Charlene Ann Baumbich    www.charleneannbaumbich.com
DIVINE APPOINTMENTS, the 2nd in the Snowglobe Connections series
Random House
ISBN: 0307444724
326 pages
purchase online: www.amazon.com

A batch of downsized-yet-kindhearted employees, a bleeding heart boss, and a mysterious snowglobe set buttoned-up, career-focused Josie on an unexpected "right-sizing" path to making life changes that really matter. Filled with laugh-out-loud moments and a gentle dash of inspiration, DIVINE APPOINTMENTS helps us see how much we really do need each other.

Keir Graff    www.keirgraff.com
The Price of Liberty
Severn House
ISBN: 9780727868725
Price: $28.95, Pages: 256
purchase online: www.amazon.com

"Graff's third novel, another winner, will appeal to those who like their thrillers slightly off-kilter in the tradition of Donald Westlake and Lawrence Block."
       —Library Journal

"Graff's cynical take on government waste and corporate greed plays well. McEnroe is as rugged as the desolate country he lives in, and his gritty do-what-ya-gotta-do actions keep the pages turning easily."
       —Publishers Weekly

Fleda Brown    www.fledabrown.com
Driving With Dvorak
University of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 978-0-8032-2476-6
price: $24.95, pages: 268
purchase online: www.nebraskapress.unl.edu

An unconventional memoir: a series of lyric essays about life in a maddeningly complex family during the even more maddeningly complex fifties and sixties: a strange and erratic father, a resigned and helpless mother, a mentally disabled brother, a sister with a brain tumor, the ambivalences of family and marriage, girlhood and adolescence, identity and self-knowledge. Great humor, profound perception, and a lyricism that makes even the most commonplace moment uncommonly good reading.

Cheryl L. Reed     www.nunsunveiled.com
Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns
Berkley, by the Penguin Group
ISBN: 978-0-425-23238-5
price: $14, pages: 331

"Unveiled is fascinating and inspiring not only because of the nuns themselves, but because Cheryl Reed has the wisdom to understand how the passage of time has changed the women and because she has the skill to write about their maturation beautifully. This book should be required reading for the Pope and his posse."
        —Jane Hamilton, award-winning author of The Book of Ruth

Bill Barnhart     www.barnhartbooks.com
JOHN PAUL STEVENS: An Independent Life
Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN-10: 0875804195; ISBN-13: 978-0875804194
Hardcover; 324 pages

"Justice John Paul Stevens combines a towering intellect with courageous independence. Bill Barnhart and Gene Schlickman combine their exhaustive research with insightful analysis to give readers a splendid biography of the Supreme Court's most respected member."
        —Newton N. Minow, former Federal Communications Commission chairman

"Terrific."
        —Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Nine

Steven Burgauer
THE ROAD TO WAR: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture
ISBN: 978-1-4502-1880-1 (pp); ISBN: 978-1-4502-1882-5 (hc)
about the book & ordering info

A riveting first-person account of a brave young man caught up in a cataclysmic World War. This is the story of Captain William C. Frodsham, Jr., who — shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor — enlisted in the U.S. Army Infantry, where he excelled in basic training, became a junior officer, and eventually led a combat boat team ashore on Omaha Beach.

Six days later, in French hedgerow country and under withering German fire, Frodsham was wounded and taken prisoner. He spent the next year as a German POW, where he suffered great deprivation before finally being liberated by advancing Russian forces. His training, his courage, his capture. The reader is taken for a first-person tour of the times at home and then tunneled into a vastly different world on the battlefield and in a German prisoner-of-war camp.

A truly remarkable story.

Thomas McNulty
Wind Rider
Robert Hale Publishers
hardcover
amazon.com 
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His name is Hank Benteen, but the Sioux call him Wind Rider. When Benteen rides into a Wyoming valley he saves a homesteader's life and that of his two children, but there's a range war brewing and some of the cowboys are hiding a murderous secret. Suddenly Benteen finds himself involved in a deadly conflict as he resolves to help the homesteaders against impossible odds. It isn't long before Benteen finds himself the target of two greedy men intent on killing him. Their dream of acquiring land by forcing out the homesteaders has turned into a deadly game and Benteen will need all of his skills as a gunman in order to survive.

