Plus, for the digitally inclined, I’ve embedded icons that will guide you straight to NetGalley—ust another sign that those titles are hot. The result is this third annual BEA Galley & Signing Guide.

Click here to get your downloadable/printable PDF.

Tóibín, Colm. The Testament of Mary. Scribner. Nov. 212. 96p. ISBN 9781451688382. $23. LITERARY FICTION
Tóibín’s Mary is nothing like you’d expect, especially if your religious views run to the traditional. She doesn’t think Jesus was the Son of God, that his death had any significance, and that the motley men surrounding him (her “keepers” now) are holy disciples. She also blames herself for abandoning her son on the Cross to save her own life. Tóibín is one of the few authors I can imagine shaking Mary loose of two millennia of prayer, chant, and painting so that we can see her afresh as a lonely, disconsolate woman with no idea what her son’s death wrought.

Cahalan, Susannah. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness. Free Pr: S. & S. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451621372. $25. MEMOIR/MEDICAL
At age 24, New York Post reporter Cahalan was successfully launching a career and a first serious relationship when she entered a month of intensive violent and psychotic episodes that she does not remember even now. After $1 million worth of tests, the doctors were preparing to place her in a psychiatric ward when Dr. Souhel Najjar joined her team and diagnosed a newly discovered autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the brain. Cahalan’s doctors now think that this disease may explain instances of presumed demonic possession throughout history. Meanwhile, herself again, Cahalan nervily reports this extraordinary experience. A big BEA buzz book.

Grass, Günter. From Germany to Germany: Diary 1990. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 212. 272p. ISBN 9780547364605. $24. MEMOIR
After offering his recollection in Peeling the Onion and doing some creative work with memory and ideas in The Box, Grass offers yet another way of looking at the past—particularly his past, significant because it parallels some crucial moments of the 20th century. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Grass decided both to travel through the newly reunited Germany and bear witness to yet another world-historical event, as compatriots (new and old) coped with startling new facts of life, and to keep a diary of his experiences. Here’s the diary, which also threads in more personal reflections; it opens with Grass planting a sapling and going mushroom hunting, setting a tone of uncertain hopefulness as he approaches political events.

Hansen, Roy. She Loves Me Not. Scribner. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781451617580. $25. SHORT STORIES
Hansen is well respected for his novels (e.g., Mariette in Ecstasy), but he really shines in the short fiction form; in-house excitement about this book was palpable. Set in both present and past, involving everything from romance to murder (and perhaps murderous romance), these stories will appeal to smart readers.

Hopkins, Ellen. Collateral. Atria: S. & S. Nov. 2012. 496p. ISBN 9781451626377. $26; eISBN 9781451626391. Downloadable: Hachette Audio. POP FICTION
Having triumphed last year with an adult novel, Triangles, YA phenomenon Hopkins (e.g., Tilt) returns with the story of two women, two men, and the military that comes between them. MFA student/band backup singer Ashley never thought that she would fall for a soldier until she met Cole and then endures five years’ worth of deployments, uncertain whether to commit to marriage despite his pleas. Ashley’s best friend, Darian, does marry a marine but finds the life of a military wife unbearable and has decided on divorce when tragedy strikes. Expect a big audience; with a reading group guide.

McCullough, Colleen. The Prodigal Son: A Carmine Delmonico Novel. S. & S. Nov. 2012.  320p. ISBN 9781451668759. $26. MYSTERY
When a lethal toxin extracted from the blowfish disappears from a Connecticut university laboratory in 1969, anxious biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter gets the news to Capt. Carmine Delmonico—but not in time to keep folks from dropping dead at an important dinner party and then a gala event. Signs point to Millie’s husband, Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist who’s making his name and a black man married to a white woman. Is he being framed? Fourth in a series that seems to be finding its bearings; note that McCullough worked as a neurology researcher at Yale in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so she’s on comfortable ground here.

