollins Publishers continue to provide us with the work of established and new novelists. Michael Crichton brings his bestselling book talents to bear in State of Fear ($27.95) blending his knowledge of science with his skill for writing books that are thrillers in the best sense of the word. In this novel, environmentalists plot to create "natural" disasters to support the theory of global warming. Crichton has taken pains to demonstrate that it is not based on the known facts and suggests a dark agenda behind the effort to impose it as international policy. It makes for very powerful reading. Bestselling author, Janet Evanovich, returns with Metro Girl ($26.95) in which the main character, Alex, goes looking for her younger brother, "Wild" Bill Barnaby after he appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. She heads for Miami where he was last seen. It turns out to be a harrowing hunt with lots of twists and turns. You will be turning the pages as Alex blasts her way through the bars of South Beach then heads south to Key West and Cuba, driven by NASCAR driver Sam Hooker whose 65-foot Hatteras has been "borrowed" by Bill. This is just so much fun to read that it leaves you eager for her next novel. William Morrow is an imprint of HarperCollins and we’re happy to see that Diane Mott Davidson is back with Double Shot ($24.95), her twelfth novel. In this story, the governor of Colorado has commuted the prison sentence of Goldy Schulz’s ultra charming, wealthy and venal ex-husband, who she refers to as the "Jerk." Problem is, she’s become the victim of threats, rumors, and violence. While trying to run her successful catering business, Goldy must also deal with two persistent detectives. In a mix of culinary affairs and suspense you will want to know what’s next in this novel that includes an addendum of the recipes mentioned in the course of trying to survive the "Jerk."

Another imprint of HarperCollins is Ecco and, if you like big, fat novels, you should consider Joyce Carol Oates’ latest, The Falls ($26.95). This one grabs when it opens with the suicide of a newlywed husband who leaps to his death in the Niagara Falls. As Ariah Erskine waits for his body to be found, she is joined by Dirk Burnaby, a pillar of the community, who falls in love despite barely exchanging a word with her. What follows is a passionate love affair, marriage, and children. And a novel that spans two generations of a family bound together by a history of tragedy, love, loss, and ultimately redemption during the mid-part of the last century. It is a story of intense relationships. Here, too, one can listen to the story on Harper Audio ($39.95) unabridged on 15 compact disks. Fourth Estate is also a HarperCollins imprint and happily it has published Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution ($23.95), a short, suspenseful tale of compassion and wit that conjures up the classic 19^th century detective story. Its characters are compelling. One is an 89-year-old, once famed detective living in the English countryside into whose life wanders a 9-year-old mute who has escaped from Nazi Germany along with his African gray parrot. A parrot that spews out mysterious strings of German numbers. What could they mean? Are they a top-secret SS code? Are they keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts? Or maybe something even more sinister? Happily, you can also listen to this novel on a Harper Audio edition ($22.00) read by Michael York. It is a joy to read or hear a master storyteller at work.

Also set during World War II is an interesting novel by Richard Shain Cohen. Be Still, My Soul ($21.95) begins on the eve of the war with Hitler on the march. Three thousand miles away another war is brewing within a Boston Brahman family that has tyrants of its own. Cohen, a retired professor of literature, based elements of the story on his own family’s correspondence from that period, but the characters are entirely fictional. At the center of the story is Aaron Lobel, an immigrant Jew, a physician who has married into a wealthy Catholic family. His wife, Jocelyn, is a renowned singer, but was banished by her father for getting pregnant and marrying Aaron. Thirty years later they have four sons whom they desperately want to protect from the events that promise war in Europe. And to complicate matters more, German double agents have married into the family and British intelligence is aware of it. Jeremie, the youngest of their sons, narrates the story in a fast-paced narrative that evokes the time and the battles. A very good novel to read as our world is enveloped into a new war between good and evil. Another war is evoked in Carl Melcher Goes to Vietnam by Paul Clayton ($22.95, Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press.) The year is 1968 and, like thousands of other American boys, Carl Mecher is drafted and sent to war. This is a classic coming of age novel as the main character, naively optimistic, learns the bitter lessons of life through the experiences of war. The issues are life and death, and whether you lived through that war as the author did or want to experience it through his novel, you will find it gritty, gripping, and poignant. Then you will want to read his first novel, "Calling Crows", that I had the pleasure of recommending.

