Welcome to not-so-happily-ever-after. Soon-to-be-40 Izzy just lost her Wall Street job, has a husband who runs a struggling publishing operation from their apartment, a year-old son, and a growing suspicion she's living life in captivity. It's not that you get a seven-year itch, divorced pal Joy confides. It's that they turn you into a seven-year bitch. And so Izzy goes all in, railing at hubby Russell; becoming involved in her son's nanny's quest to get pregnant; lusting after the rich, handsome guy who got away; and discovering her own heart thanks to her uncommon new job: judging promotional contest essays for 25 cents each. Belle's (Little Stalker) smart and hilariously ridiculous paean to love, marriage, and a baby carriage proves you can't always get what you want and you rarely get what you need, but you always get to choose. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that come uncomfortably close to the truth about less-than-perfect relationships, which helps salvage an ending wrapped just a little too tight. Still, style and wit count, and on that, Belle doesn't disappoint. (May)

In this chronicle of a late-in-life pregnancy, New York City playwright and theater artist Cohen recalls an unlikely chain of events that, at age 44, transformed her life: "Three weeks ago I found out I was pregnant. Two weeks ago, I contemplated and rejected a late-term abortion. One week ago I was put on bed rest. I accepted my role as a miniature hospital, protecting a fragile life by lying on my left side and drinking Gatorade." Already the mother of an adopted daughter, Cohen's first experience with pregnancy is a minefield of physical and financial dangers: "A woman with no prenatal care for twenty-six weeks is a lousy insurance risk... To an obstetrician, she represents an expensive malpractice liability." Cohen questions herself-health, commitment and emotional readiness-and others while sorting through a growing mountain of advice, ultimately wondering whether one can ever be fully prepared to bring a baby into the world. Compelling, humanizing, and deeply honest, Cohen's narrative will get readers rooting for her growing family. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dermansky follows her lauded debut, Twins, with a trite tail about an ex-con's unlikely re-entry to the world. After serving six years for harboring a fugitive--her bank robber boyfriend--30-year-old Marie is released and misses the decisionless ease of prison life. She finds work as a live-in nanny (nothing like a felon watching your pride and joy) for two-and-a-half-year-old Caitlin, the daughter of her childhood best friend, Ellen, with whom she has a rocky, competitive relationship. In a hard-to-believe coincidence, Ellen is married to the French author, Benoît Doniel, whose book Marie read repeatedly while in prison, and soon enough, Benoît and Marie kick off an affair and decide to run away to Paris together with Caitlin. But when Benoît's true colors are displayed before even landing in the City of Lights (thanks to another unbelievable coincidence), Marie finds herself taking on the role of a single mother in a strange land, though her travails never really impede on her relatively charmed streak. It's off-putting how heavily the plot relies on implausible twists, and Marie is too sketchily drawn to carry the full weight of the story.

“Comedy / Characters: 1m, 3f, 1 girl Dusty and his animated friends hold a competition to find a model family based on letters written by children. The winning family will receive a visit from Dusty and will be filmed for an upcoming episode. Out of the 15,000 letters received, the producers pick Lizzie Goldberg-Jones and her family to be featured on the most popular animated PBS show in America. Her parents are exemplary role models - and they are two men. When word of that selection and the resulting episode reaches Marianne, Secretary of Education, she exercises her authority, deciding that the program should not be aired on public television because of its possible influence on children. Her decision, calling the episode "special interest TV", is a blow to Jessica and Nathan, the producers/writers of the show and to Karen, Marianne's secretary. Karen admires her boss' tenacity in overcoming a self-destructive past, but feels her decision to cancel the episode is definitely wrong. She secretly reveals that self-destructive past to Nathan and almost brings Marianne down, but not quite. Based on an actual incident that happened in 2005, Dusty and the Big Bad World is a very funny, no-holds-barred yet even-handed look at PBS, government bias, gay marriage, the right to privacy, children's allergies and the ability to survive in a small-minded world.

