I believe that two issues will determine the outcome of the November election and that of 2008. One will be the conflict in Iraq and the other, possibly even more important to the future of the nation, illegal immigration. Patrick J. Buchanan’s new book has been on the bestseller list precisely because he makes a compelling case that, unlike the immigrations of the past, we are indeed witnessing a full-scale invasion. That’s why I recommend State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America ($24.95, Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin’s Press). It is his view that a full-scale effort by Mexico to regain the lands lost in the Texas War of Independence and the Mexican-American War is underway. Having written on this topic myself, I can testify that he has his facts right. Buchanan worries that the failure to put the breaks to the thousands of Mexicans and others crossing our south border will radically change America for the worse. When you look at the politics and economies of South America, it’s hard to argue with that. We are beginning to witness marches in the streets of our cities and demands for rights that have not been earned legally and properly. If you worry that twelve million or more illegal aliens pose a wide range of problems that include criminal activity, unpaid use of our public health and educational systems, and the undermining of our economy via cheap off-the-books labor, all pose a threat to the nation, you must read this book.

We are now into that intense period of political activity that always precedes a national election and, not surprisingly, there are books being published to influence or bolster reader’s opinions. One such book is David Limbaugh’s Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today’s Democratic Party ($27.95, Regnery) that expends more than 400 pages to make its point. Indeed, it is page after page of quotes by the Democrat Party’s leaders, candidates, and elected officials. This is a book that conservatives and/or Republicans will enjoy, particularly if they are political junkies, but Democrats are not likely to read it and with good reason. With eloquence, quotes and facts, Limbaugh shreds the Democrat Party as it exists today. Rendered increasingly angry by Republicans, now in control of the White House, the Congress, and many governorships, those charged with leading the party are dismayed that tactics that worked in the past no longer do in this era of the Internet, the blogosphere, and 24/7 news coverage.

An interesting companion is Richard Mgrdechian’s book, How The Left Was Won, ($14.95, Coventry Circle, San Francisco). Subtitled "An in-depth analysis of the tools and methodologies used by liberals to undermine society and disrupt the social order", the book is a very serious examination of why liberals have been losing ground since the election of Ronald Reagan, the famed 1994 Republican Contract with America, and now the second term of George W. Bush. For anyone who wants to gain an insight to the mind-set of liberal politics, this book provides the roadmap, examining the use of divisiveness, implicit assumptions, and the focus on redistributing wealth from those who have earned it to those who have not. To learn more about this book, visit www.howtheleftwaswon.com. If you want to gear up even more there’s the 2006-2007 edition of Conservative Comebacks to Liberal Lies: Issue by Issue Responses to the Most Common Claims of the Left from A-to-Z by Gregg Jackson ($19.95, JAJ Publishing, softcover). Just as the title suggests, this fat softcover provides facts with which to rebut the various charges made against Republicans and/or conservatives. Yet another book with a comparable theme is Musclehead Revolution: Overturning Liberalism with Commonsense Thinking by Kevin McCullough ($19.99, Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR).

But, hey! Let’s give the liberals an opportunity to make their case. The problem is, there are far fewer books being published with a liberal point of view. That said, Frank Rich, the New York Times columnist has written The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth ($00.00, Penguin Press) which looks at the Bush administration’s "slow and steady propaganda machine…and how unequivocally exposed it became after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina." This is a look at the Bush presidency as seen by a skeptic who feels that its entire purpose was "to consolidate power at any cost." My nemesis, John Stauber, is back! His latest book, coauthored with Sheldon Rampton, is The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq ($11.95, Tarcher, an imprint of Penguin Group). John and Sheldon have led the attack on all forms of public relations whether it is corporate, governmental or advocacy groups. (Since I make my living in PR, you can imagine how thrilled I am!) Stauber is the executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, headquartered appropriately in Madison, Wisconsin, a longtime hotbed of liberalism. Their new book offers the view that the war in Iraq was the product of government propaganda intended to justify the regime change of Saddam Hussein. This is the book length version of "Bush lied. People died." The authors make their case that the Bush administration has a disdain for realistic planning and preference to use propaganda.

