Whether fingering the raw emotions that arise out of missing a relative's funeral or celebrating a wry inner voice playfully named Grandma, Alice Walker (The Color Purple) writes thoughtful tales about making difficult choices—choices that often defy society's racial and sexual boundaries. In Heart, these stories form what she calls "a definite thread of having come out of a singular life."
That life (Walker's, one assumes) moves through stunning moments of discovery and betrayal from the '60s to now. The opening story, "To My Young Husband," explores the breakdown of an interracial marriage between a black woman writer and a Jewish civil rights lawyer. "Olive Oil" recounts a couple's tender rekindling of affection. And in "Blaze," a meditation on the fickle nature of love, Walker poses the question perhaps most on her mind: "Does anything ever turn out the way you expect it to?" (Random House, $23.95)
Bottom Line: Moving tales of hope and healing
by Patricia Cornwell
Page-turner of the week
After 10 mysteries starring her popular medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell is still capable of surprises. Big enough that we don't want to ruin them for you.
Her compelling new novel begins where the bestselling Black Notice left off. Jean-Baptiste Chandonne, scion of an international crime family, has been captured after nearl examiner Kay Scarpetta. But even before her bruises have healed, the M.E. finds herself enmeshed in another fight for her life. Still in danger from what appear to be Chandonne's associates, Scarpetta discovers that she's surreptitiously being investigated by a special prosecutor—looking into the possibility, among other things, that the forensic expert herself could have killed the last victim attributed to Chandonne.
The dual plot line, which puts Scarpetta's career and life on the line, makes for tense, suspenseful reading. More significantly, however, the stressful situation starts to crack the coroner's well-fortified defenses, prompting her to an often painful examination of her life and goals. That is, if the choice is still hers to make. Although a few of the plot developments strain credulity, for depth of characterization and hard-won wisdom, Precinct appears to mark a significant turning point for both Scarpetta and her creator. (Putnam, $26.95)
Bottom Line: Forensic thriller cuts deep
My Father's Daughter
by Tina Sinatra with Jeff Coplon
When ordinary folks want to vent their hurt and anger at parental neglect, they tell it to a friend, a clergyman or a shrink. When celebrities' kids have such an urge, they tell it to the world. Thus tell-alls like Mommie Dearest and this self-serving memoir by Frank Sinatra's youngest—and, by her own admission, most demanding—child.
Daddy was loving but mostly absent, writes Tina, 52. She also reveals that at the urging of Joe Kennedy, Frank tapped mobster buddy Sam Giancana to help JFK nail the 1960 election, continued to have romantic liaisons with first wife Nancy long after their divorce and didn't think he deserved to be happy. Those who've read Kitty Kelley's crudely enterprising His Way will be familiar with Sinatra's childish piques and cruelties. Fourth wife Barbara, now 73, is Tina's villain, portrayed as greedy, grasping, conniving and responsible for turning Frank into a doddering wreck. When the Chairman of the Board died at 82 in 1998, "I truly lost a piece of myself," Tina writes. So did all those whose lives were lived to a Sinatra soundtrack. My Father's Daughter does a service to no one. (Simon & Schuster, $26)
Bottom Line: She did it her way
by Joan Lunden
Joan Lunden, 50, is happy. She's a mom with three lovely daughters, she's president of a new media company called the Women's Supermarket Network, and she has found love for a second time in her husband of seven months, Jeff Konigsberg, 39, who owns a Maine summer camp. It wasn't long ago-, however, that Lunden was very sad. While going through a 1992 divorce from first husband Michael Krauss, she put on a brave face for Good Morning America viewers but suffered what she calls an avalanche of "hurtful, harmful and intrusive public coverage of my personal sorrow." How did she get over it? By reading inspirational quotations. In sharing these wise and funny thoughts—by everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Meg Ryan—as well as her own musings on life, Lunden offers a helping hand to anyone in need of encouragement. Though some of her advice sounds trite ("If we don't believe in ourselves, who will?" she writes), Lunden's chipper attitude is startlingly contagious. (McGraw-Hill, $19.95)
Bottom Line: Heartening pick-me-up
>THE PROMETHEUS DECEPTION Robert Ludlum
In his first hardcover in three years, the author of 22 No. 1 bestselling novels serves up another humdinger, this one about an outfit called the Directorate—and its nasty plan for global control. (St. Martin's, $27.95)
LOVING GRAHAM GREENE Gloria Emerson The author won a National Book Award for Winners & Losers and enjoyed a correspondence with Greene. In her first novel, she sends her idealistic heroine on a disastrous mission to Algiers. (Random House, $22.95)
- Contributors:
- V.R. Peterson,
- Pam Lambert,
- Joanne Kaufman,
- Jennifer Wulff.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