Reading Ellis’s prose is like listening to a Robin Williams monologue—it’s high energy and high anxiety—with a Southern twist. This is the voice of Mary Richards, a 16-year-old from Alabama, who has been adopted into a wealthy New York City family. Mary remembers enough of her troubled past to appreciate her good fortune, but has lost any sense of the strangeness of her privileged bubble. Preoccupied with friends’ teasing, rivalry with her African-American sister (also an adoptee), and a crush on her classmate, Nick, she feels like an ordinary teenager. Until, that is, she begins to transform into a cat. Then the edgy patter turns hallucinogenic, erotic, and murderous. Imaginatively, it’s impressive: an urban fantasy with original and consistent world-building, which bodes well for later books in the Turning series. Between frequent references to 1980s pop culture and the finer points of life on the Upper East Side and the book’s more gruesome (though not gratuitous) moments, Ellis seems to be writing for an older audience—and, for them, she is writing very well. Ages 12-up. (May)

Like Michael Starr's Bobby Darin (Forecasts, Oct. 4), Evanier's sturdy bio quickly notes how the specter of early death spurred Bobby Darin to early fame. When, at 13, Darin overheard his doctor giving him about three more years to live (rheumatic fever had weakened his heart), the teenager decided he'd better not waste any time in becoming a star. Former senior Paris Review editor Evanier (Making the Wise Guys Weep) follows Darin's career from his early days in the New York music scene through the commercial success of "Splish Splash" and "Mack the Knife" to his later, much-maligned attempt to be a folk singer (Frankie Avalon: "I said to him, `Bobby, what the fuck are you doing?' "). He also details Darin's attempts to launch a music publishing company (first by encouraging Wayne Newton, then an aspiring young singer, to record "Danke Schoen," a song Darin could have recorded himself) and to begin an acting career. Evanier also takes a hard look at Darin's personal relationships, particularly his troubled marriage to "America's Sweetheart," Sandra Dee. Informed by scores of interviews with Darin's friends and associates and written in no-nonsense, just-the-facts prose, Evanier's book paints a picture of a ruthlessly ambitious musician with a compelling, if not entirely sympathetic, reason for so much of his behavior. Sinatra may have had the bragging rights to "My Way," but Darin (1936-1973) lived out the lyrics. Agent, Andrew Blauner. (Nov.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

This year, it's expert baseball pundit Gammons (MLB Network) who oversees this annual selection of the best print and web sports pieces. Each of these selections transcends its athletic subject. Some standouts are Wright Thompson's "Shadow Boxing" and Steve Friedman's "The Impossible Redemption of Jonathan Boyer," on the first American cycler in the Tour de France—but, of course, it is about a lot more than cycling. The majority of the sports discussed are mainstream, both pro and amateur, with cycling being about as esoteric as it gets. The deeper subjects of the stories, though, such as paralysis, homelessness, salvation, and addiction, are interesting enough to overcome readers' fears of yet another football story. VERDICT Recommended. Even if you aren't emotionally invested in the triumphs and tribulations of today's crop of highly paid professional athletes, this collection is worth acquiring. It will be a hit with both sports fans and those who are simply fans of good nonfiction.—John Helling, Bloomfield P.L., IN

Conversations with Yusef Komunyakaa brings together over two decades of interviews and profiles with one of America's most prolific and acclaimed contemporary poets. Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) describes his work alternately as "word paintings" and as "music," and his affinity with the visual and aural arts is amply displayed in these conversations. The volume also addresses the diversity and magnitude of Komunyakaa's literary output. His collaborations with artists in a variety of genres, including music, dance, drama, opera, and painting have produced groundbreaking performance pieces. Throughout the collection, Komunyakaa's interest in finding and creating poetry across the artistic spectrum is made manifest. For his collection Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, 1977-1989, Komunyakaa became the first African American male to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Through his work he provides keen insight into life's mysteries from seemingly inconsequential and insignificant life forms ("Ode to the Maggot") to some of the most compelling historical and life-altering events of our time, such as the Vietnam War ("Facing It"). Influenced strongly by jazz, blues, and folklore, as well as the classical poetic tradition, his poetry comprises a riveting chronicle of the African American experience.

