INCOMING

'Twas a great week, courtesy of two wonderful bookstores:  Second Look Books in Prince Frederick, Maryland, and McKay's Used Books in Manassas, Virginia.

• Evan J. Albright, Cape Cod Confidential.  Collections of  "true tales of murder, crime and scandal from the Pilgrims to the present", from a veteran Cape Cod reporter.  Cape resident and writer extraordinaire Paul Kemprecos did the intro.
• Isaac Asimov, The Neutrino:  Ghost Particle of the Atom.  Non-fiction.
• Greg Benford, editor, with Martin Harry Greenberg's Tekno Books (uncredited on cover), Microcosms.  SF anthology with thirteen stories.
• John W. Campbell, editor, Astounding Science Fiction, July 1939.  A facsimile edition of a classic issue of the best science fiction magazine of its time.  This issue had A. E. van Vogt's first science fiction appearance (the classic Black Destroyer), Isaac Asimov's first major story (trends), with stories by Nat Schachner, C. L. Moore, Nelson S. Bond, Ross Rocklynne, and Amelia R. Long.  (Coincidently, one of the two articles in this issue, Willy Ley's Geography for Time Travelers, I had read just the day before in (the other) Martin Greenberg's non-fiction anthology Coming Attractions.)  As a facsimile edition, this has everything -- ads, fillers, illustrations, and the letters column (which had letters from Isaac Asimov and P. Schuyler Miller, among others).  A hard-cover edition with dust jacket in perfect condition.  Confession:  Since I am a cheapskate and the opposite of wealthy, I seldom pay more than a buck for a book; this one cost me $1.65 -- whoot!
• Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others.  One of the most celebrated SF collections in recent years; eight stories.
• Hal Clement, Half Life.  Hard SF novel by a master of the form.
• John Creasey (as "Kyle Hunt"), This Man Did I Kill.  A Dr. Emmanuel Cellini mystery.
• Ellen Datlow, editor, Omni Best Science Fiction Two.  Ten stories, six original to this collection and just four orignally published in Omni.
• Ronald Burt De Waal, The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  Massive reference book (6,221 entries!), covering everything Sherlockian.  (This one cost me $2.64!  **does happy dance and throws out back**) 
• George Alec Effinger, The Zork Chronicles.  Gaming tie-in fantasy novel.
• Roger Elwood, editor.  Continuum 2.  SF anthology with eight stories.  This is the British papaerback with a much cooler cover than the US edition.
• Katherine V. Forrest, Murder at the Nightwood Bar.  Lesbian mystery novel.
• Vic Ghidalia, editor, Satan's Pets.  Horror anthology with ten stories.
• Mirra Ginsberg, editor and translator, The Ultimate Threshold:  A Collection of the Finest in Soviet Science Fiction.  Thirteen stories from 1963-68.
• Donald Goines, Crime Partners.  Crime novel.  This was the first book that Goines originally published under his "Al C. Clark" pseudonym.
• Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, editors, Desperadoes.  Western anthology with seventeen stories.
• Matin H. Greenberg, John L. Lellenberg, and Carol-Lynn Waugh, editors, Holmes for the Holidays.  Sherlockian mystery anthology with fourteen stories.
• Jim Harmon, The Great Radio Heroes.  Nostalgia.  Harmon was really good at this type of writing; I'm looking forward to this one.
• James Herbert, '48.  SF/thriller/horror novel.
• Rich Horton, editor, Science Fiction:  The Best of the Year, 2007 Edition.  SF anthology with twelve stories.
• Matt Johnson, editor, Triage.  Horror novellas by three of the field's best:  Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon, and Edward Lee.
• William W. Johnstone, with J. A. Johnstone, Blood Bond:  Texas Gundown.  Western.
• Marvin Kaye, editor, Lovers & Other Monsters.  Horror anthology with fifty-two stories and poems, plus a play.
• H. F. R. Keating, Crimes Waves 1:  The Annual Anthology of the Crime Writer's Association.  Seventeen stories from some of England's finest authors.  Keating recently passed away;  Inspector Ghote weeps.
