Table of Contents
Most Popular . . .
More . . .
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. . .
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 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 2005
September 9, 2008
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.
A 
indicates a Summer Reading Pick.
June
- Last Resort: A Hideaway Novel
Author: Alexander, Hannah
Publisher: Steeple Hill $ 12.95 ISBN: 0373785402 Date: 2005
LJ
When 12-year-old Clarissa Cooper is abducted near her home, her cousin Noelle rushes to Hideaway to help in the search. Reunited with her childhood friend Nathan Trask, Noelle steps into a web of secrets that has haunted her family for generations.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction
Updated 6.9.05 - Yotsuba & !
Author: Azuma, Kiyohiko
Publisher: ADV $ 9.99 ISBN: 1413903177 Date: 2005PW
From the nutty mind of Kyohiko Azuma, creator of the hit manga Azumanga Daioh comes the story of the new kid in town - little Yotsuba, a green-haired and wide-eyed girl who doesn't have a clue... about anything!
Suggested Reading: Graphic Works & Comics Stars
Updated 5.23.05 - The Wonder Spot
Author: Bank, Melissa
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670034118 Date: 2005PW
Through the eyes of a compelling outsider, this title captures the life cycle of a family and watches their lives--and the outsider's--unfold over the ensuing two decades.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.14.05 - Shadows of Berlin: The Berlin Stories of Dovid Bergelson
Author: Bergelson, Dovid
Publisher: City Lights $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0872864448 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 5.9.05 - It's All Right Now
Author: Chadwick, Charles
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060742860 Date: 2005BooklistPW
This novel spans three decades in the life of its narrator, beginning with his complicated relationships with his wife and children, his neighbors, his parents, girlfriends, colleagues and friends, and his ongoing search for moral and practical certainties.
Updated 4.22.05 - Levi's Will
Author: Cramer, W. Dale
Publisher: Bethany $ 13.99 ISBN: 0764229958 Date: 2005LJBooklist
Nineteen-year-old Will leaves behind his pregnant girlfriend when he flees his Amish community in pursuit of a new life. Years later, Will is unable to regain his father's respect. Can he learn that love, not work, will heal the past and give hope to his family's future?
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 6.20.05 - Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land
Author: Crowley, John
Publisher: Morrow $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060556587 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
Spanning three centuries, Lord Byron's Novel interweaves three separate strands into one magnificent tale: the stories of a lost novel by Lord Byron, the daughter who tried to save it, and the woman who discovered her secret.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Epistolary Stars | Poets
Updated 6.9.05 - Specimen Days
Author: Cunningham, Michael
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374299625 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
The same group of characters, a young boy, an older man, and a young woman, are present in each historical period of this genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in New York. The novel provides a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.18.05 - The Summer We Got Saved
Author: Devoto, Pat Cunningham
Publisher: Warner $ 23.95 ISBN: 0446576964 Date: 2005Booklist
Tab is a budding Archie Bunker until her Aunt whisks her off to a place in the mountains of Tennessee where integration flourishes. Maudie, Tab's childhood friend, couldn't care less about the struggles of her black brother and sisters until she is sent to the backwoods of Alabamato start a voting school for members of the Word of Truth Church. This is a summer with swirling winds of change and no one will be untouched. - Adapted from Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars | Historical Fiction Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 4.22.05 - The Greatest Man in Cedar Hole
Author: Doyon, Stephanie
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743271335 Date: 2005LJ
Cedar Hole is the armpit of fictional Gilford County, a town full of apathetic underachievers trapped by a defunct railroad, distrust of the outside world, and their own lack of imagination. During the annual Train Festival, the citizens are called to declare the "greatest man" in town, and a fierce rivalry ensues.
Updated 7.12.05 - The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
Author: Eco, Umberto
Publisher: Harcourt $ 28 ISBN: 0151011400 Date: 2005KirkusBooklistLJ
To recall his memories, Yambo withdraws to the family home where he searches old newspapers, comics, records, photo albums, and diaries to relive the story of his generation: Mussolini, Catholic education and guilt, Josephine Baker, Flash Gordon, and Fred Astaire.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Love Creeps
Author: Filipacchi, Amanda
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 031234032x Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 5.9.05 - Something Blue
Author: Giffin, Emily
Publisher: St Martins $ 22.95 ISBN: 0312323859 Date: 2005Booklist
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of Something Borrowed comes a novel that shows how someone with a "perfect life" can lose it all--and then find everything.
Suggested Reading: Chick Lit | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.20.05 - Grace at Low Tide
Author: Hart, Beth Webb
Publisher: Westbow $ 13.99 (paper) ISBN: 1595540261 Date: 2005Booklist
When a business venture goes sour, Charleston blue-bloods Billy and Dee DeLoach uproot their family and move into the caretaker's cottage on what was once the family plantation estate on Edisto Island. Their wry, teenage son chronicles the adjustments, tensions, and tragedy.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 10.11.05 - House of Thieves
Author: Hemmings, Kaui Hart
Publisher: Penguin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1594200483 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
These unique stories of upper-class Hawaiian families reveal with unsentimental insight and straightforward prose the complex forces that bind family members together in love and hate.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 6.29.05 - A Long Way Down
Author: Hornby, Nick
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573223026 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
In four distinct and riveting first-person voices, Hornby tells a story of four individuals confronting the limits of choice, circumstance, and their own morality. This is a tale of connections made and missed, punishing regrets, and the grace of second chances.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.25.05 - The Historian
Author: Kostova, Elizabeth
Publisher: Little Brown $ 25.95 ISBN: 0316011770 Date: 2005PWKirkusBooklist
In this riveting debut novel, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could--the quest to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | All Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.20.05 - 44 Scotland Street
Author: McCall Smith, Alexander
Publisher: Anchor $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 1400079446 Date: 2005PW
Love triangles, a lost painting, intriguing new friends, and an encounter with a famous Scottish crime writer are just a few of the ingredients that add to this delightful and witty portrait of Edinburgh society.
Updated 4.25.05 - Twilight
Author: Mosby, Katherine
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0066212715 Date: 2005LJBooklist
This is the unforgettable story of one woman's sexual and political awakening in the years preceding World War II. Lavinia Gibbs avoids a stifling marriage, enraging her socially prominent parents, and sails off to Europe to rebuild and discover her life.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 4.7.05 - The Almond
Author: Nedjma
Publisher: Grove $22 ISBN: 0802118054 Date: 2005PW
An autobiographical erotic novel written by a contemporary woman who is an observant Muslim, The Almond is an extraordinary and pioneering literary work, a truly unforgettable journey into the sexual undercurrents of a world that is, outwardly and to Western eyes, puritanical.
