Table of Contents
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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Seeing Stars
Lists of (mostly) hardcover books which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ).
The review journal assigns the star.
Out and About. . .
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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 a work in progress . . .
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.
Starred Reviews
Fiction Stars 2004
September 9, 2008
July - December
Titles are listed by approximate date of publication, then alphabetically by author. Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine - unless otherwise noted.
A 
indicates an Overbooked Jump for Joy book.
December
- Little Fugue
Author: Anderson, Robert
Publisher: Ballantine $ 24.95 ISBN: 0345454103 Date: 2004
PW
Updated 10.19.04 - East Side Story
Author: Auchincloss, Louis
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618452443 Date: 2004Kirkus
For his 60th novel, the author follows the fortunes of the Scottish Carnochans, who prospered on New York's Upper East Side in the 19th century. This is a loving and wicked look at New York's own.
Updated 9.9.04 - A Hard Man Is Good To Find
Author: Blackwood, Jane
Publisher: Zebra $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821776169 Date: 2004Booklist
In this lighthearted romance, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes over a small-town newspaper. Soon he's alienating the staff and igniting sparks with a sexy, smart-mouthed reporter who's determined to uncover his real story.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 11.29.04 - Road to Purgatory
Author: Collins, Max Allan
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060540273 Date: 2004PW
This powerful narrative follow-up to the acclaimed graphic novel Road to Perdition opens with Michael O'Sullivan returning to Chicago and his old war against the Capone mob. Interwoven is the parallel tale of his father, chief enforcer to Irish godfather John Looney.
Updated 11.22.04 - Children of the Streets: Stories
Author: Ellison, Harlan
Publisher: Severn $ 27.95 ISBN: 0727861050 Date: 2005LJ
Updated 11.22.04 - Jimmy Olsen: Adventures by Jack Kirby, Vol 2
Author: Kirby, Jack
Publisher: DC Comics $ 19.95 (paper) ISBN: 1401202594 Date: 2004PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - Temple of Music
Author: Lowry, Jonathan
Publisher: Crown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0609608193 Date: 2004Kirkus
Spanning years, countries, and classes, this novel paints a portrait of a young country at the turn of the century--a time when everything was new; every day had the power to change history, and larger-than-life figures brushed shoulders and sometimes collided with wretchedly poor working men.
Updated 9.24.04 - The Girl Who Married a Lion: An Other Tales from Africa
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Pantheon $ 20 ISBN: 0375423125 Date: 2004Booklist
Alexander McCall Smith was born in what is now Zimbabwe and grew up hearing stories that so enchanted him, he passed them along to his own children. He now shares them in this jewel of a book.
Updated 11.2.04 - The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios
Author: Martel, Yann
Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151010900 Date: 2004Booklist
Written earlier in Yann Martel's career, these four unforgettable tales are as moving as they are thought-provoking, as inventive in form as they are timeless.
Updated 11.2.04 - Forget Me Not
Author: Melton, Marliss
Publisher: Warner $ 5.99 (paper) ISBN: 0446614823 Date: 2004Booklist
Helen Renault's missing Navy SEAL husband Gabe is presumed dead. She learns that Gabe is alive but has no memory. Under Helen's care, he begins to heal. With his memories returning, others will do anything in their power to make sure he stays silent.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - Seven Types of Ambiguity
Author: Pearlman, Elliot
Publisher: Riverhead $ 27.95 ISBN: 157322281x Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
A psychological thriller and deeply romantic novel that speaks with unforgettable force about the redemptive power of love, this story is told in seven parts, by six different narrators whose lives are entangled in unexpected ways.
Updated 11.2.04 - A Black Englishman
Author: Slaughter, Carolyn
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374113998 Date: 2004LJ
Set against the backdrop of India in the 1920s, this novel is the tale of a powerful and erotic love affair that combines the themes of colonial exploitation, political and ethnic tensions, race and sexuality, and the many forms of partition, both secular and religious.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 10.19.04 - Mantrapped
Author: Weldon, Fay
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117872 Date: 2004LJ
After brushing past each other on the stairs above their local laundromat, Trice and Peter instantly and mysteriously switch souls. But none of this is half as awkward as when they both come home to face Peter's wife and have to decide who will sleep where.
Updated 10.19.04
November
- Darwin's Wink: A Novel of Nature and Love
Author: Anderson, Alison
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312331991 Date: 2004LJ
An exquisite story of two naturalists who find unexpected love as they work to save a rare bird species on an island off the coast of Mauritius. "An exquisitely written, deeply felt novel."--Alev Little Croutier (Seven Houses).
Suggested Reading: For the Birds | Darwin, Naturalists & Evolution
Updated 8.16.04 - Case Histories
Author: Atkinson, Kate
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316740403 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
This new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson is a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found and the mysteries of fate. As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge.
Updated 8.12.04 - A Light To My Path
Author: Austin, Lynn
Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 1556614446 Date: 2004LJ
Kitty, a house slave, always figured it was easiest to do what she'd always done--obey Missy and follow orders. But when word arrives that the Yankees are coming, Kitty is faced with a decision: continue to follow the bidding of her owners, or embrace this chance for freedom?
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 11.2.04 - Snowed In
Author: Bartolomeo, Christina
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312320884 Date: 2004LJ
This touching and witty new novel is written by the author of This Side of Angels.
Updated 11.22.04 - The Stone That the Builder Refused
Author: Bell, Madison Smartt
Publisher: Pantheon $ 29.95 ISBN: 037542282x Date: 2004KirkusLJ
The finale in the Toussaint Louverture trilogy spans the last two years of Toussaint's life, his triumphant struggle and the compromises made for a free Haiti. Toussaint was the legendary leader of the only successful slave revolution in history.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 10.19.04 - Hannah Coulter
Author: Berry, Wendell
Publisher: Shoemaker & Hoard $ 25 ISBN: 1593760361 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Hannah Coulter is the latest installment in Wendell Berry's long story about the citizens of Port William, Kentucky. In his unforgettable prose, readers learn of the Coulters' children, of the Feltners and Branches, and how survivors "live right on."
Updated 11.29.04 - Bighead
Author: Brown, Jeffrey
Publisher: Top Shelf $ 12.95 ISBN: 1891830562 Date: 2004PW
Jeffrey Brown is back - and with a Bighead, no less! An irreverent and clever super-hero parody, featuring the most amazing hero of all time: Bighead. Witness inept villains clash with an all-too-emotional hero, in the epic graphic novel that will leap all cliches in a single bound. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories
Author: Chabon, Michael (ed)
Publisher: Vintage $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1400078741 Date: 2004Kirkus
A stellar group of contemporary fiction masters offer their original takes on the tried-and-true genres of adventure, science fiction, crime story, romance, horror and more. Contributors include Michael Chabon, Roddy Doyle, Heidi Julavitz, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, Peter Straub, and Jonathan Safran Foer.