Those of us of a certain age grew up watching movies starring Cary Grant. Before there was a suave Sean Connery, there was Cary Grant, always impeccably groomed and dressed, saying sophisticated things to beautiful women, and setting the style for a generation of men. Richard Torregrossa has written a gorgeous book, Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style ($35.00, Bulfinch Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group) with a foreword by Giorgio Armani and an afterword by Michael Kors. This is a book for male fashionistas and I say that as a compliment because looking good and dressing well, then or now, is a distinct advantage. The former Archie Leach transformed himself from a British vaudevillian to a legendary American film star by being observant of men’s fashions and manners, particularly those of the wealthy. This book is an eyeful of photos of the handsome Grant and the many beautiful female co-stars with whom he teamed in a long career. From that same era of filmmaking, there emerged a woman who was arguably the most beautiful of her time. J. Randy Taraborrelli has written a fat, yummy biography of Elizabeth ($26.99, Warner Books) as in Elizabeth Taylor. She has been a part of our lives for more than six decades now, a living legend, surrounded by fame and notoriety since childhood. She has never been boring and, happily, she has kept her politics to herself. What we feasted upon were her eight marriages, twice to British actor, Richard Burton. We cheered her survival over illness and, throughout it all, we watched her with total fascination no matter what movie in which she appeared. She was the first actress to earn a million dollars for a film. She has earned this excellent biography.

I have long found the study of comparative religions of interest, so naturally I was delighted to learn that the 30^th anniversary edition of The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz had been published ($17.95, Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Group, softcover) along with a companion volume, The Thirteen Petalled Rose: A Discourse on the Essence of Jewish Existence and Belief ($14.95, Basic Books, softcover). The rabbi is a world-renowned scholar. In these times when intense hatred is being expressed against Jews by Muslims in the Middle East and elsewhere, and when a virulent new anti-Semitism has arisen in Europe and Great Britain, the thinking person wants to know what Judaism is really about. These two books provide some answers. The Talmud is an exegesis on the meaning and intent of the Torah (aka the Old Testament). It is a compilation of the ancient Jewish sages who debated the Torah and, what marks it as an unusual religious document, it offers both sides of the arguments put forth. It requires the reader to come to his or her own conclusion. The latter book seeks to answer the major questions asked by modern Jews about the nature of their existence in God’s universe. These are two profoundly interesting books.

On the other hand, the authors of Welcome to Jesusland are all going to hell ($16.99, Warner Books softcover) for having written an outrageously funny send-up of Christianity in general and evangelicals in particular. Chris Harper, Andrew Bradley, and Erik Walker hilariously skewer every aspect about the practice of the American version of Christianity and it doesn’t spare any of the hot-button topics from endangered species to illegal immigrants to gays. What it does do is entertain, impiously and refreshingly. It’s an opportunity to laugh at ourselves.

I have always loved big, heavily illustrated atlases because I am interested in the many places of planet Earth that we share with one another. That’s why I will wholeheartedly recommend National Geographic Family Reference Atlas of the World, Second Edition ($65.00, National Geographic Book). The new edition incorporates some 15,000 changes, including 32 new pages, for a total of 384. The Europe section, for example, has been expanded and some 5,000 new place-names have been added. There’s a new section of maps covering the islands of the Caribbean and places in the news like the Darfur region of Sudan have been added. More than 1,000 maps make this a real treasure in addition to the reams of information that provide a great portrait of the world. Getting children hooked on geography is a great way to expand their knowledge of the world at a time when it is vital that we all understand more about where news is being made.

Inside of every book reader is someone who loves to write and there are two new books to help you perfect your skills and tap into your talent. Roy Peter Clark has written Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer ($19.99, Little, Brown and Company). The vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a prestigious school of journalism, Clark has taught writing at every level from school children to Pulitzer Prize-winning authors. As such, his book is a gem, filled with wonderful advice to clear the mind and the way toward the well-turned phrase and the well-told tale. In short, there are ways to write well and this book will help anyone achieve the goal. Sherry Ellis has focused her new book on writing fiction in Now Write! It, too, is filled with excellent advice, edited by Ellis, ($14.95, a Tarcher/Penguin softcover); she has brought together a number of successful and prolific novelists to provide 86 exercises that cover all aspects of the writing process, i.e., point of view, character development, dialog, plat and pacing, etc! Being a non-fiction writer all my life, I am still astonished that anyone can write a novel with all the many complexities and challenges involved. A look at my monthly section on new novels demonstrates that lots of people do. Read this book and one of them may be you!

