Weekend book pick: 'Bring Up the Bodies'

Weekend book pick: 'Bring Up the Bodies'

Bring Up the Bodies
By Hilary Mantel; A John Macrae Book, 432 pp., $28; fiction

Fans of Hilary Mantel's prize-winning Tudor novel Wolf Hall won't want to miss its successor, Bring Up the Bodies.

At its heart is Thomas Cromwell and his rise to power in the court of England's Henry VIII. In Book 2, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn and ready for wife No. 3, Jane Seymour.

Even better news: Bring Up theBodies doesn't end with Cromwell's neck on the chopping block after he loses Henry VIII's favor. There will be a third novel, The Mirror and the Light.

USA TODAY says **** out of four. "Riveting…Mantel's secret is her ability to make the reader identify heart and soul with Cromwell."

The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo â€" And the Sacrifice That Forged a Nation
By James Donovan; Little, Brown, 374 pp., $29.99; non-fiction

Remember the Alamo? Davy Crockett? For those a bit foggy on the bloody 1836 battle between a band of "Texians" and a Mexican army of 2,000, here's a book-length reminder of how the state of Texas came to be.

< b>USA TODAY says *** ½ out of four. "Stirring …combines strong narrative chops with exhaustive research."

The Newlyweds
By Nell Freudenberger; Knopf, 337 pp., $25.95; fiction

A 24-year-old Bangladeshi woman, Amina Mazid, "meets" George Stillman, an electrical engineer from Rochester, N.Y., on a dating website called AsianEuro.com. He's 10 years older, looking to get married and start a family. She dreams of a better life in America. A culture clash is inevitable.

USA TODAY says *** out of four. A "fine second novel…funny, gracefully written and full of loneliness and yearning."

The Man Who Changedthe Way We Eat:Craig Claiborneand the American Food Renaissance
By Thomas McNamee; Free Press, 291 pp., $27; non-fiction

This new biography of the late, legendary New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne explores how he "changed the way we eat" â€" but also draws back the curtain on his unhappy personal life.

USA TODAY says *** out of four. "McNamee has done his homework, offering up a full portrait of Claiborne, whose life was not all crème fraiche."

Canada
By Richard Ford; Ecco, 420 pp., $27.99; fiction

Dell Parsons looks back 50 years upon the time he was 15, and his father, a retired Air Force captain, and his mother, a teacher, robbed a North Dakota bank. They got away with $2,500, but not for long.

USA TODAY says **** out of four. "A triumph of voice … heartbreaking."