Macomber, Debbie. Angels at the Table: A Shirley, Goodness and Mercy Christmas Story. Ballantine. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780345528872. $18; eISBN 9780345535962. lrg. prnt. CD: Random Audio. POP FICTION
In Macomber’s latest Angelic Intervention series, angels Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy have a new assignment: to tend to apprentice angel Will. On New Year’s Eve, Will spots two lonely souls in New York’s Times Square and shoves them together. But though they are just right for each other (she’s a chef, he’s a food critic), they are separated in the crowd, and the four angels decide to work a miracle the following holiday season by reuniting them. From a hugely best-selling author; get multiples unless you serve a humbug crowd.

Otto, Whitney. Eight Girls Taking Pictures. Scribner. Nov. 2012. 352p. ISBN 9781451682694. POP FICTION
It’s been nearly 20 years since Otto broke onto the scene with the best-selling How To Make an American Quilt; she’s been somewhat low-key since then. Her intriguing-sounding new work explores what it means to be a woman artist by considering the lives of eight photographers balancing art and home, creativity and security in far-flung settings like New York, London, Berlin, Rome, and Buenos Aires. Upmarket women’s fiction.

Perry, Anne. A Christmas Garland. Ballantine. Nov. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780345530745. $18; eISBN 9780345535979. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL
Perry’s tenth Christmas novel is not what you’d expect; it’s set in 1857 India and features Victor Narraway, the boss of Perry stalwart Thomas Pitt. On his first assignment, Narraway arrives in India during the mutiny against the East India Company, charged with the defense of a British medical orderly accused of murdering a fellow guard. Evidently, he pulls it off—with the help of two children and a Christmas garland. A couple of books in Perry’s “Christmas” series have been New York Times best sellers; recent titles have sold in the 30,000-copy range. The change of venue could be a real refresher.

Furth, Robin. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance, Revised and Updated. Scribner. Nov. 2012. 672p. ISBN 9781451694871. pap. $26. REFERENCE
Stephen King began The Dark Tower over three decades ago and has pushed it past 3000 pages. Furth first issued his reference to the work in 2006 and now offers a revised and updated edition. If you’ve got King fans (and who doesn’t?), this is certainly something to consider.

Hill, Michael. Elihu Washburne: The Diary and Letters of America’s Minister to France During the Siege and Commune of Paris. S. & S. Nov. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9781451665284. $26. HISTORY
Washburne’s name isn’t known to the average reader, but as U.S. minister to France during the Franco-Prussian war who stayed in Paris and aided others throughout the siege and the subsequent bloody Commune, he witnessed an extraordinary time in modern history not much written about. Hill—that unusual creature, an independent historical researcher—presents Washburne’s diaries and letters with his own commentary. Note the introduction by David McCullough.

LaPlante, Eve. Marmee & Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother. Free Pr: S. & S. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781451620665. $26. LITERATURE
When we think of Louisa May Alcott’s formative years, we think of her famous father but rarely of her mother, Abigail May Alcott, always thought to be self-effacingly in the shadows. In fact, reports LaPlante, a great niece of Abigail who drew on newly discovered family papers for this book, she was a forthright feminist and political activist who actively encouraged her daughter’s writing. I bet there will be interest in this new slant on an ever-popular cast of characters.

Mann, William J. Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand. Houghton Harcourt. Nov. 2012. 576p. ISBN 9780547368924. $30. BIOGRAPHY/THEATER
A noted biographer of Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn, Mann does something a little different here, focusing on the years that made Barbra Streisand a star: the early Sixties, when she vaulted from hopeful nobody to the star of Funny Girl on Broadway and singer with three platinum albums. To write this, he drew on the private papers of folks like David Merrick, Bob Fosse, Garson Kanin, and Jerome Robbins to explain how Funny Girl was built from the ground up. Theater lovers will swoon.