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Reading History

Of all the topics I enjoy reading, history is at the top of the list. Simply said, if one lacks a knowledge of history, there is no way to make sense of the times in which we live. Much as a life unexamined is one hardly worth living, the failure to examine history leaves one at a disadvantage to understand present events.

Niall Ferguson is a respected historian, a Harvard University professor with a slew of books to his credit, some of which like Empire and American Colossus have become successful television series. His next documentary is based on his new book, The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West ($35.00, The Penguin Press). Having spent most of my life in the last century, the greatest impression it made on me, beginning as a small child, was the utter brutality of is wars. WWI issued in slaughter on a scale the exceeded even the brutality of the American Civil War. I came along in time for the Second World War, born of a father who was too young for the first and too old for the second, one of those tricks of fate that affect all of us in some fashion. Not everyone is going to agree with Ferguson’s take on the wars of the twentieth century. We have all accepted that they were a triumph of the Western democracies over the totalitarian ideologies of the Nazis and other Axis powers. The author redefines the epic Second World War, asserting that it was a prelude of a shift of power to the East and asking why so much violence was visited upon mankind by mankind. You may not agree with his view, but you will be invited to look at past wars in a new way.

In much the same way Iran used Hezbollah in Lebanon to fight a proxy war with Israel, we are reminded of the way the Nazis tested their new battleground weapons and techniques when we read The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor ($17.00, Penguin Books softcover). Historians regard it as a prelude to WWII or even the beginning of the Cold War, putting communists against nationalists. Most certainly Stalin and the Comintern were hoping for a victory, but their forces were defeated. Beevor, a military historian, has written an excellent book. Now, 70 years after that conflict, it can be examined in the light of new information from the Moscow archives that revealed the behind-the-scenes role of the Soviet Union. There are lessons to be learned from its pages.

To enhance your point of view, you might want to read Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 ($18.00, Penguin Books, softcover). It was and is a very different Europe than the one left in rubble bythe defeat of Germany and divided between the Soviet Union, America and the allies (though technically Russia was an ally for the duration of the war). The book is encyclopedic and yet very well paced so that its sheer size is not that daunting. Almost a decade in the making, it was greeted as the definitive history of postwar Europe, incorporating the histories of thirty-four countries across sixty years. It takes in the full scope of international and domestic politics, economic, cultural and social change, spotlighting individual countries as it illuminates the larger picture. This book is an achievement and one that must be deemed an important and essential reading experience.

If you are beginning to think, as I do, that history is the story of a succession of wars and their aftermath, than you will want to read Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar ($32.00, Cambridge University Press). This was the war that I lived through in my youth, though too young to participate. More than thirty years after the United States withdrew its last military forces out of Vietnam, it has stamped its memory on all decisions to go to war since. Many regard it has misguided and a warning against such interventions. The author, however, boldly turns the traditional view on its head and offers a well-researched and reasoned account of why so much of what is widely believed about the Vietnam War is wrong. The war may well have deterred the whole of the Indo-Asian group of nations from being taken over by communism. What we learn in each chapter was that many of the assumptions of the time were correct, just as many of them were in error. In the end, Moyar concludes that the intervention was based on sound assumptions and strategy. It’s a good thing history is written looking into the mirror of the past as we all drive toward the future. It helps us understand why not all wars are bad or wrong.

Many Americans and others are mystified by the Islamic Jihad that has been waging a terrorist war against our nation and throughout the world. God’s Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad by Charles Allen ($26.95, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA) explores the 18^th century reform movement of Muhammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his followers, the Wahhabi, who strove to restore purity to Islam and declared jihad or war on anyone who opposed their vision. The alliance between this fanatical movement and the House of Saud has spawned the Taliban, al Qaeda, and many other extremist groups that claim to be killing in the name of Allah. As he says in his preface, "This history offers no solutions, but it does illustrate patterns of behavior, successes and failures from which lessons might be drawn." An historian, Allen has written several books on Central Asia and the British colonial period. This book is already a bestseller in London for obvious reasons and Americans should read it for the same reasons. Wahhabis are the enemy. Understanding their history is the first step toward ending their threat. Reclaiming the Sky by Tom Murphy is subtitled "9/11 and the untold story of the men and women who kept American flying" ($21.95, Amacom). Thirty-three aviation employees died and thousand more kept their cool, comforting travelers and fellow workers. Among them was Sue Baer, the general manager of the Newark International Airport who watched United Airlines Flight 175 crash into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and immediately shut down the airport, persuading the managers of La Guardia and JKF to do the same. Her story and those of others are now being told five years after that Jihadist attack.

