The recent release of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, written by Yale law professor Amy Chua, has caused quite a stir with the media and a swath of American parents who have taken issue with her rigid approach to motherhood. Chua, who chose to raise her two daughters the Chinese way, expected nothing less than academic perfection from her children and banned participation in sleep overs, video games and school plays so that the girls could spend arduous hours practicing their musical instruments. There is no arguing this mother got results, her daughters, now 15 and 18, are straight A students and the oldest has performed at Carnegie Hall. Yet, Journalists and parents have criticized Chua for being cruel and unnecessarily strict, amid grumbles about calling social services. In interviews, Chua has explained that the book was supposed to be funny, she intended it to be a sort of satire of her experience with motherhood, and admits that was less of a slave-driver in real life. Somehow, knowing this does not make reading about her screaming rants at her children any less unpleasant for some. But that is here in the U.S., how are her methods viewed in China? Read more…

By Dean Koontz
Bantam | 464pgs
Release Date: December 28, 2010

Summary:
Bestselling thriller writer Dean Koontz conjures up a modern day ghost story with his new novel What the Night Knows. Alton Turner Blackwood, the villain from Koontz’s short story Darkness Under the Sun, wreaks havoc on a small town, killing several families. His murderous rampage is finally brought to an end on the night he attacks a fourth family, when he is killed by a 14-year-old boy, the only one to survive Blackwood’s savagery. Many years later and miles away from his childhood trauma, the boy, John Calvino, is now a man with his own family, when evil strikes again. Working as homicide detective, Calvino begins investigating a series of murders that bear a sickening similarity to the tragedy of his childhood. The unsettling and inexplicable events surrounding these new crimes cause Calvino to intensely fear for his own family’s safety and believe that he must fight a killer whose power extends beyond the grave. Read more…

By Graham Moore
Twelve | 368pgs
Release Date: December 1, 2010

Summary:
Graham Moore draws on the history and adventures of the world’s most beloved sleuth, and his creator, in the debut novel The Sherlockian. Interweaving one investigation conducted by Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century and another worked by a modern day literary researcher, the author builds a mystery that would engross Sherlock Holmes himself. In 1893, at the height of Holmes’ popularity, Conan Doyle tires of the character and unceremoniously tosses him over Reichenbach Falls to his death in the story The Final Problem. An irate fan sends him a letter bomb to voice his displeasure, thus sending the writer on the trail of a real-lifer murderer, accompanied by a young Bram Stoker. Conan Doyle documents his investigation in a journal that later goes missing, gaining a sort of legendary status among Doylean scholars. In early 2010, as “freelance literary researcher” Harold White is inducted into the prestigious Baker Street Irregulars, he encounters a new mystery. A renown Sherlockian expert announces to the group that he has discovered the legendary lost diary, but the man is soon found strangled in his hotel room, and the diary is nowhere to be seen. Harold then sets out to track down the murderer and find the illusive diary, using Holmes’ investigative methods. Read more…

Award-winning author and illustrator David Shannon has released his latest rambunctious adventure in his David series just in time for the holidays. In the new picture book It’s Christmas, David! (The Blue Sky Press, 32pgs), the irresistibly naughty little boy faces new challenges and temptations as he struggles to keep himself on Santa’s “Nice” list in the days before Christmas. Shannon, who based the mischievous David on his younger self, has special empathy for kids at this time of year. “Christmas is when you get in the most trouble and you get told ‘no’ the most. There’s all this excitement that you have to be patient for,” he explains in a interview with the Los Angeles Times. But at the end of the book, Shannon also illustrates the upside to Christmas. “It’s the biggest ‘yes’ of the year when it finally comes. That’s the other side of being told no: The ‘yes’ that comes after it.” Read more…

A man of many talents and interests, Steve Martin is best known for his comedic work on film and television. But the funny man has a cerebral side, too, and is also a Grammy-winning bluegrass banjo musician and author of several books, plays and memoirs. His latest novel, An Object of Beauty (Grand Central Publishing, 304pgs) debuted last week to much critical praise. The story follows Lacey Yeager, an ambitious young art dealer, through her rise in the art world and is narrated by an art critic friend who observes her climb to the top. We here at In the Stax try to avoid works by celebrity authors in general, since the writing and plot lines are usually mediocre at best. But experience with Martin’s past work has proved that he is a wry and insightful writer. Hopefully An Object of Beauty continues in that vein. Read more…

