Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 61

Cooks Sunday, December 22, 1996 E7 Austin American-Statesman FICTION this book is a fun read. As an avid Sue Grafton fan, I didn't expect "Rueful Death" to measure up. It does. Reviewer Marge Harrington is an Austin free-lance writer. 'Rueful Death'; By Susan Wittig Albert Berkley, $21.95 'Reading Jazz' Edited by Robert Gottlieb Pantheon, $37.50 It ost books this pricey provide coffee-table i I decoration, while most books this bulky I serve better as doorstops or barbells than reading material.

Though plainly timed for the 1 gift-giving market, "Reading Jazz" is a collection that the jazz fanatic on your Bt's fun to read a mystery novel set in familiar territory in this case the Texas Hill Country, author Susan Wittig Albert's home. After leaving a lucrative criminal law practice in Houston, the protagonist, China Bayles, lives with Mike McQuaid in a fictitious Texas Hill Country town, where for six years she's owned Thyme and Seasons, an herb and candle shop. Pleading burn-out, China signs on for a contemplative, two-week retreat at St. Theresa's monastery in nearby Caix What she finds is neither peace" nor saintliness, 1. "Silent Honor," Danielle Steel; Delacorte, $24.95.

(1, 5) 2. "Airframe," Michael Crichton; Knopf, $26. (1st time on list) 3. "The Christmas Box," Richard Paul Evans; Simon Schuster, $14.95. (8, 19) 4.

"Executive Orders," Tom Clancy; Putnam, $27.95. (2, 17) 5. "The Fallen Man," Tony Hillerman; Harper Collins, $24. (3, 32) 6. "Desperation," Stephen King; Viking, $27.95.

(5, 11) 7. "The Deep End of the Ocean," Jacquelyn Mitchard; Viking, $23.95. (4, 13) 8. "The Christmas Tree," Julie Salamon; Random House, $12.95. (1st time on list) 9.

"The Notebook," Nicholas Sparks; Warner, $16.95. (7, 9) 10. "My Gal Sunday," Mary Higgins Clark; Simon Schuster, $23. (9, 8) 11. "The Third Twin," Ken Follett; Crown, $25.95.

(11, 7) 12. "The Laws of our Fathers," Scott Turow; Farrar, Straus Giroux, 13. 'M' is for Malice," Sue Grafton; WoodHolt, $25. (6, 6) 14. "This Year It Will Be Different," Maeve Binchy; Delacorte, $15.95.

(15, 2) 15. "The Regulators," Richard Bachman; Dutton, $24.95. (13, 11) Wr.MlH 'Bitter Lake' By Ann Harleman Southern Methodist Univeristy, $22.50 For Judith and Lif Hutchins, life's journey is not easy In fact it is heart-breaking, full of growing pains, tough decisions and hard-earned knowledge. Judith, the mother, faces life without her mate when her husband takes off for one of his occasional trips. It seems Gordon Hutchins always has been a loner.

Even a loving wife and two daughters can't keep his feet planted for long. Gort and Judith's eldest daughter, LiL feels a special connection to her father, and when he turns up missing for months instead of weeks, she makes it her mission to find him. Lil moves into her great-aunt's house to learn about her ther's past and search for clues as to where he is. She doesn't mind that this Christmas list won't simply admire, but devour, while di gesting its selection of autobiography, profile and criticism for months to come. Edited by Robert Gottlieb (whose '80s stint at the helm of The New Yorker followed a celebrated career as a book editor), the collection takes the measure of jazz lit Susan AVnTiG ALBERT but more intrigue and political shenanigans than in state government When a sister monastery closed, St Theresa's, which augments its income by garlic farming, took in the 20 nuns who now conspire to turn the bucolic Hill Country location into a resort-conference center for church bigwigs.

With an NONFICTION --ww" miccion mnvM hpr nuav from her mother. Meanwhile, Judith searches for a job to support her two children while her husband is absent. In the process, she discovers her own independence, personal needs and desires. She begins to realize that maybe she doesn't want Gort to come back and take 1. "My Sergei," Ekaterina Gordeeva with E.M.

Swift; Warner, $18.95. (2, 6) 2. "A Reporter's life," Walter Cronkite; Knopf, $26.95. (1st time on list) 3. "Forever Erma," Erma Bombeck; Andrews McMeel, $22.95.

(10, 6) 4. "Dogbert's Top-Secret Management Handbook," Scott Adams; Harper Business, $16. (4, 9) 5. "Angela's Ashes," Frank McCourt; Scribner, $24. (1, 14) 6.

"The Dilbert Principle," Scott Adams; Harper, Business, $20. (6, 34) 7. "Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion," David Brinkley; Knopf, $20. (9, 4) 8. "Down in the Garden," Anne Geddes; Cedco, $49.95.

(3, 5) 9. "The Soul's Code," James Hillman; Random House, $23. (7, 6) 10. "I'm Not Really Here," Tim Allen; Hyperion, $21.95. (8, 3) 11.

"Slouching Towards Gomorrah," Robert H. Bork; Regan BooksHarperCollins, $25. (14, 12) 12. "My Story," Sarah, the Duchess of York, with Jeff Coplon; Simon Schuster, $24. (5, 4) 1 13.

