This story is taken from Books at sacbee.com.

Between the lines: A few good reads to check out

By Allen O. Pierleoni -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, July 20, 2006

Meanwhile, here are some titles to tide things over:

• "Semi-Tough" by Dan Jenkins (Thunder's Mouth, $15.95, 320 pages) is back in a new paperback edition. The hilarious, irreverent 1972 book is the fictitious journal of NFL running back Billy Clyde Puckett, whose football team goes to Los Angeles to play in the Super Bowl. Sports Illustrated ranked the title at No. 7 on its top 100 sports books of all time. The 1977 movie starred Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson and Jill Clayburgh. It's a romp.

• Pixar Animation Studios' movie "Cars" reminds audiences that iconic Route 66 was all about the trip and not the destination. So does the expanded third edition of "The Route 66 Adventure Book" by Drew Knowles (Santa Monica, $16.95, 84 pages). The longtime traveler of the Mother Road visits classic cafes, motels and roadside attractions, and offers side trips to offbeat places such as the Ghost Town of Calico, north of Daggett.

Shortly before his death last year, mystery writer Ed McBain (Evan Hunt) personally selected 25 of his short stories written between 1952 and 1957 for Manhunt magazine. "Learning To Kill" (Harcourt, $25, 496 pages) displays the foundations of what would become McBain's specialty -- the police procedural.

• Veteran novelist T.C. Boyle -- never afraid to take a risk -- offers a tense tale about a deaf woman who is the victim of identity theft in "Talk Talk" (Viking Adult, $25.95, 352 pages). She and her new boyfriend mount a cross-country pursuit of the man responsible for her arrest -- a villain who dresses in Armani and knows his way around a kitchen.

• F.X. Toole saw an Oscar-winning movie made from his short story "Million Dollar Baby" but did not live to see the publication of "Pound for Pound" (Ecco, $25.95, 384 pages). It's a painful novel about loss and redemption in the world of amateur boxing, and how a troubled ring fight manager helps an up-and-coming Latino teen.

• New York Times best-selling author John Saul offers yet another "ordinary family" that runs into evil, supernatural goings-on when they rent a brooding old house for the summer. "In the Dark of the Night" (Ballantine, $25.95, 336 pages; to be published Aug. 1) is Saul's 33rd novel.

• Karin Slaughter, another big-time author, breaks from her Grant County crime series with a stand-alone thriller, "Triptych" (Delacorte, $25, 400 pages; Aug. 15). The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is close to tracking down a serial killer, but Slaughter throws her characters and her readers a big twist midway through.

• Thanks to Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," novels about the Knights Templar continue to roll off the presses. "Knights of the Black and White" by Jack Whyte (Putnam, $25.95, 548 pages; Aug. 8) is the first of a trilogy. Whyte has written eight Arthurian novels, so he is no stranger to swordplay and intrigue.

• "The Great Starvation Experiment" by Todd Tucker (Free Press, $26, 288 pages) is a strange read about an experiment with a noble purpose. Toward the end of World War II, 36 conscientious objectors participated in a government-sponsored experiment to discover data about starvation. The point was to use the new knowledge of malnutrition to help rehabilitate the survivors of concentration camps.

• Newcomer Arthur Thomas Heist put his imagination into overdrive with the provocative "Ten Stories That Failed To Change the World" (Cafe Press, $13.95 at Tower Books, 237 pages). In one tale, readers sit in on a poker game in heaven. In another, the Keebler Elf is found deceased. Heist covers a wide gamut of topics, employing his wry humor to make his points.

Upcoming author appearances include:

Elizabeth Rosner for "Blue Nude" (Ballantine, $22.95, 200 pages): "Art heals" is Rosner's literary mantra in both of her novels. ("Speed of Light" was her debut.) This one centers on an art teacher and his female model, whose two sets of parents were connected to the Holocaust -- one as a Nazi, the other as a survivor.

Event: 6:30 tonight at the Book Seller, 107 Mill St., Grass Valley; (530) 272-2131.

About the writer:

• The Bee's Allen Pierleoni can be reached at (916) 321-1128 or apierleoni@sacbee.com. Contact him with news of coming literary events that are open to the public.

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