Thursday, December 22, 2005

Some very tempting books....

WRITERS ON THE WEB:
Diane Jean Diekman began life as a South Dakota farm girl who grew up in the Hidewood Valley, attended a one-room country school and graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1968. Today she is a U.S. Navy captain and the author of two published memoirs.

(From the book):
"During the preceding two days, while the Independence steamed from Singapore to Japan, I had been the only woman on a ship filled with 3,700 men."

http://ddiekman.tripod.com/index.html
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T.J. Waters began his intelligence career in the R&D Department of a major specialty chemical firm. From there he took on additional responsibilities first with Celotex Corporation, ultimately becoming Vice President of a private intelligence consulting boutique. He was a frequent speaker and author, and has been interviewed for features in the New York Law Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and The BBC. He is a contract Senior Counter Intelligence Analyst for the Department of Defense.

(From the book):
"It's no longer a gentlemen's game."
It most certainly isn't.
Terrorists aren't on the diplomatic circuit. They quietly toil in towns and villages away from capital cities where the U.S. maintains an official presence. Embassy parties have been replaced by commercial cover operations, paramilitary action, and covert influence programs. Unfortunately, there's a shortage of qualified field officers to do the work. That's where we come in.

http://www.tjwaters.com/

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Robert Ferrigno: After earning college degrees in Philosophy, Film-Making, and Creative Writing, he returned to his first love, poker. He spent the next five years gambling full-time and living in a high-crime area populated by starving artists, alcoholics, thieves and drug dealers, becoming friends with many people who would later populate his novels. He used some of his winnings to start a punk rock magazine called The Rocket, where he interviewed the Clash, Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop, etc.

The success of The Rocket got him a job as a feature writer for a daily newspaper in Southern California, where he took the adventure-and-new-money beat. Over the next seven years he flew jets with the Blue Angels, drove Ferraris, and went for desert survival training with gun nuts.

(From the book):
THE YEAR IS 2040.New York and Washington, D.C., are nuclear wastelands. Chicago is abandoned, and Phoenix, the site of a civil war battle. The nation is divided between an Islamic republic across the north, and the Christian Bible Belt in the old South. Alcohol is outlawed, replaced by Jihad Cola, and mosques dot the skyline. Veiled women hurry through the streets. Freedom is controlled by the state, paranoia rules, and rebels plot to regain free will...

http://prayersfortheassassin.com

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James Aach: For over twenty years, James Aach has been employed in the American nuclear power industry as a staff engineer. During this time his duties have included the investigation of numerous equipment malfunctions and emergency reactor shutdowns. Mr. Aach has also investigated several incidents involving excessive radiation exposure, as well as a number of cases where federal regulations were violated. During his career, Mr. Aach has had the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the nuclear industry with atomic workers from across the nation and he has developed many contacts with expertise in areas as diverse as reactor physics, public evacuation planning and the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents.

(From the book):
“Have there been any injuries? Any deaths?”
The question shook him. How much did she know? Other reporters were now migrating towards him and he edged a little closer to the door. “We’re giving regular briefings,” he said. “We’ll keep you informed.”
“Whose fault was it?” It was a different voice this time, rough, male and demanding.
Steve had reached the exit, but he stopped and turned to the swelling group. It was the question, of course. And he would not dodge it. “I am the manager of Fairview Station,” Steve Borden said. “It's my plant.”

http://raddecision.blogspot.com/

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From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/GENERAL/OTHER:
Masha Hamilton's THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE, the story of an idealistic American librarian who leaves home to work in Africa for a relief organization that sends books on the backs of camels to nomadic tribes where most people had never held a book in their hands, to Jonathan Burnham and Claire Wachtel at Harper, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world English).rights@rusoffagency.com

DEBUT:
Producer and daughter of producer Leonard Goldberg Amanda Goldberg and actor/producer and daughter of Dennis Hopper Ruthanna Hopper's STAR WHORES: Tales From Oscar Week, a thinly-veiled roman a clef set in real Oscar week venues, told through three aspirants to A-list fame, the daughter of a Best Director Nominee, an ambitious young talent agent, and an actress who longs for a starring role as something other than the lead coma victim on ER, to Jennifer Weis at St. Martin's, at auction, by Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider (NA).

Jessica Riley's RIDING WITH LARRY RESNICK, tells the story of a twenty-five year-old kidney transplant recipient who finds herself the grateful owner of a functional kidney once belonging to a man named Larry Resnick, to Jill Schwartzman at Harper, at auction, by Laura Blake Peterson at Curtis Brown (world English).lbp@cbltd.com

UK:
Fifty-nine-year-old Paul Torday's debut SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN, the story of a middle-aged scientist and his involvement with what initially looks like an impossible project: to introduce salmon into the Yemen, to Helen Garnons-Williams at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, at auction, for publication in February 2007, in a two-book deal, by Mark Stanton at Jenny Brown Associates (world).katie.white@orionbooks.co.uk

FOREIGN:
Canadian rights to Governor-General Award winning author David Gilmour's BACK ON TUESDAY, about a man who snatches his daughter from his ex and flees to Jamaica, to Kim McArthur at McArthur & Company, for publication in March 2006, by Sam Hiyate at The Rights Factory.sam@therightsfactory.com

Portuguese rights to Eric Van Lustbader's THE BRAVO TESTAMENT to Sextante GMT Editores in Brazil, in a pre-empt, in a nice deal, by Danny Baror at Baror International.
Australian rights to David Bergen's Giller-Prize-winning novel THE TIME IN BETWEEN, to Henry Rosenbloom at Scribe, by Claire Tisne at Random House.