Updated 9.24.04 - Scream Queens of the Dead Sea
Author: Elbom, Gilad
Publisher: Thunders Mouth $ 22 ISBN: 1568583222 Date: 2004PW
A young graduate of the Israeli army decides to moonlight as an assistant nurse at a mental institution in Jerusalem. But as the human inventory inside begins to mirror the psychotic norms of the outside world, the inexperienced ex-soldier finds himself trapped in a hilarious yet terrifying freak show.
Updated 10.4.04 - Damned If I Do: Stories
Author: Everett, Percival
Publisher: Graywolf $ 15 ISBN: 1555974112 Date: 2004LJ
Percival Everett is a master storyteller who ingeniously addresses issues of race and prejudice by simultaneously satirizing and celebrating the human condition. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 11.22.04 - Courage Consort: Three Novellas
Author: Faber, Michel
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 0151010617 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
In each of these novellas, Faber creates a unique, self-contained world, where the perennial human drama plays out in all its passion and ambiguity.
Updated 9.20.04 - Torture the Artist
Author: Goebel, Joey
Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 23 ISBN: 193156177x Date: 2004LJ
Vincent Spinetti is an archetypal tortured artist, a sensitive young writer who falls victim to alienation, parental neglect, poverty, depression, alcoholism, illness, nervous breakdowns, and unrequited love. He is painfully unaware that these torments are due to the secret manipulations of New Renaissance, an experimental organization that is testing the age-old idea that art results from suffering.
Updated 10.7.04 - The Distance Between Us
Author: Hamilton, Masha
Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 193296102x Date: 2004LJ
This beautifully turned novel is the heartfelt story of a war correspondent who loses her lover and her detachment in one tragic moment within a seemingly endless conflict.
Updated 11.2.04 - Locas: A Love & Rockets Book
Author: Hernandez, Jaime
Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 49.95 ISBN: 156097611x Date: 2004PWBooklsit
One of the most humane, graceful and imaginatively inexhaustible artists in American popular culture, Jaime Hernandez has created in Locas one of the great American novels of the last 25 years, graphic or otherwise. Spanning a quarter-century, Locas tells the story of Maggie Chascarrillo, a bisexual, Mexican-American woman attempting to define herself in a community rife with class, race and gender issues.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - The Line of Beauty
Author: Hollinghurst, Alan
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582345082 Date: 2004PW
This emotionally charged, disarmingly comic novel weaves the tale of a 20-year-old's private pursuit of beauty as expressed through his dangerous yet rewarding love affairs with a young black clerk and a Lebanese millionaire as he navigates within a world driven by rising fortunes, politics and money, and power and riches in 1980s Britain.
Updated 9.20.04 - North of Nowhere, South of Loss: Stories
Author: Hospital, Janette Turner
Publisher: Norton $ 24.95 ISBN: 039305991x Date: 2004Kirkus
Janette Turner Hospital explores the infinite incarnations of loss in these prize-winning stories. Her characters oscillate between estrangement and intense connectedness, between a permanent sense of dislocation and a yearning to belong.
Updated 7.26.04 - The Sun Witch
Author: Jones, Linda Winstead
Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425199401 Date: 2004Booklist
This first book in Jones's new Sister of the Sun trilogy introduces the three Fyne sisters, who live under a curse that makes true love unattainable for them. When youngest sister Sophie meets the soldier of her dreams, she discovers Nature has gifted her with fertility.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 12.6.04 - Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction
Author: Kaldas, Pauline (ed)
Publisher: Univ of Arkansas $ 24.95 ISBN: 1557287813 Date: 2005LJ
Updated 12.27.04 - Dangerous Deceptions
Author: Kerstan, Lynn
Publisher: Signet $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0451212487 Date: 2004Booklist
The award-winning author of Heart of the Tiger begins a trilogy about a secretive fellowship dedicated to righting wrongs in the highest circles of Regency society, and the men and women who risk their lives--and their hearts--for justice.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - Secrets of a Summer Night
Author: Kleypas, Lisa
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060091290 Date: 2004PW
This first title of a delectable new series introduces the delightful, husband-hunting "Wallflowers"--four young ladies who enter London society with the common goal of marriage. Here, Annabelle Peyton is determined to resist the titleless yet equally resolute seducer, Simon Hunt.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 10.12.04 - Crossways
Author: Kohler, Sheila
Publisher: Ontario Review $ 23.95 ISBN: 0865381127 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.9.04 - Fred the Clown
Author: Langridge, Roger
Publisher: Fantagraphics $ 16.95 ISBN: 1560976101 Date: 2004Booklist
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 11.2.04 - The Good Man
Author: Lee, Edward, Jae-Suk
Publisher: Bridge Works $ 21.95 ISBN: 1882593944 Date: 2004Kirkus
With this striking novel, Edward Jae-Suk Lee delivers the beautifully and poignantly told story of Gabriel Cuttman, an aging Korean War veteran--a good man who has done bad things and is struggling with a terrible secret.
Updated 5.31.07 - The Autobiography of God
Author: Lester, Julius
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312288204 Date: 2004LJ
From the author of Lovesong: Becoming a Jew comes this provocative new novel that asks the question: If God exists, then how could he allow the Holocaust to happen?
Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
Updated 11.2.04 - Banishing Verona
Author: Livesey, Margot
Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805074627 Date: 2004PWKirkusLJ
Deftly plotted and filled with unexpected twists, Banishing Verona marks the arrival of another lyrical and wise novel from a writer whose work "radiates with compassion and intelligence and always, deliciously, mystery" (Alice Sebold).
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.7.04 - Serving Crazy With Curry
Author: Malladi, Amulya
Publisher: Ballantine $ 12.95 ISBN: 0345466128 Date: 2004LJ
Malladi tells of a woman's struggle for acceptance by her traditional Indian family.
Suggested Reading: Stars of India
Updated 10.7.04 - Wild Rose
Author: Morren, Ruth Axtell
Publisher: Steeple Hill $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0373785275 Date: 2004Booklist
An outcast all her life, Geneva Patterson endures the cruel taunts of the townspeople. Once a respected sea captain, Caleb Phelps moves to her small Maine town after he is accused of a shameful crime. Through God's grace, Geneva and Caleb try to find redemption and love.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - Runaway
Author: Munro, Alice
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 140004281x Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
Alice Munro's superb new collection contains stories about women of all ages and circumstances, from a young woman who wants to leave her husband and a country girl who takes a job at a resort hotel to a woman who can foresee the future and its consequences.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 10.12.04 - Magic Seeds
Author: Naipaul, V.S.
