Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
More . . .
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.
A library is a growing organism.
Take Five:
Salem Witchcraft
Fiction
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (2008)
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent (2008)
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow (2006)
Nonfiction
In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 by Mary Beth Norton (2002)
Judge Sewall's Apology: The Salem Witch Trials and the Forming of an American Conscience by Richard Francis (2006)
The Lace Reader
by Brunonia Barry
Gargoyle
by Andrew Davidson
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
The Night of the Gun by David Carr
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
by David Wroblewski
The Palace Council
by Stephen L. Carter
The Sugar Queen
by Sarah Addison Allen
Child 44
by Tom Rob Smith
Predictably Irrational by Dan Airely
The Somnambulist
by Jonathan Barnes
America America
by Ethan Canin
The Bishop's Daughter
by Honor Moore
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...
I've set up "shelves" from these sites on Overbooked - here
Overbooked is spacing out: Myspace: Overbooked and Crime Space - and, facing out: Facebook profile.
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
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.
October 2006
Nonfiction
- Mirrors of the Unseen: Journeys in Iran
Author: Elliot, Jason
Publisher: St Martins $ 26.95 ISBN: 031230191x Date: 2006
PWKirkus
The bestselling author of An Unexpected Light conducts a fascinating journey through the cultural and artistic landscape of Iran, both past and present.
Suggested Reading: Travel Tales
Updated 8.28.06 - Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford
Author: Mitford, Jessica & Peter Y. Sussman (edt)
Publisher: Knopf $ 35 ISBN: 0375410325 Date: 2006PWBooklist
The letters of "Decca" Mitford give readers a luminous self-portrait of an inimitable woman, and of 20th-century society, from the inside out.
Suggested Reading: Mitfords | Sisters
Decca: The Letters site by Peter Y. Sussman ( includes excerpts from the letters)
Jessica Mitford Memorial Site
Updated 9.18.06 - The Shakespeare Wars: The Battle to Explain the Bard
Author: Rosenbaum, Ron
Publisher: Random $ 35 ISBN: 0375503390 Date: 2006KirkusPWBooklist
Rosenbaum's provocative and illuminating encounters with scholars and directors gives readers new ways of thinking about Shakespeare.
Suggested Reading: Shakespeare
Updated 9.18.06 - Blood Brother: Among the Soldiers of Ward 57
Author: Weisskopf, Michael
Publisher: Holt $ 25 ISBN: 0805078606 Date: 2006KirkusLJ
A powerful account of 18 months in the lives of three soldiers and a journalist, all patients in Ward 57, Walter Reed's amputee wing. A chronicle of devastation and recovery, this is a deeply affecting portrait of the private aftermath of combat casualties.
Updated 9.18.06
Fiction
- The Ghost at the Table
Author: Berne, Suzanne
Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN: 1565123344 Date: 2006PWKirkus
The Fiske family is gathered at the exquisitely restored New England home of the second of three sisters. The family table groans with the weight of guilt and blame. The result is the taut story of a 21st-century family's unraveling, played against a famous 19th-century writer's own family dysfunction.
Updated 7.27.06 - Eifelheim
Author: Flynn, Michael
Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765300966 Date: 2006KirkusPWLJ
In 1349, one small town in Germany disappeared and has never been resettled. Tom, a contemporary historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. What was special about Eifelheim that it utterly disappeared more than 600 years ago?
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.18.06 - The Uses of Enchantment
Author: Julavits, Heidi
Publisher: $ ISBN: 0385513232 Date: 2006 Kirkus PW
Julavits weaves a spell in which the reader sees how the extraordinary power of a young woman's sexuality, and the desire to wield it, have a devastating effect. The riveting cat-and-mouse power games between doctor and patient, and between abductor and abductee, are gradually revealed, along with the truth about what actually happened to the 16-year-old in 1985.
