DECEMBER 1997

Looking ahead
or, preseason bowl picks

What will the shrewd and worldly wise be reading in the coming months?

We have no idea, being neither ourselves, but awe have been cobbling together a list as we cull through catalog after grim catalog of such offerings as "The Complete Book of Dowsing" and "Where to Gamble."

Here is the first-ever BQ Picky Preview, Winter 1998 edition. (Book publicists take note: this may be the best attention your book gets, because we haven't seen most of these yet, and we're going on sheer track record and brandname allure. Readers beware: potential submerged icebergs ahead.)

In no particular order:

• Elizabeth Spencer's memoir "Landscapes of the Heart" (January, Random House). One of the few memoirs that intrigues us, mostly because Spencer's self-indulgence level will be low.

• Cormac McCarthy's "Cities of the Plain" (January, Knopf). OK, so this isn't our favorite kind of book, but we respect the guy and hey -- he's finishing a trilogy, so there's that end-of-camp nostalgia and teariness to enjoy.

• Toni Morrison's "Paradise" (January, Knopf). Her first novel since winning the Nobel Prize.

• T. Coraghessan Boyle's "Riven Rock" (February, Viking). Even more Boylesquely Boyleish than ever, it appears. "World's End" remains one of our favorite novels, so we'll forgive the man a lot if he's gone off the deep end with this one.

• Dorothy Allison's "Cavedweller" (March, Dutton). "Bastard Out of Carolina" was the roughest beach read we ever encountered. This new book hits just as we head to Daytona for spring break -- perfect.

• Laura Zigman's first novel "Animal Husbandry" (January, Dial). We have read this novel and laughed a lot even though our policy is to despise old friends who do well.

• James Maas' "The Sleep Advantage" (February, Villard). Revolutionary idea: getting a lot of sleep helps a person do better.

• Colin Cowie's "Weddings" (February, Little, Brown). Giant book could gatecrash Martha Stewart's nuptial bible of the same name and say "Hi. Which way is the bar?" Not a good thing for M.S.

• Biba Caggiano's "Italy al Dente: The Glories of Italian Cooking" (March, William Morrow). We must add this to our 23-volume Italian cookbook collection.

As the season progresses we'll keep you one step ahead of your neighbor on what to watch for.

Announcing winners in our Elvis contest
or, life's rich pageant

A few months ago we pitched the question: With whom and in what film was Elvis's last screen kiss? Our bonus question: Who's that swinging with the King in a groovy picture we provided?

Such a festive contest this was. Relatively few of you knew that Elvis and Mary Tyler Moore made time together in "Change of Habit" (yes, that's Mary in the nunwear). But everyone recognized Ann-Margret as the swingy babe in our photo.

Going directly into our Box of the Weird are quite a few of the postcards that came our way. In the interest of getting into the holiday spirit, we share some of our favorites:

Demented mesmerizing cats -- don't look into their devil eyes

A little bed & breakfast overlooking the Mississippi,
(well, overlooking a bridge overlooking the Mississippi)

Me and my fish go everywhere together

"Mmmm. That does look good."

Of course the deep irony is that amid this Halloween parade of oddity, among the hundreds of bizarro cards, the winner's card looks like this:

That's Jerome Jackson of Daleville, Alabama, there. Way to keep it simple, man.

Runners-up (and a mild-mannered bunch they are): Margaret Brod of Mt. Prospect, Illinois; Alison G. Harrison of Marietta, Georgia; and Geraldine Hunt of Nashville, Tennessee.

Your prizes are in the mail. And kudos to everyone who entered.

National Book Award nominees

Fiction

• "Underworld" by Don DeLillo (Scribner)

"Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly Press)
"Le Divorce" by Diane Johnson (Dutton)
"Echo House" by Ward Just (Houghton Mifflin)
"The Puttermesser Papers" by Cynthia Ozick (Alfred A. Knopf)

Nonfiction


• "Whittaker Chambers" by Sam Tanenhaus (Random House)

"American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" by Joseph J. Ellis (Alfred A. Knopf)
"My Brother" by Jamaica Kincaid (FSG)
"The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara" by David I. Kertzer (Alfred A. Knopf)
"The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade" by Thomas Lynch (Norton)

Poetry


• "Desire" by Frank Bidhart (FSG)

"Effort at Speech" by William Meredith (Triquarterly)
"Locusts at the Edge of Summer" by John Balaban (Cooper Canyon Press)
"Primate Behavior" by Sarah Lindsay (Grove Press)
"The Fields of Paradise" by Marilyn Nelson (Louisiana State University Press)

Young People's Literature


• "Dancing on the Edge" by Han Nolan (Harcourt Brace) -- see the interview this month

"The Facts Speak for Themselves" by Brock Cole (Front Street Press)
"Sons of Liberty" by Adele Griffin, illustrated by Peter McCarty (Disney Press)
"Where You Belong" by Mary Ann McGuigan (Antheneum)
"Mean Margaret" by Tor Seidler (HarperCollins)

Burning Question of the Year

Dear Burning Questions:
I am in desperate need of your help. I have just read "What's Bred in the Bone" by the acclaimed Robertson Davies. I have absolutely no idea in terms of plot what happened. It would be greatly appreciated if you could give me a brief summary of the important points to this novel.
Sarah Linden

BQ:
Clearly, a term paper is at stake here. Being the enterprising researchers that we are, we jumped right over to the Cliffs Notes Web site, hoping they had started a Contemporary Canadian Authors series. No luck. Readers! Sarah needs an outline. Make her new year a happy one.

Are you missing your favorite authors? Is it just not the same without them? Write us, and we'll try to intervene to find out why they don't call, don't write. Send your cards and letters to Burning Questions, 2501 21st Ave. South, Suite 5, Nashville, TN 37212. Or better yet, e-mail us at Burning_Questions@bookpage.com.

Alas, we regret that personal replies are not possible.

©1997, ProMotion, inc.

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