Their moments for fuller coverage may come, but we gather here today to acknowledge the existence of a few. Drum roll, please - if not front-page placement:
The Bridge by Solomon Jones (St. Martin's Minotaur, just released). Jones, contributing editor of Philadelphia Weekly, returns to the crack-infested scene of his outstanding debut, Pipe Dream, to follow two detectives as they search for a missing 9-year-old in the Philadelphia housing project where they both grew up.
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, just released). Yet another life, the third in the last three years, of that clever fellow you still see walking around town. A true media test-case: Can the former chairman and chief executive officer of CNN, and managing editor of Time, draw coverage for the oldest Philadelphia story ever told?
Family Resemblance by Tanya Maria Barrientos (New American Library, just released). A letter hidden in her recently deceased mother's address book opens up a black hole in protagonist Nita DeLeon's family history. The second novel by Inquirer staff writer Barrientos.
Using What You Got by Karen E. Quinones Miller (Simon & Schuster, just released). Former Inquirer staffer Miller draws on her Harlem roots for her third novel. College student Tiara Bynum is 18 - beautiful, smart, spoiled by her dad, and maybe a bit too confident for her own good. Tiara finds she's got some growing up to do.
Train by Pete Dexter (Doubleday, September). The former Daily News columnist, winner of the National Book Award for fiction for Paris Trout, returns with a "tautly written Los Angeles noir set in the 1950s."
