BEA 2010, inside my giant box of books

After reading other people's stories on Twitter about long their BEA shipments were taking to arrive, was I ever pleased today to see the UPS guy walk up the driveway with an enormous box. Two days from NYC to here is something of a record. I'm planning one more BEA-related post dealing with the blogger convention, but for the moment, here's the rest of the historical fiction I accumulated. Click to enlarge.

In brief, subjects and locales, beginning with the top row going across:

(1) William Ryan, The Holy Thief. Historical thriller of Stalinist Moscow. Minotaur, Sept, and it comes with a CD of the audiobook (may not be complete).
(2) Bo Caldwell, City of Tranquil Light. In the early 20th c, a midwestern farmer becomes a missionary on the North China Plain and marries a strong woman doing the same work; based on her grandparents' story. Henry Holt, Oct.
(3) Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra. New bio (nonfiction) about the famous Egyptian queen. Little Brown, Nov.
(4) Joseph Skibell, A Curable Romantic. An intellectual comedy about a modern Candide traveling from 1890 Vienna to the Warsaw Ghetto of 1940. The author performed a hilarious two-minute promotional song ("I Am the Very Model of A Modern Major Novelist") on a backpacking guitar as part of a library program I attended. Algonquin, Sept.
(5) Penny Vincenzi, Forbidden Places. British family drama set between 1938 and 1995. Overlook, Oct.
(6) Charles Todd, An Impartial Witness. His 2nd Bess Crawford mystery, about a battlefield nurse in 1917 England. This came courtesy of Library Journal's Day of Dialog. Morrow, Sept.
(7) Jane Gardam, Old Filth. Literary fiction about an elderly lawyer in 20th-c Dorset who slips back into his own history. Europa, earlier this year.

Second row down:

(1) Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, Some Sing, Some Cry. Literary saga following seven generations on a rice plantation just off the Carolina coast, showcasing one's family's music and path from slavery to freedom. St. Martin's, Sept.
(2 - top) Manuel de Lope, The Wrong Blood. Two women share a secret that allows them to survive the Spanish Civil War. Other Press, Sept.
(2 - bottom) John Addiego, Tears of the Mountain. America's pioneer roots, as seen through the eyes of one man from Sonoma County, California. Unbridled, Sept.
(3) Kathleen Kent, The Wolves of Andover. The prequel to The Heretic's Daughter, a love story set in the harsh wilderness of 17th-century Massachusetts. Reagan Arthur (Little, Brown), Nov.
(4 - top) Joyce Hinnefeld, Stranger Here Below. The stories that pass from mother to daughter in 20th-c Appalachia. Unbridled, Oct.
(4 - bottom) Jonathan Evinson, West of Here. Literary epic of Washington State. Algonquin, Feb. 2011.
(5) Bruce Machart, The Wake of Forgiveness. Love and frontier violence in 1910 rural Texas. Oct, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
(6) Lisa Klein, Cate of the Lost Colony. YA fiction that moves from Queen Elizabeth's court to Walter Ralegh's colony at Roanoke. Bloomsbury Children's, Oct.
(7 - top) Jessica Francis Kane, The Report. A reimagining of a WWII civilian disaster and the inquiry that surrounds it. Graywolf, Oct.
(7 - bottom) Michelle Hoover, The Quickening. Conflicts between the wives of two Midwestern farm families in the early 1900s. Other Press, June.

A thanks to all the publishers involved; I'm looking forward to reading them all.

And a special thanks to McGraw-Hill for supplying the giant red tote bag that I carted around on both days. The size of this bag was very impressive, and I'm sure it'll be making a return trip to future BEAs. In the meantime, my 7-month-old kittens have claimed it for themselves:


Ollie and Abby (brother and sister) will have to share it, but it's big enough to easily hold two.

Below are some other NYC book purchases, because even with the galleys I acquired at the show, you can never have enough books.

This quartet, clockwise from top left, moves from early 20th-c NYC to 1899 South Africa to 1940s Iraq to 1940 San Francisco. Around the world through historical fiction: the best way to travel without leaving your house.