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Summer Reading 2005
Selected titles for summer reading pleasure. Also, check
out the previous lists - many of the titles
on those
lists are now available in paperback.
Selected titles for summer reading pleasure. Also, check out the previous lists - many of the titles on those lists are now available in paperback.
All Stars
List - Fiction & Nonfiction Everyone is talking about these books. . .
Try
something new - First Novels & Short Story Debuts
Genre
Fiction Lists:Romance/Romantic
Suspense | Speculative |
Inspirational | Crime Fiction | General/Historical/Literary
Don't
Miss Out (great reads from 2004)
Book a Trip
- Travel Tales List
All Star Fiction(all genres) - titles with 3 or more stars from the following review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly
- Zorro
Author: Allende, Isabel
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060778970 Date: 2005
PWBooklistLJ
In this swashbuckling adventure, the author of My Invented Country reveals for the first time how Diego de la Vega became the masked man of legendary fame.
Updated 3.10.05 - Adored
Author: Bagshawe, Tilly
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446576883 Date: 2005 (July)KirkusPWLJ
In the grand tradition of Sidney Sheldon and other masters of epic women's fiction comes a larger-than-life tale of a Hollywood dynasty, written by Tilly Bagshawe, a 31-year-old Cambridge graduate who has brilliantly revived the genre.
Updated 4.19.05 - 72 Hour Hold
Author: Campbell, Bebe Moore
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400040744 Date: 2005 (July)KirkusLJPW
In this novel of family and redemption, Campbell draws on the powerful emotions of her own experience and African-American roots in this story of a mother who struggles to save her 18-year-old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness by forcing her to deal with her bipolar disorder.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 5.23.05 - Acts of Faith
Author: Caputo, Philip
Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375411666 Date: 2005KirkusLJPW
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of the highly praised novels The Voyage and Horn of Africa--a stunning, timely new novel about the physical perils and moral crises faced by a group of men and women who try to relieve the suffering caused by war and famine in contemporary Sudan.
Updated 2.28.05 - The Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hanibal's War
Author: Durham, David Anthony
Publisher: Doubleday $ 26.95 ISBN: 0385506031 Date: 2005PWLJBooklist
Featuring a vast cast of characters and nationalities, twists of fate, and tales of inspired leadership, this epic work of literary fiction chronicles the superb military leader of Carthage, Hannibal Barca, and his struggle against the mighty Roman Republic.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 1.18.05 - The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Author: Eco, Umberto
Publisher: Harcourt $ 28 ISBN: 0151011400 Date: 2005KirkusBooklistLJ
To recall his memories, Yambo withdraws to the family home where he searches old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and diaries to relive the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, and Fred Astaire.
Updated 4.7.05 - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Author: Foer, Jonathan Safran
Publisher: Houghton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0618329706 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
Oskar Schell is an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Suggested Reading: 9/11 Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - Dating Is Murder
Author: Kozak, Harley Jane
Publisher: Doubleday $ 19.95 ISBN: 0385510349 Date: 2005LJKirkusPW
With Dating Is Murder, Kozak delivers another sparkling treasure, a laugh-out-loud funny, literate mystery for readers of Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton, and for Kozak's own growing legion of fans.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich
Updated 2.7.05 - The History of Love
Author: Krauss, Nicole
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393060349 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
Leo Gursky is barely surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: 60 years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love.
Updated 3.28.05 - Sightseeing: Stories
Author: Lapcharoensap, Rattawut
Publisher: Grove $ 22 ISBN: 0802117880 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
Set in contemporary Thailand and written with a grace and sophistication that belie the age of its young author, this masterful new collection contains generous, tender tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts, and cultural shifts beneath the glossy surface of a warm setting.
Updated 12.27.04 - In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422714 Date: 2005BooklistPWKirkus
This time around, the charming and ever-resourceful Precious Ramotswe finds herself overly beset by problems. She is busier than usual at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, when a strange intruder in her house forces her to confront a painful secret from her past.
Updated 3.10.05 - Saturday
Author: McEwan, Ian
Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 0385511809 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklistLJ
From the pen of a master--the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize-winning author of Atonement--comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Updated 3.21.05 - Appaloosa
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399152776 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshal and a deputy for dead. In Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary who raises the stakes by playing with emotions.
