Paperbacks

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and the Half-Blood Prince

By J.K. Rowling

Scholastic, $9.99, July 25

Scholastic is printing 2 million paperback copies of the sixth Harry Potter book. Harry, in his sixth year at Hogwarts, faces a grim world. In her review last year, USA TODAY's Deirdre Donahue wrote: "The sixth installment offers both familiar pleasures and new ones. What keeps the series vital is Rowling's undeniable ability to create memorable characters for each book."

Harry Potter

And don't miss:

Fiction

*Alibi by Joseph Kanon (Picador, $14, June). Novel set in post-WWII Venice explores love and deception.

*Sweet Magnolia by Norma Jarrett (Harlem Moon/Broadway, $12.95, June; paperback original). Novel set in New Orleans is about two different and estranged sisters who try to find each other and God; Essence book club pick.

*Girls' Night Out (Red Dress Ink, $14.95, June; paperback original). Meg Cabot, Emily Giffin, Kristin Gore, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and Lolly Winston are among the writers contributing to this chick-lit short story collection; net proceeds benefit War Child and No Strings.

*No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage, $14, July). Novel set in the modern frontier between Texas and Mexico where drug runners have replaced rustlers.

*Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor, $13.95, July; paperback original). Second in the series about the people who live at the fictional 44 Scotland St.

*Veronica by Mary Gaitskill (Anchor, $13.95, July). This novel, set in 1980s Paris and Manhattan, is about the unlikely friendship between two women; National Book Award finalist.

Non-fiction

*The Secret Man by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $14, June). Reveals the identity of Watergate's Deep Throat, FBI's W. Mark Felt, who helped topple President Nixon.

* The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal by Vicki Constantine Croke (Random House, $14.95, June). Based on diaries, letters and interviews, this book tells the story of Ruth Harkness, who traveled to China in 1936 to capture a panda.

*1776 by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, $18, July). A history of the American Revolution.

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