THE ADVENTURES OF SLIM & HOWDY
by Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, with Bill Fitzhugh

Born in the liner notes of their #1 hit albums, the alter egos of country legends Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn spring to life in their debut novel.

It all starts with a chance meeting on a used car lot in Beaumont, Texas, neither man realizing this is a turning point for both. Before they know it, the two cowboys are sharing a beat-up truck, a life on the road, and a dream of making it in the music business. But Slim and Howdy are the Odd Couple of east Texas --- and all points west for that matter. Tall and inscrutable behind his shades, Slim is taciturn, cautious, and keeps everybody at a distance. Howdy’s got a wild side about a country mile wide. He talks too much, drives too fast, and lays bets where he shouldn’t. Slim’s a pragmatist with a taste for fine tequila. Howdy’s an idealist, searching for the perfect margarita. So at least they have that in common.

The fates take them across Texas, drawing trouble like a magnet every step of the way. From a shootout to a crooked back-room poker game, Slim and Howdy move through the pages like a dangerous pair of cowboy gangsters, guitar cases in hand.

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn have sold thirty million albums and scored twenty-three #1 hits in their career as country music singer/songwriters. The duo has been awarded Entertainer of the Year four times and received more Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards than any other artists.

Bill Fitzhugh is the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of seven comic suspense novels. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, he currently resides in Los Angeles.

THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.

Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence --- and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack --- and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free.

With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a former staff writer at The Village Voice and Time and has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and numerous other publications. He lives in New York City.

THE BILLIONAIRE'S VINEGAR: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
by Benjamin Wallace

It was the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold.

In 1985, at a heated auction by Christie’s of London, a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux --- one of a cache of bottles unearthed in a bricked-up Paris cellar and supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson --- went for $156,000 to a member of the Forbes family. The discoverer of the bottle was pop-band manager turned wine collector Hardy Rodenstock, who had a knack for finding extremely old and exquisite wines. But rumors about the bottle soon arose. Why wouldn’t Rodenstock reveal the exact location where it had been found? Was it part of a smuggled Nazi hoard? Or did his reticence conceal an even darker secret?

Benjamin Wallace has written for GQ, Food & Wine, and Philadelphia, where he was the executive editor. He lives in Brooklyn. Visit his website at BenjaminWallace.net.

A CHAMPION'S MIND: Lessons from a Life in Tennis
by Pete Sampras, with Peter Bodo

Pete Sampras is arguably the greatest tennis player ever, a man whose hard-nosed work ethic led to an unprecedented number one world ranking for 286 consecutive weeks, and whose prodigious talent made possible a record-setting fourteen Grand Slam titles. While his more vocal rivals sometimes grabbed the headlines, Pete always preferred to let his racket do the talking. Until now.

In A CHAMPION’S MIND, one of the most revered, successful, and intensely private players in the history of tennis offers an intimate look at the life of an elite athlete.

Pete Sampras holds the distinction of being the youngest male player (at age nineteen) to win the U.S. Open. During his career he won sixty-four top-level singles titles (including fourteen Grand Slams, eleven ATP Masters Series titles, and five Tennis Masters Cup titles) as well as two doubles titles. Currently he makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife, Bridgette, and their sons, Christian and Ryan.

CHILD 44
by Tom Rob Smith

A war hero with a beautiful wife, MGB officer Leo Demidov lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has been arrested and interrogated.

Then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal --- a murderer --- is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, his world turned upside down, and every belief he’s ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it’s a crime against the State to suggest that a murderer --- much less a serial killer --- is in their midst. Exiled from his home, with only his wife remaining at his side, Leo must find and stop a criminal that the State won’t admit even exists.

Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge in 2001 and lives in London. Child 44 is his first novel.

COURAGE: Portraits of Bravery in the Service of Great Causes
by Gordon Brown

In this moving and insightful work, Prime Minister Gordon Brown profiles eight of the most courageous men and women of recent history --- a wonderful addition to every father’s library.