Suggested Reading: Western Stars
Updated 3.28.05 - Changed Man
Author: Prose, Francine
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060196742 Date: 2005BooklistPWKirkus
Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in America's drug-addicted and media-driven culture.
Updated 1.5.05 - The Suspect
Author: Robotham, Michael
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385508611 Date: 2005LJKirkusBooklist
Psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin's comfortable life begins to crumble when he is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and becomes a suspect in a brutal murder case.
Updated 11.29.04 - Watch Your Back!
Author: Westlake, Donald
Publisher: Warner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0892968028 Date: 2005KirkusBooklistPW
After a year on the lam, the return of bumbling thief Dortmunder is a cause celebre. The author's most recent Dortmunder caper. The Road to Ruin, and the short story collection, Thieves' Dozen, received rave reviews in the "New York Times Book Review, New York Daily News," and "Kirkus Reviews" (starred review), among other publications.
Updated 3.14.05
More Fiction All Stars
All Star Nonfiction- titles with 3 or more stars from the following review sources: Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly
- Epileptic
Author: B., David
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423184 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
With stunning black-and-white illustrations, a noted cartoonist chronicles growing up with an epileptic older brother. The author charts his complicated relationship with his brother from childhood to adulthood, and the effects of the illness on the entire family.
Updated 12.27.04 - American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Author: Bird, Kai
Publisher: Knopf $ 35 ISBN: 0375412026 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America in mid-century and a compelling portrait of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, a man shaped by, or helped to shape, its major events--the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.
Updated 3.10.05 - Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America
Author: Bordewich, Fergus
Publisher: Amistad $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060524308 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired political movement for change: the Underground Railroad, a movement peopled by daring heroes and heroines, and everyday folk.
Updated 2.7.05 - Them: A Memoir of Parents
Author: Gray, Francine Du Plessix
Publisher: Penguin $ 29.95 ISBN: 1594200491 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
The much-acclaimed biographer gives an unflinchingly honest, wise, and forgiving portrait of her own famous parents, two wildly talented Russian migrs who fled wartime Paris to become one of New York's first and grandest "power couples."
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism
Author: Marshall, Megan
Publisher: Houghton $ 28 ISBN: 0395389925 Date: 2005PWBooklistLJ
Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia Peabody were in many ways the "American Brontes." The story of these remarkable sisters--and their central role in shaping the thinking of their day--is told in Marshall's monumental biography.
Updated 4.7.05 - 1776
Author: McCullough, David
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 32 ISBN: 0743226712 Date: 2005BooklistPWKirkusLJ
Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Truman and John Adams, McCullough returns with the story of the Revolutionary War--a book certain to be another landmark in the literature of American history.
Suggested Reading: 1776 Stars
Updated 4.5.05 - The Glass Castle: A Memoir
Author: Walls, Jeannette
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743247531 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
In the tradition of Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shouting, Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family.
Suggested Reading: Memoir Stars
Updated 2.15.05
More Nonfiction Stars
- The Wonder Spot
Author: Bank, Melissa
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034118 Date: 2005PW
Through the eyes of a compelling outsider, this title captures the life cycle of a family and watches their lives--and the outsider's--unfold over the ensuing two decades.
Updated 3.14.05 - March
Author: Brooks, Geraldine
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033359 Date: 2005PW
From the author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders comes a powerful love story set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, and adds adult resonance to portray the moral complexity of war and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Civil War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - Specimen Days
Author: Cunningham, Michael
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374299625 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
The same group of characters, a young boy, an older man, and a young woman, are present in each historical period of this genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in New York. The novel provides a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny.
Updated 5.18.05 - Pearl
Author: Gordon, Mary
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24.95 ISBN: 037542315x Date: 2005LJBooklist
From the acclaimed author of Final Payments comes a gripping novel of filial devotion and complication between a mother and daughter who, together and separately, must face the ultimate questions of life and death.
Updated 10.19.04 - Baker Tower
Author: Haigh, Jennifer
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509414 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
The author of Mrs. Kimble returns with an emotionally rich and evocative exploration of community, love, and family set in a western Pennsylvania coal town in the years following World War II.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 11.2.04 - A Long Way Down
Author: Hornby, Nick
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573223026 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own morality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances.
