Buyer’s pick
Also in the warehouse
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Shana Stowers
Assistant Buyer,
Books
wanted to be an author. While getting his master’s
degree in international relations at San Francisco
State University in ;;;;, he landed a temporary job
with United Press International (UPI) that soon led
to full-time employment. Silva dived into journalism
to support himself, for constant training in writing
and for a wealth of experiences.
The gambit paid off. Silva moved from UPI’s
San Francisco bureau to the one in Washington,
D.C., and then ascended to become UPI’s chief
Middle East correspondent. After meeting his future
wife, TV news correspondent Jamie Gangel, while
covering the Iran-Iraq War in ;;;;, he returned to
Washington and the following year began executive-producing CNN political talk shows, including
Crossfire, Capital Gang and Reliable Sources. He
started working on his first novel, The Unlikely Spy,
in ;;;;. In ;;;;, he quit his work at CNN to write
fiction full time, penning two other novels before the
resourceful, multilingual Allon emerged.
The Gabriel Allon series has been Silva’s bread
and butter since its inception in ;;;;. He has put
out a book a year since that time. Some have even
predicted future events, like our return to sparring
with Russia (Moscow Rules, ;;;;) and the expansion of ISIS into an international terror threat
(The Black Widow, ;;;;).
Seeking balance and longevity
While his books are ripe with drama and action,
Silva likes to portray violence only when it is necessary. He also seeks to balance the scales. “I try to
always have an opportunity to portray the humanity
of the people on the other side of the issue,” he says.
“At some point, I will write something different,
but look, I love writing him,” concedes the ;;-year-old novelist. “He’s got a great eye. He’s got a great
voice. He’s got a great historical perspective. He
stands at the crossroads of topics that really interest
me, whether it’s the Middle East or the Holocaust.
Israel is just smack-dab in the center of all the
action. So just the nature of the character himself
has allowed me to do lots of different things and
keep it interesting.”
Author Bryan Reesman lives in New York.
explain the topic at
hand,” says Metcalf.
“These books seek
to demystify di;cult
and potentially
dread-inducing top-
ics, and it’s important
that the text and
design work together
to move from simple
concepts to more
complex ideas in a
clear and easy-to-
understand manner. I
also like that we have
tips and hint boxes
that can go into
depth, add context
or provide extra help
with certain topics.”
He adds that
parents “tend to
find that the text is
written in a way that
both parent and child
can understand,
and that the colorful
illustrations make
[them] stand out from
boring, monochrome
textbooks.”
Help Your Kids
with Computer Science, Help Your Kids
with Language Arts,
Help Your Kids with
Math and Help Your
Kids with Science
(Item #1175395; 7/3)
are available in most
Costco warehouses.
Not only have I
seen my nieces and
nephews struggle
with homework, I’ve
also seen my siblings
struggle with helping
their children with
their assignments.
So, when I saw
the Help Your Kids
With series from DK,
I recognized what an
invaluable resource
it is for parents and
their school-age kids.
These visual guides
make explaining—
and understanding—
math, science, computer science and
grammar easy for
students in grades
K through 12.
The Connection
had the good fortune
of asking Jonathan
Metcalf, publishing
director of DK’s
Knowledge group,
about this series. He
says that the books
came from his experience helping his son,
especially wanting to
find easy-to-under-stand ways to visually
communicate a variety of concepts.
“I really like the
clear layout and
design, which gives
the text a platform to
Homework
help for
students—
and their
parents
BOOK AR T TK