The Beautiful Fall by Alicia Drake ($24.99, Little, Brown and Company) recalls Paris in the 1970s when men like Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent made the city of light the epicenter of trend-setting. She recounts the hothouse revelry, intrigue and soaring ambitions of that era. There were women, too, Betty Catroux and Paloma Picasso. This is a unique slice of history that tells the story of an exciting era. History is shaped in many different ways and Seven Fires: The Urban Infernos that Reshaped America ($27.50, Public Affairs) by Peter Charles Hoffer looks at the way fires from the one in 1760 Boston, the Pittsburgh fire in 1845, and five others including the destruction of the Twin Towers brought about changes in public opinion, architecture, and other aspects of society to reshape history as the title says. From Baltimore to Detroit, Chicago to San Francisco, fires ended some lives and transformed others. This is an interesting look at this element of nature.

You can listen to history too! Tantor Media has just released four terrific audiobooks on CDs with hours of listening pleasure such as the secret plot by German agents to blow up Black Tom Island in New York harbor in 1916. The detonation was massive, devastating much of lower Manhattan as an eerie precursor to 9-11. Three lawyers investigated the attack, revealing how America was littered with networks of German agents hiding in full sight. Chat Millman’s book, The Detonators, ($34.99, 8 CDs) tells the story of this event and there are some valuable lessons to be learned. Moving onto World War II, Robert Asahina’s Just Americans: How Japanese Americans Won a War at Home and Abroad ($34.95, 10 CDs) that tells the story of how the 100^th Battalion/442^nd Regimental Combat Team distinguished themselves, reaffirming their loyalty to the nation, despite the forced incarceration of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during the war. Oil is on everyone’s minds these days as events in the Middle East hold our attention, but Africa is also a major producer of oil and Adam Roberts’ The Wonga Coup ($34.99, 7 CDs) is the true story of an effort in 2004 to take control of Equatorial Guinea as a gang of British, South African and Zimbabwean mercenaries, funded by celebrity investors including former UK PM, Margaret Thatcher’s son, tried to overthrow the government to get their hands on the oil billions it controlled. The story may sound like a novel, but it actually happened and it makes for fascinating listening. Finally, Mountains of the Pharaohs: The Untold Stories of the Pyramid Builders by Zahi Hawass ($29.99, 5 CDs) will please anyone who wants to learn about these wonders of the ancient world. The author is one of the world’s foremost Egyptologists and takes you back five thousand years to the fourth dynasty of Egypt’s Old Kingdom.

Finally, three short, softcover biographies from Penguin Books evoke the past beginning with Peter Gay’s life of Mozart, a classical music genius, and contrasting that with Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams by Paul Hemphill, recounting the life of the great country-western singer-composer. The third is Mao Zedong by Jonathan Spence, the man who transformed China after WWII. Priced at $13 and $14, these three short biographies, depending on your personal interests, make for easy, informative reading.

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Random Acts of Advice

When it comes to advice, there is no lack of it on the shelves of bookstores. Much of it is quite good and some of it can solve some major problems in people’s lives. Let’s look at a few.

One of the biggest problems that parents of a new baby encounter is how to get them to go to sleep and stay asleep. The Lull-A-Baby Sleep Plan by Dr. Carthryn Tobin, MD, offers a bounty of good advice ($14.95, Rodale, softcover) on this topic. To avoid most of the common mistakes parents make and get a full night’s sleep, this is a place to start.

