Michael Schmidt’s massive new book, “The Novel: A Biography,” covers nearly 700 years of prose and hundreds of writers. At 1,200 pages, it is much longer than “Moby-Dick” and nearly as long as “War and Peace.” Although it’s not necessarily the last word on any given novel, as a resource, reference and stimulator, it’s a bargain and a worthy addition to your home library.While Schmidt, born in Mexico, has long been a professor in the United Kingdom, his approach is not academic. He writes for com

The considerable power of Judith Frank’s second novel, “All I Love and Know,” comes from two sources not always found in combination: first, the seriousness of the social issues it takes on, and second, its psychological, nearly Jamesian style, following its characters tick by tick through their emotions and thoughts. The merger is a success, providing a nuanced and profound approach to politically volatile subject matter, like an upmarket Jodi Picoult.“All I Love and Know” opens on a flight to

World of TroubleBen H. Winters (Quirk Books)How would you behave if it were the end of the world?In “World of Trouble,” Detective Hank Palace has only 14 days to live and a mystery to solve ― what happened to his younger sister, Nico?Palace is not the only one with 14 days remaining. Everyone on earth has just two weeks to live since an asteroid, 2011GV, or Maia, is going to strike the planet, causing mass devastation.“Because these auburn Midwestern trees are going to burst into flames in the f

Close Your EyesHold Hands/By Chris Bohjalian (Doubleday) Emily Shepard’s famous namesake once wrote that “The Soul selects her own Society ― Then ― shuts the Door.” Shepard, the runaway Vermont teenager who narrates Chris Bohjalian’s new novel, “Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands,” is just as choosy.Surprisingly, one of the few companions that Shepard ― a cutter, dope smoker and OxyContin popper, and sometimes a reluctant “prositot” for truckers ― selects is Emily Dickinson, the Belle of Amherst. Shepa

At first glance, the nondescript orange bungalow blends into the neat row of homes lining West Eighth Street in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood.It’s a bright and breezy Saturday, and the glass front door at number 314 creaks and groans as people wander in without knocking. Paco Vique and Javier Garcia del Moral are stretched out on the porch, sipping from sweating bottles of beer. A musician hauls a guitar up the front steps, pausing to give each man a kiss on each cheek. A woman, arms laden with

Korean author Bae Su-ah’s novel “Cheolsu” will be published in English in the United States next April, LTI Korea announced.“I hope that American readers will be able to discover Bae’s creative and superb collection of works. We would like to publish her works in the years to come,” said Sarah Jane Gunter, publisher at Amazon Crossing imprint, an American publishing house that mainly focuses on translations of foreign language books.“Cheolsu” is Bae’s 1998 novel, set in 1988, about the protagoni

“Song of the Shank,” Jeffery Renard Allen’s epic and brilliant new novel about slavery and musical genius, is not an easy book to read. There is, for starters, the book’s odd and sometimes confounding protagonist, based on a real man who is most often referred to in historical accounts as “Blind Tom.”“He isn’t talking. He isn’t playing,” his mother observes when Tom is a boy. “He isn’t even moving.” As he grows into adulthood, Blind Tom is a cipher for dozens of pages and then suddenly sets off

What ever happened to Harper Lee? The Alabama native was 34 when her first novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was published in 1960. This tale of childhood innocence and racial injustice in the Depression-era South won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, was adapted for an award-winning film with Gregory Peck and became a staple of high school English curricula. But Lee shunned publicity and never published another novel, fueling occasional rumors that her friend Truman Capote ― a childhood neighbor in the

“The Book Of Unknown Americans”Cristina Henriquez (Alfred A. Knopf)A dilapidated cinder-block apartment complex surrounded by a chain-link fence is the setting for Cristina Henriquez’s second novel, “The Book of Unknown Americans.” What at first appears to be a no man’s land is actually Delaware. Welcome to the U.S.A., where every whistle stop has an immigrant story to tell.The novel opens as the Riveras, a newly arrived Mexican family ― Arturo, Alma and teenage daughter Maribel ― are settling i

AdamBy Ariel Schrag (Mariner)In Ariel Schrag’s audacious coming-of-age novel “Adam,” an inexperienced teenage boy falls in love with a lesbian and tricks her into believing he’s transgender so she’ll go out with him. Yes, I know: So many things could have gone wrong with this premise. The sheer number of potential missteps is enough to daunt any novelist, let alone a first-timer like Schrag.But Schrag, best known for her series of graphic memoirs about her adolescence, has found compassionate an

Kyobo focuses on personalized consulting, Yes 24 engages customers with offline events

Generally speaking, price and brand power matter most in the bookstore business. These factors have earned price-competitive chains the lion’s share of the market, while the small, independent bookstores continue to wither.In reality, the mom-and-pop shops are more embattled than what we see in rom-com films like “You’ve Got Mail” and “Notting Hill.”But not all of the neighborhood bookshops are losing out. Some are staving off the competition through differentiation strategies. Your Mind Your Mi

‘Mr. Hong Becomes a China Genius’ introduces unique business environment

Fourth of July CreekBy Smith Henderson (Ecco)Reading the first pages of Smith Henderson’s astonishing new novel, you can sense the trouble rising like thunderheads over the plains. A cop waits outside a ramshackle house. You know the place: “Peeling paint, a porch swing dangling from one rusting chain, a missing windowpane taped over with torn cardboard.” A social worker arrives. A mother and son sit handcuffed behind the screen door, subdued.These two, says the cop, “are full idiots.” The socia

Midway through her thoughtful, entertaining history of obsessed music collectors and their quest for rare early 78 rpm records, writer Amanda Petrusich has a revelation. Focusing on one particular seeker and his knack for finding obscure titles others have missed, she describes him strategizing his search by “pursuing his prey with the kind of vehemence typically employed by a PI stalking a client’s ex-wife, or a cop chasing a kingpin. It felt calculated and thorough.”The difference? Unlike thos