
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:
September 9, 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.
May 2005
- Guitar: An American Life

Author: Brookes, Tim
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117961 Date: 2005
LJ
Kirkus
When the author wasn't breathing over a guitar maker's shoulder, he was trying to unravel the symbolic associations a guitar holds for musicians and nonmusicians alike. His quest took him across the country talking to historians, curators, and guitar makers.
Updated 4.7.05
- Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine

Author: Chelminski, Rudolph
Publisher: Gotham $ 27.50 ISBN: 1592401074 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
A riveting behind-the-scenes look at the mysterious world of three-star French haute cuisine is revealed through the biography of one of France's most celebrated chefs--Bernard Loiseau, who ended his own life on February 24, 2003, after one of his restaurant's ratings took a disappointing drop.
Updated 3.28.05
- A Year in the Merde

Author: Clarke, Stephen
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1582345910 Date: 2005
LJ
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.
Updated 4.7.05
- Them: A Memoir of Parents

Author: Gray, Francine Du Plessix
Publisher: Penguin $ 29.95 ISBN: 1594200491 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
Booklist
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: All Stars | Memoirs
Updated 4.22.05
- Sunday Money: Speed! Lust! Madness! Death! A Fast, Furious Year Across America With Nascar

Author: Macgregor, Jeff
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060094710 Date: 2005
Booklist
A groundling's view of life in the fastest lane of NASCAR is offered by an award-winning writer from "Sports Illustrated" in the tradition of The Right Stuff and Moneyball.
Updated 3.10.05
- Zorro

Author: Allende, Isabel
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060778970 Date: 2005
PW
Booklist
LJ
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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 3.10.05
- The Lake, the River and the Other Lake

Author: Amick, Steve
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423508 Date: 2005
LJ
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
- Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

Author: Doctorow, Cory
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765312786 Date: 2005
PW
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 Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932

Author: Fergus, Jim
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300545 Date: 2005
PW
Booklist
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
Updated 4.22.05
- The History of Love

Author: Krauss, Nicole
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393060349 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
Booklist
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.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 3.28.05
- Beyond Black

Author: Mantel, Hilary
Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805073566 Date: 2005
Kirkus
Troubles spiral out of control when a psychic and her assistant move to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside and take up with a spirit guide and his drowned therapist in this darkly comic, unorthodox novel.
Updated 2.23.05
- Gil's All Fright Diner

Author: Martinez, A. Lee
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311437 Date: 2005
PW
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
- Glad News of the Natural World

Author: Pearson, T.R.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743264630 Date: 2005
Booklist
In this hilarious and heartbreaking sequel to the beloved bestseller A Short History of a Small Place, readers will find Louis Benfield nearly grown up, feckless as ever, and a long way from his native North Carolina.
Updated 3.25.05
- Pretty Birds

Author: Simon, Scott
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400063108 Date: 2005
Kirkus
PW
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.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.19.05
- Bangkok Tattoo
Author: Burdett, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 1400040450 Date: 2005
PW
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
- The Closers

Author: Connelly, Michael
Publisher: Little Brown $ 26.95 ISBN: 0316734942 Date: 2005
Booklist
PW
LJ
The death of a teenage girl almost two decades ago comes back to haunt all of L.A.--and detective Harry Bosch--in this spellbinding new thriller from "New York Times" bestselling author Michael Connelly.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.19.05
- The Poet's Funeral

Author: Daniel, John M.
Publisher: Poisoned Pen $ 24.95 ISBN: 159058144x Date: 2005
PW
This romp rich, with poetry, publishing, book collecting, and literary gossip, is a story of ego, love, art, and murder during four hot days at the 1990 American Booksellers Association convention.
Updated 3.14.05
- The Four Courts Murder

Author: Nugent, Andrew
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312327587 Date: 2005
Kirkus
Inspector Denis Lennon and his sergeant, Molly Power, are given a lead in the murder of a hated judge. Bring in a series of high and low Irish characters, add a delightful young German student, and one has a highly seasoned story in unusual settings, told with a small twinkle sure to endear readers to this new author.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 3.10.05
- 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
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
- Guys Write for Guys Read

Author: Scieszka, Jon (edt)
Publisher: Viking $ 16.99 ISBN: 0670060070 Date: 2005
SLJ
Male authors like Gordon Korman and Stephen King contribute to this collection of stories, cartoons and writing about being boys - for boys. (Overbooked)
Grades: 6-12 Category: Collection
- A Thief in the House of Memory

Author: Wynne-Jones, Tim
Publisher: FSG $ 17 ISBN: 0374374783 Date: 2005
Kirkus
SLJ
In this masterful new novel, Wynne-Jones explores with wit, compassion, and humor the fictional territory he knows best--the prickly ties that bind families, the murky connections between imagination and real life.
Grades: 7-12 Category: Fiction
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