Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin

First, I'm going to give you all the Copperfield crap, and I'm not going to apologize for any of it, not one paragraph, so if you're not interested in how I came to see the future, or how I came to understand that the biggest truth in my life was a lie, or, for that matter, how I parlayed my distaste for hot dogs into an '84 RX-7 and a new self-concept, do us both a favor, and just stop now." All About Lulu (Soft Skull Press, July 2008) by Jonathan Evison. First book, novel. Agent: Molly Glick. Editor: Richard Nash. Publicist: Abbye Simkowitz.

"At dawn, the fighter planes coming from their bases in the warm Arabian Gulf discharge their first hot and heavy loads." Zubaida's Window: A Novel of Iraqi Exile (Feminist Press, June 2008) by Iqbal Al-Qazwini. First book, novel. Translators: Azza El Kholy and Amira Nowaira. Agent: Florence Howe. Editor: Florence Howe. Publicist: Franklin Dennis.

"There was intricate machinery involved & a powerful desire / to make it all move." The Wave-Maker (Norton, July 2008) by Elizabeth Spires. Sixth book, poetry collection. Agent: Jane Gelfman. Editor: Jill Bialosky. Publicist: Erin Sinesky Lovett.

"With abject, slavish desire, with offhand, sloppy curiosity, with gratitude, with sedation, I was accidentally engendered." Salvation (Tin House Books, June 2008) by Lucia Nevai. Fourth book, second novel. Agent: Denise Shannon. Editor: Lee Montgomery. Publicist: Deborah Jayne.

"Man, I look fantastic in this derby." Awesome (MacAdam/Cage, July 2008) by Jack Pendarvis. Third book, first novel. Agent: Paul Bresnick. Editor: Dave Adams. Publicist: Julie Burton.

"I expect you have the consolation of religion, or the guidance of a philosophy, but when me and the girls get frazzled, or blue, or rapturous, or just awfully so-so, we shin out and buy ourselves some hats." Missy (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2008) by Chris Hannan. First book, novel. Agent: Emma Parry. Editor: Courtney Hodell. Publicist: Kathy Daneman.

"My friend Patsy was telling me a story." When You Are Engulfed in Flames (Little, Brown, June 2008) by David Sedaris. Sixth book, essay collection. Agent: Don Congdon. Editor: Asya Muchnick. Publicist: Marlena Bittner.

"The taxi grazed him, turned him, and left him facedown in a pool of dirty water." Art in America (Viking, July 2008) by Ron McLarty. Third book, novel. Agent: Paul Fedorko. Editor: Paul Slovak. Publicist: Sonya Cheuse.

"I don't like what the moon is supposed to do." Human Dark With Sugar (Copper Canyon Press, June 2008) by Brenda Shaughnessy. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Michael Wiegers. Publicist: Denise Banker.

"I read somewhere that people remember the details of disturbing events because of a chemical released into the body at the time of the trauma." Serpent in the Garden of Dreams (Permanent Press, May 2008) by Robin Messing. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editors: Judith Shepard and Martin Shepard. Publicists: Judith Shepard and Martin Shepard.

"Ruin is a promise / we make to each other: / I am born the day Saigon falls / and Lebanon takes to its own throat a club." Colosseum (Graywolf Press, June 2008) by Katie Ford. Second book, poetry collection. Agent: None. Editor: Jeffrey Shotts. Publicist: Mary Matze.

"On December 3rd, 2010, the old man sewed his mouth shut with saltwater-rated fishing line." The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart (West Virginia University Press, July 2008) by M. Glenn Taylor. First book, novel. Agent: None. Editor: Patrick Conner. Publicist: Don Sappington.