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0375407367 Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
A present-moment novel that takes readers into the hearts and minds of those who use terrorism as an ideal and a way of life, this is a moving tale of a man searching for his life and fearing he has wasted it, and the conflicts between the rich and the poor.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.7.05 - The Power of Two
Author: O'Shea, Patti
Publisher: Lovespell $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0505525933 Date: 2004Booklist
In the fourth title of this futuristic, action-adventure series, elite operative Cai Randolph must find an enigmatic figure named Banzai McGuire. Now more than ever Cai needs her partner, the dark-souled Jacob Tucker, to trust her completely.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 11.29.04 - Strike the Harp: American Christmas Stories
Author: Parry, Owen
Publisher: Morrow $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060572361 Date: 2004Kirkus
From the celebrated author of Our Simple Gifts, comes an all-new collectionof heartwarming holiday tales.
Suggested Reading: Christmas Stars
Updated 8.25.04 - Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2
Author: Proulx, Annie
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743257995 Date: 2004Kirkus
From Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Annie Proulx comes a stellar collection of short stories set in Wyoming.
Updated 9.24.04 - Zanna's GIft: A Life in Christmases
Author: Richards, Scott
Publisher: Forge $ 12.95 ISBN: 0765312379 Date: 2004LJ
From the pen of a masterful storyteller comes a touching and inspirational story of love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas that is sure to become a timeless classic that will be passed from generation to generation.
Suggested Reading: Christmas Stars
Updated 11.2.04 - The Retreat
Author: Rimbaud, Patrick
Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871138778 Date: 2004PWKirkus
A gripping historical novel focused on Napoleon's dramatic invasion of Russia, The Retreat is a stirring follow-up to The Battle, winner of France's Goncourt Prize.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 11.22.04 - Gilead
Author: Robinson, Marilynne
Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374153892 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
In 1956, toward the end of Rev. John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. This is also the tale of wisdom forged during his solitary life and how history lives through generations, pervasively present even when betrayed and forgotten.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Epistolary Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - The Godfather Returns
Author: Winegardner, Mark
Publisher: Random $ 26.95 ISBN: 1400061016 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Winegardner--whose proposal for this novel was chosen in an international competition--brings new artistry and vision to Mario Puzo's mythic characters.
Suggested Reading: Mobbed Up
Updated 12.6.04 - Big Breasts and Wide Hips
Author: Yan, Mo
Publisher: Arcade $ 27 ISBN: 1559706724 Date: 2004PW
The winner of China's most prestigious prize for fiction--soon banned after it ran afoul of the guardians of official morality--spans seven time periods, from the end of the Qing dynasty to China's post-Mao years, presenting the female body as the book's most important image and metaphor.
Updated 11.22.04
October
- Human Capital
Author: Amidon, Stephen
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374173508 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
As the fortunes of two crumbling families become perilously interwoven, a terrible accident leads one of the patriarchs to begin speculating with human lives instead of money. The unforeseen consequences bring the novel to a devastating climax.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 9.7.04 - The Darling
Author: Banks, Russell
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060197358 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklist
Raising serious philosophical questions about terrorism, political violence, and the clash of races and cultures, this political/historical thriller is Russell Banks at his best.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.12.04 - Before You Know Kindness
Author: Bohjalian, Christopher
Publisher: Crown $ 25 ISBN: 1400047455 Date: 2004Booklist
For ten summers, the extended Seton family met at their country home in New Hampshire to spend a week together playing tennis and badminton and golf, and drinking gin and tonics on the homestead porch to celebrate the end of the season. But during the 11th summer, everything changes after a terrible accident.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars
Updated 8.13.04 - 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 | Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 7.12.04 - The Green Age of Asher Witherow
Author: Cunningham, M. Allen
Publisher: Unbridled $ 24.95 ISBN: 1932961003 Date: 2004LJ
Rich in historical detail, this gorgeously written debut novel tells the story of a young soul coming of age during the boom and bust years of a California Welsh coal mining in the 1860-70s. M. Allen Cunnignham writes about a place at once gritty, yet magical. He captures an intimate connection between the characters and a sweeping landscape, where the future seems filled with promise but where a day's labor is bone breaking and dangerous. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 8.16.04 - What You've Been Missing
Author: Desaulniers, Janet
Publisher: Univ of Iowa $ 15.95 ISBN: 087745910x Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.9.04 - Red Queen: A Transcultural Tragicomedy
Author: Drabble, Margaret
Publisher: Harcourt $ 24 ISBN: 0151011060 Date: 2004KirkusPWLJBooklist
Prior to her impending trip to Seoul, Barbara Halliwell receives a memoir of a Korean crown princess, written more than 200 years ago. But from whom? The story she avidly reads turns out to be one of great intrigue as well as tragedy.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Cheat and Charmer
Author: Frank, Elizabeth
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400060915 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
Twenty-five years in the making, a first novel that has already been compared to The Sun Also Rises and The Last Tycoon, Cheat and Charmer is certain to be one of the most admired literary debuts of the season. Written by Pulitzer Prize--winning biographer Elizabeth Frank, Cheat and Charmer is a masterful and richly detailed work of fiction-a Tolstoyan novel of marriage, sisterhood, art, politics, compromise, and betrayal set in Hollywood, New York, Paris, and London of the 1950s. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | McCarthyism Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Early Leaving
Author: Goldman, Judy
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060594586 Date: 2004LJ
From the critically acclaimed author of The Slow Way Back comes this piercingly honest, stunning portrait of a mother whose overwhelming love has dark repercussions for her only child.
Updated 8.16.04 - The Coal Tattoo
Author: House, Silas
Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565123689 Date: 2004PW
House's masterful third novel tells the story of how two sisters--who can't live together yet can't bear to be apart--learn to live through their painful pasts and need each other once again. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 8.2.04 - War Trash
Author: Jin, Ha
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375422765 Date: 2004PWKirkusBooklistLJ
Ha Jin's masterful new novel casts a searchlight into a forgotten corner of modern history, the experience of Chinese soldiers held in U.S. POW camps during the Korean War. In 1951 Yu Yuan, a scholarly and self-effacing clerical officer in Mao's "volunteer" army, is taken prisoner south of the 38th Parallel. Because he speaks English, he soon becomes an intermediary between his compatriots and their American captors.
With Yuan as guide, we are ushered into the secret world behind the barbed wire, a world where kindness alternates with blinding cruelty and one has infinitely more to fear from one's fellow prisoners than from the guards. Vivid in its historical detail, profound in its imaginative empathy, War Trash is Ha Jin's most ambitious book to date.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - Trespassing
Author: Khan, Uzma Aslam
Publisher: Metropolitan $ 27 ISBN: 0805075747 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.9.04 - Janet & Me
Author: Mack, Stan
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14 ISBN: 0684872781 Date: 2004LJPW
Featuring his trademark documentary cartooning style, acclaimed journalist-artist Stan Mack chronicles a poignant, unflinching, and intensely personal story of love and loss, and the remarkable relationship at the heart of it all.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 11.2.04 - Ghost in the Shell
Author: Massamune, Shirow
Publisher: Dark Horse $ 24.95 ISBN:1593072287 Date: 2004PW
Deep into the 21st century, the line between man and machine has been inexorably blurred. In this rapidly converging landscape, cyborg super-agent Major Motoko Kusanagi is charged to track down the most dangerous terrorists and cybercriminals, including "ghost hackers," capable of exploiting the human/machine interface by reprogramming human minds to become puppets to carry out their criminal ends.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - Gilgamesh: A New English Version
Author: Mitchell, Stephen (ed)
Publisher: Free $ 24 ISBN: 074326164x Date: 2004PW
In the tradition of Seamus Heaney's bestselling translation of Beowulf comes a brilliant new rendering of the oldest epic in the world by esteemed translator and bestselling author Stephen Mitchell.