Updated 7.10.06 - The Road
Author: McCarthy, Cormac
Publisher: Knopf $ 24 ISBN: 0307265439 Date: 2006KirkusPWBooklistLJ
At once brutal and tender, despairing and rashly hopeful, spare of language and profoundly moving, this work is a fierce and haunting meditation on the tenuous divide between civilization and savagery, and the essential, sometimes terrifying power of filial love.
Suggested Reading: Apocalypse Now | All Stars
Updated 8.28.06 - Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette
Author: Naslund, Sena Jeter
Publisher: Morrow $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060825391 Date: 2006PWKirkusLJBooklist
From the author of Ahab's Wife and Four Spirits comes her most astonishing work yet--a portrait of a young queen called Marie Antoinette.
Suggested Reading: Marie Antoinette | All Stars
Updated 9.13.06 - Echo Maker
Author: Powers, Richard
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374146357 Date: 2006PWKirkusBooklist
On a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near-fatal accident. His older sister Karin returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. When he emerges from a protracted coma, Mark believes that this woman--who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister--is really an identical impostor.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.4.06 - Greywalker
Author: Richardson, Kat
Publisher: Roc $ 14 ISBN: 045146107x Date: 2006Kirkus
This debut features more than enough "nonstop action and paranormal complications to keep you on the edge of your seat" (Charlaine Harris, author of Definitely Dead).
Updated 7.27.06
Crime Fiction
- A Corpse in the Koryo
Author: Church, James
Publisher: Minotaur $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312352085 Date: 2006BooklistPWLibrary Journal
Like Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy and the Inspector Arkady Renko novels, A Corpse in the Koryo introduces another unfamiliar world (North Korea), a perplexing universe seemingly so alien that the rules are an enigma to the reader and even, sometimes, to Inspector O. Author James Church weaves a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart after decades as an intelligence officer. This is a chilling portrayal that, in the end, leaves us wondering if what at first seemed unknowable may simply be too familiar for comfort. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.10.06 - Sharp Objects
Author: Flynn, Gillian
Publisher: Shambhala $ 24 ISBN: 0307341542 Date: 2006KirkusLJ
After eight years, the murders of two preteen girls--timed nearly a year apart--bring reporter Camille Preaker reluctantly back to her hometown. As she works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, Camille finds herself forced to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 8.10.06 - Stripped
Author: Freeman, Brian
Publisher: Minotaur $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312340443 Date: 2006Booklist
In this stunning follow-up to Freeman's remarkable debut novel, Immoral, Detective Jonathan Stride discovers that there are only two ways to go in Las Vegas. You can hit the jackpot--or you can get "stripped."
Updated 8.7.06 - What Came Before He Shot Her
Author: George, Elizabeth
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060545623 Date: 2006KirkusBooklistLJ
In her compelling new mystery, George explores the unforgettable events leading up to a murder.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.28.06 - All Mortal Flesh
Author: Spencer-Fleming, Julia
Publisher: Minotaur $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312312644 Date: 2006LJPWKirkus
One horrible murder. Two people destined for love or tragedy. Emotions explode in Spencer-Fleming's most accomplished mystery yet.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.16.06
Books for Kids, Teens & Readers of All Ages
Age and grade designations are approximate, parental judgement should be used.
- The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party
Author: Anderson, M.T.
Publisher: 17.99 Candlewick $ ISBN: 0763624020 Date: 2006
Kirkus
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age 16, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War.
Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction - An Abundance of Katherines
Author: Green, John
Publisher: Dutton $ 16.99 ISBN: 0525476881 Date: 2006
Booklist Kirkus
In this new novel from the acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska, Colin Singleton always falls for girls named Katherine--and he's been dumped 19 times, to be exact. Letting expectations go and allowing love are in the heart of his hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.
Ages: 14-17 Category: Fiction - The Pinhoe Egg: A Chrestomanci Book
Author: Jones Diana Wynne
Publisher: Greenwillow $ 17.99 ISBN: 0061131245 Date: 2006
PW
Marianne Pinhoe, a young witch discovering the extent of her powers, discovers a mysterious egg while clearing out her grandmother's attic.
Ages: 10+ Category: Speculative Fiction
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
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....