Inside this month's issue of BookPage

July 2004
In This Issue

FIRST PERSON
July BookPage interviews:

Eric Garcia: L.A. author's hilarious chick lit parody is pure summer fun

Los Angeles mischief-maker Eric Garcia has been stalking the chick-lit phenomenon for several years from the fringes of Hollywood, waiting to pounce - metaphorically speaking, of course. "The theme of so many of these chick-lit books seems to be, I am this woman who deserves something great and here are these men who are . . . good, not great. They're not what I want them to be but. . . . And they tend to spend the next 300 pages of the book or 90 minutes of the movie sort of whining about it. I'm like, that's just not a strong character. Who wants to hear somebody whine for that long? So I thought, what would a stronger-willed character do?"

Christopher Whitcomb: Former FBI agent's first novel draws from real life experience in the war on terror

A former FBI agent and a frequent television commentator on terrorist issues, Whitcomb admits that he based his characters on his own experiences. The pressure [his character] feels, Whitcomb says, is the kind he dealt with: "It is an extremely demanding job, day in and day out. You have to be absolutely at the top of your game. All the training you do can be extremely dangerous. It's all live fire, with regular ammunition. And there are helicopters and diving and things that very easily could kill you. They try to create in training some of the stresses you'd encounter in real life."

Think your ex is bad? Read Merrill Markoe's new book

Buckle up for Tami Hoag's breathtaking thriller

Meet Catherine Coulter

Thisbe Nissen: A fire on an island resort unleashes secrets

Meet David McPhail

Children's author M.T. Anderson weaves a tale around an exciting new game

FEATURES

SPOTLIGHT: Beach reads for adults and kids

Three takes on Chick-lit

Pets: Celebrating and training our animal sidekicks

Well Read: Irish novelist Colm Tóibín imagines the life of literary legend Henry James

Bill Clinton hits the road to promote his memoir

Three books give access to Cuba

Debut Novels: Six first-timers test the literary waters

Catching the spirit of the Jazz Age

FICTION

Bad Ground by W. Dale Cramer

The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader