"Shooting War"

New from Grand Central Publishing: Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman.

About the book, from the publisher:

The year is 2011 and Jimmy Burns, a young anti-corporate blogger, has just seen a Starbucks (and his apartment above it) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn blown to bits by yet another terrorist attack on New York City. He's recorded the gruesome scene on his videoblog camera — footage Burns beams live to a freaked-out world — which makes him an overnight media star.

Exploited by his own network (Global News Network: "Your home for 24-hour terror coverage"), enraged by the terrorists, and determined to tell the American people the truth, Burns takes off for Iraq to get the real story of a war that's been raging for more than eight years. But Burns' greatest dream (to be a war correspondent) becomes his biggest nightmare as he nearly loses his mind in the paranoia, chaos and destruction of the spiraling civil war.

"All the Pretty Girls"

New from Mira Books: All the Pretty Girls by J. T. Ellison.

About the book, from the publisher:

When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene — the prior victim's severed hand.

Ambitious TV reporter Whitney Connolly is certain the Southern Strangler is her ticket out of Nashville; she's got a scoop that could break the case. She has no idea how close to this story she really is — or what it will cost her.As the killer spirals out of control, everyone involved must face a horrible truth — the purest evil is born of private lies.

Visit J. T. Ellison's website.

"The Abduction"

New from Vanguard Press: The Abduction by Mark Gimenez.

About the book, from the author's website:

Ben Brice lives alone in the New Mexico wilderness where he battles memories of Vietnam with oceans of Jim Beam. Miles away in Texas, his estranged son, John, an Internet geek-turned-billionaire, half watches his daughter Gracie's soccer game while conducting business on his cell phone. When her mother Elizabeth arrives, the coach reports that her uncle has already collected Gracie. But Gracie has no uncle -- she was kidnapped.

From international best-selling author Mark Gimenez comes a terrifying child-in-jeopardy thriller in which dark family secrets make the finding of ten-year-old Gracie Brice more uncertain with every passing minute. And so begins a furious race against time to save Gracie from unknown kidnappers. With the FBI camped out in the Brice mansion, the family offers a reward of $25 million. Somehow, Ben and John Brice must find Gracie before it is too late. As the story unfolds with riveting twists and turns, the reader discovers that behind the kidnapping is an extraordinary government plot that could change the course of American history. And time is running out...

"The Spirit of Democracy"

Coming in December from Henry Holt and Times Books: The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World by Larry Diamond.

About the book, from the publisher:

One of America’s preeminent experts on democracy charts the future prospects for freedom around the world in the aftermath of Iraq and deepening authoritarianism

Over three decades, the world was transformed. In 1974, nearly three-quarters of all countries were dictatorships; today, more than half are democracies. Yet recent efforts to promote democracy have stumbled, and many democratic governments are faltering.

In this bold and sweeping vision for advancing freedom around the world, social scientist Larry Diamond examines how and why democracy progresses. He demonstrates that the desire for democracy runs deep, even in very poor countries, and that seemingly entrenched regimes like Iran and China could become democracies within a generation. He also dissects the causes of the “democratic recession” in critical states, including the crime-infested oligarchy in Russia and the strong-armed populism of Venezuela.

Diamond cautions that arrogance and inconsistency have undermined America’s aspirations to promote democracy. To spur a renewed democratic boom, he urges vigorous support of good governance — the rule of law, security, protection of individual rights, and shared economic prosperity — and free civic organizations. Only then will the spirit of democracy be secured.

"Garcia's Heart"

New from Thomas Dunne Books: Garcia's Heart by Liam Durcan.

About the book, from the publisher's website:

In this searing debut novel, neurologist Patrick Lazerenko travels to The Hague to witness the war crimes trial of his mentor, Hernan García, a Honduran doctor accused of involvement in torture. Discovered in Montreal years later, García has been extradited to the famous criminal court, supported only by his family and an advocacy group whose motives seem questionable at best.

At the trial, Patrick encounters the ambitious journalist who has built her career on the case. She is convinced that Patrick knows more than he is admitting and won’t stop until she finds out what it is. The defense attorney has his own ideas for Patrick as well, hoping to persuade him to use his latest neurological research to vindicate García. The only one who has asked nothing of Patrick is García himself. After entering a plea of not guilty, García has refused to say a word to anyone.