Updated 5.9.05 - Men of Bronze
Author: Oden, Scott
Publisher: Platinum Medallion $ 26.95 ISBN: 193281518x Date: 2005PW
Leading the fight to preserve the soul of Egypt is Hasdrabal Barca, Pharaoh's deadliest killer. When Greek mercenary, Phanes, defects to the Persians, it triggers a savage war that will tax Barca's skills, and his humanity, to the limit.
Suggested Reading: Ancient Greece | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 4.25.05 - Appaloosa
Author: Parker, Robert B.
Publisher: Putnam $ 24.95 ISBN: 0399152776 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshal and a deputy for dead. In Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary who raises the stakes by playing with emotions.
Suggested Reading: Western Stars | All Stars
Updated 3.28.05 - The People of Paper
Author: Plascencia, Salvador
Publisher: McSweeneys $ 22 ISBN: 1932416218 Date: 2005PW
Part memoir, part lies, this imaginative tale is a story about loving a womanmade of paper, about the wounds made by first love and sharp objects.
Updated 5.16.05 - Stolen Magic
Author: Putney, Mary Jo
Publisher: Del Rey $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345476891 Date: 2005Booklist
Entwining fantasy with historical romance, Stolen Magic introduces Simon Malmain, Earl of Falconer, who continues the story line begun in A Kiss of Fate.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.9.05 - Summer's Child
Author: Rice, Luanne
Publisher: Bantam $ 7.50 (paper) ISBN: 0553587625 Date: 2005PW
From the celebrated "New York Times" bestselling author of Beach Girls comes this powerful novel of a mystery, a love affair, and a bond that cannot be broken set in a seaside town where miracles are made.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 5.23.05 - Black Rose
Author: Roberts, Nora
Publisher: Jove $ 7.99 ISBN: 0515138657 Date: 2005PWLJ
The #1 "New York Times" bestselling author presents the second novel of her In the Garden trilogy, as three women discover secrets from the past contained within their historic home.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 6.9.05 - Wars End
Author: Sacco, Joe
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly $ 14.95 ISBN: 1896597920 Date: 2005PWKirkus
War cartoonist Sacco visits the Bosnian conflict to uncover the stories that are often ignored or uncovered by traditional media and gives the reader an inside peek at the darkly humorous news process.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - The Writing on the Wall
Author: Schwartz, Lynne Sharon
Publisher: Counterpoint $ 24 ISBN: 1582432996 Date: 2005LJBooklist
Thirty-four and decidedly independent, Renata has been known to keep her involvement with people--men in particular--to a minimum. Then Jack, patient, solid, and sexy, enters her life. One bright September morning, as Renata walks across the Brooklyn Bridge to work, the sky bursts open and change comes without warning. The Writing on the Wall is a profoundly engaging novel about how one woman saw--and we all continue to ponder--the defining event of our times. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: 9/11 Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.9.05 - Broken Verses
Author: Shamsie, Kamila
Publisher: Harvest $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 0156030535 Date: 2005Kirkus
Fourteen years ago, famous Pakistani activist Samina Akram disappeared. Two years earlier, her lover, Pakistan's greatest poet, was beaten to death by government thugs. In present-day Karachi, her daughter Aasmaani has just discovered a letter in the couple's private code-a letter that could only have been written recently.
Aasmaani is thirty, single, drifting from job to job. Always left behind whenever Samina followed the Poet into exile, she had assumed that her mother's disappearance was simply another abandonment. Then, while working at Pakistan's first independent TV station, Aasmaani runs into an old friend of Samina's who gives her the first letter, then many more. Where could the letters have come from? And will they lead her to her mother?
Merging the personal with the political, Broken Verses is at once a sharp, thrilling journey through modern-day Pakistan, a carefully coded mystery, and an intimate mother-daughter story that asks how we forgive a mother who leaves - Publisher Marketing
Updated 2.23.05 - Divided Kingdom
Author: Thomson, Rupert
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400042186 Date: 2005LJ
Following his highly acclaimed The Book of Revelation, Thomson now explores a radical social experiment in a novel compelling for its brilliant improvisation of a political future and its timeless grasp of individual lives.
Updated 6.29.05 - Canaan's Tongue
Author: Wray, John
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400040868 Date: 2005KirkusPW
In a crumbling estate on the banks of the Mississippi, eight survivors of the nortorious Island 37 Gang wait for the war, or the Pinkerton Detective Agency, to claim them. Their leader, a bizarre charismatic known only as "The Redeemer," has disappeared without a trace, and they are wanted by both the Union and the Confederacy.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Civil War Stars
Updated 5.23.05
May
- Serenity Rose: Working Through the Negativity
Author: Aaron, A.
Publisher: Slave Labor $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 159362011x Date: 2005Booklist
When you can float through the air and conjure up monsters out of ectoplasm, you're bound to attract attention. Come stare at Ms. Serenity Rose, local witch, as she spends the day dodging goblins, goths, and a bad case of social phobia in the spookiest lil town in America. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels & Comics
Updated 8.15.05 - Zorro
Author: Allende, Isabel
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060778970 Date: 2005PWBooklistLJ
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 | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 3.10.05 - The Lake, the River and the Other Lake
Author: Amick, Steve
Publisher: Pantheon $ 25 ISBN: 0375423508 Date: 2005LJ
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 - Follies: New Stories
Author: Beattie, Ann
Publisher: Scribner $ 25 ISBN: 0743269616 Date: 2005Booklist
From the author of Park City comes a superb novella and a collection of brilliant stories about adult children, aging parents and the chance encounters that alter lives.
Updated 2.15.05 - With this Ring, I'm Confused
Author: Billerbeck, Kristen
Publisher: Westbow $ 14.99 ISBN: 1595540334 Date: 2005LJ
In this third book in the popular series by Billerbeck, Ashley Stockingdale has finally found that nice, good-looking Christian guy who actually wants to commit. Will she make it to the altar with her sanity intact?
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction
Updated 6.9.05 - Three Day Road
Author: Boyden, Joseph
Publisher: Viking $ 23.95 ISBN: 0670034312 Date: 2005PWLJ
In part inspired by the legend of Frances Pegamahgabow, the great Indian sniper of World War I, Three Day Road is an impeccably researched and beautifully written story that offers a searing reminder about the cost of war.
Suggested Reading: World War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 5.18.05 - My Surrender
Author: Brockaway, Connie
Publisher: Pocket $6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0743463242 Date: 2005Booklist
From one of the most highly acclaimed historical romance authors comes the third and final novel in the passionate Rose Hunters trilogy, featuring three sexy, adventurous Scotsmen.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - Acts of Faith
Author: Caputo, Philip
Publisher: Knopf $ 26.95 ISBN: 0375411666 Date: 2005KirkusLJPW
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of the highly praised novels The Voyage and Horn of Africa--a stunning, timely new novel about the physical perils and moral crises faced by a group of men and women who try to relieve the suffering caused by war and famine in contemporary Sudan.
