November/December 2003 Book Sense 76 Preview

Here's a look at the titles that have been selected for the November/December Book Sense 76 to give you a heads up for planning and ordering. The full list, with booksellers' comments, will be posted to BookWeb.org next week.

The Top Ten

1. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME: A Year of Passionate Reading, by Sara Nelson (Putnam, $22.95, 0399150838)

2. TRAIN, by Pete Dexter (Doubleday, $24.95, 0385505914)

3. SLOW WAY HOME, by Michael Morris (HarperSanFrancisco, $22.95, 0060568984)

4. QUICKSILVER: Volume One of the Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson (Morrow, $27.95, 0380977427)

5. THE WAY THE CROW FLIES, by Ann-Marie MacDonald (HarperCollins, $26.95, 0060578955

6. PURPLE HIBISCUS, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Algonquin, $23.95, 1565123875)

7. POPULAR MUSIC FROM VITTULA, by Mikael Niemi, Laurie Thompson (Trans.) (Seven Stories Press, $21.95, 1583225234)

8. MY LIFE AS A FAKE, by Peter Carey (Knopf, $25, 0375414983)

9. ME AND ORSON WELLES, by Robert Kaplow (MacAdam/Cage, $18.50, 1931561494)

10. THE KEEPER'S SON, by Homer Hickam (Thomas Dunne, $24.95, 0312301898)

New Fiction in Hardcover

DEAD I WELL MAY BE, by Adrian McKinty (Scribner, $24, 0743246993)

EVERYTHING WILL BE ALL RIGHT, by Tessa Hadley (Holt, $24, 0805070656)

GARBO LAUGHS, by Elizabeth Hay (Counterpoint, $25, 1582432910)

A GOOD DIVORCE, by John E. Keegan (Permanent, $26, 1579620922)

THE LADY, THE CHEF, AND THE COURTESAN, by Marisol (RAYO/HarperCollins, $21.95, 0060530421)

LORD JOHN AND THE PRIVATE MATTER, by Diana Gabaldon (Delacorte, $23.95, 0385337477)

LOVE, by Toni Morrison (Knopf, $23.95, 0375409440)

MIRROR MIRROR, by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $24.95, 006039384X)

MR. TIMOTHY, by Louis Bayard (HarperCollins, $24.95, 0060534214)

MONSTROUS REGIMENT, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins, $24.95, 006001315X)

NEVER MIND THE POLLACKS: A Rock and Roll Novel, by Neal Pollack (HarperCollins, $23.95, 0060527900)

NO ANGEL, by Penny Vincenzi (Overlook Press, $26.95, 1585674818)

NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU PROMISE TO COOK OR PAY THE RENT YOU BLEW IT CAUZE BILL BAILEY AIN'T NEVER COMING HOME AGAIN: A Symphonic Novel, by Edgardo Vega Yunque (Farrar, $25, 0374223114)

ONE VACANT CHAIR, by Joe Coomer (Graywolf Pr., $23, 155597385X)

OUR LADY OF THE FOREST, by David Guterson (Knopf, $25.95, 0375412115)

THE RED HAT CLUB, by Haywood Smith (St. Martin's, $24.95, 0312316933)

SERIOUS GIRLS, by Maxine Swann (Picador, $23, 0312288026)

THE STORIES OF RICHARD BAUSCH, by Richard Bausch (HarperCollins, $29.95, 0060196491)

A SUNDAY AT THE POOL IN KIGALI, by Gil Courtemanche, Patricia Claxton (Trans.) (Knopf, $23, 1400041074)

THE THACKERY T. LAMBSHEAD GUIDE TO ECCENTRIC AND DISCREDITED DISEASES, by Jeff VanderMeer and Mark Roberts (Eds.) (Night Shade Books, $24, 1892389541)

TRUE CROSS, by T.R. Pearson (Viking, $24.95, 0670032387)

THE UNPROFESSIONALS, by Julie Hecht (Random House, $23.95, 1400061741)

THE VOICES, by Susan Elderkin (Grove, $24, 0802117570)

WAKING SAMUEL, by Daniel Coyle (Bloomsbury, $23.95, 1582342814)

WAXWINGS, by Jonathan Raban (Pantheon Books, $24, 0375410082)

WHEN THE FINCH RISES, by Jack Riggs (Ballantine, $23.95, 0345467949)

History, Memoir, Art, Cooking -- A Wealth of New Nonfiction

ALFRED E. SMITH: The Happy Warrior, by Christopher M. Finan (Hill & Wang, $16 paper, 080901632X)

THE BATTLE THAT STOPPED ROME: Emperor Augustus, Arminius, and the Slaughter of the Legions in the Teutoburg Forest, by Peter S. Wells (Norton, $24.95, 0393020282)