BIOGRAPHY:
Tobias Churton's MAGUS: The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole, about the life of the founder of the famous Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, an alchemist and antiquarian, and one of the first Freemasons of seventeenth-century England, to Jon Graham at Inner Traditions, in a nice deal, by Tuvia Fogel at Il Caduceo (world English).tuvia@ilcaduceo.it

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Paul Chiasson's THE ISLAND OF SEVEN CITIES: The Discovery of a Lost Chinese Settlement in North America, chronicling the author's discovery of a settlement on Cape Breton pre-dating John Cabot's discovery of the island in 1497, to Michael Flamini at St. Martin's, for publication in May 2006, at auction, by Ron Eckel at Random House Canada.

The NEA's (Boeing-backed) Operation Homecoming's ABOVE AND BEYOND, the anthology of about 100 selections of the "best" writing from the program created to "help U.S. troops and their families write about their wartime experiences" in Afghanistan and Iraq, edited by Legacy Project founder Andrew Carroll, to Nancy Miller at Random House (chosen from among four finalists, selected for their "deep commitment to the book" according to NEA chairman Dana Gioia), with proceeds going to the non-profit Southern Arts Federation, which has run the program, for publication in 2006, by Miriam Altshuler (world).

Veteran political commentator of the Baltimore Sun Jules Witcover's NIXON AND AGNEW: A Portrait of the Strangest Relationship in American Political History, telling the story of a president and vice president who shared malign intent, to Susan Weinberg at PublicAffairs, to be edited by David Patterson, for publication in spring 2007, by David Black (world).

MEMOIR:
28-year old Emily Davies' HOW TO WEAR BLACK: Adventures on Fashion's Front-line, a memoir of her four years as fashion writer for London's Times, immersed in a surreal, luxurious and terrifying world of lavish gifts, fashionably skeletal obsessives and couture warfare, to Sarah McGrath at Scribner, at auction, by Zoe Pagnamenta at PFD New York on behalf of Simon Trewin at PFD UK (NA).
Translation: ila@ila-agency.co.uk Film: jirwin@pfd.co.uk

Former deputy chief of the State Department's secretive Diplomatic Security Service Fred Burton's GHOST STORY: The Case Files of a Counterterror Cop, a memoir of the author's years in the field as a special agent, from his capture of 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef to breakthroughs in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Meir Kahane, and Pakistani President Zia, analyzing America'a continued vulnerability, to Will Murphy and Jonathan Jao at Random House, by Jim Hornfischer of Hornfischer Literary Management (world).jim@hornfischerlit.com

NARRATIVE:
American hairdresser Deborah Rodriquez's THE KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL, a look into the lives of the women of Afghanistan, using unforgettable stories taken from the author's experiences as founder of a beauty school she established to help Afghan women learn a trade, to Jane von Mehren at Random House, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world excl. Germany).rights@rusoffagency.com

Susan Bourette's THE SECRET LIFE OF MEAT, a reporter's look into America's obsession with meat, from investigating factory slaughterhouses to peeking in the kitchen of five-star restaurants and behind the counter at local butcher shops, to Rachel Kahan at Putnam, by Rick Broadhead at Rick Broadhead and Associates (NA). rachel.kahan@us.penguingroup.com rickb@rbaliterary.com

POP CULTURE:
NYT editor Dana Jennings' SING ME BACK HOME: Love, Death, and Country Music, drawing on the author's experience growing up in a rural, working-class town where he lived and breathed the classic country music of 1945-1970, bringing the level of discourse about it up to the same one we use for any serious cultural discussion, to Paul Elie at Farrar, Straus (for Faber and Faber), by Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Agency (world English).

UK:
Matthew Brzezinski's RED MOON RISING, an account of the launch of Sputnik and its repercussions for society and technology which will draw on original interviews and research from recently opened archives in the former USSR and in the U.S., to Mike Jones at Bloomsbury, by James Gill at PFD, on behalf of Scott Waxman at the Waxman Literary Agency (UK/Commonwealth).Translation: farley@waxmanagency.com

FOREIGN:
French rights to Mike Davis's PLANET OF SLUMS, to Hugues Jallon at La Découverte, by by Malcolm Imrie at Imrie & Dervis, on behalf of Verso.Italian rights already sold to Feltrinelli.malcolm@imriedervis.com

FILM:
NYT bestselling author Chris Mooney's THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE, optioned to Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) for his production company, Warrior Poets.

Wrap...

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