Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Ranganathan's Five Laws:
Books are for use.
Books are for all; or Every reader his book.
Every book its reader.
Save the time of the reader.
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Out and About. . .
I'm playing around at Shelfari, LibraryThing, and Good Reads. I've set up links to my pages on these sites. And, yes, I have a hard time keeping up-to-date on these sites...
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Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994.
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Featured Titles 2004
Page Modified: August 19, 2008
New titles - selected on the basis of good reviews.
Nonfiction, fiction and mystery titles are included on these lists. Books
for kids and teens (fiction and nonfiction) are also listed.
June 2004
Nonfiction
- The Secret Life of Lobsters
Author: Corson, Trevor
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060555580
LJ
In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, Corson escorts the reader onto slippery fishing boats and on treacherous scuba dives to learn about lobsters--who prove to be a masters of the boudoir, lethal boxers, snoopy socialites and underwater bloodhounds.
Updated 4.20.04 - Rip in Heaven: A Memoir of Murder and Its Aftermath
Author: Cummins, Jeanine
Publisher: New American Library $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0451210530PW
This intimate memoir tells of one family's immediate and widely publicized story of surviving a shocking crime and suffering in the aftermath.
Updated 4.19.04 - Acquainted With the Night: An Intimate Journey Through the World After Dark
Author: Dewdney, Christopher
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582343969KirkusPW
Dewdney takes readers on a fascinating, hour-by-hour journey through the nocturnal realm, covering bedtime stories, festivals of the night, fireworks, nightclubs, astronomy, sleep and dreams, the graveyard shift, ladies of the night, the art of night, and more.
Updated 4.26.04 - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Author: Sedaris, David
Publisher: Little Brown $ 24.95 ISBN: 0316143464 Date: 2004PW
Sedaris returns to his deliriously twisted domain: hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy; the gulf of misunderstanding that exists between people of different nations or members of the same family; and the poignant divide between one's best hopes and most common deeds.
Updated 5.24.04 - The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
Author: Troost, J. Maarten
Publisher: Broadway $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0767915305KirkusPW
After racking up useless graduate degrees and muddling through a series of temp jobs, author Troost decided the idea of dropping everything and moving to the ends of the Earth was irresistibly romantic. He should have known better. This is his hilarious story.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 4.8.04
Fiction
- Natasha: And Other Stories
Author: Bezmozgis, David
Publisher: FSG $ 18 ISBN: 0374281416 Date: 2004LJKirkusPW
The stories in this collection capture the immigrant experience with serious wit, while evoking boyhood and youth, and the battle for selfhood in a passionately loving Jewish family.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.19.04 - Something Borrowed
Author: Griffin, Emily
Publisher: St Martins $ 21.95 ISBN: 031232118x Date: 2004Booklist
Griffin presents her first novel about falling in love with the one guy you shouldn't.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Chicklit
Updated 6.1.04 - Cassandra French's Finishing School for Boys
Author: Garcia, Eric
Publisher: ReganBooks $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060730315 Date: 2004
Sex and the City meets Misery in this shockingly funny, original, dead-on satire of the dating scene in Los Angeles.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit | Funny Fiction
Updated 6.14.04 - The Tyrant's Novel
Author: Keneally, Thomas
Publisher: Delacorte $ 25 ISBN: 0385511469 Date: 2004KirkusPW
In a work that evokes the classic cautionary tale Fahrenheit 451, Keneally masters the gripping perspective of a man caught between the unconscionable demands of his government and the meager prospect of running for his life.
Updated 5.24.04 - Crossing
California
Author: Langer, Adam
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573222747 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
Poignant, ambitious, and tremendously fun, this fiction discovery of the season is a novel about two generations of family and friendship in Chicago from November 1979 through January 1981.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 6.1.04 - Firethorn
Author: Micklem, Sarah
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743247949PW
A fantasy in the tradition of The Mists of Avalon, Firethorn is an extraordinary tale--at once magical and violent, beautiful and frightening--about a bold young woman and her journey to the brink of war.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.5.04 - Between Two
Rivers
Author: Rinaldi, Nicholas
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060578769 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
Rumanian refugee and concierge Farro Fescu observes the exotic cross-section of the world's population represented in his New York City condominium. This lush tapestry demonstrates the resilience of the human spirit even in the face of tragedy.
Updated 4.21.04 - The Master
Author: Toibin, Colm
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743250400 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPWLJ
"A deep, lovely, and enthralling book that engages with the disquiet and drama of a famous writing life: splendidly conceived and composed by a writer who is himself a master of his art."--Shirley Hazzard ( The Great Fire).
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Biographical Fiction | Author Author
Updated 5.4.04
Mystery & Suspense
- Walking Money
Author: Born, James O.
Publisher: Putnam $ 23.95 ISBN: 0399151699 Date: 2004Booklist
Filled with a rich array of characters, a constantly twisting plot, and an astonishing authenticity, this novel is indeed proof that "Jim Born is the real thing" (Elmore Leonard).
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 5.7.04 - Full Dark House
Author: Fowler, Christopher
Publisher: Bantam $ 24 ISBN: 0553803875 Date: 2004Kirkus
When a bomb claims the life of his partner of over 50 years, Detective Arthur Bryant must revisit their first case to uncover the killer's identity. Fowler combines dark drama and black comedy in this deliciously sinister crime novel.
Updated 3.25.04 - I
Dreamed I Married Perry Mason: A Cece Caruso Mystery
Author: Kandel, Susan
Publisher: Morrow $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060581050 Date: 2004Kirkus
Susan Kandel has written an adventurous, humorous debut novel that takes us on a well-researched romp through California's past and present, complete with turn-of-the-century robber barons and the haute couture of the '40s."--Barbara Seranella ( Unpaid Dues and Unwilling Accomplice).
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 3.25.04 - The Hundredth Man
Author: Kerley, Jack
Publisher: Dutton $ 23.95 ISBN: 052594821x Date: 2004BooklistKirkusLJ
Recalling Michael Connelly's taut storytelling and James Patterson's searing narrative twists, Kerley creates a world where heroes can't succeed without madmen, and the dead are the most dangerous of all.
Link: The Hundredth Man web site
Suggested Reading: Psycho Killers | Serial Killers | Debuts
Updated 4.20.04
Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.- B for Buster
Author: Lawrence, Iain
Publisher: Delacorte $ 15.95 ISBN: 0385730861 Date: 2004KirkusKliatt
In this gripping story, 16-year-old Kak dreams of flying with the Allied bombers in World War II. Underage but desperate to escape his abusive parents, he enlists in the Canadian Air Force and is soon sent to a squadron in England. But he does not expect the experience to be as harrowing as it becomes.
Grades: 7-9 Category: Fiction | Historical - Curse of
the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber,
Midshipman and Fine Lady
Author: Meyer, L.A.
Publisher: Harcourt $ 17 ISBN: 0152051155BooklistKirkus
In this follow up to Bloody Jack, May "Jacky" Faber is forced to leave the "Dolphin" after being exposed and attend an elite school for girls in Boston. But growing up on the streets of London and fighting pirates never prepared Jacky for her toughest battle yet: learning how to be a lady.
Grades: 7-12 Category: Fiction | Historical | Action & Adventure
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
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