Another physician, J.L. Richardson, MD, has written a short softcover book, the Patient Handbook to Medical Care: Your Personal Health Guide ($16.95, Bend of the River Books, Miami, FL). A family physician, the author teaches readers to be proactive and take their health, as much as possible, into their own hands. This is a reader-friendly guide to making informed decisions. The tendency today among too many doctors is to prescribe medications that are not only expensive, but often have unpleasant side affects when they are less problematic solutions. This guide will help you identify both good and sometimes bad advice. Your Money and Your health: How to Find Affordable, High-Quality Healthcare by Jordan Braverman, MPH, MSFS ($24.00, Prometheus Books softcover) is a big, fat book that is jam-packed with the kind of information that anyone concerned about this topic will need to know in order to make informed decisions. Everything from evaluating physicians to finding good dental care, private health insurance, managed care, Medicaid and Medicare, surgery, hospital stays, et cetera! This is as comprehensive a book on this topic as I have seen in a very long time.

I have always thought that obesity was a much an addiction as smoking or comparable bad habits. Eating the Shadow by C.L. Watson ($14.95, Fenn Books, Stone Ridge, NY) is a memoir of a family with a member who simply cannot stop eating. Written from the point of view of the family, it is the gripping story of a sister trying to save a brother from obesity when he topped 400 pounds. The children of alcoholics, the author and her brother were both at risk for addiction and depression. Was she able to break the cycle of mental, spiritual, and physical illness for herself and her family? You will just have to read this remarkable true story. Are girls growing up today different from earlier generations? Yes they are! Dan Kindlon, PhD, has written Alpha Girls: Understanding the New American Girl and How She is Changing the World ($25.95, Rodale). He has previously written Raising Cane on the topic of raising boys, so this is a natural sequel as he explores the many new studies, plus hundreds of interviews. He concludes that today’s girls are excelling boys on many levels and have a higher level of self-esteem than them. The "Alphas" among them do better academically and are more socially engaged. This book will have the parents of all girls these days cope more effectively. All of which brings me to Hooking Up: A Girl’s All-Out Guide to Sex & Sexuality by Amber Madison ($16.00, Prometheus Books softcover). It is as frank as one might expect from a 22-year-old Tufts University graduate. Every topic is explored and explained, hopefully providing the kind of advice parents would have offered if they only had the nerve to discuss these sensitive topics. Amber has just made life for the parents of girls in high school or going off to college. Buy this book and give it to her!

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Kid Stuff: Books for Younger Readers

Since many youngsters are just starting school or have returned, we’ll begin with Marvin Monster’s Teacher’s Jitters ($6.95, Keene Publishing) by Tabatha Jean D’Agata and illustrated by Ed Newmann. Ideal for those age 6 to 9, it is a very funny story about Marvin and his classmates at Grim Castle Elementary School who find they have a new teachers, rumored to be a pure horror. She turns to be a fascinating witch. Every page is filled with funny stuff. Keene has also published Already Asleep ($12.95) for those aged 3 and up, that tells the bedtime story of a mother who checks on family members who are already asleep after a day of fun activities, asking, "Shouldn’t you be already asleep?" Written by A.D. Tarbox and illustrated by Julie Olsen. It’s a winner! For those aged 4 to 8, Chris Williams has written One Incredible Dog! Kizzy. ($15.95) With illustrations by Judith Friedman, it is a true story about a dog that encourages youngsters and adults, working with them at libraries, schools and hospitals. It is part of a series on such working dogs that bring comfort to people.

If you know a youngster who loves to draw, there’s an excellent series by written and illustrated by Freddie Levin called 1-2-3 Draw ($8.99, Peel Productions) that will prove of interest to kids age 5 to 9. The latest edition is about drawing baby animals, but others include pets and farm animals, knights and castles, cars, dinosaurs, and horses, among their many topics. A professional illustrator, Levin takes the reader through the basic steps of creating an image, offering the kind of encouragement that will get a budding artist drawing for a lifetime. All really good kid’s books have great illustrations and Mark David has provided text and drawings for Crazy Cars for Crazy Kids ($7.95, Kane/Miller) that pre-and-early schoolers will love as he dreams up some wild and wacky cars that spring forth from his imagination. They are not like any cars that ever did or ever will exist, but they offer great fun and stimulation for the reader’s imaginations.