• Louis L'Amour, Jubal Sackett (318 in the series) and The Rider of Ruby Hills (four pulp novellas which were later rewritten).  Westerns.
• Stanislaw Lem, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, an SF novel, and Tales of Pirx the Pilot, a collection of five SF stories. 
• Jon E. Lewis, editor, The Mammoth Book of the Western.  Western anthology with twenty-seven stories and lists (great for starting arguments) of the Hundred Best Western Novels and the Hundred Best Western Short Stories.  The cover is a painting of a stern-looking Gary Cooper.
• Bentley Little, The Return.  Horror novel.
• George R. R. Martin, editor, with an assist from Melinda M. Snodgrass, Inside Straight.  An SF "mosaic novel", another phrase for a themed shared-world anthology.  This one has eight stories and appears to be the eighteenth book in the Wild Cards series.
• China Mieville, Perdido Street Station.  SF novel, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award, as well as a nominee for both the Hugo and the Nebula.
• Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, creators, The Destroyer #107:  Feast or Famine.  Men's adventure; Will Murray wrote this one.
• Yvonne Navarro, Elektra.  Movie tie-tin, based on the Marvel Comics character.
• John Jacob Niles, The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles.  The cumulation of fifty years of study and collecting in Appalachia.  This has the music (which I can't read) and the words (which I have been forbidden to sing by those who do not appreciate toneless, off-key music) and a heavy dose of information about each of the songs (which is fascinating).  A great find for two bucks.
• [Mel Odom, for both], Don Pendleton's The Executioner #140:  Wild Card and Don Pendleton's The Executioner #296:  Nuclear Game (Book 1 of The Moon Shadows Trilogy).  Men's adventure.
• Frederik Pohl, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander, editors, Science Fiction of the 40's.  SF anthology with twenty-one classic stories.
• Byron Preiss & John Betancourt, editors.  The Ultimate Witch.  Horror anthology with twenty-five stories.
• Kenneth Robeson, Doc Savage Omnibus #5.  Omnibus with five pulp hero novels:  No Light to Die By,  The Monkey Suit, Let's Kill Ames, Once Over Lightly, and I Died Yesterday.  All ficve were ghost-written by Lester Dent and originally appeared in Doc Savage magazine in 1947.
• Robert J. Randisi, editor, Boot Hill.  An anthology of fifteen western stories.
• James Rollins, The Judas Strain.  Thriller.
• Fred Saberhagen, An Old Friend of the Family.  Horror; one of Saberhagen's Dracula novels.
• Jessica Amanda Salmonson, editor, Tales by Moonlight II.  Horror anthology with thirty-seven stories and poems celebrating the contribution of small presses to the genre.
• Hank Schwaeble, Damnable.  Horror novel.  I've been meaning to try Schwaeble for some time now.
• Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Coliins, editors, Murder Is My Business.  Crime anthology with seventeen stories.
• Jonathan Strahan, editor, The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Four.  Twenty-nine stories from 2009.
• David Thompson, Wilderness:  The Lost Valley.  Western, #23 in the series.  I think Thompson is approaching Randisi/Reasoner productivity levels; how many books has this guy written?

I usually don't list my wife's Incoming, but Kitty was very happy to get these:

• Bill Bryson, The Mother Tongue:  English and How It Got That Way.  Wonderful, wonderful book.
• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Whitbread Book of the Year and a New York Times Notable Book.  Both of us are looking forward to this one.
• William Martin, Back Bay.  We have had a number of copies of this in a the past, but they went walkabout.  When this book was first published, Kitty won "A Night in Back Bay" for us in a contest from Pocket Books, which included a reception with Bill Martin.  Kitty made me read the book beforehand and I wasn't sorry she insisted.  A great read.