Kaleidoscope

[ biblioscope ]

return of the king

While the Book Quarterly sets its sights on the now and the soon, let's use this space to gaze into our middle-distant literary future. The book I'm most looking forward to this spring is The Pale King (Little Brown, April 15), the reportedly mind-blowing novel left unfinished by David Foster Wallace when he committed suicide in 2008. A mere 560 pages, TPK is narrated by David Foster Wallace, the new trainee at an IRS office in Peoria.

—Patrick Rapa

douchebaggery 101

Chris Illuminati (his "real fucking name," according to a welcoming notice on his website) is an expert on jerkdom. He's the guy behind A**holeology: The Science Behind Getting Your Way — and Getting Away With It ; he'll read from his Cliff's Notes-y follow-up, A**holeology: The Cheat Sheet (Adams, Jan. 14), at the UPenn bookstore next week (March 3, upenn.bkstore.com). Drop in to get advice on problems any asshole might need to conquer, like kicking a woman out but keeping her "on the hook." Be sure to bring your girlfriend, assholes.

—Kala Jamison

sweet reunion

It's been 28 years since Francine Pascal published Double Love, the first entry in the Sweet Valley High series, and about a decade since the last of the 600-plus books that followed goodie-goodie Elizabeth Wakefield and her bad-girl twin, Jessica, from elementary school until college. Pascal's Sweet Valley Confidential (St. Martin's, March 29) checks in on the sisters at 27. Has Liz grown a spine? Is Jess still a bitch? You know your inner tween is dying to know.

—M.J. Fine

missed opportunity

Philly's (OK, Upper Darby's) prodigal daughter, Tina Fey, is coming home this spring for an appearance at the Philadelphia Book Festival (April 12, freelibrary.org). Interviewed by Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane, Fey will gab about her first book, Bossypants (Reagan Arthur, April 5), a collection of funny essays on the modern woman. Sad for us, the event's already sold out. But don't get your bossy pants in a twist — she probably doesn't care that you once knew her brother's teacher's third cousin Frank, anyway.

—Josh Middleton