New And Noteworthy Titles From Northwest Bookshelf

A biweekly listing of new titles by Washington writers and publishers, or of local interest. To be included in this listing, finished books (no manuscripts or galleys) should be sent to: Book Editor, Seattle Times, P.O. 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Please indicate book's local connection clearly.

FICTION

"Old Scores" by Aaron Elkins (Scribners, $20). When an eccentric French art collector offers the Seattle Art Museum a Rembrandt, it's up to curator Chris Norgren to decide if the painting is a fake or not. Mystery writer Elkins lives on the Olympic Peninsula.

"Rainbow Man" by M.J. Engh (Tor, $17.95). In this Pullman sci-fi writer's latest, a starfaring woman's sterilization leads to confusion about her sexual role on the planet Birman.

"Warpath" by Tony Daniel (Tor, $19.95). Space colonists come into conflict with the armed warriors of an interstellar American Indian nation, in this Vashon Island writer's debut sci-fi novel.

"Still Explosion" by Mary Logue (Seal Press, $18.95). Mystery from a Seattle publisher. A Minnesota journalist investigating an abortion clinic bombing has to figure out where the bomber will strike next.

"End of the Empire" by Denise Ohio (St. Martin's, $16.95). Lesbian romance between a motorcyclist and a former stripper has dramatic consequences in a small Oregon town. Ohio is a Seattleite.

"Shadows" by John Saul (Bantam, $5.99). Gifted children fall under an evil influence in this paperback reprint of the Seattleite's 1992 novel.

"The Living" by Annie Dillard (HarperPerennialCQ, $12). Softcover issue of a novel set in 19th-century Bellingham. By the Pulitzer-winning author of "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek."

"Annie Oakley's Girl" by Rebecca Brown (City Lights, $8.95). Short stories, some with a gay and lesbian slant. Brown ("The Haunted House") divides her time between Seattle and London.

"The Wizard of Seattle" by Kay Hooper (Bantam, $5.50). Romantic fantasy set in modern-day Seattle - and ancient Atlantis.

"Alma Rose" by Edith Forbes (Seal Press, $10.95). A sagebrush desert town is the setting for this first novel about lesbian love, from a Seattle publisher.

"The Long Reach" by Susan Davis (Q.E.D. Press, 155 Cypress St., Fort Bragg, CA 95437, $12.95). A Seattleite's first novel about two time-traveling characters who change sex as they meet in a variety of eras and places.

"Quartermaster Rangers" by L.J. Bolar (Vantage, $13.95). A Vietnam novel by an Army veteran and longtime Seattle resident.

NONFICTION

"Chautauqua Summer: Adventures of a Late 20th-Century Vaudevillian" by Rebecca Chace (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $21.95). The memoir of a trapeze artist who joined The Flying Karamazov Brothers and other acts on a month-long summer tour and wound up marrying "Dmitri Karamazov" (a k a Paul Magid), with whom she now lives in Seattle.

"Above the Clouds: A Reunion of Father and Son" by Jonathan Bach (Morrow, $20). How the son of Richard ("Jonathan Livingstone Seagull") Bach reconciled with his father after a bitter divorce broke up the family. Bach lives in Seattle.

"The Thunder Tree: Lessons From an Urban Wildland" by Robert Michael Pyle (Houghton Mifflin, $19.95). The award-winning nature writer from Gray's River recalls the boyhood attractions of suburban Denver's Highline Canal, a man-made waterway turning into wilderness.

"Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire" by James Wallace and Jim Erickson (HarperBusiness, $13). Paperback reprint of a book profiling the computer whiz-kid's professional and personal secrets. By two Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters.

"On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions" by Peter Douglas Ward (Freeman, $12.95). Softcover issue of a University of Washington professor's inquiry into why horseshoe crabs, crocodiles, magnolias and other "evolutionary anachronisms" survive into the present.

"If God Has a Plan for My Life, Why Can't I Find It?" by Ron Boehm (YWAM Publishing, P.O. Box 55787, Seattle, WA 98155, $7.99). Advice from a Port Orchard author who works through Seattle's Youth With a Mission (YWAM) office as director of the Revive America Project.

"Social Security: The Inside Story" by Andy Landis (Mount Vernon Press, 1750 112 N.E., C-224, Bellevue, WA 98004, $14.95). An explanation of Social Security and Medicare, by a Seattleite and former Social Security representative.

"No Regrets: Fischer-Spassky 1992" by Yasser Seirawan and George Stefanovic (International Chess Enterprises, P.O. Box 19457, Seattle, WA 98109, $34.95 cloth, $24.95 paper). An account of Bobby Fischer's notorious chess tournament with Boris Spassky, by Seattle chess master Yasser Seirawan and Yugoslav journalist George Stefanovic.

"Juggernaut: The Whitman Massacre Trial, 1850" by Ronald B. Lansing (Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, 125 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105, $15.95). An Oregon law professor's account of the 1850 Oregon City trial of five Cayuse Indians accused of murdering Washington Territory missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.

"Diving and Snorkeling Guide to The Pacific Northwest" by Edward Weber (Pisces Books, Gulf Publishing Company, Book Division, Dept. M10, P.O. Box 2608, Houston, TX 77252-2608, $11.95). A guide to underwater attractions of Puget Sound, the San Juans and Vancouver Island.

"History of the Flower Bulb Industry in Washington State" by Charles J. Gould (Northwest Bulb Growers Association, P.O. Box 303, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, price unavailable). How the flowers got here, by a Washington State University plant pathologist.

"Multiple Personality and Dissociation: Understanding Incest, Abuse, and MPD" by David L. Calof, with Mary LeLoo (Parkside Publishing, call 1-800-221-6364, $7.95). A study by a clinical consultant at the Seattle Mental Health Institute.

"A Parent's Guide to Autism: Answers to the Most Common Questions" by Charles A. Hart (Pocket, $9). Advice from a Seattleite whose brother and son are autistic.

"Always Getting Ready: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska" by James H. Barker (University of Washington Press, $50 cloth, $29.95 paper). A portrait of a people, richly illustrated with black-and-white photographs.

POETRY

"Forbidden Games and Video Poems: The Poetry of Yang Mu and Lo Ch'ing," translated with commentary by Joseph R. Allen (University of Washington Press, $40 cloth, $19.95 paper). Bilingual edition of two Taiwanese poets. Yang Mu is a UW professor.

"Winter Insomnia" by Joseph Powell (Arrowood Books, P.O. Box 2100, Corvallis, OR, 97339, $19.95 cloth, $9.95 paper). Verse by a Central Washington University English professor.

"In Order to Talk with the Dead: Selected Poems of Jorge Teillier," translated by Carolyne Wright (University of Texas Press, $30 cloth, $12.95 paper). A Chilean poet's works, translated by a Seattle poet.

"Satyagraha" by Phyllis Eilene Ratcliff (Writer's Publishing Service, 1512 Western Ave., P.O. Box 1273, Seattle, WA 98101, $5.95). Verse by an African-American Seattle public school teacher.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

"A Place for Grace" by Jean Davies Okimoto (Sasquatch Books, $14.95). The tale of a dog who, after learning she's too small to become a seeing-eye dog, enrolls in a hearing-dog program. Okimoto and illustrator Doug Keith are Seattle residents. - Compiled by Michael Upchurch