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Featured
Titles 2003
Page Modified:
August 19, 2008
New titles - selected on the basis of good reviews.
Nonfiction, fiction and mystery titles are included on the lists
March 2003
- The Gate
Author: Bizot, Francois
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 037541293x
Kirkus
Booklist
A literary and historical tour de force: one man's astonishing experience
in a land of pristine beauty on the eve of one of the 20th century's most
barbaric spectacles. Bizot was a scholar of Khmer pottery in rural Cambodia
in 1971--the days leading inexorably to genocide. The Gate recounts
the nightmare of his arrest and captivity on suspicion of being an American
spy.
Updated 2.28.03
- Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories from a Decade Gone Mad

Author: Holman, Virginia
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 23 ISBN: 0743222857
Kirkus
PW
LJ
In a dexterous portrait of madness and shadows, Pushcart Prize winner Holman
recounts the dark days her family was held hostage by her mother's delusions
and her country was beset with the folly of the Watergate era.
Updated 1.3.03
- Chasing Hepburn

Author: Lee, Gus
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0609608762
Booklist
In the spirit of his lauded novel China Boy, Lee's richly textured
memoir is the story of the uniting of two culturally displaced clans as the
Cultural Revolution sweeps China. Provocative, wise, and bittersweet, this
is an unforgettable story of the clash between cultural ties and an ancient
way of life.
Updated 12.16.02
- What I Loved

Author: Hustvedt, Siri
Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805071709
PW
LJ
Booklist
From the author of The Enchantment of Lily Dahl comes a powerful
and heartbreaking novel that chronicles the epic story of two families, two
sons, and two marriages."
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.20.03
- In Full Bloom

Author: Hwang, Caroline
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0525947116
An original voice from the wicked world of glossy magazines makes her fiction
debut in a novel that packs the fun of a chic woman's quest for love and fulfillment
into a poignant immigrant's tale.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery
Debuts
Updated 2.28.03
- The Clarninet Polka

Author: Maillard, Keith
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312308892
Kirkus
Booklist
LJ
PW
This hard-edged, sweet-souled story of a heart's homecoming is deeply and
authentically rooted in Polish-American culture. A remarkable novel from an
important writer.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Music
& Fiction Stars
Updated 1.3.03
- A Few Short Notes on
Tropical Butterflies: Stories

Author: Murray, John
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509287
PW
Booklist
The eight stories in this remarkable collection take their inspiration from
the world of medicine and science. Intricately plotted and structured, with
a novelistic scope and depth, these long stories share themes of love, loss,
and redemption, and the sense that it is always possible to transform a life.
Updated 2.28.03
- Drinking
Coffee Elsewhere
Author: Packer, Z.Z.
Publisher: Riverhead $ 23.95 ISBN: 1573222348
Kirkus
PW
LJ
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is the highly anticipated debut of a remarkable
writer of short stories and winner of the Whiting Writers' Award and a Rona
Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | First
Fiction & Mystery Debuts
Updated 1.16.03
- The Songs of the Kings

Author: Unsworth, Barry
Publisher: Talese $ 26 ISBN: 0385501145
Kirkus
PW
As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration
and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young woman--blood
that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. High-sounding
principles clash with private motives, and dark comedy ensues.
Suggested Reading: Ancient Greece - Fiction
Updated 2.20.02
- If Wishes Were
Horses

Author: Whiteford, Merry
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 031230188x
A moving, coming-of-age novel that explores the depth of friendship, the hope
for redemption, and the heartbreaking choices one must make in a difficult,
brutal world.
Updated 2.28.03
- The Da Vinci Code

Author: Brown, Dan
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385504209
Library Journal
In an exhilarating blend of scholarly intelligence, relentless adventure,
and cutting wit, Robert Langdon (first introduced in Angels Demons)
and his new adventure combines the punch of Robert Ludlum, the intriguing
historical touch of Umberto Eco, and the nonstop suspense of Michael Crichton.
www.davincicode.com
Updated 1.29.03
- With a Vengeance

Author: Dreyer, Eileen
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312265778
Kirkus
PW
Dreyer evokes the edgy, sketchy world of crisis and trauma medical operations
in this smart, provocative, page-turning thriller. She combines cutting edge
suspense with characters as sharp as knives.
Updated 12.02.02
- Tropic of Night

Author: Gruber, Michael
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060509546
Kirkus
PW
One of the most frightening and imaginative novels of suspense to arrive in
decades, Tropic of Night pits an anthropologist against a powerful
shaman who becomes Miami's most feared serial killer.
Updated 1.29.03
- The Spinning Man
Author: Harrar, George
Publisher: Blue Hen $ 24.95 ISBN:039914983x
PW
Evan Birch is charming and affable, handsome, and gentle. So when the police
bring him in for questioning in the disappearance of a high school cheerleader,
everyone is sure of Evan's innocence. But then the evidence builds, and Evan
begins to strain the will to believe in him in this brilliantly told and suspenseful
novel.
Updated 3.3.03
- Keeping Watch

Author: King, Laurie R.
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell $ 23.95 ISBN: 0553801910
Kirkus
LJ
Booklist
PW
After years of rescuing children and on the brink of retirement, Alan Carmichael
decides to rescue one last teenager from an abusive parent. But, once the
boy is safely hidden, Carmichael begins to doubt his decision to intervene:
Has he turned a killer free to kill again?
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.4.03
- The Samurai's Daughter

Author: Massey, Sujata
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066212901
The sixth book in the Agatha and Macavity Award-winning mystery series is
a witty and suspenseful story that takes its young sleuth into the world of
war reparations and family secrets.
Updated 2.28.03
- Shelter From
the Storm

Author: Mewshaw, Michael
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399149880
Storytelling at its best, Shelter from the Storm is a breathtaking
tale of international intrigue, betrayal, and uncommon courage.
Updated 2.28.03
- Wiley's Lament

Author: Waiwaiole, Lono
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312303831
From another impressive newcomer to American crime fiction, Wiley's Lament
is the story of a man who's drifting through the remains of his torn up life
like a ghost, playing poker to make ends meet--until his daughter turns up
dead and he must deal the final hand.
Suggested Reading: First Fiction & Mystery
Debuts
Updated 2.28.03
- Land of the Blind

Author: Walter, Jess
Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060394390
The author of Over Tumbled Graves brings back Spokane police detective
Caroline Mabry in this story of a desperate, failed politician, a 400-page
handwritten confession, and a murder that took a lifetime to commit.
Updated 2.28.03
- Lamplighter

Author: O'Neill, Anthony
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743243498
Elegantly written and ingeniously executed, The Lamplighter inhabits
the pre-Freudian era and explores the dangers of the suppressed imagination.
Set in 19th-century Edinburgh, it features a professor of philosophy and his
assistant as they unravel a series of gruesome murders and their connection
to a troubled young woman.
Updated 2.28.03
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