Stephanie Gertler, with two novels to her name, has written The Windmill ($24.95, Dutton), bringing her gift for capturing emotion to a story about a couple living a seemingly perfect life. Olivia and Carl have a son and daughter, weekends on Cape Cod, and vocations as professors at Belvedere Collage. Then, one day, Carl disappears without a trace. The turmoil that ensues reminds us that there are some secrets that must be kept if a marriage is to survive. The Distance Between Us ($24.95, Unbridled Books, Denver, CO) is set in a very different place, the Middle East. The conflict between Israel and its neighbors is told through the life of Caddie Blair, a journalist who works hard to maintain her detachment from the passions swirling around her. When her lover is killed in an ambush as she pursues a story near Lebanon, she is sorely tested and we share her search for a middle passage between vengeance and her own emotional survival. This is a masterfully told story that illustrates the passions of that beleaguered part of the world.

Plume Paperbacks, a member of the Penguin Group, is constantly publishing a variety of novels, one or more of which is sure to please. There are generally priced around $14 each. Among the more recent titles is St. Ursula’s Girls Against the Atomic Bomb by Valerie Hurley. Making a second attempt at senior year in Manhattan’s St. Ursula’s Academy for Girls, Raine Rassaby, an eccentric 18-year-old is precocious, wryly funny, and hilariously brave. In short, a totally engaging character. A very different story is told in True Cross by T.R. Pearson. The author displays excellent satiric skills as he pairs up two recluses in small southern community who have their own reasons for feeling superior to everyone around them. Trying to help a local damsel in distress doesn’t quite work out, but the trip is worth it. The Staggerford Murders by Jon Hassler are two novellas set in a Minnesota town. There’s plenty of wry humor to enjoy as residents of the run-down Ransford Hotel "solve" a nine-year-old murder and in the second story is one of redemption as an elderly man befriends a boy from town. Hassler has created a town that will wend its way into American literature for years to come. Far away places also are settings for novels. Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry recounts the evolution of modern Ireland from the beginning of the last century through the life of Henry Smart, a soldier in the Irish Rebellion. For anyone of Irish descent, this will prove fascinating reading. And even if you are not Irish. Germany during the Nazi era is captured in Siegfried by Harry Mulisch. When a renowned author states that only through fiction can the evil of Hitler be understood, he is approached by an elderly couple who tell him they were domestic servants in Hitler’s Bavarian retreat where they were witness to the birth of Seigfried, born to Hitler and Eva Braun. This is a thoroughly provocative novel and a very good one. The Philippines is the setting for Dream Jungle by Jessica Hagedorn that uses the discovery of a "lost tribe" to chronicle the clash and embrace of American and Filipino cultures that explores universal themes of power, money, race, and colonialism. Written during the death throes of the former Soviet Union, Life with an Idiot by Victor Erofeyev is a collection of short stories written between 1978 and 1990. They have achieved classic stature in Russia and reveal what it was like to live under state tyranny and emerge into freedom.

Richard Stark has made a name for himself writing gritty crime novels and continues to gain fans with his latest, Nobody Runs Forever ($23.95, Mysterious Press, an imprint of Time Warner). When a clandestine meeting of shady friends and shadier strangers ends in the death of a stool pigeon, Stark’s master criminal, Parker, ignores the warning signs and takes on a new heist. A dogged detective and various mishaps make life very difficult for this criminal. Another novelist, Eric Jerome Dickey, has established himself as one of major names in African-American fiction who writes with humor, soul, and passion. A cold winter’s night is a good time to curl up with Naughty or Nice ($12.00, New American Library softcover) as three sisters look for love and battle their own issues. This is all about the troubles they have with the men in their lives. The Effect of Living Backwards by Heidi Julavits ($14.00, Berkley Books) follows up on her debut novel, The Mineral Palace, which garnered much praise and was named the best book of 2000 by Newsweek. The new novel is about Alice and Edith, sisters, best friends, and archenemies. Alice is the "good" girl and is everything the stunning, wanton, and morally whimsical Edith is not. Both are tested when their plane is hijacked by a blind terrorist. This is one heck of a ride! Also from Berkley is Patty Friedmann’s Secondhand Smoke ($13.95) about the most obnoxious woman in all of New Orleans. She’s nasty, she’s prejudiced, and she’s finally killed her husband or so her kids believe. She is also an infuriatingly lovable and hilarious anti-heroine. Berkley also recently published Clive Cussler’s Sacred Stone ($15.00) written with Craig Dirgo. With 19 novels under his belt, Cussler knows how to tell a good story and this one is about a young archaeologist who discovers a 50,000-year-old meteorite said to have been buried by Eric the Red in Greenland a thousand years earlier. This sacred stone is radioactive, making the scientist the target of two dangerous groups, Muslim terrorists and a deranged industrialist bent on nothing less than the destruction of Islam. The only thing between them is Cussler’s spy outfit-for-hire.