Updated 3.25.05 - The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
Author: Jensen, Liz
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 23.95 ISBN: 1582345171 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Meet Louis Drax, the Amazing Accident-Prone Boy, in this story of a family falling apart, and told in the vivid voices of its comatose son and of medical specialist, Dr. Pascal Dannachet.
Updated 11.9.04 - The Mermaid Chair
Author: Kidd, Sue Monk
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033944 Date: 2005PW
Kidd's stunning debut, The Secret Life of Bees, spent 77 weeks on "The New York Times" bestseller list. Now, in her much-anticipated new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans and cement her reputation as one of the most remarkable writers at work today.
Updated 2.21.05 - As Hot As It Was You Ought To Thank Me
Author: Kincaid, Nanci
Publisher: Back Bay $ 12.95 ISBN: 0316009148 Date: 2005Booklist
From a place where you don't have to run away to find yourself, this novel's young heroine, Berry, joins the ranks of other memorable and spirited girl narrators such as Bone in Bastard Out of Carolina, Kaye Gibbon's Ellen Foster, Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees, Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.2.04 - Lost in the Forest
Author: Miller, Sue
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400042267 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
From one of America's best-loved novelists comes an unforgettable tale of a family breaking apart and coming together again, set in the vineyards of Northern California. A hymn to marriage, and to adolescent yearning, this is Sue Miller at her inimitable best.
Updated 1.29.05 - The Good Wife
Author: O'Nan, Stewart
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374281394 Date: 2005PWLJ
At once a love story and a portrait of a woman discovering her own strength, The Good Wife follows a woman through the 28 years of her husband's incarceration, as she raises her son, navigates a system that has no place for her, and braves the scorn of her community.
Updated 3.10.05 - My Jim
Author: Rawles, Nancy
Publisher: Crown $ 19.95 ISBN: 1400054001 Date: 2005Kirkus
A spare and beautiful meditation on love and loss, this novel follows the life of Sadie, the abandoned wife of the escaped slave Jim from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.9.04 - A Thread of Grace
Author: Russell, Mary Doria
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 0375501843 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Set in Italy during the dramatic finale of World War II, this new novel is the first in seven years by the bestselling author of The Sparrow and Children of God.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | World War Stars
Updated 11.29.04
- The Geographer's Library
Author: Fasman, Jon
Publisher: Penguin $ 24.95 ISBN: 1594200386 Date: 2005Kirkus
This brilliant debut novel takes a young reporter from his small town paper to the heart of an international smuggling ring, centuries old, that amasses the alchemical artifacts that lead to eternal life.
Updated 12.16.04 - Stealing with Style
Author: Jenkins, Emyl
Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565124456 Date: 2005Booklist
Antiques appraiser Jenkins turns her talents to fiction in the first of a series of mysteries that follow the heroine behind the scenes of the sometimes murky world of antiques, sophisticated scammers, and shifty associates.
Updated 5.9.05 - The Devil's Right-Hand
Author: Rhoades, J.D.
Publisher: Minotaur $ 21.95 ISBN: 0312334192 Date: 2005Booklist
Rhoades combines the vivid atmosphere of Elmore Leonard with the furious pace of Stephen Hunter in his riveting, action-packed debut Southern crime novel.
Updated 11.29.04 - In the Shadow of the Law
Author: Roosevelt, Kermit
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374261873 Date: 2005PW
In this complex, ambitious, and gripping first novel, Roosevelt vividly illustrates the subtle and stark effects of the law on the lives not only of a group of lawyers, but also on communities and private citizens.
Suggested Reading: Legal Stars
Updated 4.25.05
Fiction:
Mystery, Suspense, Crime Fiction:
- Snobs
Author: Fellowes, Julian
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312336926 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
From the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Gosford Park comes a brilliant and revealing comedy of manners.
Updated 1.23.05 - Drive Like Hell
Author: Hudgens, Dallas
Publisher: Scribner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743251638 Date: 2005Kirkus
Set in the 1979 outside Atlanta, this "thoroughly enjoyable" ("Publishers Weekly") debut tells the story of 16-year-old Luke Fulmer, who grows up in a difficult family with a stockcar-racing, absentee father, an alcoholic mother, and a delinquent brother.
Updated 11.25.04
Suggested Reading: Driven - The Historian
Author: Kostova, Elizabeth
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316011770 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
In this riveting debut novel, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could--the quest to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula.