Suggested Reading: All Stars
Updated 2.28.05 - Mambo Peligroso
Author: Chao, Patricia
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060734175 Date: 2005Booklist
This dazzling novel of the New York world of mambo--hot-blooded, fast-paced, and Latin--is penned by the gifted author of the acclaimed Monkey King.
Updated 4.22.05 - Closed Circle
Author: Coe, Jonathan
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 0375414150 Date: 2005PW
The adolescent characters of The Rotter's Club now face the vengeance of middle age in a story very much of the moment, charged with such issues as 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Updated 3.28.05 - DC The New Frontier #2
Author: Cooke, Darwyn (edt)
Publisher: DC Comics $ 19.95 ISBN: 1401204619 Date: 2005PW
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 5.16.05 - The R. Crumb Handbook
Author: Crumb, R.
Publisher: Mq $ 25 ISBN: 1840727160 Date: 2005PWBooklist
This collection of original cartoons and never-before-published work takes readers on a unique journey through the life and times of one of the 20th century's most notorious and influential counter-culture artists.
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 5.9.05 - Johnny Mad Dog
Author: Dongala, Emmanuel
Publisher: FSG $ 26 ISBN: 0374179956 Date: 2005LJ
Set amid the chaos of West Africa's civil wars, Dongala's striking new novel tells the story of two teenagers growing up while rival ethnic groups fight for control of their country.
Suggested Reading: Child Soldiers | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 4.7.05 - One Sunday Morning
Author: Ephron, Amy
Publisher: Morrow $ 21.95 ISBN: 0060585528 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
This mesmerizing tale of wealth, society, and scandal set in Jazz Age New York and Paris in the 1920s is from the celebrated author of A Cup of Tea.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Prohibition
Updated 3.10.05 - The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932
Author: Fergus, Jim
Publisher: Hyperion $ 23.95 ISBN: 1401300545 Date: 2005PWBooklist
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 | Adult Books for Teens | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 4.22.05 - Great Inland Sea
Author: Francis, David
Publisher: Macadam Cage $ 23 ISBN: 1596921161 Date: 2005Booklist
Traveling as groom for a horse called Unusual, Day meets Callie, who wants to be the world's first woman jockey. He is stranded by a love that takes him back to the harshness of his childhood in Australia, and to the dark secrets of his family.
Suggested Reading: Horse Tales
Updated 3.25.05 - O My Darling
Author: Gaige, Amity
Publisher: Other $ 22 ISBN: 1590511743 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Updated 2.28.05 - Hungry Tide
Author: Ghosh, Amitav
Publisher: Houghton $ 25 ISBN: 0618329978 Date: 2005PWBooklist
A contemporary story of adventure and romance, identity and history, this novel brings two outsiders deep into one of the most fascinating regions on Earth--tiny islands known as the Sundarbans off the coast of India--where life is ruled by the unforgiving tides and the constant threat of attack by Bengal tigers.
Updated 4.7.05 - Her Body Knows: Two Novellas
Author: Grossman, David
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374175578 Date: 2005LJ
Studies in obsession, claustrophobia, and the need to confess, these two novellas mark a new departure from "a writer who has been, for nearly two decades, one of the most original and talented . . . anywhere" ("The New York Times Book Review").
Updated 5.4.05 - Where the River Runs
Author: Henry, Patti Callahan
Publisher: NAL $ 12.95 (paper) ISBN: 0451215052 Date: 2005Booklist
From the author of Losing the Moon comes an engaging new novel following the emotional path of a woman who goes back home to face the past--only to discover herself.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 5.9.05 - The Company Car
Author: Hribal, C.J.
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 140006287x Date: 2005Booklist
Both comically tragic and touching, this novel is a sweeping, generational saga about a family caught in the changing landscape of American life.
Updated 4.7.05 - The Moon Witch
Author: Jones, Linda Winstead
Publisher: Berkley $ 6.99 (paper) ISBN: 0425201295 Date: 2005Booklist
In this second novel of the fanciful Sisters of the Sun trilogy, middle Fyne sister Juliet is kidnapped by the Emperor's men--only to be rescued by a man whose animal instincts tell him he's found the only woman to call his own.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 5.9.05 - The History of Love
Author: Krauss, Nicole
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393060349 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
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 | Reading Group Stars | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 3.28.05 - Heartbreak Hotel
Author: Landis, Jill Marie
Publisher: Ballantine $ 23.95 ISBN: 0345453301 Date: 2005Booklist
The third book in the beloved Twilight Cove trilogy proves that at Heartbreak Hotel, unexpected love can make even the most disillusioned hearts believe.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Beyond Black
Author: Mantel, Hilary
Publisher: Holt $ 26 ISBN: 0805073566 Date: 2005Kirkus
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 - Other Electricities: Stories
Author: Monson, Ander
Publisher: Sarabande $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1932511156 Date: 2005PW
The cumulative effect of this stunningly original collection seems to work on the reader in the same way-we follow glimpses of dispossessed lives in the snow-buried reaches of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, where nearly everyone seems to be slipping away under the ice to disappear forever. Through an unsettling, almost crazed gestalt of sketches, short stories, lists, indices and radio schematics, Monson presents a world where weather, landscape, radio waves and electricity are characters in themselves, affecting a community held together by the memories of those they have lost. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.5.05 - The Magic Keys
Author: Murray, Albert
Publisher: Pantheon $ 24 ISBN: 0375423532 Date: 2005Kirkus
Capturing the joyful rhythms of youth, this is the final volume in the adventures of Scooter--the hero of Albert Murray's extraordinary autobiographical novels Train Whistle Guitar, The Spyglass Tree, and The Seven League Boots.
Updated 3.25.05 - People I Wanted To Be
Author: Ochsner, Gina
Publisher: Houghton $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0618563725 Date: 2005BooklistPW
In her eagerly anticipated collection, Ochsner deftly examines the harrowing moments after a life or a love slips away, and discovers that the human heart can be large enough for anything.
Updated 4.5.05 - Glad News of the Natural World
Author: Pearson, T.R.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 24 ISBN: 0743264630 Date: 2005Booklist
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 - A Perfect Stranger: Stories
Author: Robinson, Roxana
Publisher: Random $ I23.95 SBN: 0375509186 Date: 2005KirkusPW
The first short story collection in nine years by the author of Sweetwater and This Is My Daughter, both "New York Times" Notable Books.
Updated 3.14.05 - Light of Day
Author: Saul, Jamie M.
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060747528 Date: 2005Booklist
From an assured new talent comes a moving and compelling novel of love, loss, and the unforeseeable events that lurk around the corners of everyday life.
