FIRST PERSON
February BookPage interviews:

Jennifer Crusie: Crusie's rollicking romance hits the jackpot

For romance novelist Jennifer Crusie, inspiration for a new book is as inexplicable as love itself. "I can't tell you where my ideas come from...they just show up." From lovable, flawed men to a mother who counts every celery stick that passes her lips, colorful characters abound in Crusie's new novel, Bet Me. In a word, these characters are real. At the story's center is Min Dobbs, a smart, spirited insurance executive who forever laments her ample body's swerves and curves. Society's obsession with thinness is a hot button for Crusie, and one she pushes frequently.

The mystery stacks are filled with the works of former trial lawyers, prosecutors, judges, detectives, even beat cops whose procedural knowledge and behind-the-scenes experience bring a heightened realism to their fiction. But Ian Rankin, whose Inspector Rebus novels are the number-one selling mysteries in Great Britain, may be the only crime novelist who began his career as a murder suspect.

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Black History Month brings new focus to Civil Rights

New paperback series of Modern Classics features works of contemporary masters

February is John Grisham territory

Be Mine: Lessons for romantics at any age

Books that pay tribute to our leaders on President's Day

Well Read: Jim Shepard's chilling take on school violence

Susan Shapiro tracks down old flames in Behind the Book

Will You?: Advice on planning the perfect wedding day

FICTION

The Swallows of Kabul by Yasmina Khadra

Holy Fools by Joanne Harris

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Inamorata by Joseph Gangemi

The Confessions of Max Tivoli by Andrew Sean Greer

Bluffing Mr. Churchill by John Lawton

Handsome Harry by James Carlos Blake

SCIENCE FICTION

White Devils by Paul McAuley

Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb

For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein

BOOK CLUBS

Selections in new paperback releases

Black History: Paying tribute to tradition during Black History Month
Powerful Words: More than 200 Years of Extraordinary Writing by African Americans by Wade Hudson
Harlem Stomp: The Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance by Laban Carrick Hill
Linda Brown, You Are Not Alone: The Brown v. Board of Education Decision edited by Joyce Carol Thomas
Memories of Sun: Stories of Africa and America edited by Jane Kurtz

Some Friend by Marie Bradby

The Legend of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses

Sea Clocks by Louise Borden

The Young Man and the Sea by Rodman Philbrick

On Her Way edited by Sandy Asher

Wendy by Karen Wallace

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

No Laughter Here by Rita Williams-Garcia

Halibut Jackson by David Lucas

Don't Forget to Come Back! by Robie H. Harris

Book the Second: The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket

NONFICTION

Memoir
Redneck Riviera by Dennis Covington

Biography
Ramblin' Man by Ed Cray

History
A Rage for Glory by James Tertius de Kay
Mississippi in Africa by Alan Huffman
Rubicon by Tom Holland

Music
The Beatles Come to America by Martin Goldsmith

Presidents
Lincoln and Whitman by Daniel Mark Epstein
Negro President by Garry Wills

Adventure
Skeletons on the Zahara by Dean King

Health
The Anatomy of Hope by Jerome Groopman

Society
The Working Poor by David K. Shipler

Medicine
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry

Politics
Clinton and Me by Mark Katz

Black History
Harriet Tubman by Catherine Clinton
Spirit of Harlem by Craig Marberry and Michael Cunningham

Ethics
The Cheating Culture by David Callahan

Writing
A Man of My Words by Richard Lederer

Literature
The Age of Shakespeare by Frank Kermode

Exploration
Lost in Space by Greg Klerkx

Science
Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer

AUDIO
The Spoken Word: Sukey's favorite is a hilarious live performance at Carnegie Hall by bestselling author David Sedaris

MYSTERIES
Whodunit?: February's new mysteries

COOKING
Good and good for you

ROMANCE
Sirens, Scotland and the South

BUSINESS & FINANCE
Girls getting ahead:
Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office By Lois Frankel
Wildly Sophisticated By Nicole Williams
The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business By Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio
The Old Girls' Network By Eight Wings Enterprises LLC
Origins of the Crash By Roger Lowenstein