Margaret McMullan
Sources of Light
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
view YouTube book trailer 

"It's a high stakes novel that powerfully portrays the bravery and loss of a tumultuous time."
— Publisher's Weekly

"Though this fine volume easily stands by itself, McMullan links it with two previous works-How I Found the Strong (2004) and When I Crossed No-Bob (2007)-and readers who read the first installments will feel that they are in the midst of an excellent historical saga...this offers a superb portrait of a place and time and a memorable character trying to make sense of a world both ugly and beautiful."
— Kirkus Reviews

"McMullan...makes her characters complex, confused, and sympathetic...In the end, readers will see the humanity of those on the wrong side of history, and may even feel compassion for them, too."
— Booklist

Ray E. Boomhower
Fighter Pilot: The World War II Career of Alex Vraciu
Indiana Historical Society Press Youth Biography Series
ISBN: 978-0-87195-282-0
$17.95    

Written by award-winning biographer, Ray E. Boomhower, this is the sixth volume in the Indiana Historical Society Press’s youth biography series. The book examines the daring exploits of the Hoosier flier during his wartime service. Vraciu learned to fly during his college years through a government program and joined the navy before America was thrust into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Possessed with keen eyesight, quick reflexes, excellent shooting instincts, and a knack for finding his opponent’s weak spot, Vraciu became skilled in the deadly game of destroying the enemy in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. For a period of four months in 1944, he was the leading ace in the U.S. Navy, with a tally of nineteen enemy airplanes.

Barbara Gregorich     www.barbaragregorich.com
She’s on First
ISBN: 978-1449573072
Price: $16.00 softcover, $8.50 ebook
Number of Pages: 314
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When Barbara Gregorich published her first novel in 1987, Publishers Weekly wrote: “Unliberated baseball fans may well be won over by this appealing novel of the first woman in the big leagues; all baseball fans will appreciate Gregorich’s sure feel for the game … the baseball scenes are crackerjack, and readers should end up wondering, ‘Why not?’” She's on First is now back in print, both as a softcover and as an ebook.

Katherine McCaughan     www.katherinemccaughan.com
Natasha Lands Down Under
High-Pitched Hum Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-934666-36-4
Price: $12.95     Number of pages: 250
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The communist revolution in China forces Natasha's Russian family to flee their Shanghai home for Australia. Strong-willed Natasha struggles to fit in, butting heads with a snooty aunt and cousins. As she navigates the growing cultural gap between herself and her family's old Russian customs, Natasha realizes her own inner strengths. A multi-cultural novel exploring immigrant issues in a different historical setting.

Brandon Marie Miller     www.brandonmariemiller.com
Benjamin Franklin, American Genius
Chicago Review Press
ISBN: 978-1-55652-757-9
$16.95, 125 pages, illustrations, further reading, glossary, places to visit/web sources
order online    

"This smart and delightful book captures the magic of Benjamin Franklin and shows why his life is so inspiring. Above all, it celebrates his creativity, which was the source of his genius."

John Litweiler
Mojo Snake Minuet
Goodbait Books
ISBN: 978-159858-975-7
197 pages, paperback, $15.00
ordering information at www.goodbaitbooks.com

Mojo Snake Minuet is a thriller that takes place in an alternative America where black people are the majority, white people are the oppressed minority, and worse, Chicago is an uproar over a stolen mojo. The story includes TV news griots, black minstrels in whiteface, private witches, defrocked Voodoo priests, inner-city symphonic joints, among other monstrousness.

Michael Williams and Richard Cahan
Edgar Miller and the Handmade Home: Chicago's Forgotten Renaissance Man
CityFiles Press
ISBN-13: 978-0978545055
Hardcover: 400 pages, 9 1/4" x 12 1/4", $50.00
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Embracing old-world skills in a technological age, Edgar Miller was Chicago’s last Renaissance artist. He was a fine painter, a master wood carver, and one of the nation’s foremost stained glass designers. He could sculpt, draw hunting portraits, and was considered a pioneer in the use of graphic art in modern advertising. His artistic genius came together in four artistic studios he built on Chicago’s north side in the 1920s and 1930s. He touched almost every inch of the studios with daring and surprise. He took rustic brick, crude stone, salvaged tile, found glass, steel, and wood, then “Edgarized” the homes with stained glass windows, frescos, murals, tile work, and wood carving.