Lovers of fantasy can find their fill by visiting www.wizards.com for any one of their many titles. Among their latest is a trilogy by R. A. Salvatore called "Forgotten Realms." Two are available as paperbacks, The Thousand Orcs and The Lone Drow ($7.99 each) and the final book of the series, The Two Swords ($27.95, hardcover). They are all about conflict that often reflects the realities of today’s headlines in their universal themes. Definitely not for the squeamish. For the younger reader, ages 8-12, there’s Mystery at Blackbeard’s Cove ($14.95, Tanglewood Press, Terre Haute, IN) by Andrea Penn. Given the tremendous popularity among younger readers of the Harry Potter series, it is clear that, given a good novel, they will turn off the TV and read. This one offers up secret underground tunnels, hidden pirate treasure, and life and death situations that even I found exciting. Historical locations and events on the Outer Banks of North Carolina are the background to the story. Will four young friends of an eccentric old woman succeed in helping to fulfill her wish to be buried at sea? Will they survive the adventures that follow from this? Give this book as a gift to your favorite youngster and find out!

Curious about telepathy, remote viewing and other psychic stuff? Mystic Warrior by Edwin Harkness Spina ($19.95, Higher Dimensions Publishing, Inc) is a contemporary thriller that takes place where psychic abilities and spiritual powers are used and abused by ordinary people, as well as those at the highest levels of government and world leadership. It is a tale of political intrigue, nuclear threat, and the experiences of Alec Thorn, the "mystic warrior" of the title. His spiritual transformation exposes an unknown world of mystics living openly in society pursuing goals beyond the imagination. This offbeat novel has earned a fair amount of praise, including the author of "Kabbalah Simply Stated", Bob Waxman, who says "Spina asks esoteric questions that few writers could ever imagine, and he answers them in subplots that few readers will ever forget." The Midwest Book Review has recommended the novel as "deftly written" and "suspenseful."

Rush Week by Alaric Jaxartes, a pen name, is self-published ($14.95, Pageturners Publishing Co., Jacksonville, FL) and the author says more novels are on the way. It is about the nasty learning experience encountered by a young man who pledges a fraternity and the moral lessons he learns in the process. A coming of age novel, it captures the anguish of those years and reflects the author’s varied life and career. Evangelist Pat Robertson gives it a thumbs up, saying he’s looking forward to a sequel. If this first novel is any indicator, then I too shall look forward to the others.

My friend, P.J. Parrish, is back with another terrific paperback mystery, A Killing Rain, due out next month ($6.99, Pinnacle) starring her detective, Louis Kinkaid, investigating what should have been a routine case. Deep in the Florida Everglades someone is hunting humans, not alligators. And he enjoys his victim’s terror before he harvests a relic of the kill. Parrish is increasingly being compared and heralded as one of the top crime writers, up there in the ranks of Ed McBain and T.J. McGregor. The work is always suspenseful and written in ways that keeps you turning the page. Fans of the late Robert Ludlum’s suspense novels will welcome The Tristan Betrayal ($7.99, St. Martin’s Press) and, from Berkley, there’s Wild Card by Jerome Preisler ($7.99) a eighth addition to the Tom Clancy series, "Power Plays", involving a plot to drain oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve and sell it to foreign nations. It’s a real edge-of-your-seat read. David Micheals has written Splinter Cell ($7.99) as part of a new Tom Clancy series, based on the bestselling computer game of the same name. It’s all about high tech computer spyware for an elite intelligence-gathering unit consisting of a lone field operative supported by a remote team. He’s a modern-day James Bond and the action never stops.

From Kensington Publishing, the latest paperback releases include Good Morning, Killer by April Smith ($6.99) is about a woman turned vigilante looking to put an end to a sadistic sexual predator. This is a gripping thriller. The untimely deaths of two plus-size models has private eye Savannah Reid on the job in Cereal Killer ($6.50) before a cunning killer strikes again. Fans of WWII novels will enjoy Voyage of the Gray Wolves by Steven Wilson ($6.99) about Germany’s most skillful U-Boat captain who takes a radical new submarine on a desperate mission to the shores of England in an attempt to save his nation from defeat. And for anyone who enjoys a good western novel, William W. Johnstone, one of the best, offers Wrath of the Mountain Man ($5.99) as part of his series. This time the hero is out for vengeance and you’ll want to be with him on the trail.

That’s it for January! Don’t forget to come back next month for more news of the latest and best fiction and non-fiction books. And do visit our Featured Book section for news of some very interesting, unique books. Then tell your friends about Bookviews.com so they, too, can enjoy learning about all the books that are not on the bestseller lists, but ought to be.

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