Inside of a dog : what dogs see, smell and know

 by Alexandra Horowitz. Dogs have no sense of time; don't see in color; don't learn by observation-or do they? Cognitive scientist Horowitz (psychology, Barnard Coll.) explains that to understand the dog, we must understand his umwelt, his perception of his surroundings based upon anatomy, physiology, experience, and evolution. Debunking long-held misconceptions about the dog's sensory and emotional life, Horowitz gives dog lovers who have always believed that dogs can learn through example or anticipate an owner's return a wealth of current scientific information to confirm their perceptions. Verdict An essential read for pet owners and students of animal behavior who have followed developments in the emerging field of comparative psychology in Stanley Coren's How Dogs Think, Temple Grandin's Animals Make Us Human, and Patricia B. McConnell's Tales of Two Species. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Who loves you best : a novel

 by Tess Stimson. Clare and Marc Elias always planned on having children, so while the birth of their twins comes as no surprise, Clare's struggle to adapt to motherhood does. When trying to bond with her two infants proves just as difficult as balancing the career she refuses to give up, Clare hires a nanny named Jenna, despite Marc's protests. Although Jenna is dealing with her own personal drama, she soon gets entangled in the lives of the Elias family as things begin to unravel. In Who Loves You Best, Stimson manages to weave mystery, suspense, romance, and family into one exciting, emotionally honest story. Told in alternating narratives by the central characters, the story overlaps, revealing the different points of view of what is unfolding it is virtually impossible to know who to trust until the final page. The result is a very suspenseful story about a mother's love and what being a family ultimately means. --Boklist (Check Catalog)

Unbearable lightness : a story of loss and gain

 Portia De Rossi. Anorexia was my first love, de Rossi declares in her memoir of her early Hollywood career and the eating disorders that went along with it. Her unflinching self-portrait depicts a cripplingly self-conscious young Australian in LA overwhelmed by the pressure to be thin. Never comfortable in her own skin, a by-product of her status as a closeted lesbian, de Rossi was sure if she ever gained weight (or came out as being gay), the shooting star she'd been cultivating would turn to lead. Weight loss was the key that allowed de Rossi to feel powerful and in control, until dieting became a sickness that nearly killed her and devastated her family. De Rossi's story and words are not revolutionary, but they are frank, brave, and revelatory of the unhealthy trends that stardom can generate. Although more development of de Rossi's happy ending (her eventual complete recovery, self-acceptance, coming-out, and marriage to Ellen DeGeneres) would be welcome, the book succeeds as it's intended: a journal of her sickness and a provocatively sad love affair with dieting. --Booklist

The slap

 by Christos Tsiolkas. Although this is Australian author Tsiolkas' fourth novel, it is the first to be published in the U.S. With its raw style, liberal use of profanity and racial epithets, and laserlike focus on the travails of suburban life, it is a down-and-dirty version of Tom Perrotta's best-selling Little Children (2004). At a barbecue in a Melbourne suburb, a man loses his temper and slaps the child of the host's friends. This incident unleashes a slew of divisive opinions, pitting friends and families against each other as the child's parents take the man to court. Told from eight different viewpoints, the novel also deftly fills in disparate backstories encompassing young and old, single and married, gay and straight, as well as depicting how multiculturalism is increasingly impacting the traditional Aussie ethos. For good measure, the author also throws in male vanity, infidelity, and homophobia. Tsiolkas' in-your-face style is sure to alienate some readers the child's parents, for example, are among the book's most unlikable characters but his novel, which won the 2009 Commonwealth Prize, fairly radiates with vitality as it depicts the messy complications of family life. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The mind's eye

 by Oliver W. Sacks. Sacks, famous for combining his knowledge as a physician and his compassion for human stories of coping with neurological disorders, offers case histories of six individuals adjusting to major changes in their vision. A renowned pianist has lost the ability to read music scores and must cope with the fear of an ever-shrinking life as her vision worsens. A prolific writer develops word blindness and is unable to read even what he himself writes, forcing him to develop memory books in his mind, adaptations that he later incorporates into his fiction writing. Sacks recalls his own struggle to cope with a tumor in his eye that left him unable to perceive depth. He includes diary entries and drawings of his harrowing experience. Sacks, author of the acclaimed Musicophilia (2007), among other titles, combines neurobiology, psychology, and psychiatry in this riveting exploration of how we use our vision to perceive and understand the world and our place in it and how our brains teach us to see those things we need to lead a complete, fulfilled life. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Fly away home : a novel