Updated 4.7.05 - Pretty Birds
Author: Simon, Scott
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400063108 Date: 2005KirkusPW
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 | Child Soldiers | Former Yugoslavia | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 4.19.05 - Lunar Follies
Author: Sorrentino, Gilbert
Publisher: Coffee House $ 14 ISBN: 1566891698 Date: 2005LJ
Updated 5.4.05 - Black Ice
Author: Stuart, Anne
Publisher: Mira $ 6.99 ISBN: 0778321711 Date: 2005PW
American Chloe Underwood is translating for entrepreneurs at their conference outside Paris. But the meeting is in fact a cover-up for a group of terrorists. When she's threatened, Chloe is taken to Paris by undercover operative Bastien Toussaint. During a freak snowstorm, the chase is on.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 3.28.05 - Sonechka: A Novella and Stories
Author: Ulitskaia, Liudmila
Publisher: Schocken $ 23 ISBN: 0805241957 Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 3.10.05 - Borges and the Eternal Oranutans
Author: Verissimo, Luis Fernando
Publisher: New Directions $ 13.95 ISBN: 081121592x Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 3.10.05 - My Name is Legion
Author: Wilson, A.N.
Publisher: FSG $ 26 ISBN: 0374217424 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
From the renowned historian and novelist comes a stunningly bold new work of fiction set in the darkly glamorous media world. Wilson's London is a bleak, if occasionally hilarious, place--murderous, lustful, money-obsessed, and haunted by strange gods
Updated 5.9.05
April
- Flight
Author:
Publisher: Image Comics $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582404771 Date: 2005PWBooklist
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 6.20.05 - War By Candlelight: Stories
Author: Alarcon, Daniel
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060594780 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
In this exquisite collection, Alarcon takes the reader from Third World urban centers to the fault lines that divide nations and people, personalizing the shifting realities of our own contemporary world.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.10.05 - The Evil B.B. Chow and Other Stories
Author: Almond, Steve
Publisher: Algonquin $ 22.95 ISBN: 1565124227 Date: 2005LJ
The bestselling writer who took readers on a cross-country journey that revealed his long love affair with chocolate in Candyfreak has produced a funny, bracing, sometimes shocking, always imaginative collection of stories and characters for this new compilation.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 3.10.05 - Buddy Does Seattle
Author: Bagge, Peter
Publisher: Fantagraphics $ I14.95 (paper) SBN: 1560976233 Date: 2005Booklist
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Midnight at the Dragon Cafe
Author: Bates, Judy Fong
Publisher: Counterpoint $ 14 (paper) ISBN: 1582431892 Date: 2005BooklistKirkus
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: Debuts | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 2.15.05 - And the Word Was
Author: Bauman, Bruce
Publisher: Other $ 24 ISBN: 1590511417 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 2.15.05 - A Long Stay in a Distant Land
Author: Chieng, Chieh
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1582345333 Date: 2005Booklist
A hilarious and inventive first novel tracing three generations of a death-stalked Chinese-American family in Orange County, California. - Publisher Marketing
Suggested Reading: Asian American Stars | Debuts
Updated 3.3.05 - We're In Trouble: Stories
Author: Coake, Christopher
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 0151010943 Date: 2005Kirkus
Each of the seven stories in this extraordinary debut collection dramatizes a deep love staring at the face of death- an encounter that elicits either the best or the worst in these vividly drawn characters. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 1.11.05 - My Summer of Love
Author: Cross, Helen
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 12.50 (paper) ISBN: 0747575886 Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 4.19.05 - A Slight Trick of the Mind
Author: Cullin, Mitch
Publisher: Doubleday $ 23.95 ISBN: 0385513283 Date: 2005PW
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.
Suggested Reading: Elementary
Updated 2.14.05 - Bitter Fruit
Author: Dangor, Achmat
Publisher: Grove $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0802170064 Date: 2005Booklist
With the publication of Kafka's Curse, Achmat Dangor established himself as an utterly singular voice in South African fiction. His new novel, a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award, is a clear-eyed, witty, yet deeply serious look at South Africa's political history and its damaging legacy in the lives of those who live there. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: South Africa
Updated 2.15.05 - The Education of Arnold Hitler
Author: Estrin, Marc
Publisher: Unbridled $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1932961038 Date: 2005LJ
Marc Estrin's second novel is the story of a young man who stumbles through the second half of the 20th century bearing a most unfortunate name. At once a chess master, a linguist, an athlete and an innocent in love, Arnold passes through the racial tensions of Mansfield, Texas (home of the author of Black Like Me) in the 1950's, the anti-war movement at Harvard, and both the Upper East Side and the Bowery, meeting Noam Chomsky, Al Gore, and Leonard Bernstein in the process, and finally learning the meaning of meaning. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 2.7.05 - Full Bloom
Author: Evanovich, Janet & Charlotte Hughes
Publisher: St Martins $ 7.99 (paper) ISBN: 0312934300 Date: 2005Booklist
The temperature is on "sizzle" again in Beaumont, South Carolina, and the peach trees are bursting into full bloom in this fifth book in the mega-bestselling Full series from the bestselling team of Evanovich and Hughes.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Romance Stars
Updated 3.25.05 - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Author: Foer, Jonathan Safran
Publisher: Houghton $ 24.95 ISBN: 0618329706 Date: 2005KirkusPWLJ
Oskar Schell is an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Suggested Reading: 9/11 Stars | All Stars | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 3.10.05 - The Painted Kiss
Author: Hickey, Elizabeth
Publisher: Atria $ 24 ISBN: 0743492609 Date: 2005Booklist
In the tradition of The Girl with the Pearl Earring and The Girl in Hyacinth Blue, a beautiful, atmospheric, and sensual debut re-imagines the tempestuous relationship between painter Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floege, the youngest daughter of a bourgeois businessman.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 5.20.05 - Ice Queen
Author: Hoffman, Alice
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316058599 Date: 2005PWLJ
From the bestselling author of Practical Magic comes a miraculous, enthralling tale of a woman who is struck by lightning, and finds her frozen heart is suddenly burning. A magical story of passion, loss, and renewal, this work is Hoffman at her best.
Suggested Reading: Stormy Weather | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 4.19.05 - Wild Dogs
Author: Humphreys, Helen
Publisher: Norton $ 22.95 ISBN: 0393060152 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
As she falls in love with the wildlife biologist whose wolf leads a pack of feral dogs, Alice feels the tug between love's wild power and her desire to domesticate it. From the author of The Lost Garden, Wild Dogs strips away the conventions of love and passion to reveal deeper, richer truths.
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - No Man's Land
Author: Huong, Doung Thu
Publisher: Hyperion $ 24.95 ISBN: 140136643 Date: 2005Booklist
From Vietnam's most popular writer and famous dissident comes a mesmerizing novel about a tragic love triangle between characters whose destinies have been irrevocably altered by the absurdity of war. - Publisher Marketing
Updated 4.7.05 - Never Let Me Go
Author: Ishiguro, Kazuo
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043395 Date: 2005KirkusPW
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
Suggested Reading: Reading Group Stars | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 2.1.05 - The Scarlet Gang of Asakusa
Author: Kawabata, Yasunari
Publisher: Univ of Cal $ 17.95 (trade paper) ISBN: 0520241827 Date: 2005LJ
A new translation of the only work not currently available in English by a Nobel-Prize winning author and the best known Japanese writer outside of Japan.
