Some good and serious book choices...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION:

Creator and producer A&E's Cold Case Files, Michael Harvey's THE CHICAGOWAY, to Jordan Pavlin at Knopf, for two books, byDavid Gernert at The Gernert Company (NA).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Iain Pears' STONE'S FALL, sold on partial manuscript, to Julie Grau atSpiegel & Grau, by Felicity Bryan at Felicity Bryan Agency (US). Frenchrights to Belfond, by Claire Nozieres at Andrew Nurnberg Associates.

CHILDRENS: MIDDLE GRADE:

Illustrator Matt Phelan's first graphic novel THE STORM IN THE BARN, inwhich an 11-year old boy faces the complexities of life in the dustbowl, including an ailing sister, no farm for the family to live off ofand something sinister stirring in the neighbor's barn, to Amy Erhlichand Chris Paul at Candlewick, at auction, for two booksby Rebecca Sherman at Writers House (NA).rsherman@writershouse.com

UK:

29-year-old British bookseller and Struggling Author blogger MariePhillips' debut novel GODS BEHAVING BADLY, about the antics of GreekGods in contemporary London, along with a romantic sub-plot, to DanFranklin at Jonathan Cape, now represented by David Godwin at DavidGodwin Associates.

FILM:

James A. Owen's HERE BE DRAGONS, a period fantasy set in London duringWorld War I, to Warner Bros., for David Heyman at Heyday Films and DavidGoyer at Phantom Four to produce, with Owen adapting, by The GothamGroup.

Tami Hoag's KILL THE MESSENGER, optioned to Mark Bethea and Grant Turckof Velocity Entertainment for feature film development, by AndreaCirillo at the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

NON-FICTION: BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:

Asia business correspondent for Time magazine Michael Schuman's THEMIRACLE: The Epic Story of Asia's Quest for Wealth, an account of Asia'srise to economic greatness over the past 50 years focusing on keyplayers in China, Korea, India, Japan, to Genoveva Llosa at Collins,by Michelle Tessler at Tessler Literary Agency (world).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Omar Nasiri's (a pen name to protect his identity) INSIDE THE JIHAD: MyLife with Al Qaeda, A Spy's Story, a former Al Qaeda operative tells ofhis involvement with the terrorist organization -- on the streets ofPakistan, the training camps of Afghanistan, and the radical mosques ofLondon -- and then his time as a spy for "a leading Western intelligenceservice," to Lara Heimert at Basic, embargoed for publication onNovember 20, following a UK exclusive televised interview on Newsnighton November 15 (world, excl. UK, ANZ and South Africa).
Rights to C. Hurst & Company in the UK; Flammarion in France; Balans inHolland; DVA/Der Spiegel in Germany; Scribe in Australia; and JacanaMedia in South Africa.michele.jacob@perseusbooks.com

Former director of the FBI's counter-terrorism task forceTerry Turchieand task force behavioral expert Dr. Kathleen Puckett's HUNTING THEAMERICAN TERRORIST, recount the capture of Ted Kaczynski, pursuit ofEric Rudolph deep into the North Carolina wilderness, and profiling ofTimothy McVeigh, and HOMELAND INSECURITY, on how and why thecounter-terrorism units in the nation's premier intelligence agency werecompromised by politcal forces, to Don Bracken at History Publishing, ina nice deal, by Cynthia Riggs (world).

NARRATIVE:

Dr. Paul Austin's account of what it is like to practice emergencymedicine, and the toll it exacts on one doctor, to Jill Bialosky atNorton, by Michelle Tessler at Tessler Literary Agency (NA).

POP CULTURE:

LA Times investigative reporters and Pulitzer finalists Jason Felch andRalph Frammolino's CHASING APHRODITE, the behind-the-scenes story of thelooted antiquities scandal at the J. Paul Getty Museum and aninvestigation of how the trade in stolen antiquities - and the demandsfrom countries like Italy and Greece to get those antiquities back - issending tremors throughout the art world, to Andrea Schulz at Harcourt,by Jay Mandel at William Morris Agency (NA).

SCIENCE:

Stephen Hawking and collaborator Leonard Mlodinow's THE GRAND DESIGN,looking at the question of why there is a universe: both the origin ofthe universe and the deeper issue of why the laws of physics are whatthey are, to Irwyn Applebaum at Bantam Dell, for publication in fall2008, by Al Zuckerman and Susan Ginsburg at Writers House (NA).Transworld will publish in the UK.

Wrap...