Suggested Reading: If You Like the Davinci Code
Updated 4.25.05 - Pretty Birds
Author: Simon, Scott
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400063108 Date: 2005KirkusPW
This mortal chess game of guile and manipulation plays out against the backdrop of beautiful, war-torn Sarajevo as two high school friends--one Muslim, one Christian--struggle to survive the Serbs' ethnic cleansing.
Updated 4.19.05 - The Illuminator
Author: Vantrease, Brenda
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312331916 Date: 2005PWLJ
Fourteenth-century England was a time of plague, political unrest, and the earliest stirrings of the Reformation. Richly detailed and irresistibly compelling, this first novel is a glorious work of love, art, religion, and treachery at this extraordinary turning point in history.
Updated 3.10.05
More Fiction Debuts
- Rosie Dunne
Author: Ahern, Cecelia
Publisher: Hyperion $ 22.95 ISBN: 140130091x Date: 2005LJ
The gifted author of the widely acclaimed, bestselling PS, I Love You has written a delightfully enchanting new novel about what happens when two people who are meant to be together just can't seem to get it right.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.23.05 - Hot Target
Author: Brockmann, Suzanne
Publisher: Ballantine $ 19.95 ISBN: 0345467930 Date: 2005LJ
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Gone Too Far and Flashpoint comes an exciting new high stakes thriller of unrelenting action and intense emotion, featuring a Mission Impossible-style black ops team called "Troubleshooters."
Updated 1.23.05 - Flirting With Danger
Author: Enoch, Suzanne
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060593636 Date: 2005PW
While robbing the Palm Beach mansion of millionaire playboy Richard Addison, beautiful thief extraordinaire Samantha Jellicoe is thrown into the arms of her victim by a mysterious explosion.
Updated 1.19.05 - Something Blue
Author: Giffin, Emily
Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312323859 Date: 2005Booklist
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Something Borrowed comes a novel that shows how someone with a "perfect life" can lose it all--and then find everything.
Updated 5.20.05 - Josie Day Is Coming Home
Author: Plumley, Lisa
Publisher: Zebra $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0821776967 Date: 2005Booklist
Vegas showgirl Josie Day saves the life of a wealthy casino owner, who rewards her with a "spare" estate in Arizona--ironically located in Josie's hometown. Josie plans to sell it and open a dance school. But she must first handle the caretaker, local bad boy Luke Donovan.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.10.05 - Stolen Magic
Author: Putney, Mary Jo
Publisher: Del Rey $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345476891 Date: 2005Booklist
Entwining fantasy with historical romance, Stolen Magic introduces Simon Malmain, Earl of Falconer, who continues the story line begun in A Kiss of Fate.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.9.05 - Summer's Child
Author: Rice, Luanne
Publisher: Bantam $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0553587625 Date: 2005PW
From the celebrated "New York Times" bestselling author of Beach Girls comes this powerful novel of a mystery, a love affair, and a bond that cannot be broken set in a seaside town where miracles are made
Updated 5.23.05 - Black Rose
Author: Roberts, Nora
Publisher: Jove $ 7.99 ISBN: 0515138657 Date: 2005PW
The #1 "New York Times" bestselling author presents the second novel of her In the Garden trilogy, as three women discover secrets from the past contained within their historic home.
Updated 5.16.05 - Black Ice
Author: Stuart, Anne
Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 ISBN: 0778321711 Date: 2005PW
American Chloe Underwood is translating for entrepreneurs at their conference outside Paris. But the meeting is in fact a cover-up for a group of terrorists. When she's threatened, Chloe is taken to Paris by undercover operative Bastien Toussaint. During a freak snowstorm, the chase is on.
Updated 3.28.05 - Table for Five
Author: Wiggs, Susan
Publisher: Mira $ 19.95 ISBN: 0778321673 Date: 2005Booklist
Before an estranged couple is killed in an unthinkable tragedy, they designate two guardians for their children--a man and a woman who are essentially strangers and who have nothing in common except their compassion for the couple's three orphaned children.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.9.05
- The Overnight
Author: Campbell, Ramsey
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312999 Date: 2005PW
After a series of strange mishaps and lots of misfortune, a desperate bookstore manager musters his staff for an overnight inventory. But when the last customers leave and the staff is sealed in, they find out this bookstore is no haven--it is the doorway to a hell unlike any other.