Rob Warden (editor), Steven A. Drizin (editor)
True Stories of False Confessions
Northwestern University Press
ISBN-10: 0810126036, ISBN-13: 978-0810126039
$27.95, 400 pages
order from amazon.com

Editors Rob Warden and Steven Drizin have gathered stories about some of the most critical accounts of false confessions in the U.S. justice system from more than forty authors, including Thomas Frisbie, Randy Garrett and Alex Kotlowitz.

Joanne Koch
STARDUST
Published by Dramatic Publishing Company, www.dramaticpublishing.com
ISBN: 978-1-58342-612-8
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In Stardust, two young people—one trusting, introspective and blind, the other suspicious, defensive and sighted—share a moment of intimacy and conflict while awaiting signs of life in outer space. This drama by Joanne Koch, author of 16 plays and musicals produced around the country, won the Nantucket Short Play Competition and was deemed by its literary manager as “one of the very best treatments of high-school age issues that I have read.”

Andrew Kantar
Deadly Voyage: The S.S. Daniel J. Morrell Tragedy
Michigan State University Press: www.msupress.msu.edu
ISBN: 0-87013-863-4
$16.95, 136 pages, juvenile nonfiction
order from amazon.com    order from publisher

Deadly Voyage, intended for young adults, is the harrowing story of one of the worst shipwrecks in Great Lakes history. In 1966 the S.S. Daniel J. Morrell was caught in a deadly storm on Lake Huron that split the freighter in two. Twenty-eight men died in the tragedy, but one sailor, Dennis Hale, miraculously survived, clinging to a life raft for 38 hours. Map, photographs, bibliography.

". . . a vital addition to any collection of Great Lakes maritime books."

Donna Latham
Amazing Biome Projects You Can Build Yourself
Nomad Press
ISBN: 9781934670392
$15.95, for ages 9 and older

Kids willl wander through forests, sizzle in deserts, shiver in the tundra, plunge beneath the seas to explore coral reefs, and slog through marshy waters. Along the way, kids will encounter flora and fauna adapted for survival in each unique climate zone. They'll learn about gnarly krumholz trees, bioluminescent sea creatures, camouflage, carnivorous plants, and blubbery marine critters. In each biome, people who use science in their jobs are highlighted, whether at the site of a disastrous oil spill or an oh-so-cool mastodon dig.

James Plath
Historic Photos of Ernest Hemingway
Turner Publishing Co.
ISBN-10 1596525169, ISBN-13 978-1596525160
$39.95, hardcover, 216 pp.
purchase online

From the 1920s until his death in 1961, "Papa" Hemingway was a larger-than-life literary figure whose everyday exploits became legendary. He was a friend of celebrities, a war correspondent, journalist, renowned big-game hunter, record-setting saltwater angler, and hard-drinking brawler whose reputation preceded him. This coffee table biography of Ernest Hemingway features 200 photos, with preface, four chapters, and captions.

John W. Mauck
The Healing of Jabez: How God Uses Pain to Bring Healing
Credo House Publishers
ISBN: 978-1-935391-29-6
Hardcover, 96 pages
website: www.thehealingofjabez.com
Amazon.com

Author John Mauck takes the renowned story of Jabez and transforms it into a plan for healing. As Mauck reveals six healing steps to unlock God’s healing, we find ourselves being led to Jesus Christ. Mauck explores similarities between Jabez and Jesus to show how Jesus personified the healing power that Jabez experienced. Realizing the traits that both shared helps us to know Jesus.

