Seattle Times (MCT) - It's been a cold and rainy 2009 so far.
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So here in the book department, we declare that spring has just started, one month later than planned, by compiling a list of "spring" books with publication dates of April through June. There's lots of choice fiction here _ new novels by Sarah Waters ("Tipping the Velvet") and Louis Alberto Urrea, and new thrillers by Elmore Leonard and Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the Spanish writer whose intricate mystery "The Shadow of the Wind" was an unlikely worldwide hit.
In nonfiction there are new biographies of author Gabriel Garcia Marquez and former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and promising memoirs by local authors. But keep your socks on as you head for the chaise lounge. We wouldn't want you to catch a reading-related chill.
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FICTION
April
"Face" By Sherman Alexie (Hanging Loose Press). The Seattle National Book Award winner's first book of poetry in nine years.
"The Language of Bees" By Laurie R. King (Bantam). The popular San Francisco-based mystery author returns with a new book in her mystery series featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes. In this installment, Holmes' son turns up on their doorstep.
"B is For Beer" By Tom Robbins (Ecco). The latest from the Bard of La Conner; described by his editor as a "hallucinogenic hymn to beer, children, and the cosmic mysteries that sustain us all."
"Tea Time for the Traditionally Built" By Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon). The 10th in the internationally beloved No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series about Precious Ramotswe, Botswana's only female detective.
May
"The Scarecrow" By Michael Connelly (Little, Brown). Newsman Jack McEvoy (from Connelly's "The Poet") is simultaneously laid off from the Los Angeles Times and surveilled and stalked by a very bad guy.
"Sunnyside" By Glen David Gold (Knopf). The author of the highly original "Carter Beats the Devil" returns with a novel based (kind of) on the life of Charlie Chaplin.
"Road Dogs" By Elmore Leonard (Morrow). The Grand Master of Lowlife Dialogue returns several of his characters to the thriller stage, including Jack Foley, the celebrity bank robber played by George Clooney in the film version of Leonard's "Out of Sight."
"Pygmy" By Chuck Palahniuk (Doubleday). The latest from the author of "Fight Club," described as "The Manchurian Candidate" meets "South Park."
"Stone's Fall" By Iain Pears (Spiegel & Grau). The author of "An Instance of the Fingerpost" writes a story of the career and death of a mysterious financier and arms dealer.
"Killing Rommel" By Steven Pressfield (Broadway Books). The author of several novels about ancient warfare turns his attention to the elite WWII British commando unit that took on the German Afrika Corps and its leader, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
"Shanghai Girls" By Lisa See (Random House). The story of two sisters in 1937 Shanghai who are matched in arranged marriages to Americans after their father loses his wealth. By the author of "Peony in Love."
"Brooklyn" By Colm Toibin (Scribner). The esteemed Irish author ("The Master") writes a story of a young woman in the 1950s, torn between her Irish past and her American present.
"Into the Beautiful North" By Luis Alberto Urrea (Little, Brown). A young Mexican woman whose village is threatened by bandits heads north to the U.S. to recruit seven male defenders to replace those who have left to find work in America.
"The Little Stranger" By Sarah Waters (Riverhead). The "Tipping the Velvet" author publishes her fifth novel, about a British mansion and a malevolent force that threatens the family that inhabits it.
June
"The Thing Around Your Neck" By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf). Twelve stories about ties that bind, familial and otherwise, set in Nigeria and the U.S., by the author of "Half of a Yellow Sun."
"In the Kitchen" By Monica Ali (Scribner). The author of "Brick Lane" returns with a story of the death of a porter in a London hotel kitchen and how the tragedy disturbs the balance of the head chef's life.
"Finger Lickin'" By Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's). New shenanigans from Stephanie Plum, private detective and New Jersey Girl.
"The Story Sisters" By Alice Hoffman (Shaye Areheart Books). The spookily talented Hoffman waves a story of three sisters and the choices they make as they grow from girlhood to womanhood.
"Border Songs" By Jim Lynch (Knopf). The Olympia author of "The Highest Tide" returns with a novel whose main character is dyslexic as well as a birder, artist, Good Samaritan and a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
"My Father's Tears and Other Stories" By John Updike (Knopf). The great American writer's last short fiction collection _ Updike died in January.
"The Angel's Game" By Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Doubleday). ...
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