Updated 8.16.04 - Astonishing Splashes of Colour
Author: Morrall, Clare
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060734450 Date: 2004LJ
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this compelling novel takes its title from J.M. Barrie's description of Peter Pan's Neverland and follows the life of Kitty, a woman who, in a sense, has never grown up.
Updated 7.13.04 - Run No More
Author: Mulvany, Catherine
Publisher: Pocket Star $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0743493834 Date: 2004Booklist
This first novel by a talented newcomer is a stunning paranormal romantic suspense tale about a woman who must travel through time to save the man she loves.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Romance Stars
Updated 9.7.04 - The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great
Author: Pressfield, Steven
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385500998 Date: 2004Kirkus
In the brilliantly imagined first-person voice of Alexander the Great, acclaimed novelist Pressfield brings to life his epic battles, his unerring command of his forces, and the passions and ambitions that drove him.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Ancient Greece
Updated 7.26.04 - Get Your War On 2
Author: Rees, David
Publisher: Riverhead $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 1594480486 Date: 2004PW
The brilliant, irreverent clipart comic returns in this hilarious sequel to the smash cult hit.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 8.23.04 - Shantaram
Author: Roberts, Gregory
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312330529 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Based directly upon the experiences of its author, Shantaram is the story of a man who escapes from a maximum security in Australia to arrive in Bombay, the crossroads of the underworld, where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.
Updated 8.2304 - Northern Lights
Author: Roberts, Nora
Publisher: Putnam $ 25.95 ISBN: 0399152059 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Lunacy was Nate Burke's last chance. As a Baltimore cop, he'd watched his partner die on the street--and the guilt still haunts him. With nowhere else to go, he accepts the job as Chief of Police in this tiny, remote Alaskan town, where he unearths the secrets and suspicions that lurk beneath Lunacy's placid surface. And his discovery will threaten the new life--and the new love--that he has finally found for himself.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 9.6.04 - Playing With Boys
Author: Rodriguez, Alisa Valdes
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312332343 Date: 2004LJ
Marcella, Olivia, and Alexis--each a Latina in her late twenties--bond not only over the trouble with men but about how tough it is to make life work in Los Angeles, no matter what you do. Playing with Boys is the vibrant new novel by the bestselling author of The Dirty Girls Social Club.
Suggested Reading: Latino/Latina Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - The Plot Against America
Author: Roth, Philip
Publisher: Houghton $ 26 ISBN: 0618509283 Date: 2004KirkusPWBooklistLJ
In this alternate history, Pulitzer Prize-winner Roth considers what it would be like for his Newark family--and for a million such families all over the country--during the menacing years of a Charles Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews would have every reason to expect the worst.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Alternative History | Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 9.22.04 - The Christmas Matchmaker
Author: Savery, Jeanne
Publisher: Zebra $ 4.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821776533 Date: 2004Booklist
It's a Christmas full of unexpected romance when a man rescues a widow and her child from a raging snowstorm and brings them along to a house party for the holidays.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Christmas Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - The Saint of Incipient Insanities
Author: Shafak, Elif
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374253579 Date: 2004Booklist
Shafak tells a comic and heartbreaking story of a group of twentysomething friends and their never-ending quest for fulfillment, presenting a vibrant exploration of love, friendship, culture, nationality, exile, and belonging.
Updated 9.22.04 - In
the Land of Second Chances
Author: Shaffner, George
Publisher: Algonquin $ 21.95 ISBN: 1565124405 Date: 2004Kirkus
Reminiscent of It's a Wonderful Life, a captivating novel about the valuable lessons a small town learns from a mysterious traveling salesman.
Updated 7.26.04 - The Last Song of Dusk
Author: Shanghvi, Siddharth Dhanvant
Publisher: Arcade $ 23.95 ISBN: 1559707348 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 9.9.04 - Snowleg
Author: Shakespeare, Nicholas
Publisher: Harcourt $ 25 ISBN: 015101146x Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
The award-winning writer of The Dancer Upstairs presents this beautifully written, sensitive story that spans the Cold War in 1960s East Germany to the 1980s, about one man's longing for a love he had the chance to grasp but failed to take.
Updated 9.20.04 - The Jungle
Author: Sinclair, Upton - Peter Kuper
Publisher: Comics Lit $ 15.95 ISBN: 1561634042 Date: 2004PW
Peter Kuper's Classics Illustrated adaptation of Upton Sinclair's whistle-blowing novel on the conditions at the Chicago slaughter houses in the early 20th century is brought back to press in a beautiful larger size hardcover. One of his best and most poignant works, this seminal novel created a scandal and brought about legislation of the meatpacking industry.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - System of the World
Author: Stephenson, Neal
Publisher: Morrow $ 27.95 ISBN: 0060523875 Date: 2004KirkusPWLJ
New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson pens the final volume in his hugely ambitious and compelling epic of intrigue, adventure, and excitement, filled with a remarkable cast of characters in a time of genius, discovery, and change.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | All Stars
Updated 9.22.04 - The Send-Away Girl
Author: Sutton, Barbara
Publisher: Univ of Georgia $ 24.95 ISBN: 0820326550 Date: 2004Booklist
Barbara Sutton's quirky debut collection tracks the emotional journeys of characters struggling to find harmonious relationships with the people they are expected to love and be loved by. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 8.13.04 - A Complicated Kindness
Author: Toews, Miriam
Publisher: Counterpoint $ 23 ISBN: 1582433216 Date: 2004Booklist
This landmark literary novel balances unbearable sadness and beauty in the voice of a witty, beleaguered teenager whose family is destroyed by fundamentalist Christianity.