Updated 3.14.05 - Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Author: Doctorow, Cory
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312786 Date: 2005PW
One of the leading voices of next-generation SF and author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom returns with a miraculous novel of secrets, lies, magic, and Internet connectivity, set on the streets of modern-day Toronto.
Updated 3.10.05 - The Carpet Makers
Author: Eschback, Andreas
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765305933 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
With an Introduction by Orson Scott Card, this imaginative work is by Andreas Eschbach, "incontestably the shooting star of the German SF scene" ("Heyne Science Fiction Yearbook").
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.21.05 - The Traveler: Book 1: The Fourth Realm Trilogy
Author: Hawks, John Twelve
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 038551428x Date: 2005PW
In this stunningly suspenseful first novel, reminiscent of George Orwell and Philip Pullman, John Twelve Hawks has created a vividly imagined world that runs parallel to our own. Moving at lightning speed from the back alleys of Prague to the underworld of Los Angeles to a guarded research facility in New York, The Traveler goes beneath the surface to give us new insights on history and our own lives.
Updated 5.9.05 - Child of a Rainless Year
Author: Lindskold, Jane
Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0765309378 Date: 2005Booklist
Shot through with magic and the atmosphere of the Southwest, this stand-alone contemporary fantasy has all the storytelling vigor of Lindskold's popular Firekeeper series.
Updated 5.9.05 - Gil's All Fright Diner
Author: Martinez, A. Lee
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311437 Date: 2005PW
Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes! Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer . . . - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
Updated 3.21.05
- The Celebrity
Author: Elmer, Robert
Publisher: Waterbrook $ 12.99 ISBN: 1578567416 Date: 2005Booklist
Caught between a charade and the Truth, singer Jamie D. Lane assumes a new identity, secretly slips away from his celebrity lifestyle, and heads to the Pacific Northwest incognito. But what he finds in small-town Washington could open up Jamie's future and change him forever.
Updated 5.26.05 - Wrapped in Rain: A Novel of Coming Home
Author: Martin, Charles
Publisher: Westbow $ 13.99 (paper) ISBN: 0785261826 Date: 2005LJ
This tough and tender novel is about weathering adversity and recognizing the many faces of love, regardless of who, how, where, or why. Love is a risk--but Martin shows that it is far more dangerous to live without it.
Updated 2.7.05 - A Window to the World
Author: Meissner, Susan
Publisher: Harvest House $ 11.99 ISBN: 0736914145 Date: 2005Booklist
Megan and Jen, who meet in first grade and become inseparable friends until one of them is snatched by kidnappers as the other watches helplessly. Sixteen years later, the stunning truth of the disappearance is revealed--and lives are changed forever.
Updated 5.26.05 - Forgiving Solomon Long
Author: Well, Chris
Publisher: Harvest House $ 11.99 ISBN: 0736914056 Date: 2005Booklist
Fat Cat Catalano doesn't need troublemakers rocking the boat. So he hires a "cleaner" to fly in to make sure the local "churchies" and storeowners get the message. Meanwhile, detective Tom Griggs is determined to bring Fat Cat down, even if it means neglecting--and losing--his own wife.
Updated 5.26.05
- Oblivion
Author: Abrahams, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060726571 Date: 2005Kirkus
Blending evocative imagery with psychological complexity, Oblivion is a dark, disturbing story of identity and memory from the acclaimed author of The Tutor and The Fan.
Updated 12.16.04 - Tears of the Dragon
Author: Baxter, Holly
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 1590581466 Date: 2005PW
Tears of the Dragon launches an intelligent new cozy series set in Chicago, where the Browne family holds things together in the midst of the Depression. When Elodie Browne takes a job serving at a party given by an importer of antiques and jade, the evening is disturbed--and the mystery begins--as a dying man stumbles in raving about "Ming Dao."
Updated 4.5.05 - Bloodlines
Author: Burke, Jan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24.95 ISBN: 074322390X Date: 2005PW
Intrepid reporter Irene Kelly covers the groundbreaking of a shopping center--and the discovery of a buried car containing human remains. Old cases are resurrected, and new dangers arise as she pursues a story that may end her career--and her life.
Suggested Reading: Cold Cases
Updated 12.27.04 - In the Company of Liars
Author: Ellis, David
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399152474 Date: 2005PWLJ
Told in chronological reverse, from its enigmatic end to its brilliant beginning, this original thriller is centered on a woman on trial for murder and caught between compelling forces, each represented by someone who may not care if the pressure kills her in the end.