Porter, Jessica. The MILF Diet: Change Your Life, Change Your Body, Change Your Future, Deliciously. Emily Bestler Bks: Atria. Nov. 2012. ISBN 9781451655681. $24; eISBN 9781451655711. COOKING
Author of The Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics, Porter here moves on to the still sexually attractive older woman (the polite way of defining the slang term MILF), arguing that MILFs can benefit from dumping meat and refined sugar and glorying in whole grains, organic seasonal vegetables, sea vegetables, natural sweeteners, and mostly plant-based proteins. Lot of recipes, photographs, and advice and not aimed solely at vegans; hey, it’s worth a try!

Ray, Rachael. My Year in Meals. Atria: S. & S. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781451659726. $35; eISBN 9781451659740. COOKING
Food Network star and best-selling cookbook author Ray doesn’t just cook for us; she cooks for friends and family. Here she offers down-home recipes that she makes for her family weekly and fun (if more demanding) stuff she makes for fancy dinner parties. Lots of techniques, lots of tips, lots of cooking stories.

Scott, Jennifer L. Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris. S. & S. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781451699371. $23. STYLE
As we’re reminded by books from Mireille Guiliano’s French Women Don’t Get Fat to Elaine Sciolino’s La Seduction to Ines de la Fressange’s Parisian Chic, Americans really do want to emulate the French in lifestyle matters. Personally, I don’t think anything could make me chic, but I’d be glad to try this primer from the writer and editor of the Daily Connoisseur. Drawing on her time in Paris (in the elegant 16th arrondissement, no less), Scott gives us tips on dressing well (with a ten-item wardrobe), grooming (what about that no-makeup look?), and simply enjoying life.

Solomon, Andrew. Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity. Scribner. Nov. 2012. 672p. ISBN 9780743236713. $35. PSYCHOLOGY
Winner of the National Book Award for The Noonday Demon and a board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Columbia Medical School, Solomon began seeing illness and identity as related when he covered the deaf pride movement in the 1990s. Here, he expands on this notion by exploring how families deal with children who fall outside the perceived boundaries of normal—those with dwarfism, Down syndrome, or exceptional genius, for instance, or those who commit serious crimes, develop mental illness, or are conceived by rape. In the end, he shows how both family and child redefine themselves, often in the face of great hostility. Not specialized reading; there will be broad interest.

Tabor, James D. Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity. S. & S. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781439123317. $26. RELIGION
Renowned scholar of the origins of Christianity, Tabor explains that all was not sweetness and light among early leaders as James, Peter, and Paul argued vehemently over key questions (e.g., should converts first become Jews?), causing Paul to pull away and preach his own brand of the new religion. For serious readers.

Valastro, Buddy. Kitchen Boss: Italian-American Family Favorites as Only Buddy Can Serve Them Up. Free Pr: S. & S. Nov. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9781451674309. $30. COOKING
We knew him first as the Cake Boss, but he’s much more. Valastro’s hit television shows also include Kitchen Boss, and here he shows us how he’s jazzed up classics, e.g., Steak à la Buddy. Get wherever Valastro’s shows are popular, and look for a multicity “Cake Boss” tour.

Vonnegut, Kurt. Kurt Vonnegut: Letters. Delacorte. Nov. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780385343756. $35. LITERATURE
Vonnegut’s life as told by his letters; a smart idea for a writer with such a distinctive voice. Edited by novelist/screenwriter Dan Wakefield, Vonnegut’s friend for over 40 years, the pieces here range from Vonnegut’s letter home after being freed from a German POW camp to protests directed at school boards that had banned his books to exchanges with other writers like Norman Mailer and Günter Grass. Five years after his death, Vonnegut remains in the public eye; Slaughter-House Five still sells more than 100,000 copies a year .

These thoughts are prompted by a front-page story in the Sunday New York Times reporting something that most people in the book world already know: some authors are writing more, up to two or three books a year compared with the traditional once-a-year release, largely because of technology. The Internet has conditioned us to expect instant gratification; omnipresent online media keep authors to the fore, feeding the frenzy; ebooks let us get whatever we want to read whenever we want it.