Suggested Reading: Questions of Faith
Updated 9.22.04 - Soul City
Author: Toure
Publisher: Little Brown $ 19.95 ISBN: 0316741582 Date: 2004LJ
From the popular author of the groundbreaking debut The Portable Promised Land comes an inventive and hilarious first novel about an African-American utopia threatened by the darker side of human nature.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | African American Stars
Updated 10.7.04 - A Bit on the Side: Stories
Author: Trevor, William
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 067003343x Date: 2004PWKirkusBooklist
From the bestselling author of The Story of Lucy Gault, Death in Summer, After Rain, and Felicia's Journey comes a collection of short fiction. Trevor is a regular contributor to "The New Yorker" magazine.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.7.04 - Villages
Author: Updike, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400042909 Date: 2004LJ
Updated 10.7.04 - Honored Guest
Author: Williams, Joy
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0679446478 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Updated 9.7.04
September
- 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 | Summertime Stars
Updated 9.6.04 - The Clerkenwell Tales
Author: Ackroyd, Peter
Publisher: Doubleday $ 24.95 ISBN: 0385511213 Date: 2004KirkusPW
This clever and colourful novel begins with "The Nun's Tale, and continues with "The Friar's Tale, "The Merchant's Tale and "The Clerk's Tale. Thus, story by story, Peter Ackroyd builds his portrait of medieval London. The people are disenchanted with the Church, with its wealth and corruption, its Pope in Rome and its Pope in Avignon. But heresy is dangerous -- almost as dangerous as rebellion. This is a novel about spies and counterspies, radicals and idealists, murderers and arsonists, sects and secret societies. It is a tale richly atmospheric and satisfying in its historical detail. - Publishers Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 7.19.04 - 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.
Suggested Reading: Antiques Mysteries | Romance Stars
Updated 7.13.04 - The Librarian
Author: Beinhart, Larry
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 15.95 (paper) ISBN: 1560256362 Date: 2004Kirkus
The acclaimed Edgar-winning mystery writer returns with this timely election novel that is to the present administration what his American Hero (filmed as Wag the Dog) was to Bush senior.
Suggested Reading: Political Fiction
Updated 8.9.04 - When
the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories
Author: Benioff, David
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670033391 Date: 2004PW
From one of Hollywood's hottest young screenwriters and the widely acclaimed author of The 25th Hour comes a collection of cool, urbane, and skillfully crafted stories.
Updated 7.6.04 - Katya
Author: Birdsell, Sandra
Publisher: Milkweed $ 24 ISBN: 1571310436 Date: 2004LJ
Published in Canada as The Russlander, this historical novel is set in 1917 Russia and depicts peaceful lives uprooted by revolution.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - Liberating Paris
Author: Bloodworth-Thomason, Linda
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060596708 Date: 2004PW
The creator of TV's Designing Women makes her publishing debut with this story of small town American life--the story of six friends on the verge of middle age who must come to terms with the past in order to claim the future for themselves and their children.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 8.9.04 - The Inner Circle
Author: Boyle, T.C.
Publisher: Viking $ 25.95 ISBN: 0670033448 Date: 2004BooklistPWLJ
Fresh on the heels of his bestselling Drop City, Boyle's tenth novel features fabulous characters, a rollicking plot, and more sex than pioneering researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey ever dreamed of documenting . . . or almost.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 7.13.04 - The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
Author: Braff, Joshua
Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN:1565124200 Date: 2004Booklist
A hilarious and heartbreaking novel about the unreasonable expectations a narcissistic father places on his less-than-perfect son.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 7.6.04 - My Pleasure
Author: Brockway, Connie
Publisher: Pocket $ 6.99 ISBN: 0743463234 Date: 2004Booklist
In the second title in the Regency-era Rose Hunters trilogy, Helena Nash works as the companion of an overbearing society matron and her great-niece, Flora. When Helena helps Flora secretly marry a poor nobleman, her actions lead her to the dangerous side of London and into the arms of swordsman Ramsey Munro.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 11.2.04 - Florence of Arabia
Author: Buckley, Christopher
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400062233 Date: 2004Kirkus
A merciless dismantling of both American ineptitude and Arabic intolerance, Florence of Arabia is Christopher Buckley's funniest and most serious novel yet, a biting satire of how U.S. good intentions can cause the Shiite to hit the fan.
Suggested Reading: Satire
Updated 8.25.04 - Madeleine is Sleeping
Author: Bynum, Sarah Shun-Lien
Publisher: Harcourt $ 22 ISBN: 0151010595 Date: 2004PW
Updated 6.7.04 - Safelight
Author: Burke, Shannon
Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 1400062012 Date: 2004KirkusLJ
It’s 1990, and New York City is in shambles: unemployment reigns, crack wars rage, and whole neighborhoods burn as delinquent landlords cash in. Struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, paramedic and photographer Frank Verbeckas descends into the chaos and misery of upper Manhattan, taking photographs of the ill, the wounded, the dying, and the down-and-out. Accompanying him on his wanderings are his loudmouthed partner, Burnett; his best friend, Hock, who boosts drugs from the hospital; and his brother, Norman, a surgeon who can’t understand why Frank is in such pain. Frank’s ruin seems inevitable, but when he meets Emily, a professional fencer whose days are numbered by a fatal illness, his world changes. Against everyone’s advice, Frank and Emily fall in love. Together, they try to find a way out of the murk of guilt and sadness and learn to draw meaning and beauty from despair.In short, cinematic scenes, with not a word wasted and nothing told that can be shown, Shannon Burke leads us on a powerful journey through the darkest precincts of the street and of the soul. Honest, terse, and enormously moving, Safelight is a debut of remarkable depth, a stunning, clear-eyed, and sympathetic portrait of American life and death–a love story not for the faint of heart. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | African American Stars
Updated 9.22.04 - The Collected Stories of Truman Capote
Author: Capote, Truman
Publisher: Modern Library $ 24.95 ISBN: 0679643109 Date: 2004Booklist
Updated 9.7.04 - Crystal Lies
Author: Carlson, Melody
Publisher: Waterbrook $ 12.99 ISBN: 1578568404 Date: 2004Booklist
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - The Children's War
Author: Charlesworth, Monique
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400040094 Date: 2004KirkusPW
Interweaving the stories of Ilse, a half-Jewish girl, and Nicolai, a Hitler Youth, The Children's War is a gripping, unforgettable story of growing up in a world gone mad.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Child Soldiers | World Wars
Updated 8.16.04 - Apocalypse Then: Stories
Author: DeMarinis, Rick
Publisher: Seven Stories $ 22.95 ISBN: 1583226370 Date: 2004Booklist
Updated 10.4.04 - Queen of Dreams
Author: Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee
Publisher: Doubleday $ 21.95 ISBN: 0385506821 Date: 2004BooklistLJ
In lush and elegant prose, Divakaruni has crafted a vivid and enduring dream--the story of Rakhi, a young artist, who finds solace in a dream journal written by her recently deceased mother.
Suggested Reading: Stars of India
Updated 7.6.04 - Life Mask
Author: Donoghue, Emma
Publisher: Harcourt $ 26 ISBN: 0151009430 Date: 2004KirkusPW
The bestselling author of Slammerkin turns her attention to the Beau Monde of late 18th-century England, transforming the private drama of three celebrated Londoners into a robust, full-bodied portrait of a world, and lives, on the brink of revolution.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 7.26.04 - Curse of the Appropriate Man
Author: Freed, Lynn
Publisher: Harvest $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0156029944 Date: 2004Kirkus
This collection of 14 short stories deals with the struggles between mothers and their wayward daughters, the often preposterous bonds that tie men and women together, and the complex games masters and servants play with one another.
