What's new in books includes what's old, too

Associated Press Writer

The latest crop of new hardcover books includes an old one, too.

New titles by William Safire, John Grisham, Ian Buruma, Ken Follett, Elmer Kelton and others are joined by the reissue of a 1994 book by Margaret Atwood.

Atwood's "Good Bones and Simple Murders" (Doubleday) is a slim volume of short pieces that "defy easy categorization," says the publisher. There are poems, reworked fairy tales, parables and science fiction -- 35 pieces in all -- with Atwood's illustrations.

The New York Times writer Safire offers his 12th collection of "On Language" columns in "Let a Simile Be Your Umbrella" (Crown). As usual, the Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist tracks trends, traces word and phrase origins, and provides a forum for readers who disagree or have nits to pick.

Grisham, whose following is based on a string of popular legal thrillers, changed the pace earlier this year with "A Painted House," a sentimental novel about growing up in rural Arkansas in the 1950s. He shuns the courtroom drama again for his latest book, "Skipping Christmas" (Doubleday). This novella tells about the Kranks, a weary suburban couple who decide to ignore the holiday completely -- no cards, no gifts, no tree, no rooftop Frosty -- and sail to the sunny Caribbean instead.

What does it mean to be Chinese? Buruma addresses the question in "Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels From Los Angeles to Beijing" (Random House), a chronicle of his five years traveling throughout the Chinese-speaking world -- in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the West -- observing various factions fighting the Chinese government. He gathers their views about freedom and China, explores why they defy Chinese rule against all odds, and analyzes their chance of success.

Suspense novelist Follett returns to the territory of his most successful novel, "Eye of the Needle," in "Jackdaws" (Dutton), a tale of World War II espionage. As D-Day approaches, a British agent's attempt to sabotage a strategic European telephone exchange fails miserably. With her confidence ebbing and time running out, she plans a second, last-ditch attempt -- code-named "Jackdaw" -- to destroy the exchange, a mission that will depend upon a hastily assembled team of female agents.

In his novel "The Way of the Coyote" (Forge), Kelton offers another adventure for post-Civil War Texas Ranger Rusty Shannon, who has his hands full: His friend Shanty, a freed slave, has had his house set afire by the Ku Klux Klan; Shannon's home has been confiscated by his archenemies, a murderous band of brothers; and the son of his former lover has been kidnapped by Indians.

For fans of mystery fiction, there's "Murder at the President's Door" (St. Martin's), No. 22 in the series by Elliott Roosevelt that features his mother, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as an amateur sleuth. In this episode, she tries to solve the murder of a White House police officer whose body is found outside the door of FDR's bedroom.

A crime 13 times worse is investigated in "Pursuit" (Random House), Thomas Perry's mystery about the discovery of a baker's dozen murder victims inside a Louisville, Ky., restaurant shortly after closing.

M.C. Beaton offers a 10th Agatha Raisin mystery in "Agatha Raisin and the Love From Hell" (St. Martin's), in which the newlywed Raisin searches for her missing husband only to find that his suspected mistress has been murdered.

In "Pact of the Fathers" (Forge), Ramsey Campbell tells the story of a young woman who learns that her recently dead father belonged to a group bound by a blood pact in which each member must sacrifice his first-born child -- who happens to be her!

Edmund Morris, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for his biography "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," offers a sequel in "Theodore Rex" (Random House). It begins in 1901, with Roosevelt taking an emergency oath of office in Buffalo, N.Y., to become the youngest U.S. president, succeeding the assassinated William McKinley.

A more recent president, Lyndon B. Johnson, is the subject of "Reaching for Glory" (Simon & Schuster). Author Michael Beschloss analyzes Johnson's presidency through the secret tapes recorded in the White House from 1964-65, his second year in office. Revelations include details about LBJ's hidden illness, his battles with Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and his increasing doubts about staff loyalty.

Two illustrated biographies to consider: "Mark Twain" (Knopf) by Geoffrey C. Ward et al., the American novelist's life, accompanied by 275 illustrations; and "Ronald Reagan" (Public Affairs) by Lou Cannon, which features color photos and a 60-minute CD of Reagan's presidential speeches.

Think that only men invent things? Then think about disposable diapers, TV dinners and the first effective smallpox treatment. All these and more -- Liquid Paper, Scotchgard, electric motors -- were the brainchildren of those "mothers" of invention, the female inventors whose stories are told in "Patently Female" (Wiley) by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek.

And readers who have been eagerly waiting for the next book about pingpong need wait no more. Now there's "Sizzling Chops & Devilish Spins" (Four Walls Eight Windows), mystery novelist Jerome Charyn's illustrated history of the game and its "pongistes" -- pingpong players, that is.