So folks from Stuart Woods to David Balducci to Lisa Scottoline, who was interviewed for the Times piece, are giving fans more, more, more. Other authors might produce only one full-scale work a year while also writing a short story or novella that sells for a dollar online (no profit there) yet has the advantage of keeping the creator in the public eye and priming readers for the next big book. Often, those works are related to the forthcoming biggie and serve as excellent marketing tools.

As the Times piece points out, literary authors like Jeffrey Eugenides don’t feel obliged to churn out works in the same way. Theirs is a different audience, willing to wait. Theirs is a different kind of writing, too; implicit here is the idea that commercial fiction can be written faster than literary fiction, since mysteries, thrillers, and women’s weepers hone more closely to a formula.

Certainly, successful writers of commercial fiction are a skilled and disciplined bunch. (Scottoline says she writes 2000 words a day, seven days a week.) But writing is still writing, and pressing oneself to produce too much too fast can make for sloppy, uninteresting work. I’ll bet any one of us can cite a recent work from a favorite author that feels hurried along, with unexpectedly lackluster language and an unrefreshed, that’s-been-done-to-death plot. Meet that schedule!

Bad books aren’t always the result of rushed writing, less prolific authors can produce half-baked disappointments after years of trying, and more books from García Márquez would no doubt have been good for everyone. But for today’s energetic crew, wasn’t the once-a-year grind enough? Readers might be sated and publishers enriched, but for authors burnout is real. If the writing suffers (and the writing is everything), is squeezing out one more book really worth it?  I think not.

I suspect I’m up against a tidal wide and can’t fight the zeitgeist. All I can do is worry about the future of good writing. Just know, authors, that at least one reader wouldn’t mind if you stepped back and took a few deep, sweet breaths before giving us your next big book.

Wallace, David Foster. Both Flesh and Not: Essays. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 272p. ISBN 9780316182379. $26.99. lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. ESSAYS
So the Pulitzer people didn’t think he deserved a prize. Wallace is still the great, original, uncompromised voice of the last few decades of American literature, at once brilliant and maddening. This collection of 15 essays never available in book format includes early work not easily accessed, along with classics like “Federer Both Flesh and Not.” After Infinite Jest, we’ll always think of Wallace as a key fiction writer, but his essays shine, and the collections Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again jointly count over 300,000 copies in print.

Millet, Lydia. Magnificence. Norton. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780393081701. $25.95. LITERARY
Still mourning the death of her husband, Susan Findley is given a chance at reclamation when she inherits her grand-uncle’s rambly, enchanting Pasadena mansion. Symbolically, she immediately sets about to restore the mansion’s taxidermy collection to pristine perfection. Alas, a few less than pristine relations drop in to stay. More eerily incisive work from Pulitzer Prize finalist Millet.

Rain, David. The Heat of the Sun. Holt. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780805096705. $26; eISBN 9780805096712. HISTORICAL
Like Angela Davis-Gardner’s Butterfly’s Child, Australian-born, London-based author Rain imagines what happened to the child left behind when the heroine of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly kills herself after discovering Lt. Benjamin Pinkerton’s perfidy. Davis-Gardner’s Benji, passed off as an orphan, suffers intolerance; Rain’s Ben “Trouble” Pinkerton is a charismatic young man worshiped by his private-school classmates—especially narrator Woodley Sharpless, a crippled orphan—who eventually finds himself in the midst of world-defining events from the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression to the bombing of Nagasaki. So, a dramatic rather than meditative work, billed as genre-bending and an in-house favorite.

Thúy, Kim. Ru. Bloomsbury USA dist. by Macmillan. Nov. 2012. 160p. ISBN 9781608198986. pap. $14. LITERARY
Thúy was ten in 1978 when her family fled lotus-scented Saigon for Quebec, trading a large house for flea-infested mattresses. She picked vegetables and sewed clothes to put herself through school, married, and worked variously as a lawyer, translator, and restaurateur. Then she got the urge to write. The result is not a memoir, however, but this fictionalized account of Thúy’s immigrant experiences—and it won Canada’s Governor General Award. Good for discussion, especially as we are still not settled about the Vietnam War and its consequences; the early buzz campaign should draw in readers.