Updated 7.26.04 - The Divine Husband
Author: Goldman, Francisco
Publisher: Atlantic $ 24 ISBN: 0871139154 Date: 2004Booklist
Acclaimed and award-winning author Goldman delivers his third novel, a masterpiece love story, supported by an unforgettable cast of characters striving for love or success in the heady late 19th-century atmosphere of Guatemala City and New York.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 8.13.04 - The Pacific and Other Stories
Author: Helprin, Mark
Publisher: Penguin $ 25.95 ISBN: 159420036x Date: 2004PWLJBooklist
This collection of 16 stories displays the remarkable scope, incomparable wit, and deft prose that have come to be Helprin's signature. Lighthearted, glittering fables are met with starker tales that sound the depths of sacrifice and duty.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Tokyo Tribes
Author: Inoue, Santa
Publisher: Tokyopop $ 9.95 (paper) ISBN: 1595321861 Date: 2004PW
Tokyo Tribes paints a vivid, somewhat surreal vision of urban youth. When the heat between two of Tokyo's gangs gets personal, a bitter rivalry explodes into all-out warfare.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 9.27.04 - The Love Wife
Author: Jen, Gish
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400042135 Date: 2004LJPW
From the highly praised author of Mona in the Promised Land and Who's Irish? comes a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family.
Updated 7.26.04 - 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: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 8.16.04 - The Weatherman
Author: McCown, Clint
Publisher: Graywolf $ 23 ISBN: 1555974058 Date: 2004LJ
Responsibility, free will, and fate loom large in McCown's hilarious, suspenseful new novel. Taylor Wakefield uses his position as an unqualified weatherman for a fly-by-night broadcasting company to try to drop hints about his cousin's guilt in a murder case.
Suggested Reading: Stormy Weather
Updated 9.20.04 - The Secret Goldfish: Stories
Author: Means, David
Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 22.95 ISBN: 007164890 Date: 2004PWLJ
From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning author of Assorted Fire Events comes an extraordinary story collection.
Updated 8.16.04 - The Butler Did It
Author: Michaels, Kasey
Publisher: Harlequin $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0373770065 Date: 2004PW
In this brand-new Regency romance, Morgan Drummond, the Marquis of Westham, finds his passions stirred when he meets debutante Emma Clifford, who is staying at his residence thanks to the Drummond's enterprising butler and a discreet classified ad.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 8.23.04 - April Fool's Day
Author: Novakovich, Josip
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060583975 Date: 2004Kirkus
"In this harrowing and hilarious novel, Josip Novakovich's wry Croatian Candide is our sympathetic guide through the recent history of the Balkans, and through the pleasures and sorrows of an ordinary and extraordinary life."--Francine Prose.
Suggested Reading: Former Yugoslavia
Updated 7.26.04 - The Falls
Author: Oates, Joyce Carol
Publisher: Ecco $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060722282 Date: 2004KirkusPW
In her new novel, set against the mythic-historic backdrop of Niagara Falls in the mid-20th century, Joyce Carol Oates explores the American family in crisis.
Updated 7.6.04 - Heir
to the Glimmering World
Author: Ozick, Cynthia
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618470492 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistOW
Ozick pays homage to the most beloved writers of the 19th century--Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot--in a story set on the outskirts of the Bronx in the 1930s.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 8.9.04 - The Fearless Man
Author: Pfarer, Donald
Publisher: Random $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400062675 Date: 2004PW
Updated 10.12.04 - The Skin of the Sky
Author: Poinatowska, Elena
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374265755 Date: 2004LJBooklist
The Skin of the Sky details the efforts of a country to join the 21st century and paints the portrait of a lonely man who can find true contentment and satisfaction only in the stars.
Updated 10.19.04 - The First Desire
Author: Reisman, Nancy
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375423087 Date: 2004PW
A debut novel "of startling assurance and poise" (Nicholas Delbanco, author of What Remains), The First Desire takes readers back to the 1929 disappearance of Goldie Cohen and what happened to her family during the tumultuous years that followed.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 7.19.04 - Joy Comes in the Morning
Author: Rosen, Jonathan
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374180261 Date: 2004PW
Compassionate rabbi Deborah Green is drawn into the world of a Holocaust survivor who has recently attempted suicide. When she becomes involved with his son, their hesitant, often awkward courtship reawakens hope in the midst of chaos.
Updated 7.12.04 - The Painting
Author: Schuyler, Nina
Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565124413 Date: 2004LJ
Set in 1870s Japan and France, this atmospheric novel tells the story of a Japanese woman who escapes her arranged marriage by painting memories of her lover, which she secretly sends to an importer in Paris.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - A Handbook of American Prayer
Author: Shepard, Lucius
Publisher: Thunder's Mouth $ 22 ISBN: 1568582811 Date: 2004PW
Updated 11.2.04 - Fire Point
Author: Smolens, John
Publisher: Crown $ 22 ISBN: 0609611046 Date: 2004PW
From the author of Cold comes a suspenseful, atmospheric story of love, revenge, and redemption set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Updated 7.26.04 - The Finishing School
Author: Spark, Muriel
Publisher: Doubleday $ 16.95 ISBN: 0385512821 Date: 2004KirkusPW
From the author of Aiding and Abetting comes the story of a school master at a vaguely dubious finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and his jealously over a student prodigy with a historical novel already in progress.
Suggested Reading: School Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - Unfinished Life
Author: Spragg, Mark
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 1400042011 Date: 2004LJBooklist
Updated 6.1.04 - 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 | All Stars| Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 9.20.04 - Little Earthquakes
Author: Weiner, Jennifer
Publisher: Atria $ 26 ISBN: 0743470095 Date: 2004LJPW
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Her Shoes comes a hilarious and warmhearted story of three young women who find friendship against the background of new motherhood.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit Stars
Updated 9.18.04 - 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
Updated 8.25.04 - Broken As Things Are
Author: Witt, Martha
Publisher: Holt $ 23 ISBN: 080507595x Date: 2004Kirkus
"A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." - E. L. Doctorow. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 6.10.04 - 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 - Songbird
Author: Zacharius, Walter
Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743482115 Date: 2004Booklist
In this haunting and moving debut novel that echoes the emotional intensity of The Pianist, a young woman must rely on her remarkable strength of character in order to survive the devastation of World War II.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars | Debuts | World War Stars
Updated 6.10.04
August
- Harbor
Author: Adams, Lorraine
Publisher: Knopf $ 23.95 ISBN: 140004233x Date: 2004KirkusPW
A powerful first novel that engages the tumultuous events of today: at once an intimate portrait of a group of young Arab Muslims living in the United States, and the story of one man's journey into-and out of-violence.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 6.14.04 - Checkpoint
Author: Baker, Nicholson
Publisher: Knopf $ 15.95 ISBN: 1400044006 Date: 2004Kirkus
From Nicholson Baker, best-selling author of Vox and the most original writer of his generation, his most audacious novel yet.
