Checking out the books...

From Publishers Weekly Lunch:

MYSTERY/CRIME:

Time's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Matthew Rees's THE COLLABORATOR OF BETHLEHEM, first in a series featuring a Palestinian investigator, to Katie Herman at Soho Crime, by Lisa Erbach Vance of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, on behalf of the Deborah Harris Agency in Israel (NA).kdaneman@sohopress.com

FILM:

Kevin Wignall's FOR THE DOGS, optioned to Stone Village Pictures (The Human Stain, Love in the Time of Cholera), to be written by Kathleen McLaughlin (a producer on The Quiet American and writer of Phillip Noyce's forthcoming The Bielski Brothers), and produced by Lucas Foster (Mr & Mrs Smith, Man on Fire), by Justin Manask at Intellectual Property Group, acting in conjunction with Curtis Brown UK and Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

BIOGRAPHY:

Christopher Ross's MISHIMA'S SWORD: Travels in Search of a Samurai Legend, encountering those who knew Mishima, who committed hara-kiri after a failed coup d'etat 30 years ago, to John Rodzvilla at Da Capo, for publication in fall 2006, by Fourth Estate (US).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:
Author of Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist and When Genius Failed, Roger Lowenstein's book on the pension crisis in the US -- including the New York City subway system pension dispute, San Diego's pension scandal that brought down the mayor, and the auto industry's pension gap -- affecting cities and states, private corporations and the federal government, also suggesting a way out the fiscal mess, to Ann Godoff at the Penguin Press, for publication in 2008, by Melanie Jackson of the Melanie Jackson Agency.

Egil (Bud) Krogh and Matthew Krogh's ON INTEGRITY, an insider's analysis of high-level decision making and the calamitous outcomes of acting without integrity, including a three-question test designed to help prevent good people from making bad choices, to Peter Osnos and Clive Priddle at Public Affairs, by Laura Dail at Laura Dail Literary Agency (US/Can).Clive.Priddle@perseusbooks.comLDail@LDLAInc.com

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Nuclear engineer and U.S. Navy veteran Kenneth Sewell and NYT bestselling author Jerome Preisler's ACT OF WAR: The Soviet Attack and Killing of the USS Scorpion, a sequel to Sewell and Clint Richmond's NYT bestselling RED STAR ROGUE: The Untold Story of a Soviet Submarine's Nuclear Strike Attempt on the U.S., to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, by John Talbot at Talbot Fortune Agency (World).

Moscow correspondent for NPR and co-author of SPY HANDLER: Memoir of a KGB Officer Gregory Feifer's THE GREAT GAMBLE: The Soviet War in Afghanistan and its Lessons for America, an account of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan from the point of view of the Russians who fought and participated in the conflict, to Tim Duggan at Harper, by Robert Gottlieb and John Silbersack at Trident Media Group (world English).jsilbersack@tridentmediagroup.com

MEMOIR:

Catholic nun Karol Jackowski's FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN, chronicling her journey from entering the convent in 1964 after graduating from high school, and emerging in 1972 into a church transformed by the changes wrought by Vatican II, to Jake Morrissey at Riverhead (he published her at Harmony), for publication in spring 2007, by Laurie Liss at Sterling Lord Literistic (world).

SCIENCE:

Canadian rights to Canadian physicist John Moffat's A MATTER OF GRAVITY, the story of the author's discovery of a new gravity theory that overturns both Newton's and Einstein's and will forever change the way scientists study the universe, and IN THE COMPANY OF GIANTS, the author's memoir of working with the world's greatest physicists including Einstein, Bohr, and Oppenheimer, to Patrick Crean at Thomas Allen, at auction, by Jodie Rhodes (Canada).
US rights to A MATTER OF GRAVITY, to T.J. Kelleher at Smithsonian Books, in a pre-empt, by Jodie Rhodes.jrhodes1@san.rr.com

GENERAL/OTHER:

Amherst professor Alexander George's ASK PHILOSOPHERS, based on the website askphilosophers.com, where ordinary people post a wide range of philosophical questions and receive answers from the world's most prestigious living philosophers (including Peter Lipton, head of the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Oxford and Thomas Pogge, professor of moral and political philosophy at Columbia), to Pam Krauss at Clarkson Potter, by Daniel Greenberg at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (NA).

Foreign rights to Bompiani in Italy and Editora Objetiva in Brazil, in pre-empts, by Elizabeth Fisher at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency.

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