 by Jennifer Weiner. Weiner (Good in Bed; In Her Shoes) started writing this novel long before the parade of philandering politicians filled our national consciousness. Who knew that Sylvie Serfer's fictional life as a politician's wife would mirror reality so closely? Far from being an overwrought tale of the wronged woman, this is an honest narrative about the expectations of being a woman with a capital W: standing by your man, being a mother, and wondering where one's dreams have gone. Even though this could have simply been the ballad of Sylvie Serfer, daughters Lizzie, the self-described "basket case" and recovering addict, and Diana, a driven emergency room physician with a seemingly perfect life, enliven the novel even more. At times, the up-to-the-minute cultural references distract one from the story but not enough to mar what is otherwise a funny, heartfelt read. Verdict Sylvie, Lizzie, and Diana are complex characters who never slip into the shallow stereotypes of the good girl or the bad girl. Highly recommended for Weiner's fans and readers who enjoy women's fiction. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Must you go? : my life with Harold Pinter

 by Antonia Fraser. Fraser is a highly regarded British biographer, and the late Harold Pinter, her husband, was a Nobel-winning British playwright. So, the circle they generally traveled in was made up of not only fellow writers but also, because of their individual and combined celebrity, fellow celebrities. Fraser's latest book is both joyous and sad. The former because she shares diary entries concerning her relationship with Pinter (they lived together from August 1975 until Christmas 2008), and it was obviously a stimulating love-match. And sad because the book ends when it does because of Pinter's death from cancer; his struggle with the disease had been years-long. As expected, given their fame and the fame of their associates, lots of name-dropping goes on here. This is not, of course, the story of two starving artists trying to scratch together a living in some cold-water flat. But privileged as they were, they nevertheless experienced the normal highs and lows together, and the result is a poignant read. Serious readers will generate demand for this title, and they will respond with gratitude to Fraser's intimacy. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

The distant hours : a novel

 by Kate Morton. Morton (The Forgotten Garden) has quickly established herself as a master of modern gothic, producing complicated and completely satisfying historical mysteries. Her third novel solidifies her dominion. As a wartime evacuee from London at the time of the Blitz, 13-year-old Meredith Baker is in awe both of the ancient Milderhurst castle where she is staying and of its inhabitants, the Blythes-sweet and maternal Saffy; her shrewd twin, Percy; and the wild and talented Juniper, who becomes Meredith's best friend. Fifty years later, a lost letter arrives to remind Meredith of her time at Milderhurst, even though she has long tried to bury the memory. It falls to her daughter, Edie, to begin to untangle her mother's secrets. The trail leads back to Milderhurst and the -Blythes and into an even thicker nest of hidden mysteries that Edie is determined to uncover. VERDICT Featuring a fresh and thrilling gothic mystery, cinematic storytelling, and fully developed characters who possess layers of deliciously surprising secrets, this complex story is developed at a leisurely but compelling pace that keeps readers hooked. Recommended for a wide readership, including mystery lovers and historical fiction fans. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Atlantic : great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a vast ocean of a million stories

 by Simon Winchester. How does one attempt to write a biography of a subject as old and vast as an ocean? Driven by a lifelong fascination with the Atlantic, Winchester (The Professor and the Madman) found inspiration in viewing the ocean and our relationship with it through the categories of Shakespeare's seven ages: infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, old age, and second childhood. Employing a mixture of history, science, and anecdotes from both sides of the Atlantic, he envisions the ocean's birth and eventual death and explores how its boundaries were discovered and defined, the many ways it has affected the development of human society (artistically, militarily, industrially), and humanity's effect on it in turn. Though the sheer size of the subject obviously limits how much of the Atlantic's "life" can be related in a single volume, Winchester does an excellent job at presenting an extensive collection of the most interesting parts of its existence. VERDICT Winchester is in fine form, and his typically engaging style creates a vibrant portrait of an ocean that remains endlessly fascinating. Highly recommended, especially for those who have enjoyed the author's previous works. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

