Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House)
“Seabiscuit” author Hillenbrand offers a detailed story of courage, heroism and survival — and it’s all true. Louis Zamperini was a juvenile delinquent but matured into an Olympic runner in the 1936 Berlin games and an Army airman in WWII. He was shot down over the Pacific in 1943. Facing sharks, thirst, a typhoon and an attack by a Japanese plane, Zamperini survived 47 days on a small raft before he and his one surviving crewmate were “rescued” by a Japanese gunboat. That’s when their real troubles began. In a series of POW camps, he was tortured and subjected to medical experiments. Zamperini survived, and today — at 93 — lives in California.
Luka and the Fire of Life
by Salman Rushdie (Random House)
From fatwa to fatherhood? In a sequel of sorts to “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” Rushdie (who had a fatwa issued against him for “The Satanic Verses” in 1988), writes a fantastic adventure tale of a father and his late-in-life-miracle young son, Luka — “Sea of Stories” was about the older son, Haroun. It’s a world illuminated by holograms and video-game technology, not to mention a bear called Dog and a dog called Bear. High art and family entertainment all wrapped into one neat package.
Everything You Know is Pong
How Mighty Table Tennis Shapes Our World
by Roger Bennett and Eli Horowitz (It Books)
Ping-Pong has been in the news lately thanks to Susan Sarandon and her table-tennis hot spot SPiN. Now, a playful book gives us the back story on the sport, focusing on pop culture and geopolitics (all with a wink). For example, accompanying a photo of Fidel Castro playing, the authors surmise his revolution was inspired by a revolution in Ping-Pong — the 1952 introduction of the sponge paddle. They cover 1970s Ping-Pong diplomacy with Red China, but also included nude Ping-Pong. And sprinkled among the vintage ads, photos and the like are essays by writers like Nick Hornby and Harold Evans.
Crazy
by William Peter Blatty (Forge)
You won’t find any spinning heads or pea soup in Blatty’s latest work. The 82-year-old author of “The Exorcist” goes sentimental in this slender coming-of-age novel, looking back at two kids navigating 1940s Manhattan. Sarcastic Joey El Bueno is a fan of Dick Tracy comics, “The Shadow” radio show and his mysterious classmate Jane Bent. Can he solve all their mysteries?
Cross Fire
by James Patterson (Little, Brown)
In Patterson’s latest, a corrupt congressman doesn’t just lose re-election, he’s bumped off — along with an equally sleazy lobbyist. The double murder is bad enough, but hot shot detective Alex Cross is forced to call off his wedding to Bree when he’s called on the case. As more crooked pols are iced, seemingly by a Washington insider, Cross crosses paths with deadly nemesis Kyle Craig as well as FBI man Max Siegel.