Trasandes, Monica. Broken Like This. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9781250006837. $24. POP FICTION
The fiery and inspiring beloved of both Louis Reed and Angela Agnelli for 15 years, Kate Harrington now lies broken, comatose after a car accident in Ibiza. Her two paramours having flown in to be by her side, one might expect a story of seesawing tight and tender emotions, but it gets really dramatic when Kate’s dark-force stepfather arrives. Director of Spanish-Language Media for GLAAD, Uruguayan-born Transandes offers a first novel that’s getting some push.

Connelly, Michael. The Black Box. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 400p. ISBN 9780316069434. $27.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
LAPD Det. Harry Bosch is back, smart enough to connect a current murder with the 1992 killing of a young female photographer during riots in Los Angeles. That killing, never solved by the Riot Crimes Task Force, now seems a whole lot more personal than anyone ever thought. Bosch must search for the “black box,” that one piece of information that will explain the link between the two deaths that’s just been proved by ballistics. Look for special promotions this year for Connelly, who’s releasing his 25th book in 20 years of publishing.

Haas, Derek. The Right Hand. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9780316198462. $25.99; Downloadable: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
In this latest from Haas, a Hollywood screenwriter (e.g., 3:10 to Yuma) and author of the Silver Bear thrillers, Austin Clay does down-and-dirty deep-secret jobs for the government that would be disavowed if ever he were caught. Here, he starts by hunting for a missing American operative held somewhere outside Moscow and soon teams with a woman who’s convinced that a mole sits somewhere in the top echelons of U.S. government. Let’s see where that goes. Meanwhile, note that Haas is editor of PopcornFiction.com, a site the publisher runs for him that presents short stories by top novelists and screenwriters.

Littell, Robert. Young Philby. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781250005168. $24.99; eISBN 9781250013651. CD: Macmillan Audio. THRILLER
The story of double agent Kim Philby is well known but little understood. What were his motivations and, finally, his ideals? Best-selling author and Gold Dagger winner Littell tries to answer those questions by reconstructing Philby’s early life, as told from the perspectives of 20 real-life characters. If truth is stranger than fiction, fictionalized truth can really shake you up. Look for excerpts at Scrib’d, Watpad, and Issuu.

Ochse, Weston. SEAL Team 666. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250007353. $24.99; eISBN 9781250013460. THRILLER
Cadet Jack Walker doesn’t know what he’s in for when he’s plucked from SEAL training and sent on a secret mission with four full-fledged SEALs and their dog (a Belgian Malinois?). SEAL Team 666’s members soon discovery that the enemy is literally out of this world, as they battle demons and possessed humans, animated by an ancient cult, who are intent on taking over not just the United States but the world. Since Ochse’s Scarecrow Gods won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel, you might take a chance on this paranormal thriller; his Pushcart Prize nomination is added confirmation of his writing skills.

Patterson, James & Michael Ledwidge. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 208p. ISBN 9780316210683. $19.99; lrg. prnt. CD: Hachette Audio. THRILLER
Wow, a Christmas thriller (and another Christmas book from Patterson after last year’s The Christmas Wedding, which is being reissued in November). On a cozy Christmas Eve, Alex Cross has just wrapped up a little case—someone robbing the church’s poor box—when he gets word of a hostage situation that could tie his holidays in knots. The last Alex Cross novel has sold over a million copies (so far).