I still dream about you : a novel

 by Fannie Flagg. Will she or won't she kill herself? Jumping in the river to die is Birmingham realtor Maggie Fortenberry's grand obsession. A former Miss Alabama beauty queen who never married, Maggie wants out before she gets further along past six decades. Something of a dreamer, as well as a lover of Hollywood's "Glorious Technicolor" era gone by, Maggie sees no future for herself. Her boss, a gloriously upbeat midget named Hazel whom everyone adored, is now deceased, and the economy is in a meltdown. How will her meticulously planned suicide affect Brenda, her best friend and business partner, an African American woman gearing up to run for mayor of Birmingham? When a rival realtor gets the listing for a grand old house named Crestview, Maggie is tempted to stick around. Verdict Only Flagg (Can't Wait To Get to Heaven) could manage to make a novel about suicide so delightfully bubbly, punchy, and entertaining. Not to be missed. --Library Journal (Check catalog)

Peace meals : candy-wrapped Kalashnikovs and other war stories

 by Anna Badkhen. "What happens when a search for stories coincides with a search for food?" asks Russian-born journalist Badkhen in her first book. In a series of broadly linked personal narratives, she illuminates the strange, dark history of the past couple of decades-the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and drought-stricken East Africa. Most chapters chronicle her connections with particular individuals such as her hashish-addicted Afghan bodyguard or the pair of ordinary Iraqi women she befriends, each character providing insight into local customs and quirks, but more significantly, illustrates and humanizes regional complexities. Badkhen regularly encounters real danger, but meets it with compassion and graveyard humor. Each section concludes, somewhat sentimentally, with recipes for dishes described in the stories. At times the juxtaposition of the brutal and the domestic is abrupt, but the resulting range of events both large and small is both honest and real. --Publishers Weekly. (Check catalog)

Eighteen acres : a novel

 by Nicolle Wallace. Imagine the Republican Party winning the 45th presidency and also making history by inaugurating the first woman President. In her debut novel, Wallace capably visualizes this scenario while infusing the story with the richness of her professional experiences as political commentator, White House communications director under George W. Bush, and adviser to the campaigns of John McCain and Sarah Palin. President Charlotte Kramer is well served by her highly competent chief of staff, Melanie Kingston, as she faces a tough economy, the rigors of the Afghanistan war, low poll numbers, daunting reelection prospects, and a disintegrating marriage. Equally entertaining to envision is how a "First Man" might fare. Mr. Kramer, an entrepreneurial agent for NFL athletes, maintains his own schedule, lives in separate quarters, spends quality time with their teenage twins, and, feeling increasingly distanced from his spouse, falls in love with a young, bright, and ambitious White House correspondent. VERDICT An insider's politically balanced view into the 18 acres of the White House, its politics, and the intriguing affairs of state. A must for political junkies and fans of political fiction. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

The lost art of reading : why books matter in a distracted time

 by David L. Ulin. Expanding on a 2009 essay, Ulin, former book review editor of the Los Angeles Times, addresses the act of reading and its place in our information overloaded age. Ulin relies mainly on his own experiences as a loyal reader-specifically a recent attempt to reread The Great Gatsby alongside his son Noah's high school English class-which goes devastatingly wrong ("You'd fail if you were in my class," Noah pronounces). Ulin uses this incident to frame the larger narrative, fluently addressing the art and craft of literature, the reader's participation, the writer and the writing-and the act of rereading. He addresses in greater depth distractions from reading, specifically the ever-present seductions of technology, and the experience of reading on a screen. Moving toward an optimistic note, Ulin argues that technology can enlarge us, citing Rick Moody and Jennifer Egan as writers who embrace this ever-changing landscape. Ulin's short book not only puts forth a strong and passionate case for reading but also compiles a reading list of writers and critics (e.g., Anne Fadiman, Joan Didion, David Shields) who have influenced Ulin and who are well worth reading. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)