Talking about imagination, William Bowman Piper has a lively one and shares it in the Giraffe of Montana, Vol. II ($19.95, Little Pemberley Press). Written for ages 6 to 12, it features a cast of animal characters that build a pavilion as their community center and then argue about its name. There’s Rudolph who wants Roo to pilot a plane he’s constructed. In a series of vignettes, Piper’s stories teach values such as cooperation, forgiveness, bravery, and self-identity, but they do it with such style that the younger reader will not notice because they are having such a fun time. To learn more about the series, visit www.giraffeofmontana.com. Another animal is the star of The Many Adventures of Pengey Penquin by John Burns ($17.95, San Francisco Story Works) and illustrated by James Coles. The same age group will enjoy this tale of a penguin who finds himself alone, wandering across the frozen snow of Antarctica, when he gets lucky and meets his first human friend, Wendy. He will eventually travel across continents in search of her home in New York City, learning the value of friendship, clear thinking, and strength in adversity. The readers will too. Suffice it to say, he experiences many adventures and I think any young reader will thoroughly enjoy this story. Check it out at www.pengey.com.

Iam particularly fond of books for younger readers from National Geographic. Not only are the texts excellent, but the illustration of their books is superb. These are for the older, young readers, designed to open their minds to history and science. Two of the latest are An Invisible force: The Quest to Define the Laws of Motion by Glen Phelen ($17.95) that take the readers from the 1400s, explaining Newton’s laws of motion to the way they apply to modern vehicles and even space travel. And speaking of space travel, there’s Liftoff: A Photobiography of John Glenn by Don Mitchell ($17.95) with a foreword by John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth as one of the seven Mercury astronauts. At age 77, he returned to space to become the oldest man ever to do so. It’s an inspiring story. Another story of conquest comes from the publishing house, Atheneum. It is Tiger of the Snows by Robert Burleigh ($16.95) and tells the story of Tenzing Norgay, a Nepalse Sherpa who accompanied Sir Edmund Hillary to become the first to climb Mount Everest to the very top. While Hillary got most of the credit, Norgay became one of the Far East’s greatest heroes and deservedly so. Illustrated beautifully by Ed Young, this book is ideal for those aged 7 to 10 years.

Christmas is still two months off, but already books about this favorite holiday are showing up. The Christmas Book of Hope, written by Jeff Verney and illustrated by Frederick H. Carlson, ($14.95, JRV Publishing, Box 82, West Simsbury, CT 06092) tells a story set in 1706 when a young boy is in a terrible situation with little to eat and very sick parents. He prays and then writes to Santa, but the book of hope written by one of his elves is lost under a bench for 300 years until it is found and given to one of the boy’s descendents, bringing joy and comfort. Very young children will love its full-page illustrations and learn about the power of prayer as well. For those age 9 and up, Max Lucado has penned The Christmas Candle ($16.99, WestBow Press) that tells the story of a small 18^th century English village where nothing out of the ordinary happens except at Christmas time. That’s when a magnificent angel suddenly appears in a lowly candle maker’s shop. For 25 years the angel visits his home and touches one of the candles that is given to someone in need. Each experiences a miracle in their lives. Then 24 years goes by without a visit. Will the angel come again? For those whom religion plays a role in their lives, this will prove a very lovely book to give and to read.

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Novels, Novels, Novels!

A good novel to listen to these days is The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld as read by the actor Ron Rifkin ($29.95, Random House Audio, unabridged, 5 CDs). It begins on a hot summer night in 1909 as Sigmund Freud arrives in New York. Among those to greet him is an ardent supporter, Dr. Stratham Younger. The next day, in an opulent penthouse across the city, a woman is discovered murdered and the next day an heiress barely escapes a similar fate. Suffering from hysteria, she cannot remember the details of the attack and Dr. Younger asks Dr. Freud to help him through her analysis. Full of surprises, this is a very entertaining novel and a great way to pass the time if you’re commuting to or from work or tending to some task and can slip on the earphones for six hours of great fiction. This book is, of course, also available in a hardcover edition. Recommended previously, The First Assistant by Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare is now available as an audiobook from Tantor Media ($38.99) on 8 CDs read by master narrator Shelly Frasier. The story of a wise and witty East Coast girl trying to climb the ladder to Hollywood success at a talent agency is wonderfully entertaining and will make the hours fly by on your daily commute or anywhere else you want to hear about the wheeling, dealing, schmoozing and snubbing that makes Tinsletown the cutthroat capitol of the world!