Updated 4.19.05 - The Mermaid Chair
Author: Kidd, Sue Monk
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033944 Date: 2005PW
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 - Somebody's Daughter
Author: Lee, Marie Myung-Ok
Publisher: Beacon $ 23.95 ISBN: 0807083887 Date: 2005Booklist
Adopted by a Midwest couple, 19-year-old Sarah Thorson studies one summer in Korea and eventually embarks on a crusade to find her birth mother. Paralleling Sarah's story, Kyung-sook, a Korean woman, reflects on the child she was forced to give away.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Asian American Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Adoption
Updated 3.3.05 - Small Island
Author: Levy, Andrea
Publisher: Picador $ 14 ISBN: 0312424671 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Told in four distinct voices, the winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction 2004 is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, encapsulating the most American of experiences: the immigrant's life.
Updated 3.10.05 - I Got Somebody in Staunton: Stories
Author: Lewis, William Henry
Publisher: Amistad $ 22.95 ISBN: 0060536659 Date: 2005Kirkus
Suggested Reading: African American Stars
Updated 1.5.05 - Acqua Calda
Author: McDermott, Keith
Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 24 ISBN: 0786715081 Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 12.27.04 - Saturday
Author: McEwan, Ian
Publisher: Doubleday $ 26 ISBN: 0385511809 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklistLJ
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 - Lost in the Forest
Author: Miller, Sue
Publisher: Knopf $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400042267 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
From one of America's best-loved novelists comes an unforgettable tale of a family breaking apart and coming together again, set in the vineyards of Northern California. A hymn to marriage, and to adolescent yearning, this is Sue Miller at her inimitable best.
Updated 1.29.05 - Sexy Lexy
Author: Moore, Kate
Publisher: Love Spell $ 6.99 ISBN: 0505526239 Date: 2005LJ
After writing a self-help book encouraging fitness through sex, Lexy Clark escapes to a small California town where she discovers no one can entirely avoid the past. And if everyone could meet a man like Sam Worth, they may not want to.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 4.19.05 - Strangers in Paradise Pocket Book 1
Author: Moore, Terry
Publisher: Abstract Studio $ 17.95 ISBN: 1892597268 Date: 2005Booklist
Suggested Reading: Graphic Novel Stars
Updated 3.25.05 - Lord Will and Her Grace
Author: Nash, Sophia
Publisher: Signet $ 4.99 ISBN: 0451214730 Date: 2005Booklist
Fleeing from an imminent marriage, Lord Will finds refuge by the sea, as far away from London scandal as he can get. But he soon crosses paths with a pretty outcast who may just be the solution to his problems.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 3.25.05 - The Good Wife
Author: O'Nan, Stewart
Publisher: FSG $ 24 ISBN: 0374281394 Date: 2005PWLJ
At once a love story and a portrait of a woman discovering her own strength, The Good Wife follows a woman through the 28 years of her husband's incarceration, as she raises her son, navigates a system that has no place for her, and braves the scorn of her community.
Updated 3.10.05 - The Portrait
Author: Pears, Iain
Publisher: Riverhead $ 24.95 ISBN: 1573222984 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
Set against the dramatic, untamed landscape of Brittany during one of the most explosive periods in art history, The Portrait is rich with atmosphere and suggestion, psychological complexity, and marvelous detail.
Updated 3.10.05 - Monster
Author: Peretti, Frank E.
Publisher: Westbow $ 24.99 ISBN: 084991180x Date: 2005LJ
Miles away from the hectic city, Reed and Rebecca hike into the beautiful Northwestern woods. They're surrounded by gorgeous mountains, waterfalls, and hundreds of acres of unspoiled wilderness. But something--or someone--begins closing in on them, and it's killing everyone in its path without remorse.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 4.7.05 - Josie Day Is Coming Home
Author: Plumley, Lisa
Publisher: Zebra $ 6.50 (paper) ISBN: 0821776967 Date: 2005Booklist
Vegas showgirl Josie Day saves the life of a wealthy casino owner, who rewards her with a "spare" estate in Arizona--ironically located in Josie's hometown. Josie plans to sell it and open a dance school. But she must first handle the caretaker, local bad boy Luke Donovan.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Romance Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - Rules for Old Men Waiting
Author: Pouncey, Peter R.
Publisher: Random $ 21.95 ISBN: 1400063701 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Robert MacIver, a historian who long ago played rugby for Scotland, creates a list of rules by which to live out his last days. The most important rule--to "tell a story to its end"--spurs the old Scot to invent a strange and gripping tale of men in the trenches of the First World War.
Updated 3.21.05 - Responsible Men
Author: Schwarzchild, Edward
Publisher: Algonquin $ 23.95 ISBN: 156512409x Date: 2005Kirkus
Is there really such a thing as a responsible man? Max Wolinsky, a swindling salesman, asks this question when old associates want in on his latest scam. Further complicating the situation are family dysfunctions and Max's attempts to reconnect with his father, uncle, and teen-aged son.
Updated 1.11.05 - Last Night
Author: Salter, James
Publisher: Knopf $ 20 ISBN: 1400043123 Date: 2005KirkusBooklist
A superbly accomplished new collection explores the acclaimed author's signature themes: love, honor, sacrifice, friendship, and abandon. In these taut, powerful stories, Salter portrays men and women in their most intimate moments.
Updated 3.10.05 - Misfortune
Author: Stace, Wesley
Publisher: Little Brown $ 23.95 ISBN: 0316830348 Date: 2005PW
This unforgettable debut is a rich, outrageous Dickensian novel in the comic tradition of The Crimson Petal and the White about a boy raised as a girl in the richest home in 19th-century England.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 2.1.05 - Divine Circle of Ladies Making Mischief
Author: Stewart, Dolores Riccio
Publisher: Kensington $ 14 ISBN: 075820986x Date: 2005Booklist
Transporting readers once again into the enchanting world of Cass Shipton and her circle of friends in idyllic Plymouth, Massachusetts, this is Dolores Stewart Riccio's richest, most satisfying novel yet.
Updated 3.3.05 - Everything Changes
Author: Tropper, Jonathan
Publisher: Delacorte $ 20 ISBN: 0385338074 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
Tropper's novel The Book of Joe dazzled critics and readers alike with its heartfelt blend of humor and pathos. In Everything Changes, the author delivers a touching, wickedly funny new tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens
Updated 4.7.05 - The Illuminator
Author: Vantrease, Brenda
Publisher: St Martins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0312331916 Date: 2005PWLJ
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 - Europe Central
Author: Vollman, William T.