Bird-watching is one of the most popular recreational activities in North America — North American birders are estimated to spend as much as $32 billion annually. Many of the world's greatest natural history writers have penned eloquent, informative and profound essays about these alluring creatures. This timeless evocation of our passion for birds features 20 works from such esteemed writers as Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Jonathan Weiner, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Mabey, and Candace Savage. Included in this diverse selection are excerpts from popular books as well as articles from science and natural history magazines, about birds from all over the planet, and the birders, pishers, twitchers, and listers who love them. Illuminating, entertaining, literary, and intimate, the varied writing reveals the numerous and often unexpected ways in which birds — spiritual messengers, mythic symbols, personal obsessions, even harbingers of environmental catastrophe — connect us to the natural world.

THE GUIDE TO ODD NEW YORK proves that weirdness still lives in the world's greatest city. Perfect for locals and adventurous visitors who are tired of conventional tourist attractions, ODD NEW YORK lures readers off the beaten path to a quirkier side of New York. THE GUIDE TO ODD NEW YORK includes the irreverent, the unconventional, and the unexpected with more than 60 eye-popping photos and a surprising entry on every page: * A psychedelic dreamworld in Tribeca * A mummified nun in upper Manhattan * A kitschy mermaid parade in Coney Island * The oldest transvestite training school in the country * Abandoned nuclear missile silos in Queens * An East Village museum celebrating organized crime * America's last circus sideshow school * The city's wickedest witchcraft store * A schlock sex and horror film company in Long Island City * Plus 100 more offbeat entries. THE GUIDE TO ODD NEW YORK also points the way to unusual nightlife destinations and bizarre events happening throughout the five boroughs. THE GUIDE TO ODD NEW YORK: Unusual Places, Weird Attractions and the City's Most Curious Sights reminds us that New York is still the capital of kookiness, as it exposes the fun and fascinating underbelly of New York.

A bold, pioneering book that shows how businesses can survive and thrive in the digital media revolution Not so long ago, the business landscape was easier to chart. The routes connecting customers, companies, products, and services were predictable, reliable, and understood. Today, that landscape has been upended, and in its place a "C-Scape" has emerged—a world where consumers, not producers and marketers, make the choices; where content, not distribution, is king; where curation becomes a primary currency of value; and where convergence continues to revolutionize every part of every business. In C-Scape, Larry Kramer leads the reader through this new, evolving world where the challenges are daunting—but the opportunities are huge. A seasoned journalist turned superstar digital entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Kramer learned early on to survive and overcome the forces that are remaking the business landscape: the digital media revolution. Why media? Every aspect of every business is increasingly carried out through the media. From advertising and marketing to sales and customer service, from product design to manufacturing, everything that happens anywhere in business is ever more likely to happen on a screen or handheld device. That means any business could fall to the same threats facing the newspaper business and the music industry—unless that business learns to navigate the four Cs. Kramer's explanation of this new landscape is a revelation; his visionary advice is both crucial and urgent. No leader, whether at the helm of a small business or a conglomerate, will read this book without seeing the business world anew and finding practical ways to put this book's four powerful precepts immediately to work.