CHASING THE SEA: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, by Tom Bissell (Pantheon Books, $24.95, 0375421300)

CHUCK CLOSE PRINTS: Process and Collaboration, by Terrie Sultan (Princeton Univ. Pr., $35, 069111577X)

COOKING BY HAND, by Paul Bertolli (Clarkson Potter, $40, 0609608932)

EVOLUTION'S CAPTAIN: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World, by Peter Nichols (HarperCollins, $24.95, 006008877X)

FLYBOYS: A True Story of Courage, by James Bradley (Little, Brown, $25.95, 0316105848)

FOR LOVE OF INSECTS, by Thomas Eisner (Harvard Univ. Pr., $29.95, 0674011813)

GELLHORN: A Twentieth Century Life, by Caroline Moorehead (Holt, $27.50, 0805065539)

A HUNDRED LITTLE HITLERS: The Death of a Black Man, the Trial of a White Racist, and the Rise of the Neo-Nazi Movement in America, by Elinor Langer (Metropolitan, $26, 0805050981)

THE LOS ANGELES DIARIES: A Memoir, by James Brown (Morrow, $21.95, 0060521511)

THE MEANING OF EVERYTHING: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, by Simon Winchester (Oxford Univ. Pr., $25, 0198607024)

THE MIND TREE: A Miraculous Child Breaks the Silence of Autism, by Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay (Arcade, $21.95, 1559706996)

MYTHOLOGY: The DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, art direction, design, text by Chip Kidd, photographed by Geoff Spear (Pantheon, $35, 0375422404)

NINE HILLS TO NAMBONKAHA: Two Years in the Heart of an African Village, by Sarah Erdman (Holt, $23, 0805073817)

OPAL: A Life of Enchantment, Mystery, and Madness, by Katherine Beck (Viking, $24.95, 0670031453)

AN OPEN BOOK: Coming of Age in the Heartland, by Michael Dirda (Norton, $24.95, 0393057569)

THE OPPOSITE OF FATE: A Book of Musings, by Amy Tan (Putnam, $24.95, 0399150749)

OVER THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, by Laurence Bergreen (Morrow, $27.95, 0066211735)

PARADISE OF CITIES: Venice in the 19th Century, by John Julius Norwich (Doubleday, $32.50, 0385509049)

POPULATION: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, by Michael Perry (Perennial, $13.95 paper, 0060958073)

READY FOR ANYTHING: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life, by David Allen (Viking, $19.95, 0670032506)

SEA OF GLORY: America's Voyage of Discovery: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $27.95, 067003231X)

SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS: A Low Culture Manifesto, by Chuck Klosterman (Scribner, $23, 0743236009)

STAN LEE AND THE RISE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN COMIC BOOK, by Jordan Raphael, Tom Spurgeon (Chicago Review Pr., $24.95, 1556525060)

TEARS OF THE CHEETAH: And Other Tales From the Genetic Frontier, by Stephen J. O'Brien (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.95, 0312272863)

Poetry

POEMS OF THE MASTERS: China's Classic Anthology of T'Ang and Sung Dynasty Verse, by Red Pine (Trans.) (Copper Canyon, $18, 1556591950)

New Fiction in Paperback

THE GERMAN MONEY, by Lev Raphael (Leapfrog, $14.95, 096795200X)

HOW SOON IS NEVER?, by Marc Spitz (Three Rivers, $13, 0609810405)

IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS, by Jon McGregor (Mariner, $13, 0618344586)

OTHER FISH IN THE SEA, by Lisa Kusel (Hyperion, $13, 0786888024)

A SHORT HISTORY OF A SMALL PLACE, by T.R. Pearson (Penguin, $14, 014200362X)

New Suspense and Mystery

BLACKLIST: A V.I. Warshawski Novel, by Sara Paretsky (Putnam, $24.95, 0399150854)

CONFESSIONS OF A DEATHMAIDEN, by Ruth Francisco (Mysterious, $23.95, 0892967730)

DEATH'S JEST-BOOK, by Reginald Hill (HarperCollins, $25.95, 0060528052)

FROSTLINE, by Justin Scott (Poisoned Pen, $24.95, 1590580621)

HAVANA: An Earl Swagger Novel, by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster, $24.95, 0743238087)

LOWCOUNTRY BOIL, by Carl T. Smith (River City Publishing, $27.95, 1579660436)

MAIGRET'S CHRISTMAS, by Georges Simenon (Harvest, $14, 0156028530)

SEASON'S REVENGE, by Henry Kisor (Forge, $19.95, 0765306662)