Publisher: Viking $ 39.95 ISBN: 0670033928 Date: 2005BooklistPW
In his newest work, Vollmann presents a mesmerizing series of intertwined paired stories that compare and contrast the moral decisions made by various figures--some famous, some infamous, some unknown--associated with the warring authoritarian cultures of Germany and the USSR in the 20th century.
Updated 2.7.05 - Table for Five
Author: Wiggs, Susan
Publisher: Mira $ 19.95 ISBN: 0778321673 Date: 2005Booklist
Before an estranged couple is killed in an unthinkable tragedy, they designate two guardians for their children--a man and a woman who are essentially strangers and who have nothing in common except their compassion for the couple's three orphaned children.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Romance Stars
Updated 5.9.05 - Sudden Rain
Author: Wolff, Maritta
Publisher: Scribner $ 26 ISBN: 0743254821 Date: 2005KirkusPW
The long-lost final manuscript from the late novelist is a riveting, resonant story that captures the emotional rhythms of suburban L.A. in the late 60s and early 70s.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 1.29.05 - Controlled Burn: Stories of Prison, Crime and Men
Author: Wolven, Scott
Publisher: Scribner $ 22 ISBN: 0743260112 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Signaling the arrival of a stunning new talent, this novel is "the most exciting, authentic collection of short stories I have read in years," says George Pelecanos of these raw, blistering tales of hard-bitten convicts, dodgy informers, and criminals running from the law.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 2.21.05 - The Genizah At the House of Shepher
Author: Yellin, Tamar
Publisher: Toby $ 19.95 ISBN: 1592640850 Date: 2005Booklist
A scholar, returning to her family home in Jerusalem becomes embroiled in a family dispute over a discovered Codex, brought home originally her great-great grandfather. Set against the backdrop pf a hundred and thirty years of change, this is a novel of exile and belonging, displacement and the quest for both love and a true promised land.
Updated 3.10.05 - Lucky Strike
Author: Zafris, Nancy
Publisher: Unbridled $ 23.95 ISBN: 1932961046 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
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.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Historical Fiction Stars | Adult Book for Teens
Updated 3.21.05
March
- The Spy's Kiss
Author: Abrams, Nita
Publisher: Zebra $ 5.99 ISBN: 0821778536 Date: 2005Booklist
A quick-witted woman surrenders to a handsome aristocrat's charms, unaware that he's on a top-secret mission--and he's not the man he claims to be. This is the fourth title in a series by a talented newcomer.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 3.10.05 - Dear Zoe
Author: Beard, Philiip
Publisher: Viking $ 21.95 ISBN: 0670034010 Date: 2005Booklist
Beard's stunning debut is an epistolary novel written from 15-year-old Tess DeNunzio to her little sister Zoe. After Zoe's accidental death on September 11, 2001--a day so many others died--Tess's family is numbed by their personal tragedy. Not since The Lovely Bones has there been a study of grief, adolescence, and healing that rings as true as Dear Zoe.
Suggested Reading: 9/11 Stars | Debuts | Adult Books for Teens | Epistolary Stars
Updated 2.15.05 - Windows on the World
Author: Beigbeder, Frederic
Publisher: Miramax $ 24.95 ISBN: 1401352235 Date: 2005PW
Weaving together philosophy, myth, world politics, and humor, this stunning work of literary daring is a fearless, moving, and unsettling novel set against the events of September 11.
Suggested Reading: 911 Stars
Updated 1.29.05 - Scurvy Dogs: Rags to Riches
Author: Boyd, Andrew & Ryan Yount
Publisher: AIT Planet $ 12.95 ISBN: 1932051279 Date: 2005Booklist
Pirates of the past...today! The Scurvy Dogs search for jobs, love, and adventure - with disastrous results! This volume collects all five issues of the critically-acclaimed, independent humor, comic book sensation. But that's not all! It's chock-full of bonuses - including rare, behind-the-scenes materials, a character sketchbook, creator interviews, pin-up gallery, and an original commentary on all five issues written exlusively for this volume by creators Andrew Boyd and Ryan Yount. A must-have for the deranged; or for collectors of oddball comedy. - Publisher Marketing.
Suggested Reading: Pirate Stars | Graphic Novel Stars
graphic novel
Updated 4.22.05 - The Poet of Tolstoy Park
Author: Brewer, Sonny
Publisher: Ballantine $ 21.95 ISBN: 034547631x Date: 2005LJ
Told by his doctor that he would die within a year, Henry Stuart decides not to accept his fate and moves to Alabama. For the next twenty years visitors traveled to visit the wise Stuart, who named his ten-acre property after Leo Tolstoy.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 12.27.04 - March
Author: Brooks, Geraldine
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033359 Date: 2005PW
From the author of the international bestseller Year of Wonders comes a powerful love story set against the catastrophe of the Civil War. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Brooks has taken the character of the absent father, March, and adds adult resonance to portray the moral complexity of war and a marriage tested by the demands of extreme idealism.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Civil War Stars | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - Abigail's Story
Author: Burton, Ann
Publisher: Signet $ 5.99 ISBN: 045121479x Date: 2005Booklist
A compelling new series that focuses on the courageous women of the Bible begins with the story of Abigail. As Abigail grows to love David, the warrior-son of Jesse, David faces her husband, Nabal, in a senseless war that destroys Abigail's hope for peace.
Suggested Reading: Christian Fiction Stars
Updated 6.20.05 - Serpent Girl
Author: Carnahan, Matthew
Publisher: Villard $ 19.95 ISBN: 1400062705 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Written with deftness and high energy, Serpent Girl is a voyage into the darkest depths of carny life - and, remarkably, a funny and tender love story as well. Carnahan has received praise from Carl Hiaason, Richard Dooling, Elmore Leonard, John Ridley and Mike Myers. - Publisher Marketing.
Updated 1.29.05 - Scourge of God
Author: Dietrich, William
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 006073499x Date: 2005LJ
From a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, historian, and naturalist comes a thrilling novel of the clashing of civilizations, as Attila the Hun struggles to overthrow the Roman Empire.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 2.16.05 - Flirting With Danger
Author: Enoch, Suzanne
Publisher: Avon $ 6.99 ISBN: 0060593636 Date: 2005PW
While robbing the Palm Beach mansion of millionaire playboy Richard Addison, beautiful thief extraordinaire Samantha Jellicoe is thrown into the arms of her victim by a mysterious explosion.
Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
Updated 1.19.05 - Lewi's Journey
Author: Enquist, Per Olov
Publisher: Overlook $ 25.95 ISBN: 1585673412 Date: 2005Kirkus
A visionary epic novel of faith, sex, and intrigue is offered by the author "in the front ranks of contemporary literary fiction" (Bruce Bawer, "The New York Times Book Review").