By Ally Condie
Dutton Juvenile | 369pgs
Release Date: November 30, 2010

Summary:
The future is not as perfect as the ruling Society wants its citizens to believe in the new young adult novel Matched by Ally Condie. Seventeen year-old Cassia lives in a world free of disease and the stress of making difficult life choices. Everything, ranging from where people work, who they marry, and even when they die, is decided by the big-brother-like Society. When Cassia attends her matching ceremony and sees her best friend Xander appear on the screen as designated mate, she is thrilled at the pairing. Yet, her pleasure turns to puzzlement as the face of a neighbor boy, Ky, briefly flickers on the screen before it fades out. The Society is quick to pass off the incident as an unusual technical error, but Cassia finds herself inexplicably drawn to Ky, a mysterious orphan. As the budding romance grows, so does the young woman’s awareness of the world around her. No longer living unconsciously, Cassia cannot ignore the cruelty and control of the dystopian culture she lives in. Read more…

Twenty years ago, amid the swirl of controversy surrounding the publication of The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie was inspired to write the children’s book Haroun and the Sea of Stories for his 11-year-old son Zafar. The modern fable follows Haroun, the son of a a great storyteller, on his quest into the World of Magic to find a way to restore his father’s creative talents. When Rushdie’s younger son, Milan, read the book years later, he requested a book of his own from his father. This request coincided with the author’s plan to revisit Haroun’s world. “It had always been in my mind to try to do a second one, and this kind of prompted me to do it,” Rushdie explains to The Boston Globe. The new book Luka and the Fire of Life, finished just in time for Milan’s 12th birthday, is a sequel to Haroun, but the story features a new hero and stands on its own. “I wanted to create a new, imaginative world and a new reason for going there,” states the writer. Read more…

Mark Twain has still got it. One hundred years after his death, the author has achieved a spot on the bestsellers list with the recently released Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (University of California Press, 760pgs), the first in a series of three volumes. At the age of 74, just four short years before he passed away, Twain used his oratory and storytelling skills to dictate the majority of the 500,000-word autobiography to his personal secretary Isabel Van Kleek Lyon and several stenographers. According to an article in USA TODAY, “Twain ordered that the full, unexpurgated text, marked by rants against Wall Street and U.S. foreign policy, not be published until 100 years after his death.” Read more…

By Siddhartha Mukherjee
Scribner | 592pgs
Release Date: November 16, 2010

Summary:
Cancer physician and acclaimed science writer Siddhartha Mukherjee delineates the history of cancer in his new book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. To tell the detailed story of this insidious disease, the oncologist cites research and treatment methods from physicians through the ages, beginning with an ancient papyrus written by Egyptian physician Imhotep around 1600 B.C., which contains the oldest known written cancer diagnosis. Mukherjee also touches on the birth of chemotherapy, the groundbreaking advances made by Dr. Sidney Farber in treating childhood leukemia, and his partnership with philanthropist Mary Lasker to increase awareness and advance cancer research. Nearly 600,000 Americans will be killed by cancer this year. Worldwide, almost seven million cancer victims will die. The author illuminates this terrifying topic to educate readers and de-mystify the illness. He writes with the deep knowledge and compassion of one who has spent years working directly with people stricken with this dreaded disease. Read more…

Amy Sedaris, sister to humorist David Sedaris, brings her own brand of comedy to the crafting world with her new book Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People (Grand Central Publishing, 304pgs). This tome, along with her previous title, I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, establishes Sedaris as a sort of lifestyle maven for the warped home-maker. “Crafting, or ‘making things,’ has always been a delightful pastime of mine because it requires putting common elements together in order to achieve a lovely something that nobody needs,” she states in the book. The crafting guide blends a mixture corniness and odd practicality with a dash of the truly strange to create unique projects such as a doll wig doorknob and a miniature cardboard ghetto for a dying mouse. The projects are divided into nutty sections like “Knowing Your Knack for Knickknacks”, “Sausages” and “The Joy of Poverty”, and are peppered with photographs of Sedaris as various characters that tie in with the crafts. Read more…