In addition to the iconic names of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, Brown profiles lesser-known but equally inspiring individuals: Edith Cavell, who nursed the wounded of World War I in Belgium and helped Allied soldiers escape; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the New York pastor who returned to Nazi Germany to lead the Christian opposition; Raoul Wallenberg, who left Sweden in 1944 for Budapest to save Hungarian Jews; Dame Cicely Saunders, who founded the Hospice Movement; and Aung San Suu Kyi, who for the last twenty years has led Burma’s democratic opposition to military dictatorship.

“No British prime minister since Churchill has written anything quite as good, at least not while in active politics” --- The New York Review of Books

Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on June 27, 2007. Previously, he was the longest serving Chancellor of the Exchequer for 200 years. He is the author of several books, including MAXTON, WHERE THERE IS GREED and THE POLITICS OF NATIONALISM AND DEVOLUTION. He is married to Sarah Macaulay and they have two sons.

DEAD LUCKY: Life After Death on Mount Everest
by Lincoln Hall

“The weather was perfect… Everything was going according to plan.” These were Lincoln Hall’s thoughts as he stood on the summit of Mount Everest at 9 AM on May 25, 2006. He knew the importance of a quick descent in the mountain’s perilous thin air. He hadn’t a clue that minutes later his fellow climber Thomas Weber would die on the mountain, and that he himself would soon be abandoned as another victim of Everest.

Lincoln Hall was one of 12 climbers to be officially pronounced dead on Everest in 2006, and remains the only person to be declared dead so high on Everest and live to tell the tale. In DEAD LUCKY the 50-year-old veteran climber reflects on his miraculous survival after suffering the harrowing effects of cerebral edema and a night spent out in the open without oxygen or shelter after he was left for dead in Mount Everest’s “death zone.”

Lincoln Hall is one of Australia’s best-known mountaineers, with a climbing career that spans three decades. He is the author of seven books including the bestseller, WHITE LIMBO, which chronicled the first Australian ascent of Mount Everest in 1984. Hall, who has worked as a trekking guide and edited adventure magazines, is also a director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1987 for his services to mountaineering. Learn more about Lincoln at www.lincolnhall.net.

ESCAPE
by Robert K. Tanenbaum

From New York Times bestselling author Robert K. Tanenbaum comes the twentieth and most explosive book in the Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi series. This riveting thriller races from inside the courtroom to the mean streets of Manhattan, as New York District Attorney Roger Butch Karp faces two seemingly different situations that will ultimately prove to be shockingly alike.

On the one hand, Karp struggles to make Jessica Campbell, a rabble-rousing political science professor, pay for the gruesome murder of her three children. Though Campbell claims God told her to “send her three children to Him,” it is up to Karp to prove that she was fully aware of the nature and consequences of her actions.

Meanwhile, an Islamic terrorist who calls himself “The Sheik” and his suicidal “jihadi” followers devise a plan, an incendiary attack that will occur in Manhattan’s heartland. If successful, it would have a devastating affect on the economy of the United States and the world. Before time runs out, it is up to Karp, his wife Marlene Ciampi, their daughter Lucy, and an eccentric yet effective group of accomplices to stop them.

Robert K. Tanenbaum is one of the country’s most respected and successful trial lawyers and legal experts. He has never lost a felony case. He has held such prestigious positions as Homicide Bureau Chief for the New York District Attorney’s Office and Deputy Chief Counsel for the Congressional Committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall Law School, and has conducted continuing legal education (CLE) seminars for practicing lawyers in California, New York, and Pennsylvania. He is the USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times bestselling author of eighteen novels, including COUNTERPLAY, FURY, HOAX, ABSOLUTE RAGE, ENEMY WITHIN, TRUE JUSTICE, ACT OF REVENGE, RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT and MALICE. He is also the author of the true-crime books BADGE OF THE ASSASIN and THE PIANO TEACHER: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer. He lives in Los Angeles.