Updated 1.29.05 - Snobs
Author: Fellowes, Julian
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312336926 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
From the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Gosford Park comes a brilliant and revealing comedy of manners.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 1.23.05 - Metropolis
Author: Gaffney, Elizabeth
Publisher: Random $ 24.95 ISBN: 1400061504 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
A brilliant novel of epic proportions, Metropolis tells the story of a young man's struggle to find love and create a life in late 19th-century New York.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Historical Fiction Stars
Updated 1.23.05 - The Bones
Author: Greenland, Seth
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 24.95 ISBN: 1582345503 Date: 2005PW
Updated 2.1.05 - The Dog of the Marriage
Author: Hempel, Amy
Publisher: Scribner $ 20 ISBN: 0743264517 Date: 2005Booklist
From one of the most highly acclaimed short story writers of the last two decades comes a glittering collection about relationships gone awry, sexual obsession, and the unsatisfied longings of everyday life.
Updated 1.18.05 - The Almond Picker
Author: Hornby, Simonetta Agnello
Publisher: FSG $ 23 ISBN: 0374182345 Date: 2005LJ
Like many memorable works of fiction, this surprising mystery--and love story--set in rural Sicily hinges on a single question, in this case: who is Maria Rosalia Inzerillo, known as Mennulara, the almond picker?
Updated 1.23.05 - Paradise
Author: Kennedy, A.L.
Publisher: Knopf $ 25 ISBN: 1400043646 Date: 2005PW
Suggested Reading: Drink Up Stars
Updated 2.21.05 - The Silence of John
Author: Litteras, D.S.
Publisher: Hampton Roads $ 19.95 ISBN: 157174410x Date: 2005LJ
Updated 2.7.05 - Wrapped in Rain: A Novel of Coming Home
Author: Martin, Charles
Publisher: Westbow $ 13.99 (paper) ISBN: 0785261826 Date: 2005LJ
This tough and tender novel is about weathering adversity and recognizing the many faces of love, regardless of who, how, where, or why. Love is a risk--but Martin shows that it is far more dangerous to live without it.
Updated 2.7.05 - The Goddess Rules
Author: Naylor, Clare
Publisher: Ballantine $ 22.95 ISBN: 0345470532 Date: 2005Booklist
Updated 3.3.05 - Changed Man
Author: Prose, Francine
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060196742 Date: 2005BooklistPWKirkus
Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in America's drug-addicted and media-driven culture.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.5.05 - The Retreat
Author: Rimbaud, Patrick
Publisher: Atlantic $ 23 ISBN: 0871138778 Date: 2005LJKirkus
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
Updated 11.22.04 - With Or Without You
Author: Sanders, Lauren
Publisher: Akashic $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 1888451696 Date: 2005PW
An award-winning novelist offers a story about the isolation and loneliness of adolescence and the neglect--benign as it may be--of the familial, cultural, and political institutions that are supposed to provide some sort of "support system." "In Sanders's hands, what is usually clich or gratuitous is hot."--Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls.
Updated 2.21.05 - Milk
Author: Steinke, Darcey
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 17.95 ISBN: 1582345295 Date: 2005Kirkus
From a writer of remarkable depth and courage comes a brilliant and haunting novel that explores the intersection of spirituality and sexuality.
Updated 11.25.04 - Holy Skirts
Author: Steinke, Rene
Publisher: Morrow $ 24.95 ISBN: 0688176941 Date: 2005Booklist
From the talented author of The Fires comes a fascinating novel of art, passion, modernity, and war set in the early years of the 20th century that provides a portrait of the real-life Baroness Elsa of Greenwich Village.
Updated 3.25.05 - Angel of Forgetfulness
Author: Stern, Steve
Publisher: Viking $ 24.95 ISBN: 0670033871 Date: 2005Booklist
This time-defying odyssey from the 1960s to the Lower East Side of New York at the turn of the 20th century features a detour through heaven on the wings of a derelict angel.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 2.7.05 - Goodnight Steve McQueen
Author: Wener, Louise
Publisher: Perennial $ 13.95 ISBN: 006072563X Date: 2005LJ
From the author of The Perfect Play comes a charmingly romantic– yet very edgy-novel set in the music industry about friendship, love, growing up, and always following your dreams.
Updated 1.23.05 - Looped
Author: Winston, Andrew
Publisher: Agate $ 14.95 ISBN: 0972456295 Updated 2.7.05
This remarkably assured debut novel weaves a glittering narrative web that encompasses the bursting life of contemporary Chicago. Looped tells the separate stories of a diverse group of Chicagoans-black, brown and white; gay, straight and bi-as their lives unfold in diverging and (occasionally) converging ways over the course of the year 2000. - Publisher Marketing
February
- The Seventh Beggar
Author: Abraham, Pearl
Publisher: Riverhead $ 25.95 ISBN: 1573222852 Date: 2005PW
At the heart of The Seventh Beggar lies a contemporary young man's obsession with the legendary 19th-century Chasidic master, Nachman of Bratslav--kabbalist, storyteller, and charismatic whose cult following persists to this day.
Updated 1.3.05 - Rosie Dunne
Author: Ahern, Cecelia
Publisher: Hyperion $ 22.95 ISBN: 140130091x Date: 2005LJ
The gifted author of the widely acclaimed, bestselling PS, I Love You has written a delightfully enchanting new novel about what happens when two people who are meant to be together just can't seem to get it right.
Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Teens | Romance Stars
Updated 1.23.05 - Carnival
Author: Antoni, Robert
Publisher: Grove $ 13 (paper) ISBN: 0802170056 Date: 2005Booklist
The ambitious third novel from one of the most innovative voices to emerge from the Caribbean and the Americas takes readers on an expedition that stretches from contemporary New York City to the glitter of Trinidadian Carnival, going deep into the island's mountainous interior.
Updated 2.15.05 - Hedwig and Berti
Author: Arkin, Frieda
Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312333544 Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 11.9.04 - Please Don't Come Back From the Moon
Author: Bakopoulos, Dean
Publisher: Harcourt $ 23 ISBN: 0151011354 Date: 2005Kirkus
In this haunting debut novel, Michael Smolij and his friends are unable to leave the blue-collar Detroit neighborhoods abandoned by their fathers. They stumble through their teens into their 20s until the restlessness of the fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 10.25.04 - On the Way to My Father's Funeral: New and Selected Stories
Author: Baumbach, Jonathan
Publisher: Low Fidelity $ 16 ISBN: 0972336338 Date: 2005Kirkus
Updated 11.25.04 - God Lives in St. Petersburg: And Other Stories
Author: Bissell, Tom
Publisher: Pantheon $ 20 ISBN: 0375422641 Date: 2005KirkusPW
In this exciting collection, the acclaimed author of Chasing the Sun turns his keenly observant eye to fiction with sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious adventures and misadventures of Americans colliding with the unfamiliar in Central Asia.
