Complete book coverage for Sunday, May 17, 2009

Paul Di Filippo’s short novel “Cosmocopia” is just part of a package featuring a jigsaw puzzle and other articles reminiscent of the vivid, multi-colored heyday of pulp adventure stories.

Charlie Chaplin is a central player in this big, engaging novel, which takes on early Hollywood and Los Angeles, movie storytelling and the arrival of modernity.

The author’s 43rd novel brings back bank robber Jack Foley, who was portrayed by George Clooney in ‘Out of Sight.’ Cowboy movies and Hemingway made Leonard a writer. Screenplays made him rich.

A comic effort to live up to an impossible modern ideal.

A portal hidden in an airport restroom takes travelers on a journey back to 1950s Dublin and Trinity College in this clever, humorous meditation on language and youth.

A book-length poetry sequence looks at the little-known historical episode of a young mulatto violinist’s encounters with Beethoven.

How does an image become appropriated by both the establishment and the anti-establishment?

Fiction Weeks on list1.Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $19.99) Bella must choose between her lover and a friend, between life and death.43 2.Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith (Pantheon: $23.95) In the latest installment of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Precious Ramotswe is in need of her own detection talents.2 3.The 8th Confession by James Patterson (Little, Brown : $27.99) The murders of a priest and high society couple test the limits of the Women’s Murder Club.2 4.Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown: $22.99) The final book in the “Twilight” saga finds Bella choosing immortality.405.Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney (Amulet: $12.95) Greg’s dad enlists him in sports to toughen him up.166.First Family by David Baldacci (Grand Central: $27.99) A child is kidnapped from a birthday party held at Camp David.37.The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial Press: $22) A writer corresponds with islanders after German occupation.408.The Women by T.C.

Fiction 1. City of Thieves by David Benioff ($15) 2. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri ($15) 3.

At least 25 years later, the fantasy game still provides an escape.

Author and literary events for the week of May 17, 2009.

Three books on the odd facts and the essential passions that great literature can add to one’s life.