FATHER KNOWS LESS: One Dad's Quest to Answer His Son's Most Baffling Questions
by Wendell Jamieson

Wendell Jamieson has woven together some of the world’s quirkiest questions from Dean and other children, intriguing answers from the experts, and family stories that link the generations, in his first book, FATHER KNOWS LESS: One Man’s Quest to Answer His Son’s Most Baffling Questions.

A tender and witty portrait of the bond between a father and son, FATHER KNOWS LESS is a lighthearted and warmhearted antidote to the books that treat every aspect of the parent-child relationship with deadly earnestness. What’s more, it’s an exhilarating fun-house excursion through the universe of wacky knowledge, from physics (“What happens when lava goes on dirt?”) to pop music (“Why did the Beatles break up?” --- answered by Yoko Ono).

Wendell Jamieson, city editor for The New York Times, has been a newspaperman for two decades. He grew up in Brooklyn and lives there still, with his wife, the acclaimed nonfiction writer Helene Stapinski, and their children, Paulina and Dean --- who figures prominently in FATHER KNOWS LESS. Jamieson has a website related to his book: www.FatherKnowsLessBook.com.

THE FILM CLUB
by David Gilmour

At the start of this brilliantly unconventional family memoir, David Gilmour is an unemployed movie critic trying to convince his fifteen-year-old son Jesse to do his homework. When he realizes Jesse is beginning to view learning as a loathsome chore, he offers his son an unconventional deal: Jesse could drop out of school, not work, not pay rent --- but he must watch three movies a week of his father's choosing.

Week by week, side by side, father and son watched everything from True Romance to Rosemary's Baby to Showgirls, and films by Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, Billy Wilder, among others. The movies got them talking about Jesse's life and his own romantic dramas, with mercurial girlfriends, heart-wrenching breakups, and the kind of obsessive yearning usually seen only in movies.

Through their film club, father and son discussed girls, music, work, drugs, money, love, and friendship --- and their own lives changed in surprising ways.

David Gilmour's sixth novel, A PERFECT NIGHT TO GO TO CHINA, won the 2005 Governor-General's Award for fiction in Canada and has been translated into Russian, French, Thai, Italian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Serbian and Turkish. CHINA and a previous book, LOST BETWEEN HOUSES, were both nominated for Ontario's Trillium Book Award. His novels have been praised by William Burroughs, Northrop Frye, and People magazine. Gilmour worked for the Toronto International Film Festival before moving into a broadcasting career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), where he served as the national film critic for the country's flagship news show, “The Journal.” He went on to host his own talk show on CBC's Newsworld, “Gilmour on the Arts,” which won a Gemini Award.

IKE: An American Hero
by Michael Korda

This is a book about a complex man, and his growth from soldier into world hero and from there to a remarkably successful two-term president, during which the United States enjoyed eight years of rising prosperity and peace. It was Ike who ended the war in Korea, Ike who refused to involve the United States in Vietnam, Ike who felt that nothing could be more dangerous than placing American forces in the Middle East, Ike whose proudest boast was that for eight years he had “waged peace”.

Above all, it places the man against the background of the great events of the 20th Century, the first and the second world war, and the cold war, and shows how Ike’s genius as a commander and a leader, his generosity of spirit and his devotion to duty were vital in achieving victory, and formed, in many ways, the world we live in.

Michael Korda is the New York Times bestselling author of HORSE PEOPLE, COUNTRY MATTERS, ULYSSES S. GRANT, CAT PEOPLE, and JOURNEY TO A REVOLUTION. He lives with his wife Margaret in Dutchess County, New York.

