"Easy on the Eyes": Romance leads the list of new books with Northwest connections

Local books |

A new romance leads this week's list of books by local authors.

"Easy on the Eyes" by Jane Porter (5 Spot, $13.99). The latest from the popular Seattle novelist ("Odd Mom Out," "Flirting with Forty") focuses on a 38-year-old news-entertainment television anchor, lately widowed, who's beginning to feel the professional and romantic disadvantages of her age. Two men in her life — one of them a "devilishly handsome" plastic surgeon — complicate matters.

"The Wisdom Trail: In the Footsteps of Remarkable Women" by Janet Lieberman and Julie Hungar (Penguin Press, $24.95). A group portrait of women in their 70s and 80s who lived through World War II, the sexual revolution and the civil-rights and women's movement. Co-author Hungar is vice chancellor emeritus of Seattle Community Colleges.

"Chapterhouse: Dune" by Frank Herbert (Ace, $25.95). A reissue of the final book in the Tacoma-born author's "Dune Chronicles," first published in 1985. With a new introduction by Brian Herbert.

"Less Is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness," edited by Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska (New Society Publishers, $16.95). An anthology of essays by Bill McKibben, Theodore Roszak, Ernest Callenbach and others, speaking in favor of "less stuff, less work, less stress, less debt." Andrews, whose column Real Life/Simplicity previously ran in The Seattle Times, lives in Seattle. She and Urbanska also contributed essays.

"Serenity Prayers: Prayers, Poems, and Prose to Soothe Your Soul," edited by June Cotner (Andrews McMeel, $12.99). A Poulsbo anthologist and speaker assembles a collection of wise words by Walt Whitman, Laura Ingalls Wilder and others.

"House Rules" by Mike Lawson (Grove, $7.99). Paperback reprint of a thriller featuring congressional "fixer" Joe DeMarco as he tangles with "terrorists, corrupt politicians and the mob." Scene of the Crime columnist Adam Woog called Lawson's fiction "a potent combination of high good humor, deft prose and insider smarts."

"'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky: Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Child" by David Henderson (Atria, $16). Updated reissue of a 1978 biography of the Seattle-born rock-guitar legend.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com