"Living Faith," Jimmy Carter; Times BoothsRandom House, $23. (11, 3) 14. "James Herriot's Favorite Dog Stories," James Herriot; St Martin's, upcoming election for the head honcho, a royal power struggle ensues. Add to that the two nuns who've died under dubious circumstances, three small arson-like fires, a series of poison-pen letters, a priest with a shady past and a handy man with questionable credentials. So the monastery's abbess, Mother Winifred, asks China to investigate.

The mystery is rife with "comkidinks" as the locals say Unbeknownst to China, Tom Rowan, her erstwhile lover, now heads the local bank as well as the foundation that governs St. Theresa's trust fund. Tom soon attempts to pressure China toward marriage. Also involved is the powerful Townsend family whose members include the town judge, J.P., physician and sometime medical examiner. They're bitter over the loss of an inheritance to the monastery.

The author's knowledge of and great interest in monastic life and in growing and use of herbs give the novel a solid backdrop. Although the plot becomes tangled and, as China suggests, it takes a scorecard to keep track of the 40 nuns, her new life away from her. Harleman infuses "Bitter Lake" with verbal sketches of the Pennsylvanian mountain country and the beautiful plains of Iowa. Her attention to details in the surroundings of her characters, from a spider web on the front porch or, a hedge in the back yard to the land beyond a farmer's fence, creates a touching portrait of the setting and plants the reader in the middle of it all. The characters' forthrightness about their feelings and their confusion makes them seem ever more real.

15. "Undaunted Courage," Stephen E. Ambrose; Simon Schuster, eracy from 1919 through the present, surveying most of the music's major figures and major writers, balancing a historical concern for the pivotal issues of each era with a regard for writing of timeless quality Over the course of more than 1,000 pages, inclusions range from an analysis of "Jazz in America" by Jean-Paul Sartre to a "Blindfold that finds Billie Holiday playing "Name 'That Artist" to excerpts from the autobiographies of Charles Mingus and Art Pepper. the critical contentiousness between jazz classicists and iconoclasts throughout these pages continues to this day, polarities are now seen as part of a continuum. Where British poet (and former jazz critic) Philip Larkin once railed against the "screech" John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, within an argumentative essay included herein, retrospect makes it easier to appreciate the genius of Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker alike, without feeling that either represents the musical repudiation of the other.

As he admits in his introduction, Gottlieb was a latecomer to jazz, one whose interest was stimulated when he began working with Whitney Balliett at The New Yorker. A nit that could be picked is that the anthology reflects Balliett's bias toward supper-club sophistication and vocal refinement, at the expense (though not the exclusion) of the music's wilder, more adventurous extremes. Any anthology of this sort invites quibbles about whether these are the best pieces by the best writers, but Gottlieb has assembled an anthology that stands on its literary merits and enhances one's appreciation of the music. Coming full circle, he brings the book to a close by returning to the music's improvisatory beginnings, with Dan Morgenstern's appreciation of Louis Armstrong, and then shows a sense of perspective and humor with a coda in which producer Orrin Keepnews terms jazz criticism "A Bad Idea, Poorly Executed." Even Keepnews would likely agree that "Reading Jazz" is a good idea, handsomely executed. Reviewer Don McLeese is American-Statesman critic at --i $27.50.

(15, 39) Reviewer Sarah Glinsmann is on the American-Statesman staff. ADVICE, HOW-TO AND MISCELLANEOUS X. "Simple Abundance," Sarah Ban Breathnach; Warner, $17,95. (2, 37) 2. "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," John Gray; HarperCollins, $20.

(3, 187) 3. "Make the Connection," Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey; Hyperion, $18.95. (1, 13) 4. "The Zone," Barry Sears with Bill Lawren; Regan BcoksHarperCollins, $23. (4, 40) PAPERBACK FICTION 'A Horse to Die For' By Carolyn Banks Fawcett, $5.50 a delectable puppy to a repulsive veterinarian, from a super-efficient cleaning woman to a ditsy millionaire.

Set in the Bastrop area (a bonus to those of us living in the 'hood), scenes move back and forth from Texas to Los Angeles. Characters have unexpected ties to each other, and a personal misunderstanding causes a ruckus. In this lighthearted mystery, suspense plays second fiddle to the sheer pleasure of reading a book in which the pace and dialogue don't let up for a moment. Super stocking stuffer. Reviewer Jane Manaster has an upcoming book on the homed toad.

1. "The English Patient," Michael Ondaatje; (1, 3) 2. "Song of Solomon," Toni Morrison; PlumePenguin, $11.95. (7, 8) 3. "The Book of Ruth," Jane Hamilton; AnchorDoubleday, $9.95.

(10, 3) 4. "The Horse Whisperer," Nicholas Evans; Dell, $7.50. (2, 10) 5. "The Cry of Halidon," Robert Ludlum; Bantam, $7.50. (3, 5) Listings based on sales figures from the week ending Dec.

1 from 3,985 bookstores, statistically adjusted to represent all bookstores. (The first number in parentheses is last week's position on the list, and the second number is the number of weeks a book has been on the list) 1 When Robin Vaughan is invited to see her best friend's Christmas present, she immediately senses deja vu. The magnificent horse in the paddock is a ringer for one that died months before under mysterious circumstances. But how can that be? Can anything short of resurrection explain the horse's reappearance? Austin writer Carolyn Banks steers us through encounters with assorted goodies and baddies, ranging from j7 (ft. zt Fharmaco is currently seeking men and women 16 to 65 for a poet surgical pain relief research study.

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