Books in bloom: 40 fresh titles to tide you over till summer

Seattle Times (MCT) - It's been a cold and rainy 2009 so far.

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). New novel from the author of the international best-seller "The Shadow of the Wind" that returns his readers to Barcelona and the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

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NONFICTION

April

"A Final Arc of Sky: A Memoir of Critical Care" By Jennifer Culkin (Beacon Press). A "disturbing, powerful" memoir by a critical care nurse at Harborview Medical Center. Reviewed in today's book section.

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"Columbine" By Dave Cullen (Twelve). An investigation into the causes of the Columbine school shootings that draws some surprising conclusions. (Reviewed April 12.)

"One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World" By Gordon Hempton and John Grossman (Free Press). Port Angeles acoustic ecologist Hempton recounts his campaign against the excesses of man-made noise.

"Showing Up for Life: Observations on the Gifts of a Lifetime" By Bill Gates Sr. with Mary Ann Mackin (Doubleday). The philanthropist-father of Bill Jr., who is indeed pretty good at showing up, talks about the principles that have animated his life.

"Almost Home: Stories of Hope and the Human Spirit in the Neonatal ICU" By Christine Gleason, M.D. (Kaplan). A doctor's chronicle of her struggles to save premature infants in intensive care, by the head of neonatology and pediatrics professor at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital. (Reviewed April 5.)

"Rogue's Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money that Made the Metropolitan Museum"By Michael Gross (Broadway Books). A dishy history of the donors, administrators and tastemakers who made the Met what it is today.

May

"Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater" By Matthew Amster-Burton (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt). A frequent contributor to Pacific Northwest Magazine writes about food, his growing daughter and the intersection of the two.

"How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories" By David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton (Columbia University Press). A look into various biological mysteries, including why women have permanent breasts, while other mammals only get them while they're lactating. Barash is a University of Washington professor; co-author and spousal unit Lipton is a Swedish Medical Center psychiatrist.

"Losing Mum and Pup" By Christopher Buckley (Twelve). Buckley, a very funny Washington, D.C., satirist and novelist, remembers his late parents, conservative William F. Buckley Jr. and socialite Patricia Taylor Buckley.

"Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict Between Global Conservation and Native Peoples" By Mark Dowie (MIT Press). A history of how, since 1900, millions of indigenous people have been displaced by the establishment of conservation areas, from Yosemite National Park to Central Africa.

"Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life" By Gerald Martin (Knopf). The "first full and authorized biography" of the Nobel laureate and author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera."

"Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and the Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village" By Lynda V. Mapes (University of Washington Press). Seattle Times reporter Mapes tells the story of how a backhoe operator on a Port Angeles waterfront project unearthed a massive village/burial site of the Klallam tribe, and the chain of events that led to the cancellation of the construction project.

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"Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way" By Ruth Reichl (Penguin Press). A slim memoir of the food writer's mother, who gave up her career to become a wife and mother.

"The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger" By Alec Wilkinson (Knopf). A brief (176 pp.) but eloquent profile of Seeger, the singer, social activist and environmentalist who turns 90 in May.

June

"American Romances: Essays" By Rebecca Brown (City Lights Press). New essays by one of Seattle's most adventurous authors, who usually writes fiction, covering "the ways in which America has tried and failed to craft and tell its own story."

"The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work" By Alain de Botton (Pantheon). One of the most elegant nonfiction writers working today takes on the activity that most of us spend the most time at, but which rarely gets the attention afforded, say, eating and sex.

"By His Own Rules: The Story of Donald Rumsfeld" By Bradley Graham (PublicAffairs). A longtime Washington Post journalist covers the tenure of one of the nation's most controversial Defense Secretaries, considered an arrogant control freak by some, a brilliant visionary by others.

"Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology" By David B. Williams (Bloomsbury). A Seattle author and frequent Seattle Times contributor looks at the geological history of the stone used in America's buildings, from Indiana limestone to petrified wood.

"The Evolution of God"By Robert Wright (Little, Brown). The author of "The Moral Animal" examines the "hidden pattern" in monotheistic religions that has emerged as they have evolved, and its implication for modern spirituality.

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Mary Ann Gwinn: mgwinn@seattletimes.com

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© 2009, The Seattle Times.