The New York Times was once considered the gold standard in American journalism and the most trusted news organization in America. Today, it is generally understood to be a vehicle for politically correct ideologies, tattered liberal pieties, and a repeated victim of journalistic scandal and institutional embarrassment. In Gray Lady Down, the hard-hitting follow up to Coloring the News, William McGowan asks who is responsible for squandering the finest legacy in American journalism. Combining original reporting, critical assessment and analysis, McGowan exposes the Times’ obsessions with diversity, “soft” pop cultural news, and countercultural Vietnam-era attitudinizing, and reveals how these trends have set America’s most important news icon at odds with its journalistic mission—and with the values and perspectives of much of mainstream America. Gray Lady Down considers the consequences—for the Times, for the media, and, most important, for American society and its political processes at this fraught moment in our nation’s history. In this highly volatile media environment, the fate of the Times may portend the future of the fourth estate.

A bold, pioneering book that shows how businesses can survive and thrive in the digital media revolution Not so long ago, the business landscape was easier to chart. The routes connecting customers, companies, products, and services were predictable, reliable, and understood. Today, that landscape has been upended, and in its place a "C-Scape" has emerged—a world where consumers, not producers and marketers, make the choices; where content, not distribution, is king; where curation becomes a primary currency of value; and where convergence continues to revolutionize every part of every business. In C-Scape, Larry Kramer leads the reader through this new, evolving world where the challenges are daunting—but the opportunities are huge. A seasoned journalist turned superstar digital entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Kramer learned early on to survive and overcome the forces that are remaking the business landscape: the digital media revolution. Why media? Every aspect of every business is increasingly carried out through the media. From advertising and marketing to sales and customer service, from product design to manufacturing, everything that happens anywhere in business is ever more likely to happen on a screen or handheld device. That means any business could fall to the same threats facing the newspaper business and the music industry—unless that business learns to navigate the four Cs. Kramer's explanation of this new landscape is a revelation; his visionary advice is both crucial and urgent. No leader, whether at the helm of a small business or a conglomerate, will read this book without seeing the business world anew and finding practical ways to put this book's four powerful precepts immediately to work.

In this enthralling headscratcher of a first novel, Unferth (the story collection Minor Robberies) weaves an intricate tale of quests and escapes, of leaving and following. As a child, Myers falls out of a window, shattering his skull and unknowingly living the rest of his life with a misshapen head. Years later, he follows his wife, who spends her evenings following a man she doesn't know. The man, whom Myers identifies as a former classmate of his named Gray, is unaware that he is being doubly tracked. The marriages of both men fall apart, and Myers finds himself on "vacation," traveling in search of Gray while Gray's ex-wife and daughter look for him, too. The problem is that "Gray does not know where Gray is." If this all sounds puzzling, it is; still, with grace and skill, Unferth manages to weave together the most far-fetched of events. A subplot involving a dolphin "untrainer" and a woman in search of her birth father is distracting, and Unferth's wordplay can verge on the excessive, but a poignancy emerges in spite of Unferth's post-modern indulgences. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rakoff's debut novel is a ponderous, meandering and nostalgic portrait of a postcollegiate group of Gen-Xers awkwardly navigating weddings, pregnancies, betrayals and funerals in pre- and post-9/11 New York City. At the center of the group is Sadie Peregrine, a rising book editor who is having trouble reconciling her personal and professional ambitions. Rounding out her circle is Lil, a depressed and flailing scholar; Emily, a starving actress; Tal, a successful actor; Beth, a would-be English prof; and Dave, an enigmatic musician and Beths ex-boyfriend. The writing is episodic and relies heavily on exposition, and many character interactions and plot developments occur off the page and are referred to only indirectly. At her best, Rakoff offers a carefully studied glimpse into her characters minds. Too often, though, the large cast and the hopscotch chronology come at the expense of narrative tension, of which there isn't much. Thirty-somethings looking back wistfully on their 20s and their struggles with the vicissitudes of adulthood might get a bang out of this. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

