Inside this month's issue of BookPage

OCTOBER 2003
In This Issue

FIRST PERSON
October BookPage interviews:

Stewart O'Nan: Death takes the wheel in O'Nan's creepy chronicle of the dangers of suburbia

One Halloween night, a speeding carload of partying teenagers misses a turn and collides head-on with the hereafter. What happens next, to those who survive and those who don't, makes for a wild and wicked ride in Stewart O'Nan's The Night Country, a spooky little tale in the Ray Bradbury tradition guaranteed to give parents the pre-Halloween willies.

Ty Pennington: TV's hunky handyman shares design secrets

Ty Pennington, the handyman heartthrob from the hit television show Trading Spaces, is looking for a little respect. He's an adorable goofball, one of People magazine's sexiest bachelors, and he keeps millions of women glued to the tube. But the guy famous for filling out a tool belt wants to do a little redesign on his own image.

James Bradley gets to the bottom of a military mystery in a shocking true story

Pete Dexter sheds light on the darker side of the '50s

Meet Richard North Patterson

Mark Eppler shares what the Wright brothers can teach you about business

Meet Peter Reynolds

A revolutionary war novel by Robert Morgan

Children's author Richard Peck takes on the Civil War

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Blood-curdling Halloween horror

Homer Hickam reveals the top-secret submarine battles that inspired his novel in Behind the Book

Civil rights: Two stories, one struggle

Joan Didion reconsiders California in Well Read

Book worms share their stories

Top titles for young adults

FICTION

Prairie Nocturne by Ivan Doig

Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willett

Shipwreck by Louis Begley

The Valley of Light by Terry Kay