The fifth anniversary of 9/11 and the upcoming midterm elections have got Americans thinking about issues of national security and the Middle East. In general, it’s best to learn about such matters from the many non-fiction books available, but there’s a novel, Fire with Fire by Allan Kahane ($24.95, Pyro Publishing, Westport, CT), a first-time novelist whose background in international business, including newspaper publishing in the Middle East, has led him to written a thriller in which a New York financier, Jack Burke, loses his family in a terrorist bombing of FAO Schwartz and sets out to find one of the conspirators in the attack to wreak personal revenge. Along the way he encounters a shadowy group of rogue former intelligence agents, frustrated with the West’s failure to find the terrorists. Their goal is a campaign of blackmail and warfare against the sheikdoms, kingdoms, and dictatorships funding the global jihad. It’s a lively, if improbable, story that will entertain while imparting some interesting facts along the way.

Some might argue that it is the British who have a lock on the novel and it must be said that they continue to produce novelists with extraordinary talent. An example of this is The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox ($25.95, W.W. Norton & Company) that unites suspenseful, page-turning narrative with philosophical exploration and an authentic historical sensibility. In it we meet Edward Glyver, a character who is a hero and anti-hero, a book-lover, and scholar, and yet someone who cheats, steals, and frequents opium dens and brothers. When he discovers that he is the lost son of Lord Tansor of Evenwood and the rightful heir to the Duport family’s immense fortune, he sets forth to prove his identity, encountering his lifelong deadly adversary, the poet-criminal Phoebus Daunt, ready to take for himself all that Glyver holds dear. Only an Englishman could conjure up such a tale, set as it is in Victorian England. One cannot help but think that somewhere Dickens is smiling, knowing this genre is very much alive.

Another issue Americans will address in the voting booth is that of illegal immigration. Tanyo Ravicz has written a novel, A Man of His Village, ($14.95, iUniverse, softcover) that puts a human face on the issue while telling an epic adventure story about Florentino Cruz, a Mixtex Indian and an ambitious migrant worker who has left his impoverished Mexican village at age 15 and, after many years of toil, takes a promising job in Alaska only to see it collapse in mutiny and murder, leaving him lost and forced to flee for his life through a fire-ravaged wilderness. The author is the son of anthropologists, born in Mexico City in 1961, but growing up in Los Angeles. He lived in Alaska for 15 years and lives now in Palm Springs with his wife and children. He has penned the kind of story that only someone who has experienced its elements could write. As such, it provides a powerful insight to the lives of many illegal aliens who seek a better life in America. Another slice of life novel is China Doll by Talia Carner ($13.95, Windsprint Press, Ansonia Station, New York, softcover) tells the story of Nola Sands, an American singer sent as a goodwill ambassador on a concert tour to China. Suddenly her journey becomes anything but routine, when a desperate young Chinese mother thrusts her baby girl into Nola’s arms and disappears. Her pampered world is turned upside down when she learns that the infant will be condemned to almost certain death as an unwanted child in China’s orphanages. This is a real page-turner as the reader becomes involved with Nola’s fight to save the child.

There’s a genre of literature known as "chick-lit", novels written to appeal to women and Lauren Baratz-Logsted has edited a collection of stories in a book called This is Chick-Lit ($14.95, BenBella Books, softcover) in which eighteen of today’s hottest authors set out to prove that fiction written by, about, and for women is as meaningful, rewarding and as worthy of respect as any other form. They succeed most admirably and this book will prove a delight to any reader. Another collection from the Mystery Writers of America and edited by Harlan Coben does the same for love, lust, and murder in Death do us Part ($13.95, Back Bay, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, softcover). It brings together 19 stories, most of them never before published, by some of the greatest crime writers working today. The general theme is the complications that occur between lovers, dear friends and even complete strangers who come together for a single, shocking encounter. For anyone who loves this genre, the rewards follow one upon another as you read through this intriguing collection.

