William Morrow

Life Sentences By Laura Lippman William Morrow / 352 pages / $24.99 Cassandra Fallows must determine whether Calliope Jenkins killed her infant son. Fallows, the hero of the latest stand-alone mystery from best-selling author Laura Lippman, is a middle-aged writer who grew up in Northwest Baltimore. Brimming with bright chatter, Lippman's engaging standalone novel evokes nostalgia for 1960s and '70s Baltimore as it traverses neighborhoods and landmarks like Bolton Hill, Mount Vernon and Silber's Bakery.

Richardson family attends viewing Liam Neeson looked distraught yesterday as he greeted grieving family members and friends who attended a private viewing for his wife, actress Natasha Richardson. Neeson and sons Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12, attended the viewing at New York's American Irish Historical Society, as well as Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, and her sister Joely Richardson. The viewing followed Thursday night's tribute on Broadway, when theaters dimmed their lights for the Tony Award-winning actress, who died from bleeding in the skull caused by the fall she took on a ski slope.

Personal choiceFashion and style are related, but they're not the same thing. Fashion is what designers and fashion magazines say it is. Style, on the other hand, occurs when an individual forges a powerful personal look. Sometimes style sidesteps fashion (then we call it classic). Sometimes it anticipates fashion. And sometimes it does both.Thus Mount Vernon resident Tanisha Jenne McClellan (right), 21, calls herself a "fashion nut," but sticks with items that suit her life and heritage.

Six months ago, on these pages, I examined the expanding marketplace of books by and about African-Americans. This assignment has been far more difficult, and fun: Wade into the floodwaters, and return with a few well-written books that enhance understanding of the African-American and human experience -- and which illustrate the main categories in which African-American literature may best be examined.I avoided the obvious. I'll read anything by Walter Mosley, Octavia Butler, Maya Angelou, and newcomer Edwidge Danticat, winners of laurels.

Supposedly, Cleopatra used buttermilk as a facial mask. Advisers told Scarlett O'Hara a buttermilk bath could fade freckles.Today, skeptics may question its merits as a beauty aid, but its culinary talents are incontrovertible."

Concerned about your technology stocks in 1996?Not to worry. The technology sector is still a good place to be, long term, says Matt Seto.Of course, he's only 18 -- so what does he know?Quite a lot, as it turns out.The Troy, Mich., teen-ager just wrote his first book on investing (more to come, he hints), published by large and respected William Morrow & Co. in New York.In addition, he says the value of the mutual fund he runs for friends and family rose 33 percent in 1995, vs. 31 percent for the average fund.

Sitting in the studio of WEAA radio, Diane McKinney-Whetstone probably doesn't realize what she's done.She's telling me about the book deal, the one with William Morrow and Co. that got her a healthy advance for her novel "Tumbling." She's telling me how the novel was her first stab at writing fiction, about the writing course she took at the University of Pennsylvania and the classmate who put her in touch with an agent, who contacted William Morrow's editors, who fell in love with the manuscript.

Several themes emerge in this year's cookbook blitz: fast and easy; vegetarian and semi-veg; and baking.For the novice, a number of cooking primers have been released. few of those feature step-by-step instructions and colorphotographs Given that many new cooks have no idea what the raw ingredients -- let alone the finished meals -- should look like, the more pictures the better.Fast foodSo many books in the fast and furious category were published in 1995 that I've lost count. I do remember that most seemed gimmicky.

"Lying In Bed," by J.D. Landis. 296 pages. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, $19.95Solitude can do some strange things to a person, but John Chambers is perhaps a bit stranger than most.Chambers' father, a respectable criminal court judge, calls him "utterly worthless and . . . abjectly murcid," although he leaves his son enough of his hard-earned cash to live a languid life of intellectual introspection in a New York penthouse apartment. Chambers begins describing himself as a rhetorician ("someone who studies the power of language")

A cookbook celebrating the fresh, flavorful, richly ethnic cuisine of Florida by Steve Raichlen has won a first place in the Julia Child Cookbook Awards for 1993."

"Dying for Mercy" Mary Jane Clark (William Morrow, $24.99) It's another typically lavish, elegant gala at a sprawling estate in New York's exclusive Tuxedo Park, until the wealthy host is found dead. Eliza Blake, co-host of a popular morning TV show, witnesses the grotesque scene, and decides to put together the pieces of the puzzle before a brutal murderer wipes out the entire community. "Don't Know Much About Literature" Kenneth C. Davis (Harper, $14.99) Brush up on your Bronte, your Kafka, your Faulkner, your Melville and more with Davis' newest installment in the "Don't Know Much About" series of informational yet entertaining guides to just about everything.