“A fascinating, funny and evocative play. . . . Ruhl develops the story with the enticing blend of irreverent humor and skewed realism. . . . It’s beautiful.” –San Francisco Chronicle “[This] breathtakingly inventive addition to Ruhl’s singular body of work . . . has the potential to be a modern masterpiece.”–Los Angeles Times Sarah Ruhl made her Broadway debut this fall with her latest effervescent comedy: a play about sex, intimacy, and equality, set in the 1880s, when enthusiasm for the electric light bulb gave rise to a handy new instrument to treat female hysteria. The story revolves around the medical office and home of Dr. Givings, who regularly induces “paroxysm” in his once high-strung patient Sabrina, allowing her to happily return to playing piano. Soon, Sabrina falls in love with the doctor’s assistant Annie, and also befriends his wife Catherine, who is dealing with her own neurotic misgivings about not being able to breast-feed her baby. With this new work, Ruhl once again uses playful symbolism and lyrical language as she makes seemingly effortless thematic leaps—crafting a play with tremendous critical and audience appeal, in her singular theatrical voice. Sarah Ruhl’s plays include Dead Man’s Cell Phone, The Clean House (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), Passion Play, and Eurydice, all of which have been widely produced throughout the United States and internationally. She is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.

These flash stories are mostly gems. Each but a few pages long, they are further broken into tiny bits, each a moment of observation or action narrated by a biracial young man (father is Polish-American, mother is Chinese-American) whose coming-of-age is divided into three parts. While many of these 49 stories have been previously published, when collected and presented chronologically, they maintain a consistent voice and arc that holds true through to a wobbly conclusion. Part one treats the narrator's childhood, dominated by his dad, a stern and misanthropic but loving role model, wrangling with an eye doctor after waiting a long time for an appointment, killing squirrels for dinner, driving a bookmobile. The narrator's college years, covered in part two, are comically lively and include drug mishaps, a trip to Mexico that's laughably far from hedonistic, and the loss of his virginity. Unfortunately, part three, his adult years, loses steam and feels much more scattershot. Unlike a lot of flash fiction, which tends to be built around a conceit or written toward a punch line, Rutkowski's best moments crackle unimpeded by self-consciousness. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Neoconservative ideologues battle pragmatists by fair means and foul in this scattershot history of American foreign policy. Colodny (Silent Coup) and Schachtman (Decade) hang their study on the figure of Fritz Kraemer, an obscure Pentagon analyst, whose championing of a militarized, moralistic foreign policy allegedly inspired two generations of neoconservatives. The book’s first half follows the departure of Richard Nixon and erstwhile Kraemer-ite Henry Kissinger from conservative orthodoxy in seeking a rapprochement with Communist powers. In a voluminous rehash of Watergate, the authors insinuate that White House chief of staff and Kraemer protégé Alexander Haig, abetted by reporter Bob Woodward (a sinister “mouthpiece”), undermined the Nixon presidency for this apostasy. The second half treats ensuing decades as a seesaw struggle in which neocon policy makers’ adventurism, from the Iran-Contra affair to the Iraq War, periodically self-destructs and generates a realist backlash. The authors’ sharp narrative of factional infighting exhausts itself in flogging the Haig-Woodward conspiracy theory. Kraemer is an ill-chosen central character, more figurehead than intellectual godfather; his sketchily elaborated ideas shed little light on this serviceable but mundane account of the conflict between hawks and doves.

Told entirely through dialogue, this quirky tale of period pirate wannabes makes a jeu d'esprit of the privateer life even as it baldly de-romanticizes it. Its protagonists, two unnamed brothers (one of whom might not be male), put out to sea from their Nantucket home in 1718 bedazzled by fantasies of gold doubloons and buccaneer booty. Over the next decade, capture by pirates, shipboard slaughter, maiming and dismemberment, slavery, sodomy, shipwreck on a desert island, and getting stranded in the Arctic all follow in due course. Svoboda (The Ask) plays these travails mostly for laughs, presenting them as ongoing pratfalls in the brothers' klutzy comedy of errors. Periodic visits from a mermaid (perhaps their half-sister) and a parrot who steals the scene every time he croaks "Hanged!" add to the fun. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.