FIRST PERSON
September BookPage interviews:

The book is fiction, but for Lee Smith, the Mississippi raft trip that inspired it was real.

Surrounded by women who loved books, it's no surprise that after studying Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn in a Hollins College literature class, one enterprising student declared, "We could do that!" and the trip was on—Smith and 15 of her college gal pals would float down the Mississippi River in the summer of 1966."

During the dog days of last summer, as the national press corps went baying after the elusive Gary Condit, New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a piece called "A Memo from Osama." Entertaining, ironic and caustic in the same instant, the "memo" warned of the consequences of a U.S. failure to respond to "the threat that already exists." The name of that threat, unfamiliar to most Americans at the time, would become a household word in a few short months.

Faber's newest novel, a large-scale historical set piece that unfolds over 800-plus pages, is (pardon the pun) worth the weight. At once an old-fashioned entertainment and fiction of the highest order, it's a profound and eloquent exploration of class and gender in Victorian-era society whose implications will resonate with modern readers.

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Remembering September 11

Cookbook author Crescent Dragonwagon writes about her love affair with food and her late husband

Behind the Book: Jacques Steinberg takes a revealing behind-the-scenes look at the college admission process

Travel: New series pairs authors and destinations

FICTION

Blessings by Anna Quindlen

The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster

And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You by Kathi Kamen Goldmark

What Harry Saw by Thomas Moran

From a Buick 8 by Stephen King

In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches

The Death Artist by Jonathan Santlofer

SCIENCE FICTION

Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge

BOOK CLUBS

September paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups

Get readers ready for class with these back to school selections:
If You Take a Mouse to School By Laura Numeroff
School Picture Day By Lynn Plourde
Hunter's Best Friend at School By Laura Malone Elliott

Dear Mrs. LaRue By Mark Teague

New York's Bravest By Mary Pope Osborne

Yo, Vikings! By Judith Byron Schachner

NONFICTION

History
A Brilliant Solution by Carol Berkin

Biography
Jesse James by T.J. Stiles

Sandy Koufax by Jane Leavy

The Trials of Lenny Bruce by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover

Cars
Bug by Phil Patton

Music
On the Road with Bob Dylan by Larry "Ratso" Sloman

Top Secret
Don't Try This at Home by Hunter S. Fulghum

Education
All Girls by Karen Stabiner

Interiors
Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life by Cynthia Rowley and Ilene Rosenzweig

Trends
Jump the Shark by Jon Hein

Science
Brotherhood of the Bomb by Gregg Herken

Hunting
The Everlasting Stream by Walt Harrington

Humor
Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet by Baxter Black

AUDIO
Sukey's September picks: Family denial, some Navajo police work, the CIA and tributes to September 11 make for high quality September audio releases

MYSTERIES
Whodunit?: September's new mysteries

COOKING
Seductive cooking and guilty pleasures await

ROMANCE
Family secrets and an Heiress, just to name a couple

WELL READ
Jeffrey Eugenides bridges the gender gap with Middlesex

BUSINESS & FINANCE
Guidance from The Motley Fool in What to Do With Your Money Now: Ten Steps to Staying Up in a Down Market By David and Tom Gardner

Safer investing in volatile markets: Twelve Proven Strategies to Increase Your Income and Financial Security By Carolann Doherty-Brown

The Money-Making Guide to Bonds By Hildy and Stan Richelson

Bubbleology: The New Science of Stock Market Winners and Losers By Kevin Hassett

Paul Brown and Brian Hollander help you make up for lost time in No Time to Lose