Updated 3.21.05 - Year of the Hyenas: A Novel of Murder in Ancient Egypt
Author: Geagley, Brad
Publisher: S & S $ 23 ISBN: 074325080X Date: 2005LJ
In this evocative murder mystery set in ancient Egypt, an empire's sumptuous glory and intrigue blend seamlessly with timeless themes of greed, ambition, and crimes of passion.
Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars
Updated 1.23.05 - The Devil of Nanking
Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117945 Date: 2005PWKirkus
Spine-chilling characters take readers on an electrifying ride deep inside the secret history of one of the 20th century's most brutal events--the Nanking Massacre in 1937--as a young Englishwoman obsessively searches Tokyo for film footage of the massacre and its survivors.
Updated 2.8.05 - The Torment of Others
Author: McDermid, Val
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312339194 Date: 2005PWBooklist
After a vicious assault, Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan has returned to Bradfield to resume her career. When she is assigned a case involving the grotesque murder of a prostitute, she turns to Dr. Tony Hill for help.
Updated 5.9.05 - Two Trains Running
Author: Vachss, Andrew
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043816 Date: 2005Kirkus
In a thrilling departure, Vachss, the creator of the Burke novels, takes readers back to 1959 in this masterful crime novel that is also an epic story of postwar America.
Updated 3.10.05 - Bangkok Tattoo
Author: Burdett, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 1400040450 Date: 2005PW
From the author of Bangkok 8 comes a head-spinning new novel that puts readers back in the company of the inimitable Royal Thai Police detective, Sonchai Jitpleecheep.
Updated 4.25.05 - Sympathy Between Humans
Author: Compton, Jodi
Publisher: Delacorte $ 22 ISBN: 0385337140 Date: 2005LJ
In the powerful sequel to The 37th Hour, Compton's Detective Sarah Pribek is drawn into a new investigation even as she is haunted by the case that changed her forever.
Updated 2.16.05 - Valley of Bones
Author: Gruber, Michael
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060577665 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
Gruber explores the nature of faith and madness in this brilliantly conceived follow-up to Tropic of Night, his dazzling debut thriller novel.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 1.23.05 - The Death Collectors
Author: Kerley, Jack
Publisher: Dutton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0525948775 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
The Hundredth Man was universally praised as the debut novel in a series to watch. Now, author Jack Kerley returns with The Death Collectors, which will establish him as one of the most innovative thriller writers today.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.25.05
Also: Not a Girl Detective (Cece Caruso) by Susan Kandel and Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.
Series-ous Reading: catch up with the latest books in these excellent new series:
Paperback Best Bets:
- More Bitter Than Death
Author: Cameron, Dana
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060554630 Date: 2005
Gathering with some of her peers for a conference at an isolated, historic New England hotel to honor one of their own, archaeologist Emma Fielding finds herself suspected of murder when the honoree is found dead.
Updated 5.25.05 - Matters of the Blood
Author: Lima, Maria Y.
Publisher: Quiet Storm $ 14.95 ISBN: Date: 2005
MATTERS OF THE BLOOD is the story of Keira Kelly, half-breed descendant of a powerful paranormal family, who has chosen to live apart from her clan and among humans in the Texas Hill Country. Keira experiences a prophetic vision that foretells the vicious murder of her human cousin, Marty Nelson. Vowing to determine the truth, Keira begins to uncover long-concealed secrets and risks alienating everyone she knows. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 5.25.05 - Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Author: McBride, Susan
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060563907 Date: 2005
Unwillingly dragged back into her upper-crust mama's social whirl, Andy Kendricks sets out to find a killer when a body turns up in the rubble of the torched studio of an intolerable TV show hostess.
Updated 1.29.05 - Keys to Death
Author: Toll, Emily
Publisher: Berkely $ 6.99 ISBN: 0425202941Date: 2005
While visiting a friend's newly opened resort in the Florida Keys, travel agent/sleuth Lynne Montgomery runs afoul of a killer who may make her vacation a permanent one.
Updated 4.22.05 - Just Murdered: A Dead-End Job Mystery
Author: Viets, Elaine
Publisher: Signet $ 6.99 ISBN: 0451214927 Date: 2005
Helen Hawthorne's new job at a bridal salon becomes downright dangerous when a rich, obnoxious mother-of-the bride is murdered. Now, Helen must find the killer before this job turns into another dead-end for her--literally.
