Dear Burning Questions:
I thought this question appropriate due to the name of your column. Can you provide a list of books related to fires, firefighters, and firefighting -- famous and not-so-famous? Thanks from a firebug!

L.L. Smith
Jacksonville, Florida

We can light your fire! There are indeed some good books to be found on firefighting -- more than we can list here. Coming in June is Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire in the West (Harcourt, $26, 0151005893) by Murry A. Taylor.

A stirring account of the dangers of firefighting is Young Men and Fire (University of Chicago Press, $19.95, 0226500616) by Norman MacLean (of A River Runs Through It fame). Novelist Larry Brown wrote an interesting memoir of his firefighting days in Oxford, Mississippi called On Fire (Algonquin, $17.95, 1565120094). For a mystery treatment: Earl W. Emerson's The Dead Horse Paint Company: A Mac Fontana Mystery (William Morrow & Co., $24, 0688137512). And for some short, readable tales of American firefighting history: Firefighting Lore: Strange but True Stories from Firefighting History (W. Fred Conway, $9.95, 092516514X).

Dora, Dora, Dora

Dear Burning Questions:
Since seeing the movie Surviving Picasso I have been curiously intrigued by Dora Maar. I read Picasso and Dora by James Lord, but it didn't quench my curiosity. In fact I am even more eager to read about this elusive woman. Are there any other books about her or any in the making?

E-mail from a reader

Here's something to assuage that thirst: Check your library for this one from a few years back (not currently in print): Picasso and the Weeping Women: The Years of Marie-Therese and Dora Maar by Judi Freeman. The artistic renderings and the real women who were pivotal during a distinctive period of Picasso's creative life are explored.

Dee-lighted to oblige

Dear Burning Questions:
I recently discovered an author named Ed Dee. The only books I can find written by him are Bronx Angel, 14 Peck Slip, and Little Boy Blue. Are there others? If not when can we expect another?

Gloria Georgoulis
Harrington, Delaware

You are almost up-to-date! Ex-New York cop Edward Dee is on a roll, and Nightbird (Warner, $23.95, 044652039X) is his latest crime novel. A paperback edition will be out in June. Cops Anthony Ryan and Joe Gregory are mighty suspicious about a reported suicide.

A matter of life and death

Dear Burning Questions:
My new next door neighbor lost her husband after they moved here. Do you have a book that would help anyone who is grieving the death of a wonderful husband? Please advise.

Thank you.

E-mail from a reader

As a matter of fact, Pantheon is publishing a book in April entitled In Lieu of Flowers: A Conversation for the Living ($19.95, 0375403418), a personal meditation on grieving by Nancy Cobb. Cobb's poignant book encourages us to face the fact that death is an inevitable part of life, and we must conquer our fear of it. In a touching way, she relates how she managed to face the deaths of her parents and other loved ones, and somehow makes a sad subject seem uplifting. She emphasizes that death is what binds us together most tightly.

Cleverly Beverly

Dear B.Q.,
I love the book The Real Hole by Beverly Cleary. It is written for pre-schoolers, and as a preschool teacher, I have read the book to every class that I have taught. What can you tell me about the book? What does Beverly Cleary think about it?

Sincerely,
Alida Littlefield

Dear Alida,
The Real Hole was originally published in 1960 by Morrow Junior Books and Mulberry Books released it in paperback in 1986 (with illustrations by Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan). You might want to check out the website www.williammorrow.com which will link you to other Cleary web sites. Be sure to look in BookPage's archives available online at www.bookpage.com; Mrs. Cleary was interviewed for our August 1999 issue.

Starbuck Chronicles -- not your morning latte

Dear Burning Questions:
The Starbuck Chronicles' The Bloody Ground, published in 1996, was the fourth in the series and left you hanging on future novels. What happened to the balance?

Steve Bernat
Niagara Falls, New York

Many readers are addicted to this Civil War series by Bernard Cornwell and needing another cuppa. At the moment, however, other topics are claiming his writing talents. Cornwell continues his Richard Sharpe series, set during the Napoleonic wars. Here's a series to keep you going awhile -- 17 novels and counting. Already bestsellers in England, the Sharpe series is now being introduced to American readers. Sharpe's Triumph (HarperCollins, $24, 006101270X) came out last fall, and Sharpe's Fortress ($24, 0060194243) is scheduled for fall 2000.

Also due from Cornwell in June 2000 is Stonehenge, an epic set at the time the mysterious stone circle was erected in England. Three brothers -- warrior, sorcerer, and peacemaker -- struggle over chieftainship. More good battlefield scenes!

Queen of suspense

Dear Burning Questions:
Any word on Mary Higgins Clark? My step-granddaughter is now reading her, but for me, no new books.

Cordially,
Judith Miller
Terre Haute, Indiana

Judith, you're in luck! Mary Higgins Clark's newest novel, Before I Say Good-Bye, will be published by Simon & Schuster in April. The storyline runs something like this . . . A young widow running for Congress falls prey to a psychic who claims to be in touch with her husband but whose real game is murder. Wow! Sounds like another winner from the queen of suspense.

Double Trouble

Dear Burning Questions,
Why did two biographies about the same man get published at the same time with (very nearly) the same titles: Carl Sagan: A Life (Wiley, $30, 0471252867) by Keay Davidson, and Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos, (Henry Holt, $30, 0805057668) by William Poundstone?

Your fan,
Mary Ann Bittner
Belleville, Michigan

It isn't surprising that a figure with the fame and influence of Carl Sagan would attract more than one biographer. Since Sagan's death in 1996, both Poundstone and Davidson have been researching the countless topics and individuals in Sagan's busy life. Their titles are similar for good reasons. For clarity the titles of biographies usually begin with the subject's name, and "A Life" sounds friendlier than "A Biography." Poundstone threw in the additional phrase "in the Cosmos" to distinguish his subtitle, and also to employ one of Sagan's favorite words. See the October 1999 issue of BookPage (on the web at bookpage.com) for a review of both books.