As García’s supposed crimes are revealed, Patrick wrestles with what truth there may be behind the accusations, haunted as he is by his own youthful memories of the man and his family. He must also contend with seeing García’s daughter, Celia, his former lover. Their relationship ended years before, but he is consumed by his memories of his love for her.

But it isn’t until García’s shocking intentions come to light that Patrick begins to realize that however sophisticated his knowledge of the brain may be, it will take more for him to understand the human heart.

"Simple Prosperity"

Coming soon from St. Martin's Griffin: Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle by David Wann.

About the book, from the publisher:

In his bestseller Affluenza, David Wann and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption. In Simple Prosperity he shows readers how we can overcome this disease by investing in a variety of real wealth sources. To recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle, try:

- Creating a richer life story through personal growth incentives
- Forming higher-yield friendships and stronger bonds through social capital
- Taking preventive healthcare measures to build up wellness reserves
- Balancing the biological budget through “greener” currency
- Caring for people, not just cars, to improve your neighborhood wealth index
- Resolving that pesky carbon conundrum through energy savings
- Celebrating instead of desecrating! Cultural prosperity futures value the earth as a sacred place

In our age of hedge fund hysteria, Simple Prosperity is a new way of investing that will save our sanity and the planet.

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot"

New from the University of Chicago Press: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer's Chronicle of the Iraq War by Ashley Gilbertson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Arriving in Iraq on the eve of the U.S. invasion, unaffiliated with any newspaper and hoping to pick up assignments along the way, Ashley Gilbertson was one of the first photojournalists to cover the disintegration of America’s military triumph as looting and score settling convulsed Iraqi cities. Just twenty-five years old at the time, Gilbertson soon landed a contract with the New York Times, and his extraordinary images of life in occupied Iraq and of American troops in action began appearing in the paper regularly. Throughout his work, Gilbertson took great risks to document the risks taken by others, whether dodging sniper fire with American infantry, photographing an Iraqi bomb squad as they diffused IEDs, or following marines into the cauldron of urban combat.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot gathers the best of Gilbertson’s photographs, chronicling America’s early battles in Iraq, the initial occupation of Baghdad, the insurgency that erupted shortly afterward, the dramatic battle to overtake Falluja, and ultimately, the country’s first national elections. No Western photojournalist has done as much sustained work in occupied Iraq as Gilbertson, and this wide-ranging treatment of the war from the viewpoint of a photographer is the first of its kind. Accompanying each section of the book is a personal account of Gilbertson’s experiences covering the conflict. Throughout, he conveys the exhilaration and terror of photographing war, as well as the challenges of photojournalism in our age of embedded reporting. But ultimately, and just as importantly, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot tells the story of Gilbertson’s own journey from hard-drinking bravado to the grave realism of a scarred survivor. Here he struggles with guilt over the death of a marine escort, tells candidly of his own experience with post-traumatic stress, and grapples with the reality that Iraq — despite the sacrifice in Iraqi and American lives — has descended into a civil war with no end in sight.

A searing account of the American experience in Iraq, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is sure to become one of the classic war photography books of our time.

Watch the video interview in which Ashley Gilbertson talks about his photographic work during the invasion of Iraq, the battle for Falluja, the Marines he worked with, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the future of photojournalism.

"Slipknot"

New from Kearney Street Books: Slipknot by Gary McKinney.

About the book, from the publisher:

Slipknot is mystery with an ecological twist, featuring Gavin Pruitt, Willapa County Sheriff and Deadhead. Pruitt’s county is in Southwest Washington State, where Black Bear Ridge, the last 1,000 acres of old-growth forest in the region, is up for sale. But then world-famous ecologist John Carpenter is murdered, which sets the process on its ear and the mystery in motion. Carpenter’s Environmental Impact Statement is missing, and nobody — neither environmentalists or logging companies — can get their hands on the old-growth until it is found. With the country watching, Pruitt’s small town ways come under national scrutiny: How could a Deadhead get elected county sheriff in the first place? And how could he possibly solve this crime? The suspects mount: a radical environmental group ANGER (A Noble and Green Earth will Remain); multi-national logging companies; an Asian timber cartel; and locals who see the old-growth as their economic salvation.