Updated 4.25.05
- The Lake, the River and the Other Lake
Author: Amick, Steve
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423508 Date: 2005LJ
As the lives and loves of the people of Weneshkeen--a once-quiet village on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan--unfurl, readers are treated to a big-hearted tale that is by turns uproariously funny and dark, and always poignantly real.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Three Day Road
Author: Boyden, Joseph
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670034312 Date: 2005PWLJ
In part inspired by the legend of Frances Pegamahgabow, the great Indian sniper of World War I, Three Day Road is an impeccably researched and beautifully written story that offers a searing reminder about the cost of war.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 5.18.05 - A Slight Trick of the Mind
Author: Cullin, Mitch
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385513283 Date: 2005PW
Cullin goes behind Sherlock Holmes's cool, unflappable surface to reveal for the first time the inner world of an obsessively private man. Cullin weaves together Holmes's hidden past and private struggles to transform him into an ordinary man, confronting and acquiescing to emotions he's resisted his entire life.
Suggested Reading: Sherlockian Stars
Updated 2.14.05 - The Summer We Got Saved
Author: Devoto, Pat Cunningham
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446576964 Date: 2005Booklist
Tab is a budding Archie Bunker until her Aunt whisks her off to a place in the mountains of Tennessee where integration flourishes. Maudie, Tab's childhood friend, couldn't care less about the struggles of her black brother and sisters until she is sent to the backwoods of Alabamato start a voting school for members of the Word of Truth Church. This is a summer with swirling winds of change and no one will be untouched. - Adapted from Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932
Author: Fergus, Jim
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300545 Date: 2005PWBooklist
From the award-winning author of One Thousand White Women comes a novel in the tradition of Little Big Man, tracing one man's search for adventures and the wild Apache girl who invites him into her world.
Suggested Reading: Western Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - Never Let Me Go
Author: Ishiguro, Kazuo
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043395 Date: 2005KirkusPW
From the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans, a moving new novel that subtly reimagines our world and time in a haunting story of friendship and love. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.1.05 - My Name is Legion
Author: Wilson, A.N.
Publisher: FSG $ 26 ISBN: 0374217424 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
From the renowned historian and novelist comes a stunningly bold new work of fiction set in the darkly glamorous media world. Wilson's London is a bleak, if occasionally hilarious, place--murderous, lustful, money-obsessed, and haunted by strange gods.
Suggested Reading: Black Humor Stars
Updated 5.9.05 - Canaan's Tongue
Author: Wray, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400040868 Date: 2005KirkusPW
In a crumbling estate on the banks of the Mississippi, eight survivors of the nortorious Island 37 Gang wait for the war, or the Pinkerton Detective Agency, to claim them. Their leader, a bizarre charismatic known only as "The Redeemer," has disappeared without a trace, and they are wanted by both the Union and the Confederacy.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Civil War Stars
Updated 5.23.05 - Lucky Strike
Author: Zafris, Nancy
Publisher: Unbridled $ 23.95 ISBN: 1932961046 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
America has always been the place for seekers to reinvent themselves. The canyon country of Utah in the 1950s is just such a territory, where thousands of self-styled prospectors, encouraged by government pamphlets and naove promises, have caught uranium fever and descended upon the desert landscape, hoping to make their fortunes. Among them, a young widow and her two children embark on just such an adventure--for more complicated and heartrending personal reasons. Along the way they join a throng of colorful, unforgettable characters and form the most unexpected bonds. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 3.21.05
Don't Miss Out - Great Reads from 2004
- Coroner's Lunch
Author: Cotterill, Colin
Publisher: Soho $ 23 ISBN: 1569473765 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
When an elderly doctor takes over as state coroner of newly formed Communist Laos in the late 1970s, he unexpectedly stirs the bureaucratic pot and unravels three complicated and intertwined murder plots his superiors want to sweep under the carpet.
Updated 10.4.04 - Country of
Origin
Author: Lee, Don
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0393058123 Date: 2004PWBooklist
The mystery of an American woman's disappearance in Tokyo is intertwined with the mystery of her origins. Her best chance at being found may lie in the improbable hands of a neurotic Japanese cop ridiculed by his peers.
Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars | Debuts
Updated 5.7.04 - Fire Baby
Author: Kelly, Jim
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312321457 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Reporter Philip Dryson hopes to blow open a murder story with the help of a dying woman and his own comatose wife. This is the follow-up to Kelly's debut, The Water Clock, which was shortlisted for Britain's John Creasey Award.
Updated 10.25.04 - Heart of the Hunter
Author: Meyer, Deon
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316935492 Date: 2004LJKirkusBooklist
In his stunning American debut, the South African thriller writer delivers the story of a kidnapping and of a man refusing to reclaim the ruthless methods he mastered in the darkest days of South Africa's battle for survival.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 7.6.04 - Amagansett
Author: Mills, Mark
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399151842 Date: 2004LJBooklist
Amagansett is a novel as sweeping and haunting as the landscape of sky and sea it evokes. Beautifully and powerfully told, it announces the arrival of a gifted writer who skillfully weaves together a delicate love story, a brutal murder, an unforgettable evocation of a place and time, and characters shaped by the epic forces of nature, class, war, and memory. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 8.12.04 - California Girl
Author: Parker, T. Jefferson
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060562366 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
A different world then, a different world now . . . California in the 1960s. For the Becker brothers, the past is always present and it comes crashing back when the body of the lovely and mysterious Janelle Vonn is discovered in an abandoned orange packing house.
Updated 10.19.04 - False Profits
Author: Smiley, Patricia
Publisher: Mysterious $ 23.95 ISBN: 0892967900 Date: 2004Booklist
Featuring a fresh new voice and cast of characters, False Profits will appeal to fans of the novels by Janet Evanovich.
Suggested Reading: If You Like Janet Evanovich | Debuts
Updated 9.7.04 - Wolves Eat Dogs
Author: Smith, Martin Cruz
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 25.95 ISBN: 0684872544 Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
With Arkady Renko, Smith created one of the iconic sleuths of contemporary fiction. Renko returns to investigate international plots that drive one of Russia's billionaire businessmen to jump to his death.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.19.04
Crime Fiction:
- Human Capital
Author: Amidon, Stephen
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374173508 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
As the fortunes of two crumbling families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident leads one of the patriarchs to begin speculating with human lives instead of money. The unforeseen consequences bring the novel to a devastating climax.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.7.04 - The Darling
Author: Banks, Russell
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060197358 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
Raising serious philosophical questions about terrorism, political violence, and the clash of races and cultures, this political/historical thriller is Russell Banks at his best.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - Jonathan Strange
& Mr Norrell
Author: Clarke, Susanna
Publisher: Bloombury $ 29.95 ISBN: 1582344167 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPWLJ
Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that it leaves readers longing for more.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Magic & Magicians
Updated 7.12.04 - Gilead
Author: Robinson, Marilynne
Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374153892 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. This is also the tale of wisdom forged during his solitary life and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - The Plot Against America
Author: Roth, Philip
Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618509283 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklistLJ
In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize-winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family--and for a million such families all over the country--during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Alternative History
Updated 9.22.04 - Outside Valentine
Author: Ward, Liza
Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 0805075984 Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
Debut novelist Ward interweaves a trio of voices--haunting, dangerous, and full of longing--mysteriously linked by a shocking crime and the search to heal the past.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars
Updated 9.20.04
Fiction:
- A Year in the Merde
Author: Clarke, Stephen
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1582345910 Date: 2005LJ
A #1 bestseller in the United Kingdom and an urban antidote to A Year in Provence, this laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of an expat in Paris is the almost-true story of the author's own experiences.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 4.7.05 - Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger
Author: Mittelback, Margaret & Michael Crewdson
Publisher: Villard $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400060028 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
Comic travel writing in the tradition of Bill Bryson, the first mainstream book about Tasmania is perfect for armchair explorers and nature lovers. Along with descriptions of bizarre species and Tasmania's surprising history, the book is laced with Rockman's evocative artwork--originally crafted from organic materials picked up on this postmodern safari.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales | Nature Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel
Author: Taylor, Jeffrey
Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 061833467x Date: 2005Booklist
Hailed by Bill Bryson and the New York Times Book Review as a rising star among travel writers, Jeffrey Tayler penetrates one of the most isolated, forbidding regions on earth--the Sahel. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 1.18.05