Meacham, Jon. Jefferson: The Art of Power. Random. Nov. 2012. 752p. ISBN 9781400067664. $35; eISBN 9780679645368. CD/downloadable: Random House Audio. BIOGRAPHY
Executive editor of Random House, former editor of Newsweek, and author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning American Lion (on Andrew Jackson), Meacham has the wherewithal to write a big biography of our third President, especially with the subtitle The Art of Power. His aim is not critical/revisionist (see, for instance, Henry Wiencek’s forthcoming Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves) but large-scale thoughtful; he’s here to paint a full, birth-to-death portrait of Jefferson’s political and intellectual accomplishments. But if you think this is just a brainy read, remember that American Lion has sold a quarter of a million copies in various formats and that Meacham’s other two books were New York Times best sellers as well.

Von Drehle, David. 1862: Abraham Lincoln and the Making of America. Holt. Nov. 2012. 480p. ISBN 9780805079708. $30; eISBN 9780805096088. HISTORY
If you remember 2003’s Triangle: The Fire That Changed America, a best seller and multi-award winner, you’ll know that Time editor at large Von Drehle is an indelible writer. So this look at what 1862 meant for America should be good reading. At that time, the Union was flagging, with the U.S. Treasury short on cash and the Union army nearly leaderless. Von Drehle highlights the strength of character that allowed Abraham Lincoln to turn it all around. Von Drehle’s April 2011 piece on the legacy of the Civil War (and our need to acknowledge that slavery was the signal cause) should suggest this book’s sensibility and direction.

Coddington, Grace. Grace. Random. Nov. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9780812993356. $30; eISBN 9780679645214. CD/Downloadable: Random House Audio. MEMOIR
Stunning British model. Then creative director of British Vogue. Then head of Calvin Klein’s operations in New York. Then creative director of American Vogue. And true star of the 2009 documentary The September Issue, in which she famously upstaged Anna Wintour. Here’s a memoir about Coddington’s 40 years in fashion, beautifully designed by the author herself. Go, fashionistas!

Fellowes, Jessica & Matthew Sturgis. The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era for Family, Friends, Lovers and Staff. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9781250027627. $29.99; eISBN 9781250027634. TELEVISION
Former deputy editor of Country Life and niece of lead Downton Abbey author Julian Fellowes, Fellowes has already written about the public television phenomenon in The World of Downton Abbey. Here she returns with critic/author Sturgis to give an official preview of Season 3, which launches on PBS in January 2013. Downtown Abbey fever does not appear to be abating (though not yet commissioned, Seasons 4 and 5 are in discussion), so this should be popular.

Fornatale, Peter & Bernard M. Corbett. 50 Licks: An Album’s Worth of Stories from the 50-Year History of the Rolling Stones. Bloomsbury USA, dist. by Macmillan. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9781608199211. pap. $17. MUSIC
Fifty years, 50 cool stories (or “Licks”), each named for a different Rolling Stones song, and often drawn from previously unavailable material. FM rock pioneer Fortanale, who died on April 26, joined with Corbett—the radio voice of Harvard University football and a lifelong Rolling Stones nut—to deliver another celebratory piece on the Band That Played On…and On.

Greene, Robert. Mastery. Viking. Nov. 2012. 320p. ISBN 9780670024964. $28.95; Downloadable: Penguin Audio. PSYCHOLOGY
Want to be the master of your universe? Greene shows you how by looking at the folks who have done it before you, from middling-student Charles Darwin to Temple Grandin, Henry Ford, and more. Since Greene’s books (e.g., The 48 Laws of Power) have sold more than a million copies, he must have something to say to folks out there. Be prepared.

Kelley, Kitty. Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick’s Iconic Images of the Kennedys. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780312643423. $29.99; eISBN 9781250018830. PHOTOGRAPHY
Assigned by United Press International to cover John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign, Stanley Tretick became friendly enough with the candidate that he was given access to the White House once Kennedy was elected. He took many pictures readers will recognize immediately, often of JFK with his family. But of course never-before-seen shots are here, too. Best-selling author Kelley, a friend of Tretick, provides an upbeat text. Big publicity push.