Life Sentences By Laura Lippman William Morrow / 352 pages / $24.99 Cassandra Fallows must determine whether Calliope Jenkins killed her infant son. Fallows, the hero of the latest stand-alone mystery from best-selling author Laura Lippman, is a middle-aged writer who grew up in Northwest Baltimore. Brimming with bright chatter, Lippman's engaging standalone novel evokes nostalgia for 1960s and '70s Baltimore as it traverses neighborhoods and landmarks like Bolton Hill, Mount Vernon and Silber's Bakery.

Richardson family attends viewing Liam Neeson looked distraught yesterday as he greeted grieving family members and friends who attended a private viewing for his wife, actress Natasha Richardson. Neeson and sons Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12, attended the viewing at New York's American Irish Historical Society, as well as Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave, and her sister Joely Richardson. The viewing followed Thursday night's tribute on Broadway, when theaters dimmed their lights for the Tony Award-winning actress, who died from bleeding in the skull caused by the fall she took on a ski slope.

In the Shadow of the Master Edited by Michael Connelly William Morrow / 389 pages / $24.95 For the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birth, the Mystery Writers of America have published this collection of 16 of Poe's best works with often-insightful commentary by well-known mystery writers. As editor Michael Connelly explains it, Poe's death in Baltimore in 1849 is shrouded in mystery, as is much of his literary output. Ill, incoherent and dressed in clothes that were not his, 40-year-old Poe could have been mistaken for several of the protagonists of his short stories.

A Darker Domain By Val McDermid Harper / 368 pages / $25 During the 1980s, a coal-mining strike changed the landscape of many Scottish towns. Tight-knit communities and families were torn apart by the long strike that drained meager savings and by the workers who left for other jobs. That historical footnote provides the background for Val McDermid's powerful A Darker Domain. Mick Prentice, a union supporter, was one of those men who left. Mick's abandoned wife and daughter became outcasts who could barely afford food.

1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance By Gavin Menzies William Morrow / 368 pages / $26.95 Between 1421 and 1423, according to Gavin Menzies, a former submarine commander in Great Britain's Royal Navy, four Chinese fleets organized by the great eunuch-admiral Zheng He circumnavigated the globe. Seventy years later, Menzies maintains, Christopher Columbus used the maps the Chinese voyagers prepared to "discover" America. Despite the skepticism and scorn of professional historians, Menzies' 1421 became a best-seller in 2002.

Summer Gatherings By Rick Rodgers William Morrow / 2008 / $17.95 Summertime and the cooking is easy. Or at least it should be. So cooking instructor and cookbook author Rick Rodgers has come up with a collection of 50 recipes perfect for casual dining. Fresh, in-season ingredients dominate the recipes that run the gamut from White Peach Bellini Freezes to Corn Hotcakes With Blackberry Syrup. It wouldn't be summer without grilled hot dogs, and Rodgers offers a spicy and easy chowchow to brighten up that barbecue staple.

Ladies of Liberty By Cokie Roberts William Morrow / 481 pages / $26.95 Golda By Elinor Burkett HarperCollins / 480 pages / $27.95 Golda Meir was a Russian-born American citizen who became prime minister of Israel in 1969 at age 70. She has been the subject of numerous biographies. My Life, her ghost-written autobiography, became a best-seller even though she disdained it, claiming she hated indiscretion. Now with Golda, Elinor Burkett looks at this larger-than-life woman as a study in contrasts.

Now and Forever By Ray Bradbury William Morrow / 224 pages / $24.95 I have had the pleasure of listening to Ray Bradbury for more than 40 years - in speeches, interviews and late-night conversations over a glass of wine. His energy and exuberance rarely falter, and listeners almost always go away inspired. That first afternoon in 1964 in his Wilshire Boulevard office, we sat on the floor and played with some of the same "toys" he still plays with today in the basement of his home: miniature dinosaurs and spaceships, Bullwinkle Moose and comic books of every description.

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders Neil Gaiman William Morrow / 392 pages / $26.95 Neil Gaiman writes in so many different styles and aggregates of styles it is difficult to classify his work with any succinctness. Some might call it fantasy, others horror, still others sci-fi or speculative fiction - he writes in each genre, equally well. In his latest collections of stories, poems and novellas, Fragile Things, his first book since the best-selling Anansi Boys, Gaiman combines all these bits and pieces for a compelling and dreamy, if not always successful, whole.