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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
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Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994.
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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.
September 2004
Nonfiction
- The Truth About Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It
Author: Angell, Marcia
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 0375508465 Date: 2004
LJPW
During her two decades at "The New England Journal of Medicine", Dr. Marcia Angell had a front-row seat on the appalling spectacle of the pharmaceutical industry. She watched drug companies stray from their original mission of discovering and manufacturing useful drugs and instead become vast marketing machines with unprecedented control over their own fortunes. She saw them gain nearly limitless influence over medical research, education, and how doctors do their jobs. She sympathized as the American public, particularly the elderly, struggled and increasingly failed to meet spiraling prescription drug prices. Now, in this bold, hard-hitting new book, Dr. Angell exposes the shocking truth of what the pharmaceutical industry has become - and argues for essential, long-overdue change. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 8.2.04 - The Cyanide Canary
Author: Hilldorfer, Joseph & Robert Dugoni
Publisher: Free $ 26 ISBN: 0743246527 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
In this true story of a horrific environmental crime, written by an EPA Special Agent, a brave young man suffers severe brain damage after being pulled from a poison-saturated 25,000-gallon storage tank.
Updated 6.30.04 - Bloodsworth: the True Story of the First Death Row Inmate Exonerated by DNA
Author: Junkin, Tim
Publisher: Algonquin $ ISBN: 1565124197 Date: 2004LJ
A shocking, page-turner of a book that, as Scott Turow says, "may well be the most incredible and important true story ever written about a death row convict's daily battle for survival, both in the cell block and in the courtrooms."
Updated 6.17.04 - The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives and Broken Hearts
Author: Rubenstein, Julian
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316071676 Date: 2004PW
Elmore Leonard meets Franz Kafka in the wild, improbably true story of Attila Ambrus, the legendary outlaw of Budapest.
Updated 8.23.04
Fiction
- How I
Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater
Author: Acito, Marc
Publisher: Broadway $ 21.95 ISBN: 076791841X Date: 2004KirkusPW
Set in 1983, this is a deliciously funny romp of a novel about one overly theatrical and sexually confused New Jersey teenager's larcenous quest for his acting school tuition.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 9.6.04 - Hissy Fit
Author: Andrews, Mary Kay
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN:0060564644 Date: 2004LJ
Welcome to the wonderful world of bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews, where the bourbon is cold, the manners are genteel, and a cheating varmint of an ex-fianc gets the comeuppance he so richly deserves.
Updated 7.13.04 - 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 - Broken for You
Author: Kallos, Stephanie
Publisher: Grove $ 23 ISBN: 0802117791 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistLJ
Funny, heartbreaking and alive with a potpourri of eccentric and irresistible characters, this fresh and compulsively readable debut novel is about two women in self-imposed exile whose lives intersect, transforming both their worlds.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - 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
Updated 9.20.04 - The In-between World of Vikram Lall
Author: Vassanji, M.G.
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 140004216x Date: 2004PWKirkus
The author of The Book of Secrets, winner of the first Giller prize, brings readers a novel that is rich in sensuous detail and political insight. Neither colonists nor African, neither white nor black, an Indian brother and sister find themselves somewhere in between in their band of playmates. These are the friendships that will haunt the rest of their lives.
Updated 7.26.04 - Citizen Vince
Author: Walter, Jess
Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060394412 Date: 2004Kirkus
From a highly acclaimed young novelist comes a story of witness protection, petty thievery, local politics and murder set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1980 presidential election.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction Stars
Updated 8.25.04
Mystery & Suspense
- The Warlord's Son
Author: Fesperman, Dan
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375414738 Date: 2004PW
In this electrifying thriller set in present-day Afghanistan, the fates of an American journalist and his Pakistani translator become dangerously intertwined with the fortunes of warlords, spies, and dubious corporate interests.