Djibouti

 by Elmore Leonard. Crime fiction grand master Leonard, who turns 85 in October, remains in top form. He has a new publisher and a new subject Somalian pirates but all the signature Leonard elements are shining as brightly as ever: the back-and-forth banter, always oozing wit but never too smart for the room; the cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters, each capable of a star turn; the always startling juxtaposition of the mundane against the violent. This time, mixed in with all of that, Leonard gives us one of his trickiest plots and cleverest turns of storytelling. Dara Barr is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, recently arrived in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa (the gateway to Islam . . . or the back door to the West) to film Somalian pirates in action. With her assistant, a 72-year-old sailor named Xavier, Dara, armed with a concealed spy camera, sets off onboard the Buster in search of pirates. She finds plenty, but she and Xavier also land in the middle of an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a tanker loaded with liquefied natural gas. Portions of the tale are related in real time, but much of the narration comes in the form of Dara and Xavier viewing film of what's already happened and debating how to structure the documentary. This curious dramatic technique works magnificently, taking us inside the characters in a way that straight, action-oriented narration might not do. Leonard never tells a story in the expected way, but this time he outdoes himself. Marvelous entertainment. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Cleopatra : a life

 by Stacy Schiff. For those who think they know enough about Cleopatra or have the enigmatic Egyptian queen all figured out, think again. Schiff, demonstrating the same narrative flair that captivated readers of her Pulitzer Prize-winning Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) (1999), provides a new interpretation of the life of one of history's most enduringly intriguing women. Rather than a devastatingly beautiful femme fatale, Cleopatra, according to Schiff, was a shrewd power broker who knew how to use her manifold gifts wealth, power, and intelligence to negotiate advantageous political deals and military alliances. Though long on facts and short on myth, this stellar biography is still a page-turner; in fact, because this portrait is grounded so thoroughly in historical context, it is even more extraordinary than the more fanciful legend. Cleopatra emerges as a groundbreaking female leader, relying on her wits, determination, and political acumen rather than sex appeal to astutely wield her power in order to get the job done. Ancient Egypt never goes out of style, and Cleopatra continues to captivate successive generations. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Fall of giants

 by Ken Follett. Moving from the medieval world of the best-selling The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, Follett's new historical novel is the first volume of a projected trilogy that follows five families-Welsh, English, German, Russian, and American-through the turbulent 20th century. Covering the period 1911-23, the narrative moves from family to family, country to country, as the Great War impends, happens, and closes. In the first pages, a Welsh boy enters the coal mines; he has just turned 13 that day. He can expect a short and dirty life, but it doesn't turn out that way. The book closes in confrontation: the ninth-richest man in Britain, Earl Fitzherbert, is forced by his own sense of manners to shake the hand of a bastard son he has never acknowledged. Fitz seduced the boy's mother when she was his housemaid. Now she's a Labour MP in the postwar coalition government. Fitz is the past. She's the future. The Great War has changed everything, even for the winners. Verdict Though lengthy, Fall of Giants never seems too long or confusing. Great fun, this is sure to be one of the best sellers of the fall season. The global broadcast of a TV miniseries based on The Pillars of the Earth starring Ian McShane and Donald Sutherland is sure to garner even more attention. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Amexica : war along the borderline

 by Ed Vulliamy. This engrossing travelogue traces the fraught Mexican-American border, where the collision of affluence and poverty is mediated by an ultraviolent narco-traficante culture. Vulliamy (Seasons in Hell) journeys from Tijuana, where the ruthless Arellano Felix Organization cartel battles rivals, to the Atlantic coast, where the even more ruthless Zetas cartel, armed with grenades and rocket launchers, battles the Mexican army and besieges whole cities. In the middle is Juarez, the world's most violent town, an anarchy of contending cartels, street gangs, and their police and military allies, where massacres, beheadings, and grisly sex murders are routine. Vulliamy's border isn't all drugs and killings; it's also narco-corrida songs that celebrate drugs and killings, the American gun industry that feeds off drug money and enables the killings, and a presiding quasi-Catholic cult of Santissima Muerte (holiest death). The author's take isn't entirely coherent. Sometimes the border is the problem, an artificial rupture that provokes turf battles over prime smuggling sites; sometimes, presented less persuasively, the lawless border is just a symptom of global capitalism, like the desperate illegal immigrants and exploited maquiladora workers (in foreign-owned low-wage factories along the border) he profiles. Although not especially deep, Vulliamy's is a vivid, disturbing dispatch from a very wild frontier. --Publishers Weekly (Check Catalog)