AN INCOMPLETE AND INACCURATE HISTORY OF SPORT…and Other Random Thoughts from Childhood to Fatherhood
by Kenny Mayne

Painstakingly faithful to its title, Kenny Mayne’s book is neither complete nor is it particularly accurate. Ostensibly an A-to-Z encyclopedia of all known sports, many sports are never mentioned. There’s not a word about rugby, volleyball, Roller Derby, swimming, or (shockingly) Basque pelota or shinty. There is a chapter about sliding, but none about skiing. Competitive eating and rhythmic gymnastics will have to wait for another book. However, there are roughly eight chapters about tackle football --- “the greatest sport in the world, and everyone knows it” --- and a good four or five about horse racing, so quit complaining before you’ve even read the book. There will be plenty of time for complaining after you’ve finished it (about an hour from now --- tops).

Kenny Mayne is the little man that seems to live inside your TV. From his decades of hosting ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” his announcing major events like the Kentucky Derby, his weekly irreverent (bordering on surreal) pregame segments for ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown,” “The Mayne Event, his reality-TV life on “Dancing with the Stars” and “Fast Cars & Superstars,” and his appearances on “The Martha Stewart Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” to his ubiquitous commercials for companies such as Top Flite and GMC, you practically can’t go a day without seeing Kenny on your screen. AN INCOMPLETE AND INACCURATE HISTORY OF SPORT is the first book in his impending oeuvre. Visit www.KennyMayneHasWrittenABook.com for more information.

ONCE UPON A FASTBALL
by Bob Mitchell

Through the story of Seth Stein, a history professor who inherits a baseball from his missing grandfather, ONCE UPON A FASTBALL lovingly draws readers into the history and lore of major-league baseball. The inherited baseball causes Seth to travel through time to witness key games in the history of the sport, and in doing so, learns important lessons about his grandfather, himself, and life.

Bob Mitchell has been a sports fanatic for over fifty years. He is the author of the highly acclaimed novel MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN as well as three nonfiction books about sports: THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS: Reflections on Sports and Life, THE TAO OF SPORTS, and HOW MY MOTHER ACCIDENTALLY TOSSED OUT MY ENTIRE BASEBALL-CARD COLLECTION (and Other Sports Stories). Bob studied at Williams, Columbia, and Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature. He currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife. Please visit his web site: www.bobmitchellbooks.com.

THE POET OF BAGHDAD: A True Story of Love and Defiance
by Jo Tatchell

In the winter of 1979 Nabeel Yasin, Iraq's most famous young poet, gathered together a handful of belongings and fled Iraq with his wife and son. Life in Baghdad had become intolerable. Silenced by a series of brutal beatings at the hands of the Ba'ath Party's Secret Police and declared an “enemy of the state,” he faced certain death if he stayed.

Written by Jo Tatchell, a journalist who has spent many years in the Middle East and who is a close friend of Nabeel Yasin’s, THE POET OF BAGHDAD is the gripping story of a family and its fateful encounter with history. From a warm, lighthearted look at the Yasin family before the Saddam dictatorship, to the tale of Nabeel’s persecution and daring flight, and the suspense-filled account of his family’s rebellion against Saddam's regime, THE POET OF BAGHDAD is an intimate, illuminating, deeply human chronicle of a country and a culture devastated by political repression and war.

Jo Tatchell is based in London and writes on Middle Eastern culture for a variety of U.K. and U.S. media, including The Guardian.

Nabeel Yasin, one of Iraq’s most celebrated poets, is best known for the epic poem “Brother Yasin.” Since 1990 he has lived in the U.K. with his wife and two sons.

THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT MY DAD (IN THERAPY): Humorous and Heartfelt Essays
edited by Heather B. Armstrong

Compiled by Heather B. Armstrong, award-winning publisher and über-mistress of the phenomenally popular dooce.com®, this hilarious and heartwarming celebration of “everything dad” features original stories from some of the country’s most celebrated bloggers: Alice Bradley (“Finslippy”) Doug French (“Laid Off Dad”), Maggie Mason (“Mighty Girl”), Matthew Baldwin (“Defective Yeti”), Sarah Brown (“Que Sera Sera”) and more.