Updated 8.16.04 - First Do No Harm
Author: Karp, Larry
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058130x Date: 2004Booklist
The past comes rearing up to bite the next generation when a son digs too deep into his family's past.... Martin Firestone can't figure why his father, the eccentric painter Leo Firestone, is throwing a fit. All Martin did was tell his dad he'd been accepted to medical school. Then, Leo tells Martin a story about his own father, Dr. Samuel Firestone, an extraordinarily gifted doctor and a living legend in the small city of Hobart, NJ, but a man with a serious character flaw. During the summer of 1943, while Leo worked as Samuel's extern, he witnessed some highly questionable behavior. Illegal abortions, supplying heroin to an addict, black-market pharmaceuticals, babies sold to adoptive parents-all in a day's work for Samuel Purdue, M.D. When Leo decided his father was covering up a murder, he and his girlfriend, stage-struck Harmony, followed a trail of clues into the Fleischmann Scrapyard. There, they ran afoul of old Oscar Fleischmann, Samuel's longtime nemesis. By the time Leo realized he and Harmony were in far over their sixteen-year-old heads, it was too late to call off the investigation. But there are loose threads in Leo's story. Martin picks them up, and sixty years after the fact, goes snooping in Hobart. And like his father, he comes away with a whole lot more junk than he'd bargained for. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 9.22.04 - The Sunday Philosophy Club: Isabel Dalhousie
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 19.95 ISBN: 0375422986 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Filled with endearingly thorny characters and a Scottish atmosphere as dense and savory as oatmeal, The Sunday Philosophy Club is irresistible, and Isabel Dalhousie is the most delightful literary sleuth since Precious Ramotswe.
Updated 8.13.04 - Chaucer and the House of Fame
Author: Morgan, Phillipa
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 25 ISBN: 0786714662 Date: 2004PWBooklist
The famed Medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer must turn sleuth in this surprising and imaginative first novel.
Updated 9.7.04 - Skin River
Author: Sidor, Steven
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312329490 Date: 2004Kirkus
In this incredible debut, Buddy Bayes, a man with a past, finds his life shattered when he finds the severed hand of a missing young woman. "Steven Sidor must have sold his soul to the devil to write this well."--Steve Hamilton, author of Ice Run.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 7.8.04
Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.- The Secret of Castle Cant
Author: Bath, K.P.
Publisher: Little Brown $ 16.99 ISBN: 0316108480 Date: 2004Kirkus
With remarkable wit and a flair for the fantastic, this debut author captivates readers with fast-paced action, a cast of eccentric characters, and two strong female heroines who learn that cunning and heroism are not merely words in a storybook. Includes artistic embellishments by David Christiana.
Grades: 3-7 Category: Fiction | Speculative - The Sea of Trolls
Author: Farmer, Nancy
Publisher: Atheneum $ 17.99 ISBN: 0689867441Date: 2004PWKirkusBooklist
The three-time Newbery Honor-winning author and National Book Award recipient pens a new adventure set in A.D. 793 in the land of the Vikings, where two children are soon swept up in a quest on which they encounter a dragon, a giant spider, and trolls.
Grades: 5-8 Category: Fiction | Speculative | Action & Adventure - Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Girl's Adventure upon the High Seas
Author: Lee, Tanith
Publisher: Dutton $ 17.99 ISBN: 0525473246 Date: 2004Kirkus
The award-winning author introduces a swashbuckling pirate heroine in this gaudy, outrageous tale that sparkles with swordplay, skullduggery, and salty language--not to mention over-the-top comedy.
Grades: 3-7 Category: Fiction | Action & Adventure - Science Verse
Author: Scieszka, Jon & Lane Smith
Publisher: Viking $ 16.99 ISBN: 0670910570 Date: 2004BooklistPW
What if a boring lesson about the food chain becomes a sing-aloud celebration about predators and prey? Only the amazing talents of John Scieszka and Lane Smith, the team who created Math Curse, could make science so much fun.
Grades: Preschool - 3 Category: Fiction | Science
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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