Meet Jay. Meet Ben.
Jay has summoned his old friend Ben to a hotel room not far from the nation's capitol. During the course of an afternoon, they will share a delicious lunch and will crack open a bottle of wine from the hotel minibar. They will chat about everything from Ben's new camera to Iraq to the unfortunate fate of a particular free-range chicken.
And Jay will explain to Ben exactly why and how he is planning to commit a murder that will change the course of history.
Updated 8.9.04 - The Last Night of a Damned Soul
Author: Benaissa, Slimane
Publisher: Grove $ 24 ISBN: 0802117805 Date: 2004LJ
This extraordinary novel by an award-winning Algerian author tells the story of a young man from a moderate Arab-American family who is enticed into a Muslim fundamentalist group through his boss and a Palestinian coworker, and winds up conspiring to plot a terrorist attack.
Updated 9.20.04 - The Lovers
of Algeria
Author: Benmalek, Anouar
Publisher: Graywolf $ 16 (paper) ISBN: 155597404x Date: 2004PWLJ
Updated 8.16.04 - Complete Short Novels
Author: Chekhov, Anton
Publisher: Everymans $ 23 ISBN: 1400040493 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 6.30.04 - Last Call: Stories
Author: Cook, K.L.
Publisher: Univ of Nebraska $ 25 ISBN: 0803215401 Date: 2004Kirkus
Updated 8.25.04 - Birds Without Wings
Author: De Bernieres, Louis
Publisher: Knopf $ 25.95 ISBN: 1400043417 Date: 2004LJBooklist
Louis de Bernieres's last novel, Corelli's Mandolin, was met with the highest praise: "Behind every page," said Richard Russo, "we sense its author's intelligence, wit, heart, imagination, and wisdom. This is a great book." A. S. Byatt placed the author in "the direct line that runs through Dickens and Evelyn Waugh." Now, de Bernieres gives us his long-awaited new novel. Huge, resonant, lyrical, filled with humor and pathos, a novel about the political and personal costs of war, and of love-between men and women, between friends, between those who are driven to be enemies. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 9.22.04 - Sammy's Hill
Author: Gore, Kristin
Publisher: Miramax $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401352197 Date: 2004BooklistLJ
Kristin Gore, comedy writer and daughter of Tipper and Al Gore, makes her hilarious and touching fiction debut with a poignant look at Capitol Hill as seen through the eyes of a particularly charming young intern.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Political Fiction
Updated 8.16.04 - Maybe Baby
Author: Darlington, Tenaya
Publisher: Back Bay $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0316000752 Date: 2004Kirkus
Darlington's quirky sense of humor and emotional honesty is sure to appeal to fans of such critical and commercial successes as Aimee Bender, Meghan Daum, and, Haven Kimmel.
Updated 6.30.04 - The Second Life of Samuel Tyne
Author: Edugyan, Esi
Publisher: Amistad $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060736038 Date: 2004PW
Haunting and atmospheric, this debut novel portrays the heartbreak, hardship and moments of surprising grace in the life of a man struggling to realize his destiny.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 7.12.04 - Jigs & Reels: Stories
Author: Harris, Joanne
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060590130 Date: 2004LJ
A volume of refreshingly unique short fiction is delivered by the bestselling author of Coastliners and Chocolat.
Updated 8.16.04 - The Silver Screen
Author: Howard, Maureen
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033588 Date: 2004Booklist
The Silver Screen is the third in a series of novels that began with A Love's Almanac and Big as Life--each is complete on its own, but the characters and themes are woven as a tapestry of the four seasons.
Updated 6.1.04 - The Wasp Eater
Author: Lychak, William
Publisher: Houghton $ 21 ISBN: 0618302441 Date: 2004LJKirkus
Set in an old New England mill town in 1979, The Wasp Eater is the story of a nine-year-old boy's dream of reuniting his estranged parents, and is a haunting tale of characters caught in the crossfire of their desires and fears.
Updated 7.8.04 - Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman
Author: Mattison, Alice
Publisher: Morrow $23.95 ISBN: 0066213789 Date: 2004Kirkus
From critically acclaimed author Mattison comes a lyrical and moving meditation on love, marriage, and identity.
Updated 6.1.04 - Being Committed
Author: Maxted, Anna
Publisher: Regan $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060096691 Date: 2004PW
In this fourth hilarious yet poignant novel, Maxted takes a funny, rueful look at intimacy (and its substitutes), commitment phobia, and the power others have over us.
Suggested Reading: Chicklit
Updated 7.26.04 - Cloud Atlas
Author: Mitchell, David
Publisher: Random $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0375507256 Date: 2004Kirkus
From David Mitchell, the Booker Prize nominee, award-winning writer and one of the featured authors in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2003 issue, comes his highly anticipated third novel, a work of mind-bending imagination and scope.
Updated 5.10.04 - The Tree Bride
Author: Mukherjee, Bharati
Publisher: Hyperion $ 25.95 ISBN: 1401300588 Date: 2004BooklistPW
In piecing together her ancestor's transformation from a docile Bengali Brahmin girl-child into an impassioned organizer of resistance against the British Raj, the contemporary narrator discovers and lays claim to unacknowledged elements in her "American" identity.
Suggested Reading: Stars of India
Updated 8.16.04 - An Evening of Long Goodbyes
Author: Murray, Paul
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061164 Date: 2004KirkusBooklistPW
Vastly entertaining and outright hilarious, Paul Murray's debut heralds the arrival of a major new Irish talent. His protagonist is endearing and wildly witty-part P. G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster, with a cantankerous dash of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly thrown in. With its rollicking plot and colorful characters, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is a delightful and erudite comedy of epic proportions.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Debuts
Updated 6.30.04 - Waiting for Teddy Williams
Author: Mosher, Howard Frank
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618197222 Date: 2004PW
Haunted by a dark mystery in his family's past, eight-year-old E.A. is an outcast in his Vermont town, except when it comes to baseball. A drifter named Teddy, who is determined to do one decent thing in his life, teaches E.A. how to really play ball.
Updated 6.14.04 - Snow
Author: Pamuk, Orhan
Publisher: Knopf $ 26 ISBN: 0375406972 Date: 2004PW
From the acclaimed author of My Name Is Red comes a spellbinding tale of colliding romantic, political, and spiritual passions. Ka, a Turkish poet, is drained of feeling and inspiration by years of lonely political exile in Germany. But when he becomes stranded in a Turkish border town, he will discover whether he is brave enough to seize a last chance for happiness.