From a new father’s comparison of pregnancy to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, to a mother’s story of bravely surviving a husband-son infatuation with Star Wars, to the mini triumphs and tragedies of toddler-hood, this book provides a unique, no-holds-barred glimpse into the quirks and candid moments of modern dads. THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT MY DAD (IN THERAPY) touches upon the many joys and discoveries of fatherhood, one essay at a time.

Heather B. Armstrong is the award-winning publisher of dooce® (dooce.com). She gained notoriety in 2002 as one of the first people to be fired because of a blog, and in 2005 dooce.com was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 50 Coolest Websites. Armstrong has been on “Good Morning America,” CNN, NPR and ABC's “World News Tonight” as a featured commenter on both blogging and postpartum depression, as well as profiled in the New York Times Sunday Style section and the Washington Post Weekend Magazine. She was published in Real Simple's Family edition in August, 2007.

Armstrong lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband, daughter and dog.

TIME BANDIT: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs
by Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand, with Malcolm MacPherson

“Many brave hearts are asleep in the deep, so beware, beware,” goes the chorus of an old sailors’ sing-along that celebrates the allure and danger of the seafaring life. But make no mistake --- there truly is much to beware for those who are drawn to risk their lives and seek their fortunes upon the waves. Season after season, they bond and battle with icy depths, determined to reap yet one more rewarding harvest while eluding the ever-present threat of sudden, certain death. And among the rapidly diminishing ranks of these die-hard salts, brothers Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand have forged a reputation as fierce masters of their treacherous, enthralling trade. If you’ve watched their exploits on TV’s “Deadliest Catch,”you’ve only scratched the surface. TIME BANDIT chronicles a larger-than-life love affair as old as civilization itself --- a love affair between striving, willful man and inscrutable, enduring nature.

Visit www.timebandit.tv for more information.

On board Time Bandit, their family owned and operated vessel, brothers Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand share the skippering duties. Johnathan, a resident of Homer, Alaska, takes the helm during the king crab season. When not on deck, chances are he can be found on the back of his Harley Fat Boy. During opilio season it is Andy who sits in the wheelhouse. In the off-season, however, he can be found training horses on his ranch in Indiana.

Malcolm MacPherson is a former correspondent for Newsweek and the author of more a dozen books including most recently the satirical war novel HOCUS POTUS and the nonfiction account of battle in Afghanistan, ROBERTS RIDGE. He lives near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with his wife and children.

A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE: Rediscovering the New World
by Tony Horwitz

The bestselling author of BLUE LATITUDES takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America

On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he’s mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus’s sail in 1492 to Jamestown’s founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America.

An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs --- these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers.

Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek --- from Florida’s Fountain of Youth to Plymouth’s sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges --- Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.

Tony Horwitz is the bestselling author of BLUE LATITUDES, CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC, and BAGHDAD WITHOUT A MAP. He is also a Pulitzer Prize --- winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He lives in Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their son, Nathaniel.

WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?: A Son's Memoir of Love and Loss
by Blake Morrison

Now a major motion picture, directed by Anand Tucker, starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent

And when did you last see your father? Was it last weekend or last Christmas? Was it before or after he exhaled his last breath? And was it him really, or was it a version of him, shaped by your own expectations and disappointments?

Blake Morrison's subject is universal: the life and death of a parent, a father at once beloved and exasperating, charming and infuriating, domineering and terribly vulnerable. In reading about Dr. Arthur Morrison, we come to ask ourselves the same searching questions that Blake Morrison poses: Can we ever see our parents as themselves, or are they forever defined through a child's eyes? What are the secrets of their lives, and why do they spare us that knowledge? And when they die, what do they take with them that cannot be recovered or inherited?

Blake Morrison is a memoirist, poet, playwright, and novelist. He lives in London.