Lil Wayne. Gone Till November. Grand Central. Nov. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781455515264. $25.99. MEMOIR
Rapper Lil Wayne has won four Grammies and sold millions of albums; he also did time in Rikers Island Penitentiary in 2010 for criminal possession of a weapon. Here are the journals he kept at the time, reportedly smart, detailed, and thoughtful. Since he has five million Twitter followers and 33.7 million Facebook fans (decidedly the biggest numbers I’ve keyed in for those venues), this book will have an audience.

Love, Courtney & Anthony Bozza. Untitled. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 464p. ISBN 9780062127952. $29.99. eISBN 9780062127990. MEMOIR
These rock memoirs just keep coming. Now the contrarian, controversial Love, loved and hated by the media (and the rest of us), widow of Kurt Cobain and a scalding musician in her own right, tells her own story. With a 250,000-copy first printing and author appearances in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle (but not Portland?).

Mount, Jane (illus.). & Thessaly La Force (ed). My Ideal Bookshelf. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 240p. ISBN 9780316200905. $24.99. LITERATURE
If you’re like me, you judge people by what’s on their bookshelves. Here’s a book that lets you see what folks like Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Bittman, Patti Smith, and more have stashed on theirs. Each contributor weighs in on his or her favorites (“There’s no cumulative purpose—it’s just an excellent way to waste your life,” says Jonathan Lethem), and Mount provides whimsical drawings of side-by-side spines. Sweet.

Nelson, Willie & Kinky Friedman. The Troublemaker: A Story of Faith, Redemption, and Staying True to Your Deepest Beliefs. Morrow. Nov. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9780062193643. $22.99; eISBN 9780062193650. lrg. prnt. MEMOIR
Nelson is such a famed singer/songwriter/activist that next year Austin will place an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of him on Willie Nelson Boulevard. Meanwhile, here’s a memoir cum inspirational tale—and just right for the holidays. With his career stuttering and his personal life in shreds, Nelson wasn’t facing the greatest Christmas in 1971. Even his house burned down. So he decided to change everything, shrugging off pressures to sound Nashville and heading in a new creative direction that landed him where he is today. With a 125,000-copy first printing; note the large print, not surprisingly since this hardy 78-year-old has some mature fans.

Scottoline, Lisa & Francesca Serritella. Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim. St. Martin’s. Nov. 2012. 256p. ISBN 9780312640088. $25.99; eISBN 9781250025074. CD: Macmillan Audio. RELATIONSHIPS
Scottoline is doing so well with her juicily acerbic essay collections, particularly those written with daughter Serritella, that one wonders whether they will start taking precedence over her best-selling fiction. Here, mother and daughter deal with separation anxiety of an adult sort, as Serritella moves to the big city, Scottoline looks about her suburban empty nest, and both think about shifting boundaries. Cozy.

Standiford, Les. Desperate Sons: The Secret Band of Radicals Who Led the Colonies to War. Harper: HarperCollins. Nov. 2012. 336p. ISBN 9780061899553. $27.99; eISBN 9780062218124. HISTORY
This chronicle of the Sons of Liberty in the American Revolution is billed as a political thriller, so expect excitement. Author of the best-selling Bringing Adam Home, Standiford goes behind the glossy surface of iconic events like the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere’s midnight gallop to explain how dangerous (and admittedly illegal) they really were. His aim: to show that we are more bound together by the chances these “desperate Sons” took than divided by the petty politics of today. Well, we can hope.

Tapper, Jake. The Outpost: The Untold Story of American Valor. Little, Brown. Nov. 2012. 608p. ISBN 9780316185394. $28.99. CD/downloadable: Hachette Audio. CURRENT EVENTS
After Combat Outpost Keating was abandoned, the Pentagon determined that the camp, located in the desolate mountains of Afghanistan just 14 miles from the Pakistani border, should never have been established. But first came the October 3, 2009, attack by nearly 400 Taliban fighters, which the 53 U.S. troops held off at considerable cost. A senior White House correspondent for ABC News, Tapper did hard investigative work to understand how this fiasco came about. Lots of buzz about Tapper as a rising media star.