From Snowbooks, The Affinity Bridge by George Mann: "Hot off the press, a fabulous Steampunk tale and our big title of Christmas 2008, featuring Crown investigator Sir Newbury and his astonishingly proficient assistant Miss Hobbes, signed up last week, out October of this year, cover done in one mammoth sitting on Saturday." (Link via Jeff Vandermeer.)

Airships are becoming more popular these days, both in alt history novels like Elizabeth Bear's and Jay Lake's and also in the very real world. Le Manned Cloud should take the skies in 2020 - a "drifting hotel" or, due to its clean energy design, "exploring the world without a trace".

I love it when steampunk comes true.

The mystery of Maryann revealed - as in the White Rabbit mistakes Alice for his maid Maryann and we never know who she is or how she got there. In Tommy Kovac and Sonny Liew's Wonderland Maryann is the protagonist although lots of other more familiar faces are present as well. (Here's an interview with Kovac on why he's so into Alice.)

Have you seen the cover for Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends? WOW!

Henry Holt has Charles and Emma:The Darwins Leap of Faith due out this fall from Deborah Heiligman. "...new biography of Charles Darwin is a thought provoking account of the man behind evolutionary theory: how his personal life affected his work and vice versa. The end result is an engaging personal exploration of history, science and religion." We can't get enough of Darwin around here, so this is a no-brainer.


Displaced Persons is a graphic novel from Image Comics by Derek McCulloch with art by Rantz Hoseley. It tells the story of one family over the history of the 20th century. "In 1939 a detective in Dashell Hammett's San Francisco investigates the disappearance of an heiress while struggling to hold his family together. In 1969 twin brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the law as the Summer of Love gives way to the death of the 60s. In 1999 a marriage explodes in violence under the strain of unsatisfied greed as the dot-com bubble reaches the bursting point."

Here's the tagline: "Displaced Persons tells the story of a uniquely twisted and tragic family history spanning the most turbulent hundred years in the history of mankind: the twentieth century saw 99 wars, 16 famines, 19 pandemics, 14 genocides and one family lost hopelessly in time" It also has a very cool cover.

Marc Aronson has Unsettled: The Problem of Loving Israel due out in October from Simon & Schuster (ages 12 and up). "Marc Aronson explores the history of Israel from its beginnings to its struggles today. Along the way he asks and answers such questions as, Can a religious state also be a democratic one? Is Israel the victim or the aggressor? Do modern states have moral obligations? And perhaps the most troubling question of all: What kind of Israel should exist?"

This is not a book you expect to see for teen readers and Aronson is an excellent writer; I'm looking forward to how he tackles this subject.