Updated 7.19.04 - Jimbo in Purgatory
Author: Panter, Gary
Publisher: Fantographics $ 29.95 ISBN: 1560975725 Date: 2004PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 8.16.04 - Saints at the River
Author: Rash, Ron
Publisher: Holt $ 24 ISBN: 0805074872 Date: 2004Kirkus
Drawing on the same lyrical prose and strong sense of place that distinguished his award-winning first novel, One Foot in Eden, Ron Rash has written a book about the deepest human themes: the love of the land, the hold of the dead on the living, and the need to dive beneath the surface to arrive at a deeper truth. Saints at the River confirms the arrival of one of today's most gifted storytellers. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 5.10.04 - Sweet and Vicious
Author: Schickler, David
Publisher: Dial $ 23 ISBN: 0385335687 Date: 2004KirkusBooklist
In this first novel, the acclaimed author of Kissing Manhattan brings readers a larger-than-life legend of a tough guy on the run and the outrageous woman who tames his spirit. Passionate, criminal, comical and possessing all the dark enchantment of a fairy tale, Sweet and Vicious is a modern love story shot straight from the heart of David Schickler's miraculous imagination. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Driven Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Strange but True
Author: Searles, John
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0688175716 Date: 2004PW
Hailed as "a masterful storyteller (Frank McCourt), the author of Boy Still Missing is back with a haunting new novel of family, mystery, and miracles.
Updated 7.6.04 - No Dark Valley
Author: Turner, Jamie Langston
Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 ISBN: 0764227300 Date: 2004Booklist
When Celia's grandmother dies, she must return to the small Southern town she hoped never to see again. In this masterfully written, inspiring story of reconciliation, Celia and the guilt-ridden next-door neighbor will both come to recognize the vastness of God's grace.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 9.7.04 - Colors Insulting to Nature
Author: Wilson, Cintra
Publisher: Fourth Estate $ 24.95 ISBN: 0007154607 Date: 2004Booklist
"The publisher is reputedly bouncing up and down about this first novel by pop culture doyenne Wilson, whose columns can be spotted on Salon.com. Teenaged Liza wants to be a starlet, but she is really something much more special."--Library Journal.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 7.6.04
July
- City of Glass
Author: Auster, Paul, Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli
Publisher: Picador $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0312423608 Date: 2004PW
In Auster's groundbreaking, Edgar Award-nominated masterwork, an unknown voice on the telephone is begging a mystery writer for help, drawing him into a world far stranger than any he has ever created in print.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels and Comic Stars
Updated 5.17.04 - The Lemon Table: Stories
Author: Barnes, Julian
Publisher: Knopf $ 22.95 ISBN: 1400042143 Date: 2004PWBooklist
Master prose stylist Julian Barnes presents a collection of stories whose characters are growing old and facing the end of their lives--some with bitterness, some with resignation, and others with raging defiance.
Updated 6.15.04 - Let the Church Say Amen
Author: Billingsley, Reshonda Tate
Publisher: Pocket $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0743477146 Date: 2004LJ
"In her riveting second novel, ReShonda Tate Billingsley -- winner of the Gold Pen Award for Best New Author for My Brother's Keeper -- crafts a bold and heartwarming story of family and faith that will inspire readers everywhere." - Publishers Marketing
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 9.20.04 - Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards
Author: Butler, Robert Olen
Publisher: $ ISBN: Date:BooklistKirkus
In his dazzling new book of stories, Butler explores America by finding artistic inspiration in an unlikely and fascinating place--the backs of postcards from the early 20th century.
Updated 6.1.04 - The Food of Love
Author: Capella, Anthony
Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670033227 Date: 2004LJ
In the spirit of Like Water for Chocolate and Chocolat, Capella's delicious first novel, tempts readers to devour it at one sitting and confirms that fine food and romance are a winning combination.
Suggested Reading: Cooked Books | Debuts
Updated 7.13.04 - Buddy Cooper Finds a Way
Author: Connelly, Neil
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743246640 Date: 2004Kirkus
Reality collides with the world of make-believe in this remarkable debut novel of a man haunted by his past--and terrified of his future.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 4.26.04 - Bad Ground
Author: Cramer, W. Dale
Publisher: Bethany $ 12.99 (paper) ISBN: 076422784x Date: 2004PWBooklistLJ
To honor his mother's dying wish, 17-year-old Jeremy seeks out his bitter, estranged uncle. Despite his uncle's protests, he takes a job as a miner where his faith is tested by gritty coworkers, the threat of danger . . . and the possibility of love.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 6.1.04 - Circus in Winter
Author: Day, Cathy
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 015101048x Date: 2004KirkusLJPW
From 1884 to 1939, the Great Porter Circus made the unlikely choice to winter in an Indiana town called Lima. Day follows a colorful cast of circus people into their everyday lives and brings the greatest show on earth to the page.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Circus Stars | Debuts
Updated 5.17.04 - A Seahorse Year
Author: D'Erasmo, Stacey
Publisher: Houghton $ 24 ISBN: 0618439234 Date: 2004Booklist
D'Erasmo's novel is about love at the very edge, about the things people do out of love, the unexpected risks of intimacy, and how families shatter and re-form under duress.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults
Updated 6.10.04 - The Big Love
Author: Dunn, Sarah
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316738158 Date: 2004PWLJ
Hilarious and heartbreaking, combining the emotional incisiveness of Jane Austen with the up-to-the-minute frankness of Sex and the City, Dunn's latest work will be the passing must-read novel of the summer.
Updated 7.13.04 - Rear View: Stories
Author: Duval, Pete
Publisher: Mariner $ 10.00 (paper) ISBN: 0618441409 Date: 2004Kirkus
Starkly honest, gritty, and at times darkly humorous, the 12 stories in Duval's debut collection feature blue-collar workers, lapsed Catholics, bullies, and smalltime thieves struggling with their jobs, their relationships, and their families.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 6.1.04 - Voyageurs
Author: Elphinstone, Margaret
Publisher: Canongate $ 24 ISBN: 1841955493 Date: 2004Kirkus
Set against the magnificent backdrop of 19th-century Canada, addresses the timeless themes of war, love, and the emotional bonds that bind us to one another.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 6.1.04 - Four Souls
Author: Erdrich, Louise
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0066209757KirkusBooklist
A stunning new novel from one of America's premiere novelists is a book that brings back the characters from her beloved New York Times bestseller, Tracks.
Updated 4.21.04 - Bet Your Bottom Dollar
Author: Gillespie, Karin
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 19.95 ISBN: 0743250109 Date: 2004Kirkus
Serving up heaping portions of small-town wit and Southern cadence, the first novel in the new "Bottom Dollar Girls" series crackles with more secrets thana slumber party.
Updated 5.10.04 - Splitting Storm
Author: Gutteridge, Rene
Publisher: Heartquest $ 9.97 ISBN: 0842386025 Date: 2004Booklist
In this gripping novel with underlying themes of faith and spiritual blindness, FBI agent Mick Klein embarks on a journey to discover the truth about his brother's murder.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 10.4.04 - Mortal Love
Author: Hand, Elizabeth
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0061051705 Date: 2004PWKirkus
The breakout book from