The historical crime genre takes a hilarious hit in The Shroud of the Thwacker by Chris Elliot ($13.95, Miramax Books, softcover). If the name sounds familiar, Elliot is an Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and comedian best known for his role in There’s Something About Mary and other films. He has written the story of the world’s first serial killer, Jack the Jolly Thwacker, the killer of prostitutes, two women who "looked like prostitutes" and oddly, one cow. He then dresses his victims in outlandishly stylish costumes. Hot on his trail is Chief Caleb Spencer of the New York Police of a century ago. This is pure comedy, albeit rather dark comedy, and you will find yourself laughing out loud while reading this send-up of more serious books on comparable themes. Also from Miramax, is Kitty Fitzgerald’s Pigtopia ($12.95, softcover), a magical and dark novel by the Irish author and playwright, It is the story of Jack Plum whose huge, misshapen head has caused him to suffer 30 years of emotional abuse and torment from the local townspeople and his demented, alcoholic mother. His closest companions are the pigs he secretly raises in the cellar shelter of his home. When a sensitive girl, Holly Lock, just on the brink of becoming a teenager, befriends him, a downward spiral of horrible secrets culminate in the gruesome death and disposal of Jack’s mother. In turn, Jack is accused of rape. This is a haunting moral fable and perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but nonetheless a rewarding and unusual reading experience.

Small Acts of Sex and Electricity by Lise Haines ($23.95, Unbridled Books) captures the last heat and sizzle of the summer months in a story of two friends, long locked in mild battle, who must finally face the tensions that have threatened their friendship from its girlhood start. The envy, a penchant for drama, loneliness, and insecurity bubble up to the surface in a complex story of two women, Mattie and Jane, in which Jane, who appears to have a "whole life" of a husband, children and a career, simply abandons it, leaving behind her friend Mattie who wonders whether to take up the life Jane has left behind. This novel addresses complex, delicate questions about what constitutes a life with its aspects of sexuality, motherhood, professional aspirations, and most of all for meaning. Another woman is at the center of Dara Horn’s The World to Come ($13.95, W.W. Norton, softcover) in which a recently divorced former child prodigy impulsively steals a sketch by the artist Chagall and takes it home. Interweaving mystery, romance, folklore, poetry, art, theology, history and scripture, the novel serves up a vast cast of characters, their lives, and the search for their personal future in a world to come.

For mystery lovers, there’s Secondhand Smoke by Karen E. Olsen ($22.95, Mysterious Press) in which reporter Annie Seymour investigates a suspicious fire in a neighborhood Italian restaurant in which a body has been found. The restaurant owner is missing and soon the FBI joins the search as the secrets of the ravaged building and her own past put her face-to-face with the fact that she’s an outsider in her own neighborhood because she is forced to question some of the very people with whom she has grown up and, at every turn, she keeps running into heartthrob P.I, Vinny DeLucia and a mixed-up romance that only makes the task even more difficult. In brief, it is a very satisfying mystery. A very different kind of mystery is the story of The Geographer’s Library by Jon Fasman ($14.00, Penguin softcover). When a reclusive scholar dies under unusual circumstances, reporter Paul Tomm is assigned to write his obituary, but when the coroner in the case is murdered, Tomm finds himself pursuing a story that began nine hundred years ago with the theft of alchemical instruments from the court geographer of Sicily. Are they cursed? That would seem to be the case. This is a thinking person’s novel, full of history and intrigue. A third mystery is Stranded by Lorena McCourtney ($12.99, Revell), part of the Ivy Malone mystery series starring the super sleuth whose inquisitiveness has her on the run from the mob. She ends up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest with a broken-down motor home, a young traveling companion running from a violent husband, and a stray cat. Invited to stay at an old Victorian house by a young woman attorney, Ivy discovers the former resident was murdered and the prime suspect is her benefactor! Skillfully written, you will be hard-pressed to stop once you begin this story.

Viking Studio, an imprint of the Penguin Group, has published two classic novels and, if you have not yet read Jane Eyre or Dracula ($21.95 each) and have been promising yourself that you will some day, that day has come. The two novels in these illustrated editions offer a choice between Charlotte Bronte’s depiction of Victorian society and a woman’s struggle for independence, and the dark themes of Bram Stroker’s novel of sexuality, stalking and psychosis that has terrified readers of all ages.

That’s it for October! Don’t forget to visit our Featured Book section to discover a variety of unique works of fiction and non-fiction that deserve your attention. If you are looking for lively commentary on the hot-button issues of our times, there’s always the new collection of my commentaries in "Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy." To learn more, click here.

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