The new issue of Booklist arrived the other day and here's what has me excited:

Insecure at Last: Losing it in Our Security Obsessed World by Eve Ensler. Ensler is famous for the Vagina Monologues, of course, and as her fans know she's pretty damn outspoken. In this new book she combines both memoir and journalism by recounting conversations with "Bosnian rape victims, Afghani women tyrannized by the Taliban, women prisoners and mothers of some of the hundreds of young women killed in Cuidad Juarez, the hellish factory zone south of El Paso". My editor, Donna Seaman, reviewed the book and seems mightily impressed - her opinion is one I value a great deal and I bet this will be quite interesting.

Through the Children's Gate by Adam Gopnik. I did not read his earlier book, Paris to the Moon, but I've been meaning to (yeah yeah yeah). This new collection is based on his return with family in 2000 to NYC and "he demonstrates anew how, despite tackling two of the world's greatest and oft-written-about cities, he has staked out his own mastery of the literature of place." I love that - "literature of place". Maybe I'll treat myself to both books this Christmas.

Cruel Sister by Deborah Grabien. A new mystery with Ringan Laine, traditional musician and expert in period architecture. (Doesn't that just sound like two things that would be cool to be good at?) He's helping friends build a house in a newly trendy neighborhood when he gets haunted by ghost of a long-dead Italian musician who might be an ancestor. It seems the area was the site of a bomb accident in WW2 and an earlier tragedy with the Italian during the reign of Henry VIII. "Grabien blends folklore, music, suspense, and the supernatural to create a genre-bending mix of historical mystery and ghost story." Sounds a bit like Cherie Priest, maybe - certainly worth checking out!

Blue Christmas by Mark Kay Andrews. I loved Savannah Blues - it made me laugh, it was a smartly told mystery and the romantic elements were great. Plus I used to earn a pretty penny off of running garage sales so I know the whole "trash and treasure" deal is true.This time out, Weezie's business is being sabotaged, her boyfriend has the holiday blues and her crazy friend BeBe is along to stir things up. This is just smooth, fun reading and Andrews is like candy for me.

The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration. As I've mentioned before, I'm a little bit of a Polar geek. I actually studied Wilkins a bit in school - he flew over the Arctic with a pilot I know a lot about, Ben Eielson. This one has me written all over it and hopefully I can add it to a future survey of polar books. (I think the title might be a bit over the top though - I can't image too many people have even heard of Wilkins as opposed to Scott or Peary.)

Sold by Patricia McCormick. This is the story of a Nepalese girl sold into sexual slavery to India when her poor family thought she would be working as a maid. The author travled to the region and spoke to many many girls in the same situation, so she knows what she's talking about. She has a brief essay in Booklist where she relates this horror:

"With the help of one of my local contacts in Kathmandu, I snuck into a prison to interview a young man who sold his fiancee because, he told me without a trace of embarrassment, he wanted a motorcycle. What surprised me amost about him was how normal he looked - young, attractive, wearing a Nike tracksuit, how utterly unconcerned he was about his fate; he knew he would eventually get off in court."

Nearly half a million children are sold into the sex trade worldwide every year, I don't want to read about this but I think I have to - I think we all need to.

Vive la Paris by Esme Raji Codell. A return to some minor characters from Sahara Special, I always find Codell's writing to be so joyful. This one is about Paris McCray who is trying to understand "an increasing confused world". Well - if that isn't all of us right now, I don't know what is. Here's hoping Madame Esme can shed a little light on all this darkness.