
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 2005
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.
April 2005
- Midnight at the Dragon Cafe

Author: Bates, Judy Fong
Publisher: Counterpoint $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 1582431892 Date: 2005
Booklist
Kirkus
Judy Fong Bates's fresh and engaging first novel is the story of Su-Jen Chou, a Chinese girl growing up the only daughter of an unhappy and isolated immigrant family in a small Ontario town in the 1950s.
Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars
Updated 2.15.05
- A Slight Trick of the Mind

Author: Cullin, Mitch
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385513283 Date: 2005
PW
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.
Updated 2.14.05
- Never Let Me Go
Author: Ishiguro, Kazuo
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043395 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
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
- The Mermaid Chair

Author: Kidd, Sue Monk
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033944 Date: 2005
PW
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
- Saturday

Author: McEwan, Ian
Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 0385511809 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
Booklist
LJ
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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 3.21.05
- The Illuminator

Author: Vantrease, Brenda
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312331916 Date: 2005
PW
LJ
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.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 3.10.05
- Lucky Strike

Author: Zafris, Nancy
Publisher: Unbridled $ 23.95 ISBN: 1932961046 Date: 2005
Booklist
LJ
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.
Updated 3.21.05
- Oblivion

Author: Abrahams, Peter
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060726571 Date: 2005
Kirkus
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
- In the Company of Liars

Author: Ellis, David
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399152474 Date: 2005
PW
LJ
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
- The Devil of Nanking

Author: Hayder, Mo
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117945 Date: 2005
PW
Kirkus
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 Serpent on the Crown

Author: Peters, Elizabeth
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060591781 Date: 2005
PW
Once again the incomparable "New York Times" bestselling master of suspense, Elizabeth Peters, brings an exotic world of adventure, intrigue, and danger to vivid life, in a tale as exciting, mysterious, and powerful as ancient Egypt.
Suggested Reading: Egyptian Stars
Updated 3.10.05
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
- Convicts

Author: Lawrence, Iain
Publisher: Delacorte $ 15.95 ISBN: 038573087X Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
After seeing his father hauled off to debtor's prison in London, Tom Tin sets out to take revenge on Mr. Goodfellow, the man responsible for his family's misfortunes. Tom soon comes up against the cruel hand of the law when he's accused of murder.
Grades: 5-9 Category: Historical Fiction | Action & Adventure
- Gentle's Holler

Author: Madden, Kerry
Publisher: Viking $ 16.99 ISBN: 0670059986 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
Living in a North Carolina holler with her parents and eight siblings,
12-year-old Livy Two is an aspiring songwriter and self-appointed guardian to
her little sister Gentle, who is going blind. But when tragedy strikes, can Livy
Two continue to stay strong for her family.
Grades: 7-9 Category: Fiction
Overbooked is a volunteer project undertaken by Ann Chambers Theis: Collection Management Administrator, Chesterfield County (VA) Public Library. 9501 Lori Rd. or P.O. Box 297, Chesterfield, VA, 23832. Phone: 804.748.1760.
Overbooked is not an official Chesterfield County Public Library service. Overbooked.org is a nonprofit web site hosted by CVCO - Central Virginia's Community Online. Overbooked.com is a nonprofit web site in experimental mode. Overbooked does not endorse any commercial providers (or their products and services) linked to from this web site.
Join the Overbooked List - A quiet list for readers to share recent reads, keep up to date with details about new books, discuss favorite authors/titles, etc.
Comments, suggestions, corrections: Ann Chambers Theis (AKA Ann/ACT):
overbooked1@verizon.net
or
ann@overbooked.com
I really appreciate all the e-mail I receive from avid readers and writers and regret that I am not able to respond to all correspondents. Special thanks to those folks who regularly help keep me on track - you know who you are....