Updated 12.6.04 - Nice Big American Baby
Author: Budnitz, Judy
Publisher: Knopf $ 23 ISBN: 0375412425 Date: 2005PW
Budnitz's 12 blazingly original new stories--riveting, seductive, and impossible to forget--take readers from suburban backyards and swimming pools to war-torn streets and fallout shelters.
Updated 12.6.04 - The Book of the Film of the Story of My Life
Author: Brandt, William
Publisher: Warner $ 12.95 ISBN: 0446693812 Date: 2005Kirkus
Originally published in New Zealand and in the UK, Brandt's hilarious first novel about life, love, and the film business delves into the mind and mystery of the modern adult male.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 10.25.04 - The Last Kingdom
Author: Cornwell, Bernard
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 25.95 ISBN: 0060530510 Date: 2005LJ
In this epic novel, bestselling author Cornwell follows King Alfred the Great and his desperate quest to keep England from falling into the hands of the Danish conquerors.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 12.27.04 - Ireland
Author: Delaney, Frank
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 26.95 ISBN: 0060563486 Date: 2005LJ
This unforgettable "tour de force" marries the intimate, passionate texture of the Irish spirit with a sweeping, epic historical scope, to tell the story of how the character of the land and its people were shaped by history, neighboring England, and the Irish themselves.
Updated 12.27.04 - Eleanor Rigby
Author: Coupland, Douglas
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 22.95 ISBN: 1582345236 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Liz Dunn's quiet existence is upended by young Jeremy, a charming lost soul who triggers a chain of events that takes Liz to the other side of the world and back, endangering her life just as a real chance at happiness finally seems within reach.
Updated 11.15.04 - The Emancipator's Wife: A Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln
Author: Hambley, Barbara
Publisher: Bantam $ 25 ISBN: 0553803018 Date: 2005LJ
Ten years after Abraham Lincoln's death, the president's widow is incarcerated in an insane asylum by her only surviving son. It is from this little-known episode that Hambly spins her intimate, insightful tapestry of this difficult, too-intelligent woman's life.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction | Lincoln
Updated 1.23.05 - The Center of Winter
Author: Hornbacher, Marya
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0060192267 Date: 2005BooklistLJ
From the author of the acclaimed memoir Wasted comes a powerful debut novel about family, tragedy, and love.
Suggested Reading: Debuts
Updated 1.23.05 - Sight Hound
Author: Houston, Pam
Publisher: Norton $ 23.95 ISBN: 0393058174 Date: 2004PWLJ
From the bestselling author of Cowboys Are My Weakness comes a very special love story between a woman and her dog, a wolfhound who teaches "his human" that love is stronger than fear.
Suggested Reading: Dog Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 1.23.05 - Drive Like Hell
Author: Hudgens, Dallas
Publisher: Scribner $ 24.95 ISBN: 0743251638 Date: 2005Kirkus
Set in the 1979 outside Atlanta, this "thoroughly enjoyable" ("Publishers Weekly") debut tells the story of 16-year-old Luke Fulmer, who grows up in a difficult family with a stockcar-racing, absentee father, an alcoholic mother, and a delinquent brother.
Suggested Reading: Debuts | Driven | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.25.04 - Nam-a-rama
Author: Jennings, Phillip
Publisher: Forge $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311208 Date: 2005PW
Jennings' unpredictable novel of Vietnam is an American classic in the making, a not-so-longing look at the absurdity of a war in which the damned and the innocent share the same hootch, the same Commander-in-Chief, and sometimes even the same body-bag.
Suggested Reading: Marines
Updated 2.21.05 - The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
Author: Jensen, Liz
Publisher: Bloomsbury $ 23.95 ISBN: 1582345171 Date: 2005KirkusPW
Meet Louis Drax, the Amazing Accident-Prone Boy, in this story of a family falling apart, and told in the vivid voices of its comatose son and of medical specialist, Dr. Pascal Dannachet.
Updated 11.9.04 - Empire Rising
Author: Kelly, Thomas
Publisher: FSG $ 25 ISBN: 0374147817 Date: 2005PWLJ
Making 1930s New York the setting for a rich and unforgettable story, Kelly's extraordinary third book is a novel of love and work, of intrigue and jealousy among the people who built the "eighth wonder of the world"--the Empire State Building.
Suggested Reading: Historical Fiction
Updated 1.23.05 - As Hot As It Was You Ought To Thank Me
Author: Kincaid, Nanci
Publisher: Back Bay $ 12.95 ISBN: 0316009148 Date: 2005Booklist
From a place where you don't have to run away to find yourself, this novel's young heroine, Berry, joins the ranks of other memorable and spirited girl narrators such as Bone in Bastard Out of Carolina, Kaye Gibbon's Ellen Foster, Lily Owens in The Secret Life of Bees, Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird.
Suggested Reading: Summertime Stars | Adult Books for Teens
Updated 11.2.04 - Sightseeing: Stories
Author: Lapcharoensap, Rattawut
Publisher: Grove $ 22 ISBN: 0802117880 Date: 2005KirkusPWBooklist
Set in contemporary Thailand and written with a grace and sophistication that belie the age of its young author, this masterful new collection contains generous, tender tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts, and cultural shifts beneath the glossy surface of a warm setting.
Suggested Reading: All Stars | Adult Books for Teens | Thai Stars
Updated 12.27.04 - The Good Man
Author: Lee, Edward Jae-Suk
Publisher: Bridge Works $ 23.95 ISBN: 1882593944 Date: 2005Kirkus
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 11.9.04 - St. Dale
Author: McCrumb, Sharyn
Publisher: Kensington $ 25 ISBN: 075820776x Date: 2005LJ
"New York Times" bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb looks deeply into the heart of America in this emotionally charged novel about love, miracles, and grassroots sainthood.
Suggested Reading: Driven Stars
Updated 11.22.04 - The Earth and Sky of Jacques Dorme
Author: Makine, Andre
Publisher: Arcade $ 25 ISBN: 1559707399 Date: 2005KirkusLJ
With this novel, Makine, whose work has been compared to Chekov and Proust, brings to a stunning conclusion the epic trilogy that began with Dreams of My Russian Summers.
Updated 2.7.05 - The Tea House on Mulberry Street
Author: Owens, Sharon
Publisher: Putnam $ 15 ISBN: 0399152652 Date: 2005LJ
Maeve Binchy meets Joanna Trollope" ("Irish Independent") in the American debut of the international bestseller. Behind the chocolate cappuccinos at Muldoon's Tea Rooms are the stirrings of a revolution that will heal troubled hearts and reveal to the proprietors what truly matters in life and love.
Updated 2.7.05 - The Sea of Tears
Author: Power, Nani
Publisher: Counterpoint $ 25 ISBN: 1582433038 Date: 2005