Yet besides a ripping good mystery, Slipknot reveals the inner and outer character of Sheriff Gavin Pruitt. A Deadhead from the sixties whose first Grateful Dead concert was at the Eagles Ballroom during the “Quick and the Dead” tour, Pruitt may now represent the establishment, but he has not forgotten his roots. As his friend Marion Jones points out: “You can cut the hair off a Deadhead, but you can’t cut the Deadhead out of Gavin.” This, then, is the crux of Pruitt’s character development: how do people who embraced the ethos of the sixties not become their parents? How do they continue striving to create change within the establishment even as they become the establishment? As one reporter says to Pruitt: “It’s hard to imagine a Deadhead peacenik out busting heads.” To which Pruitt responds: “We don’t bust heads in Willapa County. We establish positive neighborhood relationships and foster proactive community networking.”

Pruitt loves the Dead, but he especially loves the lyrics to their songs, using them to help him makes sense out of what can often seem a chaotic and brutal world. After a stressful run-in with a fanatical right-winger, for example, Pruitt muses that “He was behaving in ways he didn’t recognize — some peckerwood smokey on the take. As the Dead put it, he was feeling like a stranger — to love, to himself as a man, as an officer of the law.”

Pruitt also deals with the loves in his life: his daughter, his girlfriend, and the mysterious and alluring Olwen Friday, a recluse living in a magical home on the edge of Black Bear Ridge. Plot twists begin revealing a parallel to how people treat one another and how they treat the environment. Indeed, the selfish abuse of a daughter mirrors the equally selfish abuse of the land and the earth. Pruitt does solve the crime, but can he solve the troubles of the world? Maybe not, but he does save Black Bear Ridge from the chainsaw, at least temporarily, and he will continue to do the best he can to provide the world with a strong, soothing, and sane voice.

"Almost Graceland"

New from Thomas Dunne Books: Almost Graceland by Steve Carlson.

About the book, from the publisher:

Ray Johnston thought his life was disgustingly normal. At forty-two, he had lived in Memphis all his life. His ex-wife had saved him from paying alimony by marrying her divorce lawyer, he enjoyed his work at the lumberyard, and he had a girlfriend who, everyone had to admit, was a peach. He did suffer one recurring nuisance; from as far back as he could remember, strangers would come up to him asking, “Do you know you look a lot like Elvis?” One day a man at a bar notices the similarity. It turns out the man actually works for Elvis Presley, and soon Ray gets two unfriendly phone calls, supposedly from the King himself. Later comes a third, one that makes Ray dizzy. He has been invited to dinner at Graceland! In an hour! Why? Ray can’t believe it -- even when the limousine arrives to take him to the famed residence.

What follows is a meeting of two men who have almost nothing in common except their looks, their age, and the city they were born and grew up in. One is a working man who is trying to deal with what life has given him. The other is the most well-known and worshipped singer who has ever lived.

Steve Carlson delivers an enchanting debut novel that explores the power of loss and redemption in a moving portrait of Elvis at the end of his life.

"Broken Heartland"

New from Poisoned Pen Press: Broken Heartland by J.M. Hayes.

About the book, from the author's website:

Sleepy Benteen County, Kansas turns frantic on election day.

Sheriff English, better known as Englishman, faces his toughest re-election challenge yet. The radical religious right is out to unseat him, their candidate an Iraq war hero. And Englishman’s only available deputy isn’t winning him votes, not after ramming a school bus carrying a local teen choir during a pre-dawn chase.The occupants of the vehicle being pursed seem involved with involuntary organ donors and secret surgeries. Englishman’s brother, Mad Dog, a born-again Cheyenne, rushes back from a quest to the Black Hills. Instead of a vision, he had a premonition that the sheriff is in serious danger. Finding his farm vandalized and a cruel political billboard in his front yard, Mad Dog complicates the sheriff’s life by investigating the hate crime himself. The sheriff’s daughters, attending separate colleges, wake with similar premonitions, then cut classes and hurry home to keep their father safe. The sheriff sees them as the ones in need of protection as his day grows progressively wilder. A student smuggles a gun into the school and begins shooting and taking hostages. Then there’s the private army that’s seized a nearby farm and holds citizens against their will. And, when he finds some spare time, Englishman needs to clear up one little thing about his deputy’s accident. Benteen County doesn’t have a teen choir.

It’s enough to make a sheriff wonder why he wants to serve another term.