Carol Fisher Saller    www.subversivecopyeditor.com
The Subversive Copy Editor
University of Chicago Press
ISBN-13: 978-0226734255; ISBN-10: 0226734250
Paperback $13.00, Cloth $30.00, 152 pp., 8 x 5 inches

"An entertaining trip."
     —Thomas Frisbie, Chicago Sun-Times

"Wisdom that applies to just about anyone."
    —Robert Loerzel, Time Out Chicago

"An insider’s book to cure writers . . . while shoring up editors. . . . Good advice."
     —William Safire, New York Times

"An ideal complement to any style guide . . . full of ed-head laughs."
     —Publishers Weekly

Michael Argetsinger
Foreword by Roger Penske   
Mark Donohue: Technical Excellence at Speed
David Bull Publishing
ISBN-13: 978 1 935007 02 9
344 pages, $39.95
purchase online

To a generation of fans in the 1960s and 1970s, Mark Donohue embodied a new, uniquely American spirit in motor racing. Donohue was not only blindingly fast—he was also smart, with a background in engineering and a unique talent for setting up a racecar. Together with his like-minded team owner, Roger Penske, he brought a new level of sophistication to racing.

Robert O. Harder     www.robertoharder.com
FLYING FROM THE BLACK HOLE
The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam
Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 978-1-59114-359-8
Hardcover, 336 pp., 30 b/w photos & illustrations, 6" x 9", $34.95 (AUSA)
Naval Institute Press   Amazon   Barnes & Noble   Borders   Book Sense/IndieBound

U.S. Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots, their contributions misunderstood or simply unknown to the public. This was especially the case with the B-52's non-pilot, officer aircrewmen in the Vietnam War. Here, one of their own reveals who these men were and what they did down in the "Black Hole." It is the only work to detail the B-52 air war in Vietnam from the perspective of a navigator-bombardier.

Rosina Neginsky
JUGGLER
A Bilingual English-Russian Edition of Poems
University Press of the South
ISBN: 1-931948-77-1
amazon.com

A magnificent book of poetry, in which the author explores love, hatred, sorrow, beauty and ugliness in our lives. Fundamental for Russian Studies.

". . . Rosina Neginsky reminds readers that we are also artists, for her works summon our responsibility."

—ETHAN LEWIS, Professor of English, University of Illinois

Arnie Bernstein     www.arniebernstein.com
Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing
University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 978-0-472-03346-1

On May 18, 1927, in Bath, Michigan, Andrew Kehoe set off explosives concealed in the basement of the local school. Thirty-eight children and six adults died, including Kehoe, who blew himself apart setting off dynamite in his truck. With modern stories of school violence and suicide bombers, Bath Massacre reminds us that large-scale murder is nothing new.

Florence Parry Heide  
THE ONE AND ONLY MARIGOLD
Schwartz & Wade (Random House Children’s Books)
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-84031-9
hardcover | $16.99 | $19.99 Can. | 40 pages | Ages 4–8
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From renowned author Florence Parry Heide comes four connected stories about Marigold: one clever, complicated, and hilarious little girl. In these tales, Marigold buys a new coat (don’t worry, she still wears the old one to bed; she’s a very loyal person), plays a great trick (involving a Special Surprise Treasure Stand and some worms), and much more. Jill McElmurry’s vibrant and expressive illustrations of Marigold’s escapades bring the one and only Marigold to life.

Margaret McMullan     www.margaretmcmullan.com  
CASHAY
Houghton Mifflin Company
ISBN-13: 9780547076560; ISBN-10: 0547076568
Young Adult (12+); Grades 7+
hardcover, $15.00

"A beautifully written, touching and powerful story you won't be able to put down."

A Chicago Public Library Spring 2009 Teen Book Pick, Cashay is McMullan’s 5th novel about an African-American girl who copes with the death of her sister in a drive-by shooting.

In her fourteen years living in a Chicago housing project, Cashay has never ridden in a taxi cab, seen the city lit up at night, or set foot in a museum. She gets her family by on a couple of dollars and food stamps every week.

Gail Lukasik     www.gaillukasik.com
DEATH'S DOOR: A Leigh Girard Mystery
Five Star/Cengage/Gale
ISBN-13: 9781594147142
hardcover, 306 pages, $25.95
purchase online:   amazon.com    barnesandnoble.com

A killer is targeting young blond women, leaving their strangled bodies along the desolate Mink River in Door County Wisconsin. Reporter Leigh Girard’s investigation into the murders lures her into a bizarre correspondence with the killer. His letters taunt Leigh with cryptic literary clues that hint at his identity. Leigh races against time to crack the killer’s code, before he kills again.